""Moreover," he adds, "no one can say why in vacuo a body once set in motion should ever stop; since why rather here than there? Consequently it must either remain in necessary rest, or—if in motion—in endless motion, unless some stronger interferes." ...He had by no means overlooked the fact of the resistance of air, since he compares it with the resistance of water. Yet the air is made to keep up rather than destroy the motion of a projectile. He had... got a glimpse of Inertia—at least, as regards bodies in vacuo. But it never occurred to him to connect the two ideas, and make inertia keep up the continuity of motion, and resistance of the air destroy the motion."
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Footnote) As Des Cartes did. See his Principia Philos. pars II., c. xxxviii.
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Aristotle: a Chapter from the History of Science
Aristotle: a Chapter from the History of Science, including Analyses of Aristotle's Scientific Writings was written by George Henry Lewes and published in 1864.
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