mingled, and the predominance after the mixture | and the determinate laws of their substance, (so is complete. that this science of ours springs from the nature VII. Lastly, there remains the seventh and of things, as well as from that of the mind;) it is last of the seven modes of action; namely, that not to be wondered at, if it have been continually by the alteration and interchange of the other six; interspersed and illustrated with natural observabut of this it will not be the right time to offer tions and experiments, as instances of our method any examples until some deeper investigation The prerogative instances are, as appears from shall have taken place of each of the others. what has preceded, twenty-seven in number, and The series, or chain of this alternation, in its are termed, solitary instances, migrating instances. mode of application to separate effects, is no less conspicuous instances, clandestine instances, conpowerful in its operation than difficult to be traced. stitutive instances, similar instances, singular inBut men are possessed with the most extreme stances, deviating instances, bordering instances, impatience, both of such inquiries and their prac-instances of power, accompanying and hostile tical application, although it be the clue of the instances, subjunctive instances, instances of allilabyrinth in all greater works. Thus far of the ance, instances of the cross, instances of divorce, generally useful instances. instances of the gate, citing instances, instances of the road, supplementary instances, lancing instances, instances of the rod, instances of the course, doses of nature, wrestling instances, suggesting instances, generally useful instances, and magical instances. The advantage, by which these instances excel the more ordinary, regards specifically either theory or practice, or both. With regard to theory, they assist either the senses or the understanding; the senses, as in the five instances of the lamp; the understanding, either by expediting the exclusive mode of arriving at the form, as in solitary instances, or by confining and more immediately indicating the affirmative, as in the migrating, conspicuous, ac 51. The twenty-seventh and last place we will assign to the magical instances, a term which we apply to those where the matter, or efficient agent, is scanty or small, in comparison with the grandeur of the work or effect produced; so that, even when common, they appear miraculous, some at first sight, others even upon more attentive observation. Nature, however, of herself, supplies these but sparingly. What she will do when her whole store is thrown open, and after the discovery of forms, processes, and conformation, will appear hereafter. As far as we can yet conjecture, these magic effects are produced in three ways, either by self-multiplication, as in fire, and the poisons termed specific, and the mo-companying, and subjunctive instances; or, by tions transferred and multiplied from wheel to wheel; or by the excitement, or, as it were, invitation of another substance, as in the magnet, which excites innumerable needles without losing or diminishing its power, and, again, in leaven, and the like; or, by the excess of rapidity of one species of motion over another, as has been observed in the case of gunpowder, cannon, and mines. The two former require an investigation of harmonies, the latter of a measure of motion. Whether there be any mode of changing bodies per minima, (as it is termed,) and transferring the delicate conformations of matter, which is of importance in all transformations of bodies, so as to enable art to effect, in a short time, that which nature works out by divers expedients, is a point of which we have as yet no indication. But, as we aspire to the extremest and highest results in that which is solid and true, so do we ever detest, and, as far as in us lies, expel all that is empty and vain. Again, out of these twenty-seven instances, 52. Let this suffice as to the respective dignity | some must be collected immediately, without or prerogatives of instances. But it must be noted, that, in this our organ, we treat of logic, and not of philosophy. Seeing, however, that our logic instructs and informs the understanding, in order that it may not, with the small hooks, as it were, of the mind, catch at and grasp mere abstractions, but rather actually penetrate nature, and discover the properties and effects of bodies, elevating the understanding, and leading it to general and common natures, and that either immediately, as in the clandestine and singular instances, and those of alliance; or, very nearly so, as in the constitutive; or, still less so, as in the similar instances; or, by correcting the understanding of its habits, as in the deviating instances; or, by leading to the grand form or fabric of the universe, as in the bordering instances; or, by guarding it from false forms and causes, as in those of the cross and of divorce. With regard to practice, they either point it out, or measure, or elevate it. They point it out, either by showing where we must commence, in order not to repeat the labours of others, as in the instances of power; or, by inducing us to aspire to that which may be possible, as in the suggesting instances: the four mathematical instances measure it. The generally useful and the magical elevate it. waiting for a particular investigation of properties. Such are the similar, singular, deviating, and