 Ephorism 36 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. Written by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath. Ephorism 36 of Book 2. 36. Among prerogative instances I will put in the 14th place instances of the finger post, borrowing the term from the finger posts which are set up where roads part, to indicate the several directions. These I also call decisive and judicial, and in some cases oracular and commanding instances. I explain them thus. When in the investigation of any nature the understanding is so balanced as to be uncertain to which of two or more natures the cause of the nature in question should be assigned on account of the frequent and ordinary occurrence of many natures, instances of the finger post show the union of one of the natures with the nature in question to be sure and indissoluble, of the other to be varied and separable, and thus the question is decided, and the former nature is admitted as the cause, while the latter is dismissed and rejected. Such instances afford very great light and are of high authority, the course of interpretation sometimes ending in them and being completed. Thus these instances of the finger post meet us accidentally among those already noticed, but for the most part they are new, and are expressly and designedly sought for and applied, and discovered only by earnest and active diligence. For example, let the nature in question be the ebb and flow of the sea, each of which is repeated twice a day and takes six hours each time, subject to some slight difference which coincides with the motion of the moon. The following will be a case of the parting of the roads. This motion must necessarily be caused either by the advance and retreat of the waters, as water shaken in a basin leaves one side when it washes the other, or else by a lifting up of the waters from the bottom and falling again, as water in boiling rises and falls. The question is to which of these two causes the ebb and flow should be assigned. Now, if we take the first, it follows that when there is a flood on one side of the sea, there must be at the same time an ebb somewhere on the other, to this point therefore the inquiry is brought. Now it has been observed by Acosta and others, after careful research that on the shores of Florida and the opposite shores of Spain and Africa, the floods take place at the same time, and the ebbs take place at the same time also, and not that there is an ebb from the shores of Spain and Africa when there is a flood on the shores of Florida. And yet, if you look at it more closely, this does not prove the case in favor of the rising and against the progressive motion, for waters may move in progression, and yet rise upon the opposite shores of the same channel at the same time, as when they are thrust together and driven on from some other quarter. For so it is with rivers, which rise and fall on both banks at the same hour, and yet that motion is clearly one of progression, namely of the waters entering the mouth of the rivers from the sea. It may therefore happen in a like manner that waters coming in a vast mass from the east India Ocean are driven together and pushed into the channel of the Atlantic, and on that account flood both sides at once. We must inquire therefore whether there be any other channel in which the water can be retreating and ebbing at the same time, and we have the South Sea, a sea at least as wide, indeed wider and larger than the Atlantic, which is sufficient for the purpose. At length then we have come to an instance of the finger post in this case, and it is this. If we find for certain that when there is a flood on the opposite coasts of Florida and Spain in the Atlantic, there is also a flood on the coast of Peru and the back of China in the South Sea. Then indeed on the authority of this decisive instance we must reject the assertion that the ebb and flow of the sea, which is the thing inquired into, takes place by a progressive motion, for there is no sea or place left in which the retreat or ebbing can be going on at the same time. And this may be most conveniently ascertained by asking the inhabitants of Panama and Lima, where the two oceans the Atlantic and Pacific are separated by a small isthmus, whether the ebb and flow of the sea takes place on the opposite side of the isthmus at the same time or contrary wise, when it is ebbing on one side it is flowing on the other. Now this decision or rejection appears to be certain. If we take it for granted that the earth is immovable, but if the earth revolves it is perhaps possible that in consequence of the unequal rotation in point of speed of the earth and the waters of the sea, the waters are violently driven upwards into a heap, which is the flood, and when they can bear no more piling, release and let down again, which is the ebb. But on this inquiry should be made separately. Still, even on this hypothesis our position remains equally fixed that there must of necessity be an ebb of the sea going on in some parts at the same time that a flood is going on in others. Again, let the nature in question be the latter of the two motions we have supposed, namely the rising and sinking motion if on careful examination we reject the former motion of which I spoke, the progressive. With regard to this nature the road branches into three, for the motion by which the waters rise in the flood and sink in the ebb without any accession of other waters rolling in must necessarily be brought about in one of these three ways. Either there is an accession of water pouring out from the interior of the earth and again retreating into it, or there is no accession to the mass of water, but the same waters without increase of quantity are extended or rarefied so as to occupy a greater space and dimension and again contract themselves, or there is no increase either of supply or extension, but the same waters, the same in quantity as in density are raised by some magnetic force attracting them from above and by consent therewith and then fall back again. Let us now dismiss the two former causes of motion and reduce our inquiry to the last. That is to say, let us inquire whether any such raising by consent or magnetic force may happen. Now, in the first place it is evident that the waters as they lie in the trench or hollow of the sea cannot all be raised at once for one of something to take their place at the bottom, so that even if there were in water any such desire to rise it would be barred and checked by the cohesion of things, or as it is commonly called the abhorrence of a vacuum. It remains that the waters must be raised in one part and thereby be diminished and retreat in another. Again, it will follow of necessity that the magnetic force since it cannot act upon the hole will act with the greatest intensity on the middle, so as to raise up the water in the middle upon which the rest must follow and fall away on the sides. Thus at length we come to an instance of the finger post on this subject. For if we find that in the ebb of the sea the surface of the water is more arched and round, the water is rising in the middle of the sea and falling away from the sides, that is, the shores, and that in the flood the same surface is more even and level, the water is returning to their former position, then indeed on the authority of this decisive instance the raising by magnetic force may be admitted, otherwise it must be utterly rejected. And this would not be difficult to ascertain by trial and straits with sounding lines, viz, whether during ebb's the sea be not higher or deeper toward the middle than during floods. It is to be observed, however, that if this be the case, the waters must, contrary to the common opinion, rise in ebb's and sink in floods, so as to close and wash the shores. Again, let the nature investigated be the spontaneous motion of rotation, and in particular whether the diurnal motion whereby to our eyes the sun and stars rise and set be a real motion of rotation in the heavenly bodies, or a motion apparent in the heavenly bodies and real in the earth. We may here take for an instance of the finger post the following. If there be found in the ocean any motion from east to west, however weak and languid, if the same motion be found a little quicker in the air, especially within the tropics, where because of the larger circles it is more perceptible, if the same motion be found in the lower comets, but now lively and vigorous, the same motion be found in planets, but so distributed and graduated that the nearer a planet is to the earth's motion is slower, the further a planet is distanced from the earth's motion is quicker, and quickest of all in the starry sphere, then indeed we should receive the diurnal motion as real in the heavens and deny such motion to the earth, because it will be manifest that motion from east to west is perfectly cosmical, and by consent of the universe being more rapid in the highest parts of the heavens, and gradually falling off and finally stopping and becoming extinct in the immovable, that is the earth. Again, let the nature in question be that other motion of rotation so much talked of by philosophers, the resistant and contrary motion to the diurnal, viz from west to east, which old philosophers attribute to the planets, also to the starry sphere, but Copernicus and his followers to the earth as well, and let us inquire whether any such motion be found in nature, or whether it be not rather a thing invented and supposed for the abbreviation and convenience of calculation, and for the sake of that pretty notion of explaining celestial motions by perfect circles. For this motion in the heavens is by no means proved to be true and real, either by the failing of a planet to return to its diurnal motion to the same point of the starry sphere, or by this, that the poles of the zodiac differ from the poles of the world, to which two things we owe this idea of motion. For the first phenomena is well accounted for by supposing that the fixed stars outrun the planets and leave them behind. The second, by supposing a motion in spiral lines so that