72 NOVUM OUGANUM. 



weighed, or measured, in natural history. Indefinite and 

 vague observation produces fallacious and uncertain infor 

 mation. If this appear strange or our complaint some 

 what too unjust (because Aristotle himself so distinguished 

 a man, and supported by the wealth of so great a king, 

 has completed an accurate history of animals, to which 

 others with greater diligence but less noise have made 

 considerable additions, and others again have composed 

 copious histories and notices of plants, metals, and fossils), 

 it will arise from a want of sufficiently attending to and 

 comprehending our present observations. For a natural 

 history compiled on its own account, and one collected for 

 the mind s information as a foundation for philosophy, are 

 two different things. They differ in several respects, but 

 principally in thisj the former contains only the varieties 

 of natural species without the experiments of mechanical 

 arts. For as in ordinary life every person s disposition, 

 and the concealed feelings of the mind and passions are 

 most drawn out when they are disturbed ; so the secrets of 

 nature betray themselves more readily when tormented by 

 art, than when left to their own course. We must begin 

 therefore to entertain hopes of natural philosophy then 

 only, when we have a better compilation of natural history, 

 its real basis and support. 



99. Again even in the abundance of mechanical experi 

 ments there is a very great scarcity of those which best 

 inform and assist the understanding. For the mechanic, 

 little solicitous about the investigation of truth, neither 

 directs his attention nor applies his hand to any thing 

 that is not of service to his business. But our hope of 

 further progress in the sciences will then only be well 

 founded, when numerous experiments shall be received 

 and collected into natural history, which though of no use 

 in themselves, assist materially in the discovery of causes 

 and axioms : which experiments we have termed enlight 

 ening, to distinguish them from those which are profitable. 

 They possess this wonderful property and nature that they 

 never deceive or fail you, for being used only to discover 

 the natural cause of some object, whatever be the result, 

 they equally satisfy your aim by deciding the question. 



100. We must not only search for and procure a greater 

 number of experiments, but also introduce a completely 

 different method, order, and progress of continuing and 

 promoting experience. For vague and arbitrary experi 

 ence is (as we have observed) mere groping in the dark, 



