160 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



We have an example of the first (not to speak of spectacles 

 and the like, which only correct and remove the infirmity 

 of a deficient sight, and therefore give no further informa 

 tion) in the lately invented microscopes, which exhibit the 

 latent and invisible minutiae of substances, and their hidden 

 formation and motion, by wonderfully increasing their 

 apparent magnitude. By their assistance we behold with 

 astonishment the accurate form and outline of a flea, moss, 

 and animalculae, as well as their previously invisible colour 

 and motion. It is said also that an apparently straight 

 line, drawn with a pen or pencil, is discovered by such a 

 microscope to be very uneven and curved, because neither 

 the motion of the hand, when assisted by a ruler, nor the 

 impression of ink or colour are really regular, although the 

 irregularities are so minute as not to be perceptible without 

 the assistance of the microscope. Men have (as is usual 

 in new and wonderful discoveries) added a superstitious 

 remark, that the microscope sheds a lustre on the works 

 of nature, and dishonour on those of art ; which only means 

 that the tissue of nature is. much more delicate than that of 

 art. For the microscope is only of use for minute objects, 

 and Democritus perhaps, if he had seen it, would have 

 exulted in the thought of a means being discovered for 

 seeing his atom, which he affirmed to be entirely invisible. 

 But the inadequacy of these microscopes, for the observa 

 tion of any but the most minute bodies, and even of those 

 if parts of a larger body, destroys their utility. For if the 

 invention could be extended to greater bodies, or the minute 

 parts of greater bodies, so that a piece of cloth would appear 

 like a net, and the latent minutise and irregularities of 

 gems, liquids, urine, blood, wounds, and many other things 

 could be* rendered visible, the greatest ad vantage, would 

 without doubt be derived. 



We have an instance of the second kind in the telescope, 

 discovered by the wonderful exertions of Galileo ; by the 

 assistance of which a nearer intercourse may be opened (as 

 by boats or vessels) between ourselves and the heavenly 

 objects. For by its aid we are assured that the milky way 

 is but a knot or constellation of small stars, clearly defined 

 and separate, which the ancients only conjectured to be 

 the case : whence it appears to be capable of demonstration, 

 that the spaces of the planetary orbits (as they are termed) 

 are not quite destitute of other stars, but that the heaven 

 begins to glitter with stars before we arrive at the starry 

 sphere ; although they may be too small to be visible 



