NOVUM ORGANUM 183 



pinnacle of human industry, so as not to become familiar 

 with them, but rather to suppose that nothing of the kind 

 can be accomplished, unless the same means be employed, 

 with perhaps a little more diligence, and more accurate 

 preparation. 



Now, on the contrary, it may be stated as a fact, that 

 the ways and means hitherto discovered and observed, of 

 effecting any matter or work, are for the most part of little 

 value, and that all really efficient power depends, and is 

 really to be deduced from the sources of forms, none 

 of which have yet been discovered. 



Thus (as we have before observed), had any one medi 

 tated on ballistic machines, and battering rams, as they were 

 used by the ancients, whatever application he might have 

 exerted, and though he might have consumed a whole life 

 in the pursuit, yet would he never have hit upon the in 

 vention of flaming engines, acting by means of gunpowder; 

 nor would any person, who had made woollen manufacto 

 ries and cotton the subject of his observation and reflection, 

 have ever discovered thereby the nature of the silkworm 

 or of silk. 



Hence all the most noble discoveries have (if you ob 

 serve) come to light, not by any gradual improvement and 

 extension of the arts, but merely by chance; while nothing 

 imitates or anticipates chance (which is wont to act at in 

 tervals of ages) but the invention of forms. 



There is no necessity for adducing any particular exam 

 ples of these instances, since they are abundant. The plan 

 to be pursued is this: all the mechanical, and even the lib 

 eral arts (as far as they are practical), should be visited and 

 thoroughly examined, and thence there should be formed 

 a compilation or particular history of the great master- 



