304 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



be united in some body, whence its transformation into gold may 

 follow. And this kind of operation belongs to primary Action. For 

 the method of generating one simple Nature is the same as that of 

 generating many, except that man is more tied and restricted in 

 operation when many are required, on account of the difficulty of 

 uniting so many Natures ; for they do not combine readily except in 

 the beaten and ordinary paths of Nature. Still it must be observed, 

 that this mode of operating (which regards simple Natures, although 

 in a concrete body) sets out from what is constant, eternal, and 

 universal in Nature, and offers such broad paths to human power, as 

 (in the present state of things) human thought can scarcely compre 

 hend or imagine. 



But the second kind of Axiom (which depends upon the discovery 

 of the Latent Process] does not proceed by simple Natures, but by 

 concrete bodies, as they are found in Nature, in its ordinary course. 

 For example, where inquiry is being made, from what beginnings, 

 and in what manner, and by what process, gold, or any other metal 

 or stone is generated from the first menstrua, or rudiments, up to the 

 perfect mineral ; or, in like manner, by what process herbs are gene 

 rated from the first concretions of juices in the earth, or from seeds, 

 up to the full-formed plant, with the whole successive motion and 

 different and continued efforts of Nature ; also of the generation of 

 animals as unfolded in order, from coition to birth ; and so of other 

 bodies. 



Nor is this inquiry confined to the generation of bodies; it ex ends 

 to other motions and operations of Nature. Take, for example, the 

 case of an inquiry into the whole course and continued action of 

 nutrition, from the first reception of the nourishment to its perfect 

 assimilation ; or into the voluntary motion of animals, from the first 

 impression of the imagination and the continuous efforts of the spirit, 

 to the bending and movements of the limbs ; or into the free motion 

 of the tongue, lips, and other organs, up to the utterance of the arti 

 culate sounds. For these also refer to concrete or collected Natures 

 in their growth, and regard, as it were, particular and special habits 

 of Nature, and not the fundamental and common laws which con 

 stitute Forms. But still we must freely confess that this method 

 appears to be more expeditious, to be nearer at hand, and to yield 

 more promise than the primary one. 



Similarly, the operative part, which answers to the contemplative 

 part, extends and advances its operation from those things which are 

 ordinarily found in Nature to others which are proximate, or not very 

 far removed from proximate. But the deeper and radical operations 

 upon Nature depend entirely upon primary Axioms. Moreover, in 

 cases where man has not the means of operating, but only of knowing, 

 as in Astronomy (for he is not allowed to operate on the heavenly 

 bodies, or to change or transform them), the investigation of actual 

 fact, of the truth of a circumstance, no less than the knowledge of 

 causes and agreements, is referred to the primary and universal 

 Axioms concerning simple Natures (as the Nature of spontaneous 



