ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 225 



is lost, or so large till it is confounded. Thus, for example, 

 can microscopes clearly discover those things in urine 

 which are not otherwise perceptible? Can they discover 

 any specks or clouds in gems that are perfectly clear and 

 bright to appearance ? Can they magnify the motes of the 

 sun, which Democritus mistook for atoms and the princi 

 ples of things? 16 Will they show a mixed powder of ver 

 milion and ceruse in distinct grains of red and white ? Will 

 they magnify larger objects as the face, the eye, etc. as 

 much as they do a gnat or a mite, or represent a piece of 

 fine linen open as a net? But we need not insist longer 

 on compulsory experiments, as they do not justly come 

 within the limits of literate experience, but are rather re 

 ferred to axioms, causes, and the New Organum. 



The application of an experiment is no more than an in 

 genious translation of it to some other experiment of use; 

 for example, all bodies have their own dimensions and 

 gravities. Gold has more gravity and less bulk than silver, 

 and water than wine hence a useful experiment is derived 

 for discovering what proportion of silver is mixed with gold, 

 or of water with wine, from a knowledge of their measure 

 and weight, which was the grand discovery of Archimedes. 17 

 Again, as flesh putrefies sooner in some cellars than in 

 others, it were useful to transfer this experiment to the 

 examination of airs, as to their being more or less whole 

 some to live in, by finding those wherein flesh remains 

 longest unputrefied; and the same experiment is applicable 

 to discover the more wholesome or pestilential seasons of 

 the year. But examples of this kind are endless, and re 

 quire that men should have their eyes continually turned 

 one while to the nature of things and another while to 

 human uses. 



18 Epistles of Hippocrates, or Pliny s Nat. History. 



17 The means that Bacon proposes, and to which the chemists still adhere, 

 is the reverse of that of Archimedes. The ancient compared, in his experiment, 

 three bodies of the same weight, but of different volume, while the text advises 

 three bodies of the same volume, but of different weight. This reversion, how- 

 ever, does not affect the result. Ed. 