the inequality of return and the declination to the tropics may rather be modifications of the one diurnal motion than motions contrary or around different poles. And most certain it is, if one may but play the plain man for a moment, dismissing the fancies of astronomers and schoolmen whose way it is to overrule the senses, often without reason, and to prefer what is obscure. That this motion does actually appear to the senses, such as I have described, for I once had a machine made with iron wires to represent it. The following would be an instance of the finger post on this subject, if it be found in any history worthy of credit that there has been any comment, whether higher or low, which has not revolved in manifest agreement, however irregular, with a diurnal motion, but is revolved in the opposite direction, and certainly we may sit down thus much as established, that there may be in nature some such motion, but if nothing of the kind can be found, it must be regarded as questionable, and recourse be had to other instances of the finger post about it. Again, let the nature in question be weight or heaviness. Here the road will branch into two, thus. It must needs be that heavy and weighty bodies either tend of their own nature to the center of the earth, by reason of their proper configuration, or else that they are attracted by the mass and body of the earth itself, as by the congregation of kindred substances, and moved to it by sympathy. If the latter of these be the cause, it follows that the nearer heavy bodies approach to the earth, the more rapid and violent is their motion to it, and that the further they are from the earth, the feebler and more tardy is their motion, as is the case with magnetic attraction, and that this action is confined to certain limits, so that if they were moved to such a distance from the earth that the earth's virtue could not act upon them, they would remain suspended like the earth itself, and not fall at all. With regard to this, then, the following would be an instance of the finger post. Take a clock moved by leaden weights, and another move by the compression of an iron spring. Let them be exactly adjusted, that one go not faster or slower than the other. Then place the clock moving by weights on top of a very high steeple, keeping the other down below, and observe carefully whether the clock on the steeple goes more slowly than it did on the count of the diminished virtue of its weights. Repeat the experiment in the bottom of a mine, sunk to a great depth below the ground, that is, observe whether the clock so placed does not go faster than it did on account of the increased virtue of its weights. If the virtue of the weights is found to be diminished on the steeple, and increased in the mine, then we may take the attraction of the mass of the earth as the cause of weight. Again, let the nature investigated be the polarity of the iron needle when touched with the magnet. As regard to this nature, the road will branch into two, thus, either the touch of the magnet of itself invests the iron with polarity to the north and south, or it simply excites and prepares the iron, while the actual motion is communicated by the presence of the earth, as Gilbert thinks, and labors so strenuously to prove. To this point, therefore, attend the observations which he has collected with great sagacity and industry. One is that an iron nail which has lain for a long time in a direction between north and south gathers polarity without the touch of the magnet by its long continuance in this position, as if the earth itself, which on account of the distance acts but feebly. The surface or outer crust of the earth being destitute, as he insists of magnetic power, were yet able by this long continuance to supply the touch of the magnet and excite the iron, and then shape and turn it when excited. Another is that if iron that has been heated white-hot, be while cooling, laid lengthwise between north and south, it also acquires polarity without the touch of the magnet, as if the parts of the iron, set in motion by ignition and afterwards recovering themselves, were at the very moment of cooling more susceptible and sensitive to the virtue emanating from the earth than at other times, and thus became excited by it. For these things, though well observed, do not quite prove what he asserts. Now with regard to this question and instance of the finger post would be the following. Take a magnetic globe and mark its poles, and set the poles of the globe towards the east and west, not towards the north and south, and let them remain so. Then place at the top an untouched iron needle, and allow it to remain in the position for six or seven days. The needle, while over the magnet, for on this point there is no dispute, will leave the poles of the earth and turn toward the poles of the magnet, and therefore, as long as it remains thus, it points east and west. Now if it be found that the needle, on being removed from the magnet and placed on a pivot, either starts off at once to the north and south, or gradually turns in that direction, then the presence of the earth must be admitted as the cause. But if it either points as before east and west, or loses its polarity, this cause must be regarded as questionable, and further inquiry must be made. Again, let the nature in question be the corporeal substance of the moon. That is, let us inquire whether it be rare, consisting of flame or air, as most of the old philosophers opined, or dense and solid, as Gilbert and many moderns, with some ancients maintain. The reason for the latter opinion rests chiefly on this, that the moon reflects the rays of the sun, nor does light seem to be reflected except by solid bodies. Therefore instances of the finger post on this question will, if any, be those which prove that reflection may take place from a rare body, as flame provided it be of sufficient denseness. Certainly, one cause of twilight among others is the reflection of the rays of the sun from the upper part of the air. Likewise, we occasionally see rays of the sun in fine evenings, reflected from the fringes of dewy clouds, with a splendor not inferior to that reflected from the body of the moon, but brighter and more gorgeous, and yet there is no proof that these clouds have coalesced into a dense body of water. Also, we observe that the dark air behind a window at night reflects the light of a candle, just as a dense body would. We should also try the experiment of allowing the sun's rays to shine through a hole on some dusky bluish flame, for indeed the open rays of the sun, falling on the duller kinds of flame, appear to dead in them, so they seem more like white smoke than flame. These are what occur to me at present as instances of the finger post, with reference to this question. And better may perhaps be found, but it should always be observed that reflection from flame is not to be expected, except from a flame of some depth, for otherwise it borders on transparency. This however may be set down as certain, that light on an even body is always either received and transmitted or reflected. Again, let the nature in question be the motion of projectiles, darts, arrows, balls, etc. through the air. This motion the schoolmen, as their way is, explain in a very careless manner, thinking it enough to call it a violent motion as distinguished from what they call a natural motion, and to account for the first percussion or impulse by the axiom that two bodies cannot occupy the same place on account of the impenetrability of matter, and not troubling themselves at all how the motion proceeds afterwards, but with reference to this inquiry the road branches into two in this way. Either this motion is caused by the air carrying the projected body and collecting behind it, as the stream in the case of a boat or the wind in that of straws, or it is caused by the parts of the body itself not enduring the impression, but pushing forward in succession to relieve themselves from it. A former of these explanations is adopted by Fracastorius, and almost all who have entered into the investigation with any subtlety, and there's no doubt that the air has something to do with it, but the other notion is undoubtedly the true one, as is shown by countless experiments. Among others the following would be an instance of the finger post on this subject, that a thin iron plate or a stiffish iron wire or even a reed or a pen split in half when pressed into a curve between the finger and thumb leaps away, for it is obvious that this motion cannot be imputed to the air gathering behind the body, because the source of motion is in the middle of the plate or reed, not in the extremities. Again, let the nature in question be the rapid and powerful motion of the expansion of gunpowder into flame, by which such fast masses are upheived, such great weights discharged, as we see in minds and mortars. With respect to this nature the road branches into two in this way. The motion is excited either by the mere desire of the body to expand when set on fire, or partly by that and partly by the desire of the crude spirit in the body, which flies rapidly away from the fire, and burst violently from its embrace as from a prison house. The school men and common opinion deal only with the former desire, for men fancy themselves very fine philosophers when they assert that the flame is endowed by its elementary form with a necessity of occupying a larger space than the body had filled when in the form of powder, and that hence the motion ensues. Meanwhile they forget to notice that although this be true on the supposition that flame is generated, it is yet possible from the generation of flame to be hindered by a mass of matter sufficient to suppress and choke it, so that the case is not reduced to the necessity they insist on. For that expansion must necessarily take place, and that their must-needs follow there on a discharge or removal of the opposing body if flame be generated, they rightly judge. But this necessity is altogether avoided if the solid mass suppress the flame before it be generated, and we see that