360 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



intra copiam materiae sive densitatem paucorum graduum con- 

 tinentur. 



Sequitur consensus maxime post priorem catholicus, videlicet 

 corporum principalium et fomitum suorum ; videlicet menstru- 

 orum 1 , et alimentorum. . Itaque exquirendum, sub quibus 

 climatibus, et in qua tellure, et ad quam profunditatem metalla 

 singula generentur ; et similiter de gemmis, sive ex rupibus, 

 sive inter mineras natis ; in qua gleba terras, arbores singulae, 

 et frutices, et herbse potissimum proveniant, et tanquam gau- 

 deant ; et insimul quae impinguationes, sive per stercorationes 

 cujuscunque generis, sive per cretam, arenam maris, cineres, 

 etc., maxime juvent ; et quae sint ex his pro varietate glebarum 

 magis aptae et auxiliares. Etiam insitio et inoculatio arborum 

 et plantarum, earumque ratio, quae scilicet plantae super quas 

 fbelicius inserantur, etc., multum pendet de consensu. In qua 

 parte non injucundum foret experimentum quod noviter audi- 

 vimus esse tentatum, de insitione arborum sylvestrium (quae 

 hucusque in arboribus hortensibus fieri consuevit), unde folia 

 et glandes majorem in modum amplificantur, et arbores fiunt 

 magis umbrosae. Similiter, alimenta animalium respective no- 

 tanda sunt in genere, et cum negativis. Neque enim carnivora 

 sustinent herbis nutriri ; unde etiam Ordo Folitanorum (licet 

 voluntas humana plus possit quam animantium casterorum super 

 corpus suum), post experientiam factam (ut aiunt), tanquam ab 

 humana natura non tolerabilis, fere evanuit. 2 Etiam materiae 



1 By " menstrua " are meant the substances out of which any species of mineral is 

 generated, or, in other words, the causa materialis of its existence. See, on the genera- 

 tion of metals and other minerals, the fourth and fifth books of Agricola's work De 

 ortu et canzis fossilium. He gives an account of the opinions of Aristotle, Theophra- 

 stus, &c. In modern chemistry the word menstruum is nearly equivalent to solvent. 

 By the school of Paracelsus the word is used so vaguely that it is difficult to determine 

 what idea they attached to it, or how they derived their sense of the word from its 

 original signification. When the word is used as in the text, the metaphor seems to 

 be taken from the Aristotelian theory of generation, in which KO.T& T^V irpu>TTiv v\i\v 

 Iffnv vj TOIV KarafJiTjviuv 4>t';ais. 



2 Bacon doubtless refers to the austerities of the order of Feiiillans. Jean de la 

 Barriere, after holding the Cistercian abbey of Feiiillans in commendam for eleven 

 years, renounced the world in 1673, and in the course of a few years introduced a 

 most austere rule of life into the abbey of which he was the head. His monks knelt 

 on the floor during their refections, and some of them were in the habit of drinking 

 out of skulls. They abstained from eggs, fish, butter, oil, and even salt, and con- 

 fined themselves to pottage made of herbs boiled in water, and bread so coarse and 

 black that beasts refused to eat of it. After a while they gave up wine also. Clement 

 VIII. permitted the society to draw up constitutions for the establishment of their 

 rule. By these the excessive rigour of their way of life was checked, which was done 

 in obedience to the Pope, and in consequence of the deaths of fourteen monks in 

 a single week at Feiiillans. These constitutions were ratified in 1595. Assuming, 

 of which there seems no doubt, that the Folitaui of Bacon are the Feiiillans, I may 





