NOVUM ORGANUM. Cclxv 



FRANCISCUS 



DE VERULAMIO 



SIC COGITAVIT.(a) 



His despair of the possibility of completing his important 

 work, of which his Novum Organum was only a portion, 

 appears at the very entrance of the volume, which, instead 

 of being confined to the Novum Organum, exhibits an 

 outline, and only an outline of the whole of his intended 

 labours. 



open to all men who will awake and perpetually fix their 

 eyes, one while on the nature of things, another on the 

 application of them to the use and service of mankind. 



COPULATION of experiments is trying the efficacy of 

 united experiments, which, when separate, produce the 

 same effect : as, by pulling off the more early buds when 

 they are newly knotted, or by laying the roots bare 

 until the spring, late roses will be produced. Will not 

 the germination be more delayed by a union of these 

 experiments ? 



CHANCES of an experiment, or the trying a conclusion 

 not for that any reason, or other experiment, induceth you 

 to it, but only because the like was never attempted 

 before : an irrational, and, as it were, a passionate manner 

 of experimenting ; but yet the wonders of nature lie out of 

 the high road and beaten paths, so as the very absurdity 

 of an attempt may sometimes be prosperous. 



Such is the nature of his tract entitled &quot; Literate Expe 

 rience.&quot; 



(a) Vol. ix. p. 145, 6, 7. Cum autem incertus esset, quando haec 

 alicui posthac in mentem ventura sint; eo potissimum usus argumento, 

 quod neminem hactenus invenit, qui ad similes cogitationes animum 

 applicuerit ; decrevit prima quseque, quse perficere licuit, in publicum 

 edere. Neque hsec festinatio ambitiosa fuit, sed sollicita ; ut si quid illi 