flame, especially in its first generation, is soft and gentle, and requires a hollow space for him to play and try its strength. Such violence therefore cannot be attributed to flame by itself, but the fact is that the generation of these windy flames, or fiery winds, as they may be called, arises from a conflict of two bodies of exactly opposite natures, one being highly inflammable, which is the nature of sulfur, and the other abhorring flame as the crude spirit in Niter, so that there ensues a strange conflict, the sulfur kindling into flame with all its might. For the third party, the willow charcoal, does no more than incorporate and combine the other two, while the spirit of Niter bursts forth with all its might, and at the same time dilates itself, as air, water, and all crude bodies do when affected by heat, and thus flying and bursting out fans, meanwhile the flame of the sulfur on all sides, as with hidden bellows. On this subject we may have instances of the finger post of two kinds, the first of those bodies which are most highly inflammable, as sulfur, camphor, naphtha, and the like, with their compounds which catch fire more quickly and easily than gunpowder, if not impeded, from which it appears that the desire of bursting into flame is not produced by itself, that's dependant effect. The other of those bodies which shun in a poor flame, as all salts, for we find that if salts are thrown into the fire, their aqueous spirit bursts out with a crackling noise before flame is caught, which is the case also, though in a milder degree, with the stiffer kinds of leaves, the aqueous part escaping before the oily catches fire. But this is best seen in quicksilver, which is not in aptly called mineral water, for quicksilver, without bursting into flame, by mere eruption and expansion, almost equals the force of gunpowder, and is also said, when mixed with gunpowder, to increase its strength. Again, let the nature in question be the transitory nature of flame and its instantaneous extinction, for the nature of flame appears to have no fixed consistency here with us, to be every moment generated in every moment extinguished. For it is clear that in flames which continue and last, the continuance we see is not of the same individual flame, but is caused by a succession of new flame, regularly generated. Nor does the flame remain numerically identical, as is easily seen from this, that if the food or fuel of flame be taken away, the flame instantly goes out. With reference to this nature, the roads branch into two. Thus, the instantaneous nature proceeds either from a cessation of the cause which at first produced the flame, as in light, sound, and the motion called violent, or from this, that the flame, though able by its own nature to remain with us, suffers violence and is destroyed by the contrary natures that surround it. On this subject, therefore, we may take the following as an instance of the finger post. We see in large fires how high the flames ascend. For the broader the base of the flame, the higher is its vertex. Thus, extinction appears to commence at the sides, where the flame is compressed and troubled by the air. But the heart of the flame, which is not touched by the air, but surrounded by other flames on all sides, remains numerically identical, nor is it extinguished until gradually compressed by the surrounding air. Thus, all flame is in the form of a pyramid, being broader at the base where the fuel is, but sharp at the vertex where the air is antagonistic and fuel is wanting. But smoke is narrow at the base and grows broader as it ascends, like an inverted pyramid, the reason being that the air admits smoke and compresses flame. For let no one dream that lighted flame is air, when in fact their substance is quite heterogeneous. But we may have an instance of the finger post more nicely adapted to this purpose. If the thing can be made manifest with bi-colored lights, fix a lighted wax taper in a small middle stand. Place the stand in the middle of a bowl and pour round its spirit of wine, but not enough to reach the top of the stand. Then set fire to the spirit of wine. The spirit of wine will yield a bluish, the taper a yellow flame. Observe therefore whether the flame of the taper, which is easily distinguished by its color from the flame of the spirit of wine, since flames do not mix at once, as liquids do, remains in a conical or rather tends to a globular form. Now that there is nothing to destroy or compress it. If the latter is found to be the case, it may be set down as certain that flame remains numerically identical as long as it is enclosed with other flames and feels not the antagonistic action of the air. Let this suffice for instances of the finger post. I have dwelt on them at some length to the end that men may gradually learn and accustom themselves to judge of nature by instances of the finger post and experiments of light and not by probable reasonings. End of aphorism 36 of book two. Recording by Jeffrey Edwards. Aphorisms 37 to 40 of book two 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 Denin Heath. Aphorisms 37 to 40 of book two. 37. Among prerogative instances, I will put in the 15th place instances of divorce, which indicate the separation of natures of most familiar occurrence. They differ from the instances subjoined to the instances of companionship in that the latter indicate the separation of a nature from some concrete substance with which it is ordinarily in conjunction, while these instances indicate the separation of one nature from another. They differ from instances of the finger post in that they determine nothing, but simply notify the separability of one nature from another. Their use is to detect false forms and to dissipate slight theories suggested by what lies on the surface and so serve as ballast to the understanding. For example, let the natures investigated be those four natures which Telsius accounts as mismates and chamberfellows, namely heat, brightness, rarity, mobility or promptness to motion. We find, however, many instances of divorce between them, for air is rare and mobile, not hot or bright. The moon is bright without heat. Boiling water is hot without light. The motion of an iron needle on a pivot is quick and nimble, and yet the body is cold, dense and opaque, and there are many more of the kind. Again, let the natures investigated be corporeal nature and natural action. For it seems that natural action is not found except as subsisting in some body. Yet in this case also we shall perhaps be able to find some instances of divorce, such, for example, as magnetic action by which iron is drawn to the magnet, heavy bodies to the globe of the earth. There may also be added some other operations performed at a distance. For such action takes place both in time, occupying moments not a mere instant of time and in space, passing through degrees and distances. There is therefore some moment of time and some distance of space in which the virtue or action remains suspended between the two bodies which produce the motion. The question, therefore, is brought to this. Whether the bodies which are the limits of the motion dispose or alter the intermediate bodies so that by a succession of actual contacts the virtue passes from limit to limit. Meanwhile subsisting in the intermediate body or whether there is no such thing but only the bodies, the virtue and the distances. In rays of light, indeed, and sounds, and heat, and certain other things acting at a distance, it is probable that the intermediate bodies are disposed and altered, the more so because they require a medium qualified for carrying on the operation. But that magnetic or attractive virtue admits of media without distinction, nor is the virtue impeded in any kind of medium. And if the virtue or action has nothing to do with the intermediate body, it follows that there is a natural virtue or action subsisting for a certain time and in a certain space without a body, since it neither subsists in the limiting nor in the intermediate bodies. And, therefore, magnetic action may be an instance of divorce between corporeal nature and natural action, to which may be appended as a corollary or advantage not to be admitted that here is a proof furnished by merely human philosophy of the existence of essences and substances, separate from matter and incorporeal, for allow that natural virtue and action emanating from a body can exist for a certain time and in a certain space altogether without a body, and you are not far from allowing that it can also emanate originally from an incorporeal substance, for corporeal nature appears to be no less requisite for sustaining and conveying natural action than for exciting or generating it. 38. Now follow five classes of instances which under one general name I call instances of the lamp, or of first information. They are those which aid the senses, for since all interpretation of nature commences with the senses and leads from the perceptions of the senses by a straight, regular and guarded path to the perceptions of the understanding, which are true notions and axioms, it follows of necessity that the more copious and exact the representations of the senses, the more easily and prosperously will everything proceed. Of these five instances of the lamp, the first strengthen, enlarge, and rectify the immediate actions of the senses, the second make manifest things which are not directly perceptible by means of others which are. The third indicate the continued processes or series of those things and motions which are for the most part unobserved except in their end or periods. The fourth provide the sense with some substitute when it utterly fails. The fifth excite the attention and notice of the sense, and at the same time set bounds to the subtlety of things. Of these I shall now speak in their order. 