LIB. 11. 5. 141 



particulares et speciales, non leges fundamentales et 

 communes, qua? constituunt forrnas. Verimtamen om- 

 nino fatendum est, rationem istam vlderi expeditiorem, 

 et magis sitam in propinquo ; et spem injicere magis, 

 quam illam primariam. 



At pars operativa similiter, quac huic parti contem 

 plative respondet, operationem extendit et promovet 

 ab iis, quse ordinario in natura inveniuntur, ad qusedam 

 proxima 16 , aut a proximis non admodum remota ; sed 

 altiores et radicales operationes super naturam pendent 

 utique ab axiomatlbus primariis. Quinetiam ubi non 

 datur homini facultas operand!, sed tantum sciendi, ut 

 in coelestibus, (neque enim conceditur homini operari 

 in coelestia, aut ea immutare aut transformare) tamen 

 inquisitio facti ipsius, sive veritatis rei, non minus 

 quam cognitio causarum et consensuum, ad primaria 

 ilia et catholica axiomata de naturis simplicibus (veluti 

 de natura rotationis spontaneoe 17 , attractionis sive vir- 

 tutis magneticse, et aliorum cornplurium, qua? magis 

 comniunia sunt, quam ipsa coelestia) refertur. Neque 



16 This generation of &quot; quaedain De Augm. Scient. : as also is the 

 proxima,&quot; of new natures near akin case in II. 36, where he discusses 

 to those we already have got, by more at length the nature of Spon- 

 careful imitation of the processes of taneous Rotation. (Cf. also infr. 

 Nature, is not an impossibility. 11.48. motus 17.) We must still, 



17 One is tempted to put down in fairness, recollect, however ab- 

 Bacon s attachment to this doctrine surd his views may seem to us on 

 of Spontaneous Rotation, and his this point, they were almost uni- 

 declaration that the question as to versally received in his days ; and 

 the centre of the system of which that, on the contrary, the Coperni- 

 the earth is a member cannot be can system was as yet a mere Hy- 

 solved, till Spontaneous Rotation is pothesis, supported by no recom- 

 fully understood, as a specimen of mendations, except that of its sim- 

 his own subjection to one of those plicity the law and principle of the 

 &quot; Idola Theatri,&quot; against which he thing, which settled the question 

 had inveighed so justly and so elo- for ever, were not revealed till 

 quently in the first Book. Bacon Newton had discovered the Law of 

 definitely condemns the Copernican Gravity. 



system in the Fourth Book of the 



