I 4 4 BACON 



that by this translation of experiments arts might mutually 

 warm and light up each other, as it were, by an intermixture of 

 rays. For although the rational way, by means of a new ma- 

 chine for the mind, promises much greater things ; yet this sa- 

 gacity, or learned experience, will in the mean time scatter 

 among mankind many matters, which, as so many missive do- 

 natives among the ancients, are near at hand. 



The transferring of experiments from one part of an art to 

 another differs little from the transferring one art to another. 

 But because some arts are so extensive as to allow of the trans- 

 lation of experiments within themselves, it is proper to mention 

 this kind also, especially as it is of very great moment in some 

 particular arts. Thus it greatly contributes to enlarge the art 

 of medicine to have the experiments of that part which treats of 

 the cures of diseases, transferred to those parts which relate to 

 the preservation of health and the prolongation of life. For if 

 any famous opiate should, in a pestilential distemper, suppress 

 the violent inflammation of the spirits, it might thence seem 

 probable that something of the same kind, rendered familiar 

 by a due dose, might in good measure check that wasting in- 

 flammation which steals on with age. 



An experiment is inverted when the contrary of what the ex- 

 periment shows is proved; for example, heat is increased by 

 burning-glasses ; but may cold be so too ? So heat, in diffusing 

 itself, rather mounts upwards, but cold, in diffusing itself, rather 

 moves downwards. Thus, if an iron rod be heated at one end, 

 then erected upon its heated end, and the hand be applied to 

 the upper part of the rod, the hand will presently be burnt ; but 

 if the heated end be placed upward, and the hand applied below, 

 it will be burnt much slower. But if the whole rod were heated, 

 and one end of it wet with snow or a sponge dipped in cold 

 water, would the cold be sooner propagated downwards than 

 upwards if the sponge were applied below ? Again, the rays 

 of the sun are reflected from a white body, but absorbed by a 

 black one. Are shadows also scattered by black and collected 

 by white bodies ? We see in a dark place, where light comes 

 in only at a small hole, the images of external objects are re- 

 ceived upon white paper, but not upon black. 



An experiment is compelled where it is urged or produced 

 to the annihilation or destruction of the power, the prey being 

 only caught in the other chases, but killed in this. Thus the 