39. Among prerogative instances I will put in the sixteenth place instances of the door or gate, this being the name I give to instances which aid the immediate actions of the senses. Now of all the senses it is manifest that sight has the chief office in giving information. This is the sense therefore for which we must chiefly endeavor to procure aid. Now the aids to sight are of three kinds, it may be enabled to perceive objects that are not visible, to perceive them further off, and to perceive them more exactly and distinctly. Of the first kind, not to speak of spectacles in the lake, which serve only to correct or relieve the infirmity of a defective vision and therefore give no more information, are those recently invented glasses which disclose the latent and invisible minutiae of bodies, and their hidden configurations and motions by greatly increasing their apparent size, instruments by the aid of which the exact shape and outline of body in a flea, a fly, a worm, and also colors and motions before unseen, are not without astonishment discerned. It is also said that a straight line drawn with a pen or pencil is seen through such glasses to be very uneven and crooked, the fact being that neither the motion of the hand, though aided by a ruler, nor the impression of the ink or color, is really even, although the unevenness is so minute that it cannot be detected without such glasses. And here, as is usual in things new and wonderful, a kind of superstitious observation has been added, viz, that glasses of this sort do honor to the works of nature, but dishonor to the works of art. The truth, however, is only this, the natural textures are far more subtle than artificial. For the microscope, the instrument I am speaking of, is only available for minute objects, so that if democracies had seen one, he would perhaps have leaped for joy. Thinking away was now discovered for discerning the atom, which he had declared to be altogether invisible. The incompetency, however, of such glasses, except for minutia alone, and even for them when existing in a body of considerable size, destroys the use of the invention. For if it could be extended to larger bodies, or to the minutia of larger bodies, so that the texture of a linen cloth could be seen like network, and thus the latent minutia and inequalities of gems, liquors, urine, blood, wounds, etc., could be distinguished, great advantages might doubtless be derived from the discovery. Of the other kind are those other glasses discovered by the memorable efforts of Galileo, by the aid of which, as by boats or vessels, a near intercourse with the heavenly bodies can be opened and carried on. For these show us that the Milky Way is a group or cluster of small stars entirely separate and distinct, of which fact there was but a bare suspicion among the ancients. They seem also to point out that the spaces of the planetary orbits, as they are called, are not altogether destitute of other stars, but that the heaven begins to be marked with stars before we come into the starry sphere itself, although with stars too small to be seen without these glasses. With this instrument we can describe those small stars wheeling as in a dance around the planet Jupiter, whence it may be conjectured that there are several centers of motion among the stars. With this the inequalities of light and shade in the moon are more distinctly seen and placed, so that a sort of selenography can be made. With this we describe spots on the sun and similar phenomena, all indeed noble discoveries, so far as we may safely trust to demonstrations of this kind, which I regard with suspicion, chiefly because the experiment stops with these few discoveries, and many other things equally worthy of investigation are not discovered by the same means. Of the third kind are measuring rods, astrolabes, and the like, which do not enlarge the sense of sight but rectify and direct it. And if there are other instances which aid the remaining senses in their immediate and individual actions and yet are of a kind which add nothing to the information already possessed, they are not to the present purpose, and therefore I have omitted to mention them. 40. Among prerogative instances I will put in the 17th place summoning instances, borrowing the name from the courts of law because they summon objects to appear which have not appeared before. I also call them evoking instances. They are those which reduce the nonsensible to the sensible, that is, make manifest things not directly perceptible by means of others which are. An object escapes the senses either on account of its distance or on account of the interposition of intermediate bodies or because it is not fitted for making an impression on the sense or because it is not sufficient in quantity to strike the sense or because there is not time enough for it to act on the sense or because the impression of the object is such as the sense cannot bear or because the sense has been previously filled and occupied by another object so that there is not room for a new motion. These cases have referenced principally to the site and secondarily to the touch. For these two senses give information at large and concerning objects in general, whereas the other three give hardly any information but what is immediate and relates to their proper objects. In the first kind, where an object is imperceptible by reason of its distance, there is no way of manifesting it to the senses but by joining to it or substituting for it some other object which may challenge and strike the sense from a greater distance as in communication by beacons, bells and the like. In the second kind, this reduction or secondary manifestation is effected when objects are concealed by the interposition of bodies within which they are enclosed and cannot conveniently be opened out or made manifest the sense by means of those parts of them which lie on the surface or make their way from the interior. Thus the condition of the human body is known by the state of the pulse, urine and the like. In the third and fourth kind, reductions are applicable to a great many things and in the investigations of nature should be sought for on all sides. For example, it is obvious that air and spirit and like bodies which in their entire substance are rare and subtle can neither be seen nor touched. Therefore, in the investigation of bodies of this kind it is altogether necessary to resort to reductions. Thus, let the nature in question be the action and motion of the spirit and closed intangible bodies. For everything tangible that we are acquainted with contains an invisible and intangible spirit which it wraps and clothes as with a garment. Hence that three-fold source, so potent and wonderful of the process of the spirit in a tangible body. For the spirit in a tangible substance, if discharged contracts bodies and dries them up. If detained, softens and melts them. If neither wholly discharged nor wholly detained gives them shape, produces limbs, assimilates, digests, ejects, organizes and the like. And all these processes are made manifest to the sense by conspicuous effects. For in every tangible inanimate body the enclosed spirit first multiplies itself and as it were feeds upon those tangible parts which are best disposed and prepared for that purpose and so digest and elaborates and turns them into spirit. And then they escape together. Now this elaboration in multiplication of the spirit is made manifest to the senses by the diminution of weight. For in all desiccation there is some decrease of quantity not only of the quantity of spirit previously existing in the body but also of the body itself which was before tangible and is newly changed. For spirit is without weight. Now the discharge or emission of the spirit is made manifest to the sense of metals and other similar putrifications which stop short before they come to the rudiments of life for these belong to the third kind of process. For in compact bodies the spirit finds no pores or passages through which to escape and is therefore compelled to push and drive before the tangible parts themselves so that they go along with it whence proceeds rust and the like. On the other hand the contraction of the tangible parts after some of the spirit is discharged upon which desiccation ensues and manifests to the sense not only by the increased hardness of the body but much more by the rents, contractions, wrinklings and shrivelings in the body which thereupon take place. For the parts of wood split asunder and are contracted skins shrivel and not only that but if the spirit is suddenly discharged by the heat of fire they hasten so fast to contraction as to curl and roll themselves up. On the contrary where the spirit is detained and analogous there too as happens in the more solid or tenacious bodies then our bodies softened as white hot iron or they become fluid as metals or liquid as gums wax and the like. Thus the contrary operations of heat which hardens some substances and melts others are easily reconciled since in the former the spirit is discharged in the latter it is excited and detained whereof the melting is the proper action of the heat and spirit the hardening is the action of parts only on occasion of the discharge of the spirit but when the spirit is neither wholly detained nor wholly discharged but only makes trials and experiments within its prison house and meets with tangible parts that are obedient and ready to follow so that where so ever the spirit leads they go along with it then ensues the forming of an organic body and the development of organic parts and all the other vital actions as well in vegetables as in animal as to the sense chiefly by careful observation of the first beginnings and rudiments or essays of life in animicule generated from putrefaction as in ansigs worms flies frogs after rain etc there is required however for the production of life both mildness in the heat and pliancy in the substance that the spirit may neither be so hurried as to break out nor be confined by the obstinacy of the parts again that most noble distinction of spirit which has so many applications biz spirit cut off spirit simply branching spirit at once branching and cellulite of which the first is the spirit of all inanimate substances the second of vegetables and the third of animals is brought as it were before the eyes by several