NOVUM ORGANUM 467 



the same of gems, whether produced in rocks or mines, also as 

 to the soil in which particular trees, shrubs, and herbs, mostly 

 grow and, as it were, delight; and as to the best species of 

 manure, whether dung, chalk, sea sand, or ashes, etc., and their 

 different propriety and advantage according to the variety of 

 soils. So also the grafting and setting of trees and plants (as 

 regards the readiness of grafting one particular species on an- 

 other) depends very much upon harmony, and it would be 

 amusing to try an experiment I have lately heard of, in graft- 

 ing forest trees (garden trees alone having hitherto been 

 adopted), by which means the leaves and fruit are enlarged, 

 and the trees produce more shade. The specific food of animals 

 again should be observed, as well as that which cannot be used. 

 Thus the carnivorous cannot be fed on herbs, for which reason 

 the order of feuilletans, the experiment having been made, has 

 nearly vanished ; human nature being incapable of supporting 

 their regimen, although the human will has more power over 

 the bodily frame than that of other animals. The different 

 kinds of putrefaction from which animals are generated should 

 be noted. 



The harmony of principal bodies with those subordinate to 

 them (such indeed may be deemed those we have alluded to 

 above) are sufficiently manifest, to which may be added those 

 that exist between different bodies and their objects, and, since 

 these latter are more apparent, they may throw great light when 

 well observed and diligently examined upon those which are 

 more latent. 



The more internal harmony and aversion, or friendship and 

 enmity (for superstition and folly have rendered the terms of 

 sympathy and antipathy almost disgusting) have been either 

 falsely assigned, or mixed with fable, or most rarely discovered 

 from neglect. For if one were to allege that there is an enmity 

 between the vine and the cabbage, because they will not come 

 up well when sown together, there is a sufficient reason for it 

 in the succulent and absorbent nature of each plant, so that 

 the one defrauds the other. Again, if one were to say that 

 there is a harmony and friendship between the corn and the 

 corn-flower, or the wild poppy, because the latter seldom grow 

 anywhere but in cultivated soils, he ought rather to say, there 

 is an enmity between them, for the poppy and the corn-flower 

 are produced and created by those juices which the corn has 

 left and rejected, so that the sowing of the corn prepares the 

 ground for their production. And there are a vast number of 

 similar false assertions. As for fables, they must be totally ex- 

 terminated. There remains, then, but a scanty supply of such 

 species of harmony as has borne the test of experiment, such as 

 that between the magnet and iron, gold and quicksilver, and 



