120 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



of heat, again reject absolute or expansive motion of the 

 whole. 



12. On account of the ready application of heat to all 

 substances without any destruction or remarkable altera 

 tion of them, reject destructive nature or the violent com 

 munication of any new nature. 



13. On account of the agreement and conformity of the 

 effects produced by cold and heat, reject both expansive 

 and contracting motion as regards the whole. 



14. On account of the heat excited by friction, reject 

 principal nature, by which we mean that which exists posi 

 tively, and is not caused by a preceding nature. 



There are other natures to be rejected ; but we are merely 

 offering examples and not perfect tables. 



None of the above natures are of the form of heat ; and 

 man is freed from them all in his operation upon heat. 



Aph. 19. 



In the exclusive table are laid the foundations of true 

 induction, which is not however completed until the affir 

 mative be attained. Nor is the exclusive table perfect, nor 

 can it be so at first. For it is clearly a rejection of simple 

 natures ; but if we have not as yet good and just notions 

 of simple natures, how can the exclusive table be made cor 

 rect ? Some of the above, as the notion of elementary and 

 celestial nature, and rarity, are vague and ill-defined. We, 

 therefore, who are neither ignorant nor forgetful of the great 

 work which we attempt, in rendering the human under 

 standing adequate to things and nature, by no means rest 

 satisfied with what we have hitherto enforced ; but push 

 the matter farther, and contrive and prepare more powerful 

 aid for the use of the understanding, which we will next 

 subjoin. And, indeed, in the interpretation of nature the 

 mind is to be so prepared and formed, as to rest itself on 

 proper degrees of certainty, and yet to remember (especially 

 at first) that what is present depends much upon what re 

 mains behind. 



20. Since, however, truth emerges more readily from 

 error than confusion, we consider it useful to leave the un 

 derstanding at liberty to exert itself and attempt the inter 

 pretation of nature in the affirmative, after having con 

 structed and weighed the three tables of preparation, such 

 as we have laid them down, both from the instances there 

 collected, and others occurring elsewhere. Which attempt 

 we are wont to call the liberty of the understanding, or the 

 commencement of interpretation, or the first vintage. 



