BACON 



ing the heavenly motions by perfect circles ; for there is nothing 

 which proves such a motion in heavenly objects to be true and 

 real, either in a planet's not returning in its diurnal motion to 

 the same point of the starry sphere, or in the pole of the zodiac 

 being different from that of the world, which two circumstances 

 have occasioned this notion. For the first phenomenon is well 

 accounted for by the spheres overtaking or falling behind each 

 other, and the second by spiral lines ; so that the inaccuracy of 

 the return and declination to the tropics may be rather modifica- 

 tions of the one diurnal motion than contrary motions, or about 

 different poles. And it is most certain, if we consider ourselves 

 for a moment as part of the vulgar (setting aside the fictions of 

 astronomers and the school, who are wont undeservedly to at- 

 tack the senses in many respects, and to affect obscurity), that 

 the apparent motion is such as we have said, a model of which 

 we have sometimes caused to be represented by wires in a sort 

 of a machine. 



We may take the following instances of the cross upon this 

 subject. If it be found in any history worthy of credit, that 

 there has existed any comet, high or low, which has not revolved 

 in manifest harmony (however irregularly) with the diurnal 

 motion, then we may decide so far as to allow such a motion 

 to be possible in nature. But if nothing of the sort be found, 

 it must be suspected, and recourse must be had to other in- 

 stances of the cross. 



Again, let the required nature be weight or gravity. Heavy 

 and ponderous bodies must, either of their own nature, tend 

 towards the centre of the earth by their peculiar formation, 

 must be attracted and hurried by the corporeal mass of the 

 earth itself, as being an assemblage of similar bodies, and be 

 drawn to it by sympathy. But if the latter be the cause, it 

 follows that the nearer bodies approach to the earth, the more 

 powerfully and rapidly they must be borne towards it, and the 

 farther they are distant, the more faintly and slowly (as is the 

 case in magnetic attractions), and that this must happen within 

 a given distance ; so that if they be separated at such a distance 

 from the earth that the power of the earth cannot act upon 

 them, they will remain suspended like the earth, and not fall 

 at all. 



The following instance of the cross may be adopted. Take a 

 clock moved by leaden weights, and another by a spring, and 

 let them be set well together, so that one be neither quicker nor 

 slower than the other ; then let the clock moved by weights be 

 placed on the top of a very high church, and the other be kept 

 below, and let it be well observed, if the former move slower 

 than it did, from the diminished power of the weights. Let the 

 same experiment be made at the bottom of mines worked to a 



