NOVUM ORGANUM. 201 



of it), when we condensed water (as was mentioned above) 

 by hammering and compression until it burst out. For we 

 ought to have left the flattened globe untouched for some 

 days, and then to have drawn off the water in order to try 

 whether it would have immediately occupied the same di 

 mensions as it did before the condensation. If it had not 

 done so, either immediately, or soon afterwards, the con 

 densation would have appeared to have been rendered con 

 stant, if not, it would have appeared that a restitution took 

 place, and that the condensation had been transitory. Some 

 thing of the same kind might have been tried with the 

 glass eggs ; the egg should have been sealed up suddenly 

 and firmly, after a complete exhaustion of the air, and 

 should have been allowed to remain so for some days, and 

 it might then have been tried whether, on opening the 

 aperture, the air would be drawn in with a hissing noise, or 

 whether as much water would be drawn into it when im 

 mersed, as would have been drawn into it at first, if it had 

 not continued sealed. For it is probable (or at least worth 

 making the experiment) that this might have happened, or 

 might happen, because perseverance has a similar effect upon 

 bodies which are a little less homogeneous. A stick bent 

 together for some time does not rebound, which is not owing 

 to any loss of quantity in the wood during the time, for the 

 same would occur (after a larger time) in a plate of steel, 

 which does not evaporate. If the experiment of simple 

 perseverance should fail, the matter should not be given up, 

 but other means should be employed. For it would be no 

 small advantage, if bodies could be endued with fixed and 

 constant natures by violence. Air could then be converted 

 into water by condensation, with other similar effects ; for 

 man is more the master of violent motions than of any 

 other means. 



III. The third of our seven methods is referred to that 

 great practical engine -of nature as well as of art, cold and 

 heat. Here man s power limps, as it were, with one leg. 

 For we possess the heat of fire, which is infinitely more 

 powerful and intense than that of the sun (as it reaches us), 

 and that of animals. But we want cold,* except such as 

 we can obtain in winter, in caverns, or by surrounding 

 objects with snow and ice, which, perhaps, may be compared 

 in degree with the noontide heat of the sun in tropical 



* Heat can now be abstracted by a very simple process, till the degree of 

 cold be of almost any required intensity. 



