NOVUM OUGANUM. 137 



of cold for instance is towards the boundary of heaven, and 

 that of the nature of heat towards the centre of the earth, 

 by a similar species of opposition or rejection of the con 

 trary nature. 



Lastly, in the axioms of the sciences, there is a simila 

 rity of instances worthy of observation. Thus the rhetori 

 cal trope which is called surprise, is similar to that of music 

 termed the declining of a cadence. 



Again ; the mathematical postulate, that &quot; things which 

 are equal to the same are equal to one another,&quot; is similar 

 to the form of the syllogism in logic, which unites things 

 agreeing in the middle term. Lastly ; a certain degree of 

 sagacity, in collecting and searching for physical points of 

 similarity, is very useful in many respects. 



28. In the seventh rank of prerogative instances we will 

 place singular instances, which we are also wont to call 

 irrregular or heteroclite (to borrow a term from the gramma 

 rians). They are such as exhibit bodies in the concrete, of 

 an apparently extravagant and separate nature, agreeing 

 but little with other things of the same species. For, whilst 

 the similar instances resemble each other, those we now 

 speak of are only like themselves. Their use is much the 

 same with that of clandestine instances: they bring out 

 and unite nature, and discover genera or common natures, 

 which must afterwards be limited by real differences. Nor 

 should we desist from inquiry, until the properties and 

 qualities of those things, which may be deemed miracles, 

 as it were, of nature, be reduced to, and comprehended in, 

 some form or certain law ; so that all irregularity or singu 

 larity may be found to depend on some common form ; and 

 the miracle only consists in accurate differences, degree, 

 and rare coincidence, not in the species itself. Man s me 

 ditation proceeds no farther at present, than just to consider 

 things of this kind, as the secrets and vast efforts of nature, 

 without an assignable cause, and, as it were, exceptions to 

 general rules. 



As examples of singular instances, we have the sun and 

 moon amongst the heavenly bodies, the magnet amongst 

 minerals; quicksilver amongst metals; the elephant amongst 

 quadrupeds; the venereal sensation amongst the different 

 kinds of touch, the scent of sporting dogs amongst those 

 of smell. The letter S too is considered by the gramma 

 rians as sui generis, from its easily uniting with double, or 

 triple consonants, which no other letter will. These in- 



