 aphorism 13 of book 2 of the New Organon. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The New Organon by Francis Bacon. Translated by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath. Aphorism 13 of book 2. Thirteen. Thirdly, we must make a presentation to the understanding of instances in which the nature under inquiry is found in different degrees, more or less, which must be done by making a comparison, either of its increase and decrease in the same subject, or of its amount in different subjects, as compared one with another. For since the form of a thing is the very thing itself, and the thing differs from the form no otherwise than as the apparent differs from the real, or the external from the internal, or the thing in reference to man, from the thing in reference to the universe, It necessarily follows that no nature can be taken as the true form, unless it always decrease when the nature in question decreases, and in like manner always increase when the nature in question increases. This table therefore I call the table of degrees, or the table of comparison. Table of degrees or comparison in heat. I will therefore first speak of those substances which contain no degree at all of heat perceptible to the touch, but seem to have a certain potential heat only, or disposition and preparation for hotness. After that I shall proceed to substances which are hot actually, and to the touch, and to their intensities and degrees. 1. In solid and tangible bodies we find nothing which is in its nature, originally hot, for no stone, metal, sulfur, fossil, wood, water, or carcass of animal is found to be hot, and the hot water and baths seem to be heated by external causes, whether it be by flame or subterranean fire, such as is thrown up from Aetna and many other mountains, or by the conflict of bodies as heat is caused in the dissolution of iron and tin. There is therefore no degree of heat palpable to the touch in animate substances, but they differ in degree of cold, wood not being equally cold with metal. But this belongs to the table of degrees and cold. 2. As far, however, as potential heat and aptitude for flame is concerned, there are many inanimate substances found strongly disposed there too, as sulfur, naphtha, rock oil. 3. Substances once hot, as horse dung from animal heat, and lime, or perhaps ashes and soot from fire, retain some latent remains of their former heat. Hence, certain distillations and resolutions of bodies are made by burying them in horse dung, and heat is excited in lime by sprinkling it with water, as already mentioned. 4. In the vegetable creation we find no plant or part of plant, as Gummer pitched, which is warm to the human touch, but yet, as stated above, green herbs gain warmth by being shut up. 5. And to the internal touch, as the palate or stomach, and even to external parts, after a little time as in plaster's anointments, some vegetables are perceptibly warm, and others cold. 5. In the parts of animals after death or separation from the body, we find nothing warm to the human touch, not even horse dung, unless enclosed in berry, retains its heat. 6. But yet, all dung seems to have a potential heat, as is seen in the fattening of the land. 7. In like manner, carcasses of animals have some such latent and potential heat, in so much that in burying grounds, where burials take place daily, the earth collects a certain hidden heat which consumes a body newly laid in it much more speedily than pure earth. 8. We are told too that in the east there is discovered a fine, soft texture, made from the down of birds which by an innate force dissolves and melts butter when lightly wrapped in it. 6. Substances which fatten the soil, as dung of all kinds, chalk, sea sand, salt, and the like, have some disposition to heat. 7. All putrification contains in itself certain elements of a slight heat, though not so much as to be perceived by the touch. For not even those substances which on putrification turn into anima cula, as flesh, cheese, etc. feel warm to the touch. 8. No more does rotten wood, which shines in the dark. Heat, however, in putrid substances sometimes betrays itself by foul and powerful odors. 8. The first degree of heat, therefore, among those substances which feel hot to the touch, seems to be the heat of animals, which has a pretty great extent in its degrees, for the lowest as in insects is hardly perceptible to the touch. 9. But the highest scarcely equals the sun's heat in the hottest countries in seasons, nor is it too great to be born by the hand. It is said, however, of Constantius and some others of a very dry constitution and habit of body that in violent fevers they become so hot as somewhat to burn the hand that touched them. 9. Animals increase in heat by motion and exercise, wine, feasting, venous, burning fevers, and pain. 10. When attacked by intermittent fevers, animals are first seized with cold and shivering, but soon after they become exceedingly hot, which is their condition from the first in burning and pestilential fevers. 11. Let further inquiry be made into the different degrees of heat in different animals, as in fishes, quadrupeds, serpents, birds, and also according to their species, as in the lion, the kite, the man. For in common opinion, fish are the least hot internally, and birds the hottest, especially doves, hawks, and sparrows. 12. Let further inquiry be made into the different degrees of heat in the different parts and limbs of the same animal. For milk, blood, seed, eggs are found to be hot only in moderate degree, and less hot than the outer flesh of the animal when in motion or agitated. But what the degree of heat is in the brain, stomach, heart, etc., has not yet been in like manner inquired. 13. All animals in winter and cold weather are cold externally, but internally they are thought to be even hotter. 14. The heat of the heavenly bodies, even in the hottest countries and at the hottest times of the year and day, is never sufficiently strong to set on fire or burn the driest wood or straw, or even tender unless strengthened by burning glass or mirrors. It is however able to extract vapor from moist substances. 15. By the tradition of astronomers some stars are hotter than others. Of planets, Mars is accounted the hottest after the sun, then comes Jupiter and then Venus. Others again are set down as coal, the moon for instance, and above all Saturn. Of fixed stars, Sirius is said to be the hottest, then Corleones, or Regulus, then Canacula, and so on. 16. The sun gives greater heat the nearer he approaches to the perpendicular Orzina, and this is probably true of the other planets also, according to the proportion of their heat. Jupiter for instance is hotter, probably, to us when under Cancer or Leo than under Capricorn or Aquarius. 17. We must also believe that the sun and other planets give more heat in perigee for their proximity to the Earth than they do in Apigee. But if it happens that in some region the sun is at the same time in perigee and near the perpendicular, his heat must of necessity be greater than in a region where he is also in perigee, but shiny more obliquely. And therefore the altitude of the planets and their exaltation in different regions ought to be noted with respect to perpendicularity or obliquity. 18. The sun and other planets are supposed to give greater heat when nearer to the larger fixed stars. Thus when the sun is in Leo, he is near Corleones, Caudaleones, Spica Virginus, Sirius, and Canacuya than when he is in Cancer, in which sign, however, he is nearer to the perpendicular. And it must be supposed that those parts of the heavens shed the greatest heat, though it is not at all perceptible to the touch, which are the most adorned with stars, especially of a larger size. 19. All together the heat of the heavenly bodies is increased in three ways. First by perpendicularity, secondly by proximity or perigee, thirdly by the conjunction or combination of stars. 20. The heat of animals and of the rays of the heavenly bodies also, as they reach us, is found to differ by a wide interval from flame, though of the mildest form, and from all ignited bodies, and from liquids also, and air itself when highly heated by fire. For the flame with spirit of wine, though scattered and not condensed, is yet sufficient to set paper, straw, or linen on fire, which the heat of animals will never do, or of the sun without burning glass or mirror. 21. There are, however, many degrees of strength and weakness in the heat of flame and ignited bodies, but as they have never been diligently inquired into, we must pass them lightly over. 22. It appears, however, that of all flame that of spirit of wine is the softest, unless perhaps, igneous, foschus be softer, and the flames or sparkleings arising from the sweat of animals. 23. Next to this, as I suppose, comes flame from light and porous vegetable matter, as straw reads in dried leaves, from which the flame from hairs or feathers does not much differ. 24. Next, perhaps, comes flame from wood, especially such as contains but little rise in her pitch. 25. With this distinction, however, that the flame from small pieces of wood, such as are commonly tied up in faggots, is milder than the flame from trunks and roots of trees. 26. And this you may try any day in furnaces for smelting iron, in which a fire made from faggots and boughs of trees is of no great use. 27. After this, I think, comes flame from oil, tallow, wax, and such like fat and oily substances, which have no great acrimony. 28. But the most violent heat is found in pitch and rosin, and yet more in sulfur, camphor, naphtha, rock oil, and salt after the crude matter is discharged. And in their compounds, as gunpowder, wreaked fire, commonly called wildfire, and its different kinds, which have so stubborn a heat that they are not easily extinguished by water. 22. I think also that the flame which results from some imperfect metals is very strong and eager, but on these points let further inquiry be made. 23. The flame of powerful lightning seems to exceed in strength all the former, for it has even been known to melt wrought iron into drops, which those other flames cannot do. 24. In ignited bodies too there are different degrees of heat, though these again have not yet been diligently examined. 25. The weakest heat of all, I think, is that from tinder, such as we use to kindle flame with, and in like manner that of touch wood or tow, which is used in firing cannon. 26. After this comes ignited wood or coal, and also bricks, and the like heated to ignition. 27. But of all ignited substances, the hottest, as I take it, are ignited metals as iron, copper, etc., but these require further investigation. 25. Some ignited bodies are found to be much hotter than some flames. Ignited iron, for instance, is much hotter and more consuming than flame of spirit of wine. 26. Of substances also which are not ignited but only heated by fire, as boiling water and air confined in furnaces, some are found to exceed in heat many flames and ignited substances. 27. Motion increases heat, as you may see in bellows and by blowing, in so much that the harder metals are not dissolved or melted by the dead or quiet fire, till it be made intense by blowing. 28. Let trial be made with burning glasses, which, as I remember, act thus. If you place a burning glass at the distance of, say, a span from a combustible body, it will not burn or consume it so easily, as if it were first placed at the distance of, say, half a span, and then moved gradually and slowly to the distance of the whole span. And yet the cone and union of rays are the same, but the motion itself increases the operation of the heat. 29. Fires which break out during a strong wind are thought to make greater progress against than with it, because the flame recoils more violently when the wind gives way than it advances while the wind is driving it on. 30. Flame does not burst out, nor is it generated, unless some hollow space be allowed it to move and play in, except the explosive flame of gunpowder and the like, where compression and imprisonment increase its fury. 31. An anvil grows very hot under the hammer, in so much that if it were made of a thin plate it might, I suppose, with strong and continuous blows of the hammer grow red like ignited iron. But let this be tried by experiment. 