356 NOVUM ORGANUM, 



the flame of the taper (which may be distinguished from the flame of 

 the spirit of wine by its colour ; for flames do not become mingled 

 immediately, like liquids) remains pyramidal, or rather tends to a 

 globular shape, when it finds nothing to destroy or compress it. If 

 the latter is the case, it may be put down as certain that flame remains 

 numerically the same, as long as it is shut up within another flame, 

 and does not experience the hostile force of air. 



And now we may have done with Instances of the Cross. We have 

 treated them somewhat diffusely, to the end that men may gradually 

 learn and accustom themselves to judge of Nature by means of 

 Instances of the Cross, and light-bearing experiments, instead of by 

 speculative reasonings. 



xxxvii. Among Prerogative Instances we shall put in the fifteenth 

 place, Instances of Divorce, which indicate the separation of those 

 Natures which are of most frequent occurrence. Now they differ 

 from the Instances subjoined to the Instances of Companionship in 

 that the latter indicate separations of a Nature from some concrete 

 with which it is familiarly associated ; while the present Instances 

 indicate the separation of one Nature from another. They differ also 

 from the Instances of the Cross, in that they determine nothing, but 

 only advise us of the separation of one Nature from another. Their 

 use is to disclose false Forms, and to dissipate vain contemplations 

 suggested by what meets the sight, thus supplying a sort of ballast to 

 the Intellect. 



For example, let the Natures inquired into be those four Natures 

 which Telesius will have to be messmates and chamber- fellows, 

 viz., Heat, Brightness, Rarity, Mobility or Promptness to Motion. 

 Now we find very many Instances of Divorce among them. For air 

 is rare and easy of motion, but neither hot nor light ; the moon pos 

 sesses light without heat ; hot water, heat without light ; the motion 

 of an iron needle on a pivot is quick and agile, and yet its body is 

 cold, dense, and opaque ; and many things of the same kind. 



In like manner let the Natures inquired into be Corporeal Nature 

 and Natural Action. For it appears that Natural Action is only found 

 subsisting in some body. Yet in this case we may possibly find some 

 Instance of Divorce. There is the magnetic action, by which iron is 

 drawn to the magnet, heavy bodies to the globe of the earth. \Ve 

 may also add some other operati&amp;lt; ns which take place at a distance. 

 For action of this kind both takes pi ice in time, and is measured by 

 moments, not by mere points of time ; and in place by degrees and 

 spaces. There is, therefore, some moment of time, and some interval 

 of space, in which this virtue of action is suspended between those 

 two bodies which originate the motion. And so the question amounts 

 to this, whether these bodies, which are the limits of the motion, dis 

 pose or alter the intermediate bodies, so that, by a succession of actual 

 contracts, the influence passes from limit to limit, meanwhile subsist 

 ing in the intermediate body ; or whether there is no such thing here, 

 except the bodies, the influence, and the distances. And in the case 

 of optical rays, sounds, heat, and some other things acting at a dis- 



