aphorisms 92 to 107 of book 1 of the New Organon. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alan Shaw. The New Organon by Francis Bacon. Translated by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath. Aphorisms 92 to 107 of book 1. Aphorisms 92. But by far the greatest obstacle to the progress of science and to the undertaking of new tasks and provinces therein is found in this, that men despair and think things impossible. For wise and serious men are wont in these matters to be altogether distrustful, considering with themselves the obscurity of nature, the shortness of life, the deceitfulness of the senses, the weakness of the judgment, the difficulty of experiment, and the like. And so supposing that in the revolution of time and of the ages of the world the sciences have their ebbs and flows, that at one season they grow and flourish, at another wither and decay, yet in such sort that when they have reached a certain point and condition they can advance no further. If, therefore, anyone believes or promises more, they think this comes of an ungoverned and unripened mind, and that such attempts at prosperous beginnings become difficult as they go on and end in confusion. Now, since these are thoughts which naturally present themselves to men grave and of great judgment, we must take good heed that we be not led away by our love for our most fair and excellent object to relax or diminish the severity of our judgment. We must observe diligently what encouragement dawns upon us and from what quarter, and, putting aside the lighter breezes of hope, we must thoroughly sift and examine those which promise greater steadiness and constancy. Nay, and we must take state prudence too into our councils, whose rule is to distrust and to take the less favorable view of human affairs. I am now, therefore, to speak touching hope, especially as I am not a dealer in promises, in which neither to force nor to ensnare men's judgments, but to lead them by the hand with their good will. And though the strongest means of inspiring hope will be to bring men to particulars, especially to particulars digested and arranged in my tables of discovery, the subject partly of the second, but much more of the fourth part of my instauration, since this is not merely the promise of the thing but the thing itself, nevertheless, that everything may be done with gentleness, I will proceed with my plan in preparing men's minds, of which preparation to give hope is no unimportant part. For without it the rest tends rather to make men sad, by giving them a worse and meaner opinion of things as they are than they now have, and making them more fully to feel and know the unhappiness of their own condition, than to induce any alacrity or to wet their industry in making trial. And therefore it is fit that I publish and set forth those conjectures of mine which make hope in this matter reasonable, just as Columbus did, before that wonderful voyage of his across the Atlantic, when he gave the reasons for his conviction that new lands and continents might be discovered besides those which were known before, which reasons, though rejected at first, were afterwards made good by experience and were the causes and beginnings of great events. Aphorism 93. The beginning is from God, for the business which is in hand having the character of good so strongly impressed upon it, appears manifestly to proceed from God, who is the author of good and the father of lights. Now in divine operations even the smallest beginnings lead of a certainty to their end. And as it was set of spiritual things, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation. So is it in all the greater works of divine providence. Everything glides on smoothly and noiselessly, and the work is fairly going on before men are aware that it has begun. Nor should the prophecy of Daniel be forgotten touching the last ages of the world. Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Clearly intimating that the thorough passage of the world, which now by so many distant voyages seems to be accomplished or in course of accomplishment, and the advancement of the sciences are destined by fate, that is by divine providence to meet in the same age. Aphorism 94. Next comes a consideration of the greatest importance as an argument of hope. I mean that drawn from the errors of pastime and of the ways hitherto trodden. For most excellent was the censure once passed upon a government that had been unwisely administered. That which is the worst thing in reference to the past ought to be regarded as best for the future. For if you had done all that your duty demanded and yet your affairs were no better, you would not even have a hope left that further improvement is possible. But now, when your misfortunes are owing, not to the force of circumstances, but to your own errors, you may hope that by dismissing or correcting these errors a great change may be made for the better. In like manner, if during so long a course of years men had kept the true road for discovering and cultivating sciences and had yet been unable to make further progress therein, bold doubtless and rash would be the opinion that further progress is possible. But if the road itself has been mistaken and men's labor spent on unfit objects, it follows that the difficulty has its rise not in things themselves which are not in our power, but in the human understanding and the use and application thereof which admits of remedy and medicine. It will be of great use therefore to set forth what these errors are, for as many impediments as there have been in times past from this cause, so many arguments are there of hope for the time to come, and although they have been partly touched before, I think fit here also in plain and simple words to represent them. Aphorism 95. Those who have handled sciences have been either men of experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like the ant. They only collect and use. The reasoners resemble spiders who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes a middle course. It gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy, for it neither relies solely or chiefly on the powers of the mind, nor does it take the matter which it gathers from natural history and mechanical experiments and laid up in the memory hole as it finds it, but lays it up in the understanding altered and digested. Therefore, from a closer and purer league between these two faculties, the experimental and the rational, such as has never yet been made, much may be hoped. Aphorism 96. We have as yet no natural philosophy that is pure, all is tainted and corrupted, in Aristotle's school by logic, in Plato's by natural theology, in the second school of plateness, such as Proclus and others by mathematics, which ought only to give definiteness to natural philosophy, not to generate or give it birth. From a natural philosophy pure and unmixed, better things are to be expected. Aphorism 97. No one has yet been found so firm of mind and purpose as resolutely to compel himself to sweep away all theories and common notions, and to apply the understanding, thus made fair and even, to a fresh examination of particulars. Thus it happens that human knowledge, as we have it, is a mere medley in ill-digested mass, made up of much credulity and much accident, but also of the childish notions which we at first imbibed. Aphorism 98. Now if anyone of ripe age, unimpaired senses, and well purged mind, apply himself anew to experience in particulars, better hopes may be entertained of that man, in which point I promise to myself a like fortune to that of Alexander the Great, and let no man tax me with vanity till he have heard the end, for the thing which I am mean tends to the putting off of all vanity. For of Alexander and his deeds, Eskene spoke thus, and we do not live the life of mortal men, but to this end were we born that in after ages wonders might be told of us. As if what Alexander had done seemed to him miraculous. But in the next age Titus Livius took a better and deeper view of the matter, saying in effect that Alexander had done no more than take courage to despise vain apprehensions. And a like judgment I suppose may be passed on myself in future ages, that I did know great things, but simply made less account of things that were accounted great. As I have already said, there is no hope except in a new birth of science, that is in raising it regularly up from experience of building it afresh, which no one I think will say has yet been done or thought of. Aphorism 98. Now for grounds of experience, since to experience we must come. We have as yet had either none, or very weak ones. No search has been made to collect or store a particular observation sufficient either in number, or in kind, or in standing, or in any way adequate. On the contrary, men of learning, but easy with all, and idle, have taken for the construction or for the confirmation of their philosophy certain rumors and vague fames or heirs of experience, and allowed to these the weight of lawful evidence. And just as if some kingdom or state were to direct its councils and affairs not by letters and reports from ambassadors and trustworthy messengers, but by the gossip of the streets, such exactly is the system of management reduced into philosophy with relation to experience. Nothing duly investigated, nothing verified, nothing counted, weighed, or measured is to be found in natural history. And what in observation is loose and vague is in information deceptive and treacherous. And if anyone thinks that this is a strange thing to say, and something like an unjust complaint, seeing that Aristotle himself so great a man, and supported by the wealth of so great a king, has composed so accurate a history of animals and that others with greater diligence though less pretense have made many additions while others again have compiled copious histories and descriptions of metals, plants, and fossils. It seems that he does not rightly apprehend what it is that we are now about. For a natural history which is composed for its own sake is not like one that is collected to supply the understanding with information for the building up of philosophy. They differ in many ways but especially in this, that the former contains the variety of natural species only and not experiments of the mechanical arts. For even as in the business of life a man's disposition and the secret workings of his mind and affections are better discovered when he is in trouble than at other times. So likewise the secrets of nature reveal themselves more readily under the vexations of art than when they go their own way. Good hopes may therefore be conceived of natural philosophy when natural history which is the basis and foundation of it has been drawn up on a better plan until then. Aphorism 99 Again, even in the great plenty of mechanical experiments there is yet a great scarcity of those which are of most use for the information of the understanding. For the mechanic, not troubling himself with the investigation of truth confines his attention to those things which bear upon his particular work and will not either raise his mind or stretch out his hand for anything else. But then only will there be good ground of hope for the further advance of knowledge when there shall be received and gathered together into natural history a variety of experiments which are of no use in themselves but simply serve to discover causes and axioms, which I call experimenta luciferra experiments of light to distinguish them from those which I call fructiferra experiments of fruit. Now, experiments of this kind have one admirable property and condition. They never miss or fail. For since they are applied not for the purpose of producing any particular effect, but only of discovering the natural cause of some effect. They answer the end equally well whichever way they turn out, for they settle the question. aphorism 100 but not only is a greater abundance of experiments to be sought for and procured and that too of a different kind from those hitherto tried, an entirely different method, order, and process for carrying on an advancing experience must also be introduced. For experience when it wanders in its own track is, as I have already