| Latin | English |
|---|---|
| XXXVIII. | XXXVIII |
| Sequuntur quinque ordines instantiarum, quas uno vocabulo generali Instantias Lampadis sive Informationis Primae appellare consuevimus. Eae sunt quae auxiliantur sensui. Cum enim omnis interpretatio naturae incipiat a sensu, atque a sensuum perceptionibus recta, constanti, et munita via ducat ad perceptiones intellectus, quae sunt notiones verae et axiomata ; necesse est ut, quanto magis copiosae et exactae fuerint repraesentationes sive praebitiones ipsius sensus, tanto omnia cedant facilius et foelicius. Harum autem quinque instantiarum lampadis, primae roborant, ampliant, et rectificant actiones sensus immediatas ; secundae deducunt non-sensibile ad sensibile ; tertiae indicant processus continuatos sive series earum rerum et motuum quae (ut plurimum) non notantur nisi in exitu aut periodis ; quartae aliquid substituunt sensui in meris destitutionibus ; quintae excitant attentionem sensus et advertentiam, atque una limitant subtilitatem rerum. De his autem singulis jam dicendum est. | 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. |
| XXXIX. | XXXIX |
| Inter praerogativas instantiarum ponemus loco decimo sexto Instantias Januae sive Portae : eo enim nomine eas appellamus quae juvant actiones sensus immediatas. Inter sensus autem manifestum est partes primas tenere Visum, quoad informationem ; quare huic sensui praecipue auxilia conquirenda. Auxilia autem triplicia esse posse videntur : vel ut percipiat non visa ; vel ut majore intervallo ; vel ut exactius et distinctius. Primi generis sunt (missis bis-oculis et hujusmodi, quae valent tantum ad corrigendam et levandam infirmitatem visus non bene dispositi, atque ideo nihil amplius informant) ea quae nuper inventa sunt perspicilla ; quae latentes et invisibiles corporum minutias, et occultos schematismos et motus (aucta insigniter specierum magnitudine) demonstrant ; quorum vi, in pulice, musca, vermiculis, accurata corporis figura et lineamenta, necnon colores et motus prius non conspicui, non sine admiratione cernuntur. Quinetiam aiunt lineam rectam calamo vel penecillo descriptam, per hujusmodi perspicilla inaequalem admodum et tortuosam cerni : quia scilicet nec motus manus, licet per regulam adjutae, nec impressio atramenti aut coloris revera aequalia existant ; licet illae inaequalitates tam minutae sint ut sine adjumento hujusmodi perspicillorum conspici nequeant. Etiam superstitiosam quandam observationem in hac re (ut fit in rebus novis et miris) addiderunt homines : viz. quod hujusmodi perspicilla opera naturae illustrent, artis dehonestent. Illud vero nihil aliud est quam quod texturae naturales multo subtiliores sint quam artificiosae. Perspicillum enim illud ad minuta tantum valet : quale perspicillum si vidisset Democritus, exiluisset forte, et modum videndi atomum (quem ille invisibilem omnino affirmavit) inventum fuisse putasset. Verum incompetentia hujusmodi perspicillorum, praeterquam ad minutias tantum (neque ad ipsas quoque, si fuerint in corpore majusculo), usum rei destruit. Si enim inventum extendi posset ad corpora majora, aut corporum majorum minutias, adeo ut textura panni lintei conspici posset tanquam rete, atque hoc modo minutiae latentes et inaequalitates gemmarum, liquorum, urinarum, sanguinis, vulnerum, et multarum aliarum rerum, cerni possent, magnae proculdubio ex eo invento commoditates capi possent. Secundi generis sunt illa altera perspicilla quae memorabili conatu adinvenit Galilaeus ; quorum ope, tanquam per scaphas aut naviculas, aperiri et exerceri possint propiora cum coelestibus commercia. Hinc enim constat, galaxiam esse nodum sive coacervationem stellarum parvarum, plane numeratarum et distinctarum ; de qua re apud antiquos tantum suspicio fuit. Hinc demonstrari videtur, quod spatia orbium (quos vocant) planetarum non sint plane vacua aliis stellis, sed quod coelum incipiat stellescere antequam ad coelum ipsum stellatum ventum sit ; licet stellis minoribus quam ut sine perspicillis istis conspici possint. Hinc choreas illas stellarum parvarum circa planetam Jovis (unde conjici possit esse in motibus stellarum plura centra) intueri licet. Hinc inaequalitates luminosi et opaci in luna distinctius cernuntur et locantur ; adeo ut fieri possit quaedam seleno-graphia. Hinc maculae in sole, et id genus : omnia certe inventa nobilia, quatenus fides hujusmodi demonstrationibus tuto adhiberi possit. Quae nobis ob hoc maxime suspectae sunt, quod in istis paucis sistatur experimentum, neque alia complura investigatu aeque digna eadem ratione inventa sint. Tertii generis sunt bacilla illa ad terras mensurandas, astrolabia, et similia ; quae sensum videndi non ampliant, sed rectificant et dirigunt. Quod si sint aliae instantiae quae reliquos sensus juvent in ipsorum actionibus immediatis et individuis, tamen si ejusmodi sint quae informationi ipsi nihil addant plus quam jam habetur, ad id quod nunc agitur non faciunt. Itaque earum mentionem non fecimus. | 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 and the like, 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, that 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 Democritus had seen one, he would perhaps have leaped for joy, thinking a way was now discovered of discerning the atom, which he had declared to be altogether invisible. The incompetency however of such glasses, except for minutiae 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 minutiae of larger bodies, so that the texture of a linen cloth could be seen like network, and thus the latent minutiae and inequalities of gems, liquors, urine, blood, wounds, etc., could be distinguished, great advantages might doubtless be derived from the discovery. Of the second kind are those other glasses discovered by the memorable efforts of Galileo, by the aid of which, as by boats or vessels, a nearer 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 to the starry sphere itself, although with stars too small to be seen without these glasses. With this instrument we can descry those small stars wheeling as in a dance round 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 descry 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. |
| XL. | XL |
| Inter praerogativas instantiarum ponemus loco decimo septimo Instantias Citantes, sumpto vocabulo a foris civilibus, quia citant ea ut compareant quae prius non comparuerunt ; quas etiam Instantias Evocantes appellare consuevimus. Eae deducunt non-sensibile ad sensibile. Sensum autem fugiunt res, vel propter distantiam objecti locati ; vel propter interceptionem sensus per corpora media ; vel quia objectum non est habile ad impressionem in sensu faciendam ; vel quia deficit quantum in objecto pro feriendo sensu ; vel quia tempus non est proportionatum ad actuandum sensum ; vel quia objecti percussio non toleratur a sensu ; vel quia objectum ante implevit et possedit sensum, ut novo motui non sit locus. Atque haec praecipue ad visum pertinent, et deinde ad tactum. Nam hi duo sensus sunt informativi ad largum, atque de communibus objectis ; ubi reliqui tres non informent fere, nisi immediate et de propriis objectis. | Among Prerogative Instances I will put in the seventeenth 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 reference principally to the sight, 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. |
| 1. In primo genere non fit deductio ad sensibile, nisi rei, quae cerni non possit propter distantiam, adjiciatur aut substituatur alia res quae sensum magis e longinquo provocare et ferire possit : veluti in significatione rerum per ignes, campanas, et similia. | In the first kind, where an object is imperceptible by reason of its distance, there is no way of manifesting it to the sense 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. |
| 2. In secundo genere fit deductio, cum ea quae interius propter interpositionem corporum latent, nec commode aperiri possunt, per ea quae sunt in superficie, aut ab interioribus effluunt, perducuntur ad sensum : ut status humanorum corporum per pulsus, et urinas, et similia. | In the second kind, this reduction or secondary manifestation is effected when objects that are concealed by the interposition of bodies within which they are enclosed and cannot conveniently be opened out are made manifest to 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. |
| 3 and 4. At tertii et quarti generis deductiones ad plurima spectant, atque undique in rerum inquisitione sunt conquirendae. Hujus rei exempla sunt. Patet quod aer, et spiritus, et hujusmodi res quae sunt toto corpore tenues et subtiles, nec cerni nec tangi possint. Quare in inquisitione circa hujusmodi corpora deductionibus omnino est opus. Sit itaque natura inquisita Actio et Motus Spiritus qui includitur in corporibus tangibilibus. Omne enim tangibile apud nos continet spiritum invisibilem et intactilem, eique obducitur atque eum quasi vestit. Hinc fons triplex potens ille et mirabilis processus spiritus in corpore tangibili. Spiritus enim in re tangibili, emissus, corpora contrahit et desiccat ; detentus, corpora intenerat et colliquat ; nec prorsus emissus nec prorsus detentus, informat, membrificat, assimilat, egerit, organizat, et similia. Atque haec omnia deducuntur ad sensibile per effectus conspicuos. Etenim in omni corpore tangibili inanimato, spiritus inclusus primo multiplicat se, et tanquam depascit partes tangibiles eas quae sunt maxime ad hoc faciles et praeparatae, easque digerit et conficit et vertit in spiritum, et deinde una evolant. Atque haec confectio et multiplicatio spiritus deducitur ad sensum per diminutionem ponderis. In omni enim desiccatione, aliquid defluit de quanto ; neque id ipsum ex spiritu tantum praeinexistente, sed ex corpore quod prius fuit tangibile et noviter versum est : spiritus enim non ponderat. Egressus autem sive emissio spiritus deducitur ad sensibile in rubigine metallorum, et aliis putrefactionibus ejus generis quae sistunt se antequam pervenerint ad rudimenta vitae ; nam illae ad tertium genus processus pertinent. Etenim in corporibus magis compactis spiritus non invenit poros et meatus per quos evolet : itaque cogitur partes ipsas tangibiles protrudere et ante se agere, ita ut illae simul exeant ; atque inde fit rubigo, et similia. At contractio partium tangibilium, postquam aliquid de spiritu fuerit emissum (unde sequitur illa desiccatio), deducitur ad sensibile tum per ipsam duritiem rei auctam, tum multo magis per scissuras, angustiationes, corrugationes, et complicationes corporum, quae inde sequuntur. Etenim partes ligni desiliunt et angustiantur ; pelles currugantur ; neque id solum, sed (si subita fuerit emissio spiritus per calorem ignis) tantum properant ad contractionem ut se complicent et convolvant. At contra, ubi spiritus detinetur, et tamen dilatatur et excitatur per calorem aut ejus analoga (id quod fit in corporibus magis solidis aut tenacibus), tum vero corpora emolliuntur, ut ferrum candens ; fluunt, ut metalla ; liquefiunt, ut gummi, cera, et similia. Itaque contrariae illae operationes caloris (ut ex eo alia durescant, alia liquescant) facile conciliantur ; quia in illis spiritus emittitur, in his agitatur et detinetur : quorum posterius est actio propria caloris et spiritus ; prius, actio partium tangibilium tantum per occasionem spiritus emissi. Ast ubi spiritus nec detinetur prorsus nec prorsus emittitur, sed tantum inter claustra sua tentat et experitur, atque nacta est partes tangibiles obedientes et sequaces in promptu, ita ut quo spiritus agit eae simul sequantur ; tum vero sequitur efformatio in corpus organicum, et membrificatio, et reliquae actiones vitales, tam in vegetabilibus quam in animalibus. Atque haec maxime deducuntur ad sensum per notationes diligentes primorum incoeptuum et rudimentorum sive tentamentorum vitae in animalculis ex putrefactione natis : ut in ovis formicarum, vermibus, muscis, ranis post imbrem, etc. Requiritur autem ad vivificationem et lenitas caloris et lentor corporis ; ut spiritus nec per festinationem erumpat, nec per contumaciam partium coerceatur, quin potius ad cerae modum illas plicare et effingere possit. Rursus, differentia illa spiritus, maxime nobilis et ad plurima pertinens (viz. spiritus abscissi, ramosi simpliciter, ramosi simul et cellulati ; ex quibus prior est spiritus omnium corporum inanimatorum, secundus vegetabilium, tertius animalium), per plurimas instantias deductorias tanquam sub oculos ponitur. Similiter patet, quod subtiliores texturae et schematismi rerum (licet toto corpore visibilium aut tangibilium) nec cernantur nec tangantur. Quare in his quoque per deductionem procedit informatio. At differentia schematismorum maxime radicalis et primaria sumitur ex copia vel paucitate materiae quae subit idem spatium sive dimensum. Reliqui enim schematismi (qui referuntur ad dissimilaritates partium, quae in eodem corpore continentur, et collocationes ac posituras earundem) prae illo altero sunt secundarii. Sit itaque natura inquisita Expansio sive Coitio Materiae in corporibus respective : viz. quantum materiae impleat quantum dimensum in singulis. Etenim nil verius in natura quam propositio illa gemella, ex nihilo nihil fieri, neque quicquam in nihilum redigi : verum quantum ipsum materiae sive summam totalem constare, nec augeri aut minui. Nec illud minus verum, ex quanto illo materiae sub iisdem spatiis sive dimensionibus, pro diversitate corporum, plus et minus contineri : ut in aqua plus, in aere minus ; adeo ut si quis asserat aliquod contentum aquae in par contentum aeris verti posse, idem sit ac si dicat aliquid posse redigi in nihilum ; contra, si quis asserat aliquod contentum aeris in par contentum aquae verti posse, idem sit ac si dicat aliquid posse fieri ex nihilo. Atque ex copia ista et paucitate materiae notiones illae densi et rari, quae varie et promiscue accipiuntur, proprie abstrahuntur. Assumenda est et assertio illa tertia, etiam satis certa : quod hoc de quo loquimur plus et minus materiae in corpore hoc vel illo ad calculos (facta collatione) et proportiones exactas aut exactis propinquas reduci possit. Veluti si quis dicat inesse in dato contento auri talem coacervationem materiae, ut opus habeat spiritus vini, ad tale quantum materiae aequandum, spatio vicies et semel majore quam implet aurum, non erraverit. Coacervatio autem materiae et rationes ejus deducuntur ad sensibile per pondus. Pondus enim respondet copiae materiae, quoad partes rei tangibilis ; spiritus autem, et ejus quantum ex materia, non venit in computationem per pondus ; levat enim pondus potius quam gravat. At nos hujus rei tabulam fecimus satis accuratam ; in qua pondera et spatia singulorum metallorum, lapidum praecipuorum, lignorum, liquorum, oleorum, et plurimorum aliorum corporum tam naturalium quam artificialium, excepimus : rem polychrestam, tam ad lucem informationis quam ad normam operationis ; et quae multas res revelet omnino praeter expectatum. Neque illud pro minimo habendum est, quod demonstret omnem varietatem quae in corporibus tangibilibus nobis notis versatur (intelligimus autem corpora bene unita, nec plane spongiosa et cava et magna ex parte aere impleta) non ultra rationes partium 21 excedere : tam finita scilicet est natura, aut saltem illa pars ejus cujus usus ad nos maxime pertinet. Etiam diligentiae nostrae esse putavimus, experiri si forte capi possint rationes corporum non tangibilium sive pneumaticorum, respectu corporum tangibilium. Id quod tali molitione aggressi sumus. Phialam vitream accepimus, quae unciam fortasse unam capere possit ; parvitate vasis usi, ut minori cum calore posset fieri evaporatio sequens. Hanc phialam spiritu vini implevimus fere ad collum ; eligentes spiritum vini, quod per tabulam priorem eum esse ex corporibus tangibilibus (quae bene unita, nec cava sunt) rarissimum, et minimum continens materiae sub suo dimenso, observavimus. Deinde pondus aquae cum phiala ipsa exacte notavimus. Postea vesicam accepimus, quae circa duas pintas contineret. Ex ea aerem omnem, quoad fieri potuit, expressimus eo usque ut vesicae ambo latera essent contigua : etiam prius vesicam oleo oblevimus cum fricatione leni, quo vesica esset clausior : ejus, si qua erat, porositate oleo obturata. Hanc vesicam circa os phialae, ore phialae intra os vesicae recepto, fortiter ligavimus ; filo parum cerato, ut melius adhaeresceret arctius ligaret. Tum demum phialam supra carbones ardentes in foculo collocavimus. At paulo post vapor sive aura spiritus vini, per calorem dilatati et in pneumaticum versi, vesicam paulatim sufflavit, eamque universam veli instar undequaque extendit. Id postquam factum fuit, continuo vitrum ab igne removimus, et super tapetem posuimus ne frigore disrumperetur ; statim quoque in summitate vesicae foramen fecimus, ne vapor, cessante calore, in liquorem restitutus resideret, et rationes confunderet. Tum vero vesicam ipsam sustulimus, et rursus pondus excepimus spiritus vini qui remanebat. Inde quantum consumptum fuisset in vaporem seu pneumaticum computavimus : et facta collatione quantum locum sive spatium illud corpus implesset quando esset spiritus vini in phiala, et rursus quantum spatium impleverit postquam factum fuisset pneumaticum in vesica, rationes subduximus : ex quibus manifeste liquebat, corpus istud ita versum et mutatum expansionem centuplo majorem quam antea habuisset acquisivisse. Similiter sit natura inquisita Calor aut Frigus ; ejus nempe gradus, ut a sensu non percipiantur ob debilitatem. Haec deducuntur ad sensum per vitrum calendare, quale superius descripsimus. Calor enim et frigus, ipsa non percipiuntur ad tactum ; at calor aerem expandit, frigus contrahit. Neque rursus illa expansio et contractio aeris percipitur ad visum ; at aer ille expansus aquam deprimit, contractus attollit ; ac tum demum fit deductio ad visum, non ante, aut alias. Similiter sit natura inquisita Mistura Corporum : viz. quid habeant ex aqueo, quid ex oleoso, quid ex spiritu, quid ex cinere et salibus, et hujusmodi ; vel etiam (in particulari) quid habeat lac butyri, quid coaguli, quid seri, et hujusmodi. Haec deducuntur ad sensum per artificiosas et peritas separationes, quatenus ad tangibilia. At natura spiritus in ipsis, licet immediate non percipiatur, tamen deprehenditur per varios motus et nixus corporum tangibilium in ipso actu et processu separationis suae ; atque etiam per acrimonias, corrosiones, et diversos colores, odores, et sapores eorundem corporum post separationem. Atque in hac parte, per distillationes atque artificiosas separationes, strenue sane ab hominibus elaboratum est ; sed non multo foelicius quam in caeteris experimentis, quae adhuc in usu sunt : modis nimirum prorsus palpatoriis, et viis caecis, et magis operose quam intelligenter ; et (quod pessimum est) nulla cum imitatione aut aut aemulatione naturae, sed cum destructione (per calores vehementes aut virtutes nimis validas) omnis subtilioris schematismi, in quo occultae rerum virtutes et consensus praecipue sitae sunt. Neque illud etiam, quod alias monuimus, hominibus in mentem aut observationem venire solet in hujusmodi separationibus : hoc est, plurimas qualitates, in corporum vexationibus tam per ignem quam alios modos, indi ab ipso igne iisque corporibus quae ad separationem adhibentur, quae in composito prius non fuerunt ; unde mirae fallaciae. Neque enim scilicet vapor universus, qui ex aqua emittitur per ignem, vapor aut aer antea fuit in corpore aquae ; sed factus est maxima ex parte per dilatationem aquae ex calore ignis. Similiter in genere omnes exquisitae probationes corporum sive naturalium sive artificialium, per quas vera dignoscuntur ab adulterinis, meliora a vilioribus, huc referri debent : deducunt enim non-sensibile ad sensibile. Sunt itaque diligenti cura undique conquirendae. | 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 enclosed in tangible 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 digests and elaborates and turns them into spirit; and then they escape together. Now this elaboration and multiplication of the spirit is made manifest to the sense by 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 in the rust of metals and other similar putrefactions 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 it the tangible parts themselves, so that they go out along with it; whence proceed 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), is made manifest 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 yet expanded and excited by heat or something analogous thereto (as happens in the more solid or tenacious bodies), then are 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 the tangible 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 wheresoever 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 vegetable as in animal substances. And these operations are made manifest to the sense chiefly by careful observation of the first beginnings and rudiments or essays of life in animalculae generated from putrefaction, as in ants' eggs, 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, but may rather be able to mold and model them like wax. Again, that most noble distinction of spirit which has so many applications (viz., spirit cut off; spirit simply branching; spirit at once branching and cellulate of which the first is the spirit of all inanimate substances, the second of vegetables, 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. And 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 in question be the expansion or coition of matter in bodies compared one with another, viz., how much matter occupies how much space in each. For there is 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 sum 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 or dimensions 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, viz., 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 up an equal quantity of matter, would require twenty-one 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 in practice, and one that discloses many things quite beyond expectation. Not the least important of which is this it shows that all the variety in tangible 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 is nature, or at any rate that part of it with which we have principally to do. I have also thought it worth while 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 phial, capable of holding about an ounce, using a small vessel that less heat might be required to produce evaporation. This phial I filled with spirit of wine almost to the neck, selecting spirit of wine, because I found by the 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 phial 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 met. 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, I inserted the mouth of the phial within the mouth of the bladder, and tied the latter tightly round 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 phial 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 the glass off the fire, placing it on a carpet that it might not crack with the cold, at the same time making a hole in the bladder lest the steam should turn liquid again on the cessation of the heat and so disturb 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 phial with the space which it afterward occupied when it had become pneumatic in the bladder, I computed the results, which showed clearly that the body had acquired 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 of the air perceptible to the sight, but the expansion of the air depresses the water, the contraction raises it, and so at last is made manifest to the sight; not before, nor otherwise. Again, let the nature in question be the mixture of bodies, viz., what they contain of water, oil, spirit, ash, salt, and the like; or (to take a particular instance) what quantity of butter, curd, whey, etc., is contained in milk. These mixtures, so far as relates to tangible elements, are made manifest to the sense by artificial and skillful 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 acridities and corrosions, and by the different colors, smells, and tastes of the same bodies after separation. And in this department men have labored hard, it is true, with distillations and artificial separations, 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 overstrong 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 effect the separation which did not exist previously in the compound; whence strange fallacies have arisen. For it must not be supposed that all the vapor which is discharged from water by the action of fire was formerly vapor or air in 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 viler sort, should be referred to this division; for they make manifest to the sense things not directly perceptible by means of those which are. They should therefore be sought and collected from all quarters with diligent care. |
| 5. Quintum vero genus latitantiae quod attinet, manifestum est actionem sensus transigi in motu, motum in tempore. Si igitur motus alicujus corporis sit vel tam tardus, vel tam velox, ut non sit proportionatus ad momenta in quibus transigitur actio sensus, objectum omnino non percipitur ; ut in motu indicis horologii, et rursus in motu pilae sclopeti. Atque motus qui ob tarditatem non percipitur, facile et ordinario deducitur ad sensum per summas motus ; qui vero ob velocitatem, adhuc non bene mensurari consuevit ; sed tamen postulat inquisitio naturae ut hoc fiat in aliquibus. | With regard to the fifth way 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 of a clock and again in the motion of a musket ball. Now 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. |
| 6. Sextum autem genus, ubi impeditur sensus propter nobilitatem objecti, recipit deductionem, vel per elongationem majorem objecti a sensu ; vel per hebetationem objecti per interpositionem medii talis, quod objectum debilitet, non annihilet ; vel per admissionem et exceptionem objecti reflexi, ubi percussio directa sit nimis fortis, ut solis in pelvi aquae. | In the sixth kind, where the sense is hindered by the too great power of the object, the reduction may be effected either by removing the object to a greater distance from the sense; or by deadening its effects 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. |
| 7. Septimum autem genus latitantiae, ubi sensus ita oneratur objecto ut novae admissioni non sit locus, non habet fere locum nisi in olfactu et odoribus ; nec ad id quod agitur multum pertinet. Quare de deductionibus non-sensibilis ad sensibile, haec dicta sint. Quandoque tamen deductio fit non ad sensum hominis, sed ad sensum alicujus alterius animalis cujus sensus in aliquibus humanum excellet : ut nonnullorum odorum, ad sensum canis ; lucis, quae in aere non extrinsecus illuminato latenter existit, ad sensum felis, noctuae, et hujusmodi animalium quae cernunt noctu. Recte enim notavit Telesius, etiam in aere ipso inesse lucem quandam originalem, licet exilem et tenuem, et maxima ex parte oculis hominum aut plurimorum animalium non inservientem ; qui illa animalia, ad quorum sensum hujusmodi lux est proportionata, cernant noctu ; id quod vel sine luce fieri, vel per lucem internam, minus credibile est. Atque illud utique notandum est, de destitutionibus sensuum eorumque remediis hic nos tractare. Nam fallaciae sensuum ad proprias inquisitiones de sensu et sensibili remittendae sunt : excepta illa magna fallacia sensuum nimirum quod constituant lineas rerum ex analogia hominis, et non ex analogia universi ; quae non corrigitur nisi per rationem et philosophiam universalem. | 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 matter in hand. So much then for the reduction of the nonsensible to the sensible 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 whose sense in some cases is keener than man's; as of certain scents to the sense of a dog; of the light which is latent in air when not illumined from without to the sense of a cat, owl, and similar animals which see in the dark. For Telesius has justly observed that there 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; inasmuch 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 a 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 inquiries concerning sense and the objects of sense, excepting 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. |
