NOVUM ORGANUM. 337 



body, where the animal spirit is absent, as there are senses in animated 

 bodies ; although there must of necessity be many more motions in 

 inanimate bodies than there are senses in animate, on account of the 

 paucity of organs of sense. And a very clear example of this appears 

 in the case of pain ; for while there are many kinds of pain, and 

 various characteristics of it, in animals, (as there is one pain of 

 burning, another of intense cold, another of pricking, another of 

 compression, another of extension, and the like,) still it is most 

 certain that all these are present, as far as motion is concerned, in 

 inanimate bodies ; as in wood or stone when burned, or congealed by 

 frost, punctured, cut, bent, or beaten ; and so of other substances ; 

 though sensation is not present, on account of the absence of animal 

 spirit. 



Again, Conformable Instances (surprising as it may seem to say so) 

 are roots and branches of plants. For all vegetable substance swells, 

 and throws out its parts in all directions, upwards as well as down 

 wards. Nor is there any other difference between roots and branches 

 than that the root is buried in the earth, and the branches are exposed 

 to the air and sun. For if we take a tender and growing branch of a 

 tree, and bend it down into a lump of earth, it forthwith produces 

 not a branch, but a root. And, vice versa, if earth be placed over it, 

 and be so kept down with a stone, or any hard substance, as to restrain 

 the plant from sprouting upwards, it will send forth branches into the 

 air downwards. 



Again, the gum of trees and many kinds of rock gems are Conform 

 able Instances. For they are neither of them anything but exudations 

 and filterings of juices ; in the first case from trees, in the second from 

 rocks ; whence arises that clearness and brilliancy in each, that is, by 

 the fine and accurate filtering. Thence it arises also that the hairs 

 of animals are not so beautiful and of so vivid a colour as the feathers 

 of very many birds ; because juices do not filter so delicately through 

 skin as through quills. 



Again, the scrotum in male animals and the matrix in females are 

 Conformable Instances ; so that that structural difference between the 

 sexes, which seems so remarkable (as far as land animals are con 

 cerned), seems to be no more than a difference between what is 

 internal and external ; that is to say, the greater force of heat in the 

 male sex protrudes the genitals outwards ; whereas, in the female, the 

 heat is too weak to be able to effect this, whence it happens that they 

 are contained internally. 



Again, the fins of fish and the feet of quadrupeds are Conformable 

 Instances, as are also the feet and wings of birds ; to which Aristotle 

 has added the four coils in the motion of serpents ; so that in the 

 machinery of the Universe the motion of living beings seems, for the 

 most part, to be effected by sets of four joints or flexions. 



Also the teeth of land animals and the beaks of birds are Conform 

 able Instances ; whence it is clear that in all perfect animals there is a 

 tendency of a certain hard substance towards the mouth. Also that 

 is not an absurd likeness and conformity which is remarked to exist 



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