APPENDIX IV. 327 



nothing of such matters, and scorned them as trumperies if they 

 were pointed out to him ? It is simply incredible and yet it is a 

 fact. 



It would have been easy for Dr. Whewell to give a fuller and 

 more adequate sketch of Leonardo's scientific worth, had he been 

 animated by a sincere desire to tell the whole truth and nothing 

 but the truth, instead of seeking to inflate a huge air-bag, for 

 he had only to quote the language of the great Italian which we 

 have cited (pp. 104 107), or give the passages which show that 

 Leonardo understood before Galileo the problem of the acceleration 

 of velocity in falling bodies : 



5. " If a weight falls from 200 fathoms, how much quicker will 

 it fall through the second 100 fathoms than through the first 100 

 fathoms " (le seconde cento braccia che le prime).* 



6. When we bear in mind that Leonardo was a musician, an 

 inventor, a mechanist, a chemist, an engineer, an anatomist, a poet, 

 a painter of the highest order, besides being a philosopher, a mathe- 

 matician, a physicist, a geologist, an artillerist (for there exist in the 

 British Museum specifications, with drawings by himself, of a steam- 

 cannon which he suggested !), it is doubtful whether the world ever 

 saw a genius so universal and marvellous as this great man. He 

 had, beyond all others, that practical and scientific training which 

 enabled him to formulate the law of research with the authority of 

 a thorough master who had manipulated and investigated all he 

 spoke about. Yet, we find people who do not even deign to 

 mention Leonardo among inductive philosophers a judgment on 

 their part which it is only charitable to ascribe to ignorance. 



* For further information see Ventori's Essay on Galileo's Physics, 

 and Essay on the Physico-Mathematical Works of Leonardo. Paris, 

 I797- 



