— < Anetra. “. * &. ~~ ~ 3 \ t« ay he ce, ee * LORD BACON’S WORKS. VOLUME THE FOURTH. CONTAINING SYLVA SYLVARUM: OR, A NATURAL HISTORY. IN TEN CENTURIES. “a : e ‘. TEGO $C oT? VW " Uj our d Gig, Aercery lane Londen 1. ie wn Z Wy dk YQ : Meili py Y f | iid jes Yj Yi yuyu j pul’ f i ; y Y 3 W (gC MY Uy Hyg ] Uji ] ~S WY YY f Vansomer pint® THE WORKS OF | FRANCIS BACON, ' Bord Chancellor of England, A NEW EDITION: BY BASIL MONTAGU, ESQ. V OL. IV. ea E\-be car re | J [| 7 LONDON: “WILLIAM PICKERING. MDCCCXXVI, ~ Thomas. White, Printer, 11, Crane Court. TO THE READER. Havine 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 lord- ship’s good leave and liking, for the better satis- faction 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 V1 TO THE READER. 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 philosuphy, 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 TO THE READER. vii 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 fruc- tifera,” 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 per- suadeth 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 vill. TO THE READER. to say, but in respect of his continual conversation with nature, and experience. He did consider like- wise, 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 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. As for 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 an 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. AV a LY ~~ This epistle is the same, that should have been prefixed to this book, if his lordship had lived. CEES ‘THE TABLE OF CONTENTS. CENTURY If. Of Straining or Percolation, outward and inward - Of Motion upon Pressure - Of Separations of Bodies, liquid by weight - Of Infusions in water and air - - Of the Appetite of Continuation in Liquids - Of Artificial Springs - - Of the Venomous Quality of Man’ s Flesh - - Of Turning Air into Water - ‘ Of Helping or Altering the Shape of the Body - Of Condensing of Air, to yield Weight or Nogripgiarn Of Flame and AirCommixed~ - Of the Secret Nature of Flame - . - Of Flame, in the Midst, and on he Sides. - . Of Motion of Gravity - - Of Contraction of Bodies in Bak: F - Of Making Vines more Fruitfal - Of the Several Operations of Purging Medicines - Of Meats and Drinks most Nourishing - ; Of Medicines appliedin Order - - - Of Cure by Custom - . ~ : Of Cure by Excess - - - : Of Cure by Motion of Consent - " Of Cure of Diseases contrary to Predisposition - Of Preparation before and after Purging - - Of Stanching Blood - - - Of Change of Aliments and Medicines - - Of Diets” - ~ - Of Production of Cold - - Of Turning Air into Water Of Induration of Bodies - Of Preying of Air upon Water Of the Force of Union Of Making Feathers and Hairs of divers colours - x CONTENTS. Of Nourishment of Young Creatures in the Egg, or Womb - - : Of Sympathy and Antipathy - re Of the Spirits, or Pneumaticals in Bodies - Of the Power of Heat, - Of Impossibility of Annihilation, - CENTURY II. Of Music - - - Of the Nullity and Entity of Sounds - Of Production, Conservation, and Delation of Sounds Of Magnitude, Exility, and Damps of Sounds Of Loudness and Softness of Sounds - Of Communication of Sounds - - Of Equality and Inequality of Sounds - Of more Treble and Base Tones - Of Proportion of 'Treble and Base - Of Exterior and Interior Sounds - Of Articulation of Sounds - - CENTURY III. Of the Lines in which Sounds move - Ofthe Lasting and Perishing of Sounds = - Of the Passage in Interception of Sounds - Of the Medium of Sounds, - - Of the Figures of Bodies yielding Sounds Of Mixture of Sounds - Of Melioration of Sounds - - Of Imitation of Sounds “ - Of Reflection of Sounds - Of Consent and Dissent between Audibles and Visibles Of Sympathy and Antipathy of Sounds — - Of Hindering or Helping of Hearing - Of the Spiritual and Fine Nature of Sounds Of Orient Colours in Dissolutions of Metals Of Prolongation of Life ~ - Of the Appetite of Union in Bodies - Of the like Operations of Heat and Time Of the differing Operations of Fire and Time Of Motions by Imitation - - Of Infectious