NOVUM ORGANUM 181 



Those are most to be suspected which depend upon super 

 stition, as the prodigies of Livy, and those perhaps, but 

 little less, which are found in the works of writers on nat 

 ural magic, or even alchemy, and the like; for such men, 

 as it were, are the very suitors and lovers of fables; but our 

 instances should be derived from some grave and credible 

 history, and faithful narration. 



XXX. In the ninth rank of prerogative instances, we 

 will place bordering instances, which we are also wont to 

 term participants. They are such as exhibit those species 

 of bodies which appear to be composed of two species, or 

 to be the rudiments between the one and the other. They 

 may well be classed with the singular or heteroclite in 

 stances; for in the whole system of things, they are rare 

 and extraordinary. Yet from their dignity, they must be 

 treated of and classed separately, for they point out admir 

 ably the order and constitution of things, and suggest the 

 causes of the number and quality of the more common 

 species in the universe, leading the understanding from 

 that which is, to that which is possible. 



We have examples of them in moss, which is something 

 between putrescence and a plant; 53 in some comets, which 

 hold a place between stars and ignited meteors; in flying 

 fishes, between fishes and birds; and in bats, between birds 

 and quadrupeds. 64 Again, 



Simia quam similis turpissima bestia nobis. 



63 The discoveries of Tournefort have placed moss in the class of plants. 

 The fish alluded to below are to be found only in the tropics. Ed. 



64 There is, however, no real approximation to birds in either the flying fish 

 or bat, any more than a man approximates to a fish because he can swim. The 

 wings of the flying fish and bat are mere expansions of skin, bearing no resem 

 blance whatever to those of birds. Ed. 



