CHAP. III.] EXAMl>Lia Olf SPECIAL TOPICS. 201 



with a greater, as in v/ater. If it be stopped, it is stopped 

 by an unequal resistance, wliere there is a prepondei-ancy, aa 

 when wood is laid upon wax ; or by an equal resistance, a8 

 when water is laid upon water, or wood iipon wood of the 

 same kind ; which is what the schools pretend, when they 

 idly imagine that bodies do not gravitate in their own places. 

 And all these circumstances alter the motion of gravity ; for 

 "ieavy bodies move after one way in the balance, and after 

 another in falling : and, which may seem strange, after one 

 way in a balance suspended in the air, and after another 

 in a balance plunged in water ; after one way in falling 

 through water, and after another when floating upon it. 



6. Inquire into the effects of the figure of the descending 

 body, in directing the motion of gravity : suppose of a figure 

 broad and thin, cubical, oblong, round, pyramidal, (fee. ; and 

 how bodies turn themselves whilst they remain in the same 

 position as when first let go. 



7. Inquire into the effects of the continuation and pro- 

 gression of the fall or descent itself, as to the acquiring a 

 greater impulse or velocity, and in what proportion and to 

 what length this velocity is increased; for the ancients, upon 

 slender consideration, imagined that this motion, being natural, 

 was always upon the increase. 



8. Inquire into the effects of distance, or the near approach 

 of a body descending to the earth, so as to fall swifter, 

 slower, or not at all, supposing it were to be out of the 

 earth's sphere of activity, according to Gilbert's opinion ; 

 as also the effects of plunging the falling body deeper 

 into the earth, or placing it nearer the surface ; for this 

 also varies the motion, as is manifest to those who work in 

 Diines. 



0. Inquire into the effects of the difference of l)odies, 

 through which the motion of gravity is diffused and com- 

 municated ; and whether it is equally communicated through 

 soft and porous bodies, as through hard and solid ones. Thus 

 il" the beam of a scale were one half of wood, and the other 

 half of silver, yet of the same weight ; inquire whether this 

 would not make an alteration in the scales : and again, 

 whether metal laid upon wool, or a blown bladder, would 

 weigh the same as in the naked scale 



10. Inquire into the effects of the distance of a body from 



