NOVUM ORQANUM 113 



same, and that which is most useful in practice is most 

 correct in theory. 



Y. But the rule or axiom for the transformation of bodies 

 is of two kinds. The first regards the body as an aggregate 

 or combination of simple natures. Thus, in gold are united 

 the following circumstances : it is yellow, heavy, of a cer 

 tain weight, malleable and ductile to a certain extent; it is 

 not volatile, loses part of its substance by fire, melts in a 

 particular manner, is separated and dissolved by particular 

 methods, and so of the other natures observable in gold. 

 An axiom, therefore, of this kind deduces the subject from 

 the forms of simple natures; for he who has acquired the 

 forms and methods of superinducing yellowness, weight, 

 ductility, stability, deliquescence, solution, and the like, 

 and their degrees and modes, will consider and contrive how 

 to unite them in any body, so as to transform 6 it into gold* 

 And this method of operating belongs to primary action; for 

 it is the same thing to produce one or many simple natures, 

 except that man is more confined and restricted in his opera 

 tions, if many be required, on account of the difficulty of 

 uniting many natures together. It must, however, be ob 

 served, that this method of operating (which considers na 

 tures as simple though in a concrete body) sets out from 

 what is constant, eternal, and universal in nature, and opens 

 such broad paths to human power, as the thoughts of man 

 can in the present state of things scarcely comprehend or 

 figure to itself. 



The second kind of axiom (which depends on the dis 

 covery of the latent process) does not proceed by simple na- 



6 By the recent discoveries in electric magnetism, copper wires, or, indeed, 

 wires of any metal, may be transformed into magnets; the magnetic law, or 

 form, having been to that extent discovered. 



