NOVUM ORGAXUM. 345 



and in removing spectres and false images of things as they occur and 

 come forth under the disguise of concrete substances. 



For example, let the Nature inquired into be Heat. There seems 

 to be a distribution, apparently quite customary and authentic, which 

 constitutes Heat into three genera ; viz., heat of heavenly bodies, 

 heat of animals, and heat of tire; and which makes these kinds of 

 heat (especially one of them, compared with the other two) in very 

 essence and species, (or specific Nature,) distinct and altogether 

 hetcrogenerus ; since both the heat of celestial bodies and that of 

 animals generate and cherish, while the heat of fire, on the contrary, 

 corrupts and destroys. Thus, as an Instance of Alliance^ we have the 

 very common experiment of introducing a v.ne-branch into a room 

 where there is a constant fire, when the grapes upon it ripen a full 

 month sooner then they do out of doors ; so that the ripening of fruit, 

 even when it hangs on the tree, may be brought about by fire, though 

 this seems to be the peculiar work of the sun. From this beginning, 

 therefore, the Understanding easily rises, having got rid of the notion 

 of essential heterogeneity, to the inquiry, what are the differences 

 really found to exist between the heat of the sun and of fire, from 

 which it results that their operations are so dissimilar, although they 

 themselves share in a common Nature. 



These differences will be found to be four in number : viz., firstly, 

 that the heat of the sun, compared with the heat of fire, is far milder 

 and more gentle in degree ; secondly, that it is (especially as we 

 receive it through the air) much moister in quality ; thirdly (which is 

 the principal point), that it is exceedingly unequal, now approaching 

 and increased, now receding and diminished ; a circumstance \\hicn 

 contributes very greatly to the generation of bodies. For Aristotle 

 was right in asserting that the principal cause of the generation and 

 corruption which takes place here on the surface of the earth is the 

 obliquity of the sun s course through the zodiac ; whence the heat of 

 the sun, partly by the vicissitudes of day and night, partly by the 

 succession of summer and winter, becomes marvellously unequal. 

 And yet that remarkable man goes on to corrupt and render worthless 

 what he has rightly discovered. For, like a very judge of Nature, he 

 (as is his custom), in a most magisterial manner, assigns, as the cause 

 of generation, the approach of the sun ; as the cause of corruption, his 

 retreat ; whereas both (the approach, that is to say, of the sun and his 

 retreat), not respectively, but, as it were, indifferently, supply the 

 cause for both generation and corruption ; inasmuch as inequality of 

 heat brings about the generation ami corruption of things, equality 

 their conservation only. And the fourth difference between the heat 

 of the sun and of fire is of very great moment, viz., that the sun 

 insinuates its action throughout long spaces of tune ; while the opera 

 tions of lire (man s impatience urging them &amp;lt;&amp;gt;n arc accomplished in 

 shorter periods. But if any one were to set to work diligently to 

 attemper the heat of fire, and to reduce it to a milder and more 

 moderate degree (as may easily be done in many ways\ and were then 

 to sprinkle and intermingle a little moisture, and especially if he were 



