274 NOVUM ORGANUM 



less to make some more diligent experiments with regard 

 to this; whether, for instance, the condensation of a per 

 fectly homogeneous body (such as air, water, oil, and the 

 like) or their rarefaction, when effected by violence, can 

 become permanent, fixed, and, as it were, so changed, as 

 to become a nature. This might at first be tried by simple 

 perseverance, and then by means of helps and harmonies. 

 It might readily have been attempted (if we had but thought 

 of it), when we condensed water (as was mentioned above), 

 by hammering and compression, until it burst out. For we 

 ought to have left the flattened globe untouched for some 

 days, and then to have drawn off the water, in order to 

 try whether it would have immediately occupied the same 

 dimensions as it did before the condensation. If it had not 

 done so, either immediately, or soon afterward, the conden 

 sation would have appeared to have been rendered constant; 

 if not, it would have appeared that a restitution took place, 

 and that the condensation had been transitory. Something 

 of the same kind might have been tried with the glass eggs; 

 the egg should have been sealed up suddenly and firmly, 

 after a complete exhaustion of the air, and should have been, 

 allowed to remain so for some days, and it might then have 

 been tried whether, on opening the aperture, the air would 

 be drawn in with a hissing noise, or whether as much water 

 would be drawn into it when immersed, as would have been 

 drawn into it at first, if it had not continued sealed. For 

 it is probable (or, at least, worth making the experiment) 

 that this might have happened, or might happen, because 

 perseverance has a similar effect upon bodies which are a 

 little less homogeneous. A stick bent together for some 

 time does not rebound, which is not owing to any loss of 

 quantity in the wood during the time, for the same would 



