Page:Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia (IA cu31924012301754).pdf/78



the storm which was to burst over Galileo's head was thus slowly gathering, he was making important progress in the departments of physics and mechanics.

His treatise on the motion of floating bodies led to very important results. In it he again took the field against the Peripatetic philosophers, and refuted the assertion of Aristotle that the floating or partial immersion of bodies in water depended chiefly on their form, for by his approved method of studying the open book of nature he clearly showed the error of that opinion. In this work Galileo laid the foundations of hydrostatics as mostly held to this day. The old school rose up once more to refute him, as a matter of course; but their polemics cut a pitiful figure, for the champions of antiquated wisdom had in their impotence mostly to content themselves with wretched sophisms as opposed to Galileo's hard facts, and as a last resort to insist on the authority of Aristotle.

The combatants who took the field with various writings to