NOVUM ORGANUM 287 



vatioa. Nature, however, of herself, supplies these but 

 sparingly. What she will do when her whole store is 

 thrown open, and after the discovery of forms, processes, 

 and conformation, will appear hereafter. As far as we can 

 yet conjecture, these magic effects are produced in three 

 ways, either by self-multiplication, as in fire, and the 

 poisons termed specific, .and the motions transferred and 

 multiplied from wheel to wheel; or by the excitement, or, 

 as it were, invitation of another substance, as in the magnet, 

 which excites innumerable needles without losing or dimin 

 ishing its power; and again in leaven, and the like; or by 

 the excess of rapidity of one species of motion over another, 

 as has been observed in the case of gunpowder, cannon, 

 and mines. The two former require an investigation of 

 harmonies, the latter of a measure of motion. Whether 

 there be any mode of changing bodies per minima (as it 

 is termed), and transferring the delicate conformations 

 of matter, which is of importance in all transformations 

 of bodies, so as to enable art to effect, in a short time, that 

 which nature works out by divers expedients, is a point of 

 which we have as yet no indication. But, as we aspire 

 to the extremest and highest results in that which is solid 

 and true, so do we ever detest, and, as far as in us lies, 

 expel all that is empty and vain. 



fLIl. Let this suffice as to the respective dignity of pre 

 rogatives of instances. But it must be noted, that in this 

 our organ, we treat of logic, and not of philosophy. Seeing, 

 however, that our logic instructs and informs the under 

 standing, in order that it may not, with the small hooks, as 

 it were, of the mind, catch at, and grasp mere abstractions, 

 but rather actually penetrate nature, and discover the prop 

 erties and effects of bodies, and the determinate laws of 