32. But in ignited substances which are porous, so as to give the fire room to move, if this motion be checked by strong compression, the fire is immediately extinguished. For instance, when tinder, or the burning wick of a candle or lamp, or even live charcoal or coal is pressed down with an extinguisher or with a foot, or any similar instrument, the operation of the fire instantly ceases. 33. Approximation to a hot body increases heat in proportion to the degree of approximation, and this is the case also with light. For the nearer an object is brought to the light, the more visible it becomes. 34. The union of different heats increases heat, unless the hot substances be mixed together. For a larger fire and a smaller fire in the same room increase one another's heat, but warm water plunged into boiling water cools it. 35. The continued application of a hot body increases heat, because heat, perpetually passing and emanating from it, mingles with the previously existing heat, and so multiplies the heat. For a fire does not warm a room as well in half an hour as it does if continued throughout the whole hour. But this is not the case with light. For a lamp or candle gives no more light after it has been long-lighted than it did at the first. 36. Irritation by surrounding cold increases heat, as you can see in fires during a sharp frost. And this I think is only not merely to the confinement and contraction of the heat, which is a kind of union, but also to irritation. Thus, when air or a stick is violently compressed or bent, it recoils not merely to the point it was forced from, but beyond it on the other side. Let trial therefore be carefully made by putting a stick or some such thing into flame, and observing whether it is not burnt more quickly at the size than in the middle of the flame. 37. There are many degrees of susceptibility of heat, and first of all it is to be observed how slight and faint a heat changes, and somewhat warms even those bodies which are least of all susceptible of heat. Even the heat of the hand communicates some heat to a ball of lead, or any metal, if held in it a little while. So readily and so universally, is heat transmitted and excited, the body remaining to all appearances unchanged. 38. All substances that we are acquainted with, one which most readily receives and loses heat, is air, as is best seen in calendar glasses, air thermoscopes, which are made dust. Take a glass with a hollow belly, a thin and oblong neck. Turn it upside down and lower it, with the mouth downwards and the belly upwards, into another glass vessel containing water. And let the mouth of the inserted vessel touch the bottom of the receiving vessel, and its neck leans slightly against the mouth of the other, so that it can stand. And that this may be done more conveniently, apply a little wax to the mouth of the receiving glass, but not so as to seal its mouth quite up, in order that the motion, of which we are going to speak, and which is very facile and delicate, may not be impeded by want of supply of air. The lowered glass, before being inserted to the other, must be heated before a fire in its upper part, that is, its belly. Now when it is placed in the position I have described, the air which was dilated by the heat will, after a lapse of time sufficient to allow for the extinction of that adventitious heat, withdraw and contract itself to the same extension, or dimension, as out of the surrounding air at the time of the immersion of the air. And we'll draw the water upwards to a corresponding height. To the side of the glass there should be a fixed, a strip of paper, narrow and oblong, and marked with as many degrees as you choose. You will then see, according as the day is warm or cold, that the air contracts under the action of cold, and expands under the action of heat, as will be seen by the water rising when the air contracts, and sinking when it dilates. But the air's sense of heat and cold is so subtle and exquisite, as far to exceed the perception of the human touch, in so much that a ray of sunshine, or the heat of the breath, much more the heat of one's hand placed on the top of a glass, will cause the water immediately to sink in a perceptible degree. And yet I think that animal spirits have a sense of heat and cold more exquisite still, were it not that it is impeded and deadened by the grossness of the body. 39. Next to air, I take those bodies to be most sensitive to heat which have been recently changed and compressed by cold, as snow and ice. For they begin to dissolve and melt with any gentle heat, next to them perhaps comes quicksilver, after that follow greasy substances, as oil, butter, and the like. Then comes wood, then water, and lastly stone and metals, which are slow to heat, especially in the inside. These, however, when once they have acquired heat, retain it very long, in so much that an ignited brick, stone, or piece of iron, when plunged into a basin of water, will remain for a quarter of an hour, or thereabouts, so hot that you cannot touch it. 40. The less the mass of a body, the sooner it is heated by the approach of a hot body, which shows that all heat of which we have experienced is, in some sort, opposed to taking it to the other side. 41. Heat, as far as regards the sense and touch of man, is a thing various and relative, in so much that tepid water feels hot if the hand be cold, but cold if the hand be hot. And of aphorism 13 of book 2, recorded by Craig Campbell in Appleton, Wisconsin in 2009. Aphorisms 14 to 20 of book 2 of The New Organon. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Morgan Scorpion. The New Organon by Francis Bacon. Translated by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath. Aphorisms 14 to 20 of book 2. 14. How poor we are in history any one may see from the foregoing tables, where I not only insert sometimes mere traditions and reports, though never without a note of doubtful credit and authority, in place of history proved and instances certain, but I'm also frequently forced to use the words, let trial be made, or let it be further inquired. 15. The work and office of these three tables I call the presentation of instances to the understanding. Which presentation having been made, induction itself must be set at work, for the problem is, upon a review of the instances, all and each, to find such a nature as is always present or absent with the given nature, and always increases and decreases with it, and which is, as I have said, a particular case of a more general nature. Now, if the mind attempt this affirmatively from the first, as when left to itself it is always want to do, the result will be fancies and guesses and notions ill-defined, and axioms that must be mended every day, unless like the schoolmen we have a mind to fight for what is false. Though doubtless, there will be better or worse according to the faculties and strength of the understanding which is at work. To God, truly the giver and architect of forms, and it may be to the angels and higher intelligences, it belongs to have an affirmative knowledge of forms immediately and from the first contemplation. But this assuredly is more than man can do, to whom it is granted only to proceed at first by negatives, and at last to end in affirmatives after exclusion has been exhausted. 16. We must make, therefore, a complete solution and separation of nature, not indeed by fire, but by the mind, which is a kind of divine fire. The first work, therefore, of true induction, as far as regards to discovery of forms, is the rejection or exclusion of the several natures which are not found in some instance where the given nature is present, or are found in some instance where the given nature is absent, or are found to increase in some instance when the given nature decreases, or to decrease when the given nature increases. Then, indeed, after the rejection and exclusion has been duly made, there will remain at the bottom all light opinions vanishing into smoke, a form affirmative, solid, and true, and well-defined. This is quickly said, but the way to come at it is winding and intricate. I will endeavour, however, not to overlook any of the points which may help us toward it. 17. But when I assign so prominent a part to forms, I cannot too often warn and admonish men against applying what I say to those forms to which their thoughts and contemplations have hitherto been accustomed. For in the first place, I do not at present speak of compound forms, which are, as I have remarked, combinations of simple natures according to the common course of the universe as of the lion, eagle, rose, gold, and the like. It will be time to treat of these when we come to the latent processes and latent configurations, and the discovery of them as they are found in what are called substances or natures concrete. And even in the case of simple natures, I would not be understood to speak of abstract forms and ideas either not defined in matter at all, or ill-defined. For when I speak of forms, I mean nothing more than those laws and determinations of absolute actuality which govern and constitute any simple nature, as heat, light, weight, in every kind of matter and subject that is susceptible of them. Thus the form of heat, or the form of light, is the same thing as the law of heat, or the law of light. Nor indeed do I ever allow myself to be drawn away from things themselves and the operative part. And therefore, when I say, for instance, in the investigation of the form of heat, reject rarity, or rarity does not belong in the form of heat, it is the same as if I said, it is possible to super-induce heat on a dense body, or it is possible to take away or keep out heat from a rare body. But if anyone can see that my forms too are of a somewhat abstract nature, because they mix and combine things heterogeneous, for the heat of heavenly bodies and the heat of fire seem to be very heterogeneous, so do the fixed red of the rose or the like, and the apparent red in the rainbow, the opal, or the diamond. So again, do the different kinds of death, death by drowning, by hanging, by stabbing, by apoplexy, by atrophy, and yet they agree severally in the nature of heat, redness, death. If any one, I say, be of this opinion, he may be assured that his mind is held in captivity by custom, by the gross appearance of things, and by men's opinions. For it is most certain that these things, however heterogeneous and alien from each other, agree in the form or law which governs heat, redness, and death, and that the power of man cannot possibly be emancipated and freed from the common course of nature, and expanded and exalted to new efficiencies and new modes of operation, except by the revelation and discovery of forms of this kind. And yet, when I have spoken of this union of nature, which is the point of most importance, I shall proceed to the divisions and veins of nature, as well the ordinary as those that are more inward and exact, and speak of them in their place. 18. I must now give an example of the exclusion or rejection of natures which by the tables of presentation are found not to belong to the form of heat, observing in the meantime that not only each table suffices for the rejection of any nature, but even any one of the particular instances contained in any of the tables. For it is manifest from what has been said that any one contradictory instance overthrows a conjecture as to the form. But nevertheless, for clearness sake, and that the use of the tables may be more plainly shown, I sometimes double or multiply an exclusion, an example of exclusion or rejection of natures from the form of heat. 1. On account of the rays of the sun, reject the nature of the elements. 2. On account of common fire and chiefly subterraneous fires, which are the most remote and most completely separate from the rays of heavenly bodies, reject the nature of heavenly bodies. 3. On account of the warmth acquired by all kinds of bodies, minerals, vegetables, skin of animals, water, oil, air and the rest, by mere approach to a fire or other hot body, reject the distinctive or more subtle texture of bodies. 