it should run above an hundred yards, he would let the ball submerge into the water, & freely descend, & diligently observe its motion. If he would but do thus, he should see, first, that it would go in a direct line towards that point of the bottom of the vessel, whither it would tend, if the boat should stand still; & to his eye, and in relation to the vessel, that motion would appear most straight and perpendicular, and yet he could not say, but that it would be composed of the right motion downwards, and of the circular about the element of water. And if these things befall in matters not natural, and in things that we may experiment in their state of rest; & then again in the contrary state of motion, and yet as to appearance no diversity at all is discovered, & that they seem to deceive our sense what can we distinguish touching the Earth, which hath been perpetually in the same constitution, as to motion and rest? And in what time can we experiment whether any difference is discernable amongst these accidents of local motion, in its diverse states of motion and rest, if it eternally indureth in but one onely of them?
Sagr.These Discourses have somewhat whetted my stomack, which those fishes, and snails had in part nauseated; and the former made me call to minde the correction of an errour, that hath so much appearance of truth, that I know not whether one of a thousand would refuse to admit it as unquestionable. And it was this, that sailing into Syria, and carrying with me a very good Telescope, that had been bestowed on me by our Common Friend, who not many dayes before had invented, I proposed to the Mariners, that it would be of great benefit in Navigation to make use of it upon the round top of a ship, to discover and kenne Vessels afar off. The benefit was approved, but there was objected the difficulty of using it,An ingenuous consideration about the possibility of using the Telescope with as much facility on the round top of the Mast of a ship, as on the Deck. by reason of the Ships continual fluctuation; and especially on the round top, where the agitation is so much greater, and that it would be better for any one that would make use thereof to stand at the Partners upon the upper Deck, where the tossing is lesse than in any other place of the Ship. I (for I will not conceal my errour) concurred in the same opinion, and for that time said no more: nor can I tell you by what hints I was moved to return to ruminate with my self upon this businesse, and in the end came to discover my simplicity (although excusable) in admitting that for true, which is most false; false I say, that the great agitation of the basket or round top, in comparison of the small one below, at the partners of the Mast, should render the use of the Telescope more difficult in finding out the object.
Salv.I should have accompanied the Mariners, and your self at the beginning.
Simpl.And so should I have done, and still do: nor can I believe, if I should think of it an hundred years, that I could understand it otherwise.
Sagr.
