262 NOVUM ORGANUM 



be mistaken in supposing this to be really the case. For 

 if it be asked, why the heavens revolve from east to west, 

 rather than from west to east, or why they turn on poles 

 situate near the Bears, rather than round Orion or any 

 other part of the heaven, such a question appears to be 

 unreasonable, since these phenomena should be received as 

 determinate and the objects of our experience. There are, 

 indeed, some ultimate and self-existing phenomena in na 

 ture, but those which we have just mentioned are not to 

 be referred to that class: for we attribute them to a cer 

 tain harmony and consent of the universe, which has not 

 yet been properly observed. But if the motion of the 

 earth from west to east be allowed, the same question may 

 be put, for it must also revolve round certain poles, and 

 why should they be placed where they are, rather than 

 elsewhere ? The polarity and variation of the needle come 

 under our present head. There is also observed in both 

 natural and artificial bodies, especially solids rather than 

 fluids, a particular collocation and position of parts, resem 

 bling hairs or fibres, which should be diligently investi 

 gated, since, without a discovery of them, bodies cannot be 

 conveniently controlled or wrought upon. The eddies ob 

 servable in liquids by which, when compressed, they suc 

 cessively raise different parts of their mass before they can 

 escape, so as to equalize the pressure, is more correctly 

 assigned to the motion of liberty. 



Let the fifteenth motion be that of transmission or of 

 passage, by which the powers of bodies are more or less 

 impeded or advanced by the medium, according to the 

 nature of the bodies and their effective powers, and also 

 according to that of the medium. For one medium is 

 adapted to light, another to sound, another to heat and 