| XLI. | XLI |
| Inter praerogativas instantiarum ponemus loco decimo octavo Instantias Viae, quas etiam Instantias Itinerantes et Instantias Articulatas appellare consuevimus. Eae sunt quae indicant naturae motus gradatim continuatos. Hoc autem genus instantiarum potius fugit observationem quam sensum. Mira enim est hominum circa hanc rem indiligentia. Contemplantur siquidem naturam tantummodo desultorie et per periodos, et postquam corpora fuerint absoluta ac completa, et non in operatione sua. Quod si artificis alicujus ingenia et industriam explorare et contemplari quis cuperet, is non tantum materias rudes artis atque deinde opera perfecta conspicere desideraret, sed potius praesens esse cum artifex operatur et opus suum promovet. Atque simile quiddam circa naturam faciendum est. Exempli gratia ; si quis de vegetatione plantarum inquirat, ei inspiciendum est ab ipsa satione seminis alicujus (id quod per extractionem, quasi singulis diebus, seminum quae per biduum, triduum, quatriduum, et sic deinceps, in terra manserunt, eorumque diligentem intuitum, facile fieri potest), quomodo et quando semen intumescere et turgere incipiat et veluti spiritu impleri ; deinde quomodo corticulam rumpere et emittere fibras, cum latione nonnulla sui interim sursum, nisi terra fuerit admodum contumax ; quomodo etiam emittat fibras, partim radicales deorsum, partim cauliculares sursum, aliquando serpendo per latera, si ex ea parte inveniat terram apertam et magis facilem ; et complura id genus. Similiter facere oportet circa exclusionem ovorum ; ubi facile conspici dabitur processus vivificandi et organizandi, et quid et quae partes fiant ex vitello, quid ex albumine ovi, et alia. Similis est ratio circa animalia ex putrefactione. Nam circa animalia perfecta et terrestria, per exectiones foetuum ex utero, minus humanum esset ista inquirere ; nisi forte per occasiones abortuum, et venationum, et similium. Omnino igitur vigilia quaedam servanda est circa naturam, ut quae melius se conspiciendam praebeat noctu quam interdiu. Istae enim contemplationes tanquam nocturnae censeri possint, ob lucernae parvitatem et perpetuationem. Quin et in inanimatis idem tentandum est ; id quod nos fecimus in inquirendis aperturis liquorum per ignem. Alius enim est modus aperturae in aqua, alius in vino, alius in aceto, alius in omphacio ; longe alius in lacte, et oleo, et caeteris. Id quod facile cernere erat per ebullitionem super ignem lenem, et in vase vitreo, ubi omnia cerni perspicue possint. Verum haec brevius perstringimus ; fusius et exactius de iis sermones habituri, cum ad inventionem latentis rerum processus ventum erit. Semper enim memoria tenendum est, nos hoc loco non res ipsas tractare, sed exempla tantum adducere. | 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 labors and carrying his work on. And a like course should be taken with the investigation of nature. For instance, 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. |
| XLII. | XLII |
| Inter praerogativas instantiarum ponemus loco decimo nono Instantias Supplementi, sive Substitutionis ; quas etiam Instantias Perfugii appellare consuevimus. Eae sunt, quae supplent informationem ubi sensus plane destituitur ; atque idcirco ad eas confugimus cum instantiae propriae haberi non possint. Dupliciter autem fit substitutio ; aut per Graduationem, aut per Analoga. Exempli gratia : non invenitur medium quod inhibeat prorsus operationem magnetis in movendo ferrum ; non aurum interpositum, non argentum, non lapis, non vitrum, lignum, aqua, oleum, pannus aut corpora fibrosa, aer, flamma, et caetera. Attamen per probationem exactam fortasse inveniri possit aliquod medium, quod hebetet virtutem ipsius plus quam aliquod aliud, comparative et in aliquo gradu : veluti quod non trahat magnes ferrum per tantam crassitiem auri quam per par spatium aeris ; aut per tantum argentum ignitum quam per frigidum ; et sic de similibus. Nam de his nos experimentum non fecimus ; sed sufficit tamen ut proponantur loco exempli. Similiter non invenitur hic apud nos corpus quod non suscipiat calidum igni approximatum. Attamen longe citius suscipit calorem aer quam lapis. Atque talis est substitutio quae fit per Gradus. Substitutio autem per Analoga, utilis sane, sed minus certa est ; atque idcirco cum judicio quodam adhibenda. Ea fit, cum deducitur non-sensibile ad sensum, non per operationes sensibiles ipsius corporis insensibilis, sed per contemplationem corporis alicujus cognati sensibilis. Exempli gratia : si inquiratur de Mistura Spirituum, qui sunt corpora non-visibilia, videtur esse cognatio quaedam inter corpora et fomites sive alimenta sua. Fomes autem flammae videtur esse oleum et pinguia ; aeris, aqua et aquea : flammae enim multiplicant se super halitus olei, aer super vapores aquae. Videndum itaque de mistura aquae et olei, quae se manifestat ad sensum ; quandoquidem mistura aeris et flammei generis fugiat sensum. At oleum et aqua inter se per compositionem aut agitationem imperfecte admodum miscentur : eadem in herbis, et sanguine, et partibus animalium, accurate et delicate miscentur. Itaque simile quiddam fieri possit circa misturam flammei et aerei generis in spiritalibus : quae per confusionem simplicem non bene sustinent misturam, eadem tamen in spiritibus plantarum et animalium misceri videntur ; praesertim cum omnis spiritus animatus depascat humida utraque, aquea et pinguia, tanquam fomites suos. Similiter si non de perfectioribus misturis spiritalium, sed de compositione tantum inquiratur ; nempe, utrum facile inter se incorporentur, an potius (exempli gratia) sint aliqui venti et exhalationes, aut alia corpora spiritalia, quae non miscentur cum aere communi, sed tantum haerent et natant in eo, in globulis et guttis, et potius franguntur ac comminuuntur ab aere quam in ipsum recipiuntur et incorporantur : hoc in aere communi et aliis spiritalibus, ob subtilitatem corporum, percipi ad sensum non potest ; attamen imago quaedam hujus rei, quatenus fiat, concipi possit in liquoribus argenti vivi, olei, aquae ; atque etiam in aere, et fractione ejus, quando dissipatur et ascendit in parvis portiunculis per aquam ; atque etiam in fumis crassioribus ; denique in pulvere excitato et haerente in aere ; in quibus omnibus non fit incorporatio. Atque repraesentatio praedicta in hoc subjecto non mala est, si illud primo diligenter inquisitum fuerit, utrum possit esse talis heterogenia inter spiritalia qualis invenitur inter liquida ; nam tum demum haec simulacra per Analogiam non incommode substituentur. Atque de instantiis istis supplementi, quod diximus informationem ab iis hauriendam esse, quando desint instantiae propriae, loco perfugii ; nihilominus intelligi volumus, quod illae etiam magni sint usus etiam cum propriae instantiae adsint ; ad roborandam scilicet informationem una cum propriis. Verum de his exactius dicemus quando ad Adminicula Inductionis tractanda sermo ordine dilabetur. | Among Prerogative Instances I will put in the nineteenth place Supplementary or Substitutive Instances, which I also call Instances of Refuge. They 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 fibrous 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 is 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 commixture, 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 that 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 these 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. |
| XLIII. | XLIII |
| Inter praerogativas instantiarum ponemus loco vicesimo Instantias Persecantes ; quas etiam Instantias Vellicantes appellare consuevimus, sed diversa ratione. Vellicantes enim eas appellamus, quia vellicant intellectum, persecantes, quia persecant naturam : unde etiam illas quandoque Instantias Democriti nominamus. Eae sunt, quae de admirabili et exquisita subtilitate naturae intellectum submonent, ut excitetur et expergiscatur ad attentionem et observationem et inquisitionem debitam. Exempli gratia : quod parum guttulae atramenti ad tot literas vel lineas extendatur ; quod argentum, exterius tantum inauratum, ad tantam longitudinem fili inaurati continuetur ; quod pusillus vermiculus, qualis in cute invenitur, habeat in se spiritum simul et figuram dissimilarem partium ; quod parum croci etiam dolium aquae colore inficiat ; quod parum zibethi aut aromatis longe majus contentum aeris odore ; quod exiguo suffitu tanta excitetur nubes fumi ; quod sonorum tam accuratae differentiae, quales sint voces articulatae, per aerem undequaque vehantur, atque per foramina et poros etiam ligni et aquae (licet admodum extenuatae) penetrent, quin etiam repercutiantur, idque tam distincte et velociter ; quod lux et color, etiam tanto ambitu et tam perniciter, per corpora solida vitri, aquae, et cum tanta et tam exquisita varietate imaginum permeent, etiam refringantur et reflectantur ; quod magnes per corpora omnigena, etiam maxime compacta, operetur : sed (quod magis mirum est) quod in his omnibus, in medio adiaphoro (quale est aer) unius actio aliam non magnopere impediat ; nempe quod eodem tempore per spatia aeris devehantur et visibilium tot imagines, et vocis articulatae tot percussiones, et tot odores specificati, ut violae, rosae ; etiam calor et frigus et virtutes magneticae ; omnia (inquam) simul, uno alterum non impediente, ac si singula haberent vias et meatus suos proprios separatos, neque unum in alterum impingeret aut incurreret. Solemus tamen utiliter hujusmodi instantiis persecantibus subjungere instantias, quas Metas Persecationis appellare consuevimus ; veluti quod in iis, quae diximus, una actio in diverso genere aliam non perturbet aut impediat, cum tamen in eodem genere una aliam domet et extinguat : veluti, lux solis, lucem cicindelae ; sonitus bombardae, vocem ; fortior odor, delicatiorem ; intensior calor, remissiorem ; lamina ferri interposita inter magnetem et aliud ferrum, operationem magnetis. Verum de his quoque inter Adminicula Inductionis erit proprius dicendi locus. | Among Prerogative Instances I will put in the twentieth 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 Democritean. 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 attention and observation and due 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 hogshead of water; that a little civet or musk scents 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 substances 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 there 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. |
| XLIV. | XLIV |
| Atque de instantiis quae juvant sensum, jam dictum est ; quae praecipui usus sunt ad Partem Informativam. Informatio enim incipit a sensu. At universum negotium desinit in Opera ; atque quemadmodum illud principium, ita hoc finis rei est. Sequentur itaque instantiae praecipui usus ad partem operativam. Eae genere duae sunt, numero septem ; quas universas, generali nomine, Instantias Practicas appellare consuevimus. Operativae autem partis, vitia duo ; totidemque dignitates instantiarum in genere. Aut enim fallit operatio, aut onerat nimis. Fallit operatio maxime (praesertim post diligentem naturarum inquisitionem) propter male determinatas et mensuratas corporum vires et actiones. Vires autem et actiones corporum circumscribuntur et mensurantur, aut per spatia loci, aut per momenta temporis, aut per unionem quanti, aut per praedominantiam virtutis ; quae quatuor nisi fuerint probe et diligenter pensitata, erunt fortasse scientiae speculatione quidem pulchrae, sed opere inactivae. Instantias vero quatuor itidem, quae huc referuntur, uno nomine Instantias Mathematicas vocamus, et Instantias Mensurae. Onerosa autem fit praxis, vel propter misturam rerum inutilium, vel propter multiplicationem instrumentorum, vel propter molem materiae et corporum quae ad aliquod opus requiri contigerint. Itaque eae instantiae in pretio esse debent, quae aut dirigunt operativam ad ea quae maxime hominum intersunt ; aut quae parcunt instrumentis ; aut quae parcunt materiae sive supellectili. Eas autem tres instantias quae huc pertinent, uno nomine Instantias Propitias sive Benevolas vocamus. Itaque de his septem instantiis jam sigillatim dicemus ; atque cum iis partem illam de Praerogativis sive Dignitatibus Instantiarum claudemus. | 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 pre-eminently 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 distances 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. |
| XLV. | XLV |
| Inter praerogativas instantiarum ponemus loco vicesimo primo Instantias Virgae, sive Radii ; quas etiam Instantias Perlationis, vel de Non Ultra appellare consuevimus. Virtutes enim rerum et motus operantur et expediuntur per spatia non indefinita aut fortuita, sed finita et certa ; quae ut in singulis naturis inquisitis teneantur et notentur plurimum interest practicae, non solum ad hoc, ut non fallat, sed etiam ut magis sit aucta et potens. Etenim interdum datur virtutes producere, et distantias tanquam retrahere in propius ; ut in perspecillis. Atque plurimae virtutes operantur et afficiunt tantum per tactum manifestum ; ut fit in percussione corporum, ubi alterum non summovet alterum, nisi impellens impulsum tangat. Etiam medicinae quae exterius applicantur, ut unguenta, emplastra, non exercent vires suas nisi per tactum corporis. Denique objecta sensuum tactus et gustus non feriunt nisi contigua organis. Sunt et aliae virtutes quae operantur ad distantiam, verum valde exiguam, quarum paucae adhuc notatae sunt, cum tamen plures sint quam homines suspicentur : ut (capiendo exempla ex vulgatis) cum succinum aut gagates trahunt paleas ; bullae approximatae solvunt bullas ; medicinae nonnullae purgativae eliciunt humores ex alto, et hujusmodi. At virtus illa magnetica per quam ferrum et magnes, vel magnetes invicem, coeunt, operatur intra orbem virtutis certum, sed parvum ; ubi contra, si sit aliqua virtus magnetica emanans ab ipsa terra (paulo nimirum interiore) super acum ferream, quatenus ad verticitatem, operatio fiat ad distantiam magnam. Rursus, si sit aliqua vis magnetica quae operetur per consensum inter globum terrae et ponderosa, aut inter globum lunae et aquas maris (quae maxime credibilis videtur in fluxibus et refluxibus semi-menstruis), aut inter coelum stellatum et planetas, per quam evocentur et attollantur ad sua apogaea ; haec omnia operantur ad distantias admodum longinquas. Inveniuntur et quaedam inflammationes sive conceptiones flammae, quae fiunt ad distantias bene magnas, in aliquibus materiis ; ut referunt de naphtha Babylonica. Calores etiam insinuant se per distantias amplas, quod etiam faciunt frigora ; adeo ut habitantibus circa Canadam moles sive massae glaciales, quae abrumpuntur et natant per oceanum septentrionalem et deferuntur per Atlanticum versus illas oras, percipiantur et incutiant frigora e longinquo. Odores quoque (licet in his videatur semper esse quaedam emissio corporea) operantur ad distantias notabiles ; ut evenire solet navigantibus juxta litora Floridae, aut etiam nonnulla Hispaniae, ubi sunt sylvae totae ex arboribus limonum, arantiorum, et hujusmodi plantarum odoratarum, aut frutices rorismarini, majoranae, et similium. Postremo radiationes lucis et impressiones sonorum operantur scilicet ad distantias spatiosas. Verum haec omnia, utcunque operentur ad distantias parvas sive magnas, operantur certe ad finitas et naturae notas, ut sit quiddam Non Ultra : idque pro rationibus, aut molis seu quanti corporum ; aut vigoris et debilitatis virtutum ; aut favoribus et impedimentis mediorum ; quae omnia in computationem venire et notari debent. Quinetiam mensurae motuum violentorum (quos vocant), ut missilium, tormentorum, rotarum, et similium, cum hae quoque manifesto suos habeant limites certos, notandae sunt. Inveniuntur etiam quidam motus et virtutes contrariae illis, quae operantur per tactum et non ad distans ; quae operantur scilicet ad distans et non ad tactum ; et rursus, quae operantur remissius ad distantiam minorem et fortius ad distantiam majorem. Etenim visio non bene transigitur ad tactum, sed indiget medio et distantia. Licet meminerim me audisse ex relatione cujusdam fide digni, quod ipse in curandis oculorum suorum cataractis (erat autem cura talis, ut immitteretur festuca quaedam parva argentea intra primam oculi tunicam, quae pelliculam illam cataractae removeret et truderet in angulum oculi) clarissime vidisset festucam illam supra ipsam pupillam moventem. Quod utcunque verum esse possit, manifestum est majora corpora non bene aut distincte cerni nisi in cuspide coni, coeuntibus radiis objecti ad nonnullam distantiam. Quin etiam in senibus oculus melius cernit remoto objecto paulo longius, quam propius. In missilibus autem certum est percussionem non fieri tam fortem ad distantiam nimis parvam, quam paulo post. Haec itaque et similia in mensuris motuum quoad distantias notanda sunt. Est et aliud genus mensurae localis motuum, quod non praetermittendum est. Illud vero pertinet ad motus non progressivos, sed sphaericos ; hoc est, ad expansionem corporum in majorem sphaeram, aut contractionem in minorem. Inquirendum enim est inter mensuras istas motuum, quantam compressionem aut extensionem corpora (pro natura ipsorum) facile et libenter patiantur, et ad quem terminum reluctari incipiant, adeo ut ad extremum Non Ultra ferant ; ut cum vesica inflata comprimitur, sustinet illa compressionem nonnullam aeris, sed si major fuerit, non patitur aer, sed rumpitur vesica. At nos hoc ipsum subtiliore experimento magis exacte probavimus. Accepimus enim campanulam ex metallo, leviorem scilicet et tenuiorem, quali ad excipiendum salem utimur ; eamque in pelvim aquae immisimus, ita ut deportaret secum aerem qui continebatur in concavo usque ad fundum pelvis. Locaveramus autem prius globulum in fundo pelvis, super quem campanula imponenda esset. Quare illud eveniebat, ut si globulus ille esset minusculus (pro ratione concavi), reciperet se aer in locum minorem, et contruderetur solum, non extruderetur. Quod si grandioris esset magnitudinis quam ut aer libenter cederet, tum aer majoris pressurae impatiens campanulam ex aliqua parte elevabat, et in bullis ascendebat. Etiam ad probandum qualem extensionem (non minus quam compressionem) pateretur aer, tale quippiam practicavimus. Ovum vitreum accepimus, cum parvo foramine in uno extremo ovi. Aerem per foramen exuctione forti attraximus, et statim digito foramen illud obturavimus, et ovum in aquam immersimus, et dein digitum removimus. Aer vero tensura illa per exuctionem facta tortus et magis quam pro natura sua dilatatus, ideoque se recipere et contrahere nitens (ita ut si ovum illud in aquam non fuisset immersum, aerem ipsum traxisset cum sibilo), aquam traxit ad tale quantum quale sufficere posset ad hoc, ut aer antiquam recuperaret sphaeram sive dimensionem. Atque certum est corpora tenuiora (quale est aer) pati contractionem nonnullam notabilem, ut dictum est ; at corpora tangibilia (quale est aqua) multo aegrius et ad minus spatium patiuntur compressionem. Qualem autem patiatur, tali experimento inquisivimus. Fieri fecimus globum ex plumbo cavum, qui duas circiter pintas vinarias contineret ; eumque satis per latera crassum, ut majorem vim sustineret. In illum aquam immisimus, per foramen alicubi factum ; atque foramen illud, postquam globus aqua impletus fuisset, plumbo liquefacto obturavimus, ut globus deveniret plane consolidatus. Dein globum forti malleo ad duo latera adversa complanavimus ; ex quo necesse fuit aquam in minus contrahi, cum sphaera figurarum sit capacissima. Deinde, cum malleatio non amplius sufficeret, aegrius se recipiente aqua, molendino seu torculari usi sumus ; ut tandem aqua, impatiens pressurae ulterioris, per solida plumbi (instar roris delicati) exstillaret. Postea, quantum spatii per eam compressionem imminutum foret computavimus ; atque tantam compressionem passam esse aquam (sed violentia magna subactam) intelleximus. At solidiora, sicca, aut magis compacta, qualia sunt lapides et ligna, necnon metalla, multo adhuc minorem compressionem aut extensionem, et fere imperceptibilem ferunt ; sed vel fractione, vel progressione, vel aliis pertentationibus se liberant : ut in curvationibus ligni aut metalli, horologiis moventibus per complicationem laminae, missilibus, malleationibus, et innumeris aliis motibus apparet. Atque haec omnia cum mensuris suis in indagatione naturae notanda et exploranda sunt, aut in certitudine sua, aut per aestimativas, aut per comparativas, prout dabitur copia. | Among Prerogative Instances I will put in the twenty-first 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 from its place unless they touch each other. Also medicines that are applied externally, as ointments or plasters, do not exert their virtues 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 humors downward, and the like. So, too, 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 semimenstrual ebbs and floods), or between the starry sphere and the planets whereby the latter are attracted to their apogees, all these must operate at very great distances. There are found also certain materials which catch fire a long way off, as we are told the naphtha of Babylon does. Heat also insinuates itself at great distances, as also does cold; insomuch that by the inhabitants of Canada the masses of ice that break loose and float about the northern ocean and are borne through the Atlantic toward that 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 coasts 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 that there is a certain limit never exceeded, and a limit which depends either on the 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 in 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, saw 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 a certain distance 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 is also another kind of local measurement of motions which must not be omitted. 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 motions 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 no 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 this 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 the globe was small enough in proportion to the cavity, the air contracted itself into a 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 a 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 rarer bodies (such as air) allow a considerable degree of contraction, as has been stated, but that 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. I 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 great 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. |
| XLVI. | XLVI |
| Inter praerogativas instantiarum ponemus loco vicesimo secundo Instantias Curriculi, quas etiam Instantias ad Aquam appellare consuevimus ; sumpto vocabulo a clepsydris apud antiquos, in quas infundebatur aqua, loco arenae. Eae mensurant naturam per momenta temporis, quemadmodum Instantiae Virgae per gradus spatii. Omnis enim motus sive actio naturalis transigitur in tempore ; alius velocius, alius tardius, sed utcunque momentis certis et naturae notis. Etiam illae actiones quae subito videntur operari, et in ictu oculi (ut loquimur), deprehenduntur recipere majus et minus quoad tempus. Primo itaque videmus restitutiones corporum coelestium fieri per tempora numerata ; etiam fluxus et refluxus maris. Latio autem gravium versus terram et levium versus ambitum coeli fit per certa momenta, pro ratione corporis quod fertur, et medii. At velificationes navium, motus animalium, perlationes missilium, omnes fiunt itidem per tempora (quantum ad summas) numerabilia. Calorem vero quod attinet, videmus pueros per hyemem manus in flamma lavare, nec tamen uri ; et joculatores vasa plena vino vel aqua, per motus agiles et aequales, vertere deorsum et sursum recuperare, non effuso liquore ; et multa hujusmodi. Nec minus ipsae compressiones et dilatationes et eruptiones corporum fiunt, aliae velocius, aliae tardius, pro natura corporis et motus, sed per momenta certa. Quinetiam in explosione plurium bombardarum simul, quae exaudiuntur quandoque ad distantiam triginta milliarium, percipitur sonus prius ab iis qui prope absunt a loco ubi fit sonitus, quam ab iis qui longe. At in visu (cujus actio est pernicissima) liquet etiam requiri ad eum actuandum momenta certa temporis : idque probatur ex iis quae propter motus velocitatem non cernuntur ; ut ex latione pilae ex sclopeto. Velocior enim est praetervolatio pilae quam impressio speciei ejus quae deferri poterat ad visum. Atque hoc, cum similibus, nobis quandoque dubitationem peperit plane monstrosam : videlicet, utrum coeli sereni et stellati facies ad idem tempus cernatur quando vere existit, an potius aliquanto post ; et utrum non sit (quatenus ad visum coelestium) non minus tempus verum et tempus visum, quam locus verus et locus visus, qui notatur ab astronomis in parallaxibus. Adeo incredibile nobis videbatur, species sive radios corporum coelestium per tam immensa spatia milliarium subito deferri posse ad visum ; sed potius debere eas in tempore aliquo notabili delabi. Verum illa dubitatio (quoad majus aliquod intervallum temporis inter tempus verum et visum) postea plane evanuit : reputantibus nobis jacturam illam infinitam et diminutionem quanti, quatenus ad apparentiam, inter corpus stellae verum et speciem visam, quae causatur a distantia ; atque simul notantibus ad quantam distantiam (sexaginta scilicet ad minimum milliariorum) corpora, eaque tantum albicantia, subito hic apud nos cernantur ; cum dubium non sit lucem coelestium, non tantum albedinis vividum colorem, verum etiam omnis flammae (quae apud nos nota est) lucem, quoad vigorem radiationis, multis partibus excedere. Etiam immensa illa velocitas in ipso corpore, quae cernitur in motu diurno (quae etiam viros graves ita obstupefecit ut mallent credere motum terrae), facit motum illum ejaculationis radiorum ab ipsis (licet celeritate, ut diximus, mirabilem) magis credibilem. Maxime vero omnium nos movit, quod si interponeretur intervallum temporis aliquod notabile inter veritatem et visum, foret ut species per nubes interim orientes et similes medii perturbationes interciperentur saepenumero, et confunderentur. Atque de mensuris temporum simplicibus haec dicta sint. Verum non solum quaerenda est mensura motuum et actionum simpliciter, sed multo magis comparative : id enim eximii est usus, et ad plurima spectat. Atque videmus flammam alicujus tormenti ignei citius cerni, quam sonitus audiatur ; licet necesse sit pilam prius aerem percutere, quam flamma quae pone erat exire potuerit ; fieri hoc autem propter velociorem transactionem motus lucis, quam soni. Videmus etiam species visibiles a visu citius excipi quam dimitti ; unde fit quod nervi fidium, digito impulsi, duplicentur aut triplicentur quoad speciem, quia species nova recipitur, antequam prior demittatur ; ex quo etiam fit, ut annuli rotati videantur globosi, et fax ardens, noctu velociter portata, conspiciatur caudata. Etiam