NOVUM ORGANUM. 183 



by compression, resists, and wishes to become as it was be 

 fore, namely, more expanded ; but if there happen an in 

 tense and continued cold, it changes itself readily and of 

 its own accord, i$to the condensed state of ice ; and if the 

 cold be long continued, without any intervening warmth 

 (as in grottos and deep caves), it is changed into crystal or 

 similar matter, and never resumes its form. 



Let the fifth be that which we term the motion of 

 continuity. We do not understand by this simple and 

 primary continuity with any other body (for that is the mo 

 tion of connexion), but the continuity of a particular body 

 in itself. For it is most certain, that all bodies abhor a 

 solution of continuity, some more and some less, but all 

 partially. In hard bodies (such as steel and glass), the re 

 sistance to an interruption of continuity is most powerful 

 and efficacious, whilst although in liquids it appears to be 

 faint and languid, yet it is not altogether null, but exists in 

 the lowest degree, and shows itself in many experiments, 

 such as bubbles, the round form of drops, the thin threads 

 which drip from roofs, the cohesion of glutinous substances, 

 and the like. It is most conspicuous, however, if an at 

 tempt be made to push this separation to still smaller par 

 ticles. Thus, in mortars, the pestle produces no effect 

 after a certain degree of contusion, water does not penetrate 

 small fissures, and the air itself, notwithstanding its sub- 

 tilty, does not penetrate the pores of solid vessels at once, 

 but only by long continued insinuation. 



Let the sixth be that which we term the motion of ac 

 quisition, or the motion of need. It is that by which 

 bodies placed amongst others of a heterogeneous and, as it 

 were, hostile nature, if they meet with the means or oppor 

 tunity of avoiding them and uniting themselves with others 

 of a more analagous nature, even when these latter are not 

 closely allied to them, immediately seize and, as it were, 

 select them, and appear to consider it as something ac 

 quired (whence we derive the name), and to have need 

 of these latter bodies. For instance, gold, or any other 

 metal in leaf, does not like the neighbourhood of air ; if, 

 therefore, they meet with any tangible and thick substance 

 (such as the finger, paper, or the like), they immediately 

 adhere to it and are not easily torn from it. Paper, too, and 

 cloth, and the like, do not agree with the air, which is in 

 herent and mixed in their pores. They readily, therefore, 

 imbibe water or other liquids, and get rid of the air. Sugar, 

 or a sponge, dipped in water or wine, and though part of it 



