NOVUM ORGANUM 469 



poisons termed specific, and the motions transferred and multi- 

 plied from wheel to wheel ; or by the excitement, or, as it were, 

 invitation of another substance, as in the magnet, which ex- 

 cites innumerable needles without losing or diminishing its 

 power ; and again in leaven, and the like ; or by the excess of 

 rapidity of one species of motion over another, as has been 

 observed in the case of gunpowder, cannon, and mines. The 

 two former require an investigation of harmonies, the latter of 

 a measure of motion. Whether there be any mode of changing 

 bodies per minima (as it is termed) , and transferring the delicate 

 conformations of matter, which is of importance in all trans- 

 formations of bodies, so as to enable art to effect, in a short 

 time, that which nature works out by divers expedients, is a 

 point of which we have as yet no indication. But, as we aspire 

 to the extremest and highest results in that which is solid and 

 true, so do we ever detest, and, as far as in us lies, expel all that 

 is empty and vain. 



52. Let this suffice as to the respective dignity of preroga- 

 tives of instances. But it must be noted, that in this our organ, 

 we treat of logic, and not of philosophy. Seeing, however, that 

 our logic instructs and informs the understanding, in order 

 that it may not, with the small hooks, as it were, of the mind, 

 catch at, and grasp mere abstractions, but rather actually pene- 

 trate nature, and discover the properties and effects of bodies, 

 and the determinate laws of their substance (so that this science 

 of ours springs from the nature of things, as well as from that 

 of the mind) ; it is not to be wondered at, if it have been con- 

 tinually interspersed and illustrated with natural observations 

 and experiments, as instances of our method. The prerogative 

 instances are, as appears from what has preceded, twenty-seven 

 in number, and are termed, solitary instances, migrating in- 

 stances, conspicuous instances, clandestine instances, constitu- 

 tive instances, similar instances, singular instances, deviating in- 

 stances, bordering instances, instances of power, accompany- 

 ing and hostile instances, subjunctive instances, instances of 

 alliance, instances of the cross, instances of divorce, instances 

 of the gate, citing instances, instances of the road, supple- 

 mentary instances, lancing instances, instances of the rod, 

 instances of the course, doses of nature, wrestling instances, 

 suggesting instances, generally useful instances, and magical in- 

 stances. The advantage, by which these instances excel the 

 more ordinary, regards specifically either theory or practice, or 

 both. With regard to theory, they assist either the senses or 

 the understanding; the senses, as in the five instances of the 

 lamp; the understanding, either by expediting the exclusive 

 mode of arriving at the form, as in solitary instances, or by o m 

 fining, and more immediately indicating the affirmative, as in 

 the migrating, conspicuous, accompanying, and subjunctive in- 



