PREFACE. XXIX 



supported by history upon experience as their only 

 &quot; and true basis ; and so the basis of natural phi- 

 &quot; losophy is natural history ; the stage next the 



&quot; tions of bodies here below ; not only so far as these inferior 

 &quot; motions are moderated by superior, but in regard they have 

 &quot; a mutual intercourse by passions common to them both.&quot; 



And to the same effect, he says in another place: &quot; We 

 &quot; must openly profess that our hope of discovering the truth 

 &quot; with regard to the celestial bodies, depends upon the obser- 

 &quot; vation of the common properties, or the passions and appe- 

 &quot; tites of the matter of both states ; for, as to the separation 

 &quot; that is supposed betwixt the setherial and sublunary bodies, it 

 &quot; seems to me no more than a fiction, and a degree of supersti- 

 &quot; tion mixed with rashness, &c. Our chiefest hope, and de- 

 &quot; pendence in the consideration of the celestial bodies, is, 

 &quot; therefore, placed in physical reasons, though not such as are 

 &quot; commonly so called ; but those laws, which no diversity of 

 &quot; place or region can abolish, break through, disturb, or alter.&quot; 



And in the Novum Organum, &quot; Suppose, for example, the 

 &quot; inquiry about the nature of spontaneous rotation, attraction, 

 &quot; and many other natures, which are more common and familiar 

 &quot; to us than the celestial bodies themselves. And let no one 

 &quot; expect to determine the question, whether the diurnal motion 

 &quot; belongs to the heavens or the earth, unless he first understand 

 &quot; the nature of spontaneous rotation.&quot; 



As an instance of this union of nature, and of Bacon s ten- 

 dency to generalize, see Articles 91,92, 93, in page 66; and 

 above all, see his suggestions in the Novum Organum, respect 

 ing Magical Instances, or great effects produced from appa 

 rently small causes. See note A. page 497 of vol. III. of this 

 Work. The correctness of the reasoning I am not now in 

 vestigating ; I am merely stating the fact as an illustration of the 

 union between all nature, and of Bacon s facility is discovering 

 this union. 



