Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/90

lxxxii Such as are found to increase in any instance when the given nature decreases; or, 4th, To decrease when that nature increases. Thus,

The object of this exclusion is to make a perfect resolution and separation of nature, not by fire, but by the mind, which is, as it were, the divine fire: that, after this rejection and exclusion is duly made, the affirmative, solid, true, and well defined form will remain as the result of the operation, whilst the volatile opinions go off in fume.

The fifth table of Results, termed the first vintage or dawn of doctrine, consists of a collection of such natures as always accompany the sought nature, increase with its increase, and decrease with its decrease.

It appears, that, in all instances, the nature of heat is motion of parts;—flame is perpetually in motion;—hot or boiling liquors are in continual agitation;—the sharpness and intensity of heat is increased by motion, as in bellows and blasts;—existing fire and heat are extinguished by strong compression, which checks and puts a stop to all motion;—all bodies are destroyed, or at least remarkably altered, by heat; and, when heat wholly escapes from the body, it rests from its labours; and hence it appears, that heat is motion, and nothing else.

Having collected and winnowed, by the various tables, the different facts presented to the senses, he proposed to examine them by nine different processes: of which he has investigated only the first, or, those instances by which the nature sought is most easily discovered. They may be thus exhibited:

Solitary Instances.—If the inquiry be into the nature of colour: a rainbow and a piece of glass in a stable window, differ in every thing except in the prismatic colours; they are therefore solitary in resemblance. The different parts of the same piece of marble, the different parts of a leaf of a variegated tulip, agree in every thing, save the colour; they are, therefore, solitary in difference.

By thus contracting the limits of the inquiry, may it not possibly be inferred, that colour depends upon refraction of the rays of light?

Nature in motion.—Observe nature in her processes. If any man desired to consider and examine the contrivances and industry of a certain artificer, he would not be content to view only the rude materials of the workman, and then immediately the finished work, but covet to be present whilst the artist prosecutes his labour, and exercises his skill. And the like course should be taken in the works of nature.

Travelling Instances.—In inquiring into any nature, observe its progress in approaching to or receding from existence. Let the inquiry be into the nature of whiteness. Take a piece of clear glass and a vessel of clear water, pound the glass into fine dust and agitate the water, the pulverised glass and the surface of the water will appear white; and this whiteness will have travelled from non-existence into existence. Again, take a vessel full of any liquor with froth at the top, or take snow, let the froth subside and the snow melt; the whiteness will disappear, and will have travelled from existence to non-existence.

Journeying Instances.—In inquiring into any nature, observe its motions gradually continued or contracted. An inquirer into the vegetation of plants should have an eye from the first sowing of the seed, and examine it almost every day, by taking or plucking up a seed after it had remained for one, two, or three days in the ground; to observe with diligence when, and in what manner the seed begins to swell, grow plump, and be filled or become turgid, as it were, with spirit; next, how it bursts the skin, and strikes its fibres with some tendency upwards, unless the earth be very stubborn; how it shoots its fibres in part, to constitute roots downwards; in part, to form stems upwards, and sometimes creeping sideways, if it there find the earth more open, pervious, and yielding, with many particulars of the same kind. And the like should be done as to eggs during their hatching, where the whole process of vivification and organization might be easily viewed; and what becomes of the yolk, what of the white, &c. The same is also to be attempted in inanimate bodies; and this we have endeavoured after, by observing the ways