bordering instances, those of power, and of the gate, and suggesting, generally useful, and magical instances. For these either assist and cure the understanding and senses, or furnish our general practice. The remainder are to be collected when we finish our synoptical tables for the work crease of their power over nature. For, man, by the fall, lost at once his state of innocence and his empire over creation, both of which can be partially recovered, even in this life, the first by religion and faith, the second by the arts and sciences. For creation did not become entirely and of the interpreter, upon any particular nature. | kind, upon the emancipation and majority of their For these instances, honoured and gifted with understanding; from which must necessarily folsuch prerogatives, are like the soul amid the vul- low an improvement of their estate, and an ingar crowd of instances, and (as we from the first observed) a few of them are worth a multitude of the others. When, therefore, we are forming our tables, they must be searched out with the greatest zeal, and placed in the table. And, since mention must be made of them in what follows, a treatise upon their nature has necessarily utterly rebellious by the curse; but in consequence been prefixed. We must next, however, proceed to the supports and corrections of induction, and thence to concretes, the latent process, and latent conformations, and the other matters, which we uave enumerated in their order in the twenty-first aphorism, in order that, like good and faithful guardians, we may yield up their fortune to man of the divine decree, "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread," she is compelled by our labours, (not assuredly by our disputes or magical ceremonies,) at length, to afford mankind, in some degree, his bread, that is to say, to supply man's daily wants. END OF NOVUM ORGANUM. VOL III.-54 2N2 A PREPARATION FOR A NATURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY. A DESCRIPTION OF SUCH A NATURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY AS SHALL BE SUFFICIENT AND OUR motive for publishing our Instauration in parts, was that we might make sure of something. A similar reason induces us to subjoin, even now, another small portion of the work, and to publish it with that which has been completed above. It is a description and delineation of such a natural and experimental history as should be arranged for the completing our philosophy, and should comprehend genuine and copious materials, properly adapted to the work of the interpreter who is next to make his appearance. The proper place for this would have been that where we treat of preparations in the regular course of our inquiry. Yet does it appear better to anticipate, rather than wait for this proper place, since the history which we design, and will presently describe, is a matter of great magnitude, and not to be effected without vast labour and expense, requiring the combined assistance of many, and being, (to use our former expression,) as it were, a royal work. It occurred, therefore, that it might be worth while to see if any others would undertake it, so that whilst we orderly pursue our design, this complicated and laborious portion of it may, by the joint application of others, be set in order and prepared even in our lifetime, should it so please God; especially, since our own unassisted strength appears scarcely adequate to so great a sphere. For we may, perhaps, by our own power, overcome all that is the actual work of the understanding, but the materials on which it is to work, are so scattered, that they should be sought after and imported from all quarters by factors and merchants. We consider it, moreover, as scarcely worthy of our undertaking ourselves to waste time in that which is open to the industry of almost all. We will, however, perform the principal part, that of laying down, with diligence and accuracy, a model and sketch of such a history as will satisfy our intention, lest, for want of caution, others should waste their time, and direct their efforts by the example of such natural histories as are now in use, thus wandering far from our proposal. In the mean time, that which we have often said must here be specially repeated, namely, that if all the talents of every age had concurred, or shall hereafter concur, if the whole human race had applied, or shall apply itself to philosophy, and the whole globe had consisted, or shall consist of academies, and colleges, and schools of the learned, yet, without such a natural and experimental history as we shall now recommend, it were impossible that any progress worthy of mankind should have been, or should hereafter be made in philosophy and the sciences. But, on the other hand, when it has once been prepared and drawn up, with the addition of such auxiliary and instructive experiments as will occur or be searched out, in the course of interpretation, the investigation of nature and of all the sciences will be a work many years. This, therefore, must be done, or the whole work must be abandoned, for by this method only can the foundation be laid of a genuine and active philosophy; and men will at once perceive, as if roused from a profound sleep, what a difference exists between the dogmatism and fictions of man's wit, and a genuine and active philosophy, and what it is to consult nature herself about nature. In the first place, then, we will give generai precepts as to completing such a history, and will then set a particular species of it before men's eyes, alluding occasionally to the end to which the inquiry must be adapted and referred, as well as to the subject-matter of investigation itself; in order that, the intention being well understood and known beforehand, it may suggest other points that may have escaped us. To this history we are wont to give the name of First, or Mother History. 