NOVUM ORGANUM 115 



In like manner the operative branch, which answers to / 

 this contemplative branch, extends and advances its opera- j 

 tion from that which is usually observed in nature, to other 

 subjects immediately connected with it, or not very remote 

 from such immediate connection. But the higher and radi 

 cal operations upon nature depend entirely on the primary 

 axioms. Besides, even where man has not the means of 

 acting, but only of acquiring knowledge, as in astronomy 

 (for man cannot act upon, change, or transform the heavenly 

 bodies), the investigation of facts or truth, as well as the 

 knowledge of causes and coincidences, must be referred to 

 those primary and universal axioms that regard simple na 

 tures; such as the nature of spontaneous rotation, attraction, 

 or the magnetic force, and many others which are more com 

 mon than the heavenly bodies themselves. For let no one 

 hope to determine the question whether the earth or heaven 

 revolve in the diurnal motion, unless he have first compre 

 hended the nature of spontaneous rotation. 



VI. But the latent process of which we speak, is far 

 from being obvious to men s minds, beset as they now are. 

 For we mean not the measures, symptoms, or degrees of any 

 process which can be exhibited in the bodies themselves, 

 but simply a continued process, which, for the most part, 

 escapes the observation of the senses. 



For instance, in all generations and transformations of 

 bodies, we must inquire, what is in the act of being lost and 

 escaping, what remains, what is being added, what is being 

 diluted, what is being contracted, what is being united, what 

 is being separated, what is continuous, what is broken off, 

 what is urging forward, what impedes, what predominates, 

 what is subservient, and many other circumstances. 



Nor are these inquiries again to be made in the mere 