instances of this kind of reduction in like manner it appears that the more subtle textures and configurations of things though the entire body be visible or tangible are perceptible neither to the sight nor touch therefore in these also our information comes by way of reduction now the most radical and primary difference between configurations is drawn from the abundance or scantiness of the matter occupying the same space or dimensions for all other configurations which have reference to the dissimilarity of the parts contained in the same body and to their collocation and position are but secondary in comparison with the former thus let the nature and question be the expansion or cohesion of matter in bodies compared one with another vis how much matter occupies how much space in each for there's nothing more true in nature than the twin propositions that nothing is produced from nothing and nothing is reduced to nothing but that the absolute quantum or some total of matter remains unchanged without increase or diminution nor is it less true that of that quantum of matter more or less is contained under the same space according to the diversity of bodies as in water more in air less so that to assert that a given volume of water can be changed into an equal volume of air is as much as to say that something can be reduced to nothing as on the other hand to maintain that a given volume of air can be turned into an equal volume of water is the same as to say that something can be produced out of nothing and it is from this abundance and scantiness of matter that the abstract notions of dense and rare though variously and promiscuously used are properly speaking derived we must also take for granted a third proposition which is also sufficiently certain is that this greater or less quantity of matter in this or that body is capable of being reduced by comparison to calculation and to exact or nearly exact proportions thus one would be justified in asserting that in any given volume of gold there is such an accumulation of matter that spirit of wine to make of an equal quantity of matter would require 21 times the space occupied by the gold now the accumulation of matter and its proportions are made manifest to the sense by means of weight for the weight answers to the quantity of matter in the parts of a tangible body whereas spirit and the quantum of matter which it contains cannot be computed by weight for it rather diminishes the weight than increases it but I have drawn up a very accurate table on this subject in which I have noted down the weights and volumes of all the metals the principal stones woods liquors oils and many other bodies natural as well as artificial a thing of great use in many ways as well for light of information as for direction and practice and one that discloses many things quite beyond expectation not the least important of which is this it shows that all the variety intangible bodies known to us such bodies I mean as are tolerably compact and not quite spongy and hollow and chiefly filled with air does not exceed the limit of the ratio of 1 to 21 so limited as nature or at any rate that part of it with which we have principally to do I've also thought it worthwhile to try whether the proportions can be calculated which intangible or pneumatic bodies bear to bodies tangible this I attempted by the following contrivance I took a glass of file capable of holding about an ounce using a small vessel that less heat might be required to produce evaporation this file I filled with the spirit of wine almost to the neck selecting spirit of wine because I found a former table that of all tangible bodies which are well united and not hollow this is the rarest and contains the least quantity of matter in a given space after that I noted exactly the weight of the spirit and file together I then took a bladder capable of holding about a quart from which I squeezed out as well as I could all the air until the two sides of the bladder meant the bladder I had previously rubbed over gently with oil to make it closer and having thus stopped up the pores if there were any parts of the file within the most of the bladder and tied the ladder tightly around the former with a thread smeared with wax in order that it might stick more closely and tie more firmly after this I set the file on a chafing dish of hot coals presently the steam or breath of the spirit of wine which was dilated and rendered pneumatic by the heat began gradually to expand the bladder and swelled it out on all sides like a sail when this took place I immediately took back with the cold at the same time making a hole in the bladder thus the steam should turn liquid again on the cessation of the heat and so disturbed the calculations I then removed the bladder and weighing the spirit of wine which remained computed how much had been converted into steam or air then comparing the space which the body had occupied while it was spirit of wine in the file with the space which it had afterward occupied when it had become pneumatic in the bladder it was required by the change a degree of expansion a hundred times greater than it had had before again let the nature in question be heat or cold in a degree too weak to be perceptible to the sense these are made manifest to the sense by a calendar glass such as I have described above for the heat and cold are not themselves perceptible to the touch but the heat expands the air and the cold contracts it nor again is this expansion and contraction but the expansion of the air depresses the water the contraction raises it and so at last is made manifest to the site not before nor otherwise again let the nature in question be the mixture of bodies is what they contain of water oil spirit ash salt and the like or to take a particular instance what quantity of butter curd so far as relates to tangible elements are made manifest to the sense by artificial and skilled separations but the nature of the spirit in them though not immediately perceived is yet discovered by the different motions and efforts of the tangible bodies in the very act and process of their separation and also by the accredit and corrosion by the different colors smells and tastes of the same bodies but not with much better success than in the other experiments which have been hitherto in use for they have but groped in the dark and gone by blind ways and with efforts painstaking rather than intelligent and what is worst of all without attempting to imitate or emulate nature but rather destroying by the use of violent heats and over strong powers all that more subtle configuration in which the occult virtues and sympathies of things chiefly reside nor do they remember or observe while making such separations the circumstances which I have elsewhere pointed out namely that when bodies are tormented by fire or other means many qualities are communicated by the fire itself and by the bodies employed to affect the separation which did not exist previously in the compound when strange fallacies have arisen for it must not be supposed that all the vapor which is discharged from the water by the action of the body of the water the fact being that the greatest part of it was created by the expansion of the water from the heat of the fire so in general all the nice tests of bodies whether natural or artificial by which the genuine are distinguished from the adulterated the better from the violet sort should be referred to this division for they make manifest to the sense things not directly perceptible by means of the motion of the body in which objects escape the sense it is obvious that the action of sense takes place in motion and that motion takes place in time if therefore the motion of any body be either so slow or so quick that it bears no proportion to the moments which the sense takes to act in the object is not perceived at all as in the motion of the hand the motion which is too slow to be perceived is easily and usually made manifest to the sense by means of aggregates of motion motion which is too quick has not hitherto been competently measured and yet the investigation of nature requires that this be done in some cases in the sixth kind where the sense is hindered by the two great power of the object the reduction by the interposition of a medium which will weaken without annihilating the object or by admitting and receiving the reflection of the object where the direct impression is too powerful as that of the sun for instance in a basin of water the seventh cause where the sense is so charged with one object that it has no room for the admission of another is almost wholly confined to the sense of smell and has little to do with the sense of a man or the modes of making manifest to the sense things not directly perceptible by means of others which are sometimes however the reduction is made not to the sense of a man but of some other animal who sense in some cases is keener than man's as of certain sense to the sense of a dog of the light which is latent and air is in the air itself a certain original light though faint and weak and hardly of any use to the eyes of men and most animals in as much as animals to whose sense this light is adapted see in the dark which it is hardly to be believed they do either without light or by light within observe also that at present I am dealing with the deficiencies of the senses and their remedies the deceptions of the senses must be referred to the particular and the objects of sense accepting only that grand deception of the senses in that they draw the lines of nature with reference to man and not with reference to the universe and this is not to be corrected except by reason and universal philosophy end of aphorisms 37 to 40 of book 2 recording by Jeffrey Edwards aphorisms 41 to 47 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 of book 2 to 47 of Book 2, 41. Among prerogative instances I will put in the eighteenth place instances of the road, which I also call traveling instances, and articulate instances. They are those which point out the motions of nature in their gradual progress. This class of