NOVUH ORGANUM 151 



14. On account of the heat excited by friction, reject 

 principal nature, by which we mean that which exists posi 

 tively, and is not caused by a preceding nature. 



There are other natures to be rejected; but we are merely 

 offering examples, and not perfect tables. 



None of the above natures are of the form of heat; and 

 man is freed from them all in his operation upon heat. 



XIX. In the exclusive table are laid the foundations of 

 true induction, which is not, however, completed until the 

 affirmative be attained. Nor is the exclusive table perfect, 

 nor can it be so at first. For it is clearly a rejection of sim 

 ple natures; but if we have not as yet good and just notions 

 of simple natures, how can the exclusive table be made cor 

 rect ? Some of the above, as the notion of elementary and 

 celestial nature, and rarity, are vague and ill defined. We, 

 therefore, who are neither ignorant nor forgetful of the great 

 work which we attempt, in rendering the human understand 

 ing adequate to things and nature, by no means rest satisfied 

 with what we have hitherto enforced, but push the matter 

 further, and contrive and prepare more powerful aid for the 

 use of the understanding, which we will next subjoin. And, 

 indeed, in the interpretation of nature the mind is to be so 

 prepared and formed, as to rest itself on proper degrees of 

 certainty, and yet to remember (especially at first) that what 

 is present depends much upon what remains behind. 



XX. Since, however, truth emerges more readily from 

 error than confusion, we consider it useful to leave the un 

 derstanding at liberty to exert itself and attempt the inter 

 pretation of nature in the affirmative, after having con 

 structed and weighed the three tables of preparation, such 

 as we have laid them down, both from the instances there 

 collected, and others occurring elsewhere. Which attempt 



