134 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



cerning which Plato has well said, &quot; He who can properly 

 define and divide is to be considered a God.&quot; 



27. In the sixth rank of prerogative instances we will 

 place Similar or Proportionate instances, which we are also 

 wont to call physical parallels, or resemblances. They are 

 such as exhibit the resemblances and connexion of things, 

 not in minor forms (as the constitutive do), but at once in 

 the concrete. They are therefore, as it were, the first and 

 lowest steps towards the union of nature ; nor do they im 

 mediately establish any axiom, but merely indicate and ob 

 serve a certain relation of bodies to each other. But 

 although they be not of much assistance in discovering 

 forms, yet they are of great advantage in disclosing the 

 frame of parts of the universe, upon whose members they 

 practise a species of anatomy, and thence occasionally lead 

 us gently on to sublime and noble axioms, especially such 

 as relate to the construction of the world, rather than to 

 simple natures and forms. 



As an example ; take the following similar instances : a 

 mirror and the eye ; the formation of the ear, and places 

 which return an echo. From such similarity, besides ob 

 serving the resemblance (which is useful for many purposes), 

 it is easy to collect and form this axiom. That the organs 

 of the senses, and bodies which produce reflections to the 

 senses, are of a similar nature. Again, the understanding 

 once informed of this, rises easily to a higher and nobler 

 axiom; namely, that the only distinction between sensitive 

 and inanimate bodies, in those points in which they agree 

 and sympathise, is this ; in the former, animal spirit is 

 added to the arrangement of the body, in the latter it is 

 wanting. So that there might be as many senses in animals 

 as there are points of agreement with inanimate bodies, if 

 the animated body were perforated, so as to allow the spirit 

 to have access to the limb properly disposed for action, as 

 a fit organ. And, on the other hand, there are, without 

 doubt, as many motions in an inanimate as there are senses 

 in the animated body, though the animal spirit be absent. 

 There must, however, be many more motions in inanimate 

 bodies than senses in the animated, from the small number of 

 organs of sense. A very plain example of this is afforded by 

 pains. For, as animals are liable to many kinds and various 

 descriptions of pains (such as those of burning, of intense 

 cold, of pricking, squeezing, stretching, and the like), so is it 

 most certain, that the same circumstances, as far as motion 

 is concerned, happen to inanimate bodies, such as wood or 