426 APHORISMS ON THE FORMATION OF THE FIRST HISTORY. APHORISMS. I. NATURE is placed in three situations, and subject to a threefold government. For she is either free, and left to unfold herself in a regular course, or she is driven from her position by the obstinacy and resistance of matter, and the violence of obstacles, or she is constrained and moulded by human art and labour. The first state applies to the specific nature of bodies; the second to monsters; the third to artificial productions, in which she submits to the yoke imposed on her by man, for without the hand of man they would not have been produced. But from the labour and contrivance of man an entirely new appearance of bodies takes its rise, forming, as it were, another universe or theatre. Natural history, then, is threefold, and treats either of the liberty, the wanderings, or the fetters of nature; so that we may aptly divide it into the histories of generation, pretergeneration, and arts; the latter of which divisions we are also wont to call mechanic or experimental. Yet would we not direct these three to be carried on separately, for why should not the history of monstrosities in every species be combined with that of the species itself? So, also, artificial subjects may sometimes properly enough be treated of together with certain natural species, though, at other times, it is better to separate them. Circumstances, therefore, must guide us, for too rigid a method admits of repet.tions and prolixity as much as no method. time, be derived from their narrative, but that they must collect and prepare such and so varied a supply of things, as may be sufficient for the forming of genuine axioms. If they thus reflect, they will themselves lay down their own method for such a history, for the end governs the means. III. But by as much as this is a matter requiring great pains and labour, by so much the less should it be unnecessarily burdened. There are three points, then, upon which men should be warned to employ but scanty labour, inasmuch as they infinitely increase the bulk of the work, and add but little or nothing to its value. First, then, let them dismiss antiquity and quotations, or the suffrages of authors, all disputes, controversies, and discordant opinions, and, lastly, all philological disquisitions. Let no author be quoted except on doubtful points, nor controversies entered into except on matter of great importance; and as for the ornaments of language, and comparisons, and the whole treasury of eloquence, and the like puerilities, let them be wholly renounced. Nay, let all which is admitted be propounded briefly and concisely, so as to be nothing less than words. For no one, who is preparing and laying by materials, for building houses or ships, or the like, takes the trouble, as they would in shops, of arranging them elegantly and showing them off to advantage, but rather attends only to their being strong and good, and to their taking up as little room as possible in his warehouse. Let the like be done here. Secondly, There is not much real use in the lavish abundance of descriptions, painted repre rieties with which natural history is adorned. These trifling varieties are the mere sport and wantonness of nature, and approximate to merely individual characteristics, affording a pleasant digression, but a mean and superfluous sort of information as regards science. II. Natural history being, as we have observed, threefold relative to its subject, is twofold in its application. For it is employed either as a means of arriving at the knowledge of the matters them-sentations of species, and collections of their vaselves which are consigned to it, or as the elementary material for philosophy, and as the stock or forest, as it were, from which to furnish forth genuine induction. The latter is its present application; its present one, I observe, for it was never before so applied. For neither Aristotle, nor Theophrastus, nor Dioscorides, nor Pliny, nor much less the moderns, ever proposed this as the object of natural history. And the principal point to be attended to is this, that those who shall henceforth take charge of natural history, do perpetually reflect, and impress upon their minds, that they ought not to be subservient to the pleasure or even benefit which may, at this present Thirdly, We must reject all superstitious narratives, (I do not say prodigious, where faithful and probable accounts can be obtained, but superstitious,) together with the experiments of natural magic. For we would not accustom philosophy in her infancy, whose very nurse is natural history, to old wives' tales. A time may come (after a deeper investigation of nature) when such matters may be lightly touched upon, so as to extract and lay up for use such natural knowledge as may lurk in their dregs, but till then they are to be put aside. In like manner, the experiments of natural magic are to be diligently and rigidly sifted before their adoption, especially those which are wont to be derived from vulgar sympathies and antipathies, owing