220 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



fall from a steeple, reaches the earth in ten seconds, will 

 a ball of two pounds, where the power of natural motion, 

 as they call it, should be double, reach it in five ? No, they 

 will fall almost in equal times, and not be accelerated ac 

 cording to quantity. 13 Suppose a drachm of sulphur would 

 liquefy half a pound of steel, will, therefore, an ounce of 

 sulphur liquefy four pounds of steel ? It does not follow ; 

 for the stubbornness of the matter in the patient is more 

 increased by quantity than the activity of the agent. 14 

 Besides, too much as well as too little may frustrate the 

 effect thus, in smelting and refining of metals it is a com 

 mon error to increase the heat of the furnace or the quantity 

 of the flux; but if these exceed a due proportion, they preju 

 dice the operation, because by their force and corrosiveness 

 they turn much of the pure metal into fumes, and carry it 

 off, whence there ensues not only a loss in the metal, but 

 the remaining mass becomes more sluggish and intractable. 

 Men should therefore remember how ^Esop s housewife was 

 deceived, who expected that by doubling her feed her hen 

 should lay two eggs a day; but the hen grew fat, and laid 

 none. It is absolutely unsafe to rely upon any natural ex 

 periment before proof be made of it, both in a less and a 

 larger quantity. 



An experiment is produced two ways; viz., by repeti 

 tion and extension, the experiment being either repeated 

 or urged to a more subtile thing. It may serve for an ex 

 ample of repetition, that spirit of wine is made of wine by 

 one distillation, and thus becomes much stronger and more 



13 Because its surface in relation to its solidity is less than the first ball, and 

 consequently encounters less resistance from the air, with respect to the entire 

 quantity of its motion. Ed. 



14 This only happens when the increased content is attended with augmenta 

 tion of surface. It may be accepted as a principle, that bodies are exposed to 

 the action of external agents in proportion as their surface is extended, an in 

 creased size presenting a greater quantity of pores, through which the agent 

 may insinuate itself. As surfaces are only as the squares of their diameters, 

 and the contents increase in the ratio of the cubes of their diameters, it follows 

 that, in the same subject matter, those bodies are more extended in relation to 

 their solidity, which have less bulk, and consequently more liable to the action, 

 of external bodies, as Bacon remarks. Ed. 



