38o NOVUM ORGANUM. 



attraction of magnet to magnet, or of iron to the magnet, or of excited 

 iron to iron. The second is its north and south polarity, and also its 

 declination. The third, its power of penetrating through gold, glass, 

 stone, in fact everything. The fourth, its power of communicating its 

 virtue from stone to iron, and from iron to iron, without communica 

 tion of substance. But in this place we are only speaking of the 

 first virtue, viz., of combination. The motion of combination between 

 quicksilver and gold is also remarkable, insomuch that gold attracts 

 quicksilver, though made up into ointment ; and men who work 

 among the vapours of quicksilver usually keep a lump of gold in 

 their mouths to collect the exhalations, which would otherwise pene 

 trate their skulls and bones, by which the lump of gold is soon turned 

 white. And thus much have we said concerning the Motion of Lesser 

 Congregation. 



9. Let the ninth Motion be Magnetic Motion, which, though it be in 

 kind allied to the Motion of Lesser Congregation, yet if it operate at 

 great distances, and on great masses, deserves a separate investiga 

 tion ; especially if it neither begins with contact, as most, nor leads 

 to contact, as all motions of congregation do ; but simply raises the 

 bodies, or makes them swell, and nothing more. For if the moon 

 raises the waters, or makes moist things swell ; if the starry heaven 

 attracts the planets towards their apogees ; if the sun holds Venus 

 and Mercury, so as to prevent their travelling further than a certain 

 distance from him ; these motions seem to be ranged properly neither 

 under Greater Congregation, nor under Lesser Congregation, but to 

 belong, as it were, to an intermediate and imperfect congregation, and 

 therefore, by rights, to constitute a species of their own. 



10. Let the tenth Motion be that of Flight : that is to say, a motion 

 contrary to the Motion of Lesser Congregation, by which bodies, from 

 antipathy, flee from and put to flight hostile bodies, and separate 

 themselves from them, or refuse to mingle with them. For although 

 in some cases the motion may seem to be accidental, or a consequence 

 of the Motion of Lesser Congregation, because the homogeneous parts 

 cannot come together until the heterogeneous parts have been ex 

 cluded and removed ; yet this motion should be set by itself, and be 

 constituted a distinct species, because in many cases the desire of 

 Flight \s seen to be more powerful than the desire of coming together. 



Now this motion is eminently conspicuous in the excretions of 

 animals ; and not less in objects odious to some of the senses, espe 

 cially those of smell and taste. For a fetid odour is so rejected by 

 the sense of smell, as even to induce a sympathetic motion of expul 

 sion in the orifice of the stomach ; a rough and bitter taste is so 

 rejected by the palate or throat, as to induce a sympathetic shaking 

 of the head, and shuddering. But this motion takes place in other 

 things also. For it is conspicuous in certain Forms of Antiperistasis ; 

 as in the mid-region of the air, where the cold seems to be the result 

 of the rejection of the Nature of cold from the confines of the 

 heavenly bodies ; as also the great heats and burnings, which are 

 found in subterraneous places, seem to be the results of the rejec- 



