LIFE OF BACON. 



truths are often best discovered in small and familiar in 

 stances, () as the nature of a commonwealth, in a family 



(a) Experiments familiar and vulgar, to the interpretation of nature do 

 as much, if not more, conduce than experiments of a higher quality. 

 Certainly this may be averred for truth, that they be not the highest 

 instances, that give the best and surest information. This is not unaptly 

 expressed in the tale, so common, of the philosopher, who while he gazed 

 upward to the stars fell into the water; for if he had looked down, he 

 might have seen the stars in the water, but looking up to heaven he could 

 not see the water in the stars. In like manner, it often comes to pass that 

 small and mean things conduce more to the discovery of great matters than 

 great things to the discovery of small matters ; and therefore Aristotle notes 

 well, that the nature of every thing is best seen in its smallest portions. 

 For that cause he inquires the nature of a commonwealth, first, in a family 

 and the simple conjugations of society ; man and wife ; parents and chil 

 dren; master and servant, which are in every cottage. So likewise the 

 nature of this great city of the world, and the policy thereof, must be 

 sought in every first concordances and least portions of things. So we see 

 that secret of nature (esteemed one of the great mysteries) of the turning of 

 iron touched with a loadstone towards the poles, was found out in needles 

 of iron, not in bars of iron. 



Consider obvious and common things. Newton retired from the Uni 

 versity to avoid the plague, which raged with great violence. Sitting under 

 a tree in an orchard, an apple fell upon his head. As there is motion, 

 there must be a force which produces it. Is this force of gravity confined 

 to the surface of the earth, or does it extend to heavenly bodies ? 



&quot; See,&quot; Bacon says, &quot; the little cloud upon glass or blades of swords, 

 and mark well the discharge of that cloud, and you shall perceive that it 

 ever breaks up first in the skirts, and last in the midst. May we not learn 

 from this the force of union, even in the least quantities and weakest 

 bodies, how much it conduceth to preservation of the present form, and 

 the resisting of the new ? In like manner, icicles if there be water to 

 follow them, lengthen themselves out in a very slender thread, to prevent a 

 discontinuity of the water; but if there be not a sufficient quantity to 

 follow, the water then falls in round drops, which is the figure that best 

 supports it against discontinuation; and at the very instant when the thread 

 of water ends, and the falling in drops begins, the water recoils upwards to 

 avoid being discontinued. So in metals, which are fluid upon fusion, 

 though a little tenacious, some of the mettled mass frequently springs up 

 in drops, and sticks in that form to the sides of the crucible. There is a 

 like instance in the looking-glasses, commonly made of spittle by children, 

 in a loop of rush or whalebone, where we find a constant pellicle of 

 water.&quot; 