remarked, mere groping in the dark and confounds men rather than instructs them, but when it shall proceed in accordance with the fixed law, in regular order, and without interruption then may better things be hoped of knowledge. aphorism 101 but even after such a store of natural history and experience as is required for the work of the understanding, or a philosophy shall be ready at hand still the understanding is by no means competent to deal with it offhand and by memory alone, no more than if a man should hope by force of memory to retain and make himself master of the computation of anephemorus. and yet hitherto more has been done in matter of invention by thinking than by writing and experience has not yet learned her letters. now no course of invention can be satisfactory unless it be carried on in writing, but when this is brought into use and experience has been taught to read and write, better things may be hoped. aphorism 102 moreover, since there is so great a number in army of particulars, and that army so scattered and dispersed as to distract and confound the understanding, little is to be hoped for from the skirmishings and slight attacks and desultory movements of the intellect unless all the particulars which pertain to the subject of inquiry shall by means of tables of discovery, apt, well arranged, and, as it were, animate, be drawn up and marshaled, and the mind be set to work upon the helps duly prepared and digested which these tables supply. aphorism 103 but after the store of particulars has been set out duly and in order before our eyes, we are not to pass at once to the investigation and discovery of new particulars or works, or at any rate if we do so we must not stop there. for although I do not deny that when all the experiments of all the arts shall have been collected and digested and brought within one man's knowledge and judgment, the mere transferring of the experiments of one art to others may lead by means of that experience which I term literate to the discovery of many new things of service to the life and state of man yet it is no great matter that can be hoped from that. but from the new light of axioms which having been induced from those particulars by a certain method and rule shall in their turn point out the way again to new particulars greater things may be looked for for our road does not lie on a level but ascends and descends first ascending to axioms then descending to works. aphorism 104 the understanding must not however be allowed to jump and fly from particulars to axioms remote and of almost the highest generality such as the first principles as they are called of arts and things and taking stand upon them as truth that cannot be shaken proceed to prove and frame the middle axioms by reference to them which has been the practice hitherto the understanding being not only carried that way by a natural impulse but also by the use of syllogistic demonstration trained in a nearer to it but then and then only may we hope well of the sciences when in a just scale of ascent and by successive steps not interrupted or broken we rise from particulars to lesser axioms and then to middle axioms one above the other and last of all to the most general for the lowest axioms differ but slightly from bear experience while the highest and most general which we now have are notional and abstract and without solidity but the middle are the true and solid and living axioms on which depend the affairs and fortunes of men and above them again last of all those which are indeed the most general such I mean as are not abstract but of which those intermediate axioms are really limitations the understanding must not therefore be supplied with wings but rather hung with weights to keep it from leaping and flying now this has never yet been done when it is done we may entertain better hopes of the sciences aphorism 105 in establishing axioms another form of induction must be devised than has hitherto been employed and it must be used for proving and discovering not first principles as they are called only but also the lesser axioms and the middle and indeed all for the induction which proceeds by simple enumeration is childish its conclusions are precarious and exposed to peril from a contradictory instance and it generally decides on too small a number of facts and on those only which are at hand but the induction which is to be available for the discovery and demonstration of sciences and arts must analyze nature by proper rejections and exclusions and then after a sufficient number of negatives come to a conclusion on the affirmative instances which has not yet been done or even attempted save only by Plato who does indeed employ this form of induction to a certain extent for the purpose of discussing definitions and ideas but in order to furnish this induction or demonstration well and duly for its work very many things are to be provided which no mortal has yet thought of in so much that greater labor will have to be spent in it than has hitherto been spent on the syllogism and this induction must be used not only to discover axioms but also in the formation of notions and it is in this induction that our chief hope lies aphorism 106 but in establishing axioms by this kind of induction we must also examine and try whether the axiom so established be framed to the measure of those particulars only from which it is derived or whether it be larger and wider and if it be larger and wider we must observe whether by indicating to us new particulars it confirm that wideness and largeness as by a collateral security that we may not either stick fast in things already known or loosely grasp at shadows in abstract forms not at things solid and realized in matter and when this process shall have come into use then at last shall we see the dawn of a solid hope aphorism 107 and here also should be remembered what was said above concerning the extending of the range of natural philosophy to take in the particular sciences and the referring or bringing back of the particular sciences to natural philosophy that the branches of knowledge may not be severed and cut off from the stem for without this the hope of progress will not be so good and of aphorism 92 to 107 of book 1 Recording by Alan Shaw aphorism 108 to 120 of the New Organon this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Alan Shaw The New Organon by Francis Bacon translated by James Spedding Leslie Ellis and Douglas Denon Heath aphorism 108 to 120 of book 1 aphorism 108 so much then for the removing of despair and the raising of hope through the dismissal or rectification of the errors of past time we must now see what else there is to ground hope upon and this consideration occurs at once that if many useful discoveries have been made by accident or upon occasion when men were not seeking for them but were busy about other things they were not out but that when they apply themselves to seek and make this their business and that too by method and in order and not by desilatory impulses they will discover far more for although it may happen once or twice that a man shall stumble on a thing by accident which when taking great pains to search for it he could not find yet upon the whole it unquestionably falls out the other way and therefore far better things and more of them and at shorter intervals are to be expected for man's reason and industry for the more of the imagination than from accident and animal instinct and the like in which inventions have hitherto had their origin aphorism 109 another argument of hope may be drawn from this that some of the inventions already known are such as before they were discovered it could hardly have entered any man's head to think of they would have been simply set aside as impossible for in conjecturing what may be men set before them the example of what has been and divine of the new with an imagination preoccupied and colored by the old which way of forming opinions is very fallacious for streams that are drawn from the spring heads of nature do not always run in the old channels if for instance before the invention of ordinance a man had described the thing by its effects and said that there was a new invention by means of which the strongest towers and walls could be shaken and thrown down at a great distance men would doubtless have begun to think over all the ways of multiplying the force of catapults and mechanical engines by weights and wheels and such machinery for ramming and projecting but the notion of a fiery blast suddenly and violently expanding and exploding would hardly have entered into any man's imagination or fancy being a thing to which nothing immediately analogous had been seen except perhaps in an earthquake or enlightening which as magnolia or marvels of nature and by man not imitable would have been immediately rejected in the same way if before the discovery of silk anyone had said that there was a kind of thread for the purposes of dress and furniture which far surpassed the thread of linen or of wool and fineness and at the same time in strength and also in beauty and softness men would have begun immediately to think of some silky kind of vegetable or of the finer hair of some animal or of the feathers and down of birds but a web woven by a tiny worm and that in such abundance and renewing itself yearly they would assuredly never have thought nay if anyone had said anything about a worm who would no doubt have been laughed at as dreaming of a new kind of cobwebs so again if before the discovery of the magnet anyone had said that a certain instrument had been invented by means of which the quarters and points of the heavens could be taken and distinguished with exactness men would have been carried by their imagination to a variety of conjectures concerning the more exquisite construction of astronomical instruments but that anything could be discovered agreeing so well in its movements with the heavenly bodies of itself but simply a substance of metal or stone would have been judged altogether incredible yet these things and others like them lay for so many ages of the world concealed from men no was it by philosophy or the rational arts that they were found out at last but by accident and occasion being indeed as I said altogether different in kind and as remote as possible from anything that was known before so that no preconceived notion could possibly have led to the discovery of them there is therefore much ground for hoping that there are still laid up in the womb of nature many secrets of excellent use having no affinity or parallelism with anything that is now known but lying entirely out of the beat of the imagination which have not yet been found out they too no doubt will sometime or other in the course and revolution of many ages come to light of themselves just as the others did only by the method of which we are now treating they can be speedily and suddenly and simultaneously presented and anticipated after some one hundred ten we have also discoveries to show of another kind which prove that noble inventions may be lying at our very feet and yet mankind may step over without seeing them for however the discovery of gunpowder of silk of the magnet of sugar of paper or the like may seem to depend on certain properties of things themselves and nature there as at any rate nothing in the art of printing which is not plain and obvious nevertheless for want of observing that although it is more difficult to arrange types of letters than to write letters by the motion of the hand there is yet this difference between the two the types once arranged serve for innumerable impressions but letters written with the hand for a single copy only or perhaps again for want of observing that ink can be so thickened as to color without running particularly when the letters face upwards and the impression is made from above for want I say of observing these things men went for so many ages without this most beautiful discovery which is of so much service in the propagation of knowledge but such as the infelicity and unhappy disposition of the human mind in this course of invention that it first distrusts and then despises itself first will not believe that any such thing can be found out and when it is found out