Diseases, - - Of the Incorporation of Powders and Liquors Of Exercise of the Body, and the Benefits or Evils thereof - - - Of Meats soon Glutting, or not Glutting - CONTENTS. xl CENTURY 1V. PAGE Of Clarification of Liquors, and the Acceleration there- of - - 150 Of Maturation, and the Accelerating thereof ; and of the Maturation of Drinks and Fruits - 154 Of Making Gold, - - - - 159 Of the Several Natures of Gold - - - 163 Of Inducing and Accelerating Putrefaction 5 te ib. Of Prohibiting and Preventing Putrefaction 4 ood OT Of Rotten Wood Shining - - - 171 Of Acceleration of Birth - - - 173 Of Acceleration of Growth and Stature - - 174 Of Bodies Sulphureous 1 Mercurial - - 175 Of the Chameleon - - . 177 Of Subterrany Fires ~ - - - 178 Of Nitrous Water - - - - ib. Of Congealing of Air - - - - ib. Of Congealing of Water into Crystal - * 180 Of Preserving the Smell and Colour in ast Leaves - 181 Of the Lasting of Flame - - ib. Of Infusions or Burials of Divers Bodie in Earth. 187 Of the Effects on Men’s Bodies from Saveral Winds 189 Of Winter and Summer Sicknesses - ib. Of Pestilential Years - - - - ib. Of Epidemical Diseases - - - 190. Of Preservation of Liquors in Wells, or deep Vaults ib. Of Stuffing - - - - ~ 19] Of Sweet Smells - - - 192 Of the Goodness and Choice of Waters - - 193 Of Temperate Heats under the Equinoctial - 196 Of the Coloration of Black and Tawny Moors - 197 Of Motion after the Instant of Death - - 197 2 CENTURY V. Of Accelerating or Hastening Forward Germination 202 Of Retarding or Putting Back Germination - (1. 0G Of Meliorating, or Making Better, Fruits, and Plants 209 Of Compound Fruits and Flowers - - - 226 Of Sympathy and Antipathy of Plants - ~ 228 Of Making Herbs and Fruits Medicinable - - 236 CENTURY VI. Of Curiosities about Fruits and Plants — - - 239 Of the Degenerating of Plants, and of their Transmu- tation one into another - - - 246 Xil CONTENTS. PAGE Of the Procerity and Lowness of ed and of Artificial Dwarfing them - - 252 Of the Rudiments of Plants, sad of the Excrescences of Plants, or Super-plants - - 253 Of Producing Perfect Plants without Seed - 262 Of Foreign Plants - - - 265 Of the Seasons of Several Plants - - 266 Of the Lasting of Plants > - 268 Of Several Figures of Plants - - 270 Of Some Principal Differences in Plants ~~ - 272 Of all Manner of Composts and Helps for Ground - 276 . CENTURY VII. Ofthe Affinities and Differences between oe and Bodies Inanimate ~ 280 Of Affinities and Differences Beneoh Blanes and Liv- ing Creatures, and of the Confiners and Partici- ples of both - - - - 282 Of Plants, Experiments Promiscuous = — 284 Of the Healing of Wounds - - ~ 352 Of Fat diffused in Flesh - - - ib. Of Ripening Drink speedily - - 353 Of Pilosity and Plumage - - ib. Of the Quickness of Motion in Birds “ 354 Of the Clearness of the Sea, the North Wind blowing ib, Of the Different Heats of Fire and Boiling Water —- 355 Of the Qualifications of Heat by pee . - ib. Of Yawning - - - 356 Of the Hiccough - - - - ib. Of Sneezing - - 357 Of the Tenderness of the Teeth - - , - ib. Of the Tongue ~ - s 358 Of the Mouth out of Taste - - : ib. Of some Prognostics of Pestilential Seasons - ib. Of Special Simples for Medicines . - 359 Of Venus - e - ~ - 360 Of the Insecta, or Creatures bred of Putrefaction - 362 Of Leaping s - 367 Of the Pleasures and Dicclennie of Hearing, and of the other Senses - - - - 368, CENTURY VIII. Of Veins of Earth Medicinal - - - 370 Of Spunges - - - - 1b.” Of Sea-fish in Fresh Waters - - - 371 Of Attraction by Similitude of Substance - . - ib. Of Certain Drinksin Turkey — - : - 372 OfSweat - © : - 7 Of the Glow-worm - Of the Impressions upon the Body from Several Pas sions of the Mind - - - “ Of Drunkenness - " Of the Hurt or Help of Wine, taken moderately - Of Caterpillars - | Of the Flies Cantharides - - Of Lassitude - Of Casting the Skin, and Shell, in some Creatures Of the Postures of the Body - - Of Pestilential years > Of Some Prognostics of Hard Winters - Of certain Medicines that Condense and Rarify the Of Cuttle Ink - Of Earth increasing in Weight Spirits - : ae