NOVUM ORGAKUM. 341 



because from them the passage to what is new and hitherto undis 

 covered is easier and nearer. For if a man, after attentively con 

 templating those, be willing actively and strenuously to push on his 

 design ; he will, of a certainty, cither extend them a little further ; or 

 turn them aside to something in their neighbourhood ; or even apply 

 and transfer them to some more noble use. 



Nor is this the end. For even as the Understanding is raised and 

 elevated by r.tre and unusual works of Nature to the investigation and 

 discovery of Forms capable of containing them, so also this is biought 

 about by the excellent and admitablc works of Art. Nay, this is so 

 in a much gic.itcr degree, for the method of affecting and bringing 

 about such miracles of Art is, for the most part, clear ; while in the 

 miracles of Nature the process is generally obscure. Still very great 

 caution must be used Jin these same cases not to depress the Under 

 standing, and, in a manner, fasten it to the ground. 



For there i a danger lest works of Art of this kind, which seem to 

 be the summits and culminating points of human industry, should so 

 surprise and fetter, and, as it were, bewitch the Understanding re 

 specting them, that it should not be able to deal with other things, but 

 should think that nothing of that kind can be done, except in the 

 same way in which they have been brought about ; only with the 

 application of greater diligence and more accurate preparation. 



On the contrary, it may be laid down as certain that the ways and 

 means of effecting results, hitherto discovered and noted, arc, lor the 

 most part, poor, and that all higher power depends on and is derived 

 in order from the sources of Forms, no one of which has as yet been 

 discovered. 



And so (as we have said clsewhcie) if a man had been thinking of 

 machines and battering-rams as they existed among the ancients ; 

 even if he had done so with diligence, and spent his life in the study, 

 he would never have lighted on the discovery of cannon, acting by 

 means of gunpowder. Nor again, if he had concentrated his observa 

 tion and mediation on the manufactures of wool and cotton, would he 

 ever by such means have discovered the nature of the silkworm or of 

 silk. 



Therefore it is that all discoveries which can be reckoned among 

 the noblest of their kind, have, if you look closely, been brought to 

 light, not by a trifling elaboration and extension ot Arts, but entirely 

 by chance. Now nothing imitates or anticipates chance (the custom 

 of which is to act only at long intervals) but the discovery of Forms. 



There is no need to adduce particulars of this kind of Instances, 

 they arc so plentiful ; for the course to be followed is exactly this : to 

 visit all mechanical and even liberal Arts (as far as they bear upon 

 results), and to look closely into them ; and then to make a collection 

 or particular history of great works and masterpieces, and of those 

 which are most perfect in each, together with the modes of carrying 

 them into effect or operation. 



And yet we do not tie down the diligence which should be used in 

 suth a collection to those works only which are regarded as the master* 



