THE NATURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY FOR

THE FOUNDATION OF PHILOSOPHY:

OR

. PHENOMENA OF THE UNIVERSE:.

WHICH IS THE THIRD PART OF THE INSTAURATIO MAGNA.

MEN are to be admonished, nay urged and entreated as they value their fortunes, to be lowly of mind and search for knowledge in the greater world, and to throw aside all thought of philosophy, or at least to expect but little and poor fruit from it, until an approved and careful Natural and Experimental History be prepared and constructed. For to what purpose are these brain-creations and idle displays of power? In ancient times there were philosophical doctrines in plenty; doctrines of Pythagoras, Philolaus, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, and others. All these invented systems of the universe, each according to his own fancy, like so many arguments of plays; and those their inventions they recited and published; whereof some were more elegant and probable, others harsh and unlikely. Nor in our age, though by reason of the institutions of schools and colleges wits are more restrained, has the practice entirely ceased; for Patricius, Telesius, Brunus, Severinus the Dane, Gilbert the Englishman, and Campanella have come upon the stage with fresh stories, neither honoured by approbation nor elegant in argument. Are we then to wonder at this, as if there would not be innumerable sects and opinions of this kind in all ages? There is not and never will be an end or limit to this; one catches at one thing, another at another; each has his favourite fancy; pure and open light there is none; every one philosophises out of the cells of his own imagination, as out of Plato's cave; the higher wits with more acuteness

and felicity, the duller, less happily but with equal pertinacity. And now of late by the regulation of some learned and (as things now are) excellent men (the former variety and licence having I suppose become wearisome), the sciences are confined to certain and prescribed authors, and thus restrained are imposed upon the old and instilled into the young; so that now (to use the sarcasm of Cicero concerning Cæsar's year)', the constellation of Lyra rises by edict, and authority is taken for truth, not truth for authority. Which kind of institution and discipline is excellent for present use, but precludes all prospect of improvement. For we copy the sin of our first parents while we suffer for it. They wished to be like God, but their posterity wish to be even greater. For we create worlds, we direct and domineer over nature, we will have it that all things are as in our folly we think they should be, not as seems fittest to the Divine wisdom, or as they are found to be in fact; and I know not whether we more distort the facts of nature or our own wits; but we clearly impress the stamp of our own image on the creatures and works of God, instead of carefully examining and recognising in them the stamp of the Creator himself. Wherefore our dominion over creatures is a second time forfeited, not undeservedly; and whereas after the fall of man some power over the resistance of creatures was still left to him -the power of subduing and managing them by true and solid arts yet this too through our insolence, and because we desire to be like God and to follow the dictates of our own reason, we in great part lose. If therefore there be any humility towards the Creator, any reverence for or disposition to magnify His works, any charity for man and anxiety to relieve his sorrows and necessities, any love of truth in nature, any hatred of darkness, any desire for the purification of the understanding, we must entreat men again and again to discard, or at least set apart for a while, these volatile and preposterous philosophies, which have preferred theses to hypotheses, led experience captive, and triumphed over the works of God; and to approach with humility and veneration to unroll the volume of Creation, to linger and meditate therein, and with minds washed clean from opinions to study it in purity and integrity. For this is that sound and language which went forth into all lands2, and

Plut. in Jul. Cæs. p. 735.

2 Psalm ix. 4.

did not incur the confusion of Babel; this should men study to be perfect in, and becoming again as little children condescend to take the alphabet of it into their hands, and spare no pains to search and unravel the interpretation thereof, but pursue it strenuously and persevere even unto death.

Having therefore in my Instauration placed the Natural History such a Natural History as may serve my purposein the third part of the work, I have thought it right to make some anticipation thereof, and to enter upon it at once. For although not a few things, and those among the most important, still remain to be completed in my Organum, yet my design is rather to advance the universal work of Instauration in many things, than to perfect it in a few; ever earnestly desiring, with such a passion as we believe God alone inspires, that this which has been hitherto unattempted may not now be attempted in vain. It has occurred to me likewise, that there are doubtless many wits scattered over Europe, capacious, open, lofty, subtle, solid, and constant. What if one of them were to enter into the plan of my Organum and try to use it? he yet knows not what to do, nor how to prepare and address himself to the work of philosophy. If indeed it were a thing that could be accomplished by the reading of philosophical books, or discussion, or meditation, he might be equal to the work, whoever he be, and discharge it well; but if I refer him to natural history and the experiments of arts (as in fact I do), it is out of his line, he has not leisure for it, he cannot afford the expense. Yet I would not ask any one to give up what he has until he can exchange it for something better. But when a true and copious history of nature and the arts shall have been once collected and digested, and when it shall have been set forth and unfolded before men's eyes, then will there be good hope that those great wits I spoke.of before, such as flourished in the old philosophers, and are even still often to be found-wits so vigorous that out of a mere plank or shell (that is out of scanty and trifling experience) they could frame certain barks of philosophy, of admirable construction as far as the work is concerned-after they have obtained proper material and provision will raise much more solid structures; and that too though they prefer to walk on in the old path, and not by the way of my Organum, which in my estimation if not the only is at least the best course. It comes therefore to this; that my Organum, even

if it were completed, would not without the Natural History much advance the Instauration of the Sciences, whereas the Natural History without the Organum would advance it not a little. And therefore, I have thought it better and wiser by all means and above all things to apply myself to this work. May God, the Founder, Preserver, and Renewer of the universe, in His love and compassion to men, protect and rule this work both in its ascent to His glory and in its descent to the good of man, through His only Son, God with us.

THE RULE OF THE PRESENT HISTORY.

ALTHOUGH at the end of that part of my Organum which has been published precepts are laid down concerning Natural and Experimental History, yet I think it right to give a description at once more exact and more succinct of the rule and structure of the History I am now entering upon.

To the Titles contained in the Catalogue which relate to Concretes, I superadd Titles of Abstract Natures (which I have mentioned there as a History reserved for myself). Such are "The Different Configurations of Matter," or "Forms of the First Class," "Simple Motions," "Sums of Motions," "Measures of Motions," and some other things; whereof I have constructed a new Alphabet, and placed it at the end of this volume.

The titles in the catalogue (seeing it is beyond my power to handle them all) I have not taken in order, but made a selection; choosing those whereof the inquiry was either most important in respect of use, or most convenient on account of the abundance of experiments, or most difficult and noble from the obscurity of the thing, or such as opened the widest fields for examples by reason of the difference between the several titles, compared one with the other.

In each Title, after an Introduction or Preface, Particular Topics or Articles of Inquiry are immediately proposed, as well to give light in the present, as to stimulate further inquiry. For questions are at our command, though facts are not. I do not however in the history itself tie myself to the precise order of the questions, lest what was meant for a help should become a hindrance.

The History and Experiments occupy the first place. These, if they exhibit an enumeration and series of particular things, are collected into tables; otherwise they are taken separately. Since history and experiments very often fail us, especially