4. On account of ignited iron and other metals which communicate heat to other bodies and yet lose none of their weight or substance, reject the communication or admixture of the substance of another hot body. 5. On account of boiling water and air, and also on account of metals and other solids that receive heat but not to ignition or red heat, reject light or brightness. 6. On account of the rays of the moon and other heavenly bodies, with the exception of the sun, also reject light and brightness. 7. By comparison of ignited iron and the flame of spirit of wine, of which ignited iron has more heat and less brightness, while the flame of spirit of wine has more brightness and less heat, also reject light and brightness. 8. On account of ignited gold and other metals, which are of the greatest density as a whole, reject rarity. 9. On account of air, which is found for the most part cold and yet remains rare, also reject rarity. 10. On account of ignited iron which does not swell in bulk but keeps within the same visible dimensions, reject local or expansive motion of the body as a whole. 11. On account of the dilation of air in calendar glasses and the like, wherein the air evidently moves locally and expansively and yet acquires no manifest increase of heat, also reject local or expansive motion of the body as a whole. 12. On account of the ease with which all bodies are heated without any destruction or observable alteration, reject destructive nature or the violent communication of any new nature. 13. On account of the agreement and conformity of the similar effects which are wrought by heat and cold, reject motion of the body as a whole, whether expansive or contractive. 14. On account of heat being kindled by the attrition of bodies, reject a principal nature. By principal nature I mean that which exists in the nature of things positively, and not as the effect of any antecedent nature. There are other natures beside these, for these tables are not perfect, but meant only for examples. All and each of the above-mentioned natures do not belong to the form of heat, and from all of them man is freed in his operations of heat. 19. In the process of exclusion are laid the foundations of true induction, which however is not completed till it arrives at an affirmative. Nor is the exclusive part itself at all complete, nor indeed can it possibly be so at first, for exclusion is evidently the rejection of simple natures, and if we do not yet possess sound and true notions of simple natures, how can the process of exclusion be made accurate? Now some of the above-mentioned notions, as of the nature of the elements, of the nature of heavenly bodies, of rarity, are vague and ill-defined. I, therefore, well-knowing and know-wise forgetting how great a work I am about, this, that of rendering the human understanding a match for things and nature, do not rest satisfied with the precepts I have laid down, but proceed further to devise and supply more powerful aids for the use of the understanding, which I shall now subjoin. And assuredly, in the interpretation of nature, the mind should by all means be so prepared and disposed that while it rests and finds footing in new stages and degrees of certainty, it may remember with all, especially at the beginning, that what it has before it depends in great measure upon what remains behind. 20. And yet, since truth will sooner come out from error than from confusion, I think it expedient that the understanding should have permission, after the three tables of first presentation, such as I have exhibited, have been made and weighed, to make an essay on the interpretation of nature in the affirmative way, on the strength both of the instances given in the tables and of any others it may meet with elsewhere. Which kind of essay I call the indulgence of the understanding, or the commencement of interpretation, or the first vintage? 21. First vintage concerning the form of heat. It is to be observed that the form of a thing is to be found, as plainly appears from what has been said, in each and all the instances in which the thing itself is to be found, otherwise it would not be the form. It follows therefore that there can be no contradictory instance. At the same time the form is found much more conspicuous and evident in some instances than in others, namely in those wherein the nature of the form is less restrained and obstructed, and kept within bounds by other natures. Instances of this kind I call shining or striking instances. Let us now therefore proceed to the first vintage concerning the form of heat. From a survey of the instances, all and each, the nature of which heat is a particular case, appears to be motion. This is displayed most conspicuously in flame, which is always in motion, and in boiling or simmering liquids, which also are in perpetual motion. It is also shown in the excitement or increase of heat caused by motion as in bellows and blasts, on which see table three instance twenty-nine, and again in other kinds of motion, on which see table three instance twenty-eight and thirty-one. Again it is shown in the extinction of fire and heat by any strong compression, which checks and stops the motion, on which see table three instance thirty and thirty-two. It is shown also by this that all bodies are destroyed, or at any rate notably altered, by all strong and vehement fire and heat, whence it is quite clear that heat causes a tumult and confusion and violent motion in the internal parts of the body, which perceptibly tend to its dissolution. When I say of motion that it is as the genus of which heat is a species, I would be understood to mean not that heat generates motion, or that motion generates heat, though both are true in certain cases, but that heat itself, in essence and quiddity, is motion and nothing else. Limited however by the specific differences which I will presently subjoin, as soon as I have added a few cautions for the sake of avoiding ambiguity, sensible heat is a relative notion and has relation to man, not to the universe, and is correctly defined as merely the effect of heat on the animal spirits. Moreover, in itself it is variable, since the same body, according to the senses I have predisposed, induces a perception of cold as well as of heat. This is clear from instance forty-one, table three. Nor again must the communication of heat, or its transitive nature, by means of which a body becomes hot when a hot body is applied to it, be confounded with the form of heat. For heat is one thing, heating is another. Heat is produced by the motion of attrition without any preceding heat, an instance which excludes heating from the form of heat. And even when heat is produced by the approach of a hot body, this does not precede from the form of heat, but depends entirely on a higher and more general nature, this, on the nature of assimilation or self-multiplication, a subject which requires a separate inquiry. Again, our notion of fire is popular, and of no use, being made up of the combination in any body of heat and brightness, as in common flame and bodies heated to redness. Having thus removed all ambiguity, I come at length to the two specific differences which limit motion and constitute it the form of heat. The first difference then is this. Heat is an expansive motion whereby a body strives to dilate and stretch itself to a larger sphere or dimension than it had previously occupied. This difference is most observable in flame, where the smoke or thick vapor manifestly dilates and expands itself into flame. It is shown also in all boiling liquid which manifestly swells, rises and bubbles, and carries on the process of self-expansion till it turns into a body far more extended and dilated than the liquid itself, namely into vapor, smoke or air. It appears likewise in all wood and combustibles, from which there generally arises exudation and always evaporation. It is shown also in the melting of metals, which, being of the compactor's texture, do not readily swell and dilate, but yet their spirit being dilated in itself and thereupon conceiving an appetite for further dilation, forces and agitates the grosser parts into a liquid state, and if the heat be greatly increased it dissolves and turns much of their substance to a volatile state. It is shown also in iron or stones, which, though not melted or dissolved, are yet softened. This is the case also with sticks, which when slightly heated in hot ashes become flexible. But this kind of motion is best seen in air, which continuously and manifestly dilates with a slight heat, as appears in instance 38, Table 3. It is shown also in the opposite nature of cold, for cold contracts all bodies and makes them shrink, in so much that in intense frosts, nails fall out from walls, brazen vessels crack, and heated glass, on being suddenly placed in the cold, cracks and breaks. In like manner air is contracted by a slight chill, as in instance 38, Table 3. But on these points I shall speak more at length in the inquiry concerning cold, nor is it surprising that heat and cold should exhibit many actions in common, for which the instance 32, Table 2, when we find two of the following specific differences, of which I shall speak presently, suiting nature, though in this specific difference, of which I am now speaking, their actions are diametrically opposite. For heat gives an expansive and dilating cold a contractive and condensing motion. The second difference is a modification of the former, namely that heat is a motion expansive or toward the circumference, but with this condition that the body has at the same time a motion upward, for there is no doubt that there are many mixed motions. For instance, an arrow or dart turns as it goes forward and goes forward as it turns, and in like manner the motion of heat is at once a motion of expansion and a motion upward. This difference is shown by putting a pair of tongs or poker in the fire. If you put it in perpendicularly and hold it by the top, it soon burns your hand, if at the side or from below, not nearly so soon. It is also observable in distillations per Desensorium, which menus for delicate flowers that soon lose their scent, for human industry has discovered the plan of placing the fire not below, but above, that it may burn the less. For not only flame tends upward, but also heat. But let trial be made of this in the opposite nature of cold, is, whether cold does not contract a body downward as heat dilates a body upward, take therefore two iron rods or two glass tubes, exactly alike, warm them a little and place a sponge steeped in cold water or snow at the bottom of the one, and the same at the top of the other. For I think that the extremities of the rod which has the snow at the top will cool sooner than the extremities of the other which has the snow at the bottom, just as the opposite is the case with heat. The third specific difference is this, that heat is a motion of expansion, not uniformly of the whole body together, but in the smaller parts of it, and at the same time checked, repelled and beaten back, so that the body acquires a motion alternative, perpetually quivering, striving and struggling, and irritated by repercussion, when springs the fury of fire and heat. The specific divergence is most displayed in flame and boiling liquids, which are perpetually quivering and swelling in small portions and again subsiding. It is also shown in those bodies which are so compact that when heated or ignited, they do not swell or expand in bulk as ignited iron, in which the heat is very sharp. It is shown also in this, that a fire burns most briskly in the coldest weather. Again it is shown in this, that when the air is extended in a calendar glass without impediment or repulsion, that is to say uniformly and equably, there is no perceptible heat. Also, when wind escapes from confinement, although it bursts forth with the greatest violence, there is no very great heat perceptible, because the motion is of the whole, without a motion alternating in the particles. And with a view to this, let trial be made where the flame does not burn more sharply toward the sides than in the middle of the flame. It is also shown in this, that all burning acts on minute pause of the body burnt, so that burning undermines, penetrates, pricks and stings the body like the points of an infinite number of needles. It is also an effect of this, that all strong waters, if suited to