192 NOVUM ORGANUM 



revolution, though slow and hardly perceptible, from east 

 to west, subject, however, to a reaction twice a day. If 

 this be so, it is clear that the motion of revolution is not 

 confined to the celestial bodies, but is shared, also, by air 



and water. 



Again the supposed peculiar disposition of light bodies 

 to rise is rather shaken; and here we may find an instance 

 of alliance in a water bubble. For if air be placed under 

 water, it rises rapidly toward the surface by that striking 

 motion (as Democritus terms it) with which the descending 

 water strikes the air and raises it, not by any straggle or 

 effort of the air itself; and when it has reached the surface 

 of the water, it is prevented from ascending any further, by 

 the slight resistance it meets with in the water, which does 

 not allow an immediate separation of its parts, so that the 

 tendency of the air to rise must be very slight. 



Again, let the required nature be weight. It is certainly 

 a received classification, that dense and solid bodies are 

 borne toward the centre of the earth, and rare and light 

 bodies to the circumference of the heavens, as their appro 

 priate places. As far as relates to places (though these 

 things have much weight in the schools), the notion of 

 there being any determinate place is absurd and puerile. 

 Philosophers trifle, therefore, when they tell you, that if 

 the earth were perforated, heavy bodies would stop on their 

 arrival at the centre. This centre would indeed be an effi 

 cacious nothing, or mathematical point, could it aifect 

 bodies or be sought by them, for a body is not acted upon 

 except by a body. 6 * In fact, this tendency to ascend and 



&6 But see Bacon s own corollary at the end of the Instances of Divorce, 

 Aphorism xxxvii. If Bacon s remark be accepted, the censure will fall upon 