to the indolence and credulity of both believers and inventors. It is no slight matter to have thus relieved natural history of these three vanities, which might otherwise have hereafter filled volumes. Nor is this all; for it is as essential to a great work, that that which is admitted be briefly described, as that the superfluous should be rejected, although it must be obvious that this chastened and precise style must afford less pleasure, both to the reader and to the author. But it is ever to be repeated, that the object is to prepare a mere granary and ware house, in which no one is to loiter or dwell for amusement, but only to visit as occasion may require, when any thing is wanted for the work of the interpreter, which follows next in order. IV. One thing, above all others, is requisite for the history we design; namely, that it be most extensive, and adapted to the extent of the universe. For the world is not to be narrowed down to the measure of the understanding, (as has hitherto been done,) but the understanding is to be expanded, and opened for the admission of the actual representation of the world as it is. The maxim of examining little and pronouncing on that little has ruined every thing. Resuming then our late partition of natural history, into that of generation, pretergeneration, and the arts, we divide the first into five parts: 1. The history of the sky and heavenly bodies. 2. Of meteors and the regions (as they are termed) of the air, that is to say, its division from the moon to the earth's surface, to which division we assign every kind of comet, either superior or inferior, (however the actual fact may be,) for the sake of method. 3. The history of the earth and sea. 4. Of the elements, as they are called, flame or fire, air, water, and earth; considering them, however, under that name, not as the first principles of things, but as forming the larger masses of natural bodies. For natural objects are so distributed, that the quantity or mass of certain bodies throughout the universe is very great, owing to the easy and obvious material texture required for their conformation, whilst the quantity of others is but small and sparingly supplied, the material, being of a diversified and subtile nature, having many specific qualities, and being of an organized construction, such as the different species of natural objects, namely, metals, plants, and animals. We are wont, therefore, to call the former greater colleges, and the latter lesser colleges. The fourth part of our history, then, is of the former, under the name of elements. Nor is there any confusion between this and the second or third parts, although we have spoken of air, water, and earth in each. For in the second and third they are spoken of as integral parts of the world, and in relation to the creation and configuration of the universe; but in the fourth is contained the history of their own substance and nature, as displayed in the homogeneous parts of each, and not referred to the whole. Lastly, the fifth part of natural history contains the lesser colleges or species, upon which alone natural history has hitherto been chiefly occupied. As to the history of pretergeneration, we have already observed that it may, with the greatest convenience, be combined with that of generation, including that which is prodigious only, not natural. For we reserve the superstitious history of miracles (such as it may be) for a separate treatise, nor is it to be undertaken immediately, but rather later, when more way shall have been made in the investigation of nature. We divide the history of the arts, and of nature's course diverted and changed by man, or experimental history, into three parts. For it is derived either, 1. From the mechanical arts; or, 2. From the practical part of the liberal sciences; or, 3. From various practical applications and experiments, which have not yet been classed as a peculiar art, nay, sometimes occur in every day's experience and require no such art. If, then, a history be completed of all these which we have mentioned, namely, generation, pretergeneration, the arts and experiments, nothing appears omitted for preparing the senses to inform the understanding, and we shall no longer dance, as it were, within the narrow circles of the enchanter, but extend our march round the confines of the world itself. V. Of those parts into which we have divided natural history, that of the arts is the most useful, since it exhibits bodies in motion, and leads more directly to practice. Besides this, it lifts the mask and veil, as it were, from natural objects, which are generally concealed or obscured under a diversity of forms and external appearance. Again, the attacks of art are assuredly the very fetters and miracles of Proteus, which betray the last struggle and efforts of nature. For bodies resist destruction or annihilation, and rather transform themselves into various shapes. The greatest diligence, therefore, is to be bestowed upon this history, however mechanical and illiberal it may appear, laying aside all fastidious arrogance. Again, amongst the arts those are preferable which control, alter, and prepare natural bodies, and the materials of objects, such as agriculture, cookery, chymistry, dyeing, manufactures of glass, enamel, sugar, gunpowder, fireworks, paper, and the like. There is less use to be derived from those which chiefly consist in a delicate motion of the hands, or of tools, such as |