Passing from these objections to the uses of natural history, they are explained by Lord Bacon in the treatise De Augmentis1 and in the Novum Organum.-In the treatise De Augmentis, the subject of Natural History is thus exhibited.

1. As to the Subject of History.

1. Of Nature in Course.

1. Of Celestial Bodies.

2. Of the Region of the Air.

3. Of the Earth and Water.

4. Of the Elements or Genera.

5. Of the Species.

2. Of Nature wandering or Marvails.

3. Of Arts.

II. As to its use.

1. In the Knowledge or History Narrative.

2. In being the primitive matter of Philosophy, which he says is defective, and to supply this defect, to discover the properties of creatures and to impose names, the occupation of Adam in Paradise, his tables of invention are constructed in the Novum Organum with the admonition "That all partitions of knowledges be accepted rather for lines and veins, than for sections and separations; and that the continuance and entireness of knowledge be preserved." "The sciences being the pyramids supported by history upon experience as their only and true basis; and so the basis of natural philosophy is natural history; the stage next the basis is physic; the stage next the vertical point is metaphysic: as for the cone and vertical point itself (opus quod operatur Deus a principio usque ad finem;' the summary law of nature) we do justly doubt, whether man's inquiry can attain unto it. But these three be the true stages of sciences; and are, to men swelled up with their own knowledge, and a daring insolence to invade heaven, like the three hills of the giants

"Ter sunt conati imponere Pelion Ossæ,

Scilicet atque Ossæ frondosum involvere Olympum."

Of this work there have been many editions: and there is an edition in Latin,3 published in Holland in 1648, and 1661; and at Frankfort in 1665.6

There are some observations upon the Sylva Sylvarum in Archbishop Tennison's work," which

There is considerable difference between the arrangement of this part in the Advancement and the De Augmentis. 2 There is scarcely a page of his works which does not contain an illustration of this union in all the parts of nature, and the injury to the advancement of knowledge from a supposition of their separation. In the Advancement of Learning he says: "We see Cicero the orator complained of Socrates and his school, that he was the first that separated philosophy and rhetoric; whereupon rhetoric became an empty and verbal art. So we may see that the opinion of Copernicus touching the rotation of the earth, which astronomy itself cannot correct, because it is not repugnant to any of the phenomena, yet natural philosophy may correct. So we see also that the science of medicine, if it be destituted and forsaken by natural philosophy, it is not much better than an empirical practice."

In the treatise De Augmentis, speaking of the mode in which the laws of the heavenly bodies would be discovered, and (if the anecdote respecting Newton and the falling apple is true) were discovered, he thus predicts, "Whoever shall reject the feigned divorces of superlunary and sublunary bodies; and shall intentively observe the appetencies of matter, and the most universal passions, (which in either globe are exceeding potent, and transverberate the universal nature of things,) he shall receive clear information concerning celestial matters from the things seen here with us! and contrariwise from those motions which are practised in heaven; he shall learn many observations which now are latent, touching the motions of bodies here below; not only so far as these inferior motions are moderated by superior, but in regard they have a mutual intercourse by passions common to them both."

And to the same effect, he says in another place: "We must openly profess that our hope of discovering the truth with regard to the celestial bodies, depends upon the observation of the common properties, or the passions and appetites of the matter of both states; for, as to the separation that is supposed betwixt the ethereal and sublunary bodies, it seems to me no more than a fiction, and a degree of superstition mixed with rashness, &c.-Our chiefest hope, and dependence in the consideration of the celestial bodies, is, therefore, placed in physical reason, though not such as are commonly so called; but those laws, which no diversity of place or region can abolish, break through, disturb, or alter."

And in the Novum Organum, "Suppose, for example, the inquiry about the nature of spontaneous rotation, attraction, and many other natures, which are more common and familiar to us than the celestial bodies themselves. And let no one expect to determine the question, whether the diurnal motion belongs to the heavens or the earth, unless he first understand the nature of spontaneous rotation."

