Galilei, Galileo - Discourse concerning the natation of bodies

Galilei, Galileo, Discourse concerning the natation of bodies, 1663

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but that the Winde oppoſite to the South may do the ſame, but only
affirmeth that the force of the Water prevailing over the South
Wind, the Bark ſhall move towards the South: and ſaith no more
than is true. And juſt thus when Archimedes ſaith, that the Gravity
of the Water prevailing over that by which the moveable deſcends to
the Bottom, ſuch moveable ſhall be raiſed from the Bottom to the Sur
face alledgeth a very true Cauſe of ſuch an Accident, nor doth he af
firm or deny that there is, or is not, a vertue contrary to Gravity, called
by ſome Levity, that hath alſo a power of moving ſome Matters up
wards. Let therefore the Weapons of Signor Buonamico be directed a

gainſt Plato, and other Ancients, who totally denying Levity, and taking
all Bodies to be grave, ſay that the Motion upwards is made, not
from an intrinſecal Principle of the Moveable, but only by the Im
pulſe of the Medium; and let Archimedes and his Doctrine eſcape
him, ſince he hath given him no Cauſe of quarelling with him
But if this Apologie, produced in defence of Archimedes, ſhould ſeen
to ſome inſufficient to free him from the Objections and Arguments
produced by Ariſtotle againſt Plato, and the other Ancients, as if they
did alſo fight againſt Archimedes, alledging the Impulſe of the Water

as the Cauſe of the ſwimming of ſome Bodies leſs grave than it, I would
not queſtion, but that I ſhould be able to maintaine the Doctrine of
Plato and thoſe others to be moſt true, who abſolutely deny Levity,
and affirm no other Intrinſecal Principle of Motion to be in Elemen
tary Bodies ſave only that towards the Centre of the Earth, nor no

other Cauſe of moving upwards, ſpeaking of that which hath the re
ſemblance of natural Motion, but only the repulſe of the Medium, ſluid,
and exceeding the Gravity of the Moveable: and as to the Reaſons
of Ariſtotle on the contrary, I believe that I could be able fully to

anſwer them, and I would aſſay to do it, if it were abſolutely neceſſa
ry to the preſent Matter, or were it not too long a Digreſſion for this
ſhort Treatiſe. I will only ſay, that if there were in ſome of our Elle
mentary Bodies an Intrinſecall Principle and Naturall Inclination
to ſhun the Centre of the Earth, and to move towards the Concave
of the Moon, ſuch Bodies, without doubt, would more ſwiftly aſcend
through thoſe Mediums that leaſt oppoſe the Velocity of the Moveable,
and theſe are the more tenuous and ſubtle; as is, for example, the
Air in compariſon of the Water, we daily proving that we can with

farre more expeditious Velocity move a Hand or a Board to and a
gain in one than in the other: nevertheleſs, we never could finde any
Body, that did not aſcend much more ſwiftly in the water than in the

Air. Yea of Bodies which we ſee continually to aſcend in the Water,
there is none that having arrived to the confines of the Air, do not whol
ly loſe their Motion; even the Air it ſelf, which riſing with great Ce
lerity through the Water, being once come to its Region it loſeth all

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