146 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



as they are termed, that is to say, placed out of their natural 

 position), are borne in a straight line to masses or aggre 

 gates which resemble them, the light towards the heaven, 

 the heavy towards the earth : and all this is very fine lan 

 guage. 



But we have an instance of alliance in low comets, which 

 revolve though far below the heavens ; and the fiction of 

 Aristotle, of the comet being fixed to or necessarily follow 

 ing some star, has been long since exploded; not only 

 because it is improbable in itself, but from the evident fact 

 of the discursive and irregular motion of comets, through 

 various parts of the heavens. 



Another instance of alliance is that of the motion of air, 

 which appears to revolve from east to west within the 

 tropics, where the circles of revolution are the greatest. 



The flow and ebb of the sea would perhaps be another 

 instance, if the water were once found to have a motion of 

 revolution, though slow and hardly perceptible, from east 

 to west, subject however to a reaction twice a day. If this 

 be so, it is clear that the motion of revolution is not con 

 fined to the celestial bodies, but is shared also by air and 

 water. 



Again ; the supposed peculiar disposition of light bodies 

 to rise is rather shaken ; and here we may find an instance 

 of alliance in a water bubble. For if air be placed under 

 water, it rises rapidly towards the surface, by that striking 

 motion (as Democritus terms it) with which the descending 

 water strikes the air, and raises it ; not by any struggle or 

 effort of the air itself : and when it has reached the surface 

 of the water, it is prevented from ascending any further, 

 by the slight resistance it meets with in the water, which 

 does not allow an immediate separation of its parts, so that 

 the tendency of the air to rise must be very slight. 



Again let the required nature be weight. It is certainly a 

 received classification ; that dense and solid bodies are borne 

 towards the centre of the earth, and rare and light bodies 

 to the circumference of the heavens, as their appropriate 

 places. As far as relates to places (though these things 

 have much weight in the schools), the notion of there being 

 any determinate place is absurd and puerile. Philosophers 

 trifle therefore when they tell you, that if the earth were per 

 forated, heavy bodies would stop on their arrival at the centre. 

 This centre would indeed be an efficacious nothing or ma 

 thematical point could it affect bodies or be sought by 