As an instance of this union of nature, and of Bacon's tendency to generalize, see Articles 91, 92, 93, and above all, see his suggestions in the Novum Organum, respecting Magical Instances, or great effects produced from apparently small causes. See page 316 of the first volume. The correctness of the reasoning I am not now investigating; I am merely stating the fact as an illustration of the union between all nature, and of Bacon's facility in discovering this union.

I do not find this in any of the editions of Bacon's Works published in England. (12mo.) I have a copy, which is not scarce.

$ (12mo.) There is a copy in the British Museum.

Opera omnia, &c., Folio. Fran. 1665.

"The seventh and greatest branch of the Third Part of the Instauration, is his Sylva Sylvarum, or Natural History; which containeth many materials for the building of philosophy, as the Organum doth directions for the work. It is a history not only of nature freely moving in her course, (as in the production of meteors, plants, minerals;) but also of nature in constraint, and vexed and tortured by human art and experiment. And it is not a history of such things orderly

thus conclude, "Whilst I am speaking of this work of his lordship of Natural History, there comes to my mind a very memorable relation, reported by him who bare a part in it, the Rev. Dr. Rawley. One day, his lordship was dictating to that doctor some of the experiments in his Sylva. The same day, he had sent a friend to court, to receive for him a final answer, touching the effect of a grant which had been made him by King James. He had hitherto, only hope of it, and hope deferred; and he was desirous to know the event of the matter, and to be freed, one way or other, from the suspense of his thoughts. His friend returning, told him plainly, that he must thenceforth despair of that grant, how much soever his fortunes needed it. Be it so, said his lordship; and then he dismissed his friend very cheerfully, with thankful acknowledgments of his service. His friend being gone, he came straightway to Dr. Rawley, and said thus to him. Well sir! yon business wont go on; let us go on with this, for this is in our power. And then he dictated to him afresh, for some hours, without the least hesitancy of speech, or discernible interruption of thought."

ranged; but thrown into a heap. For his lordship, that he might not discourage other collectors, did not cast this book into exact method; for which reason it hath the less ornament, but not much the less use.

"In this book are contained experiments of light, and experiments of use, (as his lordship was wont to distinguish:) and amongst them some extraordinary, and others common. He understood that what was common in one country, might be a rarity in another: for which reason, Dr. Caius, when in Italy, thought it worth his pains to make a large and elegant description of our way of brewing. His lordship also knew well, that an experiment manifest to the vulgar, was a good ground for the wise to build further upon. And himself rendered common ones extraordinary, by admonitions for further trials and improvements. Hence his lordship took occasion to say, that his writing of Sylva Sylvarum, was (to speak properly) not a Natural History, but a high kind of natural magic: because it was not only a description of nature, but a breaking of nature into great and strange works.

"This book was written by his lordship in the English tongue, and translated by an obscure interpreter, into French, and out of that translation into Latin, by James Gruter, in such ill manner, that they darkened his lordship's sense, and debased his expression. James Gruter was sensible of his miscarriage, being kindly advertised of it by Dr. Rawley: and he left behind him divers amendments, published by his brother, Isaac Gruter, in a second edition. Yet still so many errors have escaped, that that work requireth a third hand.

"Monsieur Ælius Deodatus had once engaged an able person in the translation of this book; one who could have done his lordship right, and obliged such readers as understood not the English original. He began, and went through the three first centuries, and then desisted; being desired by him who set him on work, to take his hand quite off from that pen, with which he moved so slowly. His translation of the third century is now in my hands; but that of the two first 1 believe is lost." Archbishop Tennison then annexes some specimens of the translation.

A 2

SYLVA SYLVARU M.

TO THE READER.

