NOVUM ORGANUM. 347 



conservationem, vel exaltationem, vel propagationem, vel fru- 

 itionem naturae suae; aut si quis dicat motus rerum tendere 

 ad conservationem et bonum, vel universi, ut Antitypiam et 

 Nexum ; vel universitatum magnarum, ut Motus Congrega- 

 tionis Majoris, Rotationis, et Exhorrentiae Motus ; vel formarum 

 specialium, ut reliquos. Licet enim haec vera sint, tamen nisi 

 terminentur in materia et fabrica secundum veras lineas, spe- 

 culativa sunt, et minus utilia. Interim sufficient et boni erunt 

 usus ad pensitandas Prasdominantias virtutum et exquirendas 

 Instantias Luctae ; id quod nunc agitur. 



Etenim ex his quos proposuimus motibus alii prorsus sunt 

 invincibiles ; alii aliis sunt fortiores, et illos ligant, fnenant, 

 disponunt ; alii aliis longius jaculantur ; alii alios tempore et 

 celeritate praevertunt; alii alios fovent, roborant, ampliant, 

 accelerant. 



Motus Antitypiae omnino est adamantinus et invincibilis. 

 Utrum vero Motus Nexus sit invinQibilis adhuc haeremus. 

 Neque enim pro certo affirmaverimus utrum detur Vacuum, 

 sive coacervatutn sive permistum. 1 At de illo nobis constat, 

 rationem illam, propter quam introductum est Vacuum a Leu- 

 cippo et Democrito (videlicet quod absque eo non possent 

 eadem corpora complecti et implere majora et minora spatia), 

 falsam esse. Est enim plane plica materice complicantis et re- 

 plicantis se per spatia, inter certos fines, absque interpositione 

 Vacui ; neque est in aere ex vacuo bis millies (tantum enim 

 esse oportet) plus quam in auro. 2 Id quod ex potentissimis 



1 " Vacuum permistum," itevbv axdptffTov, is vacuum diffused through the inter- 

 stices of any portion of matter. By " vacuum coacervatum," itevbv /cex&jpto-juei/oj', is 

 meant clear empty space. See, for this distinction, Aristotle, Phys. iv. 7. Hero of 

 Alexandria, whom Bacon mentions more than once, approves of those who admit the 

 former kind of vacuum and reject the latter. See tne Introduction to his Spiritalia. 



[It is perhaps worth observing that in the fahle entitled " Cupido sive Atomus (De 

 Sap. ret. xvii.), where the theory of a vacuum is mentioned, this distinction was not 

 introduced till Bacon revised the work in his later years. The passage which stands 

 thus in the original edition (1609) " Quisquis autem atomum ponit et vacuum, neces- 

 sario virtutem atomi ad distans introducit " is altered, in the edition published by 

 Rawley after Bacon's death, to " Quisquis autem atomum asserit atque vacuum (licet 

 istud vacuum intermistum ponat, non segregatum) necessario," &c. J. ] 



2 " Ex vacuo bis millies " is to be rendered " two thousand times as much of 

 vacuity." Bacon (vid. supra, n. 50.) thought spirit of wine a hundred times denser 

 than its own vapour, and gold twenty-one times denser than spirit of wine. In the 

 Historia Densi et Rari, he remarks that air is at least a hundred-fold rarer than 

 water ; and from the table there given it appears that the specific density of gold is to 

 that of water as 1000 to 56, nearly. Hence he must have estimated the density of 

 gold at 1900-fold that of air. Now, if we take the same weight of air and of gold, it is 

 clear that, neglecting the space occupied by the solid matter, supposed equally dense, of 

 each, the ratio of their densities is the same as that of the " vacua permista " which 

 they respectively contain, and that if we take the solid matter into account the " ex 