cannot understand how the world should have missed it so long and this very thing may be justly taken as an argument of hope namely that there's a great mass of invention still remaining which not only by means of operations that are yet to be discovered but also transferring comparing and applying of those already known by the help of that learned experience of which I spoke may be deduced and brought to light aphorism 111 there is another ground of hope that must not be omitted let men but think over their infinite expenditure of understanding time and means on matters and pursuits of far less use and value whereof if but a small part were directed to sound and solid studies there's no difficulty that might not be overcome this I thought good to add because I plainly confess that a collection of history natural and experimental such as I conceive it and as it ought to be is a great I may say a royal work and have much labor and expense aphorism 112 meantime let no man be alarmed at the multitude of particulars but let this rather encourage him to hope for the particular phenomena of art in nature are but a handful to the inventions of the wit when disjoined and separated from the evidence of things moreover this road has an issue in the open ground and not far off the other has no issue at all but endless entanglement for man hitherto have made but short stay with experience but passing her lightly by have wasted an infinity of time on meditations and glosses of the wit but if someone were by that could answer our questions and tell us in each case what the fact in nature is the discovery of all causes and sciences would be but the work of a few years aphorism 113 moreover I think that men may take some hope from my own example and this I say not by way of boasting but because it is useful to say it if there be any that despond let them look at me that being of all men of my time the most busyed in affairs of state and a man of health not very strong whereby much time is lost and in this course all together a pioneer following in no man's track nor sharing these councils with anyone have nevertheless by resolutely entering on the true road and submitting my mind to things advanced these matters as I suppose some little way and then let them consider what may be expected after the way has been thus indicated for men abounding in leisure and from association of labors and from secession of ages the rather because it is not a way over which only one man can pass at a time as is the case with that of reasoning but one in which the labors and industries of men especially as regards the collecting of experience may with the best effect be first distributed and then combined for then only will men begin to know their strength when instead of great numbers doing all the same things one shall take charge of one thing and another of another aphorism 114 lastly even if the breath of hope which blows on us from that new continent were fainter than it is and harder to perceive yet the trial if we would not bear a spirit altogether abjack must by all means be made for there is no comparison between not trying and by not succeeding since by not trying we throw away the chance of an immense good by not succeeding we only incur the loss of a little human labor but as it is it appears to me from what has been said and also from what has been left unsaid that there is hope enough and despair not only to make a bold man try but also to make a sober minded and wise man believe aphorism 115 concerning the grounds then for putting away despair which has been one of the most causes of delay and hindrance to the progress of knowledge I have now spoken and this also concludes what I had to say touching the signs and causes of the errors sluggishness and ignorance which have prevailed especially since the more subtle causes which do not fall under popular judgment and observation must be referred to what has been said on the idols of the human mind and here likewise should close that part of my instauration which is devoted to pulling down which part is performed by three refutations first by the refutation of the natural human reason left to itself secondly by the refutation of the demonstrations and thirdly by the refutation of the theories or the received systems of philosophy and doctrine and the refutation of these has been such as alone it could be that is to say by signs and the evidence of causes since no other kind of confutation was open to me differing as I do from the others both on first principles and on rules of demonstration it is time therefore to proceed to the art itself in rule of interpreting nature still however there remains something to be premised for whereas in this first book of aphorisms I propose to prepare men's minds as well for understanding as for receiving what is to follow now that I have purged and swept and leveled the floor of the mind it remains that I place the mind in a good position and as it were in a favorable aspect toward what I have to lay before it for in a new matter it is not only the strong preoccupation of some old opinion that tends to create a prejudice but also a false preconception or prefiguration of the new thing which is presented I will endeavor therefore to impart sound and true opinions as to the things I propose although they are to serve only for the time and by way of interest so to speak to the thing itself which is the principle be fully known aphorism 116 first then I must request men not to suppose that after the fashion of ancient Greeks and of certain moderns as Tilesias, Patricius, Severinus I wish to found a new sect in philosophy for this is not what I am about nor do I think that it matters much to the fortunes of men what abstract notions one may entertain concerning nature and the principles of things and no doubt many old theories of this kind can be revived and many new ones introduced just as many theories of the heavens may be supposed which agree well enough with the phenomena and yet differ with each other but for my part I do not trouble myself with any such speculative and with all unprofitable matters my purpose on the contrary is to try whether I cannot in very fact lay more firmly the foundations and extend more widely the limits of the power and greatness of man and although on some special subjects in an incomplete form I am in possession of results which I take to be far more true and more certain and with all more fruitful than those now received and these I have collected into the fifth part of my instauration yet I have the entire or universal theory to propound for it does not seem that the time has come for such an attempt neither can I hope to live to complete the sixth part of the instauration which is destined for the philosophy discovered by the legitimate interpretation of nature but hold it enough if in the intermediate business I bear myself soberly and profitably sewing in the meantime for future ages the seeds of a pure truth and performing my part toward the commencement of the great undertaking aphorism 117 and as I do not seek to found a school so neither do I hold out offers or promises of particular works it may be thought indeed that I who make such frequent mention of works and refer everything to that end should produce some myself by way of earnest but my course and method as I have often clearly stated and would wish to state again is this not to extract works from works or experiments from experiments as an empiric works and experiments to extract causes and axioms and again from those causes and axioms new works and experiments as a legitimate interpreter of nature and although in my tables of discovery which compose the fourth part of the instauration and also in the examples of particulars which I have adduced in the second part and moreover in my observations on the history which I have drawn out in the third part any reader of even moderate sagacity and intelligence will everywhere observe indications of many noble works still I candidly confess that the natural history which I now have whether collected from books or from my own investigations is neither sufficiently copious nor verified with sufficient accuracy to serve the purposes of legitimate interpretation accordingly if there be anyone more apt and better prepared for mechanical pursuits and sagacious and hunting out works by the mere dealing with experiment let him by all means use his industry to gather from my history in tables and many things by the way and apply them to the production of works which may serve as interest until the principle be forthcoming but for myself aiming as I do at greater things I condemn all unseasonable and premature tearing over such things as these being as I often say like Atalanta's balls for I do not run off like a child after golden apples but stake all on the victory of art over nature in the race nor do I make haste to mow down the moss with a corn and blade but wait for the harvest and its due season aphorism 118 there will be found no doubt when Ray history and tables of discovery are read some things in the experiments themselves that are not quite certain are perhaps that are quite false which may make a man think that the foundations and principles upon which my discoveries rest are false and doubtful but this is of no consequence for such things must needs happen at first it is only like the occurrence in a written or printed page of a letter that is too mistaken or misplaced which does not much hinder the reader because such errors are easily corrected by the sense so likewise may there occur in my natural history many experiments which are mistaken and falsely set down and yet they will presently by the discovery of causes and axioms be easily expunged and rejected it is nevertheless true that if the mistakes in natural history and experiments are important frequent and continual they cannot possibly be corrected or amended by any felicity of wit or art and therefore if in my natural history which has been collected and tested with so much diligence severity and I may say religious care there still lurk at intervals certain falsities or errors in the particulars what is to be said of common natural history which in comparison with mine is so negligent and inexact and what of the philosophy and science is built on such a sand or rather quicksand let no man therefore trouble himself for this aphorism 119 there will be met with also in my history and experiments many things which are trivial and commonly known many which are mean and low many lastly which are too subtle and merely speculative and that seem to be of no use which kind of things may possibly avert and alienate man's interest and first for those things which seem common let men bear in mind that hitherto they have been accustomed to do no more than refer and adapt the causes of things which really happen to such as happen frequently while of those which happen frequently they never ask the cause but take them as they are for granted and therefore they do not investigate the causes of weight of the rotation of heavenly bodies of heat cold light hardness softness rarity density liquidity solidity animation in animation similarity dissimilarity organization and the like but admitting these as self evident and obvious they dispute and decide on other things of less frequent and familiar occurrence but I who am well aware that no judgment can be passed on uncommon or remarkable things much less anything new brought to light unless the causes of common things and the causes of those causes be first duly examined and found out am of necessity compelled to admit the commonest things into my history nay in my judgment philosophy has been hindered by nothing more than this that things of familiar and frequent occurrence do not arrest and detain the thoughts of men but are received and passing without any inquiry into their causes and so much that information concerning things which are not known is not often or wanted than attention concerning things which are aphorism 120 and for things that are mean or even filthy things which as plenty says must be introduced with an apology such things no less than the most splendid and costly must be admitted into natural history nor is natural history polluted thereby for