266 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



and fourth qualities ; but, instead of this, unseasonably interrupting 

 their contemplation. Nor are virtues of this kind (I do not speak of 

 those which are identical, but of those which are similar) only to be 

 investigated among the medicines of the human body, but also in the 

 changes of other natural bodies. 



But a much greater evil arises from the fact that the quiescent first 

 principles of things out of which, and not the motive principles by 

 ivhith things have their being, are the subjects of contemplation and 

 inquiry. For the former refer only to discussion, the latter to results. 

 Nor are these vulgar distinctions of any value which are set down as 

 acknowledged in natural philosophy, such as generation^ corruption, 

 augmentation, diminution, alteration, and translation. For, indeed, 

 they mean this, that if a body, not otherwise moved, be yet moved in 

 place, this is translation; if it be changed in quality, its place and 

 species remaining, this ^alteration; but if after that change the mass 

 itself and the bulk do not remain the same, this is the motion of aug 

 mentation or diminution ; and if the change goes so far as to affect 

 both species and substance, and cause a transference into others, this 

 is generation and corruption. But these are merely popular phrases, 

 and do not pierce below the surface of Nature, and they are measures 

 only and periods, not species of motion. For they only suggest the 

 question, &quot;how far,&quot; not &quot;in what manner,&quot; or &quot;from what source.&quot; 

 For they show us nothing of the affections of bodies, or the procession 

 of their parts, but only commence their distinctions from the moment 

 when that motion exhibits grossly the thing, in its altered condition, 

 to the sense. And when they wish to tell us something about the 

 cause of motions, and to institute a division among them, they introduce 

 a distinction between natural and violent motion in the most slovenly 

 way ; and this itself arises from a vulgar conception, since all violent 

 motion is also, in fact, natural, inasmuch as it takes place when an 

 external agent puts Nature into operation otherwise than before. 



But leaving these if any one (for example) were to observe that 

 there is in bodies a mutual affection for contact, which will not allow 

 the unity of nature to be entirely taken away or cut off, so as to form 

 a vacuum ; or if any one were to say that there is in bodies an affec 

 tion for restoring themselves to their natural dimensions or extension, 

 so that on being compressed within it, or stretched beyond it, they 

 immediately endeavour to recover and restore themselves to their 

 original volume and extent ; or if any one were to say that there is in 

 bodies a tendency to congregate towards kindred masses, viz., dense 

 bodies towards the earth, the thinner and rarer to the expanse of the 

 heavens ; these and the like are really physical kinds of motions. But 

 those others are clearly logical and scholastic, as is evident from this 

 comparison of them. 



Nor is it a less evil, that, in their philosophies and contemplations, 

 men spend their labour in investigating and treating of the first 

 principles of things and the extreme limits of nature, when all that is 

 useful and of avail in operation is to be found in what is intermediate. 

 Hence it happens that men continue to abstract Nature till they arrive 