HAVING had the honour to be continually with my lord in compiling of this work, and to be employed therein, I have thought it not amiss, with his lordship's good leave and liking, for the better satisfaction of those that shall read it, to make known somewhat of his lordship's intentions touching the ordering and publishing of the same. I have heard his lordship often say, that if he should have served the glory of his own name, he had been better not to have published this Natural History for it may seem an indigested heap of particulars, and cannot have that lustre, which books cast into methods have; but that he resolved to prefer the good of men, and that which might best secure it, before any thing that might have relation to himself. And he knew well, that there was no other way open to unloose men's minds, being bound, and, as it were, maleficiate, by the charms of deceiving notions and theories, and thereby made impotent for generation of works, but only no where to depart from the sense, and clear experience, but to keep close to it, especially in the beginning: besides, this Natural History was a debt of his, being designed and set down for a third part of the Instauration. I have also heard his lordship discourse that men, no doubt, will think many of the experiments contained in this collection, to be vulgar and trivial, mean and sordid, curious and fruitless: and therefore, he wisheth that they would have perpetually before their eyes what is now in doing, and the difference between this Natural History and others. For those Natural Histories which are extant, being gathered for delight and use, are full of pleasant descriptions and pictures, and affect and seek after admiration, rarities, and secrets. But, contrariwise, the scope which his lordship intendeth is, to write such a Natural History as may be fundamental to the erecting and building of a true philosophy, for the illumination of the understanding, the extracting of axioms, and the producing of many noble works and effects. For he hopeth by this means to acquit himself of that for which he taketh himself in a sort bound, and that is, the advancement of all learning and sciences. For, having in this present work collected the materials for the building, and in his Novum Organum, of which his lordship is yet to publish a second part, set down the instruments and directions for the work; men shall now be wanting to themselves, if they raise not knowledge to that perfection whereof the nature of mortal men is capable. And in this behalf, I have heard his lordship speak complainingly, that his lordship, who thinketh he deserveth to be an architect in this building, should be forced to be a workman, and a labourer, and to dig the clay, and burn the brick; and, more than that, according to the hard condition of the Israelites at the latter end, to gather the straw and stubble, over all the fields, to burn the bricks withal. For he knoweth, that except he do it, nothing will be done: men are so set to despise the means of their own good. And as for the baseness of many of the experiments; as long as they be God's works, they are honourable enough. And for the vulgarness of them, true axioms must be drawn from plain experience, and not from doubtful; and his lordship's course is to make wonders plain, and not plain things wonders; and that experience likewise must be broken and grinded, and not whole, or as it groweth. And for use; his lordship hath often in his mouth the two kinds of experiments; "experimenta fructifera," and "experimenta lucifera:" experiments of use, and experiments of light: and he reporteth himself, whether he were not a strange man, that should think that light hath no use, because it hath no matter. Further, his lordship thought good also to add unto many of the experiments themselves some gloss of the causes: that in the succeeding work of interpreting nature, and framing axioms, all things may be in more readiness. And for the causes herein by him assigned; his lordship persuadeth himself, they are far more certain than those that are rendered by others; not for any excellency of his own wit, as his lordship is wont to say, but in respect of his continual conversation with nature and experience. He did consider likewise, that by this addition of causes, men's minds, which make so much haste to find out the causes of things, would not think themselves utterly lost in a vast wood of experience, but stay upon these causes, such as they are, a little, till true axioms may be more fully discovered. I have heard his lordship say also, that one great reason, why he would not put these particulars into any exact method, though he that looketh attentively into them shall find that they have a secret order, was, because he conceived that

6

As for

other men would now think that they could do the like; and so go on with a further collection: which, if the method had been exact, many would have despaired to attain by imitation. his lordship's love of order, I can refer any man to his lordship's Latin book, De Augmentis Scientiarum; which, if my judgment be any thing, is written in the exactest order that I know any writing to be. I will conclude with a usual speech of his lordship's; That this work of his Natural History is the world as God made it, and not as men have made it; for that it hath nothing of imagination. W. RAWLEY.

This epistle is the same that should have been prefixed to this book, if his lordship had lived.

CENTURY I.

Experiments in consort, touching the straining and passing of bodies one through another; which they call Percolation.

the water through the vessels, it falleth. Now certain it is that this salter part of water, once salted throughout, goeth to the bottom. And therefore no marvel, if the draining of water by descent doth not make it fresh: besides, I do somewhat doubt, that the very dashing of the water, that cometh from the sea, is more proper to strike off the salt part, than where the water slideth of her own motion.