the body on which they are acting, act as fire does, in consequence of their corroding and pungent nature. And this specific difference, of which I am now speaking, is common also to the nature of cold. For in cold the contractive motion is checked by resisting tendency to expand, just as in heat the expansive motion is checked by resisting tendency to contract. Thus, whether the particles of a body work inward or outward, the mode of action is the same though the degree of strength be very different, because we have not here on the surface of the earth anything that is intensely cold. See instance 27, Table 1. The fourth specific difference is a modification of the last. It is, that the preceding motion of stimulation or penetration must be somewhat rapid and not sluggish, and must proceed by particles, minute indeed, yet not the finest of all, but a degree larger. This difference is shown by a comparison of the effects of fire with the effects of time or age. Age or time dries, consumes, undermines and reduces to ashes no less than fire, indeed with an action far more subtle. But because such motion is very sluggish and acts on particles very small, the heat is not perceived. It is also shown by comparing the dissolution of iron and gold. Gold is dissolved without any heat being excited, while the dissolution of iron is accompanied by a violent heat, though it takes place in about the same time. The reason is that in gold the separating acid enters gently and works with subtlety, and the parts of the gold yield easily, whereas in iron the entrance is rough and with conflict, and the parts of the iron have greater obstinacy. It is shown also to some degree in some gangrenes and mortifications, which do not excite great heat or pain on account of the subtle nature of putrefaction. Let this be the first vintage or commencement of interpretation concerning the form of heat made by way of indulgence to the understanding. Now, from this our first vintage it follows that the form or true definition of heat, heat that is in relation to the universe, not simply in relation to man, is, in few words, as follows. Heat is a motion, expansive, restrained, and acting in its strife upon the smaller particles of bodies. But the expansion is thus modified. While it expands always, it has at the same time an inclination upward. And the struggle in the particles is modified also. It is not sluggish, but hurried and with a violence. Viewed with reference to operation it is the same thing, for the direction is this. If in any natural body you can excite a dilating or expanding motion, and can so repress this motion and turn it back upon itself that the dilation shall not recede equably, but have its way in one part and be counteracted in another, you will undoubtedly generate heat, without taking into account whether the body be elementary, as it is called, or subject to celestial influence, whether it be luminous or opaque, rare or dense, locally expanded or confined within the bounds of its first dimension, brooding to dissolution or remaining in its original state, animal, vegetable or mineral, water, oil or air, or at any other substance whatever susceptible of the above mentioned motion. Sensible heat is the same thing, only it must be considered with reference to the sense. Let us now proceed to further aids. End of aphorisms 14 to 20 of book 2. Aphorisms 21 to 26 of book 2 of the New Organon. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jeffrey Edwards. The New Organon by Francis Bacon. Translated by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath. Aphorisms 21 to 26 of book 2. 21. The tables of first presentation and the rejection or process of exclusion being completed, and also the first vintage being made there upon, we are to proceed to the other helps of the understanding in the interpretation of nature and true and perfect induction, in propounding which, I mean, when tables are necessary, to proceed upon the instances of heat and cold, but when a small number of examples will suffice, I shall proceed at large so that the inquiry may be kept clear and yet more room be left for the exposition of the system. I propose to treat, then, in the first place of prerogative instances, secondly of the supports of induction, thirdly of the rectification of induction, fourthly of varying the investigation according to the nature of the subject, fifthly of prerogative natures with respect to investigation, or of what should be inquired first and what last, sixthly of the limits of investigation, or a synopsis of all natures in the universe. Seventhly of the application to practice, or of things in the relation to man, eighthly of preparations for investigation, and lastly of the ascending and descending scale of axioms. Twenty-two. Among prerogative instances, I will place first solitary instances. Those are solitary instances which exhibit the nature under investigation in subjects which have nothing in common with other subjects except that nature, or, again, which do not exhibit the nature under investigation in subjects which resemble other subjects in every respect in not having that nature. For it is clear that such instances make the way short and accelerate and strengthen the process of exclusion so that a few of them are as good as many. For instance, if we are inquiring into the nature of color, prisms, crystals, which show colors not only in themselves, but externally on a wall, do's, etc., are solitary instances, for they have nothing in common with the colors fixed in flowers, colored stones, metals, woods, etc., except the color, from which we easily gather that color is nothing more than a modification of the image of light received upon the object, resulting in the former case from the different degrees of incidence, in the latter from the various textures and configurations of the body. These instances are solitary in respect to resemblance. Again, in the same investigation, the distinct veins of white and black in marble, and the variegation of color in flowers of the same species are solitary instances. For the black and white streaks in marble, or the spots of pink and white in a pink, agree in everything almost except the color, from which we easily gather that color has little to do with the intrinsic nature of a body, but simply depends on the coarser and, as it were, mechanical arrangement of the parts. These instances are solitary in respect to difference, both kinds I call solitary instances, or farine, to borrow a term from astronomers. 23. Among prerogative instances, I will next place migratory instances. There are those in which the nature in question is in the process of being produced when it did not previously exist, or, on the other hand, of disappearing when it existed before. And therefore, in either transition, such instances are always twofold, or rather it is one instance in motion or passage, continued till it reaches the opposite state. Such instances not only accelerate and strengthen the exclusive process, but also drive the affirmative or form itself into a narrow compass. For the form of a thing must necessarily be something which, in the course of the migration, is communicated, or, on the other hand, which, in the course of this migration, is removed and destroyed. And though every exclusion promotes the affirmative, yet this is done more decidedly when it occurs in the same than in different subjects, and the portrayal of the form in a single instance leads the way, as is evident from all that has been said, to the discovery of it in all. And the simpler the migration, the more must the instance be valued. Besides, migratory instances are of great use with a view to operation, because in exhibiting the form and connection with that which causes it to be, or not to be, they supply a clear direction for practice in some cases, whence the passage is easy to the cases that lie next. There is, however, in these instances, a danger which requires caution. These, lest they lead us to connect the form too much with the efficient, will possess the understanding, or at least touch it with a false opinion concerning the form, drawn from a view of the efficient. But the efficient is always understood to be merely the vehicle that carries the form. This is a danger, however, easily remedied by the process of exclusion legitimately conducted. I must now give an example of a migratory instance. Let the nature too be investigated be waitness. An instance migrating to a production or existence is as whole and pounded. Again, simple water and water agitated into froth. For glass and water in their simple state are transparent, not white, whereas pounded glass and water in froth are white, not transparent. We must therefore inquire what has happened to the glass or water from this migration, for it is obvious that the form of whiteness is communicated and conveyed by that pounding of the glass and that agitation of the water. However, that nothing has been added except the breaking up of the glass and water into small parts and the introduction of air. But we have made no slight advance to the discovery of the form of whiteness when we know that two bodies, both transparent but in a greater or less degree bracket, vis, air and water, or air and glass, close bracket, do when mingled in small proportions to gather exhibit whiteness through the unequal refraction of the rays of light. But an example must at the same time be given of the danger and caution to which I alluded, for at this point it might readily suggest itself to an understanding led astray by efficient causes of this kind that air is always required for the form of whiteness, or that whiteness is generated by transparent bodies only. Notions entirely false and refuted by numerous exclusions, whereas it will be found that bracket, setting air and the like aside, close bracket, bodies entirely even in the particles which affect vision are transparent. Bodies simply uneven are white. Bodies uneven and in a compound, yet regular texture are all colors except black, while bodies uneven and in a compound, irregular and confused texture are black. Here then I have given an example of an instance migrating to production or existence in the proposed nature of whiteness. An instance migrating to destruction in the same nature of whiteness is froth or snow in dissolution, for the water puts off whiteness and puts on transparency on returning to its integral state without air. Norm must die by any means admit to mention that under migratory instances are to be included not only those which are passing toward production and destruction, but also those which are passing toward increase and decrease. Since these also help to discover the form, as is clear from the above definition of form and the table of degrees. Paper, which is white when dry, but when wetted, bracket, that is, when air is excluded and water introduced, close bracket, is less white and approaches nearer to the transparent, is analogous to the above given instances. 