NOVUM ORGANUM. 303 



For example, if any one wishes to superinduce upon silver the 

 yellow colour of gold, or an increase in weight (the laws of matter 

 being observed), or transparency upon any opaque stone, 01 tenacity 

 upon glass, or vegetation upon a new vegetable substance, we must 

 see, I say, what kind of precept or direction he svould most wish 

 for. And first, he will doubtless desire something to be shown him 

 of a kind which shall not deceive him in operation, or fail him in 

 the trial. Secondly, he will desire that something should be pic- 

 scribed which shall not restrain and tie him down to certain means 

 and particular modes of operation. For he will perhaps be at a 

 loss, from not having either power or convenience for obtaining and 

 procuring such means. J&amp;gt;ut if there be also other means and other 

 methods (besides those prescribed) of producing such a Nature, 

 some of them may perhaps be within the reach of the operator ; 

 from which, nevertheless, he will be excluded by the stringency of 

 the rule, and will reap no advantage from them. Thirdly, he will 

 desire something to be shown him which may not be so difficult as 

 that operation into which he is inquiring, but which may approach 

 nearer to practice. 



And so the precept for the true and perfect rule of practice will 

 be, that it be surc,Jree, and disposing, or in the road to action. And 

 this is the same thing as the discovery of a true Form. For the 

 Form of any Nature is such, that when it is laid down the given 

 Nature infallibly follows. And so it is always present when that 

 Nature is present, and universally affirms its presence and is inherent 

 in the whole of it. The same Form is such, that, when it is removed, 

 the given Nature infallibly disappears. And so it is invariably absent 

 when that Nature is absent, and invariably affirms its absence, and 

 exists in it alone. Lastly, the true Form is such that it deduces the 

 given Nature from some source of Essence which is inherent in 

 things, and is better known to Nature, as they s.i/, than Form 

 itself. And so this is our judgment and precept respecting a true 

 and perfect Axiom for knowledge, that another Nature be discovered 

 which shall be convertible with the given Nature, and yet be a 

 limitation of a more general Nature, like a true gen us. Now, these 

 two directions, the practical and the contemplative, are the same thing ; 

 and that which is most useful in operation is most true in knowledge. 



v. The Rule or Axiom for the transformation of bodies is of two 

 kinds. The first regards a body as a collection or combination of 

 simple Natures. Thus, in gold the following properties meet : it is 

 yellow, heavy, and of a certain weight ; it is malleable or ductile to a 

 certain degree of extension ; it is not volatile, and loses none of its 

 substance by fire ; it becomes fluid with certaifi degrees of fluidity ; 

 it is separated and dissolved by certain means ; and so of the other 

 Natures which meet in gold. And thus an Axiom of this kind 

 deduces the subject from the Forms of simple Natures. For he who 

 is acquainted with the forms and modes of superinducing yellowness, 

 weight, ductility, fixity, fluidity, solution, and the rest, with their 

 gradations and methods, will sec and take care that these pioperties 



