364 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



little to do with the subject before us. And so we have now said 

 enough concerning the bringing within the reach of the senses objects 

 previously beyond them. 



Sometimes, however, the reduction is not made to the senses of man, 

 but to that of some other animal, whose sense in some points excels 

 that of man : as of certain scents to the sense of a dog ; of the light 

 which is latent in air, when not illuminated from without, to the sense 

 of a cat, owl, and other animals which see by night. For Telesius 

 was right in remarking that there is in the air itself a certain original 

 light, though faint and rare, and for the most part useless to the eyes 

 of man and most animals : since those animals to whose sense this 

 light is adapted see by night, which it can scarcely be believed they do 

 without light, or by a light within them. 



It should also be observed that we are here treating of the short 

 comings of the senses, and their remedies. For the fallacies of the 

 senses must be referred to the particular inquiries concerning sense, 

 and the objects of sense ; excepting that great fallacy of the senses, 

 whereby they draw the lines of things with reference to man, and not 

 with reference to the universe ; and this is not to be corrected except 

 by reason and a universal philosophy. 



xli. Among Prerogative Instances I shall put in the eighteenth 

 place, Instances of the Road, which we are wont to call also Travelling 

 Instances, and Articulate Instances. They are those which indicate 

 the motions of Nature in their gradual progression. Now this kind 

 of instances escapes the observation rather than the sense. For men 

 are marvellously careless about this matter. They contemplate 

 Nature desultorily and at intervals, and when bodies are finished and 

 completed, and not when she is at work upon them. Yet if any one 

 wished to examine and contemplate the contrivances and industry of 

 an artificer, he would not care to see merely the rude materials of the 

 art, and then the perfect work, but would wish to be present when the 

 artificer is at his labours, and carrying forward his work. And some 

 thing similar ought to be done with regard to Nature. If any one 

 inquires into the vegetation of plants, he must begin from the very 

 sowing of the seed, and see (as he may easily do by taking up day by 

 day seeds that have been lying in the ground two, three, four days, 

 and so on, and carefully inspecting them) how and when the seed 

 begins to enlarge and swell, and, as it were, to be filled with spirit ; 

 next, how it bursts the rind, and sends forth fibres, slightly raising 

 itself up in the meanwhile, unless the earth be very stubborn ; how 

 also it sends out thin fibres, some as roots downwards, some for stems 

 upwards, sometimes also creeping sideways, if it finds the earth on 

 that side open and more easy of access ; and many other things of 

 the kind. We should do the same with the hatching of eggs, in 

 which case we shall find it easy to watch the process of vivification 

 and organization, and see what parts are produced from the yolk, and 

 what from the white of the egg, and other things. There should be a 

 similar method with regard to the production of animals from putre 

 faction. For it would be inhuman to prosecute this inquiry upon 



