BOOK II.] CONSTITUTIVE INSTANCES. 489 



always convertible with the given nature) lie at some depth, and 

 are not easily discovered, the necessity of the case and the 

 infirmity of the human understanding require that the particular 

 forms, which collect certain groups of instances (but by no means 

 all) into some common notion, should not be neglected, but most 

 diligently observed. For whatever unites nature, even imper 

 fectly, opens the way to the discovery of the form. The instances, 

 therefore, which are serviceable in this respect are of no mean 

 power, but endowed with some degree of prerogative. 



Here, nevertheless, great care must be taken that, after the 

 discovery of several of these particular forms, and the establish 

 ing of certain partitions or divisions of the required nature 

 derived from them, the human understanding do not at once rest 

 satisfied, without preparing for the investigation of the great or 

 leading form, and taking it for granted that nature is compound 

 and divided from its very root, despise and reject any farther 

 union as a point of superfluous refinement, and tending to mere 

 abstraction. 



For instance, let the required nature be memory, or that which 

 excites and assists memory. The constitutive instances are order 

 or distribution, which manifestly assists memory ; topics or 

 common-places in. artificial memory, which may be either places 

 in their literal sense, as a gate, a corner, a window, and the like, 

 or familiar persons and marks, or anything else (provided it be 

 arranged in a determinate order), as animals, plants, and words, 

 letters, characters, historical persons, and the like, of which, 

 however, some are more convenient than others. All these 

 common-places materially assist memory, and raise it far above 

 its natural strength. Verse, too, is recollected and learnt more 

 easily than prose. From this group of three instances order, 

 the common-places of artificial memory, and verses is consti 

 tuted one species of aid for the memory, 7 which may be well 

 termed a separation from infinity. For when a man strives to 

 recollect or recall anything to memory, without a preconceived 

 notion or perception of the object of his search, he inquires 

 about, and labours, and turns from point to point, as if involved 

 in infinity. But if he have any preconceived notion, this infinity 

 is separated off, and the range of his memory is brought within 

 closer limits. In the three instances given above, the precon 

 ceived notion is clear and determined. In the first, it must be 

 something that agrees with order ; in the second, an image which 



1 The author s own system of Memoria Technica may be found in 

 the De Augmentis, chap. xv. We may add that, notwithstanding 

 Bacon s assertion that he intended his method to apply to religion, 

 politics, and morals, this is the only lengthy illustration he has adduce! 

 uf any subject out of the domain of ;&amp;gt;hysic:vl science, U, 