24. Among prerogative instances I will put in the third place striking instances of which I have made mention in the first vintage concerning heat and which I also call shining instances or instances freed and predominant. They are those which exhibit the nature in question naked and standing by itself and also in its exaltation or highest degree of power as being disenthralled and freed from all impediments or at any rate by virtue of its strength, dominant over, suppressing and coercing them. For since everybody contains in itself many forms of natures united together in a concrete state, the result is that they severally crush, depress, break and enthrall one another, and thus the individual forms are obscured. But certain subjects are found wherein the required nature appears more in its vigor than in others, either through the absence of impediments or the predominance of its own virtue. In instances of this kind strikingly display the form. At the same time in these instances also we must use caution and check the hurry of the understanding for whatever displays the form too conspicuously and seems to force it on the notice of the understanding should be held suspect and recourse be had to a rigid and careful exclusion. To take an example let the nature inquired into be heat. A striking instance of the motion of expansion which bracket as stated above close bracket is the main element in the form of heat a calendar glass of air. For flame, though it manifests the exhibits expansion, still as susceptible of momentary extinction does not display the progress of expansion. Boiling water, too, on account of the easy transition of water to vapor or air does not so well exhibit the expansion of water in its own body. Again, ignited iron and light bodies are so far from displaying the progress of expansion that in consequence of their spirit being crushed broken by the coarse and compact particles which curb and subdue it the expansion itself is not at all conspicuous to the senses but a calendar glass strikingly displays expansion in air at once conspicuous, progressive, permanent and without transition. To take another example let the nature inquired into be weight. A striking instance of weight is quicksilver for it far surpasses in weight all substances but gold and gold itself is not much heavier but quicksilver is a better instance for indicating the form of weight than gold because gold is solid and consistent, characteristics which seem related to density whereas quicksilver is liquid and teeming with spirit and yet is heavier by many degrees than the diamond and other bodies that are esteemed the most solid from which it is obvious that the form of heaviness or weight depends simply on quantity of matter and not on the compactness of frame. 25. Among prerogative instances I will put in the fourth place clandestine instances which I also call instances of the twilight and which are pretty nearly the opposites of striking instances for they exhibit the nature under investigation in its lowest degree of power and as it were in its cradle and rudiments, striving indeed and making a sort of first attempt but buried under and subdued by a contrary nature. Such instances however are very great service for the discovery of forms because as striking instances lead easily to specific differences so are clandestine instances the best guide to genera that is to those common natures whereof the nature proposed are nothing more than particular cases. For example, let the nature proposed be consistency or the nature of that which determines its own figure, opposed to which is fluidity. Those are clandestine instances which exhibit some feeble and low degree of consistency in a fluid as a bubble of water which is a sort of consistent pellicle of determined figure made of the body of water. Of a similar kind are the droppings from a house which if there be water to follow lengthen themselves out into very thin thread to preserve the continuity of the water. But if there be not water enough to follow then they fall in round drops which is the figure that best preserves the solution of continuity. But at the very moment of time when the thread of water ceases and the descent in drops begin the water itself recoils upward to avoid discontinuation again in metals which in the fusion are liquid more tenacious, the molten drops often fly to the top and stick there. A somewhat similar instance is that of children's looking glasses which little boys make on rushes with spittle. Where also there is seen a consistent pellicle of water. This however is much better shown in that other child's sport when they take water made a little more tenacious by soap and blow it through a hollow reed and so shape the water into a sort of castle of bubbles which by the interposition of the air become so consistent as to admit of being thrown some distance without discontinuation. But best of all is it seen in frost and snow which assumes such a consistency that they can be almost cut with a knife although they are formed out of air and water, both fluids. All which facts not obscurely intimate the consistent and fluid are only vulgar notions and relative to the senses and that in fact there is inherent in all bodies a disposition to shun and escape discontinuance but that it is faint and feeble in homogenous bodies, bracket as fluids and bracket. More lively and strong in bodies compounded of heterogeneous matter the reason being that the approach of heterogeneous matter binds bodies together while the insinuation of homogenous matter dissolves and relaxes them. To take another instance let the proposed nature be the attraction or coming together of bodies. In the investigation of its form the most remarkable striking instance is the magnet but there is a contrary nature to the attractive, namely the non-attractive, which exists in a similar substance. Thus there is iron, which does not attract iron just as lead does not attract lead, nor wood, wood nor water, water. Now a clandestine instance is a magnet armed with iron, or rather the iron in an armed magnet for it is a fact in nature that an armed magnet at some distance off does not attract iron more powerfully than an unarmed magnet but if the iron be brought so near as to touch the iron in the magnet then the armed magnet supports a far greater weight of iron than a simple and unarmed magnet on account of the similarity of substance between the pieces of iron. An operation altogether clandestine and latent in the iron before the magnet was applied. Hence it is manifest that the form of cohesion is something which is lively and strong in the magnet feeble and latent in iron. Again it has been observed that small wooden arrows without an iron point discharged from large engines pierced deeper into wood and material. Bracket say the sides of ships or the like close bracket then the same arrows tipped with iron on account of the similarity of substance between the two pieces of wood though this property had previously been latent in the wood. In like manner although air does not manifestly attract air or water in the entire body yet a bubble is more easily dissolved on the approach of another bubble then if that other bubble were away by reason of the appetite of cohesion between water and water and between air and air. Such clandestine instances bracket which as I have said are of the most signal use close bracket exhibit themselves most conspicuously in small and subtle portions of bodies. The reason being that larger masses follow more general forms as shall be shown in the proper place. 26 Among prerogative instances I will put in the fifth place constitutive instances which I also call manipular. There are those which constitute a single species of the proposed nature a sort of lesser form for since the genuine forms bracket which are always convertible with the proposed natures close bracket lie deep and are hard to find it is required by the circumstances of the case and the infirmity of the human understanding that particular forms which collect together certain groups of instances bracket though not all close bracket into some common notion be not neglected but rather be diligently observed for whatever unites nature though imperfectly paves the way to the discovery of forms. Instances therefore which are useful in this regard are of no despicable power but have a certain prerogative. But great caution must here be employed lest the human understanding after having discovered many of those particular forms and there upon established partitions or divisions of the nature in question be content to rest therein and instead of proceeding to the legitimate discovery of the great form take it for granted that the nature from its very roots is manifold and divided and so reject and put aside any further union of the nature as a thing of superfluous subtlety and verging on mere abstraction. For example let the proposed nature be memory or that which excites and aids the memory. Constitutive instances are order or distribution which clearly aids the memory also topics or quotes places in artificial memory which may be either places in the proper sense of the word as a door, angle, window and the like or familiar and known persons or thing at pleasure. Bracket provided they be placed in a certain order close bracket as animals, vegetables words, two letters, characters historical persons and the like although some of these are more suitable and convenient than others. Such artificial places help the memory wonderfully and exalted far above its natural powers. Again first is learned and remembered more easily than prose. From this group of three instances viz, order, artificial places and verse, one species of aid to the memory is constituted and this species may with propriety be called the cutting off of infinity. For when we try to recollect or call a thing to mind if we have no pre-notion or perception of what we are seeking we seek in toil and wonder here and there as if in infinite space. Whereas if we have any sure pre-notion infinity is at once cut off and the memory has not so far to range. Now in the three four going instances the pre-notion is clear and certain. In the first it must be something which suits the order. In the second it must be an image which bears some relation or conformity to the places fixed. In the third it must be words that fall into the verse and thus infinity is cut off. Other instances again will give us this second species that whatever brings the intellectual conception into contact with the sense bracket which is indeed the method most used in mnemonics close bracket assists the memory. Other instances will give us this third species. The things which make their impression by way of a strong affection as by inspiring fear, admiration, shame, delight, assist the memory. Other instances will give us the fourth species. The things which are chiefly imprinted when the mind is clear and not occupied with anything else either before or after as what is learned in childhood or what we think of before going to sleep also things that happen for the first time dwell longest in the memory. Other instances will give us the fifth species that a multitude of circumstances or points to take hold of aids in the memory as writing with breaks and divisions, reading or reciting aloud. Lastly other instances will give us this sixth species. The things which are waited for and raise the attention while longer in the memory than what flies quickly by. Thus if you read anything over 20 times you will not learn it by heart so easily as if you were to read it only 10 trying to repeat it between wiles and when memory failed looking at the book. It appears then that there are six lesser forms of aids to the memory is the cutting off of infinity the reduction of the intellectual to the sensible, impression made on the mind in a state of strong emotion impression made on the mind disengaged, multitude of points to take hold of expectation beforehand to take another example let the proposed nature be taste or tasting. The following instances are constitutive persons who are by nature without the sense of smell cannot perceive or distinguish by taste food that is rancid or putrid nor food that is seasoned with garlic or with roses or the like again persons whose nostrils are accidentally obstructed by a guitar cannot distinguish or perceive anything putrid or rancid or sprinkled with rose water. Again persons thus affected with guitar if while they have something fetid or perfumed in their mouth or palate they blow their nose violently immediately perceive the rancidity or the perfume these instances then will give and constitute this species or rather division of taste. The sense of taste is in part nothing else than an internal smell passing and descending from the upper passages of the nose to the mouth and palate. On the other hand the taste of salt, sweet sour, acid, rough bitter and the like are as perceptible to those in whom the sense of smell is wanting or stopped as to anyone else so that it is clear that the sense of taste is a sort of compound of an internal smell and a delicate power of touch of which this is not the place to speak. To take another example let the proposed nature be the communication of quality without admixture of substance the instance of light will give or constitute one species of communication heat and the magnet another for the communication of light is momentaneous and ceases at once on the removal of the original light but heat and the virtue of the magnet after they have been transmitted to or rather excited in