578 DE AUGMENTIS SCIENTIARUM LIB. TERT. 



ad solida non sufficiat, in supervacaneis se atterat. Mixta ha- 

 bet pro subjecto Axiomata et portiones physicas ; Quantitatem 

 autem considerat, quatenus est ad ea elucidanda et demon- 

 stranda et actuanda auxiliaris. Multae siquidem naturae partes 

 nee satis subtiliter comprehend!, nee satis perspicue demon- 

 strari, nee satis dextre et certo ad usuni accommodari pos- 

 sint, sine ope et interventu Mathematicae. Cujus generis sunt 

 Perspectiva, Musica, Astronomia, Cosmographia, Architectura, 

 Machinaria 1 , et nonnullae aliae. C aster um in Mathematicis 

 Mixtis integras aliquas portiones desideratas jam non reperio, 

 sed multas in posterum praedico, si homines non ferientur. 

 Prout enim Physica majora indies incrementa capiet, et nova 

 Axiomata educet ; eo Mathematicae opera nova in multis indi- 

 gebit, et plures demum fient Mathematicae Mixtae. 



Jam autem doctrinam de Natura pertransivimus, et Desi- 

 derata in ipsa notavhnus. Qua in re, si a priscis et receptis 

 opinionibus discesserimus, eoque nomine contradicendi ansam 

 cuiquam praebuerimus ; quod ad nos attinet, ut dissentiendi 

 studium longe a nobis abest, ita etiam et contendendi con- 

 silium. Si haec vera sunt, 



Non canimus surdis, respondent omnia silvse; 2 



vox naturae ingeminabit, etsi vox hominum reclamet. Quem- 



admodum autem Alexander Borgia dicere solebat de expecli- 



tione Gallorum Neapolitana, eos venisse cum creta in manibus 



quo dwersoria ma notarent,non cum armis ut perrumperent 3 ; sic 



nobis magis cordi est pacificus veritatis ingressus, ubi quasi 



creta consignentur animi qui tantam hospitem excipere possint, 



quam qui pugnax est, viamque sibi per contentiones et 



lites sternat. Absolutis igitur duabus partibus 



Philosophiae, de Numine et de 



Natura, restat tertia de 



Homine. 



1 Machinaria means the art of making machines, not mechanics in the common 

 sense of the word. It therefore appears from this enumeration that Bacon was 

 not acquainted with any application of mathematics to statics or dynamics, as he 

 would certainly not have included these fundamental portions of mixed mathematics 

 in the nonnulla) aliae with which the list concludes. The omission of any reference 

 to the mathematical doctrine of motion is not surprising, though Galileo's researches 

 were known for many years before the publication of the De Augmentis; the theory 

 of equilibrium, however, is as old as the time of Archimedes ; and we might there- 

 fore have expected that it would have been here mentioned. 



8 Virg. Eel. x. 8. See Nov. Org. i. 35. 



