322 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



in a state of ignition, be plunged into a basin of cold water, will for a 

 quarter of an hour (more or less) retain so much heat as to render it 

 impossible to touch them. 



40. The less the mass of a body, the more quickly it becomes heated 

 by the approximation of a hot body ; and this shows that all the heat 

 which we possess is in some way opposed to tangible matter. 



41. Heat, as regards sense and touch, is variable and relative ; so 

 that warm water feels hot to a hand which is previously cold, but cold 

 if the hand be hot. 



xiv. How deficient we are in History any one will easily see from 

 the above tables, in which we not only sometimes insert traditions and 

 reports (always, however, accompanied by a mark of doubtful credit 

 and authority) in place of approved History and certain Instances, but 

 are also very frequently obliged to make use of the expressions, &quot; Let 

 experiment be made,&quot; or &quot; Let it be further inquired.&quot; 



xv. And the work and office of these three tables we usually call 

 Presentation of Instances to tlie Understanding. Now, when Presen 

 tation has been made, Induction itself must be put into operation. 

 For we have to find, on Presentation of all and each of the Instances, 

 such a Nature as shall be always present when the given Nature is 

 present, and absent when it is absent ; as shall increase and decrease 

 with it, and be (as has been said above) a limitation of a more common 

 Nature. Now, if the mind tries to do this affirmatively from the 

 beginning (which she will always do when left to herself), there will 

 rise up phantasms, and questions of opinion, and notions ill defined, 

 and Axioms requiring emendation from day to day ; unless we choose 

 (like the Schoolmen) to contend for what is false. Still, they will 

 undoubtedly be better or worse according to the faculties and strength 

 of the Understanding which is engaged on them. It belongs, most 

 certainly, to God (the Giver and Maker of Forms), and perhaps also 

 to Angels and Intelligences, to know Forms immediately and affirma 

 tively at the very outset of their contemplation. But this assuredly is 

 far beyond the reach of man ; to whom it is granted only to proceed 

 at first by negatives, and at last to end in affirmatives, after every kind 

 of Exclusion has been tried. 



xvi. And so a complete solution and separation of Nature must be 

 made ; not by means of fire, indeed, but by the mind, as if it were a 

 divine fire. And thus the first work of true Induction (as far as relates 

 to the discovery of Forms) is the Rejection or Exclusion of the several 

 Natures, which are not found in some Instance where the given Nature 

 is present, or which are found in some Instance where the given Nature 

 is absent, or which are found to increase in some Instance when the 

 given Nature decreases, or to decrease when the given Nature 

 increases. Then indeed, after Rejection and Exclusion have been duly 

 made, there will remain in the second place, as it were at the bottom 

 (light opinions going off like smoke), a Form affirmative, solid, true, 

 and well defined. And this, though easily spoken, is only arrived at 

 after many failures. Now we shall try to omit nothing which may 

 help us towards it. 