a body lodge and remain there for a considerable time after the removal of the source of motion. Very great in short is the prerogative of constitutive instances for they are of much use in the forming of definitions bracket especially particular definitions close bracket and in the division and partition of natures with regard to which it was not ill said by Plato quote that he is to be held a God who knows well how to define and to divide end quote end of aphorisms 21 to 26 of book 2 recording by Jeffrey Edwards aphorisms 27 to 32 of book 2 27 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jeffrey Edwards the new organ on by Francis Bacon translated by James Spedding Robert Leslie Ellis and Douglas Denon Heath aphorisms 27 to 32 of book 2 27 among prerogative instances I will put in the sixth place instances conformable or of analogy which I also call parallels or physical resemblances they are those which represent the resemblances and conjugations of things not in lesser forms bracket as constitutive instances to close bracket but merely in the concrete hence they may be called the first and lowest steps toward the union of nature nor do they constitute any axiom immediately from the beginning but simply point out and mark a certain agreement in bodies but although they are of little use for the discovery of forms they nevertheless are very serviceable in revealing the fabric of the parts of the universe and anatomizing its members from which they often lead us along to sublime and noble axioms especially those which relate to the configuration of the world rather than to simple forms and natures for example these following are instances of conformity a looking glass and the eye and again the construction of the ear and places returning an echo from which conformity to say nothing of the mere observation of the resemblance which is in many respects useful it is easy to gather and form this axiom that the organs of the senses and bodies which produce reflections are of a like nature again upon this hint the understanding easily rises to a higher and nobler axiom which is this that there is no difference between the consents or sympathies of bodies endowed with sensation and those of inanimate bodies without sensation except that in the former an animal spirit is added to the body so disposed but is wanting in the latter once it follows that there might be as many senses in animals as there are sympathies between inanimate bodies if there were perforations in the inanimate body allowing the animal spirit to pass freely into a member rightly disposed as into a fit organ again as many as are the senses in animals so many without doubt are the motions in an inanimate body where animal spirit is wanting though necessarily there are many more motions in inanimate bodies than there are senses inanimate on account of the paucity of organs of sense and of this a manifest example is exhibited in pain for though there are many kinds and varieties of pain in animals bracket as the pain of burning for one of intense cold for another again of pricking squeezing stretching and the like close bracket it is yet most certain that all of them as far as the motion is concerned exist in inanimate substances for example in wood or stone when it is burned or frozen or pricked or cut or bent or stretched and so on though they do not enter the senses for want of the animal spirit again the roots and branches of plants bracket which may seem strange close bracket are conformable instances for all vegetable matter swells and pushes out its parts to the surface as well upward as downward nor is there any other difference between roots and branches than that the root is buried in the ground while the branches are exposed to the air and sun for if you take a tender and flourishing branch of a tree and bend it down into a clot of earth although it does not cohere with the ground itself it presently produces not a branch but a root and vice versa if earth can be placed at the top and so kept down with a stone or any hard substance as to check the plant and prevent it from shooting upward it will put forth branches into the air downward again the gums of trees and most rock gems are conformable instances for both of these are nothing else than exudations and filtrings of juices the former from trees the latter from rocks whence is produced the splendor and clearness in each that is by the fine and delicate filtering hence to it is that the hairs of animals are not generally so beautiful and of so vivid a color as the feathers of birds because the juices do not filter so finely through the skin as through quills again the scrotum in males and the matrix in females are conformable instances so that the great organic difference between the sexes bracket in land animals at least close bracket appears to be nothing more than that the one organization is external and the other internal that is to say the greater force of heat in the male thrusts the genitals outward whereas in the female the heat is too feeble to affect this and thus they are contained within the fins of fish again and the feet of quadrupeds or the feet and wings of birds are conformable instances to which Aristotle has added the four folds in the motion of serpents once it appears that in the structure of the universe the motion of living creatures are generally affected by a quaternion of limbs or of bendings again the teeth of land animals and the beaks of birds are conformable instances from which it is manifest that in all perfect animals there is a determination of some hard substance to the mouth nor is that an absurd similitude of conformity which has been remarked between man and a plant inverted for the root of the nerves and faculties in animals is the head while the seminal parts are the lowest the extremities of the legs and arms not reckoned on the other hand the root, bracket which answers to the head, closed bracket is generally placed in the lowest part and the seeds in the highest to conclude it cannot too often be recommended and enjoined that man's diligence in investigating and amassing natural history be hence forward entirely changed and turned into the direction opposite to that now in use for hitherto men have used great and indeed over curious diligence in observing the variety of things and explaining the exact specific differences of animals herbs and fossils most of which are rather sports of nature than of any serious use towards science such things indeed serve to delight and sometimes even give help in practice but for getting insight into nature they are of little service or none men's labor therefore should be turned to the investigation and observation of the resemblances and analogies of things as well in holes as in parts for these it is that detect the unity of nature and lay a foundation for the constitution of sciences but here must be added a strict and earnest caution that those only are to be taken for conformable and analogous instances which indicate bracket as I said at the beginning closed bracket physical resemblances that is real and substantial resemblances grounded in nature not accidental or merely apparent much less superstitious or curious resemblances such as the writers on natural magic bracket very frivolous persons hardly to be named in connection with such serious matters as we are now about closed bracket are everywhere parading similitudes and sympathies of things that have no reality which they describe and sometimes invent with great vanity and folly but to leave these the very configuration of the world itself in its greatest parts presents conformable instances which are not to be neglected take for example Africa and the region of Peru with the continent stretching to the streets of Magellan in each of which tracks there are similar isthmuses and similar promontories which can hardly be by accident again there is the old and new world both of which are broad and extended towards the north narrow and pointed towards the south we have also most remarkable instances of conformity in the intense cold existing in what is called the middle region of the air and the violent fires which are often found bursting forth from beneath the ground which two things are ultimities and extremes that is to say the extreme of the nature of cold toward the circumference of heat toward the bowels of the earth by antiparastasis or the rejection of the contrary nature lastly the conformity of instances in the axioms of science is deserving of notice thus the rhetorical trope of deceiving expectation is conformable with the musical trope of avoiding or sliding from the close or cadence the mathematical postulate that if two things are equal to the same thing they are equal to one another is conformable with the rule of the syllogism in logic which unites propositions agreeing in a middle term in fine a certain sagacity in investigating and hunting out physical conformities and similitudes is of very great use in very many cases 28 among prerogative instances I will put in the 7th place singular instances irregular or heteroclite to borrow a term from grammarians they are such as exhibit bodies in the concrete which seem to be out of the course and broken off from the order of nature and not agreeing with other bodies of the same kind for conformable instances are like each other singular instances are like themselves alone the use of singular instances is the same as that of clandestine namely to raise and unite nature for the purpose of discovering kinds of common natures to be afterward limited by true specific differences for we are not to give up the investigation until the properties and qualities found in such things as may be taken for miracles of nature be reduced and comprehended under some form or fixed law so that all the irregularity or singularity shall be found to depend on some common form and the miracle shall turn out to be only in the exact specific differences and the degree and the rare occurrence not in the species itself whereas now the thoughts of man go no further than to pronounce such things the secrets and mighty works of nature things as it were causeless and exceptions to general rules examples of singular instances are the sun and moon among stars the magnet among stones quick silver among metals the elephant among quadrupeds the venereal scents among kinds of touch the scent of hounds among kinds of smell so among grammarians the letter S is held singular on account of its easy combination with consonants sometimes with two sometimes even with three which property no other letter has such instances must be regarded as most valuable because they sharpen and quicken investigation and help to cure the understanding depraved by custom and the common course of things 29 among prerogative instances I will put in the eighth place deviating instances that is errors, vagaries and prodigies of nature wherein nature deviates and turns aside from her ordinary course errors of nature differ from singular instances in this that the latter are prodigies of species the former of individuals their use is pretty nearly the same the erroneous impressions suggested to the understanding by ordinary phenomena and revealed common forms for in these also we are not to desist firm inquiry until the cause of the deviation is discovered this cause however does not rise properly to any form but simply to the latent process that leads to the form for he that knows the ways of nature the more easily observe her deviations and on the other hand he that knows her deviations accurately describe her ways they differ in this also from singular instances that they give much more help to practice and the operative part for to produce new species would be very difficult but to very known species and thereby produce many rare and unusual results is less difficult now it is an easy passage for miracles of nature to miracles of art for if nature be once detected in her deviation and the reason thereof made evident there will be little difficulty in leading her back by art to the point whether she strayed by accident and that not only in one case but also in others for errors on one side point out and open the way to errors and deflections on all sides under this head there is no need of examples they are so plentiful for