here of the death of poor old Barkis.

"'He's a-going out with the tide,' said Mr. Peggotty to me, behind his
hand.

"My eyes were dim, and so were Mr. Peggotty's; but I repeated in a
whisper, 'With the tide?'

"'People can't die, along the coast,' said Mr. Peggotty, 'except when
the tide's pretty nigh out. They can't be born, unless it's pretty nigh
in-not properly born, till flood. He's a-going out with the tide. It's
ebb at half-arter three, slack water half an hour. If he lives till it
turns, he'll hold his own till past the flood, and go out with the next
tide.'

"'He's coming to himself,' said Peggotty.

"Mr. Peggotty touched me, and whispered with much awe and
reverence, 'They are both a-going out fast.'

"He now opened his eyes.

"I was on the point of asking him if he knew me, when he tried to
stretch out his arm, and said to me distinctly, with a pleasant
smile,--

"'Barkis is willin'.'

"And, it being low water, he went out with the tide." [342]

That the rise and fall of our tides twice a day, with spring and neap
tides twice in the lunar month, are the effect of the combined action
of the sun and moon, is never called in question. The water under
the moon is drawn up from the earth, and the earth is drawn from
the water on the opposite side, the consequence of which is two high
tides in the two hemispheres at the same hour. The rotation of the
earth bringing the same point of the ocean twice under the moon's
meridian, once under the upper meridian and once under the lower,
each hemisphere has two high tides in the course of the day. The
spring tide is caused by the attractive force of the sun and moon
acting in conjunction, or in a straight line; and the neap tide is
caused by the moon being in quadrature, or when the sun and moon
are at right angles to each other. They counteract each other's
influence, and our tides arc therefore low. So much is science; but
the connection of ebb and flow with life and death is superstition.

From a very remote antiquity, in the twilight of natural astrology, a
belief arose that changes in the weather were occasioned by the
moon. [343] That the notion lives on, and will not soon die, is clear
to any one who is conversant with current literature and common
folk-lore. Even intelligent, well-informed people lend it
countenance. Professor Newcomb, of Washington, rightly says:
"Thus far there is no evidence that the moon directly affects the
earth or its inhabi