3. It seemeth percolation, or transmission, which is commonly called straining, is a good kind of separation, not only of thick from thin, and gross from fine, but of more subtile natures; and varieth according to the body through which the transmission is made: as if through a woollen bag, the liquor leaveth the fatness; if through sand, the saltness, &c. They speak of severing wine from water, passing it through ivy wood, or through other the like porous body; but "non constat." 4. The gum of trees, which we see to be commonly shining and clear, is but a fine passage or straining of the juice of the tree through the wood and bark. And in like manner, Cornish diamonds, and rock rubies, which are yet more resplendent than gums, are the fine exudations of stone.

DIG a pit upon the sea-shore, somewhat above the high-water mark, and sink it as deep as the low-water mark; and as the tide cometh in, it will fill with water, fresh and potable. This is commonly practised upon the coast of Barbary, where other fresh water is wanting. And Cæsar knew this well when he was besieged in Alexandria; for by digging of pits in the sea-shore, he did frustrate the laborious works of the enemies, which had turned the seawater upon the wells of Alexandria; and so saved his army, being then in desperation. But Cæsar mistook the cause, for he thought that all sea-sands had natural springs of fresh water: but it is plain, that it is the sea-water; becaus the pit filleth according to the measure of the tide; and seawater passing or straining through the sands, leaveth the saltness. 2. I remember to have read, that trial hath been made of salt-water passed through earth, through ten vessels, one within another; and yet it hath not lost its saltness, as to become potable: but the same man saith, that, by relation of another, salt-water drained through twenty vessels hath become fresh. This experiment seemeth to cross that other of pits made by the sea-side; and yet but in part, if it be true that twenty repetitions do the effect. But it is worth the note, how poor the imitations of nature are in common courses of experiments, except they be led by great judg-beasts; but that is manifestly untrue; for cattle are ment, and some good light of axioms. For first, there is no small difference between a passage of water through twenty small vessels, and through such a distance, as between the low-water and high-water mark. Secondly, there is a great difference between earth and sand; for all earth hath in it a kind of nitrous salt, from which sand is more free; and besides, earth doth not strain the water so finely as sand doth. But there is a third point, that I suspect as much or more than the other; and that is, that in the experiment of transmission of the sea-water into the pits, the water riseth; but in the experiment of transmission of

5. Aristotle giveth the cause, vainly, why the feathers of birds are more lively colours than the hairs of beasts; for no beast hath any fine azure, or carnation, or green hair. He saith, it is because birds are more in the beams of the sun than

more in the sun than birds, that live commonly in the woods, or in some covert. The true cause is, that the excrementitious moisture of living creatures, which maketh as well the feathers in birds, as the hair in beasts, passeth in birds through a finer and more delicate strainer than it doth in beasts: for feathers pass through quills; and hair through skin.

6. The clarifying of liquors by adhesion, is an inward percolation; and is effected, when some cleaving body is mixed and agitated with the liquors; whereby the grosser part of the liquor sticks to that cleaving body; and so the finer parts

12. This motion upon pressure, and the reci7. The clarifying of water is an experiment tend- procal thereof, which is motion upon tensure, we ing to health; besides the pleasure of the eye, use to call, by one common name, motion of liwhen water is crystalline. It is effected by cast-berty; which is, when any body, being forced to ing in and placing pebbles at the head of a cura preternatural extent or dimension, delivereth rent, that the water may strain through them.

and restoreth itself to the natural: as when a blown bladder pressed, riseth again; or when leather or cloth tentured, spring back. These two motions, of which there be infinite instances,. we shall handle in due place.

13. This motion upon pressure is excellently. also demonstrated in sounds; as when one chimeth upon a bell, it soundeth; but as soon as he layeth his hand upon it, the sound ceaseth: and. so the sound of a virginal string, as soon as the quill of the jack falleth from it, stoppeth. For

Experiments in consort, touching motion of bodies these sounds are produced by the subtile percus