the sun interests the sewer no less than the palace yet takes no pollution and for myself am not raising a capital or pyramid to the pride of man but laying a foundation in the human understanding for a holy temple after the model of the world that model therefore I follow for whatever deserves to exist deserves also to be known for knowledge is the image of existence and things mean and splendid exist alike moreover as from certain putrid instances musk for instance and civet the sweetest orders are sometimes generated so too from mean and sordid instances there sometimes emanates excellent light and information but enough and more than enough of this such fastidiousness being really childish and effeminate and of aphorisms 108 to 120 of book one recording by Alan Shaw aphorisms 121 to 130 of book one of the New Organon this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Alan Shaw the New Organon by Francis Bacon translated by James Spedding Robert Leslie Ellis and Douglas Denon Heath aphorisms 121 to 130 of book one aphorisms 121 but there is another objection which must be more carefully looked to namely that there are many things in this history which to common apprehension or indeed to any understanding accustomed to the present system will seem to be curiously and unprofitably subtle upon this point therefore above all I must say again what I have said already that at first and for a time I am seeking for experiments of light not for experiments of fruit following therein as I have often said the example of the divine creation which on the first day produced light only and assigned to it alone one entire day nor mixed up with it on that day any material work to suppose therefore that things like these are of no use is the same as to suppose that light is of no use because it is not a thing solid or material and the truth is that the knowledge of simple natures well examined and defined is as light it gives entrance to all the secrets of nature's workshop and virtually includes and draws after it whole bands and troops of works and opens to us the sources of the noblest axioms and yet in itself it is of no great use so also the letters of the alphabet in themselves and apart have no use or meaning yet they are the subject matter for the composition and apparatus of all discourse so again the seeds of things are of much latent virtue and yet of no use except in their development and the scattered rays of light itself until they are made to converge can impart none of their benefit but if objection be taken to speculative subtleties what is to be said of the school men who have indulged in subtleties to such excess and subtleties too that were spent on words or at any rate on popular notions which is much the same thing not on facts or nature and such as were useless not only in their origin but also in their consequences and not like those I speak of useless indeed for the present promising infinite utility hereafter but let men be assured of this that all subtleties of disputation and discourse if not applied till after axioms are discovered is out of season and preposterous and that the true and proper or at any rate the chief time for subtleties is in weighing experience and in founding axioms thereon for that other subtleties though it grasps and snatches at nature yet can never take hold of her certainly what is said of opportunity or fortune is most true of nature it has a lock in front but is balled behind lastly concerning the disdain to receive into natural history things either common or mean or over subtle and in their original condition useless the answer of the poor woman to the haughty prince who had rejected her petition as an unworthy thing and beneath his dignity may be taken for an oracle then leave off being king for most certain it is that he who will not attend to things like these as being too paltry and minute and either win the kingdom of nature nor govern it aphorism 122 it may be thought also a strange and harsh thing that we should at once and with one blow set aside all sciences and all authors and that too without calling in any of the ancients to our aid and support but relying on our own strength and I know that if I had chosen to deal less sincerely I might easily have found authority for my suggestions by referring them either to the old times before the Greeks when natural science was perhaps more flourishing though it made less noise not having yet passed into the pipes and trumpets of the Greeks or even in part at least to some of the Greeks themselves and so gained for them both support and honor as men of no family devised for themselves by the good help of genealogies the nobility of a descent from some ancient stock but for my part relying on the evidence and truth of things I reject all forms of fiction and imposter nor do I think that it matters anymore to the business in hand whether the discoveries that shall now be made were long ago known to the ancients and have their settings and their risings according to the vicissitude of things and courses of ages then it matters to mankind whether the new world be that island of Atlantis with which the ancients were acquainted or now discovered for the first time for new discoveries must be sought from the light of nature not fetched back out of the darkness of antiquity and as for the universality of the censure certainly if the matter be truly considered such a censure is not only more probable but more modest too than a partial one would be for if the errors had not been rooted in primary notions there must have been some true discoveries to correct the false but the errors being fundamental and not so much of false judgment as of inattention and oversight it is no wonder that men have not obtained what they have not tried for nor reached a mark which they never set up nor finished a course which they never entered on or kept and as for the presumption implied in it certainly if a man undertakes by steadiness of hand and power of eye to describe a straighter line or more perfect circle than anyone else he challenges a comparison of abilities but if he only says that he with the help of a rule or a pair of compasses can draw a straighter line or more perfect circle than anyone else can by eye and hand alone he makes no great boast and this remark be it observed applies not merely to this first and inceptive attempt of mine but to all that shall take the work in hand hereafter for my way of discovering sciences goes far to level men's wit and leaves but little to individual excellence because it performs everything by the surest rules and demonstrations and therefore I attribute my part in all this as I have often said rather to good luck than to ability and accounted a birth of time rather than of wit for certainly chance has something to do with men's thoughts as well as with their works and deeds aphorism 123 I may say then of myself that which one said in jest since it marks the distinction so truly it cannot be that we should think alike when one drinks water and the other drinks wine now other men as well in ancient as in modern times have in the matter of sciences drunk a crude liquor like water either flowing spontaneously from the understanding or drawn up by logic as by wheels from a well whereas I pledge mankind in a liquor strained from countless grapes from grapes ripe and fully seasoned collected and clustered and gathered and then squeezed in the press and finally purified and clarified in the vat and therefore it is no wonder if they and I do not think alike aphorism 124 again it will be thought no doubt that the goal and mark of knowledge which I myself set up the very point which I object to in others is not the true or the best for that the contemplation of truth is a thing worthier and loftier than all utility and magnitude of works and that this long and anxious dwelling with experience and matter in the fluctuations of individual things drags down the mind to earth or rather sinks it to a very tartarous of turmoil and confusion removing and withdrawing it from the serene tranquility of abstract wisdom a condition far more heavenly now to this I readily ascent and indeed this which they point at as so much to be preferred is the very thing of all others which I am about for I am building in the human understanding a true model of the world such as it is in fact not such as a man's own reason would have it to be a thing which cannot be done without a very diligent dissection and anatomy of the world but I say that those foolish and apish images of worlds which the fancies of men have created in philosophical systems must be utterly scattered to the winds be it known then how vast a difference there is as I said above between the idols of the human mind and the ideas of the divine the former are nothing more than arbitrary abstractions the latter are the creators own stamp upon creation impressed and defined in matter by true and exquisite lines truth therefore and utility are here the very same things and works themselves are of greater value as pledges of truth and as contributing to the comforts of life aphorism 125 it may be thought again that I am but doing what has been done before that the ancients themselves took the same force which I am now taking and that it is likely therefore that I too after all this stir and striving shall come at last to some one of those systems which prevailed in ancient times for the ancients too it will be said provided at the outset of their speculations a great store and abundance of examples in particulars digested the same into notebooks under heads and titles from them completed their systems and arts and afterwards when they understood the matter published them to the world adding a few examples here and there for proof and illustration but thought it superfluous and inconvenient to publish their notes and minutes and digests of particulars and therefore did as builders do after the house was built they removed the scaffolding and ladders out of sight and so no doubt they did but this objection or scruple rather will be easily answered by anyone who has not quite forgotten what I have said above for the form of inquiry and discovery that was in use among the ancients is by themselves professed and appears in the case of their writings and that form was simply this from a few examples in particulars with the addition of common notions perhaps of some portion of the received opinions which have been most popular they flew at once to the most general conclusions or first principles of science taking the truth of these as fixed and immovable they proceeded by means of intermediate propositions to deduce and prove from them the inferior conclusions and out of these they framed the art after that if any new particulars or examples repugnant to their dogmas were mooted and adduced either they subtly molded them into their system by distinctions or explanations of their rules or else coarsely got rid of them by exceptions while to such particulars as were not repugnant they labored to assign causes and conformity with those of their principles but this was not the natural history and experience that was wanted far from it and besides that flying off to the highest generalities ruined all in 116 it will also be thought that by forbidding men to pronounce and to set down principles as established until they have duly arrived through the intermediate steps at the highest generalities I maintain a sort of suspension of the judgment and bring it to what the Greeks call akata lepsia a denial of the capacity of the mind to comprehend truth but in reality that which I meditate and propound is not akata lepsia but you kata lepsia not denial of the capacity to understand but provision for understanding truly for I do not take away authority from the senses but supply them with helps I do not slight the understanding but govern it and better surely it is that we should know all we need to know and yet think our knowledge imperfect than that we should think our knowledge perfect and yet not know anything we need to know aphorism 127 it may also be asked in the way of doubt rather than objection whether I speak of natural philosophy only or whether I mean that the other sciences logic, ethics, and politics should be carried