Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/403

CONCERNING CERTAIN PROBLEMS. 399 water, because the intenseness of the heat dispels the resisting water ; so an iron wedge sinks sooner to the bottom than a thin plate. Cu. Which is the most unbearable, hot iron or cold 1 ? Al. Hot. Cu. Then it is heavier. Al. It is, if it be better to carry burning straw in your hand than a cold flint. Cu. What is the cause that one wood is heavier or lighter than another ? Al. The solidity or hollownes.s. Cu. But I knew one of the King of England's household who, when we were at table, shewed us some wood which, he said, was the wood of an aloes tree, so solid that it seemed to be a stone, and so light, if you poised it in your hand, that it seemed a reed ; being put into wine (for he was of opinion that so it would expel poison), it presently sunk to the bottom as swiftly as lead would.

Al. Neither solidity nor hollowness is always the cause, but a peculiar occult agreement between things, which is the cause that some things embrace or shun other things of a cognate or different quality, as a loadstone attracts steel, and a vine avoids a colewort ; and flame will reach toward naphtha set in a lower place, although it be at some distance, and yet naphtha is naturally heavy and flame light. Cu. All sorts of money swim in quicksilver, and gold only sinks and is inclosed in it, yet quicksilver is very liquid. Al. I can give no sohition to that, but a peculiar cognate quality ; and quicksilver was made for the refinement of gold. Cu. Why does the River Arethusa run under the Sicanian Sea, and not rather swim upon it, when you say that sea- water is heavier than river-water? Al. A natural disagreement is the cause, but it is a secret one. Cu. Why do swans swim, when men going into the same water sink? Al. The cause is not only the hollowness and lightness of their feathers, but also a dry ness that the water shuns. And hence it comes to pass that if you put water or wine into a cloth or linen that is very dry, it contracts itself into a globular form; but pit it into a wet one, it spreads itself presently. And, in like manner, if you pour any liquid thing into a dry cup, or whose brims are greased with fat, and pour a little more than the cup will hold, the liquor presently gathers itself into a round before it will run over the brim.

Cu. Why cannot ships carry so much in rivers as in the sea ? A I. Because river-water is of a thinner consistence ; and for the same reason birds poise themselves with more ease in a thick air than in a thin one. Cu. Why does not the fish called flota sink? Al. Because its skin being dried in the sun is made lighter, and resists moisture. Cu. Why does iron drawn out into a large plate swim, but being con- tracted in a narrow compass sink ? Al. It is dryness is the cause in part, and partly because there gets in an air between the plate and the water. Cu. Which is the heaviest, wine or water ? AL I believe wine will not give place to water. Cu. How comes it about, then, that they that buy wine of the vintners sometimes find water in the bottom of the cask ? Al. Because there is in wine a certain fat substance like oil that resists the water; the reason is plain, by how much richer the wine is, so much the more difficiiltly does it mingle with water; and being set on fire, it burns the fiercer. Cu. What is the reason that no living creature will sink in the Lake Asphaltus ? Al. I cannot give a solution to all the miracles in nature ; nature has some arcana that she will have us admire but not understand.