Of Paintings of the Body - : “ Of the Use of Bathing and Anointing : . Of Chambletting of vices - “ Pe Of Sleep - Of Teeth, and Hard a nean in the Bodies of Living Creatures - Of the Generation, and Bearing of Living Gr aiure: in the Womb - ~ * Z Of Species Visible - - - Of Impulsion and Percussion’ - = Of Titillation S “ - Of Scarcity of Rain in Egypt - - Of Clarification ~ i wore Of Plants without Leaves - - Of the Materials of Glass Of Prohibition of Putrefaction, and the long Conser- vation of Bodies - - - - Of Abundance of Nitre in certain Sea-shores - Of Bodies borne up by Water - Of Fuel consuming little or nee Of Cheap Fuel - Of Gathering of Wind for Freshness Of Trials of Air - Of Increasing Milk in Milch Beasts Of Sand of the Nature of Glass - Of the Growth of Coral - - Of the Gathering of Manna - Of the Correcting of Wines s Of Bitumen, one of the Materials of Wild- fire = Of Plaster growing as hard as Marble _—_..:-- - Of the Cure of Ulcers and Hurts ee ive 1 “0 XIV CONTENTS. Ofthe Heahtitnces “on UnheslhAinese ot ie Southern Wind - Of Wounds Made with rate and with fon aoe Of Mortification by Cold = 2 i : Of Weight = ae . L Of Supernatation of Bodies - - - Of the Flying of Unequal Bodies in the Air - Of Water, that it may be the Medium of Sounds’ - Of the Flight of the Spirits upon Odious ee - Of the Super-reflection of Echos - Of the Force of Imagination Imitating that of ee Senses - - - Of Preservation of Bodies - - = Of the Growth or ‘Multiplying of Metals ~ Of the Drowning the more Base Metal in the more Precious - = - Of Fixation of Bodies - - Of the Restless Nature of Things in themselves, and their desire to Change — - - > CENTURY IX. Of Perception in Bodies Insensible, tending to Natu- ral Divination or Subtile Trials - - Ofthe Nature of Appetite in the Stomach - - Of Sweetness of Odour from the Rainbow Of Sweet Smells —- ~ - Of the Corporeal Substance of Smells - ‘ Of Fetid and Fragrant Odours - - Of the Causes of Putrefaction - _ “ Of Bodies unperfectly Mixed - - : Of Concoction and Crudity - - Of Alterations. which may be called Majora - _ Of Bodies Liquefiable, and not Liquefiable - Of Bodies Fragile and Tough — - - - Of the two kinds of Pneumaticals in Bodies - Of Concretion and Dissolution of Bodies - Of Bodies Hard and Soft - - - Of Ductile and Tensile - ~ Of Several Passions of Matter, and Characters of ~ Bodies - - - Of Induration by Sa - - - Of Honey and Sugar ~ - Of the Finer sort of Base Metals - . Of Certain Cements and Quarries - - Of the Altering of Colours in Hairs and Reathers - Of the Difference of Living Creatures,Male and Female Of the i cao Magnitude of Living Creatures - CONTENTS, Of Producing Fruit without CoreorStone — Of the Melioration of Tobacco - Of several Heats working the same Effects Of Swelling and Dilatation in Boiling - Of the Dulcoration of Fruits - - - Of Flesh Edible and not Edible - Of the Salamander - - Of ihe Contrary Operaian of Time on Fruits an Liquors - : Of Blows and Braises. - - Ofthe Orrice Root - . - Of the Compression of Liquors - Of the Nature of Air, Of theWorking of Water upon hes eis. fies Of the Eyes and Sight - Of the Colour of the Sea or other Water Of Shell-fish - - - Of the Right Side and the Left - A Of Frictions - Of Globes appearing Flat at Distance - Of Shadows - Of the Rolling and Breaking of the Seas - Of the Dulcoration of Salt Water Of the Return of Saltness in Pits upon the Sea- shore Of Attraction by Similitude of Substance - Of Attraction - - - Of Heat under Earth - - Of Flying in the Air - - Of the Scarlet Dye - - - Of Maleficiating - “ Of the Rise of Water by Means of Flame Of the Influences of the Moon, - Of Vinegar - Of Creatures that Sleep all Winter - Je ~ eee oe eS Of the Generating of Creatures By Copulation, and by Putrefaction ~ CENTURY X. Of the Transmission and Influx of Immateriate Ao iow, and the Force of Imagination Of the Transmission of. Seen and the Force of Imagination — - Of the Emission of Spirits in Vapour, or Wehalation, Odour-like ~ - - 489 495 Xvi CONTENTS. PAGE Of Emission of See Species which Affect the Senses é - 503 Of Emissions of Inutaierate vives. from the Minds and Spirits of Men, by Affections, ae hei or other Impressions - 504 Of the Secret Virtue of Sympathy and Antipathy . 