110 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGE 



according to its composition. Jupiter and Venus were com 

 pounded of warm and moist, and their influence was good, since 

 heat and moisture are creative elements. On the other hand, the 

 influence of Mars and Mercury was bad, since the one was dry, 

 and the other was changeable. It was thought, moreover, that 

 each of the signs of the zodiac presides over a special part of the 

 body : and that a child's fortune in life could be predicted from 

 the sign of the zodiac which rose at its birth. It was thought 

 also that an undertaking would prosper according to the season 

 in which it was undertaken. This last belief was held by Bacon 

 " We must not," he says, "altogether reject the choice of times, 

 though we should place less reliance on it than on predictions. For 

 we see that in sowing, and planting, and grafting, an observation 

 of the age of the moon is a thing not altogether to be despised." 

 Bacon rejected the grosser follies of Astrology. " Astrology," he 

 s?ys, "is so full of superstition, that we can scarcely find anything 

 sound in it" but he could not shake off the belief in it alto 

 gether. He says that it may enable us to predict not only 

 natural phenomena, such as frosts, floods, earthquakes, etc., but 

 wars, seditions, schisms, transmigrations of peoples, and, in 

 short, all commotions or great revolutions of things, natural as 

 well as civil. See Fowler's Introd. to Nov. Org. p. 26, and 

 Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences, vol. I. , bk. iv. , ch. 3. 

 Alchemy is the Arabic Alkimia. Alis the Arabic article. Kimia 

 is the late Greek word chemeia, which is perhaps a corruption of 

 chumeia, a mixture, or fusion. The form chumeia justifies the 

 spellings alchymy and chymistry. 



1. 5. concatenation, connection. 



1. 6. to reduce is used in its literal sense, and is equivalent to 

 'to bring back.' Cf. 'induceth,' Bk. 2, p. 43. In the De Aug. 

 Bacon says "that the proper function of natural magic is to 

 apply the knowledge of hidden causes to the production of 

 wonderful results." See below, Bk. 2, p. 38. For the ground 

 of Bacon's objections to the ordinary magic, see Bk. 2, p. 51. 

 pretendeth, claims, professes. 



1. 9. in mixtures of nature, in substances as they exist in 

 nature. The order is, 'which are incorporate, i.e., incorporated, 

 in mixtures of nature.' He explains this in the De Aug. thus : 

 "Alchemy professes to extract and eliminate the heterogeneous 

 elements which are latent in substances, as they exist in nature, 

 and to purify bodies which are impure, to set free those which 

 are enchained, and to perfect those which are incomplete," i.e., 

 Alchemy was engaged in the refining and transmuting of metals. 

 See Bk. 2, p. 51, for Bacon's opinion as to the way in which 

 transmutation can really be effected, and the futility of the means 

 by which the alchemists sought to effect it. 



1. 10. derivations and prosecutions, the devices and the 



