worn away.
Thus would this most famous, and formerly most learned, city of Greece
have remained a stranger to the tomb of one of its most ingenious
citizens, had it not been discovered by a man of Arpinum."

To Archimedes is attributed the apophthegm: "Give me a lever long
enough, and a prop strong enough, and with my own weight I will move the
world." This arose from his knowledge of the possible effects of
machinery; but however it might astonish a Greek of his day, it would
now be admitted to be as theoretically possible as it is practically
impossible. Archimedes would have required to move with the velocity of
a cannon-ball for millions of ages to alter the position of the earth by
the smallest part of an inch. In mathematical truth, however, the feat
is performed by every man who leaps from the ground; for he kicks the
world away when he rises, and attracts it again when he falls back.

Under the superintendence of Archimedes was also built the renowned
galley for Hiero. It was constructed to half its height, by three
hundred master workmen and their servants, in six months. Hiero then
directed that the vessel should be perfected afloat; but how to get the
vast pile into the water the builders knew not, till Archimedes invented
his engine called the helix, by which, with the assistance of very few
hands he drew the ship into the sea, where it was completed in six
months. The ship consumed wood enough to build sixty large galleys; it
had twenty tiers of bars and three decks; the middle deck had on each
side fifteen dining apartments besides other chambers, luxuriously
furnished, and floors paved with mosaics of the story of the "Iliad." On
the upper deck were gardens with arbors of ivy and vines; and here was a
temple of Venus, paved with agates, and roofed with Cyprus-wood; it was
richly adorned with pictures and statues, and furnished with couches and
drinking-vessels. Adjoining was an apartment of box-wood, with a clock
in the ceiling, in imitation of the great dial of Syracuse; and here was
a huge bath set with gems called Tauromenites. There were also on each
side of this deck, cabins for the marine soldiers, and twenty stables
for horses; in the forecastle was a fresh-water cistern which held 253
hogsheads; and near it was a large tank of sea-water, in which fish were
kept. From the ship's sides projected ovens, kitchens, mills, and other
offices, built upon beams, each supported by a carved image nine feet