on by this method now I certainly mean what I have said to be understood of them all and as the common logic which governs by the syllogism extends not only to natural but to all sciences so does mine also which proceeds by induction embrace everything for I form a history and table of discovery for anger, fear, shame, and the like for matters political and again for the mental operations of memory composition and division judgment and the rest not less than for heat and cold or light or vegetation or the like but nevertheless since my method of interpretation after the history has been prepared and duly arranged regards not the working and discourse of the mind only as the common logic does but the nature of things also I supply the mind such rules and guidance that it may in every case apply itself aptly to the nature of things and therefore I deliver many and diverse precepts in the doctrine of interpretation which in some measure modify the method of invention according to the quality and condition of the subject of the inquiry aphorism 128 on one point not even a doubt ought to be entertained namely whether I desire to pull down and destroy the philosophy and arts and sciences which are present in use so far from that I am most glad to see them used cultivated and honored there's no reason why the arts which are now in fashion should not continue to supply matter for disputation and ornaments for discourse to be employed for the convenience of professors and men of business to be in short like current coin which passes among men by consent nay I frankly declare that what I am introducing will be but little fitted for such purposes as these since it cannot be brought down to common apprehension saved by effects and works only but how sincere I am in my professions of affection and goodwill toward the received sciences my published writings especially the books on the advancement of learning sufficiently show and therefore I will not attempt to prove it further by words meanwhile I give constant and distinct warning that by the methods now in use neither can any great progress be made in the doctrines and contemplated part of sciences nor can they be carried out to any magnitude of works aphorism 129 it remains for me to say a few words touching the excellency of the end in view had they been uttered earlier they might have seemed like idle wishes but now that hopes have been raised and unfair prejudices removed they may perhaps have greater weight also if I'd finished all myself and had no occasion to call on others to help and take part in the work I should even now have abstained from such language lest it might be taken as a proclamation of my own desserts but since I want to quicken the industry and I am now in the midst of a rousing kindle the zeal of others it is fitting that I put men in mind of some things in the first place then the introduction of famous discoveries appears to hold by far the first place among human actions and this was the judgment of the former ages for to the authors of inventions they awarded divine honors while to those who did good service in the state such as founders of cities and empires legislators saviors of their country angels quellors of tyrannies and the like they decreed no higher honors than heroic and certainly if a man rightly compare the two he will find that this judgment of antiquity was just for the benefits of discoveries may extend to the whole race of man civil benefits only to particular places the latter last not beyond a few ages the former through all time moreover the reformation of a state in civil matters is seldom brought in without violence and confusion but discoveries carry blessings with them and confer benefits without causing harm or sorrow to any again discoveries are as it were new creations and imitations of God's works as the poet well saying to man's frail race great Athens long ago first gave the seed once waving harvest grow and recreated all our life below and it appears worthy of remark in Solomon the Indian Empire and in gold in the magnificence of his works his court his household and his fleet in the luster of his name in the worship of mankind yet he took none of these to glory and but pronounced that the glory of God is to conceal a thing the glory of the king to search it out again let a man only consider what a difference there is between the life of men in the most civilized province of Europe and in the wildest and most barbarous districts of New India he will feel it be great enough to justify the saying that man is a god to man not only in regard to aid and benefit but also by a comparison of condition and this difference comes not from soil not from climate not from race but from the arts again it is well to observe the force and virtue and consequences of discoveries and these are to be seen nowhere more conspicuously than in those three which were unknown ancients and of which the origin though recent is obscure and inglorious namely printing gunpowder and the magnet for these three have changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world the first in literature the second in warfare the third in navigation whence have followed innumerable changes in so much that no empire no sect no star seems to have exerted greater power in human affairs than these mechanical discoveries further it will not be amiss to distinguish the three kinds and as it were grades of ambition in mankind the first is of those who desire to extend their own power in their native country a vulgar and degenerate kind the second is of those who labor to extend the power and dominion of their country among men this certainly has more dignity though not less covetousness but if a man endeavor to establish and extend the power and dominion of the human race itself over the universe his ambition if ambition it can be called is without doubt both a more wholesome and a more noble thing than the other two now the empire of man over things depends wholly on the arts and sciences for we cannot command nature except by obeying her again if men have thought so much of some one particular discovery as to regard him as more than man who has been able by some benefit to make the whole human race his debtor how much higher a thing to discover that by means of which all things shall be discovered with ease and yet to speak the whole truth as the uses of light are infinite in enabling us to walk to ply our arts to read to recognize one another and nevertheless the very beholding of the light is itself a more excellent and a fairer thing than all the uses of it so assuredly the very contemplation of things as they are without superstition or imposter error or confusion is in itself more worthy than all the fruit of inventions lastly if the debasement of arts and sciences to purposes of wickedness luxury in the light be made a ground of objection let no one be moved there by for the same may be said of all earthly goods of wit courage strength beauty wealth light itself and the rest only let the human race recover that right over nature which belongs to it by divine bequest and let power be given it the exercise thereof will be governed by sound reason and true religion aphorism one hundred thirty and now it is time for me to propound the art itself of interpreting nature in which although I can see that I have given true and most useful precepts yet I do not say either that it is absolutely necessary as if nothing could be done without it or that it is perfect for I am of the opinion that if men had ready at hand a just history of nature and experience and labor diligently thereon and if they could bind themselves to two rules the first to lay aside received opinions and notions and the second to refrain the mind for a time from the highest generalizations and those next to them they would be able by the native and genuine force of the mind without any other art to fall into my form of interpretation for interpretation is the true and natural work of the mind when freed from impediments it is true however that by my precepts everything will be in more readiness and much more sure nor again do I mean to say that no improvement can be made upon these on the contrary I regard that the mind not only in its own faculties but in its connection with things must needs hold that the art of discovery may advance as discoveries advance and of aphorisms one hundred twenty one to one hundred thirty a book one and of book one recording by Alan Shaw aphorisms one to ten of book two of the new organon this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the new organ on by Francis Bacon translated by James Spedding Robert Leslie Ellis and Douglas Denon Heath aphorisms one to ten of book two one on a given body to generate and super induce a new nature or new natures is the work and aim of human power of a given nature to discover the form or true specific difference or nature or gendering nature or source of emanation for these are the terms which come nearest to the description of the thing is the work and aim of human knowledge subordinate to these primary works are two others that are secondary and of inferior mark to the former the transformation of concrete bodies so far as this is possible to the latter the discovery in every case of generation of the motion of the latent process carried on from the manifest efficient and the manifest material to the form which is engendered and in like manner the discovery of the latent configuration of bodies at rest and not in motion two in what an ill condition human knowledge is at the present time is apparent even from the commonly received maxims it is a correct position that true knowledge is knowledge by causes and causes again are not improperly distributed into four kinds the material, the formal, the efficient and the final but of these the final cause rather corrupts than advances the sciences except such as have to do with human action the discovery of the formal is dispirited the efficient and the materials as they are investigated and received that is as remote causes without reference to the latent process leading to the form are but slight and superficial and contribute little if anything to true and active science nor have I forgotten that in a former passage I noted and corrected as an air of the human mind the opinion that forms give existence for though in nature nothing really exists besides individual bodies performing pure individual acts according to a fixed law yet in philosophy this very law the investigation, discovery and explanation of it is the foundation as well of knowledge as of operation and it is this law with its clauses that I mean when I speak of forms a name which I the rather adopt because it has grown into use and become familiar if a man be acquainted with the cause of any nature as whiteness or heat in certain subjects only his knowledge is imperfect and if he is able to super induce an effect on certain substances only of those susceptible to such effect his power is in like manner imperfect now if a man's knowledge be confined to the efficient and material causes which are unstable causes and merely vehicles or causes which convey the form in certain cases he may arrive at new discoveries in reference to substances in some degree similar to one another and selected beforehand but he does not touch the deeper boundaries of things but whosoever is acquainted with forms embraces a unity of nature in substances the most unlike and is able therefore to detect and bring to light things never yet done and such as neither the vicissitudes of nature nor industry and experimenting nor accident itself would ever have brought into act and which would never have occurred to the thought of man from the discovery of forms therefore results truth in speculation and freedom in operation four although the roads to human power and to human knowledge lie close together and are nearly the same nevertheless on account of the pernicious and inveterate habit of dwelling on abstractions it is safer to begin and raise the sciences from those foundations which have relation to practice and to let the active part itself be as a seal which prints and determines the contemplative counter part we must therefore consider if a man wanted to generate and super