NOVUM ORGAXUM. 391 



we should have left the flattened sphere to itself for several clays, and 

 then taken out the water ; and so tried whether it would immediately 

 occupy the same dimensions as it did before condensation. If it did 

 not do so, cither immediately, or, at any rate, soon after, we might 

 set down the condensation as constant ; if not, it would have appeared 

 that the restitution had taken place, and that the compression was 

 transitory. And something similar might have been done with icfcr- 

 encc to the extension of air in the glass eggs. For we should, after 

 strong suction, have closed the aperture quickly and closely, and have 

 allowed the eggs t remain so closed for some days; and then \\e 

 might have tried whether, when the hole was opened, the air would 

 have been drawn in with a hissing sound ; or whether, if they were 

 plunged in water, as much water was clr.iwn up as there would have 

 been at fust before the delay. For it is probable, or at least worthy 

 of trial, that this might have been, and may be the result ; since in 

 bodies which arc not quite so uniform a lapse of time does produce 

 such effects. For a stick bent by compression after a time docs not 

 recoil ; and this must not be imputed to any loss of quantity in the 

 wood, for the same is the case with plates of iron, if the time be in 

 creased ; and iron docs not evaporate. Hut if the experiment does 

 not succeed by mere continuance, the matter must not be given up, 

 but other aids must be employed. For it is no small gain if, by using 

 force, we can implant in bodies fixed and constant Natures. For by 

 this means air can be condensed into water ; and many other results 

 of the kind be produced ; for man is more master of violent motions 

 than of any others. 



3. The third of the seven modes relates to that which is the great 

 instrument of operation, whether in Nature or in Art, vi/., Heat and 

 Cold. And herein man s power clearly halts on one foot. For we 

 have the heat of fire, which is infinitely more potent and intense than 

 the heat of the sun as it reaches us, and the heat of animals. But 

 we have no cold save such as is to be found in the winter, or in 

 caverns, or by the application of snow and ice ; which may correspond, 

 perhaps, to the heat of the sun at noon in the torrid zone, increased 

 by the reflection of mountains and walls ; for to such an extent both 

 heat and cold can be borne for a short time by animals. 15ut they arc 

 nothing in comparison with the heat of a burning furnace, or with any 

 cold corresponding to it in degree. Thus all things here w ith us tend 

 to rarefaction, desiccation, and consumption ; and hardly anything to 

 condensation and intcneration, except by mixtures ami methods which 

 are, so to speak, spurious. Wherefore Instances of Cold must be 

 collected with all diligence ; and such, we think, may be found by ex 

 posing bodies on towers during sharp frosts ; by laying them in sub 

 terranean caverns ; by surrounding them with snow and ice in deep 

 pits dug on purpose ; by letting them down into wells ; by bury 

 ing them in quicksilver and metals; by immersing them in waters 

 which turn wood into stone ; by burying them in the earth as the 

 Chinese arc said to do with porcelain, who arc said to leave masses, 

 made for the purpose, under ground for forty or fifty years, and to 



