ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 227 



numerous transformations, provided only the heat be so 

 moderated and changed as not to break the containing 

 vessel. For this is a kind of natural matrix, where heat 

 has its effect without separating or throwing off the parts 

 of a body. In a true matrix, indeed, there is nourishment 

 supplied; but in point of transmutation the case is the 

 same. And here let none despair or be confounded, if 

 the experiments they attempt should not answer their ex 

 pectation; for though success be indeed more pleasing, 

 yet failure, frequently, is no less informing; and it must 

 ever be remembered, that experiments of light are more to 

 be desired than experiments of profit. And so much for 

 learned experience, as we call it, which thus appears to be 

 rather a sagacity, or a scenting of nature, as in hunting, 

 than a direct science. 19 



As regards the Novum Organum, we shall state here 

 nothing either summarily or in detail, it being our inten 

 tion, with the Divine assistance, to devote an entire treatise 

 to that subject, which is more important than all the rest. 



CHAPTER III 



Division of the Invention of Arguments into Promptuary, or Places of Prep 

 aration, and Topical, or Places of Suggestion. The Division of Topics 

 into General and Particular. An example of Particular Topics afforded 

 by an Inquiry into the Nature of the Qualities of Light and Heavy 



THE invention of arguments is not properly an inven 

 tion; for to invent, is to discover things unknown 

 before, and not to recollect or admit such as are 

 known already. The office and use of this kind of inven- 



19 This section appears to have been little understood even by some eminent 

 men, who censure the scheme of the author, and think that experiments must 

 need be casual, and the human understanding unable to direct and conduct them 

 to useful purposes unless by accident. The misfortune seems to lie here, that 

 few converse so familiarly with nature as to judge what may be done in this 

 way; or how the numerous discoveries of Lord Bacon, Mr. Boyle, Dr. Hook, Sir 

 Isaac Newton, etc., were made. An attentive perusal of the Novum Organum, 

 where this subject is largely prosecuted, will unravel the mystery. Shaw. 



