364 APPENDIX E. 



illustrations it is clear that he meant by them very nearly 

 what we mean ly laws; i.e. general tacts, or la\vs of some 

 degree of generality, which are themselves results of Induc 

 tion.&quot; Such would be Kepler s Laws of Motion, the Law of 

 double Refraction in Optics, &c. This division is more to be 

 noticed, as it seems to me to settle in the negative the question 

 as to whether by Form in its higher sense. Bacon did or did 

 not mean what we mean bv Law. Having then thus dis- 



e O 



tinctly marked off the Laws of Nature,&quot; (tanquam Formas 

 minores.) it only remains for us to see whether by comparing 

 Form with Latent Process and Structure, we can obtain a 

 clearer notion of it. 



(2.) By Latent Bacon means such intimate and subtle works 

 of nature as escape the ordinary eye ; things which are par 

 tially revealed by microscopes, by electric agencies, &c. These 

 he divides into two : j&amp;gt;rocexs or growth : as when a plant goes 

 on putting forth buds and shoots and leaves continuously, and 

 yet so gradually as to escape notice except in longer intervals of 

 time. As I have said elsewhere, the Calculus furnishes us with 

 expressions for such secret movements of things; and we have 

 now more knowledge of the expression than of the thing itself. 

 The other work of nature is termed /Structure, and is the inner 

 composition or arrangement of Atoms of bodies, as they are 

 found in Nature. Such, for example, as the arrangement of 

 particles in crystallography ; or of the particles of blood, &c. ; 

 the subtle laws of composition which things follow. For these 

 the Microscope has proved most useful. 



If neither of these are Form, what then is left for Form ! 

 Without answering that there is nothing, (as some would do,) 

 it must be confessed that the discovery of Latent Procvxs and 

 Structure has practically been successful, while that of Form 

 still remains where it was. The problem of life and of very 

 being is one which scarcely admits of solution here. There is 

 a dark mist drawn across the extreme limits of our knowledge. 

 Form is the cause of Process and of Structure. The crystal 

 is (e. g.) cubical, because of the structure of its particles ; but 

 that structure is not the ultimate fact : there must be a cause 

 for it in Nature. The blood is vitalised in a certain way, is 