induce any nature upon a given body what kind of rule or direction or guidance he would most wish for and express the same in the simplest and least abstruse language for instance if a man wishes to super induce upon silver that yellow color of gold or an increase of weight in the laws of matter or transparency on an opaque stone or tenacity on glass or vegetation on some substance that is not vegetable we must consider I say what kind of rule or guidance he would most desire and in the first place he will undoubtedly wish to be directed to something which will not deceive him in the result nor fail him in the trial secondly he will wish for such a rule as shall not tie him down to certain means in particular modes of operation for perhaps he may not have those means nor be able conveniently to procure them and if there be other means and other methods for producing the required nature besides the one prescribed these may perhaps be within his reach and yet he shall be excluded by the narrowness of the rule and no good from them thirdly he will desire something to be shown in which is not as difficult as the thing proposed to be done but comes nearer to practice for a true and perfect rule of operation then the direction will be that it be certain, free and disposing or leading to action and this is the same thing with the discovery of the true form for the form of a nature such that given the form the nature infallibly follows therefore it is always present when the nature is present and universally implies it and is constantly inherit in it again the form is such that if it be taken away the nature infallibly vanishes therefore it is always absent when the nature is absent and implies its absence and nothing else lastly the true form is such that it deduces the given nature from some source of being which is inherent in more natures and which is better known in the natural order of things than the form itself for a true and perfect axiom of knowledge then the direction and precept will be that another nature be discovered which is convertible that is a limitation of a more general nature as of a true and real genus now these two directions the one active and the other contemplative are one in the same thing and what in operation is most useful that in knowledge is most true five the rule or axiom for the transformation of bodies is of two kinds the first regards a body or collection of simple natures in gold for example the following properties meet it is yellow in color heavy up to a certain weight malleable or ductile to a certain degree of extension it is not volatile and loses none of its substance by the action of fire it turns into a liquid with a certain degree of fluidity it is separated and dissolved in particular means and so on for the other natures which meet in gold this kind of axiom therefore deduces a thing from the forms of simple nature for he who knows the forms of yellow weight, ductility, fixity fluidity, solution and so on and the methods for super inducing them and their gradations and modes will make it his care to have them join together in some body whence may follow the transformation of that body into gold and this kind of operation pertains to the first kind of action for the principle of generating someone simple nature is the same as that of generating many only that a man is more fettered and tied down in operation if more are required by reason of the difficulty of combining into one so many natures which do not readily meet except in the beaten ordinary paths of nature it must be said however that this mode of operation which looks too simple natures though in a compound body proceeds from what in nature is constant and eternal and universal and opens broad roads to human power such as in the present state of things human thought can scarcely comprehend or anticipate the second kind of axiom which is concerned with the discovery of the latent process proceeds not by simple natures but by compound bodies as they are found in nature in its ordinary course as for instance when inquiry is made from what beginnings and by what method and by what process gold or any other metal or stone is generated from its first minstra and rudiments up to the perfect mineral or in like manner by what process herbs are generated from the first concretion of juices in the ground or from seeds up to the formed plant with all the successive motions and diverse and continued efforts of nature so also in the inquiry concerning the process of development in the generation of animals from cohesion to birth and in like manner of other bodies it is not however only to the generation of bodies that this investigation extends but also to other motions and operations of nature as for instance when inquiry is made concerning the whole course and continued action of nutrition from the first reception of the food to its complete assimilation or again concerning the voluntary motion of animals from the first impression on the imagination and the continued efforts of the spirit up to the bendings and movements of the limbs or concerning the motion of the tongue and lips and other instruments and the change for which it passes till it comes to the utterance of articulate sounds for these inquiries also relate to nature's concrete or combined into one structure and have regard to what may be called particular and special habits of nature not to her fundamental and universal laws which constitute forms and yet it must be confessed that this plan appears to be readier and to lie nearer at hand and to give more ground for hope than the primary one in like manner the appetite which answers to this speculative part starting from the ordinary incidents of nature extends its operation to things immediately adjoining or at least not far removed whether found in radical operations on nature they depend entirely on the primary axioms and in those things too where man has no means of operating but only of knowing as in the heavenly bodies for these he cannot operate upon or change or transform the investigation of the fact itself or truth of the thing no less than the knowledge of the causes and consents must come from those primary and Catholic axioms concerning simple natures such as a nature of spontaneous rotation of attraction or magnetism and of many others which are of a more general form than the heavenly bodies themselves for let no one hope to decide the question whether it is the earth or heaven that really revolves in the durnal motion until he has first understood the nature of spontaneous rotation 6 but this latent process of which I speak is quite another thing than men preoccupied as their minds now are will easily conceive for what I understand by it is not certain measures or signs or successive steps of process in bodies which can be seen but a process perfectly continuous which for the most part escapes the sense for instance in all generation and transformation of bodies we must inquire what is lost and escapes what remains, what is added what is expanded, what contracted what is united, what separated what is continued what cut off what propels, what hinders what predominates what yields and a variety of other particulars again not only in the generation or transformation of bodies are these points to be ascertained but also in all other alterations and motions it should in like manner be inquired what goes before what comes after what is quicker what more tardy what produces, what governs motion and like points all which nevertheless in the present state of the sciences which is as rude as possible and good for nothing are unknown and unhandled for seeing that every natural action depends on things infinitely small or at least too small to strike the sense no one can hope to govern or change nature until he has duly comprehended and observed them seven in like manner the investigation and discovery of the latent configuration in bodies is a new thing no less than the discovery of the latent process and of the form for as yet we are but lingering in the outer courts of nature nor are we preparing ourselves away into our inner chambers yet no one can endow a given body with a new nature or successfully an aptly transmuted into a new body unless he has attained a competent knowledge of the body so to be altered or transformed otherwise he will run into methods which if not useless are at any rate difficult and perverse and unsuitable to the nature of the body on which he is operating it is clear therefore that to this also a way must be opened and laid out and it is true that upon the anatomy of organized bodies as of man and animals some pains have been well bestowed and with good effect the subtle thing it seems to be and a good scrutiny of nature yet this kind of anatomy is subject to sight and sense and has place only in organized bodies and besides it is a thing obvious and easy when compared with the true anatomy of the latent configuration in bodies which are thought to be of uniform structure especially in things and their parts that have a specific character as iron, stone and again in parts of uniform structure in plants and animals as the root, the leaf, the flower flesh, blood and bones but even in this kind human industry has not been altogether wanting for this is the very thing aimed at in the separation of bodies of uniform structure by means of distillations and other modes of analysis that the complex structure of the compound may be made apparent by bringing together its several homogenous parts and this is of use too and conduces to the object we are seeking although too often fallacious in its results because many natures which are in fact newly brought out and super induced by fire and heat and other modes of solution are taken to be the effect of separation merely and to have subsisted in the compound before and after all this is but a small part of the work of discovering the true configuration in the compound body which configuration is a thing far more subtle and exact and such as the operation of fire rather confirms then brings out and makes distinct therefore a separation and solution of bodies expected not by fire indeed but by reasoning and true induction with experiments to aid and by a comparison with other bodies and a reduction to simple natures and their forms which meet and mix in the compound in a word we must pass from Vulcan to Minerva if we intend to bring to light the true textures and configurations of bodies to which all the occult and as they are called specific properties and virtues of things depend and from which to the rule of every powerful alteration and transformation is derived for example we must inquire what amount of spirit there is in every body what of tangible essence and of the spirit whether it be copious or target whether it be fine or coarse akin to air or to fire brisk or sluggish weak or strong progressive or retrograde interrupted or continuous agreeing with external and surrounding objects or disagreeing etc in like manner we must inquire into the tangible essence which admits of no fewer differences than the spirit into its coats its fibers, its kinds of texture moreover the disposition of the spirit through the corporeal frame with its pores, passages, veins and cells and the rudiments or first essays of the organized body falls under the same investigation but on these inquiries also and I may say on all the discovery of the latent configuration a true and clear light is shared by the primary axioms which entirely dispels darkness and subtlety nor shall we thus be led to the doctrine of atoms which implies the hypothesis of a vacuum and that of the unchangeableness of matter both false assumptions we shall be led only to real particles such as really exist nor again is there any reason to be alarmed at the subtlety of the investigation as if it could not be disentangled on the contrary the nearer it approaches to simple natures the easier and planer will everything become the business being transferred from the complicated to the simple from the incommensurable to the commensurable from surge to rational quantities from the infinite and vague to the finite and certain as in the case of the letters of the alphabet and the notes of music and inquiries into nature have the best result