434 FOVUM ORGANUM. [BOOK L 



mineral or metallic substance, should yet in its motion agree 

 with that of such bodies, would have appeared absolutely in 

 credible. Yet were these facts, and the like (unknown for so 

 many ages) not discovered at last either by philosophy or reason 

 ing, but by chance and opportunity ; and (as we have observed), 

 they are of a nature most heterogeneous, and remote irom what 

 was hitherto known, so that no previous knowledge could lead 

 to them. 



AVe may, therefore, well hope that many excellent and useful 

 matters are yet treasured up in the bosom of nature, bearing no 

 relation or analogy to our actual discoveries, but out of the com 

 mon track of our imagination, and still undiscovered, and whic i 

 will doubtless be brought to light in the course and lapse of 

 years, as the others have been before them ; but in the way w? 

 now point out, they may rapidly and at once be both represented 

 and anticipated. 



CX. There are, moreover, some inventions which render it 

 probable that men may pass and hurry over the most noble dis 

 coveries which lie immediately before them. For however tho 

 discovery of gunpowder, silk, the compass, sugar, paper, or the 

 like, may appear to depend on peculiar properties of things anc 

 nature, printing at least involves no contrivance which is not 

 clear and almost obvious. But from want of observing that 

 although the arrangement of the types of letters required more 

 trouble than writing with the hand, yet these types once arranged 

 serve for innumerable impressions, whilst manuscript only afiords 

 one copy ; and again, from want of observing that ink might be 

 thickened so as to stain without running (which was necessary, 

 seeing the letters face upwards, and the impression is made from 

 above), this most beautiful invention (which assists so materially 

 the propagation of learning) remained unknown for so many 

 ages. 



The human mind is often so awkward and ill-regulated in the 

 career of invention that it is at first diffident, and then despises 

 itself. For it appears at first incredible that any such discovery 

 should be made, and when it has been made, it appears incredible 

 that it should so long have escaped men s research. All which 

 affords good reason for the hope that a vast mass of inventions 

 yet remains, which may be deduced not only from the investiga 

 tion of new modes of operation, but also from transferring, com 

 paring, and applying these already known, by the method of 

 what we have termed literate experience. 



This hope has been abundantly realized in the discovery of gravity 

 arid the decomposition oi light, mainly by the inductive method. To a 

 better philosophy we may also attribute the discovery of electricity, 

 galvanism, and their mutual connection with each other, and magnetism, 

 the inventions of the air-pump, steam-engine, and the chronometer. 