517 Of Secret Virtues and Proprieties - 533 Of the General Sympathy of Men’s Spirits - - 534 roe 5 PREFACE. In the spring of 1626, Lord Bacon died. In the same year, Dr. Rawley, “his Lordship’s first and last “ chaplain,” as he always proudly entitles himself, col- lected and published the different poems which were written to the memory of his honored master *. In the year 1627, he published the Sylva Sylvarum, with an address to the reader, explaining the inten- tion of Lord Bacon in the compilation of this work, and the probable objections which might be made to the publication; that it was not methodical ; and that many of the experiments would be deemed vulgar and trivial. With respect to the want of method, although, to use the words of Dr. Rawley, ‘“‘ he that looketh “ attentively into the work, shall find that they have a “ secret order,” yet knowing as he did the charms of symmetry in arrangement and beauty of style, and the necessity of adopting them to insure an imme- diate and favourable reception of abstruse works, Lord Bacon was never misled by the love of order : he did not worship this idol ; but “as Hercules, when he * It is a small 8vo, of which there is a copy in the British Museum. VOL. Iv. b XVill PREFACE. “ saw the image of Adonis, Venus’ minion, in a temple, “ said in disdain, ‘ Nil sacri es;’ so there are none of «‘ Hercules’ followers in learning, that is, the more “severe and laborious sort of inquirers into truth, “ but will despise those delicacies and affectations, as “indeed capable of no divineness.”* “No man was, for his own sake, less attached to “ system or ornament than Lord Bacon. A plain un- “‘ adorned style in aphorisms, in which the Novum “ Organum is written, is, he invariably states, the “‘ proper style for philosophy. In the midst of his “‘ own arrangement, in the Advancement of Learning, “he says: ‘ The worst and most absurd sort of tri- “ flers are those who have pent the whole art into “strict methods and narrow systems, which men “¢ commonly cry up for the sake of their regularity ‘cand. style. Again he says: “ It is of great consequence to “ consider whether sciences should be delivered by “way of aphorism or of method. Methodical “delivery is more fit to win consent or belief; “but less fit to point to action; for they carry a “ shew of demonstration in orb or circle, one part “ illuminating another; and therefore do more “satisfy the understanding; but being that ac- ‘tions in common course of life are dispersed, “and not orderly digested, they do best agree with “dispersed directions. Lastly, aphorisms repre- “senting certain portions only, and as it were * See vol. II. of this work, 32. PREFACE. XIX * « fragments of sciences, invite others to contribute «and add something ; whereas methodical delivery “carrying shew of a total and perfect knowledge “ forthwith secureth men as if they were at the « furthest.” Again, “ science is much injured by the over “‘ early and peremptory reduction of knowledge into “arts and method; from which time commonly “ sciences receive smallor no augmentation. But as “ young men, when they knit and shape perfectly, “do seldom grow to a further stature; so know- “ ledge, while it is in aphorisms and observations, it “ is'in growth ; but when it once is comprehended in *¢ exact methods, it may perchance be further po- ‘lished and illustrated, and accommodated for use “and practice; but it increaseth no more in bulk “ and substance.” * Again: “ And as for the overmuch credit that “ hath been given unto authors in sciences, in making “ them dictators, that their words should stand, and ‘ not consuls, to give advice; the damage is infinite “that sciences have received thereby, as the prin- “cipal cause that hath kept them low, at a stay, “ without growth or advancement. For hence it “ hath come, that in arts mechanical the first devisor “ comes shortest, and time addeth and