290 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



productive. Nay, if any one had hinted a word about a worm, he 

 would certainly have been ridiculed for dreaming about a new kind of 

 cobweb. 



In like manner, if, before the discovery of the mariner s compass, 

 any one had declared that a certain instrument had been discovered by 

 which the cardinal points of theheaven could be found and distinguished 

 exactly, men would have immediately run off, in the excitement of 

 their imagination, to a variety of conjectures as to the more exquisite 

 construction of astronomical instruments ; but that anything should 

 have been discovered corresponding so exactly in its motions to those 

 of the heavenly bodies, and yet not a heavenly body itself, but only a 

 stony or metallic substance, would have seemed altogether incredible. 

 And yet these things, with others like them, lay concealed from men 

 for so many ages of the world, and were not discovered by Philosophy 

 or the arts of reason, but by chance and occasion ; and are, as we 

 have said, altogether different in kind, and removed from anything 

 already known, so that no preconceived notion could possibly have 

 conduced to their discovery. 



And so we may by all means hope that there are still many things 

 of excellent use stored up in the lap of Nature having in them nothing 

 kindred or parallel to what is already discovered, but lying quite out 

 of the path of the imagination, which have not hitherto been dis 

 covered ; and they, doubtless, in the course and revolution of many 

 ages, will also some day come forth of themselves, as their predecessors 

 have done ; but by the method of which we are now treating they 

 may be speedily, suddenly, and simultaneously presented and antici 

 pated . 



ex. But we have before us yet other discoveries of a kind which 

 gives us reason to believe that mankind are liable to pass by and hurry 

 over noble inventions which lie under their very feet. For however 

 much the discovery of Gunpowder, or Silk, or the Compass, or Sugar, 

 or Paper, or the like, may seem to depend on certain properties of 

 things and of Nature, still certainly the Art of Printing has nothing in 

 it which is not open and generally obvious. And nevertheless, because 

 men did not remark that though it is more difficult to arrange type 

 than to write letters with the hand, there was this difference in favour 

 of type, that when once set up it suffices for innumerable impressions, 

 while manuscript supplies only one copy ; or perhaps, again, because 

 they did not observe that ink may be so thickened as to colour without 

 running as must especially be the case where the letters are placed 

 lace upwards, and the impression is taken from above this most 

 beautiful invention (which does so much for the propagation of 

 Learning) was wanting to them for so many ages. 



But the human mind is frequently so unlucky and ill-regulated in the 

 course of invention, as first to distrust, and soon afterwards to despise 

 itself; and it appears at first sight incredible to it that any such dis 

 covery should be made, and when it has been made, it seems again 

 incredible that it should have escaped notice so long. And this same 

 fact gives rise to a just hope that there still remains a great mass of 



