064 NOVUM ORGANUM. [bOOK II. 



the corn-flower, or the wild poppy, because the latter seldom 

 grow anywhere but in cultivated soils, he ought rather to say, 

 there is an enmity between them, for the poppy and the corn- 

 flower are produced and created by those juices which the corn 

 has left and rejected, so that the sowing of the corn prepares the 

 ground for their production. And there are a vast number of 

 similar false assertions. As for fables, they must be totally ex- 

 terminated. There remains, then, but a scanty supply of such 

 species of harmony as has borne the test of experiment, such as 

 that between the magnet and iron, gold and quicksilver, and the 

 like. In chemical experiments on metals, however, there are 

 some others worthy of notice, but the greatest abundance 

 (where the whole are so few in numbers) is discovered in certain 

 medicines, which, from their occult and specific qualities (as they 

 are termed), affect particular limbs, humours, diseases, or con- 

 stitutions. Nor should we omit the harmony between the 

 motion and phenomena of the moon, and their effects on lower 

 bodies, which may be brought together by an accurate and 

 honest selection from the experiments of agriculture, navigation, 

 and medicine, or of other sciences. By as much as these 

 general instances, however, of more latent harmony, are rare, 

 with so much the more diligence are they to be inquired after, 

 through tradition, and faithful and honest reports, but without 

 rashness and credulity, with an anxious and, as it were, hesita- 

 ting degree of reliance. There remains one species of harmony 

 which, though simple in its mode of action, is yet most valuable 

 in its use, and must by no means be omitted, but rather dili- 

 gently investigated. It is the ready or difficult coition or union 

 of bodies in composition, or simple juxta-position. For some 

 bodies readily and willingly mix, and are incorporated, others 

 tardily and perversely; thus powders mix best with water, 

 chalk and ashes with oils, and the like. Nor are these instances 

 of readiness and aversion to mixture to be alone collected, but 

 others, also, of the collocation, distribution, and digestion of the 

 parts when mingled, and the predominance after the mixture is 

 complete 



7. Lastly, there remains the seventh, and last of the seven, 

 modes of action; namely, that by the alternation and interchange 

 of the other six ; but of this, it will not be the right time to 

 offer any examples, until some deeper investigation shall have 

 taken place of each of the others. The series, or chain of this 

 alternation, in its mode of application to separate effects, is no less 

 powerful in its operation, than difficult to be traced. But men 

 are possessed with the most extreme impatience, both of such 

 inquiries, and their practical application, although it be the clue 

 of the labyrinth in all greater works. Thus fdv of the generally 

 useful instanpeg. 



