422 NOVUM OllGANUM. [B(J0K I. 



whole tendency of such positions is wilfully to circumscribe man's 

 power, and to produce a despair of the means of invention and 

 contrivance, which would not only confound the promises of hope, 

 but cut the very springs and sinews of industry, and throw aside 

 even the chances of experience. The only object of such philo- 

 sophers is to acquire the reputation of perfection for their own 

 art, and they are anxious to obtain the most silly and abandoned 

 renown, by causing a belief that whatever has not yet been in- 

 vented and understood can never be so hereafter. But if any 

 one attempt to give himself up to things, and to discover some- 

 thing new, yet he will only propose and destine for his object 

 the investigation and discovery of some one invention, and 

 nothing more ; as the nature of the magnet, the tides, the hea- 

 venly system, and the like, which appear enveloped in some de- 

 gree of mystery, and have hitherto been treated with but little 

 success. jNow it is the greatest proof of want of skill, to inves- 

 tigate the nature of any object in itself alone ; for that same 

 nature, which seems concealed and hidden in some instances, is 

 manifest and almost palpable in others, and excites wonder in 

 the former, whilst it hardly attracts attention in the latter.® Thus 

 the nature of consistency is scarcely observed in wood or stone, 

 but passed over by the term solid without any further inquiry 

 about the repulsion of separation or the solution of continuity. 

 But in water-bubbles the same circumstance appears matter of 

 delicate and ingenious research, for they form themselves into thin 

 pellicles, curiously shaped into hemispheres, so as for an instant 

 to avoid the solution of continuity. 



In general those very things which are considered as secret 

 are manifest and common in other objects, but will never be 

 clearly seen if the experiments and contemplation of man be 

 directed to themselves only. Yet it commonly happens, that if, 

 in the mechanical arts, any one bring old discoveries to a finer 

 polish, or more elegant height of ornament, or unite and com- 

 pound them, or apply them more readily to practice, or exhibit 

 them on a less heavy and voluminous scale, and the like, they 

 will pass off as new. 



We canno^', therefore, wonder that no magnificent discoveries, 

 worthy of mankind, have been brought to light, whilst men are 

 satisfied and delighted with such scanty and puerile tasks, nay, 



*= The methods by which Newton carried the rule and compass to 

 the boundaries of creation is a sufficient comment on the sagacity of the 

 text. The same cause wl ich globulizes a bubble, has rounded the 

 earth, and the same law which draws a stone to its surface, keeps the 

 moon in her orbit. It was by calculating and ascertaining these prin- 

 ciples upon substances entirely at his disposal that this great phiUv 

 gopher was enabled Xo give v^ a key tP ualock the mystfiries of Ui« 

 universe. £4, 



