Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/574

 446 FABLE OF CUPID. hand it oe looser, the strength is more dispersed, and through the dispersion weakened. That the heat, therefore, of unknown metals is more power ful than of boiling water, nay, than of flame itself, unless that the flame would, from its subtile na ture, pierce more. For that the flame of coals or of fuel, unless roused by wind, so as through mo tion to penetrate more easily, is not very violent; nay, that some flame (as of spirit of wine, espe cially if inflamed, and in a small quantity and dispersed) is of so mild a heat, as to be endura ble by the hand. The third difference, which is taken from the reduction of matter, is manifold; for he makes seven degrees of reduction, of which the first is milder, which is the arrangement of matter, showing the body in some degree yielding to greater violence, and especially susceptible of extension, in fine, flexible or ductile. The second is softness, when there is no need of greater force, but the body yields even by a light impulsion and to the touch, or the hand itself, without any ap parent resistance. The third is viscosity or tena city, which is in a high degree the principle of fluidity. For a viscous body seems to begin to flow and go on at the contact and embrace of an other body, and not to come to an end of itself, al though it does not flow willingly and of itself; for the fluid easily follows itself, but is more vis cous with respect to another body. The fourth is the fluid itself, when the body partaking of the interior spirit is in willing motion and follows it self, and is not easily bounded or brought to a stand. The fifth is vapour, when a body is atte nuated till it becomes intangible, which yields, flows, undulates, and becomes tremulous, with a greater agility and mobility. The sixth is breath ing, which is a certain vapour more concocted, and matured, and subdued, so as to be capable of receiving the nature of fire. The seventh is the air itself, but Telesius contends that the air is en dued with a native heat, and that considerable and very powerful, for that in the coldest regions the air is never congealed or condensed : and that an other proof of this is, that all air that is confined and separated from the main body of air, and left to itself, evidently collects heat, as in wool and fibrous substances ; and that the air in confined situations is found to suffocate respiration, which is the consequence of its heat ; and that this arises from the confined air beginning to exert its own nature, since the air out of doors, and under the open sky, is cooled by the cold which the globe of the earth is constantly emitting and exhaling; and also that our common air hath a certain celestial property, since it in some degree partakes of light ; which appears from the power of those animals which can see in the night and in dark places. And such, according to Telesius, is the order of the arrangement of matter, in the means, to wit. since the extremes, although on one side hard bodies, and on the other fire itself, are not reckoned as the limits of the means. But, be* sides these simple degrees, he searches out a great diversity in the arrangement of matter according to the similarity or dissimilarity of the body, since portions of matter compounded ana united in one body can be referred equally either to one of the beforementioned degrees, or une qually to different. For that a very great differ ence follows thence in the operation of heat. And that so a fourth difference is necessarily brought in from the nature and even position of a body upon which heat acts, whether close or porous and open. For when heat operates in ar, open and exposed situation, it does so in order and severally, by attenuating and at the same time by drawing out and separating. &quot;But when in a confined and compact body, it operates in the mass, not putting out any heat, but by the new and the old heat uniting and conspiring, whence it follows that it causes more powerful, intrinsic, and subtle alterations and reductions. But more will be said on this subject when we come to treat of the method of reduction. But in the meanwhile Telesius is fully occupied, and is strangely put to it to account for the method of the divorce and separation of their primary con natural qualities, heat, light, tenuity, and mobili ty, and the four opposite qualities, as they happen to be in bodies: since some bodies are found to be warm or admirably prepared to receive warmth and yet to be at the same time dense, motionless, and dark ; others are found to be subtle, mobile, lucid, or white, and yet cold ; and so of the rest, one certain quality, to wit, existing in some things, whilst the remaining qualities are not in accord ance with it; but others participate in two of these natures, but are without other two, by a very singular exchange and intercourse. And this part Telesius does not skilfully manage, but carries himself like his opponents ; who making their conjectures before their experiments, when they come to the particular subjects themselves, abuse their talents and their subjects, and wretch edly pervert both, and are yet admirably dexter ous and successful, (if you believe their own words,) in whatever way they explain them selves. But he concludes the subject in despair, intimating that although the quantity and co piousness of heat and the arrangement of the matter can be marked out in a vague manner and in the mass, that yet their accurate and exact proportions and their distinct measures are out of the reach of human inquiry: yet so that (by what manner is placed among the things that cannot be settled) the diversity of the disposition of matter can be better known than the strength and degrees of heat, and that yet in these very things is placed (if anywhere) the highest point of human knowledge and power. But after a plain acknowledgment of despair, he still goes further than mere wishes and prayers for more certainty