ex hoc fundamento inaequalitatis motuum quoad velocitatem, excogitavit Galilaeus causam fluxus et refluxus maris ; rotante terra velocius, aquis tardius ; ideoque accumulantibus se aquis in sursum, et deinde per vices se remittentibus in deorsum, ut demonstratur in vase aquae incitatius movente. Sed hoc commentus est concesso non concessibili (quod terra nempe moveatur), ac etiam non bene informatus de oceani motu sexhorario. At exemplum hujus rei de qua agitur, videlicet, de comparativis mensuris motuum, neque solum rei ipsius, sed et usus insignis ejus (de quo paulo ante loquuti sumus), eminet in cuniculis subterraneis, in quibus collocatur pulvis pyrius ; ubi immensae moles terrae, aedificiorum, et similium, subvertuntur, et in altum jaciuntur, a pusilla quantitate pulveris pyrii. Cujus causa pro certo illa est, quod motus dilatationis pulveris, qui impellit, multis partibus sit pernicior, quam motus gravitatis per quem fieri possit aliqua resistentia ; adeo ut primus motus perfunctus sit, antequam motus adversus inceperit ; ut in principiis nullitas quaedam sit resistentiae. Hinc etiam fit, quod in omni missili, ictus, non tam robustus quam acutus et celer, ad perlationem potissimum valeat. Neque etiam fieri potuisset, ut parva quantitas spiritus animalis in animalibus, praesertim in tam vastis corporibus qualia sunt balaenae aut elephanti, tantam molem corpoream flecteret et regeret, nisi propter velocitatem motus spiritus, et hebetudinem corporeae molis, quatenus ad expediendam suam resistentiam. Denique, hoc unum ex praecipuis fundamentis est experimentorum magicorum, de quibus mox dicemus ; ubi scilicet parva moles materiae longe majorem superat et in ordinem redigit : hoc, inquam, si fieri possit anteversio motuum per velocitatem unius, antequam alter se expediat. Postremo, hoc ipsum Prius et Posterius in omni actione naturali notari debet ; veluti quod in infusione rhabarbari eliciatur purgativa vis prius, astrictiva post ; simile quiddam etiam in infusione violarum in acetum experti sumus ; ubi primo excipitur suavis et delicatus floris odor ; post, pars floris magis terrea, quae odorem confundit. Itaque si infundantur violae per diem integrum, odor multo languidius excipitur : quod si infundantur per partem quartam horae tantum, et extrahantur ; et (quia paucus est spiritus odoratus qui subsistit in viola) infundantur post singulas quartas horae violae novae et recentes ad sexies ; tum demum nobilitatur infusio, ita ut licet non manserint violae, utcunque renovatae, plus quam ad sesquihoram, tamen permanserit odor gratissimus, et viola ipsa non inferior, ad annum integrum. Notandum tamen est, quod non se colligat odor ad vires suas plenas, nisi post mensem ab infusione. In distillationibus vero aromatum maceratorum in spiritu vini patet quod surgat primo phlegma aqueum et inutile, deinde aqua plus habens ex spiritu vini, deinde post aqua plus habens ex aromate. Atque hujus generis quamplurima inveniuntur in distillationibus notatu digna. Verum haec sufficiant ad exempla. | Among Prerogative Instances I will put in the twenty-second place Instances of the Course, which I also call Instances of the Water, borrowing the term from the hourglasses 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, is accomplished in definite periods, varying with the bodies moved and 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 wintertime bathe their hands in flame without being burned, and jugglers by nimble and equable movements turn vessels full of wine or water upside down and 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, 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 thirty 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, whereof 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 sight requires to produce an impression. This fact, with others like it, has at times suggested to me a strange doubt, viz., whether the face of a clear and starlit sky be seen at the instant at which it really exists, and not a little later; and whether there be not, as regards our sight 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 sight through such an immense space and did 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 seen image; and at the same time when I observed the great distance (sixty miles at the 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 therefrom (although wonderful, as I have said, in speed) more 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 sight, 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. And this is owing, it seems, to the motion of light being more rapid than that of sound. We find, too, that visible images are received by the sight 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, viz., that the earth moves, and also without being well informed as to the sexhorary motion of the tide. But an example of the thing I am treating of, to wit, 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 where 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 countermotion 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 whale or elephant, to bend and guide such a vast mass of body were it not for the velocity of the spirit's 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 shall 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 have 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 mars 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 a month from the time of infusion. In the distillation too of aromatic herbs crushed in spirit of wine, it appears that there 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. |
| XLVII. | XLVII |
| Inter praerogativas instantiarum ponemus loco vicesimo tertio Instantias Quanti, quas etiam Doses Naturae (sumpto vocabulo a Medicinis) vocare consuevimus. Eae sunt quae mensurant virtutes per Quanta corporum, et indicant quid Quantum Corporis faciat ad Modum Virtutis. Ac primo sunt quaedam virtutes quae non subsistunt nisi in quanto cosmico, hoc est, tali quanto quod habeat consensum cum configuratione et fabrica universi. Terra enim stat ; partes ejus cadunt. Aquae in maribus fluunt et refluunt ; in fluviis minime, nisi per ingressum maris. Deinde etiam omnes fere virtutes particulares secundum multum aut parvum corporis operantur. Aquae largae non facile corrumpuntur ; exiguae cito. Mustum et cervisia maturescunt longe citius, et fiunt potabilia, in utribus parvis, quam in doliis magnis. Si herba ponatur in majore portione liquoris, fit infusio, magis quam imbibitio ; si in minore, fit imbibitio, magis quam infusio. Aliud igitur erga corpus humanum est balneum, aliud levis irroratio. Etiam parvi rores in aere nunquam cadunt, sed dissipantur et cum aere incorporantur. Et videre est in anhelitu super gemmas, parum illud humoris, quasi nubeculam vento dissipatam, continuo solvi. Etiam frustum ejusdem magnetis non trahit tantum ferri, quantum magnes integer. Sunt etiam virtutes in quibus parvitas quanti magis potest ; ut in penetrationibus, stylus acutus citius penetrat, quam obtusus ; adamas punctuatus sculpit in vitro ; et similia. Verum non hic morandum est in indefinitis, sed etiam de rationibus quanti corporis erga modum virtutis inquirendum. Proclive enim foret credere, quod rationes quanti rationes virtutis adaequarent ; ut si pila plumbea unius unciae caderet in tali tempore, pila unciarum duarum deberet cadere duplo celerius, quod falsissimum est. Nec eaedem rationes in omni genere virtutum valent, sed longe diversae. Itaque hae mensurae ex rebus ipsis petendae sunt, et non ex verisimilitudine aut conjecturis. Denique in omni inquisitione naturae Quantum corporis requiratur ad aliquod effectum, tanquam dosis, notandum ; et cautiones de Nimis et Parum aspergendae. | Among Prerogative Instances I will put in the twenty-third place Instances of Quantity, which (borrowing a term from 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. Light dews, 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 dissolved, 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. |
| XLVIII. | XLVIII |
| Inter praerogativas instantiarum ponemus loco vicesimo quarto Instantias Luctae ; quas etiam Instantias Praedominantiae appellare consuevimus. Eae indicant praedominantiam et cessionem virtutum ad invicem ; et quae ex illis sit fortior et vincat, quae infirmior et succumbat. Sunt enim motus et nixus corporum compositi, decompositi, et complicati, non minus quam corpora ipsa. Proponemus igitur primum species praecipuas motuum sive virtutum activarum ; ut magis perspicua sit ipsarum comparatio in robore, et exinde demonstratio atque designatio instantiarum luctae et praedominantiae. | Among Prerogative Instances I will put in the twenty-fourth place Instances of Strife, which I also call Instances of Predominance. These indicate the mutual predominance and subjection of virtues: which of them is stronger and prevails, which of them is weaker and gives way. For the motions and efforts of bodies are compounded, decomposed, and complicated, no less than the bodies themselves. I will therefore first propound the principal kinds of motions or active virtues in order that we may be able more clearly to compare them together in point of strength, and thereby to point out and designate more clearly the instances of strife and predominance. |
| 1. Motus Primus sit Motus Antitypiae materiae, quae inest in singulis portionibus ejus ; per quem plane annihilari non vult : ita ut nullum incendium, nullum pondus aut depressio, nulla violentia, nulla denique aetas aut diuturnitas temporis possit redigere aliquam vel minimam portionem materiae in nihilum ; quin illa et sit aliquid, et loci aliquid occupet, et se (in qualicunque necessitate ponatur), vel formam mutando vel locum, liberet, vel (si non detur copia) ut est subsistat ; neque unquam res eo deveniat, ut aut nihil sit, aut nullibi. Quem motum Schola (quae semper fere et denominat et definit res potius per effectus et incommoda quam per causas interiores) vel denotat per illud axioma, quod Duo corpora non possint esse in uno loco ; vel vocat motum Ne fiat penetratio dimensionum. Neque hujus motus exempla proponi consentaneum est : inest enim omni corpori. | Let the first motion be that motion of resistance in matter which is inherent in each several portion of it, and in virtue of which it absolutely refuses to be annihilated. So that no fire, no weight or pressure, no violence, no length of time can reduce any portion of matter, be it ever so small, to nothing, but it will ever be something, and occupy some space; and, to whatever straits it may be brought, will free itself by changing either its form or its place; or if this may not be, will subsist as it is; and will never come to such a pass as to be either nothing or nowhere. This motion the Schoolmen (who almost always name and define things rather by effects and incapacities than by inner causes) either denote by the axiom "two bodies cannot be in one place," or call "the motion to prevent penetration of dimensions." Of this motion it is unnecessary to give examples, as it is inherent in every body. |
| 2. Sit Motus Secundus, Motus (quem appellamus) Nexus ; per quem corpora non patiuntur se ulla ex parte sui dirimi a contactu alterius corporis, ut quae mutuo nexu et contactu gaudeant. Quem motum Schola vocat Motum Ne detur vacuum : veluti cum aqua attrahitur sursum exuctione, aut per fistulas ; caro per ventosas ; aut cum aqua sistitur nec effluit in hydriis perforatis, nisi os hydriae ad immittendum aerem aperiatur ; et innumera id genus. | Let the second motion be what I call motion of connection, by which bodies do not suffer themselves to be separated at any point from contact with another body, as delighting in mutual connection and contact. This motion the Schoolmen call "motion to prevent a vacuum," as when water is drawn up by suction or in a pump; the flesh by cupping glasses; or when water stops without running out in perforated jars unless the mouth of the jar be opened to let in the air; and in numberless instances of a similar kind. |
| 3. Sit Motus Tertius, Motus (quem appellamus) Libertatis ; per quem corpora se liberare nituntur a pressura aut tensura praeter-naturali, et restituere se in dimensum corpori suo conveniens. Cujus motus etiam innumera sunt exempla : veluti (quatenus ad liberationem a pressura) aquae in natando, aeris in volando ; aquae in remigando, aeris in undulationibus ventorum ; laminae in horologiis. Nec ineleganter se ostendit motus aeris compressi in sclopettis ludicris puerorum, cum alnum aut simile quiddam excavant, et infarciunt frusto alicujus radicis succulentae, vel similium, ad utrosque fines ; deinde per embolum trudunt radicem vel hujusmodi farcimentum in foramen alterum ; unde emittitur et ejicitur radix cum sonitu ad foramen alterum, idque antequam tangatur a radice aut farcimento citimo, aut embolo. Quatenus vero ad liberationem a tensura, ostendit se hic motus in aere post exuctionem in ovis vitreis remanente, in chordis, in corio, et panno, resilientibus post tensuras suas, nisi tensurae illae per moram invaluerint, etc. Atque hunc motum Schola sub nomine Motus ex Forma Elementi innuit : satis quidem inscite, cum hic motus non tantum ad aerem, aquam, aut flammam pertineat, sed ad omnem diversitatem consistentiae ; ut ligni, ferri, plumbi, panni, membranae, etc., in quibus singula corpora suae habent dimensionis modulum, et ab eo aegre ad spatium aliquod notabile abripiuntur. Verum quia motus iste libertatis omnium est maxime obvius, et ad infinita spectans, consultum fuerit eum bene et perspicue distinguere. Quidam enim valde negligenter confundunt hunc motum cum gemino illo motu antitypiae et nexus ; liberationem scilicet a pressura, cum motu antitypiae ; a tensura, cum motu nexus ; ac si ideo cederent aut se dilatarent corpora compressa, ne sequeretur penetratio dimensionum ; ideo resilirent et contraherent se corpora tensa, ne sequeretur vacuum. Atqui si aer compressus se vellet recipere in densitatem aquae, aut lignum in densitatem lapidis, nil opus foret penetratione dimensionum ; et nihilominus longe major posset esse compressio illorum, quam illa ullo modo patiuntur. Eodem modo si aqua se dilatare vellet in raritatem aeris, aut lapis in raritatem ligni, non opus foret vacuo ; et tamen longe major posset fieri extensio eorum, quam illa ullo modo patiuntur. Itaque non reducitur res ad penetrationem dimensionum et vacuum, nisi in ultimitatibus condensationis et rarefactionis ; cum tamen isti motus longe citra eas sistant et versentur, neque aliud sint quam desideria corporum conservandi se in consistentiis suis (sive, si malint, in formis suis), nec ab iis recedendi subito, nisi per modos suaves ac per consensum alterentur. At longe magis necessarium est (quia multa secum trahit), ut intimetur hominibus, motum violentum (quem nos mechanicum, Democritus, qui in motibus suis primis expediendis etiam infra mediocres philosophos ponendus est, motum plagae vocavit) nil aliud esse quam Motum Libertatis, scilicet a compressione ad relaxationem. Etenim in omni sive simplici protrusione sive volatu per aerem, non fit summotio aut latio localis, antequam partes corporis praeter-naturaliter patiantur et comprimantur ab impellente. Tum vero partibus aliis alias per successionem trudentibus, fertur totum ; nec solum progrediendo, sed etiam rotando simul ; ut etiam hoc modo partes se liberare, aut magis ex aequo tolerare possint. Atque de hoc motu hactenus. | Let the third motion be what I call motion of liberty, by which bodies strive to escape from preternatural pressure or tension and to restore themselves to the dimensions suitable to their nature. Of this motion also we have innumerable examples, such as (to speak first of escape from pressure) the motion of water in swimming, of air in flying, of water in rowing, of air in the undulations of winds, of a spring in clocks of which we have also a pretty instance in the motion of the air compressed in children's popguns, when they hollow out an alder twig or some such thing and stuff it up at both ends with a piece of pulpy root or the like, and then with a ramrod thrust one of the roots or whatever the stuffing be toward the other hole, from which the root at the further end is discharged with a report, and that before it is touched by the nearer root or the ramrod. As for bodies escaping from tension, this motion displays itself in air remaining in glass eggs after suction; in strings, in leather and in cloth, which recoil after tension, unless it has gained too great strength by continuance; and in similar phenomena. This motion the Schoolmen refer to under the name of "motion in accordance with the form of the element"; an injudicious name enough, since it is a motion which belongs not only to fire, air, and water, but to every variety of solid substance, as wood, iron, lead, cloth, parchment, etc.; each of which bodies has its own proper limit of dimension out of which it cannot easily be drawn to any considerable extent. But since this motion of liberty is of all the most obvious, and is of infinite application, it would be a wise thing to distinguish it well and clearly. For some very carelessly confuse this motion with the two former motions of resistance and connection, the motion, that is, of escape from pressure with the motion of resistance; of escape from tension with the motion of connection just as if bodies when compressed yield or expand, that there may not ensue penetration of dimensions; and, when stretched, recoil and contract, that there may not ensue a vacuum. Whereas if air when compressed had a mind to contract itself to the density of water, or wood to the density of stone, there would be no necessity for penetration of dimensions, yet there might be a far greater compression of these bodies than they ever do actually sustain. In the same way, if water had a mind to expand to the rarity of air, or stone to the rarity of wood, there would be no need for a vacuum to ensue, and yet there might be effected a far greater extension of these bodies than they ever do actually sustain. Thus the matter is never brought to a penetration of dimensions or to a vacuum, except in the extreme limits of condensation and rarefaction, whereas the motions of which I speak stop far short of these limits, and are nothing more than desires which bodies have for preserving themselves in their consistencies (or, if the Schoolmen like, in their forms), and not suddenly departing therefrom unless they be altered by gentle means, and with consent. But it is far more necessary (because much depends upon it) that men should know that violent motion (which we call mechanical, but which Democritus, who in expounding his primary motions is to be ranked even below second-rate philosophers, called motion of stripe) is nothing more than this motion of liberty, that is, of escape from compression to relaxation. For either in a mere thrust, or in flight through the air, there occurs no movement or change of place until the parts of the body moved are acted upon and compressed by the impelling body more than their nature will bear. Then, indeed, when each part pushes against the next, one after the other, the whole is moved. And it not only moves forward, but revolves at the same time, the parts seeking in that way also to free themselves or to distribute the pressure more equally. And so much for this motion. |
| 4. Sit Motus Quartus, motus cui nomen dedimus Motus Hyles : qui motus antistrophus est quodammodo Motui, de quo diximus, Libertatis. Etenim in Motu Libertatis, corpora novum dimensum sive novam sphaeram sive novam dilatationem aut contractionem (haec enim verborum varietas idem innuit) exhorrent, respuunt, fugiunt, et resilire ac veterem consistentiam recuperare totis viribus contendunt. At contra in hoc Motu Hyles, corpora novam sphaeram sive dimensum appetunt ; atque ad illud libenter et propere, et quandoque valentissimo nixu (ut in pulvere pyrio) aspirant. Instrumenta autem hujus motus, non sola certe, sed potentissima, aut saltem frequentissima, sunt calor et frigus. Exempli gratia : aer, si per tensuram (velut per exuctionem in ovis vitreis) dilatetur, magno laboret desiderio seipsum restituendi. At admoto calore, e contra appetit dilatari, et concupiscet novam sphaeram, et transit et migrat in illam libenter, tanquam in novam formam (ut loquuntur) ; nec post dilatationem nonnullam de reditu curat, nisi per admotionem frigidi ad eam invitetur ; quae non reditus est, sed transmutatio repetita. Eodem modo et aqua, si per compressionem arctetur, recalcitrat ; et vult fieri qualis fuit, scilicet latior. At si interveniat frigus intensum et continuatum, mutat se sponte sua et libenter in condensationem glaciei ; atque si plane continuetur frigus, nec a teporibus interrumpatur (ut fit in speluncis et cavernis paulo profundioribus), vertitur in crystallum aut materiam similem, nec unquam restituitur. | Let the fourth motion be that to which I have given the name of the motion of matter, which is in some sort the converse of the last named motion. For in the motion of liberty bodies dread, loathe, and shun a new dimension, or a new sphere, or new expansion or contraction (which are all names for the same thing), and strive with all their might to recoil, and recover their old consistency. On the contrary, in this motion of matter bodies desire a new sphere or dimension and aspire thereto readily and quickly, and sometimes, as in the case of gunpowder, with most violent effort. Now the instruments of this motion, not indeed the sole, but the most potent, or at any rate the most common, are heat and cold. For instance, air, if expanded by tension, as by suction in glass eggs, labors under a strong desire to recover itself. But if heat be applied, it longs, on the contrary, to expand, and desires a new sphere and passes into it readily as into a new form (so they phrase it); and after a certain degree of expansion cares not to return, unless invited thereto by the application of cold, which is not a return, but a renewed transmutation. In the same way water, if made to contract by pressure, resists and wishes to become such as it was, that is, larger. But if there intervene intense and continued cold, it changes itself spontaneously and gladly to the density of ice; and if the cold be continued long, without interruption from heat, as in grottoes and caverns of some depth, it turns to crystal or some similar material and never recovers its form. |
| 5. Sit Motus Quintus, Motus Continuationis. Intelligimus autem non continuationis simplicis et primariae, cum corpore aliquo altero (nam ille est Motus Nexus) ; sed continuationis sui, in corpore certo. Certissimum enim est, quod corpora omnia solutionem continuitatis exhorreant ; alia magis, alia minus, sed omnia aliquatenus. Nam ut in corporibus duris (veluti chalybis, vitri) reluctatio contra discontinuationem est maxime robusta et valida, ita etiam in liquoribus, ubi cessare aut languere saltem videtur motus ejusmodi, tamen non prorsus reperitur privatio ejus ; sed plane inest ipsis in gradu tanquam infimo, et prodit se in experimentis plurimis ; sicut in bullis, in rotunditate guttarum, in filis tenuioribus stillicidiorum, et in sequacitate corporum glutinosorum, et ejusmodi. Sed maxime omnium se ostendit appetitus iste, si discontinuatio tentetur usque ad fractiones minores. Nam in mortariis, post contusionem ad certum gradum, non amplius operatur pistillum ; aqua non subintrat rimas minores ; quin et ipse aer, non obstante subtilitate corporis ipsius, poros vasorum paulo solidiorum non pertransit subito, nec nisi per diuturnam insinuationem. | Let the fifth motion be the motion of continuity, by which I do not mean simple and primary continuity with some other body (for that is the motion of connection), but self-continuity in a given body. For it is most certain that all bodies dread a solution of continuity, some more, some less, but all to a certain extent. For while in hard bodies, as steel or glass, the resistance to discontinuity is exceedingly strong, even in liquids, where it seems to disappear or at all events to be very feeble, it is not altogether absent but is certainly there, though in its lowest degree of power, and betrays itself in very many experiments as in bubbles, in the roundness of drops, in the thin threads of droppings from roofs, in the tenacity of glutinous bodies, and the like. But most of all does this appetite display itself if an attempt be made to extend the discontinuity to minute fragments. For in a mortar, after a certain amount of pulverization, the pestle produces no further effect; water does not penetrate into minute chinks; even air itself, notwithstanding its subtlety, does not suddenly pass through the pores of solid vessels but only after long insinuation. |
| 6. Sit Motus Sextus, motus quem nominamus Motum ad Lucrum, sive Motum Indigentiae. Is est, per quem corpora, quando versantur inter plane heterogenea et quasi inimica, si forte nanciscantur copiam aut commoditatem evitandi illa heterogenea et se applicandi ad magis cognata, (licet illa ipsa cognata talia fuerint quae non habeant arctum consensum cum ipsis) tamen statim ea amplectuntur, et tanquam potiora malunt : et lucri loco (unde vocabulum sumpsimus) hoc ponere videntur, tanquam talium corporum indiga. Exempli gratia : aurum, aut aliud metallum foliatum non delectatur aere circumfuso. Itaque si corpus aliquod tangibile et crassum nanciscatur (ut digitum, papyrum, quidvis aliud), adhaeret statim, nec facile divellitur. Etiam papyrus, aut pannus, et hujusmodi, non bene se habent cum aere qui inseritur et commistus est in ipsorum poris. Itaque aquam aut liquorem libenter imbibunt, et aerem exterminant. Etiam saccharum, aut spongia infusa in aquam aut vinum, licet pars ipsorum emineat et longe attollatur supra vinum aut aquam, tamen aquam aut vinum paulatim et per gradus attrahunt in sursum. | Let the sixth motion be that which I call motion for gain, or motion of want. It is that by which bodies, when placed among quite heterogeneous and hostile bodies, if they find an opportunity of escaping from these and uniting themselves to others more cognate (though these others be such as have no close union with them) do nevertheless embrace the latter and choose them as preferable; and seem to view this connection in the light of a gam (whence the term), as though they stood in need of such bodies. For instance, gold or any other metal in the leaf does not like the surrounding air. If therefore it meet with any thick tangible body (as a finger, paper, what you will) it instantly sticks to it and is not easily torn away. So too paper, cloth, and the like do not agree well with the air which is lodged in their pores. They are therefore glad to imbibe water or other moisture and eject the air. A piece of sugar too, or a sponge, if dipped at one end in water or wine, while the other stands out far above the surface, draws the water or the wine gradually upward. |
