94 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



regard to a genuine and perfect theoretical axiom ; &quot; that 

 a nature be found convertible with a given nature, and yet 

 such as to limit the more known nature, in the manner 

 of a real genus.&quot; But these two rules, the practical and 

 theoretical, are in fact the same, and that which is most 

 useful in practice is most correct in theory. 



5. But the rule or axiom for the transformation of bodies 

 is of two kinds. The first regards the body as an aggregate 

 or combination of simple natures. Thus, in gold are united 

 the following circumstances ; it is yellow, heavy, of a cer 

 tain weight, malleable and ductile to a certain extent; it 

 is not volatile, loses part of its substance by fire, melts in 

 a peculiar manner, is separated and dissolved by particular 

 methods, and so of the other natures observable in gold. 

 An axiom, therefore, of this kind deduces the subject from 

 the forms of simple natures. For he who has acquired 

 the forms and methods of superinducing yellowness, weight, 

 ductility, stability, deliquescence, solution, and the like, 

 and their degrees and modes, will consider and contrive 

 how to unite them in any body, so as to * transform it into 

 gold. And this method of operating belongs to primary 

 action. For it is the same thing to produce one or many 

 simple natures, except that man is more confined and 

 restricted in his operations, if many be required, on account 

 of the difficulty of uniting many natures together. It must, 

 however, be observed, that this method of operating (which 

 considers natures as simple though in a concrete body) sets 

 out from what is constant, eternal, and universal in nature, 

 and opens such broad paths to human power, as the thoughts 

 of man can in the present state of things scarcely compre 

 hend or figure to itself. The second kind of axiom (which 

 depends on the discovery of the latent process) does not 

 proceed by simple natures, but by concrete bodies, as they 

 are found in nature, and in its usual course. For instance ; 

 suppose the inquiry to be, from what beginnings, in what 

 manner, and by what process gold or any metal or stone is 

 generated from the original menstruum, or its elements, up 

 to the perfect mineral : or in like manner, by what process 

 plants are generated, from the first concretion of juices in 

 the earth, or from seeds, up to the perfect plant, with the 



* By the recent discoveries in electric magnetism copper wires, or, indeed, 

 wires of any metal may be transformed into magnets ; the magnetic law or form 

 having been to that extent discovered. 