we have to make a collection or particular natural history of all prodigies and monstrous births of nature of everything in short that is in nature new, rare and unusual this must be done however with the strictest scrutiny that fidelity may be ensured now those things are to be chiefly suspected which depend in any way on religion as the prodigies of Livy and those not less which are found in writers on natural magic or alchemy and men of that sort who are kind of suitors and lovers of fables but whatever is admitted must be drawn from grave and credible history and trustworthy reports 30 among prerogative instances I will put in the ninth place bordering instances which I also call participles they are those which exhibit species of bodies that seem to be composed of two species or to be rudiments between one species and another these instances might with propriety be reckoned among singular or hetero-clite instances for in the whole extent of nature they are of rare and extraordinary occurrence but nevertheless for their worth's sake they should be ranked and treated separately for they are of excellent use in indicating the composition and structure of things and suggesting the causes of the number and quality of the ordinary species in the universe and carrying on the understanding from that which is to that which may be examples of these are moss which holds a place between the presence and a plant some comets between stars and fiery meteors flying fish between birds and fish bats between birds and quadrupeds also the ape between man and beast simia quam similis terpissima bestia nobis likewise the bi-form births of animals mixed of different species and the like thirty one among prerogative instances I will put in the tenth place instances of power or of the facets bracket to borrow a term from the badges of empire close bracket which I also call instances of the wit or hands of man these are the noblest and most consummate works in each art exhibiting the ultimate perfection of it for since our main object is to make nature of the business and conveniences of man it is altogether agreeable to that object that the works which are already in man's power should bracket like so many provinces formerly occupied and subdued close bracket be noted and enumerated especially such as are the most complete and perfect because starting from them we shall find an easier and nearer passage to new works hitherto unattempted for if from an attentive contemplation of these a man pushes on his work with zeal and activity he will involubly either advance them a little further or turn them aside to something in their neighborhood or even apply and transfer them to some more noble use nor is this all but as by rare and extraordinary works of nature the understanding is excited and raised to the investigation and discovery of forms capable of including them so also is this done by excellent and wonderful works of art and that in a much greater degree because the method of creating and constructing such miracles of art is in most cases plain whereas in the miracles of nature it is generally obscure but with these also we must use the utmost caution lest they depress the understanding and fasten it as it were to the ground for there is danger lest the contemplation of such works of art which appear to be very summits of crowning points of human industry may so astonish and bind and bewitch the understanding with regard to them that it shall be incapable of dealing with any other but shall think that nothing can be done in that kind except by the same way in which these were done only with the use of greater diligence and more accurate preparation whereas on the contrary this is certain that the ways and means of achieving the effects and works hitherto discovered and observed are for the most part poor things and that all power of a high order depends on forms and is derived in order from the sources thereof not one of which has yet been discovered and therefore, Brackett as I have said elsewhere close Brackett if a man had been thinking of the war engines and battering rams of the ancients though he had done it with all his might and spent his whole life in it yet he would never have laid on the discovery of canon acting by means of gunpowder nor again if he had fixed his observation and thought on the manufacture of wool and cotton would he ever by such means have discovered the nature of the silkworm or of silk hence it is that all the discoverers which can take rank among the nobler of their kind have Brackett if you observe close Brackett being brought to light not by small elaborations and extensions of arts but entirely by accident now there is nothing which can forestall or anticipate accident Brackett which commonly acts only at long intervals close Brackett except the discovery of forms particular examples of such instances it is unnecessary to adduce for there is such an abundance of them for what we have to do is simply this to seek out and thoroughly inspect all mechanical arts and all liberal too Brackett as far as they deal with works close Brackett and make there from a collection or particular history of the great and masterly and most perfect works in every one of them together with the mode of their production or operation and yet I do not tie down the diligence that should be used in such a collection to those works only which are esteemed the masterpieces and mysteries of any art and which excite wonder for wonder is the child of rarity and if a thing be rare behind it be no way extraordinary yet it is wondered at while on the other hand things which really call for wonder on account of the difference in species which they exhibit as compared with other species yet if we have them by us in common use are but slightly noticed now the singularities of art deserve to be noticed no less than those of nature of which I have already spoken and as among the singularities of nature I placed the sun the magnet and the like things in fact most familiar but in nature almost unique so also must we do with the singularities of art for example a singular instance of art is paper a thing exceedingly common now if you observe them with attention you will find that artificial materials are either woven in upright and transverse threads as silk woollen or linen cloth and the like or cemented concrete juices as bricks earthenware glass enamel porcelain etc which are bright if well united but if not are hard indeed but not bright but all things that are made of concrete juices are brittle and no way cohesive or tenacious on the contrary paper is a tenacious substance that may be cut or torn so that it imitates and almost rivals the skin or membrane of an animal the leaf of a vegetable and the like pieces of nature's workmanship for it is neither brittle like glass nor woven as cloth but is in fibers not distinct threads just like natural materials so that among artificial materials you will hardly find anything similar but it is all together singular and certainly among things artificial those are to be preferred which either come nearest to an imitation of nature or on the contrary overrule and turn her back again as instances of the wit and the hand of man we must not altogether condemn juggling and conjuring tricks for some of them though in use trivial and ludicrous yet in regard to the information they give may be of much value lastly matters of superstition and magic bracket in the common acceptation of the word close bracket must not be entirely omitted for although such things lie buried deep beneath a mass of falsehood and fable yet they should be looked into a little for maybe then in some of them some natural operation lies at the bottom as in fascination strengthening of the imagination sympathy of things at a distance transmission of impressions from spirit to spirit no less than from body to body and the like 32 from what has been said it is clear that the five classes of instances last mentioned bracket namely instances conformable singular, deviating bordering and of power close bracket ought not to be reserved until some certain nature be in question bracket as the other instances which I have placed first and most of those that are to follow should close bracket but a collection of them must be begun at once as a sort of particular history because they serve to digest the matters that enter the understanding and to correct the ill complexion of the understanding itself which cannot but be tinged and infected and at length perverted and distorted by daily and habitual impression these instances therefore should be employed as a sort of preparative for setting right and purging the understanding for whatever withdraws the understanding from the things to which it is accustomed smooths and levels its surface for the reception of the dry and pure light of true ideas moreover such instances paved and prepared the way for the operative part as will be shown in the proper place when I come to speak of deductions leading to practice end of aphorisms 27 to 32 of book 2 recording by Jeffrey Edwards aphorisms 33 to 35 of book 2 of the new organon this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Shuleifan Valahyem it's a new organon by Francis Bacon translated by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis and Douglas Denon Heath aphorisms 33 to 35 of book 2 33 among prerogative instances I will put in the 11th place instances of companionship and of annuity which I also call instances of fixed propositions they are those which exhibit a body or concrete substance in which the nature inquired into constantly attends as an inseparable companion or in which on the contrary it constantly retreats excluded from companionship as an enemy and foe for from such instances are formed certain and universal propositions either affirmative or negative in which the subject will be a body in concrete and the predicate the nature itself that is in question for particular propositions are in no case fixed I mean propositions in which the nature in question is found in any concrete body that is to say that is to say accruing or acquired are on the other hand departing or put away wherefore particular propositions have no prerogative above others so if only in the case of migration of which I have already spoken nevertheless even these particular propositions being prepared and collated with universal propositions are of great use in proper place nor even in the universal propositions do we require exact or absolute affirmation or negation for it is sufficient for the purpose in hand even if they admit of some rare and singular exception the use of instances of companionship is to bring the affirmative of the form within narrow limits for if by migratory instances the affirmative of the form is narrow to this that a form of the thing must need to be something which by the act of migration is communicated or destroyed so in instances of companionship the affirmative of the form is narrow to this that a form of the thing must need to be something which enters as an element into such a concretion of body or contrary wise which refuses to enter so that he who well knows the configuration of such a body will not be far from bringing to light the form of the nature under inquiry for example let the nature in question be heat an instance of companionship is flame for in water, air, stone, metal and most other substances heat is a variable and may come and go but all flame is hot so that heat is always in attendance on the concretion of flame but no hostile instance of heat is to be found here for the sense is known nothing of the bowels of the earth and of all the bodies which we do know there is not a single concretion that is not susceptible to heat but to take another instance let the nature in question be consistency a hostile instance is air for metal can be fluid and can also be consistent water also can be consistent when it is frozen but it is impossible that air should ever be consistent or put off its fluidity but with regard to such instances of fixed propositions I have two admonitions to give which may help the business in hand the first is that if a universal affirmative or negative be wanting that very thing be carefully noted as a thing that is not as we have done in the case of heat where