| Unde optimus canon sumitur aperturae et solutionum corporum. Missis enim corrosivis et aquis fortibus, quae viam sibi aperiunt, si possit inveniri corpus proportionatum et magis consentiens et amicum corpori alicui solido quam illud cum quo tanquam per necessitatem commiscetur, statim se aperit et relaxat corpus, et illud alterum intro recipit, priore excluso aut summoto. Neque operatur aut potest iste motus ad lucrum solummodo ad tactum. Nam electrica operatio (de qua Gilbertus et alii post eum tantas excitarunt fabulas) non alia est quam corporis per fricationem levem excitati appetitus ; qui aerem non bene tolerat, sed aliud tangibile mavult, si reperiatur in propinquo. | Hence we derive an excellent rule for opening and dissolving bodies. For (to say nothing of corrosives and strong waters which open for themselves a way) if there can be found a body proportioned to and more in harmony and affinity with a given solid body than that with which it is as of necessity mixed, the solid body immediately opens and relaxes itself, and shutting out or ejecting the latter, receives the former into itself. Nor does this motion for gain act or exist only in immediate contact. For electricity (of which Gilbert and others after him have devised such stories) is nothing else than the appetite of a body when excited by gentle friction an appetite which does not well endure the air but prefers some other tangible body, if it be found near at hand. |
| 7. Sit motus Septimus, Motus (quem appellamus) Congregationis Majoris ; per quem corpora feruntur ad massas connaturalium suorum : gravia, ad globum terrae ; levia, ad ambitum coeli. Hunc Schola nomine Motus Naturalis insignivit : levi contemplatione, quia scilicet nil spectabile erat ab extra quod eum motum cieret (itaque rebus ipsis innatum atque insitum putavit) ; aut forte quia non cessat. Nec mirum : semper enim praesto sunt coelum et terra ; cum e contra causae et origines plurimorum ex reliquis motibus interdum absint, interdum adsint. Itaque hunc, quia non intermittit sed caeteris intermittentibus statim occurrit, perpetuum et proprium ; reliquos ascititios posuit. Est autem iste motus revera satis infirmus et hebes, tanquam is qui (nisi sit moles corporis major) caeteris motibus, quamdiu operantur, cedat et succumbat. Atque cum hic motus hominum cogitationes ita impleverit ut fere reliquos motus occultaverit, tamen parum est quod homines de eo sciunt, sed in multis circa illum erroribus versantur. | Let the seventh motion be what I call the motion of the greater congregation, by which bodies are carried toward masses of a like nature with themselves heavy bodies to the globe of the earth, light to the compass of the heaven. This the Schoolmen have denoted by the name of natural motion from superficial considerations; either because there was nothing conspicuous externally which could produce such motion (and therefore they supposed it to be innate and inherent in things themselves), or perhaps because it never ceases. And no wonder; for the earth and heaven are ever there, whereas the causes and origins of most other motions are sometimes absent, sometimes present. Accordingly this motion, because it ceases not but when others cease is felt instantly, they deem perpetual and proper, all others adscititious. This motion, however, in point of fact is sufficiently weak and dull, being one which, except in bodies of considerable bulk, yields and succumbs to all other motions, as long as they are in operation. And though this motion has so filled men's thoughts as to have put all others almost out of sight, yet it is but little that they know about it, being involved in many errors with regard to it. |
| 8. Sit Motus Octavus, Motus Congregationis Minoris ; per quem partes homogeneae in corpore aliquo separant se ab heterogeneis, et coeunt inter sese ; per quem etiam corpora integra ex similitudine substantiae se amplectuntur et fovent, et quandoque ad distantiam aliquam congregantur, attrahuntur, et conveniunt : veluti cum in lacte flos lactis post moram aliquam supernatat ; in vino faeces et tartarum subsidunt. Neque enim haec fiunt per motum gravitatis et levitatis tantum, ut aliae partes summitatem petant, aliae ad imum vergant ; sed multo magis per desiderium homogeneorum inter se coeundi et se uniendi. Differt autem iste motus a motu indigentiae, in duobus. Uno, quod in motu indigentiae sit stimulus major naturae malignae et contrariae ; at in hoc motu (si modo impedimenta et vincula absint) uniuntur partes per amicitiam, licet absit natura aliena quae litem moveat : altero, quod arctior sit unio, et tanquam majore cum delectu. In illo enim, modo evitetur corpus inimicum, corpora etiam non admodum cognata concurrunt ; at in hoc coeunt substantiae, germana plane similitudine devinctae, et conflantur tanquam in unum. Atque hic motus omnibus corporibus compositis inest ; et se facile conspiciendum in singulis daret, nisi ligaretur et fraenaretur per alios corporum appetitus et necessitates, quae istam coitionem disturbant. Ligatur autem motus iste plerumque tribus modis : torpore corporum ; fraeno corporis dominantis ; et motu externo. Ad torporem corporum quod attinet ; certum est inesse corporibus tangibilibus pigritiam quandam secundum magis et minus, et exhorrentiam motus localis ; ut, nisi excitentur, malint statu suo (prout sunt) esse contenta quam in melius se expedire. Discutitur autem iste torpor triplici auxilio : aut per calorem, aut per virtutem alicujus cognati corporis eminentem, aut per motum vividum et potentem. Atque primo quoad auxilium caloris ; hinc fit, quod calor pronuntietur esse illud quod separet heterogenea, congreget homogenea. Quam definitionem Peripateticorum merito derisit Gilbertus ; dicens eam esse perinde ac si quis diceret ac definiret hominem illud esse quod serat triticum et plantet vineas : esse enim definitionem tantum per effectus, eosque particulares. Sed adhuc magis culpanda est illa definitio ; quia etiam effectus illi (quales quales sunt) non sunt ex proprietate caloris, sed tantum per accidens (idem enim facit frigus, ut postea dicemus), nempe ex desiderio partium homogenearum coeundi, adjuvante tantum calore ad discutiendum torporem, qui torpor desiderium illud antea ligaverat. Quoad vero auxilium virtutis inditae a corpore cognato ; illud mirabiliter elucescit in magnete armato, qui excitat in ferro virtutem detinendi ferrum per similitudinem substantiae, discusso torpore ferri per virtutem magnetis. Quoad vero auxilium motus ; conspicitur illud in sagittis ligneis, cuspide etiam lignea, quae altius penetrant in alia ligna quam si fuissent armatae ferro, per similitudinem substantiae, discusso torpore ligni per motum celerem : de quibus duobus experimentis etiam in aphorismo de instantiis clandestinis diximus. | Let the eighth motion be the motion of the lesser congregation, by which the homogeneous parts in a body separate themselves from the heterogeneous and combine together; by which also entire bodies from similarity of substance embrace and cherish each other, and sometimes are attracted and collected together from a considerable distance; as when in milk, after it has stood a while, the cream rises to the top, while in wine the dregs sink to the bottom. For this is not caused by the motion of heaviness and lightness only, whereby some parts rise up and some sink down, but much more by a desire of the homogeneous parts to come together and unite in one. Now this motion differs from the motion of want in two points. One is that in the latter there is the stronger stimulus of a malignant and contrary nature, whereas in this motion (provided there be nothing to hinder or fetter it) the parts unite from friendship even in the absence of a foreign nature to stir up strife. The other point is that the union is here closer and, as it were, with greater choice. In the former, if only the hostile body be avoided, bodies not closely related come together, whereas in the latter, substances are drawn together by the tie of close relationship and, as it were, combine into one. And this motion resides in all composite bodies and would readily show itself were it not bound and restrained by other appetites and necessities in the bodies which interfere with the union in question. Now the binding of this motion takes place generally in three ways: by the torpor of bodies; by the check of a dominant body; and by external motions. Now, for the torpor of bodies, it is certain that there resides in tangible substances a certain sluggishness, more or less, and an aversion from change of place; insomuch that, unless they be excited, they had rather remain as they are than change for the better. Now this torpor is shaken off by the help of three things: either by heat, or by the eminent virtue of some cognate body, or by lively and powerful motion. And as for the help of heat, it is for this reason that heat has been denned to be "that which separates Heterogeneous and congregates Homogeneous parts"; a definition of the Peripatetics justly derided by Gilbert, who says it is much the same as if a man were to be denned as that which sows wheat and plants vines for that it is, a definition simply by effects, and those particular. But the definition has a worse fault, inasmuch as these effects, such as they are, arise not from a peculiar property of heat, but only indirectly (for cold does the same, as I shall afterwards show); being caused by the desire of homogeneous parts to unite, heat simply aiding to shake off the torpor which had previously bound the desire. As for the help derived from the virtue of a cognate body, it is well seen in an armed magnet which excites in iron the virtue of detaining iron by similarity of substance, the torpor of the iron being cast off by the virtue of the magnet. And as for help derived from motion, it is shown in wooden arrows, having their points also of wood, which penetrate more deeply into wood than if they were tipped with steel, owing to the similarity of substance, the torpor of the wood being shaken off by the rapid motion. Of these two experiments I have spoken also in the Aphorism on Clandestine Instances. |
| Ligatio vero motus congregationis minoris, quae fit per fraenum corporis dominantis, conspicitur in solutione sanguinis et urinarum per frigus. Quamdiu enim repleta fuerint corpora illa spiritu agili, qui singulas eorum partes cujuscunque generis ipse ut dominus totius ordinat et cohibet, tamdiu non coeunt heterogenea propter fraenum ; sed postquam ille spiritus evaporaverit, aut suffocatus fuerit per frigus, tum solutae partes a fraeno coeunt secundum desiderium suum naturale. Atque ideo fit, ut omnia corpora quae continent spiritum acrem (ut sales, et hujusmodi) durent et non solvantur, ob fraenum permanens et durabile spiritus dominantis et imperiosi. Ligatio vero motus congregationis minoris, quae fit per motum externum, maxime conspicitur in agitationibus corporum per quas arcetur putrefactio. Omnis enim putrefactio fundatur in congregatione homogeneorum ; unde paulatim fit corruptio prioris (quam vocant) formae, et generatio novae. Nam putrefactionem, quae sternit viam ad generationem novae formae, praecedit solutio veteris ; quae est ipsa coitio ad homogeniam. Ea vero, si non impedita fuerit, fit solutio simplex : sin occurrant varia quae obstant, sequuntur putrefactiones quae sunt rudimenta generationis novae. Quod si (id quod nunc agitur) fiat agitatio frequens per motum externum, tum vero motus iste coitionis (qui est delicatus et mollis et indiget quiete ab externis) disturbatur et cessat ; ut fieri videmus in innumeris : veluti cum quotidiana agitatio aut profluentia aquae arceat putrefactionem ; venti arceant pestilentiam aeris ; grana in granariis versa et agitata maneant pura ; omnia denique agitata exterius non facile putrefiant interius. Superest ut non omittatur coitio illa partium corporum, unde fit praecipue induratio et desiccatio. Postquam enim spiritus, aut humidum in spiritum versum, evolaverit in aliquo corpore porosiore (ut in ligno, osse, membrana, et hujusmodi), tum partes crassiores majore nixu contrahuntur et coeunt, unde sequitur induratio aut desiccatio : quod existimamus fieri, non tam ob motum nexus, ne detur vacuum, quam per motum istum amicitiae et unionis. Ad coitionem vero ad distans quod attinet, ea infrequens est et rara ; et tamen in pluribus inest quam quibus observatur. Hujus simulacra sunt, cum bulla solvat bullam ; medicamenta ex similitudine substantiae trahant humores ; chorda in diversis fidibus ad unisonum moveat chordam ; et hujusmodi. Etiam in spiritibus animalium hunc motum vigere existimamus, sed plane incognitum. At eminet certe in magnete, et ferro excito. Cum autem de motibus magnetis loquimur, distinguendi plane sunt. Quatuor enim virtutes sive operationes sunt in magnete, quae non confundi, sed separari debent ; licet admiratio hominum et stupor eas commiscuerit. Una, coitionis magnetis ad magnetem, vel ferri ad magnetem, vel ferri exciti ad ferrum. Secunda, verticitatis ejus ad septentriones et austrum, atque simul declinationis ejus. Tertia, penetrationis ejus per aurum, vitrum, lapidem, omnia. Quarta, communicationis virtutis ejus de lapide in ferrum, et de ferro in ferrum, absque communicatione substantiae. Verum hoc loco de prima virtute ejus tantum loquimur, videlicet coitionis. Insignis etiam est motus coitionis argenti vivi et auri : adeo ut aurum alliciat argentum vivum, licet confectum in unguenta ; atque operarii inter vapores argenti vivi soleant tenere in ore frustum auri, ad colligendas emissiones argenti vivi, alias crania et ossa eorum invasuras ; unde etiam frustum illud paulo post albescit. Atque de motu congregationis minoris haec dicta sint. | That binding of the motion of the lesser congregation which is caused by the restraint of a dominant body is seen in the resolution of blood and urine by cold. For as long as those bodies are filled with the active spirit which, as lord of the whole, orders and restrains the several parts of whatsoever sort, so long the homogeneous parts do not meet together on account of the restraint. But as soon as the spirit has evaporated, or been choked by cold, then the parts being freed from restraint meet together in accordance with their natural desire. And thus it happens that all bodies which contain an eager spirit (as salts and the like) remain as they are, and are not resolved, owing to the permanent and durable restraint of a dominant and commanding spirit. That binding of the motion of lesser congregation which is caused by external motion is most conspicuous in the shaking of bodies to prevent putrefaction. For all putrefaction depends on the assembling together of homogeneous parts, whence there gradually ensues the corruption of the old form, as they call it, and the generation of a new. For putrefaction, which paves the way for the generation of a new form, is preceded by a dissolution of the old, which is itself a meeting together of homogeneous parts. That, indeed, if not impeded, is simple resolution. But if it be met by various obstacles there follow putrefactions, which are the rudiments of a new generation. But if (which is the present question) a frequent agitation be kept up by external motion, then indeed this motion of uniting (which is a delicate and tender one, and requires rest from things without) is disturbed and ceases, as we see happen in numberless instances. For example, the daily stirring or flowing of water prevents it from putrefying; winds keep off pestilence in the air; corn turned and shaken in the granary remains pure; all things, in short, that are shaken outwardly are the slower to putrefy inwardly. Lastly, I must not omit that meeting of the parts of bodies which is the chief cause of induration and desiccation. For when the spirit, or moisture turned to spirit, has escaped from some porous body (as wood, bone, parchment, and the like), then the grosser parts are with stronger effort drawn and collected together; whence ensues induration or desiccation, which I take to be owing not so much to the motion of connection to prevent a vacuum as to this motion of friendship and union. As for the meeting of bodies from a distance, that is a rare occurrence, and yet it exists in more cases than are generally observed. We have illustrations of it when bubble dissolves bubble; when medicines draw humors by similarity of substance; when the chord of one violin makes the chord of another sound a unison, and the like. I suspect also that this motion prevails in the spirits of animals, though it be altogether unknown. At any rate it exists conspicuously in the magnet and magnetized iron. And now that we are speaking of the motions of the magnet, they ought to be carefully distinguished. For there are four virtues or operations in the magnet which should not be confounded but kept apart, although the wonder and admiration of men have mixed them up together. The first is, the attraction of magnet to magnet, or of iron to magnet, or of magnetized iron to iron. The second is its polarity, and at the same time its declination. The third, its power of penetrating through gold, glass, stone, everything. The fourth, its power of communicating its virtue from stone to iron, and from iron to iron, without communication of substance. In this place, however, I am speaking only of the first of these virtues that is, its attractive power. Remarkable also is the motion of attraction between quicksilver and gold, insomuch that gold attracts quicksilver, though made up into ointments; and men who work amid the vapors of quicksilver usually hold a piece of gold in their mouths to collect the exhalations which would otherwise penetrate into their skulls and bones; by which also the piece of gold is presently turned white. And so much for the motion of the lesser congregation. |
| 9. Sit Motus Nonus, Motus Magneticus ; qui licet sit ex genere motus congregationis minoris, tamen si operetur ad distantias magnas et super massas rerum magnas, inquisitionem meretur separatam ; praesertim si nec incipiat a tactu, quemadmodum plurimi, nec perducat actionem ad tactum, quemadmodum omnes motus congregativi ; sed corpora tantum elevet, aut ea intumescere faciat, nec quicquam ultra. Nam si luna attollat aquas, aut turgescere aut intumescere faciat humida ; aut coelum stellatum attrahat planetas versus sua apogaea ; aut sol alliget astra Veneris et Mercurii, ne longius absint a corpore ejus quam ad distantiam certam ; videntur hi motus nec sub congregatione majore nec sub congregatione minore bene collocari, sed esse tanquam congregativa media et imperfecta, ideoque speciem debere constituere propriam. | Let the ninth motion be the magnetic, which, though it be of the same genus with the motion of the lesser congregation, yet if it operates at great distances and on large masses, deserves a separate investigation, especially if it begin not with contact, as most, nor lead to contact, as all motions of congregation do, but simply raises bodies or makes them swell, and nothing more. For if the moon raises the waters, or makes moist things swell; if the starry heaven attracts planets to their apogees; if the sun holds Venus and Mercury so that their elongations never exceed a certain distance; these motions seem to fall properly neither under the greater nor the lesser congregation, but to be of a sort of intermediate and imperfect congregation, and therefore ought to constitute a species by themselves. |
| 10. Sit Motus Decimus, Motus Fugae ; motus scilicet motui congregationis minoris contrarius ; per quem corpora ex antipathia fugiunt et fugant inimica, seque ab illis separant, aut cum illis miscere se recusant. Quamvis enim videri possit in aliquibus hic motus esse motus tantum per accidens aut per consequens, respectu motus congregationis minoris, quia nequeunt coire homogenea, nisi heterogeneis exclusis et remotis ; tamen ponendus est motus iste per se, et in speciem constituendus, quia in multis appetitus fugae cernitur magis principalis quam appetitus coitionis. Eminet autem hic motus insigniter in excretionibus animalium ; nec minus etiam in sensuum nonnullorum odiosis objectis, praecipue in olfactu et gustu. Odor enim foetidus ita rejicitur ab olfactu, ut etiam inducat in os stomachi motum expulsionis per consensum ; sapor amarus et horridus ita rejicitur a palato aut gutture, ut inducat per consensum capitis conquassationem et horrorem. Veruntamen etiam in aliis locum habet iste motus. Conspicitur enim in antiperistasibus nonnullis ; ut in aeris media regione, cujus frigora videntur esse rejectiones naturae frigidae ex confiniis coelestium ; quemadmodum etiam videntur magni illi fervores et inflammationes, quae inveniuntur in locis subterraneis, esse rejectiones naturae calidae ab interioribus terrae. Calor enim et frigus, si fuerint in quanto minore, se invicem perimunt ; sin fuerint in massis majoribus et tanquam justis exercitibus, tum vero per conflictum se locis invicem summovent et ejiciunt. Etiam tradunt cinamomum et odorifera, sita juxta latrinas et loca foetida, diutius odorem retinere ; quia recusant exire et commisceri cum foetidis. Certe argentum vivum, quod alias se reuniret in corpus integrum, prohibetur per salivam hominis, aut axungiam porci, aut terebinthinam, et hujusmodi, ne partes ejus coeant ; propter malum consensum quem habent cum hujusmodi corporibus ; a quibus undique circumfusis se retrahunt ; adeo ut fortior sit earum fuga ab istis interjacentibus quam desiderium uniendi se cum partibus sui similibus ; id quod vocant mortificationem argenti vivi. Etiam quod oleum cum aqua non misceatur, non tantum in causa est differentia levitatis, sed malus ipsorum consensus : ut videre est in spiritu vini, qui cum levior sit oleo, tamen se bene miscet cum aqua. At maxime omnium insignis est motus fugae in nitro, et hujusmodi corporibus crudis, quae flammam exhorrent ; ut in pulvere pyrio, argento vivo, necnon in auro. Fuga vero ferri ab altero polo magnetis a Gilberto bene notatur non esse fuga propria, sed conformitas, et coitio ad situm magis accommodatum. | Let the tenth motion be that of flight (a motion the exact opposite of that of the lesser congregation), by which bodies from antipathy flee from and put to flight hostile bodies, and separate themselves from them or refuse to mingle with them. For although in some cases this motion may seem to be an accident or a consequence of the motion of the lesser congregation, because the homogeneous parts cannot meet without dislodging and ejecting the heterogeneous, still it is a motion that should be classed by itself and formed into a distinct species, because in many cases the appetite of flight is seen to be more dominant than the appetite of union. This motion is eminently conspicuous in the excretions of animals and not less in objects odious to some of the senses, especially the smell and the taste. For a fetid odor is so rejected by the sense of smell as to induce by consent in the mouth of the stomach a motion of expulsion; a rough and bitter taste is so rejected by the palate or throat as to induce by consent a shaking of the head and a shudder. But this motion has place in other things also. It is observed in certain forms of reaction; as in the middle region of the air, where the cold seems to be the effect of the rejection of the nature of cold from the confines of the heavenly bodies; as also the great heats and burnings which are found in subterranean places appear to be rejections of the nature of heat from the inner parts of the earth. For heat and cold, in small quantities, kill one another. But if they be in large masses, and as it were in regular armies, the result of the conflict is that they displace and eject each other in turn. It is also said that cinnamon and other perfumes retain their scent longer when placed near sinks and foul-smelling places because they refuse to come out and mingle with stenches. It is certain that quicksilver, which of itself would reunite into an entire mass, is kept from doing so by spittle, hog's lard, turpentine, and the like, owing to the ill consent which its parts have with such bodies, from which, when spread around them, they draw back, so that their desire to fly from these intervening bodies is more powerful than their desire of uniting with parts like themselves. And this is called the mortification of quicksilver. The fact also that oil does not mix with water is not simply owing to the difference of weight, but to the ill consent of these fluids, as may be seen from the fact that spirit of wine, though lighter than oil, yet mixes well enough with water. But most of all is the motion of flight conspicuous in niter and such like crude bodies, which abhor flame; as in gunpowder, quicksilver, and gold. But the flight of iron from one pole of the magnet is well observed by Gilbert to be not a flight strictly speaking, but a conformity and meeting in a more convenient situation. |
| 11. Sit Motus Undecimus, Motus Assimilationis, sive Multiplicationis sui, sive etiam Generationis Simplicis. Generationem autem simplicem dicimus non corporum integralium, ut in plantis, aut animalibus ; sed corporum similarium. Nempe per hunc motum corpora similaria vertunt corpora alia affinia, aut saltem bene disposita et praeparata, in substantiam et naturam suam : ut flamma, quae super halitus et oleosa multiplicat se, et generat novam flammam ; aer, qui super aquam et aquea multiplicat se, et generat novum aerum ; spiritus vegetabilis et animalis, qui super tenuiores partes tam aquei quam oleosi in alimentis suis multiplicat se, et generat novum spiritum ; partes solidae plantarum et animalium, veluti folium, flos, caro, os, et sic de caeteris, quae singulae ex succis alimentorum assimilant et generant substantiam successivam et epiusiam. Neque enim quenquam cum Paracelso delirare juvet, qui (distillationibus suis scilicet occaecatus) nutritionem per separationem tantum fieri voluit ; quodque in pane vel cibo lateat oculus, nasus cerebrum, jecur ; in succo terrae radix, folium, flos. Etenim sicut faber ex rudi massa lapidis vel ligni, per separationem et rejectionem superflui, educit folium, florem, oculum, nasum, manum, pedem, et similia ; ita Archaeum illum Fabrum internum ex alimento per separationem et rejectionem educere singula membra et partes asserit ille. Verum missis nugis, certissimum est partes singulas, tam similares quam organicas, in vegetabilibus et animalibus, succos alimentorum suorum fere communes, aut non multum diversos, primo attrahere cum nonnullo delectu, deinde assimilare, et vertere in naturam suam. Neque assimilatio ista, aut generatio simplex, fit solum in corporibus animatis, verum et inanimata ex hac re participant ; veluti de flamma et aere dictum est. Quinetiam spiritus emortuus, qui in omni tangibili animato continetur, id perpetuo agit, ut partes crassiores digerat et vertat in spiritum, qui deinde exeat ; unde fit diminutio ponderis et exsiccatio, ut alibi diximus. Neque etiam respuenda est in assimilatione accretio illa, quam vulgo ab alimentatione distinguunt ; veluti cum lutum inter lapillos concrescit, et vertitur in materiam lapideam ; squammae circa dentes vertuntur in substantiam non minus duram quam sunt dentes ipsi, etc. Sumus enim in ea opinione, inesse corporibus omnibus desiderium assimilandi, non minus quam coeundi ad homogenea ; verum ligatur ista virtus, sicut et illa, licet non iisdem modis. Sed modos illos, necnon solutionem ab iisdem, omni diligentia inquirere oportet, quia pertinent ad senectutis refocillationem. Postremo videtur notatu dignum, quod in novem illis motibus, de quibus diximus, corpora tantum naturae suae conservationem appetere videntur ; in hoc decimo autem propagationem. | Let the eleventh motion be that of assimilation, or of self-multiplication, or again of simple generation. By which I mean not the generation of integral bodies, as plants or animals, but of bodies of uniform texture. That is to say, by this motion such bodies convert others which are related, or at any rate well disposed to them, into their own substance and nature. Thus flame over vapors and oily substances multiplies itself and generates new flame; air over water and watery substances multiplies itself and generates new air; spirit, vegetable and animal, over the finer parts as well of watery as of oily substance in its food, multiplies itself and generates new spirit; the solid parts of plants and animals, as the leaf, flower, flesh, bone, and the like, severally assimilate new substance to follow and supply what is lost out of the juices of their food. For let no one adopt the wild fancy of Paracelsus who (blinded I suppose by his distillations) will have it that nutrition is caused only by separation, and that in bread and meat lie eye, nose, brain, liver; in the moisture of the ground, root, leaf, and flower. For as the artist out of the rude mass of stone or wood educes, by separation and rejection of what is superfluous, leaf, flower, eye, nose, hand, foot, and the like, so, he maintains, does Archζus, the internal artist, educe out of food by separation and rejection the several members and parts of our body. But to leave such trifles, it is most certain that the several parts, as well similar as organic, in vegetables and animals do first attract with some degree of selection the juices of their food, which are alike or nearly so for all, and then assimilate them and turn them into their own nature. Nor does this assimilation or simple generation take place only in animate bodies, but inanimate also participate therein, as has been stated of flame and air. Moreover, the non-vital spirit, which is contained in every tangible animated substance, is constantly at work to digest the coarser parts and turn them into spirit, to be afterwards discharged; whence ensues diminution of weight and desiccation, as I have stated elsewhere. Nor must we set apart from assimilation that accretion which is commonly distinguished from alimentation; as when clay between stones concretes and turns into a stony substance, or the scaly substance on the teeth turns into a substance as hard as the teeth themselves, and so on. For I am of opinion that there resides in all bodies a desire for assimilation as well as for uniting with homogeneous substances; but this virtue is bound, as is the other, though not by the same means. But these means, as well as the way of escape from them, ought to be investigated with all diligence because they pertain to the rekindling of the vital power in old age. Lastly, it seems worthy of observation that in the nine motions of which I have spoken 1 bodies seem to desire only the preservation of their nature, but in this tenth the propagation of it. |
