2-48 NOVUM ORGANUM 



glcs anxiously to restore itself; but if heat be applied, it 

 strives, on the contrary, to dilate itself, and longs for a 

 larger volume, regularly passing and migrating into it, as 

 into a new form (as it is termed); nor after a certain degree 

 of expansion is it anxious to return, unless it be invited to 

 do so by the application of cold, which is not indeed a re 

 turn, but a fresh change. So also water, when confined by 

 compression, resists, and wishes to become as it was before, 

 namely, more expanded; but if there happen an intense 

 and continued cold, it changes itself readily, and of its own 

 accord, into the condensed state of ice; and if the cold be 

 long continued, without any intervening warmth (as in 

 grottoes and deep caves), it is changed into crystal or simi 

 lar matter, and never resumes its form. 



Let the fifth be that which we term the motion of con 

 tinuity. We do not understand by this simple and primary 

 continuity with any other body (for that is the motion of 

 connection), but the continuity of a particular body in 

 itself; for it is most certain that all bodies abhor a solu 

 tion of continuity, some more and some less, but all par 

 tially. In hard bodies (such as steel and glass) the resist 

 ance to an interruption of continuity is most powerful and 

 efficacious, while although in liquids it appears to be faint 

 and languid, yet it is not altogether null, but exists in the 

 lowest degree, and shows itself in many experiments, such 

 as bubbles, the round form of drops, the thin threads which 

 drip from roofs, the cohesion of glutinous substances, and 

 the like. It is most conspicuous, however, if an attempt 

 be made to push this separation to still smaller particles. 

 Thus, in mortars, the pestle produces no effect after a cer 

 tain degree of contusion, water does not penetrate small 

 fissures, and the air itself, notwithstanding its subtilty, 



