NOVUM ORGANUM 371 



The second kind of axiom (which depends on the discovery 

 of the latent process) does not proceed by simple natures, but 

 by concrete bodies, as they are found in nature and in its usual 

 course. For instance, suppose the inquiry to be, from what 

 beginnings, in what manner, and by what process gold or any 

 metal or stone is generated from the original menstruum, or its 

 elements, up to the perfect mineral : or, in like manner, by what 

 process plants are generated, from the first concretion of juices 

 in the earth, or from seeds, up to the perfect plant, with the 

 whole successive motion, and varied and uninterrupted efforts 

 of nature ; and the same inquiry be made as to a regularly de- 

 duced system of the generation of animals from coition to birth, 

 and so on of other bodies. 



Nor is this species of inquiry confined to the mere generation 

 of bodies, but it is applicable to other changes and labors of 

 nature. For instance, where an inquiry is made into the whole 

 series and continued operation of the nutritive process, from 

 the first reception of the food to its complete assimilation to 

 the recipient ; or into the voluntary motion of animals, from the 

 first impression of the imagination, and the continuous effects of 

 the spirits, up to the bending and motion of the joints ; or into 

 the free motion of the tongue and lips, and other accessories 

 which give utterance to articulate sounds. For all these investi- 

 gations relate to concrete or associated natures artificially 

 brought together, and take into consideration certain particular 

 and special habits of nature, and not those fundamental and gen- 

 eral laws which constitute forms. It must, however, be plainly 

 owned, that this method appears more prompt and easy, and of 

 greater promise than the primary one. 



In like manner the operative branch, which answers to this 

 contemplative branch, extends and advances its operation from 

 that which is usually observed in nature, to other subjects im- 

 mediately connected with it, or not very remote from such 

 immediate connection. But the higher and radical operations 

 upon nature depend entirely on the primary axioms. Besides, 

 even where man has not the means of acting, but only of ac- 

 quiring knowledge, as in astronomy (for man cannot act upon, 

 change, or transform the heavenly bodies), the investigation of 

 facts or truth, as well as the knowledge of causes and coinci- 

 dences, must be referred to those primary and universal axioms 

 that regard simple natures ; such as the nature of spontaneous 

 rotation, attraction, or the magnetic force, and many others 

 which are more common than the heavenly bodies themselves. 

 For let no one hope to determine the question whether the earth 

 or heaven revolve in the diurnal motion, unless he have first 

 comprehended the nature of spontaneous rotation. 



6. But the latent process of which we speak, is far from being 