| 12. Sit Motus Duodecimus, Motus Excitationis ; qui motus videtur esse ex genere assimilationis, atque eo nomine quandoque a nobis promiscue vocatur. Est enim motus diffusivus, et communicativus, et transitivus, et multiplicativus, sicut et ille ; atque effectu (ut plurimum) consentiunt, licet efficiendi modo et subjecto differant. Motus enim assimilationis procedit tanquam cum imperio et potestate ; jubet enim et cogit assimilatum in assimilantem verti et mutari. At motus excitationis procedit tanquam arte et insinuatione et furtim ; et invitat tantum, et disponit excitatum ad naturam excitantis. Etiam motus assimilationis multiplicat et transformat corpora et substantias ; veluti, plus fit flammae, plus aeris, plus spiritus, plus carnis. At in motu excitationis, multiplicantur et transeunt virtutes tantum ; et plus fit calidi, plus magnetici, plus putridi. Eminet autem iste motus praecipue in calido et frigido. Neque enim calor diffundit se in calefaciendo per communicationem primi caloris ; sed tantum per excitationem partium corporis ad motum illum qui est Forma Calidi ; de quo in vindemiatione prima de natura calidi diximus. Itaque longe tardius et difficilius excitatur calor in lapide aut metallo quam in aere, ob inhabilitatem et impromptitudinem corporum illorum ad motum illum ; ita ut verisimile sit posse esse interius versus viscera terrae materias quae calefieri prorsus respuant ; quia ob condensationem majorem spiritu illo destituuntur a quo motus iste excitationis plerunque incipit. Similiter magnes induit ferrum nova partium dispositione et motu conformi ; ipse autem nihil ex virtute perdit. Similiter fermentum panis, et flos cervisiae, et coagulum lactis, et nonnulla ex venenis, excitant et invitant motum in massa farinaria, aut cervisia, aut caseo, aut corpore humano, successivum et continuatum ; non tam ex vi excitantis quam ex praedispositione et facili cessione excitati. | Let the twelfth motion be that of excitation, a motion which seems to belong to the genus of assimilation and which I sometimes call by that name. For it is a motion diffusive, communicative, transitive, and multiplicative, as is the other, and agreeing with it generally in effect though differing in the mode of effecting and in the subject matter. For the motion of assimilation proceeds, as it were, with authority and command; it orders and forces the assimilated body to turn into the assimilating. But the motion of excitation proceeds, so to speak, with art and by insinuation, and stealthily, simply inviting and disposing the excited body to the nature of the exciting. Again, the motion of assimilation multiplies and transforms bodies and substances. Thus more flame is produced, more air, more spirit, more flesh. But in the motion of excitation virtues only are multiplied and transferred; more heat being engendered, more magnetic power, more putrefying. This motion is particularly conspicuous in heat and cold. For heat does not diffuse itself, in heating a body, by communication of the original heat but simply by exciting the parts of the body to that motion which is the form of heat, of which I have spoken in the First Vintage concerning the nature of heat. Consequently heat is excited far more slowly and with far greater difficulty in stone or metal than in air, owing to the unfitness and unreadiness of those bodies to receive the motion. So that it is probable that there may exist materials in the bowels of the earth which altogether refuse to be heated, because through their greater condensation they are destitute of that spirit with which this motion of excitation generally begins. In like manner the magnet endues iron with a new disposition of its parts and a conformable motion, but loses nothing of its own virtue. Similarly leaven, yeast, curd, and certain poisons excite and invite a successive and continued motion in dough, beer, cheese, or the human body, not so much by the force of the exciting as by the predisposition and easy yielding of the excited body. |
| 13. Sit Motus Decimus Tertius, Motus Impressionis ; qui motus est etiam ex genere motus assimilationis, estque ex diffusivis motibus subtilissimus. Nobis autem visum est eum in speciem propriam constituere, propter differentiam insignem quam habet erga priores duos. Motus enim assimilationis simplex corpora ipsa transformat ; ita ut si tollas primum movens nihil intersit ad ea quae sequuntur. Neque enim prima accensio in flammam, aut prima versio in aerem, aliquid facit ad flammam aut aerem in generatione succedentem. Similiter, motus excitationis omnino manet, remoto primo movente, ad tempora bene diuturna ; ut in corpore calefacto, remoto primo calore ; in ferro excito, remoto magnete ; in massa farinaria, remoto fermento. At Motus Impressionis, licet sit diffusivus, et transitivus, tamen perpetuo pendere videtur ex primo movente ; adeo ut, sublato aut cessante illo, statim deficiat et pereat ; itaque etiam momento, aut saltem exiguo tempore, transigitur. Quare motus illos assimilationis et excitationis, motus generationis Jovis, quia generatio manet ; hunc autem motum Motum Generationis Saturni, quia natus statim devoratur et absorbetur, appellare consuevimus. Manifestat se vero hic motus in tribus ; in lucis radiis ; sonorum percussionibus ; et magneticis, quatenus ad communicationem. Etenim amota luce, statim pereunt colores et reliquae imagines ejus ; amota percussione prima et quassatione corporis inde facta, paulo post perit sonus. Licet enim soni etiam in medio per ventos tanquam per undas agitentur ; tamen diligentius notandum est, quod sonus non tam diu durat quam fit resonatio. Etenim impulsa campana, sonus ad bene magnum tempus continuari videtur ; unde quis facile in errorem labatur, si existimet toto illo tempore sonum tanquam natare et haerere in aere ; quod falsissimum est. Etenim illa resonatio non est idem sonus numero, sed renovatur. Hoc autem manifestatur ex sedatione sive cohibitione corporis percussi. Si enim sistatur et detineatur campana fortiter et fiat immobilis, statim perit sonus nec resonat amplius ; ut in chordis, si post primam percussionem tangatur chorda, vel digito ut in lyra, vel calamo ut in espinetis, statim desinit resonatio. Magnete autem remoto, statim ferrum decidit. Luna autem a mari non potest removeri ; nec terra a ponderoso dum cadit. Itaque de illis nullum fieri potest experimentum ; sed ratio eadem est. | Let the thirteenth motion be the motion of impression, which also is of the same genus with the motion of assimilation, and is of diffusive motions the most subtle. I have thought fit, however, to make a distinct species of it, on account of a remarkable difference between it and the two former. For the simple motion of assimilation actually transforms the bodies themselves, so that you may take away the first mover, and there will be no difference in what follows. For the first kindling into flame, or the first turning into air, has no effect on the flame or air next generated. In like manner, the motion of excitation continues, after the first mover is withdrawn, for a very considerable time: as in a heated body when the primary heat has been removed; in magnetized iron when the magnet has been put away; in dough when the leaven has been taken out. But the motion of impression, though diffusive and transitive, seems to depend forever on the prime mover. So that if that be taken away or cease to act, it immediately fails and comes to an end, and therefore the effect must be produced in a moment, or at any rate in a very brief space of time. The motions therefore of assimilation and excitation I call motions of the generation of Jupiter, because the generation continues; but this, the motion of the generation of Saturn, because the birth is immediately devoured and absorbed. It manifests itself in three things: in rays of light, in the percussions of sounds, and in magnetism, as regards the communication of the influence. For if you take away light, colors and its other images instantly disappear; if you take away the original percussion and the vibration of the body thence produced, the sound soon after dies away. For though sounds are troubled as they pass through their medium by winds, as if by waves, yet it must be carefully noted that the original sound does not last all the time the resonance goes on. For if you strike a bell, the sound seems to be continued for a good long time, whereby we might easily be led into the error of supposing that during the whole of the time the sound is, as it were, floating and hanging in the air, which is quite untrue. For the resonance is not the identical sound, but a renewal of it, as is shown by quieting or stopping the body struck. For if the bell be held tight so that it cannot move, the sound at once comes to an end and resounds no more as in stringed instruments, if after the first percussion the string be touched, either with the finger, as in the harp, or with the quill, as in the spinet, the resonance immediately ceases. Again, when the magnet is removed, the iron immediately drops. The moon indeed cannot be removed from the sea, nor the earth from the falling body, and therefore we can try no experiment in these cases; but the principle is the same. |
| 14. Sit Motus Decimus Quartus, Motus Configurationis, aut Situs ; per quem corpora appetere videntur, non coitionem aut separationem aliquam, sed situm, et collocationem, et configurationem cum aliis. Est autem iste motus valde abstrusus, nec bene inquisitus. Atque in quibusdam videtur quasi incausabilis ; licet revera (ut existimamus) non ita sit. Etenim si quaeratur cur potius coelum volvatur ab oriente in occidentem quam ab occidente in orientem ; aut cur vertatur circa polos positos juxta Ursas potius quam circa Orionem, aut ex alia aliqua parte coeli : videtur ista quaestio tanquam quaedam extasis, cum ista potius ab experientia, et ut positiva recipi debeant. At in natura profecto sunt quaedam ultima et incausabilia ; verum hoc ex illis non esse videtur. Etenim hoc fieri existimamus ex quadam harmonia et consensu mundi, qui adhuc non venit in observationem. Quod si recipiatur motus terrae ab occidente in orientem, eaedem manent quaestiones. Nam et ipsa super aliquos polos movetur. Atque cur tandem debeant isti poli collocari magis ubi sunt quam alibi? Item verticitas, et directio, et declinatio magnetis ad hunc motum referuntur. Etiam inveniuntur in corporibus tam naturalibus quam artificialibus, praesertim consistentibus et non fluidis, collatio quaedam et positura partium, et tanquam villi et fibrae, quae diligenter investigandae sunt ; utpote sine quarum inventione corpora illa commode tractari aut regi non possunt. At circulationes illas in liquidis, per quas illa dum pressa sint, antequam se liberare possunt, se invicem relevant, ut compressionem illam ex aequo tolerent, motui libertatis verius assignamus. | Let the fourteenth motion be the motion of configuration or position, by which bodies seem to desire not union or separation, but position, collocation, and configuration with respect to others. This motion is a very abstruse one and has not been well investigated. In some cases, indeed, it seems to be without a cause, though not, I believe, really so. For if it be asked why the heavens revolve rather from east to west than from west to east, or why they turn on poles placed near the Bears rather than about Orion, or in any other part of heaven, such questions seem to border on insanity, since these phenomena ought rather to be received as results of observation, and merely positive facts. But though there are no doubt in nature certain things ultimate and without cause, this does not appear to me to be one of them, being caused in my opinion by a certain harmony and consent of the universe which has not yet fallen under observation. And if we admit the motion of the earth from west to east, the same questions remain. For it also moves on certain poles. And why, it might be asked, should these poles be placed where they are, rather than anywhere else? Again the polarity, direction, and declination of the magnet are referable to this motion. There are also found in bodies natural as well as artificial, especially in solids, a certain collocation and position of parts, and a kind of threads and fibers, which ought to be carefully investigated since, until they are understood, these bodies cannot be conveniently managed or controlled. But those eddyings in fluids, by which when pressed, before they can free themselves, they relieve each other that they may all have a fair share of the pressure, belong more properly to the motion of liberty. |
| 15. Sit Motus Decimus Quintus, Motus Pertransitionis, sive Motus secundum Meatus ; per quem virtutes corporum magis aut minus impediuntur aut provehuntur a mediis ipsorum, pro natura corporum et virtutum operantium, atque etiam medii. Aliud enim medium luci convenit, aliud sono, aliud calori et frigori, aliud virtutibus magneticis, necnon aliis nonnullis respective. | Let the fifteenth motion be the motion of transition, or motion according to the passages, by which the virtues of bodies are more or less impeded or promoted by their media, according to the nature of the body and of the acting virtues, and also of the medium. For one medium suits light, another sound, another heat and cold, another magnetic virtues, and so on. |
| 16. Sit Motus Decimus Sextus, Motus Regius (ita enim eum appellamus) sive Politicus ; per quem partes in corpore aliquo praedominantes et imperantes reliquas partes fraenant, domant, subigunt, ordinant, et cogunt eas adunari, separari, consistere, moveri, collocari, non ex desideriis suis, sed prout in ordine sit et conducat ad bene esse partis illius imperantis ; adeo ut sit quasi Regimen et Politia quaedam, quam exercet pars regens in partes subditas. Eminet autem hic motus praecipue in spiritibus animalium, qui motus omnes partium reliquarum, quamdiu ipse in vigore est, contemperat. Invenitur autem in aliis corporibus in gradu quodam inferiore ; quemadmodum dictum est de sanguine et urinis, quae non solvuntur donec spiritus, qui partes earum commiscebat et cohibebat, emissus fuerit aut suffocatus. Neque iste motus omnino spiritibus proprius est, licet in plerisque corporibus spiritus dominentur ob motum celerem et penetrationem. Veruntamen in corporibus magis condensatis, nec spiritu vivido et vigente (qualis inest argento vivo et vitriolo) repletis, dominantur potius partes crassiores ; adeo ut nisi fraenum et jugum hoc arte aliqua excutiatur, de nova aliqua hujusmodi corporum transformatione minime sperandum sit. Neque vero quispiam nos oblitos esse existimet ejus quod nunc agitur ; quia cum ista series et distributio motuum ad nil aliud spectet, quam ut illorum praedominantia per instantias luctae melius inquiratur, jam inter motus ipsos praedominantiae mentionem faciamus. Non enim in descriptione motus istius regii, de praedominantia motuum aut virtutum tractamus, sed praedominantia partium in corporibus. Haec enim ea est praedominantia, quae speciem istam motus peculiarem constituit. | Let the sixteenth motion be the royal (as I call it) or political motion, by which the predominant and commanding parts in any body curb, tame, subdue, and regulate the other parts, and compel them to unite, separate, stand still, move, and range themselves, not in accordance with their own desires, but as may conduce to the well-being of the commanding part; so that there is a sort of government and polity exerted by the ruling over the subject parts. This motion is eminently conspicuous in the spirits of animals where, as long as it is in vigor, it tempers all the motions of the other parts. It is found however in other bodies in a lower degree; as I said of blood and urine, which are not decomposed till the spirit which mixes and keeps together their parts be discharged or quenched. Nor is this motion confined to spirits, though in most bodies the spirits are masters owing to their rapid and penetrating motion. But in bodies of greater density and not filled with a lively and quickening spirit (such as there is in quicksilver and vitriol), the thicker parts are the masters, so that unless this yoke and restraint be by some expedient shaken off, there is very little hope of any new transformation of such bodies. But let no one suppose that I am forgetful of the point at issue, because while this series and distribution of motions tends to nothing else but the better investigation of their predominancy by instances of strife, I now make mention of predominancy among the motions themselves. For in describing this royal motion I am not treating of the predominancy of motions or virtues, but of the predominancy of parts in bodies; such being the predominancy which constitutes the peculiar species of motion in question. |
| 17. Sit Motus Decimus Septimus, Motus Rotationis Spontaneus ; per quem corpora motu gaudentia, et bene collocata, natura sua fruuntur, atque seipsa sequuntur, non aliud, et tanquam proprios petunt amplexus. Etenim videntur corpora aut movere sine termino ; aut plane quiescere ; aut ferri ad terminum, ubi pro natura sua aut rotent aut quiescant. Atque quae bene collocata sunt, si motu gaudeant, movent per circulum : motu scilicet aeterno et infinito. Quae bene collocata sunt, et motum exhorrent, prorsus quiescunt. Quae non bene collocata sunt, movent in linea recta (tanquam tramite brevissimo) ad consortia suorum connaturalium. Recipit autem motus iste rotationis differentias novem. Primam, centri sui, circa quod corpora movent : secundam, polorum suorum, supra quos movent : tertiam, circumferentiae sive ambitus sui, prout distant a centro : quartam, incitationis suae, prout celerius aut tardius rotant : quintam, consequutionis motus sui, veluti ab oriente in occidentem, aut ab occidente in orientem : sextam, declinationis a circulo perfecto per spiras longius aut propius distantes a centro suo : septimam, declinationis a circulo perfecto per spiras longius aut propius distantes a polis suis : octavam, distantiae proprioris aut longioris spirarum suarum ad invicem : nonam et ultimam, variationis ipsorum polorum, si sint mobiles : quae ipsa ad rotationem non pertinet, nisi fiat circulariter. Atque iste motus communi et inveterata opinione habetur pro proprio coelestium. Attamen gravis de illo motu lis est inter nonnullos tam ex antiquis quam modernis, qui rotationem terrae attribuerunt. At multo fortasse justior movetur controversia (si modo res non sit omnino extra controversiam), an motus videlicet iste (concesso quod terra stet) coeli finibus contineatur, an potius descendat, et communicetur aeri et aquis. Motum autem rotationis in missilibus, ut in spiculis, sagittis, pilis sclopetorum, et similibus, omnino ad motum libertatis rejicimus. | Let the seventeenth motion be the spontaneous motion of rotation, by which bodies delighting in motion and favorably placed for it enjoy their own nature, and follow themselves, not another body, and court (so to speak) their own embraces. For bodies seem either to move without limit, or to remain altogether at rest, or to tend to a limit at which, according to their nature, they either revolve or rest. Those which are favorably placed, if they delight in motion, move in a circle, with a motion, that is, eternal and infinite. Those which are favorably placed, and abhor motion, remain at rest. Those which are not favorably placed move in a right line (as the shortest path) to consort with bodies of their own nature. But this motion of rotation admits of nine differences regarding 1. the center round which the bodies move; 2. the poles on which they move; 3. their circumference or orbit, according to their distance from the center; 4. their velocity, according to the greater or less rapidity of their rotation; 5. the course of their motion, as from east to west, or from west to east; 6. their declination from a perfect circle by spiral lines more or less distant from their center; 7. their declination from a perfect circle by spiral lines more or less distant from their poles; 8. the greater or lesser distance of these spirals from each other; 9. and lastly, the variation of the poles themselves, if they be movable; which, however, has nothing to do with rotation unless it be circular. This motion in common and long received opinion is looked upon as the proper motion of heavenly bodies, though there is a grave dispute with regard to it among some both of the ancients and of the moderns, who have attributed rotation to the earth. But a juster question perhaps arises upon this (if it be not past question), namely, whether this motion (admitting that the earth stands still) is confined to the heavens, and does not rather descend and communicate itself to the air and waters. The motion of rotation in missiles, as in darts, arrows, musket balls, and the like, I refer to the motion of liberty. |
| 18. Sit Motus Decimus Octavus, Motus Trepidationis, cui (ut ab astronomis intelligitur) non multum fidei adhibemus. Nobis autem corporum naturalium appetitus ubique serio perscrutantibus occurrit iste motus ; et constitui debere videtur in speciem. Est autem hic motus veluti aeternae cujusdam captivitatis. Videlicet ubi corpora non omnino pro natura sua bene locata, et tamen non prorsus male se habentia, perpetuo trepidant, et irrequiete se agant, nec statu suo contenta, nec ulterius ausa progredi. Talis invenitur motus in corde et pulsibus animalium ; et necesse est ut sit in omnibus corporibus, quae statu ancipiti ita degunt inter commoda et incommoda, ut distracta liberare se tentent, et denuo repulsam patiantur, et tamen perpetuo experiantur. | Let the eighteenth motion be the motion of trepidation, to which, as understood by astronomers, I do not attach much credit. But in searching carefully everywhere for the appetites of natural bodies this motion comes before us and ought, it seems, to constitute a species by itself. It is a motion of what may be called perpetual captivity and occurs when bodies that have not quite found their right place, and yet are not altogether uneasy, keep forever trembling and stirring themselves restlessly, neither content as they are nor daring to advance further. Such a motion is found in the heart and pulses of animals, and must of necessity occur in all bodies which so exist in a mean state between conveniences and inconveniences that when disturbed they strive to free themselves, and being again repulsed, are yet forever trying again. |
| 19. Sit Motus Decimus Nonus et postremus, motus ille cui vix nomen motus competit, et tamen est plane motus. Quem motum, Motum Decubitus, sive Motum Exhorrentiae Motus, vocare licet. Per hunc motum terra stat mole sua, moventibus se extremis suis in medium ; non ad centrum imaginativum, sed ad unionem. Per hunc etiam appetitum omnia majorem in modum condensata motum exhorrent, atque illis pro omni appetitu est non moveri ; et licet infinitis modis vellicentur et provocentur ad motum, tamen naturam suam (quoad possunt) tuentur. Quod si ad motum compellantur, tamen hoc agere semper videntur ut quietem et statum suum recuperent, neque amplius moveant. Atque circa hoc certe se agilia praebent, et satis perniciter et rapide (ut pertaesa et impatientia omnis morae) contendunt. Hujus autem appetitus imago ex parte tantum cerni potest ; quia hic apud nos, ex subactione et concoctione coelestium, omne tangibile non tantum non condensatum est ad ultimitatem, sed etiam cum spiritu nonnullo miscetur. | Let the nineteenth and last motion be one which, though it hardly answers to the name, is yet indisputably a motion; and let us call it the motion of repose, or of aversion to move. It is by this motion that the earth stands still in its mass while its extremities are moving toward the middle not to an imaginary center, but to union. By this appetite also all bodies of considerable density abhor motion. Indeed, the desire of not moving is the only appetite they have; and though in countless ways they be enticed and challenged to motion, they yet, as far as they can, maintain their proper nature. And if compelled to move, they nevertheless seem always intent on recovering their state of rest and moving no more. While thus engaged, indeed, they show themselves active and struggle for it with agility and swiftness enough, as weary and impatient of all delay. Of this appetite but a partial representation can be seen, since here with us, from the subduing and concocting power of the heavenly bodies, all tangible substances are not only not condensed to their utmost, but are even mixed with some portion of spirit. |
