videmur effecisse, ut homines non solum de vi et instituto hujus instaurationis nostræ, sed etiam de mole et quantitate ejus veras opiniones habeant; ne forte alicui in mentem venire possit, hoc quod molimur vastum quiddam esse et supra humanas vires; cum contra plerumque fiat, ut quod magis utile magis finitum sit: Hæc vero de natura inquisitio, vel1 singulis non sit pervia, conjunctis vero operis etiam expedita. Quod ut pateat magis, digestum Tabularum addere visum est. Primæ Tabulæ sunt de motu; secundæ de calore et frigore; tertiæ,2 de radiis rerum et impressionibus ad distans; quartæ, de vegetatione et vitis ; quintæ, de passionibus corporis animalis; sextæ, de sensu et objectis ; septimæ, de affectibus animi; octavæ, de mente et ejus facultatibus. Atque hæ Tabulæ ad naturæ separationem pertinent, et sunt ex parte formæ. Ad constructionem autem naturæ pertinent, et ex parte materiæ sunt, Tabulæ quæ sequuntur. Nonæ, de architectura mundi; decimæ, de relativis magnis, sive accidentibus essentiæ; undecimæ, de corporum consistentiis, sive inæqualitate partium; duodecimæ, de speciebus sive rerum fabricis et societatibus ordinariis: decimæ tertiæ, de relativis parvis, sive proprietatibus; ut universa inquisitio per Tredecim Tabulas absolvatur. Minores autem Tabulas (quas specilla appellamus) ex occasione et usu præsenti conficimus. Neque enim in illis ipsis ullam nisi per Tabulas et de scripto inquisitionem recipimus. Restat pars altera mole minor, vi potior; ut postquami constructionem machinæ docuimus, etiam de usu machinæ lucem et consilia præbeamus. 1 So in the original. I suspect that several words have been left out. 2 terræ in the original. PREFACE TO THE CALOR ET FRIGUS. THE following fragment, which was first printed by Stephens from a MS. in Bacon's own hand, then belonging to the Earl of Oxford, and now in the British Museum (Harl. 6855.), is here reprinted from the original. By the general title Sequela Cartarum, and the heading Sectio ordinis, &c., it appears to have been designed for the commencement of a methodical enquiry; but it breaks off at so early a stage that no new light can be gathered from it; and the plan upon which Bacon at this time proposed to proceed in these investigations he afterwards materially altered. For the final shape which his speculations concerning Heat and Cold took, see the second book of the Novum Organum. J. S. 1 This heading is carefully and fairly written out in Bacon's Roman hand at the top of every page; not in a single line, as it is here printed but thus: Calor et Frigus Sectio ordinis Carta Suggestionis. SEQUELA CARTARUM; SIVE INQUISITIO LEGITIMA DE CALORE ET FRIGORE. Sectio Ordinis. Carta Suggestionis, sive Memoria Fixa. THE sun-beams hot1 to sense. The moon-beams not hot,2 but rather conceived to have a quality of cold, for that the greatest colds are noted to be about the full, and the greatest heats about the change. Qu. 66 1 Spelt whott in MS., and so throughout. 2 Compare on this point Vol. I. p. 358. and Vol. II. p. 373. Since Mr. Ellis's notes on those passages were in type, a more decisive ex eriment appears to have been made as to the calorific property of the moon's rays. In Mr. C. Piazzi Smyth's "Notes of Proceedings during the Astronomical Expedition to Teneriffe," date 14 Oct. 1856, I find the following paragraph: Happier was the enquiry into the radiation of the moon, by means of the Admiralty delicate thermomultiplier, lent by Mr. Gassiot. The position of the moon was by no means favourable, being, on the night of the full, 19 deg. south of the equator; but the air was perfectly calm, and the rare atmosphere so favourable to radiation, that a very sensible amount of heat was found, both on this and the following night. The absolute amount was small, being about one-third of that radiated by a candle at a distance of 15 feet; but the perfect capacity of the instrument to measure smaller quantities still, and the confirmatory result of groups of several hundred observations, leave no doubt of the fact of our having been able to measure here a quantity which is so small as to be altogether inappreciable at lower altitudes." 8 The last clause is omitted in the Norum Organum. |