BOOK il] instances of the cross. 509 



difTerent poles. And it is most certain, if we consider ourselvei 

 for a moment as part of the vulu^ar (setting aside the fictions of 

 astronomers and the school, who are wont undeservedly to at- 

 tack the senses in many respects, and to affect obscurity), that 

 the apparent motion is such as we have said, a model of which 

 we have sometimes caused to be represented by wires in a sort 

 of a machine. 



We may take the following instances of the cross upon this 

 subject. If it be found in any history Avorthy ot credit, that 

 there has existed any comet, high or low, which has not revolved 

 in manifest harmony (however irregularly) with the diurnal mo. 

 tion, then we may decide so far as to allow such a motion to be 

 possible in nature. But if nothing of the sort be found, it must be 

 suspected, and recourse must be had to other instances of the cross. 



Again, let the required nature be weight or gravity. Heavy 

 and ponderous bodies must, either of their own nature, tend 

 towards the centre of the earth by their peculiar formation, or 

 must be attracted and hurried by the corporeal mass of the 

 earth itself, as being an assemblage of similar bodies, and be 

 drawn to it by sympathy. But if the latter be the cause, it 

 follows that the nearer bodies approach to the earth, the more 

 powerfully and rapidly they must be borne towards it, and the 

 further they are distant, the more faintly and slowly (as is the 

 case in magnetic attractions), and that this must happen within 

 a given distance; so that if they be separated at such a distance 

 from the earth that the power of the earth cannot act upon 

 them, they will remain suspended like the earth, and not fall 

 at all." 



The following instance of the cross may be adopted. Take a 

 clock moved by leaden weights,P and another- by a spring, and 



® The error in the text arose from Bacon's impression that the earth 

 was immoveable. It is evident, since gravitation acts at an infinite 

 distance, that no such point could be found ; and even supposing the 

 impossible point of equilibrium discovered, the body could not maintain 

 its position an instant, but would be hurried, at the first movement oi 

 the heavenly bodies, in the direction of the dominant gravitating 

 power. Ed. 



P Fly clocks are referred to in the text, not pendulum clocks, which 

 were not known in England till 1662. The former, though clumsy and 

 rude in their construction, still embodied sound mechanical principles. 

 The comparison cf the effect of a spring with that of a weight in pru' 

 ducing certain motions in certain times on altitudes and in mines, has 

 recently been tried by Professors Airy and Whewell in Dalcoath mine, 

 by means of a pendulum, which is only a weight moved by gravity, 

 and a chronometer balance moved and regulated by a spring. In hia 

 thirty-seventh Aphorism, Bacon also speaks of gravity as an incorporeaii 

 power, acting at a distance, and refjuiring time for its transmiseiop j 



