NOVUM ORGANUM 387 



store and contract itself to the same dimensions as that of the external 

 or common atmosphere at the moment of immersion, and the water 

 will be attracted upwards in the tube to a proportionate extent. A 

 long narrow slip of paper should be attached to the tube, divided into 

 as many degrees as you please. You will then perceive, as the weather 

 grows warmer or colder, that the air contracts itself into a narrower 

 space in cold weather and dilates in the warm, which will be exhibited 

 by the rising of the water as the air contracts itself, and its depression 

 as the air dilates. The sensibility of the air with regard to heat or 

 cold is so delicate and exquisite, that it far exceeds the human touch, 

 so that a ray of sunshine, the heat of the breath, and much more, that 

 of the hand placed on the top of the tube, immediately causes an evi- 

 dent depression of the water. We think, however, that the spirit of 

 animals possesses a much more delicate susceptibility of heat and cold, 

 only that it is impeded and blunted by the grossness of their bodies. 



XXXIX. After air, we consider those bodies to be most sensible of 

 heat, which have been recently changed and contracted by cold, as 

 snow and ice; for they begin to be dissolved and melt with the first mild 

 weather. Next, perhaps, follows quicksilver; then greasy substances, 

 as oil, butter, and the like; then wood; then water; lastly, stones and 

 metals, which do not easily grow hot, particularly towards their centre. 

 When heated, however, they retain their temperature for a very long 

 time; so that a brick or stone, or hot iron, plunged in a basin of cold 

 water, and kept there for a quarter of an hour or thereabouts, retains 

 such a heat as not to admit of being touched. 



XL. The less massive the body is, the more readily it grows warm 

 at the approach of a heated body, which shows that heat with us is 

 somewhat averse to a tangible mass. 



XLI. Heat with regard to the human senses and touch is various 

 and relative, so that lukewarm water appears hot if the hand be cold, 

 and cold if the hand be hot. 



14. Anyone may readily see how poor we are in history, 

 since in the above tables, besides occasionally inserting tradi- 

 tions and report instead of approved history and authentic in- 

 stances (always, however, adding some note if their credit or 

 authority be doubtful), we are often forced to subjoin, " Let the 

 experiment be tried Let further inquiry be made." 



15. We are wont to term the office and use of these three 

 tables the presenting a review of instances to the understanding; 

 and when this has been done^ induction itself is to be brought 

 into action. Kor on an individual review of all the instances a 

 nature is to be found, such as always to be present and absent 

 with the given nature, to increase and decrease with it, and, 

 as we have said, to form a more common limit of the nature. 

 If the mind attempt this affirmatively from the first (which it 

 always will when left to itself), there will spring up phantoms, 

 mere theories and ill-defined notions, with axioms requiring 

 daily correction. These will, doubtless, be better or worse, 

 according to the power and strength of the understanding which 

 creates them. But it is only for God (the bestower and creator 

 of forms), and perhaps for angels and intelligences, at once to 

 recognize forms affirmatively at the first glance of contempla- 