when they begin with physics and end in mathematics again let no one be afraid of high numbers or minute fractions for in dealing with numbers it is as easy to set down or conceive a thousand as one or the thousandth part of an integer as an integer itself 9 from the two kinds of axioms which have been spoken of arises a just division of philosophy and the sciences taking the received terms which come nearest to express the thing in a sense agreeable to my own views thus let the investigation of forms which are in the eye of reason at least and in their essential law eternal and immutable constitute metaphysics and let the investigation of the deficient cause and of matter and of the latent process and the latent configuration all of which have reference to the common and ordinary course of nature not to her eternal and fundamental laws constitute physics and to these let there be subordinate to practical divisions to physics, mechanics to metaphysics or a sense of the word I call magic on account of the broadness of the ways it moves in and its greater command over nature 10 having thus set up the mark of knowledge we must go on to precepts and that in the most direct and obvious order now my directions for the interpretation of nature embrace two generic divisions the one how to induce inform axioms from experience the other how to deduce and derive new experiments from axioms the former again is divided into three administrations administration to the sense administration to the memory and administration to the mind or reason for first of all we must prepare a natural and experimental history sufficient and good and this is the foundation of all for we are not to imagine those but to discover what nature does or may be made to do but natural experimental history is so various and diffuse that it confounds and distracts the understanding unless it be ranged and presented to view in a suitable order we must therefore form tables and arrangements of instances in such a method in order that the understanding may be able to deal with them and even when this is done still the understanding if left to itself and its own spontaneous movements is incompetent and unfit to form axioms unless it be directed and guarded therefore in the third place we must use induction true and legitimate induction which is the very key of interpretation but of this which is the last I must speak first and then go back to the other ministrations end of aphorisms 1 to 10 of book 2 recorded by Craig Campbell in Appleton, Wisconsin in 2009 aphorisms 11 to 12 of book 2 of the new organon this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the new organon by Francis Bacon translated by James Spedding Robert Leslie Ellis and Douglas Denon Heath aphorisms 11 to 12 of book 2 11 the investigation of forms proceeds thus a nature being given we must first of all have a muster or presentation before the understanding of all known instances which agree in the same nature though in substances the most unlike and such collections must be made in the manner of a history without premature speculation or any great amount of subtlety for example let the investigation be into the form of heat instances agreeing in the nature of heat 1 of the sun especially in summer and at noon 2 the rays of the sun reflected and condensed as between mountains or on walls and most of all in burning glasses and mirrors 3 fiery meteors 4 burning thunderbolts 5 eruptions of flame from the cavities of mountains 6 flame 7 ignited solids 8 natural warm baths 9 liquids boiling or heated 10 hot vapors and fumes and the air itself which conceives the most powerful and glowing heat if confined as in reverberatory furnaces 11 certain seasons that are fine and cloudless by the constitution of the air itself without regard to the time of year 12 air confined and underground in some caverns especially in winter 13 obvious substances as wool, skins of animals and down at birds have heat 14 all bodies whether solid or liquid, whether dense or rare as the air itself is held for a time near the fire 15 sparks struck from flint and steel by strong percussion 16 all bodies rubbed violently as stone, wood, cloth, etc. in so much that poles and axels of wheels sometimes catch fire and the way they kindled fire in the West Indies was by attrition 17 green and moist vegetables confined and bruised together as roses packed in baskets in so much that hey if damp when stacked often catches fire 18 quick lime sprinkled with water 19 iron when first dissolved by strong waters and glass and that without being put near the fire and in like manner tin, etc. but not with equal intensity 20 animals especially and at all times internally though in insects the heat is not perceptible to the touch by reason of the smallness of their size 21 horse dung and like excrements of animals when fresh 22 strong oil of sulfur and a vitriol has the effect of heating in burning linen 23 oil of marjoram and similar oils have the effect of heat in burning the bones of the teeth 24 strong and well rectified spirit of wine has the effect of heat in so much that the white of an egg being put into it hardens and whitens almost as if it were boiled and bread thrown in becomes dry and crusted like toast 25 aromatic and hot herbs as nasturtium, vitus, etc. although not warm to the hand either whole or in powder yet to the tongue and palate being a little masticated they feel hot and burning 26 strong vinegar and all acid on all parts of the body where there is no epidermis tongue or any other part when wounded and laid bare of the skin produce a pain but little difference from that which is created by heat. 27 even keen and intense cold produces a kind of sensation of burning necbori penetribofrigus adruit nor burns a sharp cold of the northern blast 28 other instances 12 secondly we must make a presentation to the understanding of instances in which the given nature is wanting because the form as stated above ought no less to be absent when the given nature is absent than present when it is present but to note all these would be endless then negative should therefore be subjoined to the affirmatives and the absence of the given nature inquired of in those subjects only that are most akin to the others in which it is present and forthcoming this I call the table of deviation or of absence in proximity instances in proximity where the nature of heat is absent answering to the first affirmative instance 1. the rays of the moon and of stars and comets are not found to be hot to the touch indeed the severest colds are observed to be at the full moons the larger fixed stars however when past were approached by the sun are supposed to increase and give intensity to the heat of the sun as is the case when the sun is in the sign leal and in the dog days to the second 2. the rays of the sun in what is called the middle region give heat for which there is commonly a sign not a bad reason this that the region is neither near enough to the body of the sun from which the rays emanate nor to the earth from which they are reflected and this appears from the fact that on the tops of mountains unless they are very high there is perpetual snow on the other hand it has been observed that on the peak of Tenerife on the Andes of Peru the very tops of the mountains are free from snow which lies only somewhat lower down moreover the air itself at the very top is found to be by no means cold and only rare and keen in so much that on the Andes it pricks and hurts the eyes by its excessive keenness and also irritates the mouth of the stomach producing vomiting the rarity of the air was such that those who ascended it had to carry sponges with them dipped in vinegar and water and to apply them from time to time to the mouth and nose the air being from its rarity not sufficient to support respiration and it was further stated that on this summit the air was so serene and so free from rain and snow and wind that letters traced by the finger in the ashes of the sacrifices on the altar of Jupiter remain there still the next year without being at all disturbed and at this day travelers ascending to the top of the peak of Tenerife make the ascent by night and not by day and soon after the rising of the sun are warmed and urged by their guise to come down without delay on account of the danger they run lest the animal spirit should swoon and be suffocated by the territory of the air to the second the reflection of the rays of the sun in regions near the polar circles is found to be very weak and ineffective in producing heat in so much that the Dutch who wintered in Nova Zembla and expected their ship to be freed from the obstructions of the mass of ice which hammed her in by the beginning of July were disappointed in their expectation and obliged to take their boat thus the direct rays of the sun seem to have but little power even on the level ground nor have the reflex much unless they are multiplied and combined which is the case when the sun tends more to the perpendicular for then the incident rays make acute angles so that the lines of the rays are nearer to each other whereas on the contrary when the sun shines very obliquely the angles are very obtuse and thus the lines of rays are very distant from each other meanwhile it should be observed that there may be many operations of the sun and those too depending on the nature of heat which are not proportioned to our touch so that in respect to us their action does not go so far as to produce sensible work but in every respect to some other bodies they have the effect of heat 4. Try the following experiment Take a glass fashioned in the contrary manner to a common burning glass and place it between your hand and the rays of the sun Observe whether it diminishes the heat of the sun as a burning glass increases and strengthens it for it is evident in the case of optical rays that according as the glasses made thicker or thinner in the middle as compared with the sides so do the objects seen through it that appear more spread or more contracted Observe therefore whether the same is the case with heat 2. The second 5. Let the experiment be carefully tried whether by means of the most powerful and best constructed burning glasses the rays of the moon can be so caught and collected as to produce even the last degree of warmth but should this degree of warmth prove too subtle and weak and apprehended by the touch recourse must be had to those glasses which indicate the state of the atmosphere in respect to heat and core thus let the rays of the moon fall through a burning glass on the top of a glass of this kind and then observe whether there ensues the sinking of the water through warmth to the second 6. Let the burning glass also be tried with the heat that does not emit rays or light as that of iron or stone heated but not ignited boiling water and the like and observe whether there ensues an increase of the heat as in the case of the sun's rays to the second 7. Let a burning glass also be tried with common flame to the second 8. Commons if we are to reckon these two among meteors are not found to exert a constant or manifest effect in increasing the heat of the season though it is observed that they are often followed by drugs moreover bright beams and pillars and openings in the heavens appear more frequently in winter than in summertime and chiefly during the intensest cold but always accompanied by dry weather lightning however and coruscations and thunder seldom occur in the winter but about the time of great heat falling stars as they are called are commonly supposed to consist rather of some bright and lighted viscous substance than to be of any strong fiery nature but on this point let further inquiry be made to the third 9. there are certain coruscations which give light but do not burn and they always come without thunder to the fourth eruptions and eruptions of flame are found no less in cold than in warm countries as in Iceland and Greenland in cold countries too the trees are in many cases more inflamable and more pitchy and resinous than in warm as the fur, pine and others the situations however in the nature of the soil in which eruptions of this kind usually occur have not then carefully enough ascertained to enable us to subjoin a negative