wer of the water to support you. I would
therefore advise the acquiring that confidence in the first place, as I
have known several who, by a little practice necessary for that purpose,
have insensibly acquired the stroke, taught as if it were by nature. The
practice I mean, is this--choosing a place where the water deepens
gradually, walk coolly in it until it is up to your breast, then turn
your face towards the shore and throw an egg into the water between you
and the shore, it will sink to the bottom and will easily be seen there
if the water is clear; it must lie in the water so deep that you cannot
reach to take it up without diving for it. To encourage yourself to do
this, reflect that your progress will be from deep to shallow water, and
that at any time you may, by bringing your legs under you and standing
on the bottom, raise your head far above the water; plunge under it with
your eyes open, which must be kept open before going under, as you
cannot open your eyelids from the weight of water above you, throw
yourself towards the egg and endeavour by the action of your feet and
hands against the water, to get forward till within reach of it. In this
attempt you will find that the water buoys you up against your
inclination, and that it is not so easy to sink as you imagine, and
that you cannot, but by active force, get down to the egg. Thus you feel
the power of water to support you, and learn to confide in that power,
while your endeavours to overcome it and to reach the egg, teach you the
manner of acting on the water with your feet and hands, which action is
afterwards used in swimming to support your head higher above the water,
or to go forward through it.

"I would the more earnestly press upon you the trial of this method,
because, though I think I shall satisfy you that your body is lighter
than water, and that you might float for a long time with your mouth
free for breathing, if you would put yourself into a proper posture, and
would be still and forbear struggling, yet till you have obtained this
experimental confidence in the water, I cannot depend upon your having
the necessary presence of mind to recollect the posture and the
directions I gave you relating to it; the surprise may put all out of
your mind.

"Though the legs, arms, and head of a human body, being solid parts, are
specifically somewhat heavier than fresh water, yet the trunk,
particularly the upper part, from its hollowness, is so m