perfecteth ; “ but in sciences the first author goeth farthest, and “ time leeseth and corrupteth. So, we see, artillery, “ sailing, printing, and the like, were grossly ma- “naged at the first, and by time accommodated * Vol. IL. of this Work, 48, + Ibid. 203. XX - PREFACE. « and refined : but. contrariwise, the philosophies and « sciences of Aristotle, Plato, Democritus, Hippo- “ crates, Euclides, Archimedes, of most vigour at “the first, and by time degenerate and: imbased ; “ whereof the reason is no other, but that in the “ former many wits and industries have- contributed “in one; and in the latter many wits. and industries “ have been spent about the wit of some one, whom “ many times they have rather depraved than illus- “trated. For as water will not ascend higher than « the level of the first spring-head from whence it “ descendeth, so knowledge derived from Aristotle, “ and exempted from liberty of examination, will not “ rise again higher than the knowledge of Aristotle.” This was the reason why the Sylva Sylvarum was published in Aphorisms, as “ 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.” With respect to some of the experiments being vulgar and trivial, Lord Bacon says in the Novum Or- ganum*, “Quod vero ad rerum utilitatem attinet, vel “ etiam turpitudinem, quibus (ut ait Plinius) honos “ prefandus est; ez res, non minus quam latissime “et pretiosissime, in Historiam Naturalem recipi- “end sunt. Neque propterea polluitur Naturalis “ Historia: Sol enim eque palatia et cloacas ingre- “ ditur, neque tamen polluitur. Nos autem non « Capitolium aliquod aut Pyramidem hominum * Article 112. PREFACE. xxi _ superbie dedicamus aut condimus, sed Templum “ sanctum ad exemplar mundi in intellectu humano “fundamus. Itaque exemplar sequimur. Nam “ quicquid essentia dignum est, id etiam scientia « dignum; que est essentia imago. At vilia eque “ substitunt ac lauta. Quinetiam, ut é quibusdam “ putridis materiis, veluti Musco et Zibetho, ali- “ quando optimi odores generantur ; ita et ab instan- “tiis vilibus et sordidis, quandoque eximia lux et “ informatio emanat. Verum de hoc nimis multa; “ cum hoc genus fastidii sit plane puerile et effoemi- “ natum.”* And again, “ with relation to this contempt of “ natural history,on account of its containing things “ that are vulgar, ignoble, subtile, or useless in their _“ origins, we should here consider, as an oracle, the “ saying of the poor woman to the haughty prince, * « But for unpolite, or even sordid particulars, which as Pliny ‘¢ observes, require an apology for being mentioned; even these “‘ ought to be received into a Natural History, no less than the “« most rich and delicate; for Natural History is not defiled by “‘ them, any more than the sun, by shining alike upon the palace ‘* and the privy. And we donot endeavour to build a Capitol, or “erect a pyramid, to the glory of mankind; but to found a ‘temple, in imitation of the world, and consecrate it to the “ human understanding: so that we must frame our model ac- “cordingly. For whatever is worthy of existence, is worthy of “ our knowledge, which is the image of existence: but ignoble ** things exist, as well as the noble, Nay, as some excremen- “ titious matters, for example, musk, civet, &c. sometimes “‘ produce excellent odours; so sordid instances sometimes ‘“< afford great light and information. But enough of this; as ‘such a delicacy is perfectly childish and effeminate.” XXil PREFACE. “who rejected her petition as a thing below his “ dignity to take notice of ; then cease to reign; for “it is certain, that whoever will not attend to mat- “ters of this kind, as if they were too minute or “ trifling, shall never obtain command or rule over ‘* nature.” These two objections stated by Rawley were an- ticipated by Lord Bacon in the Novum Organum,* where he mentions a third objection which is, even at this day, repeatedly urged against the Sylva Sylva- rum. “Some” he says, ‘‘ without doubt, upon “reading our history and tables of invention, will “ meet with experiments not well verified, or even “ absolutely