518 KOVUM ORGANUM. [eOOK If 



invention could be extended to j^reater bodies, or the minute 

 parts of greater bodies, so that a piece of cloth would appear like 

 a net, and the latent minutiae and irrej;ularities of gems, liquids, 

 urine, blood, wounds, and many other things could be rendered 

 visible, the greatest advantage would, without doubt, be derived. 



We have an instance of the second kind in the telescope, dis- 

 covered by the wonderful exertions of Galileo ; by the assistance 

 of which a nearer intercourse may be opened (as by boats or 

 vessels) between ourselves and the heavenly objects. JFor by its 

 aid we are assured that the Milky Way is but a knot or constel- 

 lation of small stars, clearly defined and separate, which the 

 ancients only conjectured to be the case ; whence it appears to be 

 capable of demonstration, that the spaces of the planetary orbits 

 (as they are termed) are not quite destitute of other stjirs, but 

 that the heaven begins to glitter with stars before we arrive at 

 the starry sphere, although they may be too small to be visible 

 without the telescope. By the telescope, also, we can behold the 

 revolutions of smaller stars round Jupiter, whence it may be con- 

 jectured that there are several centres of motion among the stars. 

 By its assistance, also, the irregularity of light and shade on the 

 moon's surface is more clearly observed and determined, so as to 

 allow of a sort of selenography." By the telescope we see the 

 spots in the sun, and other similar phenomena ; all of which arc 

 most noble discoveries, as far as credit can be safely given to 

 demonstrations of this nature, which are on this account very 

 suspicious, namely, that experiment stops at these few, and 

 nothing further has yet been discovered by the same method, 

 among objects equally worthy of consideration. 



We have instances of the third kind in measuring-rods, astro- 

 labes, and the like, which do not enlarge, but correct and guide 

 the sight. If there be other instances which assist the other 

 senses in their immediate and individual action, yet if they add 

 nothing further to their information they are not apposite to our 

 present purpose, and we have therefore said nothing of them. 



XL. In the seventeenth rank of prerogative instances we will 

 place citing instances (to borrow a term from the tribunals), 

 because they cite those things to appear, which have not yet ap- 

 peared. We are wont also to call them invoking instances, and 

 their property is that of reducing to the sphere of the senses 

 objects which do not immediately fall within it. 



Objects escape the senses either from their distance, or the 

 intervention of other bodies, or because they are not calculated 

 to make an impression upon the senses, or because they are not 



■ Pere bnenier first potnted out the spots on the sun's disk, and by 

 the marks which they afforded him, computed its rs^ olution to be per* 

 lonued in twenty-five days and some hours. Ed. 



