LEONARDO DA VINCI ii 



phenomenon. He further convinced himself that air consists 

 of two components, one only of which supports combustion; 

 also that when this constituent is used up, no animal can 

 survive in the air. He wished to use the lower density of 

 warm air to cause balloons, made airtight with wax, to rise.^ 

 He constructed or planned hygrometers, grinding machines 

 for concave mirrors, flying machines, parachutes, diving 

 dresses, and many other things. 



Newton in his old age once compared himself to a boy 

 who, playing on the seashore, found a few more beautiful 

 pebbles than his companions; to which we must add that 

 he also took care of his finds and worked upon them with 

 great success. Leonardo found and collected pebbles in 

 great numbers and of many diff"erent kinds. The very 

 special ones, which he worked upon with great intensity, 

 are his immortal paintings, and not his discoveries as a 

 scientist. But he was obviously of the same type as New- 

 ton; he took hold of what nature offered from pure joy of 

 creation and knowledge, and faithfully did his best with it 

 as far as the state of the times and the unfavourable nature 

 of surrounding circumstances allowed him. The fact that 

 Leonardo could never satisfy himself as regards the execu- 

 tion of his work is shown not only by the small number of 

 his paintings, all of which are masterpieces, but also by the 

 fact of his scientific work being left in manuscript only. 

 Though he regarded the latter as unfinished, he was still 

 very far ahead of his times in regard to it. 



It is reported that Leonardo was distinguished by his 

 beauty, strength, and bodily agility, and by an inexplicable 

 attractiveness in everything that he did; also that with all 



1 Only three hundred years later, when the epoch of the steam engine 

 had already begun, was this idea carried out on a sufficient scale; the 

 brothers Montgolfier, French paper manufacturers, sent up some animals 

 in a balloon ten metres in diameter, in the year 1782. These returned 

 safely. In the following year the first ascent by human beings was made 

 in a similar but much larger balloon. Hydrogen, which had not long 

 been discovered, was first used at about the same time. 



