NOVUM ORGANUM 257 



of wine, which are lighter than oil, mix very well with 

 water. A very remarkable instance of the motion in ques 

 tion is seen in nitre, and crude bodies of a like nature, 

 which abhor flame, as may be observed in gunpowder, 

 quicksilver and gold. The avoidance of one pole of the 

 magnet by iron is not (as Gilbert has well observed), 

 strictly speaking, an avoidance, but a conformity, or at 

 traction to a more convenient situation. 



Let the eleventh motion be that of assimilation, or self- 

 multiplication, or simple generation, by which latter term 

 we do not mean the simple generation of integral bodies, 

 such as plants or animals, but of homogeneous bodies. 

 By this motion homogeneous bodies convert those which 

 are allied to them, or at least well disposed and prepared, 

 into their own substance and nature. Thus flame multi 

 plies itself over vapors and oily substances and generates 

 fresh flame; the air over water and watery substances mul 

 tiplies itself and generates fresh air; the vegetable and ani 

 mal spirit, over the thin particles of a watery or oleaginous 

 spirit contained in its food, multiplies itself and generates 

 fresh spirit; the solid parts of plants and animals, as the 

 leaf, flower, the flesh, bone and the like, each of them 

 assimilate some part of the juices contained in their food, 

 and generate a successive and daily substance. For let 

 none rave with Paracelsus, who (blinded by his distilla 

 tions) would have it, that nutrition takes place by mere 

 separation, and that the eye, nose, brain and liver lie con 

 cealed in bread and meat, the root, leaf and flower, in the 

 juice of the earth; asserting that just as the artist brings 

 out a leaf, flower, eye, nose, hand, foot and the like, from 

 a rude mass of stone or wood by the separation and rejec 

 tion of what is superfluous; so the great artist within us 



