NOVUM ORGANUM 4*5 



with regard to information, for which reason we must seek 

 principally helps for that sense. These helps appear to be 

 threefold, either to enable it to perceive objects not naturally 

 seen, or to see them from a greater distance, or to see them 

 more accurately and distinctly. 



We have an example of the first (not to speak of spectacles 

 and the like, which only correct and remove the infirmity of a 

 deficient sight, and therefore give no further information) in the 

 lately invented microscopes, which exhibit the latent and in- 

 visible minutiae of substances, and their hidden formation and 

 motion, by wonderfully increasing their apparent magnitude. 

 i'v their assistance we behold with astonishment the accurate 

 form and outline of a flea, moss, and animalculae, as well as 

 their previously invisible color and motion. It is said, also, 

 that an apparently straight line, drawn with a pen or pencil, is 

 discovered by such a microscope to be very uneven and curved, 

 because neither the motion of the hand, when assisted by a 

 ruler, nor the impression of ink or color, is really regular, al- 

 though the irregularities are so minute as not to be perceptible 

 without the assistance of the microscope. Men have (as is 

 usual in new and wonderful discoveries) added a superstitious 

 remark, that the microscope sheds a lustre on the works of nat- 

 ure, and dishonor on those of art, which only means that the 

 tissue of nature is much more delicate than that of art. For 

 the microscope is only of use for minute objects, and Demo- 

 critus, perhaps, if he had seen it, would have exulted in the 

 thought of a means being discovered for seeing his atom, which 

 he affirmed to be entirely invisible. But the inadequacy of 

 these microscopes, for the observation of any but the most 

 minute bodies, and even of those if parts of a larger body, de- 

 stroys their utility ; for if the invention could be extended to 

 greater bodies, or the minute parts of greater bodies, so that a 

 piece of cloth would appear like a net, and the latent minutiae 

 and irregularities of gems, liquids, urine, blood, wounds, and 

 many other things could be rendered visible, the greatest ad- 

 vantage would, without doubt, be derived. 



We have an instance of the second kind in the telescope, dis- 

 covered by the wonderful exertions of Galileo ; by the assistance 

 of which a nearer intercourse may be opened (as by boats or 

 vessels) between ourselves and the heavenly objects. For by 

 its aid we are assured that the Milky Way is but a knot or con- 

 stellation of small stars, clearly defined and separate, which 

 the ancients only conjectured to be the case ; whence it appears 

 to be capable of demonstration, that the spaces of the planetary 

 orbits (as they are termed) are not quite destitute of other stars, 

 but that the heaven begins to glitter with stars before we arrive 

 at the starry sphere, although they may be too small to be 



