BOOK II.] MAGICAL INSTANCES. 665 



LI. The twenty-seventh and last place we will assign to the 

 magical instances, a term which we apply to those where the 

 matter or efficient agent is scanty or small, in comparison with 

 the grandeur of the work or effect produced ; so that even when 

 common they appear miraculous, some at first sight, others even 

 upon more attentive observation. Nature, however, of herself, 

 supplies these but sparingly. What she will do when her whole 

 store is thrown open, and after the discovery of forms, processes, 

 and conformation, will appear hereafter. As far as we can yet 

 conjecture, these magic effects are produced in three ways, 

 cither by self-multiplication, as in fire, and the poisons termed 

 specific, and the motions transferred and multiplied from wheel 

 to vrheel ; or by the excitement, or, as it were, invitation of 

 another substance, as in the magnet, which excites innumerable 

 needles without losing or diminishing its power ; and again in 

 leaven, and the like ; or by the excess of rapidity of one species 

 of moti-on over another, as has been observed in the case of gun- 

 powder, cannon, and mines. The two former require an investi- 

 gation of harmonies, the latter of a measure of motion. Whether 

 there be any mode of changing bodies per minima (as it is 

 termed), and transferring the delicate conformations of matter, 

 which is of importance in all transformations of bodies, so as to 

 enable art to effect, in a short time, that which nature works out 

 by divers expedients, is a point of which we have as yet no in- 

 dication. But, as we aspire to the extremest. and highest 

 results in that which is solid and true, so do we ever detest, and, 

 as far as in us lies, expel all that is empty and vain. 



LII. Let this sufiice as to the respective dignity of pre- 

 rogatives of instances. But it must be noted, that in this our 

 organ, we treat of logic, and not of philosophy. Seeing, how- 

 ever, that our logic instructs and informs the understanding, in 

 order that it may not, with the small hooks, as it were, of the 

 mind, catch at, and grasp mere abstractions, but rather actually 

 penetrate nature, and discover the properties and effects of 

 bodies, and the determinate laws of their substance (so that this 

 science of ours springs from the nature of things, as well as 

 from that of the mind) ; it is not to be wondered at, if it have 

 been continually interspersed and illustrated with natural obser- 

 vations and experiments, as instances of our method. The pre- 

 rogative instances are, as appears from what has preceded, 

 twenty-seven in number, and are termed, solitary instances, 

 migrating instances, conspicuous instances, clandestine instances, 

 constitutive instances, similar instances, singular instances, de- 

 viating instances, bordering instances, instances of power, accom- 

 panying and hostile instances, subjunctive instances, instances of 

 alliance, instances of the cross, instances of divorce, instances 

 pf the gate, citing instances, instances of the road, supple* 