a universal negative as far as the essences that have come under our knowledge are concerned is not to be found in the nature of things in like manner if the nature in question be eternity or incorruptibility no universal affirmative is to be found here for eternity or incorruptibility cannot be predicated of any of the bodies lying below the heavens and above the bowels of the earth the other admonition is that to universal propositions affirmative or negative concerning any concrete body there be subjoined those concretes which seem to approach most nearly to that which is not as in heat the gentlest and least burning flames in incorruptibility gold which comes nearest to it which indicates the limit of nature between that which is and that which is not and help to circumscribe forms and prevent them from escaping and straying beyond the conditions of matter 34 among prerogative instances I will put in the 12th place those subjunctive instances mentioned in the last aphorism which I otherwise call instances of altimity or limit for such instances are not only useful when subjoined to fixed propositions but also by themselves and in their own properties but they point out not obscurely the real divisions of nature and measures of things and how far in any case nature may act or be acted upon and then the passages of nature into something else of this kind are gold in weight iron in hardness the whale in animal bulk the dog in scent the combustion of gunpowder in rapid expansion and the like nor should extremes in the lowest degree be less noticed than extremes in the highest such as spirit of wine in weight, silk and softness the worms of the skin in animal bulk and the like 35 among prerogative instances I will put in the 13th place instances of alliance or union they are those which Winkle and Unite nature's supposed to be heterogeneous and marked and set down as such in the received divisions instances of alien show that operations and defects attributed to some one heterogeneous nature as peculiar to it may belong also to other heterogeneous natures that this supposed heterogeneity to be not real or essential but only a modification of a common nature they are therefore of most excellent use in raising and elevating the understanding from specific differences to genera and in dispelling phantoms and false images of things which in concrete substances come before us in disguise for example let the nature in question be heat we are told and it seems to be a division quite received and authorised that there are three kinds of heat the heat of heavenly bodies the heat of animals and the heat of fire and that these heats especially one of them as compared with the other two are in their very essence and species that is to say in this specific nature distinct and heterogeneous since the heat of heavenly bodies and of animals generate and cherish us while the heat of fire wastes and destroys we have therefore an instance of alliance in that common case when the branch of a vine is brought within a house where a fire is constantly kept up and the grapes ripen on it a whole month sooner than they do out of doors so that a ripening of fruit even while it hangs on the tree may be brought about by fire though such ripening would seem to be the proper work of the sun from this beginning therefore understanding, rejecting the notion of essential heterogeneity easily rises to inquire what are in reality those points of difference between the heat of the sun and the fire which cause their operations to be so dissimilar however they may themselves partake of a common nature these differences will be found to be four the first is that the heat of the sun compared with the heat of fire is far milder and softer and degree the second is that in quality at least as it reaches it through the air it is far moister the third and this is the main point is that it is exceedingly unequal now approaching and increased now receding and diminished which thing chiefly contributes to the generation of bodies for Aristotle was right in asserting that the principal cause of the generations and corruptions which are going on here on the surface of the earth is the oblique cause of the sun through the zodiac whence the heat of the sun partly by the alternation of day and night partly by the succession of summer and winter becomes strangely unequal and yet this great man must go on at once to corrupt and deprave what he has rightly discovered for laying down the law to nature as his way is he very dictatorially assigns as a cause of generation the approach of the sun and as a cause of corruption his retreat whereas both together the approach of the sun and his retreat not respectively but as it were indifferently afford a cause both for generation and production since inequality of heat ministers to generation and corruption equality to conservation only there is also a fourth specific difference between the heat of the sun and of fire and one very great moment is that the sun operates by gentle action through long spaces of time whereas the operations of fire urged done by the impatience of man are made to finish their work in shorter periods but if anyone were to set to work diligently to temple the heat of fire and reduce it to a milder and more moderate degree as is easily done in many ways and were then to sprinkle and intermix a little moisture and if above all he were to imitate the heat of the sun in its inequality and lastly if he could submit to a slow procedure not indeed corresponding to the operations of the sun but yet slower than men generally adopt in working with fire he would speedily get rid of the notion of different kinds of heat and would attempt to imitate if not equal or in some cases even surpass the works of the sun by the heat of fire we have a similar instance of alliance in the revival of butterflies duplified and half dead with cold by slightly warming them at a fire so that you may easily see that fire is no more without the power of giving life to animals than of ripening vegetables also Precastorius celebrated invention of the heated pan with which doctors cover the heads of apoplectic patients who are given over manifestly expands the animal spirits compressed and all but extinguished by the humours and obstructions of the brain and exciting them to motion just as fire acts on air or water by consequence quickens and gives them life eggs also sometimes hedged by the heat of fire which is thus exactly imitates animal heat and there are many instances of the same kind so that no one can doubt that the heat of fire may in many subjects be modified so as to resemble the heat of heavenly bodies and of animals again let the natures in question be motion and rest it appears to be a received vision and drawn from the depth of philosophy that natural bodies either move and circle or move straightforward or remain at rest for there is either motion without limit or rest at a limit or progress toward a limit now that perpetual motion of rotation seems to be proper to the heavenly bodies stationary rest seems to belong to the globe of the earth while other bodies which they call heavy or light being indeed placed out of the region to which they naturally belong are carried toward the masters or congregations of their likes light bodies upward towards the circumference of the heaven heavy bodies downward towards the earth and this is pretty talk but we have an instance of a lines in one of the lower comets which though far below the heaven nevertheless revolve and Aristotle's fiction of a comet being tied to or following some particular star is exploded not only because the reason for it is not probable but because we have manifest experience of the discursive and irregular motion of comets through various parts of the sky again another instance of a lines on this subject is a motion of air which was in the tropics where the circles of rotation are larger seems itself also to revolve from east to west again another instance would be the wind flow of the sea if it be found that waters themselves are carried in a motion of rotation however slow and evanescent from east to west those subject to the condition of being driven back twice in the day for if things be so it is manifest that that motion of rotation is not limited to heavenly bodies but is shared also by air and water even that property of light substances that they tent upward is somewhat at fault and on this point a bubble of water may be taken as an instance of alliance for if there be air under the water it rapidly ascends to the surface by that motion of percussion as democracies cause it by which the descending water strikes and raises the air upward not by any effort or struggle of the air itself and when it is come to the surface of the water then the air is stopped from further ascend by a slight resistance it meet with in the water which does not immediately allow itself to be separated so that the desire of air to ascend must be very slight again let the nature in question be weighed it is quite a received vision that dens and solid bodies move toward the centre of the earth rare and light towards the circumference of the heaven as to their proper places now as for this notion of places though such things prevail in the schools it is very silly and childish to suppose that place has any power therefore philosophers do a trifle when they say that if the earth were brought through heavy bodies would stop on reaching the centre certainly it would be a wonderful and efficacious sort of nothing or mathematical point which could act on bodies and for which bodies could have desire for bodies are not acted on except by bodies but this desire of ascending and descending depends either on the configuration of the body moved or on its sympathy or consent with some other body now if there be found any body which being dens and solid does not move to the earth there is none of this division but if Gilbert's opinion be received that the earth's magnetic power of attracting heavy bodies does not extend beyond the orb of its virtue which acts always to a certain distance and no more and if this opinion be verified by a single instance in that we shall have got at last an instance of alliance on the subject of weight but at present there does not occur any instance on this subject certain and manifest to one is that of the waterspouts often seen in the voyage over the Atlantic Ocean toward either of the Indies for so great is the quantity and mass of water suddenly discharged by these waterspouts but they seem to have been collections of water made before and to have remained hanging in these places and after it to have been rather thrown down by some violent cause than to have fallen by the natural motion of gravity so that it may be conjectured that a dense and compact mass at a great distance from the earth which hang along the earth itself and not fall unless it throws down but on this point I affirm nothing certain meanwhile in this and many other cases it will easily be seen how poor we are in natural history when in plays of certain instances I am sometimes compelled to use as examples bear suppositions again let the nature in question be discourse of reason the distinction between human reason and the sagacity of roots appears to be a perfectly correct one yet there are certain instances of actions performed by animals by which it seems that roots too have some powers of syllogizing as in the old story of the cry which in a time of great draught being half dead with thirst and water in the hollow trunk of a tree and finding it too narrow to get in proceeded to drop in a number of pebbles till the water rose high enough for it to drink and this after it passed into a proverb again let the nature in question be visibility it appears to be a very correct and safe division which regards light as primarily visible and affording the power of seeing while color is secondarily visible and cannot be seen without light so that it appears to be nothing more than an image or modification of light and yet there appear to be instances of alliance on either side namely snow in great quantities and the flame of sulfur in one of which there appears to be a color primarily giving light and the other a light verging on color and of aphorisms 33 to 35 of book 2