| Proposuimus itaque jam species sive elementa simplicia motuum, appetituum, et virtutum activarum, quae sunt in natura maxime catholica. Neque parum scientiae naturalis sub illis adumbratum est. Non negamus tamen et alias species fortasse addi posse, atque istas ipsas divisiones secundum veriores rerum venas transferri, denique in minorem numerum posse redigi. Neque tamen hoc de divisionibus aliquibus abstractis intelligimus : veluti si quis dicat corpora appetere vel conservationem, vel exaltationem, vel propagationem, vel fruitionem naturae suae ; aut si quis dicat motus rerum tendere ad conservationem et bonum, vel universi, ut antitypiam et nexum ; vel universitatum magnarum, ut motus congregationis majoris, rotationis, et exhorrentiae motus ; vel formarum specialium, ut reliquos. Licet enim haec vera sint, tamen nisi terminentur in materia et fabrica secundum veras lineas, speculativa sunt, et minus utilia. Interim sufficient et boni erunt usus ad pensitandas praedominantias virtutum et exquirendas instantias luctae ; id quod nunc agitur. Etenim ex his quos proposuimus motibus alii prorsus sunt invincibiles ; alii aliis sunt fortiores, et illos ligant, fraenant, disponunt ; alii aliis longius jaculantur ; alii alios tempore et celeritate praevertunt ; alii alios fovent, roborant, ampliant, accelerant. Motus antitypiae omnino est adamantinus et invincibilis. Utrum vero Motus nexus sit invincibilis adhuc haeremus. Neque enim pro certo affirmaverimus utrum detur Vacuum, sive coacervatum sive permistum. At de illo nobis constat, rationem illam, propter quam introductum est Vacuum a Leucippo et Democrito (videlicet quod absque eo non possent eadem corpora complecti et implere majora et minora spatia), falsam esse. Est enim plane plica materiae complicantis et replicantis se per spatia, inter certos fines, absque interpositione vacui ; neque est in aere ex vacuo bis millies (tantum enim esse oportet) plus quam in auro. Id quod ex potentissimis corporum pneumaticorum virtutibus (quae aliter tanquam pulveris minuti natarent in vacuo), et multis aliis demonstrationibus, nobis satis liquet. Reliqui vero Motus regunt et reguntur invicem, pro rationibus vigoris, quanti, incitationis, ejaculationis, necnon tum auxiliorum tum impedimentorum quae occurrunt. Exempli gratia : magnes armatus nonnullus detinet et suspendit ferrum, ad sexagecuplum pondus ipsius ; eo usque dominatur motus congregationis minoris super motum congregationis majoris ; quod si majus fuerit pondus, succumbit. Vectis tanti roboris sublevabit tantum pondus ; eo usque dominatur motus libertatis super motum congregationis majoris ; sin majus fuerit pondus, succumbit. Corium tensum ad tensuram talem non rumpitur ; eo usque dominatur motus continuationis super motum tensurae ; quod si ulterior fuerit tensura, rumpitur corium, et succumbit motus continuationis. Aqua per rimam perforationis talis effluit ; eo usque dominatur motus congregationis majoris super motum continuationis ; quod si minor fuerit rima, succumbit, et vincit motus continuationis. In pulvere sulphuris solius immissi in sclopetum cum pila, et admoto igne, non emittitur pila ; in eo motus congregationis majoris vincit motum hyles. At in pulvere pyrio immisso vincit motus hyles in sulphure, adjutus motibus hyles et fugae in nitro. Et sic de caeteris. Etenim instantiae luctae (quae indicant praedominantiam virtutum, et secundum quas rationes et calculos praedominentur et succumbant) acri et sedula diligentia undique sunt conquirendae. Etiam modi et rationes ipsius succumbentiae motuum diligenter sunt introspiciendae. Nempe, an omnino cessent, vel potius usque nitantur, sed ligentur. Etenim in corporibus hic apud nos, nulla vera est quies, nec in integris nec in partibus ; sed tantum secundum apparentiam. Quies autem ista apparens causatur aut per aequilibrium, aut per absolutam praedominantiam motuum. Per aequilibrium, ut in bilancibus, quae stant si aequa sint pondera. Per praedominantiam, ut in hydriis perforatis, ubi quiescit aqua et detinetur a decasu, per praedominantiam motus nexus. Notandum tamen est (ut diximus) quatenus nitantur motus illi succumbentes. Etenim si quis per luctam detineatur extensus in terra, brachiis et tibiis vinctis, aut aliter detentis ; atque ille tamen totis viribus resurgere nitatur ; non est minor nixus, licet non proficiat. Hujus autem rei conditio (scilicet utrum per praedominantiam motus succumbens quasi annihiletur, an potius continuetur nixus, licet non conspiciatur), quae latet in conflictibus, apparebit fortasse in concurrentiis. Exempli gratia ; fiat experimentum in sclopetis, utrum sclopetus, pro tanto spatio quo emittat pilam in linea directa, sive (ut vulgo loquuntur) in puncto blanco, debiliorem edat percussionem ejaculando in supra, ubi Motus Ictus est simplex, quam desuper, ubi Motus Gravitatis concurrit cum Ictu. Etiam canones praedominantiarum qui occurrunt colligendi sunt. Veluti, quod quo communius est bonum quod appetitur, eo motus est fortior ut motus nexus, qui respicit communionem universi, fortior est motu gravitatis, qui respicit communionem densorum. Etiam quod appetitus qui sunt boni privati, non praevalent plerunque contra appetitus boni magis publici, nisi in parvis quantis. Quae utinam obtinerent in civilibus. | Thus, then, have I set forth the species or simple elements of motions, appetites, and active virtues, which are in nature most general. And under these heads no small portion of natural science is sketched out. I do not, however, mean to say that other species may not be added, or that the divisions I have made may not be drawn more accurately according to the true veins of nature, or reduced to a smaller number. Observe, nevertheless, that I am not here speaking of any abstract divisions, as if one were to say that bodies desire either the exaltation or the propagation or the fruition of their nature; or again, that the motions of things tend to the preservation and good either of the universe, as resistance and connection; or of great wholes, as the motions of the greater congregation, rotation, and aversion to move; or of special forms, as the rest. For though these assertions be true, yet unless they be defined by true lines in matter and the fabric of nature, they are speculative and of little use. Meanwhile, these will suffice and be of good service in weighing the predominancies of virtues and finding out instances of strife, which is our present object For of the motions I have set forth some are quite invincible; some are stronger than others, fettering, curbing, arranging them; some carry farther than others; some outstrip others in speed; some cherish, strengthen, enlarge, and accelerate others. The motion of resistance is altogether adamantine and invincible. Whether the motion of connection be so, I am still undecided. For I am not prepared to say for certain whether or no there be a vacuum, either collected in one place or interspersed in the pores of bodies. But of one thing I am satisfied, that the reason for which a vacuum was introduced by Leucippus and Democritus (namely, that without it the same bodies could not embrace and fill sometimes larger and sometimes smaller spaces) is a false one. For matter is clearly capable of folding and unfolding itself in space, within certain limits, without the interposition of a vacuum; nor is there in air two thousand times as much of vacuity as there is in gold. which on their hypothesis there should be. Of this I am sufficiently convinced by the potency of the virtues of pneumatical bodies (which otherwise would be floating in empty space like fine dust) and by many other proofs. As for the other motions, they rule and are ruled in turn, in proportion to their vigor, quantity, velocity, force of projection, and also to the helps and hindrances they meet with. For instance, there are some armed magnets that hold and suspend iron of sixty times their own weight, so far does the motion of the lesser prevail over the motion of the greater congregation; but if the weight be increased, it is overcome. A lever of given strength will raise a given weight, so far does the motion of liberty prevail over that of the greater congregation; but if the weight be increased, it is overcome. Leather stretches to a certain extent without breaking, so far does the motion of continuity prevail over the motion of tension; but if the tension be increased, the leather breaks and the motion of continuity is overcome. Water runs out at a crack of a certain size, so far does the motion of the greater congregation prevail over the motion of continuity; but if the crack be smaller, it gives way, and the motion of continuity prevails. If you charge a gun with ball and sulphur only, and apply the match, the ball is not discharged, the motion of the greater congregation overcoming in this case the motion of matter. But if you charge with gunpowder, the motion of matter in the sulphur prevails, being aided by the motions of matter and of flight in the niter. And so of other cases. Instances of strife, therefore, which point out the predominancies of virtues together with the manner and proportion in which they predominate or give place, should be sought and collected from all quarters with keen and careful diligence. Nor should we examine less carefully the modes in which these motions give way. That is to say, whether they stop altogether or whether they continue to resist but are overpowered. For in bodies here with us there is no real rest, either in wholes or in parts, but only in appearance. And this apparent rest is caused either by equilibrium, or by absolute predominancy of motions: by equilibrium, as in scales, which stand still if the weights be equal; by predominancy, as in watering pots with holes in them, where the water rests and is kept from falling out by the predominancy of the motion of connection. But it should be observed, as I have said, how far these yielding motions carry their resistance. For if a man be pinned to the ground, tied hand and foot, or otherwise held fast, and yet struggle to rise with all his might, the resistance is not the less though it be unsuccessful. But the real state of the case (I mean whether by predominancy the yielding motion is, so to speak, annihilated, or rather whether a resistance is continued, though we cannot see it) will perhaps, though latent in the conflicts of motions, be apparent in their concurrence. For example, let trial be made in shooting. See how far a gun will carry a ball straight, or as they say point-blank, and then try whether, if it be fired upward, the stroke will be feebler than when it is fired downward, where the motion of gravity concurs with the blow. Lastly, such canons of predominance as we meet with should be collected; for instance, that the more common the good sought, the stronger the motion. Thus the motion of connection, which regards communion with the universe, is stronger than the motion of gravity, which regards only communion with dense bodies. Again, that appetites which aim at a private good seldom prevail against appetites which aim at a more public good, except in small quantities rules which I wish held good in politics. 1 [which relate to concrete bodies rather than to matter in general ? Ed.] |
| XLIX. | XLIX |
| Inter praerogativas instantiarum ponemus loco vicesimo quinto Instantias Innuentes ; eas scilicet, quae commoda hominum innuunt aut designant. Etenim ipsum Posse et ipsum Scire naturam humanam amplificant, non beant. Itaque decerpenda sunt ex universitate rerum ea quae ad usus vitae maxime faciunt. Verum de iis erit magis proprius dicendi locus, cum Deductiones ad Praxim tractabimus. Quinetiam in ipso opere Interpretationis circa singula subjecta, locum semper Chartae Humanae, sive Chartae Optativae, assignamus. Etenim et quaerere et optare non inepte, pars scientiae est. | Among Prerogative Instances I will put in the twenty-fifth place intimating instances, those, I mean, which intimate or point out what is useful to man. For mere power and mere knowledge exalt human nature, but do not bless it. We must therefore gather from the whole store of things such as make most for the uses of life. But a more proper place for speaking of these will be when I come to treat of applications to practice. Besides, in the work itself of interpretation in each particular subject, I always assign a place to the human chart, or chart of things to be wished for. For to form judicious wishes is as much a part of knowledge as to ask judicious questions. |
| L. | L |
| Inter praerogativas instantiarum ponemus loco vicesimo sexto Instantias Polychrestas. Eae sunt, quae pertinent ad varia et saepius occurrunt ; ideoque operae et novis probationibus haud parum parcunt. Atque de instrumentis ipsis atque ingeniationibus proprius erit dicendi locus, cum Deductiones ad Praxim et Experimentandi Modos tractabimus. Quinetiam quae adhuc cognita sunt et in usum venerunt, in Historiis Particularibus singularum artium describentur. In praesenti autem subjungemus quaedam catholica circa ea pro exemplis tantum polychresti. Operatur igitur homo super corpora naturalia (praeter ipsam admotionem et amotionem corporum simplicem) septem praecipue modis : nempe, vel per exclusionem eorum quae impediunt et disturbant ; vel per compressiones, extensiones, agitationes, et hujusmodi ; vel per calorem et frigus ; vel per moram in loco convenienti ; vel per fraenum et regimen motus ; vel per consensus speciales ; vel per alternationem tempestivam et debitam, atque seriem et successionem horum omnium ; aut saltem nonnullorum ex illis. | Among Prerogative Instances I will put in the twenty-sixth place Polychrest Instances, or Instances of General Use. They are those which relate to a variety of cases and occur frequently and therefore save no small amount of labor and fresh demonstration. Of the instruments and contrivances themselves the proper place for speaking will be when I come to speak of applications to practice and modes of experimenting. Moreover, those which have been already discovered and come into use will be described in the particular histories of the several arts. At present I will subjoin a few general remarks on them as examples merely of this general use. Besides the simple bringing together and putting asunder of them, man operates upon natural bodies chiefly in seven ways, viz., either by exclusion of whatever impedes and disturbs; or by compressions, extensions, agitations, and the like; or by heat and cold; or by continuance in a suitable place; or by the checking and regulation of motion; or by special sympathies; or by the seasonable and proper alternation, series, and succession of all these ways, or at any rate of some of them. |
| 1. Ad primum igitur quod attinet ; aer communis qui undique praesto est et se ingerit, atque radii coelestium, multum turbant. Quae itaque ad illorum exclusionem faciunt, merito haberi possint pro polychrestis. Huc igitur pertinent materies et crassities vasorum, in quibus corpora ad operationem praeparata reponuntur. Similiter, modi accurati obturationis vasorum, per consolidationem et lutum sapientiae, ut loquuntur chymici. Etiam clausura per liquores in extimis, utilissima res est ; ut cum infundunt oleum super vinum aut succos herbarum, quod expandendo se in summitate instar operculi, optime ea conservat illaesa ab aere. Neque pulveres res malae sunt ; qui, licet contineant aerem permistum, tamen vim aeris coacervati et circumfusi arcent : ut fit in conservatione uvarum et fructuum intra arenam, et farinam. Etiam cera, mel, pix, et hujusmodi tenacia, recte obducuntur ad clausuram perfectiorem, et ad summovendum aerem et coelestia. Etiam nos experimentum quandoque fecimus, ponendo vas, necnon aliqua alia corpora, intra argentum vivum, quod omnium longe densissimum est ex iis quae circumfundi possunt. Quinetiam specus et cavernae subterraneae magni usus sunt ad prohibendum insolationem et aerem istum apertum praedatorium ; qualibus utuntur Germani Septentrionales pro granariis. Necnon repositio corporum in fundo aquarum ad hoc spectat : ut memini me quippiam audisse de utribus vini demissis in profundum puteum, ad infrigidationem scilicet, sed casu et per neglectum ac oblivionem ibidem remanentibus per multos annos, et deinde extractis ; unde vinum factum est non solum non vapidum aut emortuum, sed multo magis nobile ad gustum, per commixtionem partium suarum (ut videtur) magis exquisitam. Quod si postulet res ut corpora demittantur ad fundum aquarum, veluti intra fluvios aut mare, neque tamen aquas tangant, nec in vasibus obturatis concludantur, sed aere tantum circumdentur ; bonus est usus vasis illius quod adhibitum est nonnunquam ad operandum subter aquis super navigia demersa, ut urinatores diutius manere possint sub aquis, et per vices ad tempus respirare. Illud hujusmodi erat. Conficiebatur dolium ex metallo concavum, quod demittebatur aequabiliter ad superficiem aquae, atque sic deportabat totum aerem qui continebatur in dolio secum in fundum maris. Stabat autem super pedes tres (instar tripodis), qui longitudinis erant aliquanto minoris statura hominis ; ita ut urinator posset cum anhelitus deficeret, immittere caput in cavum dolii, et respirare, et deinde opus continuare. Atque audivimus inventam esse jam machinam aliquam naviculae aut scaphae, quae homines subter aquis vehere possit ad spatia nonnnulla. Verum sub tali vase, quale modo diximus, corpora quaevis facile suspendi possint ; cujus causa hoc experimentum adduximus. Est et alius usus diligentis et perfectae clausurae corporum : nempe, non solum ut prohibeatur aditus aeris per exterius (de quo jam dictum est), verum etiam ut cohibeatur exitus spiritus corporis, super quod fit operatio per interius. Necesse est enim ut operanti circa corpora naturalia constet de summis suis : viz. quod nihil expirarit aut effluxerit. Fiunt enim profundae alterationes in corporibus, quando, natura prohibente annihilationem, ars prohibeat etiam deperditionem aut evolationem alicujus partis. Atque hac de re invaluit opinio falsa (quae si vera esset, de ista conservatione summae certae absque diminutione esset fere desperandum) : viz. spiritus corporum, et aerem majori gradu caloris attenuatum, nullis vasorum claustris posse contineri, quin per poros vasorum subtiliores evolent. Atque in hanc opinionem adducti sunt homines per vulgata illa experimenta, poculi inversi super aquam cum candela aut charta inflammata, ex quo fit ut aqua sursum attrahatur ; atque similiter ventosarum, quae super flammam calefactae trahunt carnes. Existimant enim in utroque experimento aerem attenuatum emitti, et inde quantum ipsius minui, ideoque aquam aut carnes per nexum succedere. Quod falsissimum est. Aer enim non quanto diminuitur, sed spatio contrahitur ; neque incipit motus iste successionis aquae, antequam fiat extinctio flammae aut refrigeratio aeris : adeo ut medici, quo fortius attrahant ventosae, ponant spongias frigidas aqua madefactas super ventosas. Itaque non est cur homines multum sibi metuant de facili exitu aeris aut spirituum. Licet enim verum sit etiam solidissima corpora habere suos poros, tamen aegre patitur aer aut spiritus comminutionem sui ad tantam subtilitatem ; quemadmodum et aqua exire recusat per rimam minusculam. | With regard to the first, the common air, which is everywhere about us and pressing in, and the rays of the heavenly bodies, cause much disturbance. Whatever therefore serves to exclude them may justly be reckoned among things of general use. To this head belong the material and thickness of the vessels in which the bodies are placed on which we are going to operate; also the perfect stopping up of vessels by consolidation and lutum sapientiζ, as the chemists call it. Also the closing in of substances by liquids poured on the outside is a thing of very great use, as when they pour oil on wine or juices of herbs, which spreading over the surface like a lid preserves them excellently from the injury of the air. Nor are powders bad things; for though they contain air mixed up with them, they yet repel the force of the body of air round about, as we see in the preservation of grapes and other fruits in sand and flour. It is good too to spread bodies over with wax, honey, pitch, and like tenacious substances, for the more perfect enclosure of them and to keep off the air and heavenly bodies. I have sometimes tried the effect of laying up a vessel or some other body in quicksilver, which of all substances that can be poured round another is far the densest. Caverns, again, and subterraneous pits are of great use in keeping off the heat of the sun and that open air which preys upon bodies, and such are used in the north of Germany as granaries. The sinking of bodies in water has likewise the same effect, as I remember to have heard of bottles of wine being let down into a deep well to cool, but through accident or neglect being left there for many years, and then taken out; and that the wine not only was free from sourness or flatness, but tasted much finer, owing, it would seem, to a more exquisite commixture of its parts. And if the case require that bodies be let down to the bottom of the water, as in a river or the sea, without either touching the water or being enclosed in stopped vessels, but surrounded by air alone, there is good use in the vessel which has been sometimes employed for working under water on sunk ships whereby divers are enabled to remain a long while below, and take breath from time to time. This machine was a hollow bell made of metal which, being let down parallel to the surface of the water, carried with it to the bottom all the air it contained. It stood on three feet (like a tripod) the height of which was somewhat less than that of a man, so that the diver, when his breath failed, could put his head into the hollow of the bell, take breath, and then go on with his work. I have heard also of a sort of machine or boat capable of carrying men under water for some distance. Be that as it may, under such a vessel as I have described bodies of any sort can easily be suspended, and it is on that account that I have mentioned this experiment. There is also another advantage in the careful and complete closing of bodies. For not only does it keep the outer air from getting in (of which I have already spoken), but also it keeps the spirit of the body, on which the operation is going on inside, from getting out. For it is necessary for one who operates on natural bodies to be certain of his total quantities, that is, that nothing evaporates or flows away. For then and then only are profound alterations made in bodies when, while nature prevents annihilation, art prevents also the loss or escape of any part. On this subject there has prevailed a false opinion which, if true, would make us well nigh despair of preserving the perfect quantity without diminution, namely, that the spirits of bodies, and air when rarefied by a high degree of heat, cannot be contained in closed vessels but escape through their more delicate pores. To this opinion men have been led by common experiment of an inverted cup placed on water with a candle in it or a piece of paper lighted; the consequence of which is that the water is drawn up; and also by the similar experiment of cupping glasses which when heated over flame draw up the flesh. For in each of these experiments they imagine that the rarefied air escapes, and that its quantity being thereby diminished, the water or flesh comes up into its place by the motion of connection. But this is altogether a mistake. For the air is not diminished in quantity, but contracted in space; nor does the motion of the rising of the water commence till the flame is extinguished or the air cooled. And therefore physicians, to make their cupping glasses draw better, lay on them cold sponges dipped in water. And therefore there is no reason why men should be much afraid of the easy escape of air or spirits. For though it be true that the most solid bodies have pores, still air or spirit do not easily submit to such extremely fine comminution, just as water refuses to run out at very small chinks. |
| 2. De secundo vero modo ex septem praedictis illud imprimis notandum est, valere certe compressiones et hujusmodi violentias ad motum localem, atque alia id genus, potentissime ; ut in machinis et missilibus : etiam ad destructionem corporis organici, atque earum virtutum quae consistunt plane in motu. Omnis enim vita, immo etiam omnis flamma et ignitio destruitur per compressiones ; ut et omnis machina corrumpitur et confunditur per easdem. Etiam ad destructionem virtutum quae consistunt in posituris, et dissimilaritate partium paulo crassiore ; ut in coloribus (neque enim idem color floris integri et contusi, neque succini integri et pulverizati) ; etiam in saporibus (neque enim idem sapor pyri immaturi, et ejusdem compressi ac subacti ; nam manifesto dulcedinem majorem concipit). Verum ad transformationes et alterationes nobiliores corporum similarium non multum valent istae violentiae ; quia corpora per eas non acquirunt consistentiam aliquam novam constantem et quiescentem, sed transitoriam, et nitentem semper ad restitutionem et liberationem sui. Attamen non abs re foret hujus rei facere experimenta aliqua diligentiora ; ad hoc scilicet, utrum condensatio corporis bene similaris (qualia sunt aer, aqua, oleum, et hujusmodi), aut rarefactio similiter per violentiam indita, possint fieri constantes et fixae et quasi mutatae in naturam. Id quod primo experiendum per moram simplicem ; deinde per auxilia et consensus. Atque illud nobis in promptu fuisset (si modo in mentem venisset), cum aquam (de qua alibi) per malleationes et pressoria condensavimus, antequam erumperet. Debueramus enim sphaeram complanatam per aliquot dies sibi permisisse, et tum demum aquam extraxisse ; ut fieret experimentum, utrum statim impletura fuisset talem dimensionem, qualem habebat ante condensationem. Quod si non fecisset aut statim, aut certe paulo post, constans videlicet facta videri potuisset ista condensatio ; sin minus, apparuisset factam fuisse restitutionem, et compressionem fuisse transitoriam. Etiam simile quiddam faciendum erat circa extensionem aeris in ovis vitreis. Etenim debuerat fieri, post exuctionem fortem, subita et firma obturatio ; deinde debuerant ova illa manere ita obturata per nonnullos dies ; et tum demum experiendum fuisset, utrum aperto foramine attractus fuisset aer cum sibilo, aut etiam attracta fuisset tanta quantitas aquae post immersionem, quanta fuisset ab initio, si nulla adhibita fuisset mora. Probabile enim, aut saltem dignum probatione est, haec fieri potuisse et posse ; propterea quod in corporibus paulo magis dissimilaribus similia efficiat mora temporis. Etenim baculum per compressionem curvatum post aliquod tempus non resilit ; neque id imputandum est alicui deperditioni ex quanto ligni per moram ; nam idem fiet in lamina ferri (si augeatur mora), quae non est expirabilis. Quod si non succedat experimentum per moram simplicem, tamen non deserendum est negotium, sed auxilia alia adhibenda. Non enim parum lucri fit, si per violentias indi possint corporibus naturae fixae et constantes. Hac enim ratione aer possit verti in aquam per condensationes, et complura alia id genus. Dominus enim est homo motuum violentorum, magis quam caeterorum. | With regard to the second of the seven modes of operating above mentioned, it is particularly to be observed that compression and such violent means have indeed, with respect to local motion and the like, a most powerful effect, as in machines and projectiles, an effect which even causes the destruction of organic bodies and of such virtues as consist altogether in motion. For all life, nay all flame and ignition, is destroyed by compression, just as every machine is spoiled or deranged by the same. It causes the destruction likewise of virtues which consist in the position and coarser dissimilarity of parts. This is the case with colors, for the whole flower has not the same color as when it is bruised, nor the whole piece of amber as the same piece pulverized. So also it is with tastes. For there is not the same taste in an unripe pear as there is in a squeezed and softened one, for it manifestly contracts sweetness by the process. But for the more remarkable transformations and alterations of bodies of uniform structure such violent means are of little avail, since bodies do not acquire thereby a new consistency that is constant and quiescent, but one that is transitory and ever striving to recover and liberate itself. It would not be amiss, however, to make some careful experiments for the purpose of ascertaining whether the condensation or the rarefaction of a body of nearly uniform structure (as air, water, oil, and the like), being induced by violence, can be made to be constant and fixed, and to become a kind of nature. This should first be tried by simple continuance, and then by means of helps and consents. And the trial might easily have been made (if it had but occurred to me) when I was condensing water, as mentioned above, by hammer and press, till it burst forth from its enclosure. For I should have left the flattened sphere to itself for a few days, and after that drawn off the water, that so I might have seen whether it would immediately occupy the same dimensions which it had before condensation. If it had not done so, either immediately or at any rate soon after, we might have pronounced the condensation a constant one; if it had, it would have appeared that a restoration had taken place and that the compression was transitory. Something of a similar kind I might have tried also with the expansion of air in the glass eggs. For after powerful suction I might have stopped them suddenly and tightly; I might have left the eggs so stopped for some days and then tried whether on opening the hole the air would be drawn up with a hissing noise, or whether on plunging them into water, as much water would be drawn up as there would have been at first without the delay. For it is probable at least it is worth trying that this might have been, and may be, the case; since in bodies of structure not quite so uniform the lapse of time does produce such effects. For a stick bent for some time by compression does not recoil, and this must not be imputed to any loss of quantity in the wood through the lapse of time, since the same will be the case with a plate of steel if the time be increased, and steel does not evaporate. But if the experiment succeed not with mere continuance, the business must not be abandoned, but other aids must be employed. For it is no small gain if by the application of violence we can communicate to bodies fixed and permanent natures. For thus air can be turned into water by condensation, and many other effects of the kind can be produced, man being more the master of violent motions than of the rest. |
