Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/543

 THOUGHTS ON THE NATURE OF Til IN (.S. simplest form in the cracklingof the dry leaves of such a prodigious interval, what oper;iti. M-. m.,vi- laurel or ivy, when we cast them into the fire, and ments, and changes presented themselves on th still more in salt, which approximates more nearly face of the globe, in engines, plants, animals, and to the substance under examination. We also j so on, which on account of their distance would often observe something like this in the tallow of I not equal the bulk of the minutest straw. candles when melted, and in the windy rustle of green wood set on fire. But it is chiefly discern ible in quicksilver, which is an extremely crude substance, not unlike the water of a chalybeate spring; and the force of it, if tried by the appli cation of fire, and prevented from egress, not great ly inferior to that of gunpowder itself. Men ought, therefore, to be admonished and conjured from this example, not in their investigation of causes to catch at only one element, and so too lightly to pronounce upon them ; but to look around them with caution, and rivet their contemplation more intensely and profoundly. Of the dissimilarity of things celestial and subluna ry, in regard to eternity and mutability, that it has not been proved to be true. X. The received opinion that the universe is regu larly divided and discriminated by spheres, as it were, and that there is one system of heavenly and another of sublunary being, appears to have been adopted, not without rational grounds, pro vided the opinion is applied with proper modifica tions. For there is no doubt that the regions situated beneath the lunar orb, and above it, differ in many and important respects. Yet is not that belief more certain than this other, that the bodies in both spheres have tendencies, appetencies, and motions which are common to both. We ought then to imitate the unity of nature, to discriminate those spheres rather than rend them asunder, and not break down the continuity of our contempla tion. But with respect to another received opi nion, that the heavenly bodies undergone change, bui that the terrestrial or elementary (as they are called) are subject to change; and that the mat in bodies of such immense bulk and magnitude, that by the vastness of their dimensions i. overcome the greatness of distance, and mine into visibility ; it is evident from certain comets, that changes take place as they move in the expanse of the heavens. I allude to those comets, which have retained a certain unvaried relation of posi tion to the fixed stars, such as that which in our own day appeared in Cassiopea. But as respects the earth, after having penetrated into the interior recesses of it, leaving that crust and mixture of substances which composes its surface and conti guous parts, there seems to exist there also an eternal immobility, analogous to that supposed to be found in heaven. For it is beyond a doubt, that if the earth underwent changes at an extreme depth beneath its surface, the influence of such changes, even in the region we tread, would pro duce greater calamities than any we behold. Moat earthquakes, certainly, and volcanic eruptions, do not rise from a great but a very moderate depth, since they affect such an inconsiderable part of the surface. For in proportion as such visitations agitate a wider area of the earth s surface, in the same proportion we are to suppose that their bases and primitive seats enter deeper into the bowels of the earth. These earthquakes, therefore, which are greater, (in the extent of surface agitated I mean, not in violence of tremefaction,) and which but rarely happen, may be assimilated to comets of the description we have mentioned, which are also unusual. So that the proposition with which we set out remains unshaken, namely, that be tween heaven and earth there is no great differ ence as respects stability and change. But if any one is influenced to a different opinion by the regu larity and seeming exactness of the motion of ti e heavenly bodies, we have before us the ocean, thf tei of the last resembles a courtezan ever seeking I solitary handmaid as it were of eternity, which ex the embracement of new bodies, but of the other | hibits no less unchangeable uniformity than they a matron linked to one in stable and inviolable union; it seems but a popular notion, weak, and originating in appearances and superstition. This notion appears to be tottering, and without foun dation, w hen viewed in either way. For neither does their imagined eternity consist with heaven, Lastly, if any one shall still insist, that neverthe less it cannot be denied, but that on the surface of the globe, and the part contiguous to it, changes innumerable take place, but that in heaven it is not so, we would have him thus answered ; that we do not carry the parallel through every part ; and nor their mutability with earth. For, with respect j yet if we take the upper and middle regions of air to heaven, we cannot rest upon it as a reason for ! (as they are termed) for a surface and exterior in changes not happening there, that they do not | tegument of heaven, just as among us we regard emerge to our view, the view of man being pre- | that space over which are distributed animals, rented r.D less by distance of place than by tenu- I plants, minerals, as a surface or outer invegumem ity of bodies. For various changes are found to of earth, we behold in both manitoirt reproductions take place in the air, as is evident in heat, cold, and vicissitudes, in full operation. It woul-i, smells, sounds, which do not fall within the line therefore, seem that all the disorder, contention, of sight. Nor, again, I suppose, would the eye, and commotion of the universe, has its seat on the if placed in the orb of the moon, descry across frontiers of heaven and earth alone. As in civil