to this affirmative instance to the fifth 11. all flame is in all cases more or less warm nor is there any negative to be subjoined and yet they say that eagerness foscious which it is called which sometimes even settles on a wall has not much heat perhaps as much as a flame of spirit of wine which is mild and soft but still milder must the flame be which according to certain grave and trustworthy histories have been seen shining about the head in locks of boys and girls without at all burning the hair but softly playing around it it is also more certain that about a horse when sweating on the road there is sometimes seen at night and in clear weather a sort of luminous appearance without any manifest heat and it is a well known fact three years ago a girl's stomach on being slightly shaken or rub emitted sparks which was caused perhaps by some alum or salts used in the dye that stood somewhat thick and formed a crust and were broken by the friction it is also most certain that all sugar whether refined or raw provided only it be somewhat hard sparkles when broken or scrape with a knife in the dark sea and salt water is sometimes found to sparkle by night when struck violently by oars and in storms too at night time the foam of the sea when violently agitated emit sparks and the sparkling the Spaniards call sea long with regard to the heat of the flame which was called by ancient sailors castor and Pollux and by modern St. Elmo's fire no sufficient investigation there has been made to the sixth twelve everybody ignited so as to turn to a fiery red even if unaccompanied by flame is always hot neither is there any negative to be subjoined to this affirmative but that which comes nearest seems to be rotten wood which shines by night and yet is not found to be hot and the putrefying scales of fish shine in the dark and yet are not warm to the touch nor again is the body of the glowworm or the fly called Luciola found to be warm to the touch to the seventh thirteen in what situation and kind of soil warm baths usually spring has not been sufficiently examined and therefore no negative is subjoined to the eighth fourteen to warm liquids I subjoined the negative instance of liquid itself in its natural state for we find no tangible liquid which is warm in its own nature and remains so constantly but the warmth is of an aventicious nature super induced only for the time being so that the liquids which in power and operation are hottest a spirit of wine, chemical oil of spices oil of vitriol and sulfur and the like, which burn after a while are at first cold to the touch the water of natural warm baths on the other hand if received into a vessel and separated from its springs cools just like water that has been heated on a fire but it is true that oily substances are less cold to the touch than watery while being less cold than water and silk than linen but this belongs to the table of degrees of cold to the ninth fifteen in like manner to hot vapor I subjoined as a negative the nature of vapor itself such as we find it with us for exhalations from oily substances though easily inflamable are yet not found to be warm unless newly exhaled from the warm body to the tenth sixteen in like manner I subjoined the negative too hot air the nature of air itself for we do not find here any air that is warm unless it has either been confined or compressed or manifestly warmed by the sun, fire or some other warm substance to the eleventh seventeen I here subjoined the negative of colder weather than is suitable to the season of the year which we find occurs during east and north winds just as we have weather of the opposite kind with the south and west winds so a tendency to rain especially in wintertime companies warm weather while frost accompanies cold to the twelfth eighteen here I subjoined the negative of air confined in caverns during the summer but the subject of air in confinement should by all means be more urgently examined for in the first place it may well be a matter of doubt what is the nature of air in itself with regard to heat and cold for air manifestly receives warmth from the influence of the heavenly bodies and cold perhaps from the exhalations of the earth and again in the middle region of the air as it is called from cold vapors and snow so that no opinion can be formed as to the nature from the examination of air that is at large and exposed but a truer judgment might be made by examining it when confined it is however necessary for the air to be confined in a vessel of such material as will not itself communicate warmth or cold to the air by its own nature nor readily admit the influence of the outer atmosphere let the experiment therefore be made in an earthen jar wrapped round with many folds of leather to protect it from the outward air and let the vessel remain tightly closed for three or four days then open the vessel and test the degree of heat or cold by applying either the hand or a graduated glass to the 13th 19th in like manner doubt suggests itself whether the warmth and wool, skins, feathers like proceeds from a faint degree of heat inherent in them as being excretions from animals or from a certain fat and oiliness which is of a nature akin to warmth or simply as surmised from the preceding article from the confinement and separation of the air for all air that is cut off from connection with the outer air seems to have some warmth try the experiment therefore with fibrous substances not of wool, feathers or silk which are excretions from animals it should also be observed that all powders in which there is manifestly air enclosed are less cold than the whole substance they are made from as like I suppose that all froth as that which contains air is less cold than the liquor it comes from to the 14th 20th negative is subjoined for there is nothing found among us either tangible or spiritual which does not contract warmth when put near fire there is this difference however that some substances contract warmth more quickly as air, oil and water others more slowly like stone and metal but this belongs to the table of degrees to the 15th 21 for instance I subjoined no negative except that I would have it well observed that sparks are produced from flint and steel or any other hard substance only when certain minute particles are struck off from the substance of the stone or metal and that the attrition of the air does not of itself ever produce sparks as is commonly supposed and the sparks themselves too owing to the weight of the ignited body they are rather downwards than upwards and ongoing out become a tangible sooty substance to the 16th 22 there is no negative I think to be subjoined to this instance for we find among us no tangible body which does not manifestly gain warmth by attrition in so much that the ancient fancied that the heavenly bodies had no other means of power by the attrition of the air in their rapid and hurried revolution but on this subject we must further inquire whether bodies discharged from engines as balls from cannons do not acquire some degree of heat from the very percussion so as to be found somewhat warm when they fall air in motion however rather chills and warms as appears from wind bellows and blowing with the mouth contracted the motion of this kind is not so rapid as to excite heat and is the motion of a mass and not of particles so that it is no wonder if it does not generate heat to the 17th 23 on this instance should be made more diligent inquiry for herbs and vegetables when green and moist seem to contain some latent heat though so slight that it is not perceptible but only when they are collected and shut up together so that their spirits may not breathe out into the air but may mutually cherish each other whereupon there arises a palpable heat and sometimes flame in suitable matter to the 18th 24 on this instance too should be made more diligent inquiry for quick lime sprinkled with water seems to contract heat either by the concentration of heat before dispersed as in the above mentioned case of confined herbs or because the igneous spirit is irritated and exasperated by the water so as to cause a conflict and reaction which of these two is the real cause will more readily appear if oil be poured on instead of water for oil will serve equally well with water to concentrate the enclosed spirits which are generated we should also extend the experiment both by employing the ashes and rusts of different bodies and by pouring in different liquids to the 19th 25 to this instance is subjoined the negative of other materials which are softer and more fusible for gold leaf dissolved by aqua regia gives no heat to the touch no more does lead to dissolved in aqua fortis neither again does quick silver as I remember but silver itself does in copper too as I remember tin still more manifestly and most of all iron and steel which not only excite a strong heat in dissolution but also a violent ebullition it appears therefore that the heat is produced by conflict the strong waters penetrating digging into and tearing asunder the parts of the substance while the substance itself resists but where the substances yield more easily there is hardly any heat excited to the 20th 26 to the heat of animals no negative is subjoined except that of insects as above mentioned on account of their small size for in fishes as compared with land animals it is rather a low degree than an absence of heat that is noted but in vegetables and plants there is no degree of heat perceptible to the touch either in their excitations or in their pit when freshly exposed in animals however is found a great diversity of heat both in their parts there being different degrees of heat about the heart in the brain and on the skin and in their accident as violent exercise and fevers to the 21st 27 to this instance it is hard to subjoin a negative indeed the excrements of animals when no longer fresh have manifestly a potential heat as is seen in the enriching of soil to the 24th 28 liquids whether waters or oils which possess a great and intense acridity act like heat in tearing asunder bodies and burning them after some time yet to the touch they are not hot at first but their operation is relative and according to the porosity of the body to which they are applied for aqua reje dissolves gold but not silver aqua fortis dissolves silver but not gold neither dissolves glass and so on with others to the 22nd and 23rd 29 let trial be made of spirit of wine on wood and also on butter wax or pitch and observe whether by its heat in any degree melts them for the 24th instance exhibits a power in it that resembles heat and producing in crustacean in like manner therefore try its power in producing liquefaction let trial also be made with a graduated or a calendar glass hollow at the top pouring into the hollow spirit of wine well rectified covered up that the spirit may better retain its heat and observe whether by its heat it makes the water sink to the 25th 30 spices an acrid herb strike hot on the palate and much hotter on the stomach observe therefore on what other substances they produce the effects of heat sailors tell us that when large parcels and masses of spices are after being long kept close suddenly opened those who first stir and take them out run the risk of fever and inflammation it can also be tried whether set spices and herbs when pounded would not dry bacon and meat hung over them as smoke does to the 26th 31 there is an acridity or pungency both in cold things as vinegar and oil of vitria and in hot as oil in margarine and the like both alike therefore cause pain inanimate substances and terrace under and consume the parts in such as are inanimate to this instance again there is no negative subjoint moreover we find no pain in animals save with a certain sensation of heat to the 27th 32 there are many actions common both to heat and cold though in a very different manner for boys find that snow after a while seems to burn their hands and cold preserves the meat from putrification no less than fire and heat contracts bodies which cold does also but these and similar instances may more conveniently be referred to the inquiry concerning cold and of aphorisms 11 to 12 of book 2 recorded by Craig Campbell in Appleton Wisconsin in 2009