NOVUAf ORGANUM. 367 



a cask of water with its colour; that a little civet or aiomaiic scent 

 imparts its odour to a far greater volume of air; that a little incense 

 raises so great a cloud of smoke; that such minute differences of 

 sound as articulate words are carried every way through the air, and 

 penetrate through the openings and pores even of wood and water 

 (though with considerable diminution), nay, are even echoed back, 

 and that so distinctly and speedily ; that light and colour pass 

 through the solid bodies of glass and water to ever so great an extent, 

 and so quickly, and with so exquisite a variety of images, and are 

 even refracted and reflected, that the magnet acts through bodies of 

 all kinds, even the most compact ; and, what is more wonderful, that 

 in all these cases, in an indifferent medium, such as air, the action of 

 one docs not greatly impede action of another; that is to say, that at 

 the tame time there are carried through spaces of air so many images 

 of visible objects, so many percussions of articulate sound, so many 

 individual odours, as of the violet and the rose, also heat and cold, 

 and magnetic influences; all (I say) at the same time, no one inter 

 fering with the other, as if they had each its own peculiar and 

 separate road and passage, and none ever touched or ran against 

 another. 



\Ve find it expedient, however, to subjoin to these Dissecting 

 Instances, Instances which we call Limits of Dissection. Thus, in the 

 cases we have mentioned, one action does not disturb or impede 

 another of a different kind, but one instance does subdue and 

 extinguish another of the same kind, as the light of the sun the light 

 of a glowworm, the sound of cannon the voice, a strong odour one 

 which is more delicate, a fierce heat one of less intensity, plates of 

 iron, placed between the magnet and another piece of iron, the 

 influence of the magnet. Hut of these things also the proper place 

 will be among the helps of Induction. 



xliv. We have now spoken concerning the Instances which aid 

 the sense, which are chiefly useful for the Informative Part. For 

 information begins with sense. But our whole work ends in Practice; 

 and as information is the beginning, so practice is the end of the 

 matter. The Instances which follow, therefore, arc chiefly of use for 

 the Operative Part. They are of two kinds, and are seven in number, 

 all of which we call by the general name of Practical Instances. In 

 the Operative Part there are two defects, and two kinds of serviceable 

 Instances. Practice either deceives or overburdens u? with work. It 

 deceives chiefly after diligent inquiry into Nature by its inaccurate 

 determination and measurement of the forces and actions of bodies. 

 Now forces and actions of bodies are circumscribed and measured, 

 cither by distance of space, or by the elements of time, or by union of 

 quantity, or by predominance of influence; and unless these four 

 things be honestly and diligently weighed, our Sciences will be fair 

 perhaps in theory, but sluggish in operation. Now the four Instances 

 which relate to this question we call by the general name of Mathe 

 matical Instances and Instances of Measurement. 



And Practice becomes burdensome either through the admixture of 



