NOVUM ORGANUM. 323 



xvii. But while we seem to attach so much importance to Forms, we 

 cannot too often caution and admonish our readers against applying 

 our remarks to those Forms to which the contemplations and thoughts 

 of men have hitherto been accustomed. 



For, in the first instance, we do not at present speak of copulative 

 Forms, which are (as we have said) combinations of simple Natures 

 according to the common course of the universe, as of a lion, an eagle, 

 a rose, gold, and the like. For it will be time to treat of these when 

 we come to Latent Processes and Latent Structures, and their dis 

 coveries, as they are found in what are called concrete Substances or 

 Natures. 



Nor, again, should what we say be understood (even as regards 

 simple Natures) of abstract Forms and Ideas, either undetermined or 

 badly determined in matter. For when we speak of Forms, we mean 

 nothing more than those laws and determinations of pure action which 

 ordain and constitute any simple Nature ; as Heat, Light, Weight, in 

 every kind of susceptible matter and subject. And so the Form of 

 Heat or of Light is the same thing as the Law of Heat or of Light ; 

 nor, indeed, do we ever withdraw or retire from things themselves and 

 their practical side. Wherefore, when we say (for example), in an 

 inquiry into the Form of Heat, &quot;reject rarity,&quot; or &quot; rarity is not part 

 of the Form of Heat, 1 it is the same thing as if we were to say man 

 can superinduce heat in a dense body ; &quot; or, on the other hand, &quot; man 

 can take away or keep off heat from a rare body.&quot; 



But if any one should think that our Forms are somewhat abstract, 

 in that they combine and join what is heterogeneous (for the heat of 

 heavenly bodies and the heat of fire seem to be very heterogeneous, 

 as also do the fixed red in a rose, or the like, and the apparent red in 

 the rainbow, in the rays of the opal or of the diamond ; so, again, do 

 death by drowning, by hanging, by stabbing, by apoplexy, by atrophy, 

 and the like ; and yet they agree in the Nature of heat, redness, and 

 death), let him recollect that his understanding is held captive by 

 custom, by generalities, and by opinions. For it is most certain that 

 these things, however heterogeneous and distinct, agree in that Form 

 or Law which ordains heat, or redness, or death, and that the power 

 of man cannot be emancipated and set free from the common course 

 of Nature, and expanded and exalted to new efficients and methods of 

 operating, except by the revelation and discovery of Forms of this 

 kind. And yet, after discussing that union of Nature which is the 

 most important point, we shall go on to speak afterwards, in their 

 proper place, of the divisions and veins of Nature, as well those that 

 are ordinary as those that are more inward and exact. 



xviii. But now we must set forth an example of the Exclusion or 

 Rejection of Natures, which, by the Tables of Presentation, are found 

 not to be of the Form of Heat ; meanwhile calling to mind that not 

 only is each Table sufficient for the rejection of any Nature, but even 

 any one of the Individual Instances contained in the Tables. For it 

 is manifest, from what has been said, that any one Contrattictory 

 Instance is fatal to a conjecture as to the Form. But nevertheless, for 



