: 120 



in watcrloso just so much of their weight, as a quan. 

 tity of water equal to them in bulk weighs." Hence 

 he drew this consequence, that gold being more coin, 

 pict mi'St lose less of its weight, and silver more; 

 and that a mingled mass of both roust lose, in propor- 

 tion to the quantities mingled. Weighing therefore 

 the crown in water and in air, and two masses, the 

 ore of gold, the other of silver, equal in weight to 

 the crown ; he thence determined what each lost cf 

 thtir weight, and so resolved the problem. He likc 

 \vise invented a perpetual screw, valuable on account 

 of its being capable to overcome any resistance ; and 

 the screw, that still goes by his name, used in elevating 

 of water. He of himself alone defended the' city of 

 Syracuse, by opposing to the efforts of a Roman ge- 

 neral, the resources he found in his own genius. By- 

 means of many various warlike machines/all of his own 

 construction, he rendered Syracuse inaccessible to the 

 enemy. Sometimes he hurled upon their land forces 

 stones of such an enormous size, as crushed whole bo- 

 dies of them at once, and put the whole army into 

 confusion. And when they retired from the walls, 

 he still found means to annoy them ; for with his ba- 

 listrc, he overwhelmed them with arrows innumerable, 

 and beams of a prodigious weight. If their vessels 

 approached the fort he seized them by the prows with 

 grapples of iron, which he letdown upon them from 

 the walls ; and rearing them up in the air, to the 

 great astonishment of every one, shook them with such 

 violence, as either to break them in pieces or sink 

 them to the bottom. 



3. The superior knowledge he had in sciences, and 

 his confidence in the powers of mechanism, prompted 

 liim once to say to King Ilicro, who was his patron, 

 admiier, and friend, " Give me where to stand, and 

 1 will move the earth." And when the king, amazed 

 at what he said, seemed to be in hesitation, he gave 

 him a striking proof of his skill, in launching, singly 

 by himself, a ship of a prodigious weight, lie built 



