NOVUM ORGANUAf. 355 



camphor, nuptha, and the like, with their coin pounds, which catch 

 fire more quickly and easily than gunpowder, if they be not hardened ; 

 whence it appears that the desire of catching fire does not bring about 

 those tremendous effects : the other Instance is that of those which 

 avoid and dread flame, as all salts. For we sec that if they be cast 

 into the fire the watery spirit bursts forth with a crackling report before 

 flame is kindled, which is also the case, in a less degree, with stiff 

 leaves, the aqueous part escaping before the oily part catches fire. 

 But it is best seen in quicksilver, which has been well called mineral 

 water ; for this, without catching fire, by simple eruption and expan 

 sion almost equals gunpowder in strength ; and it is said to multiply 

 the strength of gunpowder when mixed with it. 



In like manner let the Nature investigated be the transitory Nature 

 of Flame, and its instantaneous extinction. For it does not appear 

 that the Nature of Flame has any fixed properties or consistency here 

 among us, but is generated, as it were, every moment, and extin 

 guished. For it is manifest in the case of flames, which here continue 

 and endure, that the duration is not that of the same individual flame, 

 but that it is made up of a succession of new flames generated in order, 

 and that the flame does not remain numerically the same, as is easily 

 seen from the fact that when the food or fuel of the flame is withdrawn 

 it straightway perishes. Now, two ways meet about this Nature after 

 this fasliion. The instantaneous Nature arises either from the suspen 

 sion of the cause which first originated it, as in the case of light, 

 sounds, and violent motions, as they are called ; or because flame, 

 though in its own Nature able to remain with us here, suffers violence 

 and is destroyed by the contrary Natures which surround it. 



And so we may take on this subject the following Instance of the 

 Cross. We see, in the case of great fires, how high the flames ascend ; 

 for the wider the base of the flame, the higher is its vertex ; and so 

 it seems that the beginning of the extinction takes place about the 

 sides, where the flame is compressed and worsted by the air. But 

 the core of the flame, which the air docs not reach, but which is 

 surrounded on all sides by the flame, remains numerically the same, 

 and is not extinguished until it has become gradually narrowed by the 

 air which surrounds the sides. Thus all flame is pyramidal, broader 

 at the base about the fuel, and narrow at the top, where the air 

 opposes it and no fuel is forthcoming. But smoke is narrow at the 

 base, and expands in rising, becoming like an inverted pyramid ; in 

 asmuch as the air admits smoke and compresses flame. For let no 

 one dream that flame is lighted air, since these arc bodies quite 

 heterogeneous. 



But it will be a more accurate Instance of the Cross, and one better 

 adapted to the purpose, if the thing can be made manifest by means 

 of bicolourcd flames. Take, for this purpose, a small metal stand, 

 and fix in it a wax taper lighted ; place it in a basin, and pour round 

 it a small cjuantity of spirit of wine, so as not to reach the top of the 

 stand, then set fire to the spirit of wine. The spirit of wine will ex 

 hibit a bluish, the taper a yellowish flame. Note, therefore, whether 



