BOOK I.] APHORISM& 433 



escaped confjiderable efforts and laborious inquiries, yet un- 

 doubtedly the reverse is generally the case. We may, therefore, 

 hope for further, better, and more frequent results from man's 

 reason, industry, method, and application, than from chance and 

 mere animal instinct, and the like, which have hitherto been the 

 sources of invention. 



CIX. We may also derive some reason for hope from the 

 circumstance of several actual inventione oeing of such a nature, 

 that scarcely any one could have formed a conjecture about tliem 

 previously to their discovery, but would rather have ridiculed 

 them as impossible. For men are wont to guess about new sub- 

 jects from those they are already acquainted with, and the 

 hasty and vitiated fancies tliey have thence formed : than which 

 there cannot be a more fallacious mode of reasoning, because 

 much of that which is derived from the sources of things does 

 not flow in their usual channel. 



If, for instance, before the discovery of cannon, one had 

 described its effects in the following manner : There is a new in- 

 vention by which walls and the greatest bulwarks can be shaken 

 and overthrown from a considerable distance ; men would have 

 begun to contrive various means of multiplying the force of 

 projectiles and machines by means of weights and wheels, and 

 other modes of battering and projecting. But it is improbable 

 that any imagination or fancy would have hit upon a fiery blast, 

 expandmg and developing itself so suddenly and violently, 

 because none would have seen an instance at all resembling it, 

 except perhaps in earthquakes or thunder, which they would 

 have immediately rejected as the great operations of nature, not 

 to be imitated by man. 



So, if before the discovery of silk thread, any one had observed. 

 That a species of thread had been discovered, fit for dresses and 

 furniture, far surpassing the thread of worsted or flax in fineness, 

 and at the same time in tenacity, beauty, and softness ; men 

 would have begun to imagine something about Chinese plants, 

 or the fine hair of some animals, or the feathens or down of 

 birds, but certainly would never have had an idea of its being 

 spun by a small worm, in so copious a manner, and renewed 

 annually. But if any one had ventured to suggest the silkworm, 

 he would have been laughed at as if dreaming of some new 

 manufacture from spiders. 



So again, if before the discovery of the compass, any one had 

 said, That an instrument had been invented, by which the 

 quarters and points of the heavens could be exactly taken and 

 distinguished, men would have entered into disquisitions on the 

 refinement of astronomical instruments, and the like, from the 

 excitement of their imaginations ; but the thought of anything 

 bebg discovered, winch, not being a celestial body, but a mere 

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