306 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



the compound may be made to appear through the gathering together 

 of the homogeneous parts. And this is of use, and tends to advance 

 our inquiry, although it is too often deceptive ; since very many 

 Natures are imputed and attributed to separation, as if they had 

 previously subsisted in the compound, which have really been added 

 and superinduced by fire and heat, and other means of separation. 

 But even this is but a small part of the work of discovering the true 

 Structure in a compound ; for the Structure is something far more 

 subtle and exact, and is rather thrown into confusion by the working 

 of fire than drawn out and brought to light by it. 



And so the separation and solution of bodies must be brought 

 about, not by fire certainly, but by method and a true Induction, with 

 Experiments to aid ; and by comparison with other bodies, and a 

 reduction to simple Natures and their Forms, which meet and are 

 mingled in the compound ; and we must pass straight from Vulcan 

 to Minerva, if we would bring to light the true textures and Struc 

 tures of bodies ; on which all occult, and (as they are called) specific 

 properties and virtues in things depend ; and from which every rule 

 of effectual alteration and transformation is educed. 



For example, inquiry is to be made what spirit there is in every 

 body, what tangible Essence, and whether that spirit be copious and 

 turgid or scanty and poor ; whether it be refined or gross, akin to air 

 or fire, brisk or sluggish, weak or strong, progressive or retrograde, 

 abrupt or continuous, agreeing or disagreeing with external and 

 surrounding objects, c. And a similar course must be pursued with 

 tangible Essence (which admits of as many differences as Spirit), its 

 coats, fibre, and various texture. Again, the disposition of spirit 

 through the corporeal mass, and its pores, passages, veins, and cells, 

 and the rudiments or first attempts of the organic body, fall under 

 the same investigation. But on these inquiries also, and so on the 

 whole discovery of Latent Structure, a true and clear light is thrown 

 by primary Axioms, which completely disperses all darkness and 

 subtlety. 



viii. Nor will the question be thus referred to the doctrine of 

 Atoms, which presupposes a vacuum and the unchangeablcness of 

 matter (both wrong suppositions), but to true particles, as they are 

 found to exist. Nor, again, is there any reason to be alarmed at this 

 subtlety, as if it were inexplicable ; but, on the contrary, the nearer 

 the inquiry tends to simple Natures, the more plain and perspicuous 

 will the thing appear, when the question is transferred from the mani 

 fold to the simple, from the incommensurable to the commensurable, 

 from the surd to the rational quantity, from the indefinite and vague 

 to the definite and fixed ; as in the case of elementary letters and 

 harmonic tones. And inquiry into Nature is most successful when 

 Physics are defined by Mathematics. And again, let no one fear 

 large numbers or fractions ; for in dealing with numbers it is as easy 

 to set down or to conceive a thousand as one, or the thousandth part 

 of an integer as the integer itself. 



ix. Out of the two kinds of Axioms already described arises a true - 



