^^^ KorUM OtlGANUM, [bOOK IL 



III. He wlio lias learnt the cause of a particular nature (su^h 

 as whiteness or heat), in particular subjects only, h&g. acquired 

 but an imperfect knowledge : as he ^ho can induce a certain 

 effect upon particular substances only, among those which are 

 Busceptible of it, has acquired but an imperfect power. But he 

 who has only learnt the efficient and material cause (which 

 causes are variable and mere vehicles conveying form to parti- 

 cular substances) may perhaps arrive at some new discoveries in 

 matters of a similar nature, and prepared for the purpose, but 

 does not stir the limits of things which are much more deeply 

 rooted : whilst he who is acquainted with forms, comprehends 

 the unity of nature in substances apparently most distinct from 

 each other. He can disclose and bring forward, therefore, 

 (though it has never yet been done) things which neither the 

 vicissitudes of nature, nor the industry of experiment, nor chance 

 itself, would ever have brought about, and which would for ever 

 have escaped man's thoughts; from the discovery of forms, ^^ 

 therefore, resylts^^annine theory and free practice. 



rVT"XTthough there is a most intimate connection, and almost 

 an identity between the ways of human power and human 

 knowledgis yet, on account of the pernicious and invetera tejiabit 



/AfVlvvf^lli. g 11^)01^ f^b^j-jrnphir>ng,'ir. iq hy inr tIia gaVf^cf. '^iT^TK^r^ tO 



commence and build up the sciences from those ioundations 

 which bear a relation to the practical division, and to let them 

 mark out and limit the theoretical. We must consider, there- 

 fore, what precepts, or what direction or guide, a person would 

 most desire, in order to generate and superinduce any nature 

 upon a given body : and this not in abstruse, but in the plainest 

 language. 



For instance, if a person should wish to superinduce the yellow 

 colour of gold upon silver, or an additional weight (observing 

 always the laws of matter) or transparency on an opaque stone, 

 or tenacity in glass, or vegetation on a substance which is not 



the principle since called the law of contin-ilty. Thus, the succession 

 of events between the application of the matcli to the expulsion of the 

 bullet is an instant of latent progress which we can now trace with 

 Konie degree of accuracy. It also more directly relers to the operation 

 by which one form or condition of being is induced upon another. Fo'' 

 example, when the surface of iron becomes rusty, or when water is con- 

 verted into steam, some chanjre has taken place, or latent piocess from 

 one form to another. Mechanics afford many exemplifications ot tho 

 first latent process we have denoted, and chemistry of the second. 

 The latens schematismus is that visible structure of bodies on which so 

 many of their properties depend. When we inquire into the consti- 

 tution of crystals, and into the 'nternal structur'e uf plants, we are 

 examining into their latent gchematism. £d. 