instances escapes the observation rather than the sense, for it is strange how careless men are in this matter, for they study nature only by fits and at intervals, and when bodies are finished and completed, not while she is at work upon them. Yet, if anyone were desirous of examining and studying the contrivances and industry of an artificer, he would not be content with beholding merely the rude materials of the art and then the completed works, but would rather wish to be present while the artificer was at his labours and carrying his works on. And a like course should be taken with the investigation of nature. For instances, if we are inquiring into the vegetation of plants, we must begin from the very sowing of the seed, and observe, as we may easily do, by taking out day after day the seeds that have lain in the ground two days, three days, four days, and so on, and carefully examining them, how and when the seed begins to puff and swell and to be, as it were, filled with spirit. Secondly, how it begins to burst the skin and put forth fibers, at the same time raising itself slightly upwards, unless the ground be very stiff. Also, how it puts forth its fibers, some for the root downwards and some for the stem upwards, and sometimes also creeping sideways if it there finds the ground more open and yielding, and so with many other things of the kind. In the same way, we should examine the hatching of eggs, in which we might easily observe the whole process of vivification and organization, and see what parts proceed from the yolk, and what from the white of the egg, and so forth. A similar course should be taken with animals generated from putrefaction. For to prosecute such inquiries concerning perfect animals by cutting out the fetus from the womb would be too inhuman, except when opportunities are afforded by abortions, the chase and the like. There should therefore be set a sort of night watch over nature as showing herself better by night than by day, for these may be regarded as night studies by reason of the smallness of our candle and its continual burning. The same too should be attempted with inanimate substances, as I have done myself in investigating the expansion of liquids by fire, for there is one mode of expansion in water, another in wine, another in vinegar, another in verjuice, and quite another in milk and oil, as was easily to be seen by boiling them over a slow fire and in a glass vessel in which everything may be clearly distinguished. These matters, however, I touch but briefly, meaning to treat of them more fully and exactly when I come to the discovery of the latent process of things, for it should all along be borne in mind that in this place I am not handling the things themselves, but only giving examples. 42. Among prerogative instances, I will put in the 19th place supplementary or substitutive instances, which I also call instances of refuge. There are those which supply information when the senses entirely fail us, and therefore we fly to them when appropriate instances are not to be had. Now substitution is made in two ways, either by gradual approximation or by analogy. To take an example, there is no medium known by the interposition of which the operation of the magnet in drawing iron is entirely prevented. Gold placed between does not stop it, nor silver, nor stone, nor glass, wood, water, oil, cloth, or fiber substances, air, flame, etc. But yet, by nice tests, some medium may possibly be found to deaden its virtue more than any other, comparatively, that is, and in some degree. Thus it may be that the magnet would not attract iron as well through a mass of gold as through an equal space of air, or through ignited silver as well as through cold, and so in other cases, for I have not made the trial myself in these cases. It is enough to propose such experiments by way of example. Again, there is no body we are acquainted with which does not contract heat on being brought near the fire, and yet air contracts heat much more quickly than stone, such as the substitution which is made by gradual approximation. Substitution by analogy is doubtless useful, but is less certain, and should therefore be applied with some judgment. It is employed when things not directly perceptible are brought within reach of the sense, not by perceptible operations of the imperceptible body itself, but by observation of some cognate body which is perceptible. For example, suppose we are inquiring into the mixture of spirits which are invisible bodies. There seems to be a certain affinity between bodies and the matter that feeds or nourishes them. Now the food of flame seems to be oil and fat substances, of air, water, and watery substances, for flame multiplies itself over exhalations of oil, air over the vapor of water. We should therefore look to the mixture of water and oil which manifests itself to the sense since the mixture of air and flame escapes the sense. Now oil and water which are mingled together very imperfectly by composition or agitation are in herbs and blood and the parts of animals very subtly and finely mingled. It is possible therefore that something similar may be the case with the mixture of flame and air in pneumatic bodies which, though not readily mingling by simple co-mixture, yet seem to be mingled together in the spirits of plants and animals, especially as all animate spirit feeds on moist substances of both kinds, watery and fat, as its proper food. Again, if the inquiry be not into the more perfect mixtures of pneumatic bodies, but simply into their composition, that is, whether they be readily incorporated together, or whether there be not, rather, for example, certain winds and exhalations or other pneumatic bodies which do not mix with common air, but remain suspended and floating therein in globules and drops and are rather broken and crushed by the air than admitted into or incorporated with it, this is a thing which cannot be made manifest to the senses in common air and other pneumatic bodies by reason of their subtlety. Yet how far the thing may take place we may conceive by way of image or representation from what takes place in such liquids as quicksilver, oil or water, and likewise from the breaking up of air when it is dispersed in water and rises in little bubbles, and again in the thicker kinds of smoke, and lastly in dust raised and floating in the air, in all of which cases no incorporation takes place. Now the representation I have described is not a bad one for the matter in question, provided the diligent inquiry has been first made whether there can be such a heterogeneity in pneumatic bodies as we find there is in liquids, for if there can then these images by analogy may not inconveniently be substituted. But with regard to the supplementary instances, although I stated that information was to be derived from them in the absence of instances proper as a last resource, yet I wish it to be understood that they are also of great use even when proper instances are at hand, for the purpose I mean of corroborating the information which the others supply, but I shall treat of them more fully when I come in due course to speak of the supports of induction. 43. Among prerogative instances I will put in the 20th place dissecting instances, which I also call awakening instances, but for a different reason. I call them awakening because they awaken the understanding, dissecting because they dissect nature, for which reason also I sometimes call them democratian. They are those which remind the understanding of the wonderful and exquisite subtlety of nature, so as to stir it up and awaken it to our attention and observation and do investigation. Such, for example, as these following, that a little drop of ink spreads to so many letters or lines, that silver gilt stretches to such a length of gilt wire, that a tiny worm such as we find in the skin possesses in itself both spirit and a varied organization, that a little saffron tinges a whole oghog's head of water, that a little civet or musk sense a much larger volume of air, that a little incense raises such a cloud of smoke, that such exquisite differences of sounds as articulate words are carried in every direction through the air, and pierce even though considerably weakened through the holes and pores of wood and water, and are moreover echoed back, and that too with such distinctness and velocity, that light and color pass through the solid substance of glass and water so speedily, and in so wide an extent, and with such copious and exquisite variety of images, and are also refracted and reflected, that the magnet acts through bodies of all sorts, even the most compact, and yet, which is more strange, that in all these, passing as they do through an indifferent medium, such as the air is, the action of one does not much interfere with the action of another, that is to say, that at the same time, they are carried through spaces of air so many images of visible objects, so many impressions of articulate sound, so many distinct odors, as of a violet, rose, etc., moreover, heat and cold and magnetic influences, all, I say, at once without impeding one another, just as if they had their own roads and passages set apart, and none ever struck or ran against other. To these dissecting instances, it is useful, however, to subjoin instances which I call limits of dissection, as that in the cases above mentioned, though one action does not disturb or impede another action of a different kind, yet one action does overpower and extinguish another action of the same kind, as the light of the sun extinguishes that of a glowworm, the report of a cannon drowns the voice, a strong scent overpowers a more delicate one, an intense heat, a milder one, a plate of iron interposed between a magnet and another piece of iron destroys the action of the magnet, but this subject also will find its proper place among the supports of induction. 