AFFIRMATIVE TABLE. CclxXXV 



To discover facts is, therefore, his first object; but, as 

 natural and experimental history is so copious and dif 

 fusive as to confound and distract the understanding, 

 unless digested in proper order, tables are formed and so 

 digested, that the understanding may commodiously work 

 upon them. 



TABLE I. 



The first, or Affirmative Table, consists of a general Affirmative 

 collection of all the known analogous instances (a) which e * 

 agree in the nature sought, from subjects however dis 

 similar or sordid they may be supposed to be, and without 

 being deterred by the apparent number of particulars. 



If, for instance, the nature sought be heat or light, 

 these tables may be thus conceived : 



Heat. 



The Sun s direct rays. 

 Forked Lightning. 

 Flame. 



Blood of Terrestrial Animals. 

 Living Animals. 

 Pepper masticated. 

 &c. &c. 



Light. 



The Heavenly Bodies. 

 Rotten Wood. 

 Putrid scales of Fish. 

 Glow Worms. 

 Sugar scraped. 

 Eyes of certain Animals. 

 Drops of Salt Water from ours. 

 Silk stockings rubbed. 

 &c. &c. 



Such is the object of his first or affirmative table, which, 

 he warns his reader, is not to raise the edifice, but merely 

 to collect the materials, and which is, therefore, to be 

 made without any hasty indulgence of speculation, although 

 the mind may, in proportion to its ingenuity, (b) acciden 

 tally, from an inspection of affirmative instances, arrive at 



a just conclusion. 



1 



! 



. 



[ 



(a) Nov. Org. Aph. x. L. 2. See vol. ix. p. 299. 

 (ft) See Aph. 30. Nov. Org. L. 1. vol. ix. p. 283. 



