Page:Discourse Concerning the Natation of Bodies.djvu/25

Rh ties departing, if it shall be more grave in specie than Water, fil but its Porosities with Water, and you shal have a Compost of Water and of Wood more grave than Water, but not by vertue of the Water received into and imbibed by the Porosities, but of that Matter of the Wood which remains when the Air is departed: and being such it shall, according to the Doctrine of Archimedes, goe to the bottom, like as before, according to the same Doctrine it did swim.

As to that finally which presents itself in the fourth place, namely, that the Ancients have been heretofore confuted by Aristotle, who denying Positive and Absolute Levity, and truely esteeming all Bodies to be grave, said, that that which moved upward was driven by the circumambient Air, and therefore that also the Doctrine of Archimedes, as an adherent to such an Opinion was convicted and confuted: I answer first, that Signor Buonamico in my judgement hath imposed upon Archimedes, and deduced from his words more than ever he intended by them, or may from his Propositions be collected, in regard that Archimedes neither denies, nor admitteth Positive Levity, nor doth he so much as mention it: so that much less ought Buonamico to inferre, that he hath denyed that it might be the Cause and Principle of the Ascension of Fire, and other Light Bodies: having but only demonstrated, that Solid Bodies more grave than Water descend in it, according to the excess of their Gravity above the Gravity of that, he demonstrates likewise, how the less grave ascend in the same Water, accordng to its excess of Gravity, above the Gravity of them. So that the most that can be gathered from the Demonstration of Archimedes is, that like as the excess of the Gravity of the Moveable above the Gravity of the Water, is the Cause that it descends therein, so the excess of the Gravity of the water above that of the Moveable, is a sufficient Cause why it descends not, but rather betakes it self to swim: not enquiring whether of moving upwards there is, or is not any other Cause contrary to Gravity: nor doth Archimedes discourse less properly than if one should say: If the South Winde shall assault the Barke with greater Impetus than is the violence with which the Streame of the River carries it towards the South, the motion of it shall be towards the North: but if the Impetus of the Water shall overcome that of the Winde, its motion shall be towards the South. The discourse is excellent and would be unworthily contradicted by such as should oppose it, saying: Thou mis-alledgest as Cause of the motion of the Bark towards the South, the Impetus of the Stream of the Water above that of the South Winde; mis-alledgest I say, for it is the Force of the North Winde opposite to the South, that is able to drive the Bark towards the South. Such an Objection would be superfluous, because he which alledgeth for Cause of the Motion the stream of the Water, denies not Rh