FRANCIS BACON. 135 



crystalline form, and other physical properties of bodies, as in Bacon's 

 time; and the latens processus of the phenomena of gravitation, mag- 

 netism, electricity, is completely unknown. And the real ultimate 

 latent processes are doubtless beyond the reach of human intelligence 

 altogether, for the knowledge of them would be the knowledge of 

 things absolutely or as they are in themselves an admitted impossi- 

 bility. Indeed, the reflective reader will perceive that in the illustra- 

 tion we have given of the latent process, our knowledge amounts to, 

 nothing more than the sequences we term cause and effect, and that 

 between each of these sequences there must be unknown latent pro- 

 cesses, and so on ad infinitum. A similar observation will apply to the 

 latent stmcture. Much ingenuity is constantly being expended in de- 

 vising schemes of atomic and molecular structure which may account 

 for observed phenomena, and the entirely hypothetical nature of these 

 conceptions is liable to be lost sight of, the hypotheses being treated 

 as realities of nature. 



Bacon illustrates the inductive method by an inquiry of his own into 

 the form of heat ; in other words, by an investigation into the cause of 

 heat. The first step consists in arranging in certain lists or tables all 

 the experiments and observations relating to heat. The first table 

 enumerates those instances which "agree in possessing the nature of 

 heat." Such are the sun's rays, fiery meteors, lightning, flame, hot 

 springs, sparks struck out by collision, green and moist plants when 

 pressed together (as hay, etc.), slaked lime, the bodies of animals. The 

 second table is negative, that is, it is a list of things which have a near 

 relation and resemblance to the things mentioned in the first table, 

 heat alone excepted, in which these instances are to all sense wanting. 

 Thus to the affirmative instance of the sun's rays in the first table there 

 are the parallel negative instances of the rays of the moon, of stars, and 

 of comets, since these, like the rays of the sun, are luminous, but are with- 

 out heat. The third table consists of a comparison of the degrees of heat 

 found in different substances. The first things considered are such as 

 discover no heat to the touch, but yet seem to have "a disposition and 

 preparation toward actual heat." Quicklime, green plants, acrid vege- 

 tables, etc., are put down as examples. The first degree of heat sensi- 

 ble to the touch Bacon considers to be the warmth of animals, and he 

 inquires into the comparative heat of the different kinds of animals. 

 The degrees of heat in various flames are then considered, as in the 

 flames of alcohol, of wood, of oil, of sulphur, of gunpowder, and of 

 lightning. 



The three tables containing a great number of (ist) positive, (2nd) 

 negative, and (3rd) comparative examples of heat are designed "to 

 present a view of instances to the understanding;" and this view having 

 been obtained, induction is put in practice. " Upon a particular and 

 general view of all the instances, some quality or property is to be 

 discovered, on which the nature of the thing in question depends, and 



