196 ADVi^NCEMENT OF LEARNING. [bOOK V. 



As for chance experiments, theye are plainly an irrational 

 and wild procedure, when the mind suggests the trial of a 

 thing, not because any reason or experiment persuades it, 

 but only because nothing of the kind has been tried before ; 

 yet even here, perhaps, some considerable mystery lies con- 

 cealed, provided no stone in nature were left unturned ; for 

 the capital things of nature generally lie out of the beaten 

 paths, so that even the absurdness of a thing sometimes 

 proves useful. But if reason also be here joined, so as to 

 show that the like experiment never was attempted, and yet 

 that there is great cause why it should be; then this becomes 

 an excellent instrument, and really enters the bosom of 

 nature. For example, in the operation of fire upon natural 

 bodies it hath hitherto always happened that either some- 

 thing flies off, as flame and smoke in our common fires, or at 

 least that the parts are locally separated to some distance, as 

 in distillation, where the vapour rises and the faeces are left 

 behind; but no man hath hitherto tiiod close distillation. 

 Yet it seems probable, that if the force of heat may have its 

 action confined in the cavities of a body, without any pos- 

 sibility of loss or escape, this Proteus of matter will be 

 manacled, as it were, and forced to undergo numerous trans- 

 formations, provided only the heat be so moderated and 

 changed as not to break the containing vessel. For this is 

 a kind of natural matrix, where heat has its effect without 

 separating or throwing off the paits of a body. In a true 

 matrix, indeed, there is nourishment supplied ; but in point 

 of transmutation the case is the same. And here let none 

 despair or be confounded, if the experiments they attempt 

 should not answer their expectation ; for though success be 

 indeed more pleasing, yet failure, frequently, is no less in- 

 forming; and it must ever be remembered, that experiments 

 of light are more to be desired than experiments of profit. 

 And so much lor learned experience, as we call it, which 

 thus appears to be rather a sagacity, or a scenting of nature, 

 as in hunting, than a direct science.* 



' This section appears to have been little understood even by some 

 eminent men, who censure the scheme of the author, and think tha^ 

 experiments must need be casual, and the human understanding unabl« 

 to direct and conduct them to useful purposes unless by accident. The 

 iikisfortune seems ♦.o lie here, that few con, erai ** ^MwUiftrly ^s+^i nj^tur*^ 