| 3. At tertius ex septem modis refertur ad magnum illud organum, tam naturae quam artis, quoad operandum ; videlicet calidum et frigidum. Atque in hac parte claudicat plane potentia humana, tanquam ex uno pede. Habemus enim calorem ignis, qui caloribus solis (prout ad nos deferuntur) et caloribus animalium quasi infinitis partibus potentior est et intensior. At deest frigus, nisi quale per tempestates hyemales, aut per cavernas, aut per circundationes nivis et glaciei, haberi potest : quod in comparatione aequari potest cum calore fortasse solis meridiano in regione aliqua ex torridis, aucto insuper per reverberationes montium et parietum ; nam hujusmodi utique tam calores quam frigora ab animalibus ad tempus exiguum tolerari possunt. Nihili autem sunt fere prae calore fornacis ardentis, aut alicujus frigoris quod huic gradui respondeat. Itaque omnia hic apud nos vergunt ad rarefactionem, et desiccationem, et consumptionem : nihil fere ad condensationem et intenerationem, nisi per misturas et modos quasi spurios. Quare Instantiae Frigoris omni diligentia sunt conquirendae : quales videntur inveniri in expositione corporum super turres quando gelat acriter ; in cavernis subterraneis ; circundationibus nivis et glaciei in locis profundioribus, et ad hoc excavatis ; demissione corporum in puteos ; sepulturis corporum in argento vivo et metallis ; immersione corporum in aquis, quae vertunt ligna in lapides ; defossione corporum in terra (qualis fertur apud Chinenses esse confectio porcellanae, ubi massae ad hoc factae dicuntur manere intra terram per quadraginta aut quinquaginta annos, et transmitti ad haeredes, tanquam minerae quaedam artificiales) ; et hujusmodi. Quinetiam quae interveniunt in natura condensationes, factae per frigora, similiter sunt investigandae ; ut, causis eorum cognitis, transferri possint in artes. Quales cernuntur in exudatione marmoris et lapidum ; in rorationibus super vitra per interius fenestrarum, sub auroram, post gelu noctis ; in originibus et collectionibus vaporum in aquas sub terra, unde saepe scaturiunt fontes ; et quaecunque sunt hujus generis. Inveniuntur autem, praeter illa quae sunt frigida ad tactum, quaedam alia potestate frigida, quae etiam condensant ; veruntamen operari videntur super corpora animalium tantum, et vix ultra. Hujus generis se ostendunt multa in medicinis et emplastris. Alia autem condensant carnes et partes tangibiles ; qualia sunt medicamenta astringentia, atque etiam inspissantiae : alia condensant spiritus ; id quod maxime cernitur in soporiferis. Duplex autem est modus condensationis spirituum, per medicamenta soporifera, sive provocantia somnum : alter per sedationem motus ; alter per fugam spirituum. Etenim viola, rosa sicca, lactuca, et hujusmodi benedicta sive benigna, per vapores suos amicos et moderate refrigerantes, invitant spiritus ut se uniant, et ipsorum acrem et inquietum motum compescunt. Etiam aqua rosacea, apposita ad nares in deliquiis animae, spiritus resolutos et nimium relaxatos se recipere facit, et tanquam alit. At opiata et eorum affinia spiritus plane fugant, ex qualitate sua maligna et inimica. Itaque si applicentur parti exteriori, statim aufugiunt spiritus ab illa parte, nec amplius libenter influunt : sin sumantur interius, vapores eorum, ascendentes ad caput, spiritus in ventriculis cerebri contentos undequaque fugant ; cumque se retrahant spiritus neque in aliam partem effugere possint, per consequens coeunt et condensantur; et quandoque plane extinguuntur et suffocantur ; licet rursus eadem opiata moderate sumpta, per accidens secundarium (videlicet condensationem illam quae a coitione succedit), confortent spiritus, eosque reddant magis robustos, et retundant eorum inutiles et incensivos motus, ex quo ad curas morborum, et vitae prolongationem haud parum conferant. Etiam praeparationes corporum ad excipiendum frigus non sunt omittendae ; veluti quod aqua parum tepida facilius conglacietur quam omnino frigida, et hujusmodi. Praeterea, quia natura frigus tam parce suppeditat, faciendum est quemadmodum pharmacopolae solent ; qui, quando simplex aliquod haberi non possit, capiunt succedaneum ejus, et quid pro quo, ut vocant : veluti lignum aloes pro xylobalsamo, cassiam pro cinamomo. Simili modo diligenter circumspiciendum est, si quae sint succedanea frigoris ; videlicet quibus modis fieri possint condensationes in corporibus, aliter quam per frigus, quod illas efficit ut opus suum proprium. Illae autem condensationes videntur intra quaternum numerum (quantum adhuc liquet) contineri. Quarum prima videtur fieri per contrusionem simplicem ; quae parum potest ad densitatem constantem (resiliunt enim corpora) sed nihilominus forte res auxiliaris esse queat. Secunda fit per contractionem partium crassiorum in corpore aliquo, post evolationem aut exitum partium tenuiorum, ut fit in indurationibus per ignem, et repetitis extinctionibus metallorum, et similibus. Tertia fit per coitionem partium homogenearum, quae sunt maxime solidae in corpore aliquo, atque antea fuerant distractae, et cum minus solidis commistae : veluti in restitutione mercurii sublimati, qui in pulvere longe majus occupat spatium quam mercurius simplex, et similiter in omni repurgatione metallorum a scoriis suis. Quarta fit per consensus, admovendo quae ex vi corporum occulta condensant ; qui consensus adhuc raro se ostendunt ; quod mirum minime est, quoniam antequam inventio succedat formarum et schematismorum, de inquisitione consensuum non multum sperandum est. Certe quoad corpora animalium, dubium non est quin sint complures medicinae, tam interius quam exterius sumptae, quae condensant tanquam per consensum, ut paulo ante diximus. Sed inanimatis rara est hujusmodi operatio. Percrebuit sane, tam scriptis quam fama, narratio de arbore in una ex insulis sive Terceris sive Canariis (neque enim bene memini), quae perpetuo stillat ; adeo ut inhabitantibus nonnullam commoditatem aquae praebeat. Paracelsus autem ait, herbam vocatam Rorem Solis meridie et fervente sole rore impleri, cum aliae herbae undique sint siccae. At nos utramque narrationem fabulosam esse existimamus. Omnino autem illae instantiae nobilissimi forent usus, et introspectione dignissimae, si essent verae. Etiam rores illos mellitos, et instar mannae, qui super foliis quercus inveniuntur mense Maio, non existimamus fieri et densari a consensu aliquo, sive a proprietate folii quercus ; sed cum super aliis foliis pariter cadant, contineri scilicet et durare in foliis quercus, quia sunt bene unita, nec spongiosa, ut plurima ex aliis. Calorem vero quod attinet, copia et potestas nimirum homini abunde adest ; observatio autem et inquisitio deficit in nonnullis, iisque maxime necessariis, utcunque spagyrici se venditent. Etenim caloris intensioris opificia exquiruntur et conspiciuntur ; remissioris vero, quae maxime in vias naturae incidunt, non tentantur, ideoque latent. Itaque videmus per vulcanos istos qui in pretio sunt, spiritus corporum magnopere exaltari, ut in aquis fortibus, et nonnullis aliis oleis chymicis ; partes tangibiles indurari, et, emisso volatili, aliquando figi ; partes homogeneas separari ; etiam corpora heterogenea grosso modo incorporari et commisceri ; maxime autem compages corporum compositorum et subtiliores schematismos destrui et confundi. Debuerant autem opificia caloris lenioris tentari et exquiri ; unde subtiliores misturae et schematismi ordinati gigni possint et educi, ad exemplum naturae et imitationem operum solis ; quemadmodum in aphorismo de instantiis foederis quaedam adumbravimus. Opificia enim naturae transiguntur per longe minores portiones, et posituras magis exquisitas et varias, quam opificia ignis, prout nunc adhibetur. Tum vero videatur homo revera auctus potestate, si per calores et potentias artificiales opera naturae possint specie repraesentari, virtute perfici, copia variari ; quibus addere oportet accelerationem temporis. Nam rubigo ferri longo tempore procedit, at versio in crocum Martis subito ; et similiter de aerugine et cerussa. Christallum longo tempore conficitur, vitrum subito conflatur. Lapides longo tempore concrescunt, lateres subito coquuntur, etc. Interim (quod nunc agitur) omnes diversitates caloris cum effectibus suis respective diligenter et industrie undique sunt colligendae et exquirendae : coelestium, per radios suos directos, reflexos, refractos, et unitos in speculis comburentibus ; fulguris, flammae, ignis carbonum ; ignis ex diversis materiis ; ignis aperti, conclusi, angustiati, et inundantis, denique per diversas fabricas fornacium qualificati ; ignis flatu exciti, quieti et non exciti ; ignis ad majorem aut minorem distantiam remoti ; ignis per varia media permeantis ; calorum humidorum, ut balnei Mariae, fimi, caloris animalium per exterius, caloris animalium per interius, foeni conclusi ; calorum aridorum, cineris, calcis, arenae tepidae ; denique calorum cujusvis generis cum gradibus eorum. Praecipue vero tentanda est inquisitio et inventio effectuum et opificiorum caloris accedentis et recedentis graduatim, et ordinatim, et periodice, et per debita spatia et moras. Ista enim inaequalitas ordinata revera filia coeli est, et generationis mater ; neque a calore aut vehementi, aut praecipiti, aut subsultorio, aliquid magni expectandum est. Etenim et in vegetabilibus hoc manifestissimum est ; atque etiam in uteris animalium magna est caloris inaequalitas, ex motu, somno, alimentationibus et passionibus foemellarum quae uterum gestant ; denique in ipsis matricibus terrae, iis nimirum in quibus metalla et fossilia efformantur, locum habet et viget ista inaequalitas. Quo magis notanda est inscitia aliquorum alchymistarum ex reformatis, qui per calores aequabiles lampadum et hujusmodi, perpetuo uno tenore ardentium, se voti compotes fore existimarunt. Atque de opificiis et effectibus caloris haec dicta sint. Neque vero tempestivum est illa penitus scrutari, antequam rerum formae et corporum schematismi ulterius investigati fuerint, et in lucem prodierint. Tum enim quaerenda et adoperanda et aptanda sunt instrumenta, quando de exemplaribus constiterit. | The third of the seven modes above-mentioned relates to that which, whether in nature or in art, is the great instrument of operation, viz., heat and cold. And herein man's power is clearly lame on one side. For we have the heat of fire which is infinitely more potent and intense than the heat of the sun as it reaches us, or the warmth of animals. But we have no cold save such as is to be got in wintertime, or in caverns, or by application of snow and ice, which is about as much perhaps in comparison as the heat of the sun at noon in the torrid zone, increased by the reflections of mountains and walls. For such heat as well as such cold can be endured by animals for a short time. But they are nothing to be compared to the heat of a burning furnace, or with any cold corresponding to it in intensity. Thus all things with us tend to rarefaction, and desiccation, and consumption; nothing hardly to condensation and inteneration except by mixtures and methods that may be called spurious. Instances of cold therefore should be collected with all diligence. And such it seems may be found by exposing bodies on steeples in sharp frosts; by laying them in subterranean caverns; by surrounding them with snow and ice in deep pits dug for the purpose; by letting them down into wells; by burying them in quicksilver and metals; by plunging them into waters which petrify wood; by burying them in the earth, as the Chinese are said to do in the making of porcelain, where masses made for the purpose are left, we are told, underground for forty or fifty years, and transmitted to heirs, as a kind of artificial minerals; and by similar processes. And so too all natural condensations caused by cold should be investigated, in order that, their causes being known, they may be imitated by art. Such we see in the sweating of marble and stones; in the dews condensed on the inside of windowpanes toward morning after a night's frost; in the formation and gathering of vapors into water under the earth, from which springs often bubble up. Everything of this kind should be collected. Besides things which are cold to the touch, there are found others having the power of cold, which also condense, but which seem to act on the bodies of animals only, and hardly on others. Of this sort we have many instances in medicines and plasters, some of which condense the flesh and tangible parts, as astringent and inspissatory medicaments; while others condense the spirits, as is most observable in soporifics. There are two ways in which spirits are condensed by medicaments soporific, or provocative of sleep: one by quieting their motion, the other by putting them to flight. Thus violets, dried rose leaves, lettuce, and like benedict or benignant medicaments, by their kindly and gently cooling fumes invite the spirits to unite and quiet their eager and restless motion. Rose water, too, applied to the nose in a fainting fit, causes the resolved and too relaxed spirits to recover themselves and, as it were, cherishes them. But opiates and kindred medicaments put the spirits utterly to flight by their malignant and hostile nature. And therefore if they be applied to an external part, the spirits immediately flee away from that part and do not readily flow into it again; if taken internally, their fumes, ascending to the head, disperse in all directions the spirits contained in the ventricles of the brain; and these spirits thus withdrawing themselves, and unable to escape into any other part, are by consequence brought together and condensed, and sometimes are utterly choked and extinguished; though on the other hand these same opiates taken in moderation do by a secondary accident (namely, the condensation which succeeds the coming together) comfort the spirits and render them more robust, and check their useless and inflammatory motions; whereby they contribute no little to the cure of diseases and prolongation of life. Besides, since nature supplies cold as sparingly, we must do as the apothecaries do who, when they cannot get a simple, take its succedaneum or quid pro quo, as they call it such as aloes for balsam, cassia for cinnamon. In like manner we should look round carefully to see if there be anything that will do instead of cold, that is to say, any means by which condensations can be effected in bodies otherwise than by cold, the proper office of which is to effect them. Such condensations, as far as yet appears, would seem to be limited to four. The first of these is caused by simple compression, which can do but little for permanent density, since bodies recoil, but which perhaps may be of use as an auxiliary. The second is caused by the contraction of the coarser parts in a body after the escape of the finer, such as takes place in indurations by fire, in the repeated quenchings of metals, and like processes. The third is caused by the coming together of those homogeneous parts in a body which are the most solid, and which previously had been dispersed and mixed with the less solid; as in the restoration of sublimated mercury, which occupies a far greater space in powder than as simple mercury, and similarly in all purging of metals from their dross. The fourth is brought about through sympathy, by applying substances which from some occult power condense. These sympathies or consents at present manifest themselves but rarely, which is no wonder, since before we succeed in discovering forms and configurations we cannot hope for much from an inquiry into sympathies. With regard to the bodies of animals, indeed, there is no doubt that there are many medicines, whether taken internally or externally, which condense as it were by consent, as I have stated a little above. But in the case of inanimate substances such operation is rare. There has indeed been spread abroad, as well in books as in common rumor, the story of a tree in one of the Tercera or Canary Isles (I do not well remember which) which is constantly dripping, so as to some extent to supply the inhabitants with water. And Paracelsus says that the herb called Ros Solis is at noon and under a burning sun filled with dew, while all the other herbs round it are dry. But both of these stories I look upon as fabulous. If they were true, such instances would be of most signal use and most worthy of examination. Nor do I conceive that those honeydews, like manna, which are found on the leaves of the oak in the month of May, are formed and condensed by any peculiar property in the leaf of the oak, but while they fall equally on all leaves, they are retained on those of the oak as being well united and not spongy as most of the others are. As regards heat, man indeed has abundant store and command thereof, but observation and investigation are wanting in some particulars, and those the most necessary, let the alchemists say what they will. For the effects of intense heat are sought for and brought into view, but those of a gentler heat, which fall in most with the ways of nature, are not explored and therefore are unknown. And therefore we see that by the heats generally used the spirits of bodies are greatly exalted, as in strong waters and other chemical oils; that the tangible parts are hardened and, the volatile being discharged, sometimes fixed; that the homogeneous parts are separated, while the heterogeneous are in a coarse way incorporated and mixed up together; above all, that the junctures of composite bodies and their more subtle configurations are broken up and confounded. Whereas the operations of a gentler heat ought to have been tried and explored, whereby more subtle mixtures and regular configurations might be generated and educed, after the model of nature and in imitation of the works of the sun as I have shadowed forth in the Aphorism on Instances of Alliance. For the operations of nature are performed by far smaller portions at a time, and by arrangements far more exquisite and varied than the operations of fire, as we use it now. And it is then that we shall see a real increase in the power of man when by artificial heats and other agencies the works of nature can be represented in form, perfected in virtue, varied in quantity, and, I may add, accelerated in time. For the rust of iron is slow in forming, but the turning into Crocus Martis is immediate; and it is the same with verdigris and ceruse; crystal is produced by a long process, while glass is blown at once; stones take a long time to grow, while bricks are quickly baked. Meanwhile (to come to our present business), heats of every kind, with their effects, should be diligently collected from all quarters and investigated the heat of heavenly bodies by their rays direct, reflected, refracted, and united in burning glasses and mirrors; the heat of lightning, of flame, of coal fire; of fire from different materials; of fire close and open, straitened and in full flow, modified in fine by the different structures of furnaces; of fire excited by blowing; of fire quiescent and not excited; of fire removed to a greater or less distance; of fire passing through various media; moist heats, as of a vessel floating in hot water, of dung, of external and internal animal warmth, of confined hay; dry heats, as of ashes, lime, warm sand; in short, heats of all kinds with their degrees. Nor should we omit the means of preparing bodies to receive cold. Among others I may mention that water slightly warm is more easily frozen than quite cold. But above all we must try to investigate and discover the effects and operations of heat when applied and withdrawn gradually, orderly, and periodically, at due distances and for due times. For such orderly inequality is in truth the daughter of the heavens and mother of generation; nor is anything great to be expected from a heat either vehement or precipitate or that comes by fits and starts. In vegetables this is most manifest; and also in the wombs of animals there is a great inequality of heat, from the motion, sleep, food, and passions of the female in gestation. Lastly, in the wombs of the earth itself, those I mean in which metals and fossils are formed, the same inequality has place and force. Which makes the unskillfulness of some alchemists of the reformed school all the more remarkable who have conceived that by the equable warmth of lamps and the like, burning uniformly, they can attain their end. And so much for the operations and effects of heat. To examine them thoroughly would be premature, till the forms of things and the configurations of bodies have been further investigated and brought to light. For it will then be time to seek, apply, and adapt our instruments when we are clear as to the pattern. |
| 4. Quartus modus operandi est per moram, quae certe et promus et condus naturae est, et quaedam dispensatrix. Moram appellamus, cum corpus aliquod sibi permittitur ad tempus notabile, munitum interim et defensum ab aliqua vi externa. Tum enim motus intestini se produnt et perficiunt, cum motus extranei et adventitii cessant. Opera autem aetatis sunt longe subtiliora quam ignis. Neque enim possit fieri talis clarificatio vini per ignem, qualis fit per moram ; neque etiam incinerationes per ignem tam sunt exquisitae, quam resolutiones et consumptiones per saecula. Incorporationes etiam, et mistiones subitae et praecipitatae per ignem, longe inferiores sunt illis, quae fiunt per moram. At dissimilares et varii schematismi, quos corpora per moras tentant (quales sunt putredines), per ignem aut calorem vehementiorem destruuntur. Illud interim non abs re fuerit notare ; motus corporum penitus conclusorum habere nonnihil ex violento. Incarceratio enim illa impedit motus spontaneos corporis. Itaque mora in vase aperto plus facit ad separationes ; in vase penitus clauso ad commistiones ; in vase nonnihil clauso, sed subintrante aere, ad putrefactiones. Utcunque de opificiis et effectibus morae undique sunt diligenter conquirendae instantiae. | The fourth mode of operating is by continuance, which is as it were the steward and almoner of nature. Continuance I call it when a body is left to itself for a considerable time, being meanwhile defended from all external force. For then only do the internal motions exhibit and perfect themselves when the extraneous and adventitious are stopped. Now the works of time are far subtler than those of fire. For wine cannot be so clarified by fire as it is by time; nor are the ashes produced by fire so fine as the dust into which substances are resolved and wasted by ages. So too the sudden incorporations and mixtures precipitated by fire are far inferior to those which are brought about by time. And the dissimilar and varied configurations which bodies by continuance put on, such as putrefactions, are destroyed by fire or any violent heat. Meanwhile it would not be out of place to observe that the motions of bodies when quite shut up have in them something of violence. For such imprisonment impedes the spontaneous motions of the body. And therefore continuance in an open vessel is best for separations; in a vessel quite closed for commixtures; in a vessel partly closed, but with the air entering, for putrefactions. But, indeed, instances showing the effects and operations of continuance should be carefully collected from all quarters. |
| 5. At regimen motus (quod est quintus ex modis operandi) non parum valet. Regimen autem motus vocamus, cum corpus aliud occurrens corporis alterius motum spontaneum impedit, repellit, admittit, dirigit. Hoc vero plerunque in figuris et situ vasorum consistit. Etenim conus erectus juvat ad condensationem vaporum in alembicis ; at conus inversus juvat defaecationem sacchari in vasis resupinatis. Aliquando autem sinuatio requiritur, et angustiatio, et dilatatio per vices, et hujusmodi. Etiam omnis percolatio huc spectat ; scilicet cum corpus occurrens uni parti corporis alterius viam aperit, alteri obstruit. Neque semper percolatio aut aliud regimen motus fit per extra ; sed etiam per corpus in corpore : ut cum lapilli immittuntur in aquas ad colligendam limositatem ipsarum ; syrupi clarificantur cum albuminibus ovorum, ut crassiores partes adhaerescant, et postea separari possint. Etiam huic regimini motus satis leviter et inscite attribuit Telesius figuras animalium, ob rivulos scilicet et loculos matricis. Debuerat autem notare similem efformationem in testis ovorum, ubi non sunt rugae aut inaequalitas. At verum est regimen motus efformationes perficere in modulis et proplasticis. | The regulation of motion (which is the fifth mode of operating) is of no little service. I call it regulation of motion when one body meeting another impedes, repels, admits or directs its spontaneous motion. It consists for the most part in the shape and position of vessels. Thus the upright cone in alembics helps the condensation of vapors; the inverted cone in receivers helps the draining off of the dregs of sugar. Sometimes a winding form is required, and one that narrows and widens in turn, and the like. For all percolation depends on this, that the meeting body opens the way to one portion of the body met and shuts it to another. Nor is the business of percolation or other regulation of motion always performed from without. It may also be done by a body within a body, as when stones are dropped into water to collect the earthy parts; or when syrups are clarified with the whites of eggs that the coarser parts may adhere thereto, after which they may be removed. It is also to this regulation of motion that Telesius has rashly and ignorantly enough attributed the shapes of animals, which he says are owing to the channels and folds in the womb. But he should have been able to show the like formation in the shells of eggs, in which there are no wrinkles or inequalities. It is true, however, that the regulation of motion gives the shapes in molding and casting. |
