,IT A BACON 



414 



bodies, is not extended beyond the limit of its peculiar virtue 

 (which operates always at a fixed distance and no farther), and 

 this be proved by some instance, such an instance will be one of 

 alliance in our present subject. The nearest approach to it is 

 that of waterspouts, frequently seen by persons navigating the 

 Atlantic towards either of the Indies. For the force and mass 

 of the water suddenly effused by waterspouts, appear to be so 

 considerable, that the water must have been collected previously, 

 and have remained fixed where it was formed, until it was after- 

 wards forced down by some violent cause, rather than made to 

 fall by the natural motion of gravity; so that it may be con- 

 jectured that a dense and compact mass, at a great distance from 

 the earth, may be suspended as the earth itself is, and would not 

 fall, unless forced down. We do not, however, affirm this as 

 certain. In the mean while, both in this respect and many 

 others, it will readily be seen how deficient we are in natural 

 history, since we are forced to have recourse to suppositions 

 for examples, instead of ascertained instances. 



Again, let the required nature be the discursive power of the 

 mind. The classification of human reason and animal instinct 

 appears to be perfectly correct. Yet there are some instances of 

 the actions of brutes which seem to show that they, too, can 

 syllogize. Thus it is related, that a crow, which had nearly 

 perished from thirst in a great drought, saw some water in the 

 hollow trunk of a tree, but as it was too narrow for him to get 

 into it, he continued to throw in pebbles, which made the water 

 rise till he could drink ; and it afterwards became a proverb. 



Again, let the required nature be vision. The classification 

 appears real and certain, which considers light as that which is 

 originally visible, and confers the power of seeing ; and color, 

 as being secondarily visible, and not capable of being seen with- 

 out light, so as to appear a mere image or modification of light. 

 Yet there are instances of alliance in each respect ; as in snow 

 when in great quantities, and in the flame of sulphur ; the one 

 being a color originally and in itself light, the other a light verg- 

 ing towards color. 



36. In the fourteenth rank of prerogative instances, we will 

 place the instances of the cross, borrowing our metaphor from 

 the crosses erected where two roads meet, to point out the dif- 

 ferent directions. We are wont also to call them decisive and 

 judicial instances, and in some cases instances of the oracle and 

 of command. Their nature is as follows. When in investigat- 

 ing any nature the understanding is, as it were, balanced, and 

 uncertain to which of two or more natures the cause of the re- 

 quired nature should be assigned, on account of the frequent 

 and usual concurrence of several natures, the instances of the 

 cross show that the union of one nature with the required nature 



