NOVUM ORGANUM 175 



ing, and the like), so is it most certain, that the same cir 

 cumstances, as far as motion is concerned, happen to inani 

 mate bodies, such as wood or stone when burned, frozen, 

 pricked, cut, bent, bruised, and the like; although there be 

 no sensation, owing to the absence of animal spirit. 



Again, wonderful as it may appear, the roots and 

 branches of trees are similar instances. For every vege 

 table swells and throws out its constituent parts toward 

 the circumference, both upward and downward. And there 

 is no difference between the roots and branches, except 

 that the root is buried in the earth, and the branches are 

 exposed to the air and sun. For if one take a young and 

 vigorous shoot, and bend it down to a small portion of loose 

 earth, although it be not fixed to the ground, yet will it 

 immediately produce a root, and not a branch. And, vice 

 versa, if earth be placed above, and so forced down with 

 a stone or any hard substance, as to confine the plant and 

 prevent its branching upward, it will throw out branches 

 into the air downward. 



The gums of trees, and most rock gems, are similar in 

 stances; for both of them are exudations and filtered juices, 

 derived in the former instance from trees, in the latter from, 

 stones; the brightness and clearness of both arising from a 

 delicate and accurate filtering. For nearly the same reason, 

 the hair of animals is less beautiful and vivid in its color 

 than the plumage of most birds, because the juices are less 

 delicately filtered through the skin than through the quills. 



The scrotum of males and matrix of females are also 

 similar instances; so that the noble formation which consti 

 tutes the difference of the sexes appears to differ only as 

 to the one being internal and the other external ; a greater 

 degree of heat causing the genitals to protrude in the male, 