| 6. Operationes vero per consensus aut fugas (qui sextus modus est) latent saepenumero in profundo. Istae enim (quas vocant) proprietates occultae, et specificae, et sympathiae, et antipathiae, sunt magna ex parte corruptelae philosophiae. Neque de consensibus rerum inveniendis multum sperandum est, ante inventionem formarum et schematismorum simplicium. Consensus enim nil aliud est quam symmetria formarum et schematismorum ad invicem. Atqui majores et magis catholici rerum consensus non prorsus obscuri sunt. Itaque ab iis ordiendum. Eorum prima et summa diversitas ea est ; ut quaedam corpora copia et raritate materiae admodum discrepent, schematismis consentiant : alia contra copia et raritate materiae consentiant, schematismis discrepent. Nam non male notatum est a chymicis, in principiorum suorum triade, sulphur et mercurium quasi per universitatem rerum permeare. (Nam de sale inepta ratio est, sed introducta ut possit comprehendere corpora terrea, sicca, et fixa.) At certe in illis duobus videtur consensus quidam naturae ex maxime catholicis conspici. Etenim consentiunt sulphur ; oleum, et exhalatio pinguis ; flamma ; et fortasse corpus stellae. Ex altera parte consentiunt mercurius ; aqua et vapores aquei ; aer ; et fortasse aether purus et interstellaris. Attamen istae quaterniones geminae, sive magnae rerum tribus (utraque intra ordines suos), copia materiae atque densitate immensum differunt, sed schematismo valde conveniunt ; ut in plurimis se produnt. At contra metalla diversa copia et densitate multum conveniunt (praesertim respectu vegetabilium, etc.), sed schematismo multifariam differunt ; et similiter vegetabilia et animalia diversa schematismis quasi infinitis variantur, sed intra copiam materiae sive densitatem paucorum graduum continentur. Sequitur consensus maxime post priorem catholicus, videlicet corporum principalium et fomitum suorum ; videlicet menstruorum, et alimentorum. Itaque exquirendum, sub quibus climatibus, et in qua tellure, et ad quam profunditatem metalla singula generentur ; et similiter de gemmis, sive ex rupibus, sive inter mineras natis ; in qua gleba terrae, arbores singulae, et frutices, et herbae potissimum proveniant, et tanquam gaudeant ; et insimul quae impinguationes, sive per stercorationes cujuscunque generis, sive per cretam, arenam maris, cineres, etc., maxime juvent ; et quae sint ex his pro varietate glebarum magis aptae et auxiliares. Etiam insitio et inoculatio arborum et plantarum, earumque ratio, quae scilicet plantae super quas foelicius inserantur, etc., multum pendet de consensu. In qua parte non injucundum foret experimentum, quod noviter audivimus esse tentatum, de insitione arborum sylvestrium (quae hucusque in arboribus hortensibus fieri consuevit), unde folia et glandes majorem in modum amplificantur, et arbores fiunt magis umbrosae. Similiter, alimenta animalium respective notanda sunt in genere, et cum negativis. Neque enim carnivora sustinent herbis nutriri ; unde etiam Ordo Folitanorum (licet voluntas humana plus possit quam animantium caeterorum super corpus suum), post experientiam factam (ut aiunt), tanquam ab humana natura non tolerabilis, fere evanuit. Etiam materiae diversae putrefactionum, unde animalcula generantur, notandae sunt. Atque consensus corporum principalium erga subordinata sua (tales enim ii possint censeri quos notavimus) satis in aperto sunt. Quibus addi possunt sensuum consensus erga objecta sua. Qui consensus, cum manifestissimi sint, bene notati, et acriter excussi, etiam aliis consensibus qui latent magnam praebere possint lucem . At interiores corporum consensus et fugae, sive amicitiae et lites (taedet enim nos fere vocabulorum sympathiae et antipathiae, propter superstitiones et inania), aut falso ascriptae, aut fabulis conspersae, aut per neglectum rarae admodum sunt. Etenim si quis asserat inter vineam et brassicam esse dissidium, quia juxta sata minus laete proveniunt, praesto ratio est : quod utraque planta succulenta sit et depraedatrix, unde altera alteram defraudat. Si quis asserat esse consensum et amicitiam inter segetes et cyaneum, aut papaver sylvestre, quia herbae illae fere non proveniunt nisi in arvis cultis : debuit is potius asserere dissidium esse inter ea, quia papaver et cyaneus emittuntur et creantur ex tali succo terrae qualem segetes reliquerint et repudiaverint ; adeo ut satio segetum terram praeparet ad eorum proventum. Atque hujusmodi falsarum ascriptionum magnus est numerus. Quoad fabulas vero, illae omnino sunt exterminandae. Restat tenuis certe copia eorum consensuum, qui certo probati sunt experimento ; quales sunt magnetis et ferri, atque auri et argenti vivi, et similium. At in experimentis chymicis circa metalla inveniuntur et alii nonnulli observatione digni. Maxima vero frequentia eorum (ut in tanta paucitate) invenitur in medicinis nonnullis, quae, ex proprietatibus suis occultis (quas vocant) et specificis, respiciunt aut membra, aut humores, aut morbos, aut quandoque naturas individuas. Neque omittendi sunt consensus inter motus et affectus lunae et passiones corporum inferiorum, prout ex experimentis agriculturae, nauticae, et medicinae, aut alias cum delectu severo et sincero colligi et recipi possint. Verum instantiae universae consensuum secretiorum, quo magis sunt infrequentes, eo majori cum diligentia sunt inquirendae, per traditiones, et narrationes fidas et probas ; modo hoc fiat absque ulla levitate, aut credulitate, sed fide anxia et quasi dubitabunda. Restat consensus corporum modo operandi tanquam inartificialis, sed usu polychrestus, qui nullo modo omittendus est, sed sedula observatione investigandus. Is est coitio sive unio corporum, proclivis aut difficilis, per compositionem, sive appositionem simplicem. Etenim corpora nonnulla facile et libenter commiscentur et incorporantur, alia autem aegre et perverse : veluti pulveres melius incorporantur cum aquis ; calces et cineres, cum oleis ; et sic de similibus. Neque tantum sunt colligendae instantiae propensionis aut aversionis corporum erga misturam, sed etiam collocationis partium, et distributionis, et digestionis, postquam commista sint ; denique et praedominantiae post misturam transactam. | Operations by consents or aversions (which is the sixth mode) often lie deeply hid. For what are called occult and specific properties, or sympathies and antipathies, are in great part corruptions of philosophy. Nor can we have much hope of discovering the consents of things before the discovery of forms and simple configurations. For consent is nothing else than the adaptation of forms and configurations to each other. The broader and more general consents of things are not, however, quite so obscure. I will therefore begin with them. Their first and chief diversity is this, that some bodies differ widely as to density and rarity but agree in configurations, while others agree as to density and rarity but differ in configurations. For it has not been ill observed by the chemists in their triad of first principles that sulphur and mercury run through the whole universe. (For what they add about salt is absurd, and introduced merely to take in bodies earthy, dry, and fixed.) But certainly in these two one of the most general consents in nature does seem to be observable. For there is consent between sulphur, oil, and greasy exhalation, flame, and perhaps the body of a star. So is there between mercury, water and watery vapors, air, and perhaps the pure and intersidereal ether. Yet these two quaternions or great tribes of things (each within its own limits) differ immensely in quantity of matter and density, but agree very well in configuration; as appears in numerous cases. On the other hand metals agree well together in quantity and density, especially as compared with vegetables, etc., but differ very widely in configuration; while in like manner vegetables and animals vary almost infinitely in their configurations, but in quantity of matter or density their variation is confined to narrow limits. The next most general consent is that between primary bodies and their supports, that is, their menstrua and foods. We must therefore inquire, under what climates, in what earth, and at what depth, the several metals are generated; and so of gems, whether produced on rocks or in mines; also in what soil the several trees and shrubs and herbs thrive best and take, so to speak, most delight; moreover what manurings, whether by dung of any sort, or by chalk, sea sand, ashes, etc., do the most good; and which of them are most suitable and effective according to the varieties of soil. Again, the grafting and inoculating of trees and plants, and the principle of it, that is to say, what plants prosper best on what stocks, depends much on sympathy. Under this head it would be an agreeable experiment, which I have heard has been lately tried, of engrafting forest trees (a practice hitherto confined to fruit trees), whereby the leaves and fruit are greatly enlarged and the trees made more shady. In like manner the different foods of animals should be noted under general heads, and with their negatives. For carnivorous animals cannot live on herbs, whence the order of Feuillans (though the will in man has more power over the body than in other animals) has after trial (they say) well nigh disappeared, the thing not being endurable by human nature. Also the different materials of putrefaction, whence animalculae are generated, should be observed. The consents of primary bodies with their subordinates (for such those may be considered which I have noted) are sufficiently obvious. To these may be added the consents of the senses with their objects. For these consents, since they are most manifest and have been well observed and keenly sifted, may possibly shed great light on other consents also which are latent. But the inner consents and aversions, or friendships and enmities, of bodies (for I am almost weary of the words sympathy and antipathy on account of the superstitions and vanities associated with them) are either falsely ascribed, or mixed with fables, or from want of observation very rarely met with. For if it be said that there is enmity between the vine and colewort, because when planted near each other they do not thrive, the reason is obvious that both of these plants are succulent and exhaust the ground, and thus one robs the other. If it be said that there is consent and friendship between corn and the corn cockle or the wild poppy, because these herbs hardly come up except in ploughed fields, it should rather be said that there is enmity between them, because the poppy and corn cockle are emitted and generated from a juice of the earth which the corn has left and rejected; so that sowing the ground with corn prepares it for their growth. And of such false ascriptions there is a great number. As for fables, they should be utterly exterminated. There remains indeed a scanty store of consents which have been approved by sure experiment, such as those of the magnet and iron, of gold and quicksilver, and the like. And in chemical experiments on metals there are found also some others worthy of observation. But they are found in greatest abundance (if one may speak of abundance in such a scarcity) in certain medicines which by their occult (as they are called) and specific properties have relation either to limbs, or humors, or diseases, or sometimes to individual natures. Nor should we omit the consents between the motions and changes of the moon and the affections of bodies below, such as may be gathered and admitted, after strict and honest scrutiny, from experiments in agriculture, navigation, medicine, and other sciences. But the rarer all the instances of more secret consents are, the greater the diligence with which they should be sought after, by means of faithful and honest traditions and narrations; provided this be done without any levity or credulity, but with an anxious and (so to speak) a doubting faith. There remains a consent of bodies, inartificial perhaps in mode of operation, but in use a polychrest, which should in no wise be omitted, but examined into with careful attention. I mean the proneness or reluctance of bodies to draw together or unite by composition or simple apposition. For some bodies are mixed together and incorporated easily, but others with difficulty and reluctance. Thus powders mix best with water, ashes and lime with oils, and so on. Nor should we merely collect instances of the propensity or aversion of bodies for mixture, but also of the collocation of their parts, of their distribution and digestion when they are mixed, and finally of their predominancy after the mixture is completed. |
| 7. Superest ultimo loco ex modis septem operandi septimus et postremus : operatio scilicet per alternationem et vicissitudines priorum sex ; de quo antequam in singulos illos paulo altius fuerit inquisitum, tempestivum non foret exempla proponere. Series autem sive catena hujusmodi alternationis, prout ad singula effecta accommodari possit, res est et cognitu maxime difficilis, et ad opera maxime valida. Summa autem detinet et occupat homines impatientia hujusmodi tam inquisitionis, quam praxeos ; cum tamen sit instar fili labyrinthi, quoad opera majora. Atque haec sufficiant ad exemplum Polychresti. | There remains the seventh and last of the seven modes of operation, namely, the means of operating by the alternation of the former six. But it would not be seasonable to bring forward examples of this till our search has been carried somewhat more deeply into the others singly. Now a series or chain of such alternations, adapted to particular effects, is a thing at once most difficult to discover and most effective to work with. But men are utterly impatient both of the inquiry and the practice, though it is the very thread of the labyrinth as regards works of any magnitude. Let this suffice to exemplify the polychrest instances. |
| LI. | LI |
| Inter praerogativas instantiarum, ponemus loco vicesimo septimo atque ultimo Instantias Magicas. Hoc nomine illas appellamus, in quibus materia aut efficiens tenuis aut parva est, pro magnitudine operis et effectus qui sequitur ; adeo ut etiamsi fuerint vulgares, tamen sint instar miraculi ; aliae primo intuitu, aliae etiam attentius contemplanti. Has vero natura ex sese subministrat parce ; quid vero factura sit sinu excusso, et post inventionem formarum, et processuum, et schematismorum, futuris temporibus apparebit. At ista effecta magica (quantum adhuc conjicimus) fiunt tribus modis : aut per multiplicationem sui, ut in igne, et venenis, quae vocant specifica ; necnon in motibus, qui transeunt et fortificantur de rota in rotam : aut per excitationem sive invitationem in altero, ut in magnete, qui excit acus innumeras, virtute nullatenus deperdita aut diminuta ; aut in fermento, et hujusmodi : aut per anteversionem motus, ut dictum est de pulvere pyrio, et bombardis, et cuniculis : quorum priores duo modi indagationem consensuum requirunt ; tertius, mensurae motuum. Utrum vero sit aliquis modus mutandi corpora per minima (ut vocant), et transponendi subtiliores materiae schematismos (id quod ad omnimodas corporum transformationes pertinet, ut ars brevi tempore illud facere possit, quod natura per multas ambages molitur), de eo nulla hactenus nobis constant indicia. Quemadmodum autem in solidis et veris aspiramus ad ultima et summa ; ita vana et tumida perpetuo odimus, et quantum in nobis est profligamus. | Among Prerogative Instances I will put in the twenty-seventh and last place Instances of Magic, by which I mean those wherein the material or efficient cause is scanty or small as compared with the work and effect produced. So that even where they are common they seem like miracles; some at first sight, others even after attentive consideration. These, indeed, nature of herself supplies sparingly, but what she may do when her folds have been shaken out, and after the discovery of forms and processes and configurations, time will show. But these magical effects (according to my present conjecture) are brought about in three ways: either by self-multiplication, as in fire, and in poisons called specific, and also in motions which are increased in power by passing from wheel to wheel; or by excitation or invitation in another body, as in the magnet, which excites numberless needles without losing any of its virtue, or in yeast and the like; or by anticipation of motion, as in the case already mentioned of gunpowder and cannons and mines. Of which ways the two former require a knowledge of consents, the third a knowledge of the measurement of motions. Whether there be any mode of changing bodies per minima (as they call it) and of transposing the subtler configurations of matter (a thing required in every sort of transformation of bodies) so that art may be enabled to do in a short time that which nature accomplishes by many windings, is a point on which I have at present no sure indications. And as in matters solid and true I aspire to the ultimate and supreme, so do I forever hate all things vain and tumid, and do my best to discard them. |
| LII. | LII |
| Atque de Dignitatibus sive Praerogativis Instantiarum haec dicta sint. Illud vero monendum, nos in hoc nostro Organo tractare logicam, non philosophiam. Sed cum logica nostra doceat intellectum et erudiat ad hoc, ut non tenuibus mentis quasi claviculis rerum abstracta captet et prenset (ut logica vulgaris), sed naturam revera persecet, et corporum virtutes et actus eorumque leges in materia determinatas inveniat ; ita ut non solum ex natura mentis, sed ex natura rerum quoque haec scientia emanet : mirum non est, si ubique naturalibus contemplationibus et experimentis, ad exempla artis nostrae, conspersa fuerit et illustrata. Sunt autem (ut ex iis quae dicta sunt patet) Praerogativae Instantiarum numero 27 ; nominibus : Instantiae Solitariae : Instantiae Migrantes : Instantiae Ostensivae : Instantiae Clandestinae : Instantiae Constitutivae : Instantiae Conformes : Instantiae Monodicae : Instantiae Deviantes : Instantiae Limitaneae : Instantiae Potestatis : Instantiae Comitatus et Hostiles : Instantiae Subjunctivae : Instantiae Foederis : Instantiae Crucis : Instantiae Divortii : Instantiae Januae : Instantiae Citantes : Instantiae Viae : Instantiae Supplementi : Instantiae Persecantes : Instantiae Virgae : Instantiae Curriculi : Doses Naturae : Instantiae Luctae : Instantiae Innuentes : Instantiae Polychrestae : Instantiae Magicae. Usus autem harum instantiarum, in quo instantias vulgares excellunt, versatur in genere aut circa partem informativam ; aut circa operativam ; aut circa utramque. Atque quoad informativam, juvant illae aut sensum, aut intellectum. Sensum, ut quinque Instantiae Lampadis : intellectum, aut accelerando exclusivam formae, ut Solitariae ; aut angustiando et propius indicando affirmativam formae, ut Migrantes, Ostensivae, Comitatus, cum Subjunctivis ; aut erigendo intellectum, et ducendo ad genera et naturas communes ; idque aut immediate, ut Clandestinae, Monodicae, Foederis ; aut gradu proximo, ut Constitutivae ; aut gradu infimo, ut Conformes ; aut rectificando intellectum a consuetis, ut Deviantes ; aut ducendo ad Formam Magnam, sive Fabricam Universi, ut Limitaneae ; aut cavendo de formis et causis falsis, ut Crucis et Divortii. Quod vero ad Operativam attinet ; illae practicam aut designant, aut mensurant, aut sublevant. Designant aut ostendendo a quibus incipiendum, ne actum agamus, ut Instantiae Potestatis ; aut ad quid aspirandum, si detur facultas, ut Innuentes : mensurant quatuor illae Mathematicae : sublevant Polychrestae et Magicae. Rursus ex istis instantiis 27, nonnullarum (ut superius diximus de aliquibus) facienda est collectio jam ab initio, nec expectanda particularis inquisitio naturarum. Cujus generis sunt instantiae conformes, monodicae, deviantes, limitaneae, potestatis, januae, innuentes, polychrestae, magicae. Hae enim aut auxiliantur et medentur intellectui et sensui, aut instruunt praxin in genere. Reliquae tum demum conquirendae sunt, cum conficiemus tabulas comparentiae ad opus interpretis circa aliquam naturam particularem. Sunt enim instantiae praerogativis istis insignitae et donatae animae instar, inter vulgares instantias comparentiae ; et ut ab initio diximus, paucae illarum sunt vice multarum ; quocirca cum tabulas conficimus, illae omni studio sunt investigandae, et in tabulas referendae. Erit etiam earum mentio necessaria in iis quae sequuntur. Praeponendus itaque erat earum tractatus. Nunc vero ad adminicula et rectificationes Inductionis, et deinceps ad concreta, et latentes processus, et latentes schematismos, et reliqua quae Aphorismo 21. ordine proposuimus, pergendum ; ut tandem (tanquam curatores probi et fideles) tradamus hominibus fortunas suas, emancipato intellectu, et facto tanquam majore : unde necesse est sequi emendationem status hominis, et ampliationem potestatis ejus super naturam. Homo enim per lapsum et de statu innocentiae decidit, et de regno in creaturas. Utraque autem res etiam in hac vita nonnulla ex parte reparari potest ; prior per religionem et fidem, posterior per artes et scientias. Neque enim per maledictionem facta est creatura prorsus et ad extremum rebellis. Sed in virtute illius diplomatis, In sudore vultus comedes panem tuum, per labores varios (non per disputationes certe, aut per otiosas ceremonias magicas), tandem et aliqua ex parte ad panem homini praebendum, id est, ad usus vitae humanae subigitur. | So much then for the dignities or prerogatives of instances. It must be remembered, however, that in this Organon of mine I am handling logic, not philosophy. But since my logic aims to teach and instruct the understanding, not that it may with the slender tendrils of the mind snatch at and lay hold of abstract notions (as the common logic does), but that it may in very truth dissect nature, and discover the virtues and actions of bodies, with their laws as determined in matter; so that this science flows not merely from the nature of the mind, but also from the nature of things no wonder that it is everywhere sprinkled and illustrated with speculations and experiments in nature, as examples of the art I teach. It appears then from what has been said that there are twenty-seven prerogative instances, namely, solitary instances; migratory instances; striking instances; clandestine instances; constitutive instances; conformable instances; singular instances; deviating instances; bordering instances; instances of power; instances of companionship and of enmity; subjunctive instances; instances of alliance; instances of the fingerpost; instances of divorce; instances of the door; summoning instances; instances of the road; instances supplementary; dissecting instances; instances of the rod; instances of the course; doses of nature; instances of strife; intimating instances; polychrest instances; magical instances. Now the use of these instances, wherein they excel common instances, is found either in the informative part or in the operative, or in both. As regards the informative, they assist either the senses or the understanding: the senses, as the five instances of the lamp; the understanding, either by hastening the exclusion of the form, as solitary instances; or by narrowing and indicating more nearly the affirmative of the form, as instances migratory, striking, of companionship, and subjunctive; or by exalting the understanding and leading it to genera and common natures, either immediately, as instances clandestine, singular, and of alliance, or in the next degree, as constitutive, or in the lowest, as conformable; or by setting the understanding right when led astray by habit, as deviating instances; or by leading it to the great form or fabric of the universe, as bordering instances; or by guarding it against false forms and causes, as instances of the fingerpost and of divorce. In the operative part they either point out, or measure, or facilitate practice. They point it out by showing with what we should begin, that we may not go again over old ground, as instances of power; or to what we should aspire if means be given, as intimating instances. The four mathematical instances measure practice: polychrest and magical instances facilitate it. Again, out of these twenty-seven instances there are some of which we must make a collection at once, as I said above, without waiting for the particular investigation of natures. Of this sort are instances conformable, singular, deviating, bordering, of power, of the dose, intimating, polychrest, and magical. For these either help and set right the understanding and senses, or furnish practice with her tools in a general way. The rest need not be inquired into till we come to make Tables of Presentation for the work of the interpreter concerning some particular nature. For the instances marked and endowed with these prerogatives are as a soul amid the common instances of presentation and, as I said at first, a few of them do instead of many; and therefore in the formation of the Tables they must be investigated with all zeal and set down therein. It was necessary to handle them beforehand because I shall have to speak of them in what follows. But now I must proceed to the supports and rectifications of induction, and then to concretes, and Latent Processes, and Latent Configurations, and the rest, as set forth in order in the twenty-first Aphorism; that at length (like an honest and faithful guardian) I may hand over to men their fortunes, now their understanding is emancipated and come as it were of age; whence there cannot but follow an improvement in man's estate and an enlargement of his power over nature. For man by the fall fell at the same time from his state of innocency and from his dominion over creation. Both of these losses however can even in this life be in some part repaired; the former by religion and faith, the latter by arts and sciences. For creation was not by the curse made altogether and forever a rebel, but in virtue of that charter "In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread," it is now by various labors (not certainly by disputations or idle magical ceremonies, but by various labors) at length and in some measure subdued to the supplying of man with bread, that is, to the uses of human life. |
| FINIS LIBRI SECUNDI NOVI ORGANI. |
THE LOGIC MUSEUM
Copyright (html only) C E.D.Buckner 2007.