44. So much for instances which aid the senses, instances which are chiefly useful for the informative part of our subject. For information commences with the senses, but the whole business terminates in works, and as the former is the beginning, so the latter is the end of the matter. I will proceed therefore with the instances which are preeminently useful for the operative part. They are of two kinds and seven in number, though I call them all by the general name of practical instances. In the operative part there are two defects and two corresponding prerogatives of instances. For operation either fails us or it overtasks us. The chief cause of failure in operation, especially after natures have been diligently investigated, is the ill determination and measurement of the forces and actions of bodies. Now the forces and actions of bodies are circumscribed and measured, either by distance of space or by moments of time or by concentration of quantity or by predominance of virtue. And unless these four things have been well and carefully weighed, we shall have sciences fair perhaps in theory but in practice inefficient. The four instances which are useful in this point of view I class under one head as mathematical instances and instances of measurement. Operation comes to overtask us, either through the admixture of useless matters or through the multiplicity of instruments or through the bulk of the material and of the bodies that may happen to be required for any particular work. Those instances therefore ought to be valued which either direct practice to the objects most useful to mankind or which save instruments or which spare material and provision. The three instances which serve us here I class together as propitious or benevolent instances. These seven instances I will now discuss separately and with them conclude that division of my subject which relates to the prerogative or rank of instances. 45. Among prerogative instances I will put in the 21st place instances of the rod or rule which I also call instances of range or of limitation. For the powers and motions of things act and take effect at distances not indefinite or accidental but finite and fixed so that to ascertain and observe these distances in the investigation of the several natures is of the greatest advantage to practice not only to prevent its failure but also to extend and increase its power. For we are sometimes enabled to extend the range of powers and as it were to diminish distances as for instance by the use of telescopes. Most of these powers act and take effect only by manifest contact as in the impact of two bodies where the one does not move the other firm its place unless they touch each other. Also medicines that are applied externally as ointments or plasters do not exert their virtue without touching the body. Finally the objects of the taste and touch do not strike those senses unless they be contiguous to the organs. There are also powers which act at a distance though a very small one and of these only a few have been hitherto observed albeit there are many more than men suspect as to take common examples when amber or jet attracts straws. Bubbles dissolve bubbles on being brought together. Certain purgative medicines draw humours downward and the like. So two the magnetic power by which iron and a magnet or two magnets are made to meet operates within a fixed but narrow sphere of action but if there be any magnetic virtue flowing from the earth a little below the surface and acting on a steel needle in respect of its polarity the action operates at a great distance. Again if there be any magnetic power which operates by consent between the globe of the earth and heavy bodies or between the globe of the moon and the waters of the sea as seems highly probable in the semi menstrual ebbs and flows or between the starry sphere and the planets whereby the latter are attracted to their apogee's all these must operate at very great distances. There are found also certain materials which catch fire long way off as we are told the NAFTA of Babylon does. Heat also insinuates itself at great distances as also does cold in so much that by the inhabitants of Canada the masses of ice that break loose and float about the northern ocean and are born through the Atlantic toward the coast are perceived at a great distance by the cold they give out. Perfumes also though in these there appears to be always a certain corporeal discharge act at remarkable distances as those find who sail along the coast of Florida or some parts of Spain where there are whole woods of lemon and orange and like odoriferous trees or thickets of rosemary marjoram and the like. Lastly the radiations of light and impressions of sound operate at vast distances. But whether the distances at which these powers act be great or small it is certain that they are all finite and fixed in the nature of things so there is a certain limit never exceeded an element which depends either on mass or quantity of matter in the bodies acted on or on the strength or weakness of the powers acting or on the helps or hindrances presented by the media in which they act. All which things should be observed and brought to computation. Moreover the measurements of violent motions as they are called as of projectiles guns wheels and the like since these also have manifestly their fixed limits should be observed and computed. There are found also certain motions and virtues of a contrary nature to those which operate by contact and not at a distance namely those which operate at a distance and not by contact and again those which operate more feebly at a lesser distance and more powerfully at a greater. The act of sight for instance is not well performed to contact but requires a medium and a distance. Yet I remember being assured by a person of veracity that he himself under an operation for the cataract when a small silver needle was inserted within the first coat of the eye in order to remove the pellicle of the cataract and push it into a corner so most distinctly the needle passing over the very pupil but though this may be true it is manifest that large bodies are not well or distinctly seen except at the vertex of a cone the rays from the object converging at certain distances from it. Moreover old people see objects better at a little distance than if quite close. In projectiles too it is certain that the impact is not so violent at too small a distance as it is a little further off. These therefore and like things should be observed in the measurements of motions with regard to distances. There's also another kind of local measurement of motions which must not be emitted. This has to do with motions not progressive but spherical that is with the expansion of bodies into a greater sphere or their contraction into a less. For among our measurements of motion we must inquire what degree of compression or extension bodies according to their nature easily and freely endure and at what point they begin to resist till at last they will bear nor more. Thus when a blown bladder is compressed it allows a certain compression of the air but if the compression be increased the air does not endure it and the bladder bursts. But the same thing I have tested more accurately by a subtle experiment. I took a small bell of metal light and thin such as is used for holding salt and plunged it into a basin of water so that it carried down with it the air contained in its cavity to the bottom of the basin where I had previously placed a small globe on which the bell was to light. I found then that if a globe was small enough in proportion to the cavity the air contracted itself into less space and was simply squeezed together not squeezed out but if it was too large for the air to yield freely then the air impatient of greater pressure raised the bell on one side and rose to the surface in bubbles. Again to test the extension as well as compression of which air was susceptible I had recourse to the following device. I took a glass egg with a small hole at one end of it and having drawn out the air through the hole by violent suction I immediately stopped up the hole with my finger and plunged the egg into water and then took away my finger. The air having been extended by the suction and dilated beyond its natural dimensions and therefore struggling to contract itself again so that if the egg had not been plunged into the water it would have drawn in air with the hissing sound now drew in water in sufficient quantities to allow the air to recover its old sphere or dimension. Now it is certain that the rare bodies such as air allow a considerable degree of contraction as has been stated but the tangible bodies such as water suffer compression with much greater difficulty and to a lesser extent. How far they do suffer it I have investigated in the following experiment. I had a hollow globe of lead made capable of holding about two pints and sufficiently thick to bear considerable force. Having made a hole in it I filled it with water and then stopped up the hole with melted lead so that the globe became quite solid and then flattened two opposite sides of the globe with a heavy hammer by which the water was necessarily contracted into less space a sphere being the figure of largest capacity and when the hammering had no more effect in making the water shrink I made use of a mill or press till the water impatient of further pressure exuded through the solid lead like a fine dew. I then computed the space lost by the compression and concluded that this was the extent of compression which the water had suffered but only when constrained by grade violence. But the compression or extension endured by more solid dry or more compact bodies such as wood stones and metals is still less than this and scarcely perceptible for they free themselves either by breaking or by moving forward or by other efforts as is apparent in the bending of wood or metal in clocks moving by springs in projectiles hammerings and numberless other motions and all these things with their measures should in the investigation of nature be explored and set down either in their certitude or by estimate or by comparison as the case will admit 46 among prerogative instances I will put in the 22nd place instances of the course which I also call instances of the water borrowing