NOVUM ORGANUM. 347 



be taken as an Instance of Alliance. For if air be liberated under 

 water, it ascends rapidly towards the surface of the water, by 

 that motion of a stroke (as Democritus calls it) by which the 

 water descending strikes and raises the air upwards ; and not by 

 any striving or etlbrt of the air itself. And when it is come to the 

 surface of the water, then the air is restrained from further ascent by 

 the slight resistance which it meets with in the water s not immediately 

 allowing itself to be separated, so that the desire of air to rise is very 

 trifling. 



In like manner let the Nature inquired into be Weight. It is clearly 

 a received division, that dense and solid bodies move towards the 

 centre of the earth ; rare and subtle ones towards the circumference 

 of the heavens, as to their proper places. And as regards places 

 (although in the Schools such things arc of weight), it is quite foolish 

 and puerile to think that place has any power. So that many philoso 

 phers are trifling when they say, that, if the earth were perforated, 

 heavy bodies would stop when they came to the centre. For it would 

 be certainly a very mighty and efficacious sort of nothing, or mathe 

 matical point, which could cither affect other things, or for which 

 other things could feel a desire ; for body is not acted upon but by 

 body. But this desire of ascending and descending depends either 

 upon the structure of the body moved, or on its sympathy and agree 

 ment with some other body. If any body be discovered which is 

 dense and solid, and which, nevertheless, does not move towards the 

 earth, this division is nullified. But if Gilbert s opinion be received, 

 that the earth s magnetic power of attracting heavy bodies does not 

 extend beyond the orb of its influence (which operates always to a 

 certain distance and no further), and if this opinion be verified by any 

 Instance, here will be at length an Instance of Alliance on this subject. 

 There does not, however, occur at present any certain and manifest 

 Instance on this point. Nearest it seem to come the waterspouts 

 which are often met with in voyages across the Atlantic Ocean to 

 either India. For so great is the visible force and mass of water 

 suddenly discharged by cataracts of this kind, that it seems as if a 

 collection of waters had been previously made, and had halted and 

 remained in those places, and had afterwards been thrown down by 

 some violent cause, rather than fallen by the natural motion of gravity ; 

 so that it may be conjectured that a dense and compact corporeal 

 mass, at a great distance from the earth, would be pensile like the 

 earth itself, and would not fall, unless thrown down. But of this we 

 affirm nothing as certain. Meanwhile it will easily appear, from this 

 and many other cases, how poor we are in Natural History, since, 

 instead of certain Instances, we are not unfrequently compelled to 

 bring forward suppositions as examples. 



In like manner let the Nature inquired into be Discourse of Reason. 

 The distinction between human reason and the sagacity of brutes 

 seems altogether a true one. But yet there are some Instances of 

 actions exhibited by brutes from which it seems that they also are 

 able to syllogize after a fashion ; for instance, we recollect to have 



