SUMMARY OF THE SECOND PART, 



DIGESTED IN APHORISMS. 



APHORISMS. 

 On the Interpretation of Nature and the Empire of Man. 



1. MAN, as the minister and interpreter of nature, does 

 and understands as much, as his observations on the order 

 of nature, either with regard to things or the mind, permit 

 him, and neither knows nor is capable of more. 



2. The unassisted hand, and the understanding left to 

 itself, possess but little power. Effects are produced by 

 the means of instruments and helps, which the understand 

 ing requires no less than the hand. And as instruments 

 either promote or regulate the motion of the hand, so those 

 that are applied to the mind prompt or protect the under 

 standing. 



3. Knowledge and human power are synonymous, since 

 the ignorance of the cause frustrates the effect. For nature 

 is only subdued by submission, and that which in contem 

 plative philosophy corresponds with the cause, in practical 

 science becomes the rule. 



4. Man, whilst operating, can only apply or withdraw 

 natural bodies ; nature, internally, performs the rest. 



5. Those who become practically versed in nature, are 

 the mechanic, the mathematician, the physician, the alchy- 

 mist, arid the magician, but all (as matters now stand) with 

 faint efforts and meagre success. 



6. It would be madness, and inconsistency, to suppose 

 that things, which have never yet been performed, can be 

 performed without employing some hitherto untried means. 



7. The creations of the mind and hand appear very nu 

 merous if we judge by books and manufactures: but all 

 that variety consists of an excessive refinement, and of 

 deductions from a few well known matters ; not of a number 

 of axioms. 



8. Even the effects already discovered are due to chance 



