288 NOVUM ORGANUM 



their substance (so that this science of ours springs from 

 the nature of things, as well as from that of the mind); it 

 is not to be wondered at, if it have been continually inter 

 spersed and illustrated with natural observations and ex 

 periments, as instances of our method. The prerogative 

 instances are, as appears from what has preceded, twenty- 

 seven in number, and are termed, solitary instances, migrat 

 ing instances, conspicuous instances, clandestine instances, 

 constitutive instances, similar instances, singular instances, 

 deviating instances, bordering instances, instances of power, 

 accompanying and hostile instances, subjunctive instances, 

 instances of alliance, instances of the cross, instances of 

 divorce, instances of the gate, citing instances, instances 

 of the road, supplementary instances, lancing instances, in 

 stances of the rod, instances of the course, doses of nature, 

 wrestling instances, suggesting instances, generally useful 

 instances, and magical instances. The advantage, by which 

 these instances excel the more ordinary, regards specifically 

 either theory or practice, or both. With regard to theory, 

 they assist either the senses or the understanding; the senses, 

 as in the five instances of the lamp; the understanding, 

 either by expediting the exclusive mode of arriving at the 

 form, as in solitary instances, or by confining, and more 

 immediately indicating the affirmative, as in the migrating, 

 conspicuous, accompanying, and subjunctive instances; or 

 by elevating the understanding, and leading it to general 

 and common natures, and that either immediately, as in the 

 clandestine and singular instances, and those of alliance; or 

 very nearly so, as in the constitutive; or still less so, as in 

 the similar instances; or by correcting the understanding 

 of its habits, as in the deviating instances; or by leading to 

 fche grand form or fabric of the universe, as in the bordering 



