It is abundantly evident from Galileo's correspondence that this edition was printed with his full concurrence, although, in order to obviate further annoyance, he pretended that it was pirated from a manuscript copy which he sent into France to the Comte de Noailles, to whom the work is dedicated. The same dissimulation had been previously thought necessary, on occasion of the Latin translation of "The Dialogues on the System," by Bernegger, which Galileo expressly requested through his friend Deodati, and of which he more than once privately signified his approbation, presenting the translator with a valuable telescope, although he publicly protested against its appearance. The story which Bernegger introduced in his preface, tending to exculpate Galileo from any share in the publication, is by his own confession a mere fiction. Noailles had been ambassador at Rome, and, by his conduct there, well deserved the compliment which Galileo paid him on the present occasion. As an introduction to the account of this work, which Galileo considered the best he had ever produced, it will become necessary to premise a slight sketch of the nature of the mechanical philosophy which he found prevailing, nearly as it had been delivered by Aristotle, with the same view with which we introduced specimens of the astronomical opinions current when Galileo began to write on that subject: they serve to show the nature and objects of the reasoning which he had to oppose; and, without some exposition of them, the aim and value of many of his arguments would be imperfectly understood and appreciated. FOOTNOTES: [114] Frisi says that Galileo did not perceive this conclusion (Elogio del Galileo); but see The Dial. on the System, Dial. 1. pp. 61, 62, 85. Edit. 1744. Plutarch says, (De Placitis Philos. lib. ii. c. 28,) that the Pythagoreans believed the moon to have inhabitants fifteen times as large as men, and that their day is fifteen times as long as ours. It seems probable, that the former of these opinions was engrafted on the latter, which is true, and implies a perception of the fact in the text. CHAPTER XVI. _State of the Science of Motion before Galileo._ IT is generally difficult to trace any branch of human knowledge up to its origin, and more especially when, as in the case of mechanics, it is very closely connected with the immediate wants of mankind. Little has been told to us when we are informed that so soon as a man might wish to remove a heavy stone, "he would be led, by natural instinct, to slide under it the end of some long instrument, and that the same instinct would teach him either to raise the further end, or to press it downwards, so as to turn round upon some support placed as near to the stone as possible."[115]