516 SrOVUM ORGANUM. CBOOK U. 



Teleams terms associates, and of the same family, namely, heat, 

 light, rarity, and mobility, or promptitude to motion ; yet many 

 instances of divorce can be discovered between them. Air is rare 

 and easily moved, but neither hot nor li^ht ; the moon is light 

 but not hot; boiling water is warm but not light; the motion of the 

 needle in the compass is swift and active, and yet its substance is 

 cold, dense, and opaque ; and there are many similar examples. 



Again, let the required natures be corporeal nature and natural 

 action. The latter appears incapable of subsisting without some 

 body, yet may we, perhaps, even here find an instance of divorce, 

 as in the magnetic motion, which draws the iron to the magnet, 

 and heavy bodies to the globe of the earth ; to Avhich we may 

 add other actions which operate at a distance. For such action 

 takes place in time, by distinct moments, not in an instant ; and 

 in space, by regular degrees and distances. There is, therefore 

 some one moment of time and some interval of space, in whicl. 

 the power or action is suspended betwixt the two bodies creating 

 the motion. Our consideration, then, is reduced to this, whether 

 the bodies which are the extremes of motion prepare or alter 

 the intermediate bodies, so that the power advances from one 

 extreme to the other by succession and actual contact, and 

 in the mean time exists in some intermediate body; or whe- 

 ther there exists in reality nothing but the bodies, the power, 

 and the space? In the case of the rays of light, sounds, and 

 heat, and some other objects which operate at a distance, it is 

 indeed probable that the intermediate bodies are prepared and 

 altered, the more so because a qualified medium is required for 

 their operation. But the magnetic or attractive power admits 

 of an indifierent medium, and it is not impeded in any. But if 

 that power or action is independent of the intermediate body, it 

 follows that it is a natural power or action existing in a certain 

 time and space without any body, since it exists neither in the 

 extreme nor in the intermediate bodies. Hence the magnetic 

 action may be taken as an instance of divorce of corporeal nature 

 and natural action ; to which we may add, as a corollary and an 

 advantage not to be neglected, that it may be taken as a proof 

 of essence and substance being separate and incorporeal, even by 

 those who philosophize according to the senses. For if natural 

 power and action emanating from a body can exist at any time 

 and place entirely without any body, it is nearly a proof that it 

 can also emanate originally from an incorporeal substance ; for 

 a corporeal nature appears to be no less necessary for supporting 

 and conveying, than for exciting or generating natural action. 



XXXVIII. Next follow five classes of instances which we are 

 wont to call by the general term of instances of the lamp, or of 

 immediate information. They are such as assist the senses ; for 

 ninc^ every interpretation of nature sets out from thri senses, and 