the term from the hourglass of the ancients which contained water instead of sand these measure nature by periods of time as the instances of the rod by degrees of space for all motion or natural action is performed in time some more quickly some more slowly but all in periods determined and fixed in the nature of things even those actions which seem to be performed suddenly and as we say in the twinkling of an eye are found to admit of degree in respect to duration first then we see that the revolutions of heavenly bodies are accomplished in calculated times as also the flux and reflux of the sea the motion of heavy bodies to the earth and of light bodies toward the heavens it is accomplished in definite periods varying with the bodies moved in the medium through which they move the sailing of ships the movements of animals the transmission of missiles are all performed likewise in times which admit in the aggregate of measurement as for heat we see boys in winter time bathe their hands in flame without being burned and jugglers by nimble and equitable movements turn vessels full of wine or water upside down then up again without spilling the liquid and many other things of a similar kind the compressions also and expansions and eruptions of bodies are performed some more quickly and some more slowly according to the nature of the body and motion but in certain periods moreover in the explosion of several guns at once which are heard sometimes to the distance of 30 miles the sound is caught by those who are near the spot where the discharge is made sooner than by those who are at a greater distance even in sight where of the action is most rapid it appears that there are required certain moments of time for its accomplishment as is shown by those things which by reason of the velocity of their motion cannot be seen as when a ball is discharged from a musket for the ball flies past in less time than the image conveyed to the site requires to produce an impression this fact with others like it has at times suggested to me a strange doubt vis whether the face of a clear and starlit sky be seen at the instant at which it really exists and not a little later whether there be not as regards our site of heavenly bodies a real time and an apparent time just like the real place and apparent place which is taken account of by astronomers in the correction for parallaxes so incredible did it appear to me that the images or rays of heavenly bodies could be conveyed at once to the site through such an immense space and do not rather take a perceptible time in traveling to us but this suspicion as to any considerable interval between the real time and the apparent afterward vanished entirely when I came to think of the infinite loss and diminution of quantity which distance causes in appearance between the real body of the star and its seeing image and at the same time when I observe the great distance 60 miles at least at which bodies merely white are instantly seen here on earth while there is no doubt that the light of heavenly bodies exceeds many times over in force of radiation not merely the vivid color of whiteness but also the light of every flame that is known to us again the immense velocity in the body itself as discerned in its daily motion which has so astonished certain grave men that they preferred believing that the earth moved renders this motion of ejaculation of rays there from although wonderful as I have said in speed or easy of belief but what had most weight of all with me was that if any perceptible interval of time were interposed between the reality and the site it would follow that the images would oftentimes be intercepted and confused by clouds rising in the meanwhile and similar disturbances in the medium and thus much for the simple measures of time but not only must we seek the measure of motions and actions by themselves but much more in comparison for this is of excellent use and very general application now we find that the flash of a gun is seen sooner than its report is heard although the ball must necessarily strike the air before the flame behind it can get out this is owing it seems to the motion of light being more rapid than that of sound we find to the visible images are received by the site faster than they are dismissed thus the strings of a violin when struck by the finger are to appearance doubled or tripled because a new image is received before the old one is gone which is also the reason why rings being spun round look like globes and a lighted torch carried hastily at night seems to have a tail and it was upon this inequality of motions in point of velocity that Galileo built his theory of the flux and reflux of the sea supposing that the earth revolved faster than the water could follow and that the water therefore first gathered in a heap and then fell down as we see it do in a basin of water moved quickly but this he devised upon an assumption which cannot be allowed vis that the earth moves and also without being well informed as to the sex horary motion of the tide but an example of the thing I am treating of to it the comparative measures of motions and not only of the thing itself but also of its eminent use of which I spoke just now is conspicuous in mining with gunpowder or vast masses of earth buildings and the like are upset and thrown into the air by a very small quantity of powder the cause of which is doubtless this that the motion of expansion in the impelling powder is quicker many times over than the motion of the resisting gravity so that the first motion is over before the counter motion is begun and thus at first the resistance amounts to nothing hence too it happens that in projectiles it is not the strong blow but the sharp and quick that carries the body furthest nor would it be possible for the small quantity of animal spirit in animals especially in such huge creatures as the whaler elephant to bend and guide such a vast mass of body were it not for the velocity of the spirits motion and the slowness of the bodily mass in exerting its resistance this one thing indeed is a principal foundation of the experiments in natural magic of which I shall speak presently wherein a small mass of matter overcomes and regulates a far larger mass I mean the contriving that of two motions one by its superior velocity get the start and take effect before the other has time to act lastly this distinction of foremost and hindmost ought to be observed in every natural action thus in an infusion of rhubarb the purgative virtue is extracted first the astringent afterward and something of the kind I found on steeping violets in vinegar where the sweet and delicate scent of the flower is extracted first and then the more earthy part of the flower which marrs the scent therefore if violets be steeped in vinegar for a whole day the scent is extracted much more feebly but if you keep them in for a quarter of an hour only and then take them out and since the scented spirit in violets is small put in fresh violets every quarter of an hour as many as six times the infusion is at last so enriched that although there have not been violets in the vinegar however renewed for more than an hour and a half altogether there nevertheless remains in it a most grateful odor as strong as the violet itself for an entire year it should be observed however that the odor does not gather its full strength till after months from the time of infusion in the distillation two of aromatic herbs crushed in spirit of wine it appears that their first rises an aqueous and useless phlegm then a water containing more of the spirit of wine and lastly a water containing more of the aroma and of this kind there are to be found in distillations a great many facts worthy of notice but let these suffice for examples 47 among prerogative instances i will put in the 23rd place instances of quantity which borrowing a term for medicine i also call doses of nature these are they which measure virtues according to the quantity of the bodies in which they subsist and show how far the mode of the virtue depends upon the quantity of the body and first there are certain virtues which subsist only in a cosmical quantity that is such a quantity as has consent with the configuration and fabric of the universe the earth for instance stands fast its parts fall the waters in seas ebb and flow but not in rivers except through the sea coming up secondly almost all particular virtues act according to the greater or less quantity of the body large quantities of water corrupt slowly small ones quickly wine and beer ripen and become fit to drink much more quickly in bottles than in casks if an herb be steeped in a large quantity of liquid infusion takes place rather than impregnation if in a small impregnation rather than infusion thus in its effect on the human body a bath is one thing a slight sprinkling another like dues again never fall in the air but are dispersed and incorporated with it and in breathing on precious stones you may see the slight moisture instantly dissolve like a cloud scattered by the wind once more a piece of a magnet does not draw so much iron as the whole magnet on the other hand there are virtues in which smallness of quantity has more effect as in piercing a sharp point pierces more quickly than a blunt one a pointed diamond cuts glass and the like but we must not stay here among indefinites but proceed to inquire what proportion the quantity of a body bears to the mode of its virtue for it would be natural to believe that the one was equal to the other so that if a bullet of an ounce weight falls to the ground in a given time a bullet of two ounces ought to fall twice as quickly which is not the fact nor do the same proportions hold in all kinds of virtues but widely different these measures therefore must be sought from experiment and not from likelihood or conjecture lastly in all investigation of nature the quantity of body the dose as it were required to produce any effect must be set down and cautions as to the too little and too much be interspersed end of aphorisms 41 to 47 of book two recording by jeffrey edwards