228 NOVUM ORGANUM 



the mixture of flame and air in spirituous substances, not 

 bearing mixture very well by simple collision, while they 

 appear, however, to be well mixed in the spirits of plants 

 and animals. 



Again, if the inquiry do not relate to perfect mixtures of 

 spirits, but merely to their composition, as whether they 

 easily incorporate with each other, or there be rather (as an 

 example) certain winds and exhalations, or other spiritual 

 bodies, which do not mix with common air, but only adhere 

 to and float in it in globules and drops, and are rather 

 broken and pounded by the air, than received into, and 

 incorporated with it; this cannot be perceived in common 

 air, and other aeriform substances, on account of the rarity 

 of the bodies, but an image, as it were, of this process may 

 be conceived in such liquids as quicksilver, oil, water, and 

 even air, when broken and dissipated it ascends in small 

 portions through water, and also in the thicker kinds of 

 smoke; lastly, in dust, raised and remaining in the air, in 

 all of which there is no incorporation: and the above repre 

 sentation in this respect is not a bad one, if it be first dili 

 gently investigated, whether there can be such a difference 

 of nature between spirituous substances, as between liquids, 

 for then these images might conveniently be substituted by 

 analogy. 



And although we have observed of these supplementary 

 instances, that information is to be derived from them, when 

 appropriate instances are wanting, by way of refuge, yet we 

 would have it understood, that they are also of great use, 

 when the appropriate instances are at hand, in order to con 

 firm the information afforded by them; of which we will 

 speak more at length, when our subject leads us, in due 

 course, to the support of induction. 



