THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 



27 



simple letters is easily comprehensible, and being known in- 

 dueeth and manifesteth the forms of all words which consist and 

 are compounded of them. In the same manner, to inquire the 

 form of a lion, of an oak, of gold nay of water, of air is a vain 

 pursuit ; but to inquire the forms of sense, of voluntary motion, 

 of vegetation, of colours, of gravity and levity, of density, of 

 tenuity, of heat, of cold, and all other natures and qualities 

 which like an alphabet are not many, and of which the essences 

 upheld by matter of all creatures do consist, to inquire, I say, 

 the true forms of these, is that part of metaphysique which we 

 now define of." And a little farther on we are told that it is 

 the prerogative of metaphysique to consider " the simple forms^ 

 or difference of things" (that is to say, the forms of simple 

 natures), " which are few in number, and the degrees and co- 

 ordinations whereof make all this variety." 



We see from these passages why the study of simple natures 

 is so important namely because they are comparatively 

 speaking few in number, and because, notwithstanding this, a 

 knowledge of their essence would enable us, at least in theory, 

 to solve every problem which the universe can present to us. 



As an illustration of the doctrine of simple natures, we may 

 take a passage which occurs in the Silva Silvarum. " Gold,"* 

 it is there said, (( has these natures : greatness of weight, close- 

 ness of parts, fixation, pliantness or softness, immunity from 

 rust, colour or tincture of yellow. Therefore the sure way, 

 though most about, to make gold, is to know the causes of the 

 several natures before rehearsed, and the axioms concerning the 

 same. For if a man can make a metal that hath all these pro- 

 perties, let men dispute whether it be gold or no." 1 



Of these simple jnatures Bacon has given a list in the third 

 book of the De Augmentis. They are divided into two classes : 

 schematisms of matter, and simple motions. To the former 

 belong the abstract qualities, dense, rare, heavy, light, &c., of 

 which thirty-nine are enumerated, the list being concluded with 

 a remark that it need not be carried farther, " neque ultra rem 

 extendimus." The simple motions and it will be observed that 

 the word "motion" is usea in a wide and vague sense are the 

 motus antitypia3, which secures the impenetrability of matter; 

 the motus nexus, commonly called the motus ex fuga vacui, &c. ; 





Compare Nov. Org. ii. 5. 



