And even that one which was used to strike remains motionless with them.

Whence one sees that the movement passes with an extreme velocity which is the greater, the greater the hardness of the substance of the spheres.
But it is still certain that this progression of motion is not instantaneous, but successive, and therefore must take time.

For if the movement, or the disposition to movement, if you will have it so, did not pass successively through all these spheres, they would all acquire the movement at the same time, and hence would all advance together; which does not happen.

For the last one leaves the whole row and acquires the speed of the one which was pushed.

Moreover there are experiments which demonstrate that all the bodies which we reckon of the hardest kind, such as quenched steel, glass, and agate, act as springs and bend somehow, not only when extended as rods but also when they are in the form of spheres or of other shapes.