false, ; and may thence, perhaps, be apt “to suspect, that our inventions are built upon “doubtful principles, and erroneous foundations. “* But this is nothing : for such slips must necessarily “ happen in the beginning. It is but as if here and “ there a letter should be misplaced, or mistaken, in “a writing, or printed book; which does not, “ usually, much interrupt the reader: as such errors “are easily corrected, from the sense of the place. “In the same manner let men observe, that expe- “yiments may be falsely believed, and received in “natural history; and yet soon after be expunged “and rejected, when causes and axioms are disco- “vered. Though, it is true, that if there should “be many, and frequent, and continued errors, ‘in a natural and experimental history, they cannot * Article 119. : PREFACE. XXill « be corrected by any felicity of art or genius: and “ therefore, if in our Natural History, which is col- “ lected, and examined, with so much diligence, so “ rigorous, and, as it were, with so religious: a seve- “ rity, there should sometimes happen any falsity, or “ mistake, with regard to particulars; what must be “thought of the common Natural History, which in “ comparison of ours, is so negligent and remiss ; “ or, what of the philosophy, and the sciences, built “ upon such quicksands? Let no one, therefore, be “concerned, if our history has its errors.” And, in the Advancement of Learning, when treat- ing of credulity, he says “ the matter of manifest “ truth is not to be mingled or weakened with matter “of doubtful credit; and yet again, rarities and “reports that seem incredible are not to be sup- ‘pressed or denied to the memory of men.” From the slightest examination of this work it will appear that, not having such a collection of. natural history as he had measured out in his mind, which would have required the purse of a prince and the assistance of a people, Lord Bacon did the best in his power, trying all things but not believing all things, to. make such a collection as might render some assistance to future enquirers by pointing out the mode in which a natural history ought to be com- piled, without haste in the admission or rejection of received reports. “ The rejection,” he says, “ which I continually use, of experiments, though it appeareth not, is infinite ; but yet if an experiment be probable XXIV PRETACE, in the work, and of great use, I receive it, but deliver it as doubtful.” This, perhaps, will be illustrated by some of the articles in the tenth century of this work,* in his enquiry touching the “ transmission and influx of “ jmmateriate virtues and the force of imagination,” where he thus begins: “ The philosophy of Pytha- “ goras, which afterwards was, by the school of ‘« Plato and others, watered and nourished. It was, “ that the world was one entire perfect living crea- “creature; insomuch as Apollonius of Tyana, a “‘ Pythagorean prophet, affirmed, that the ebbing ** and flowing of the sea was the respiration of the “ world, drawing in water as breath, and putting it “ forth again. They went on, and inferred, that if “ the world were a living creature, it had a soul and “ spirit; which also they held, calling it spiritus “ mundi, the spirit or soul of the world: by which * they did not intend God, for they did admit of a “ Deity besides, but only the soul or essential form “of the universe.” . . . With these vast and * bottomless follies men have been in part enter- “ tained. “ But we, that hold firm to the works of God, “and to the sense, which is God’s lamp, lucerna Dei *‘ spiraculum hominis, will inquire with all sobriety ‘* and severity, whether there be to be found in the “ footsteps of nature, any such transmission and in- * See page 487. ¥ PREFACE. ; XXV “‘ flux of immateriate virtues; and what the force of “ imagination is ; either upon the body imaginant, or ‘upon another body ; wherein it will be like that “ labour of Hercules, in purging the stable of Au- “ geas, to separate from superstitious and magical *¢ arts and observations, any thing that is clean and “pure natural; and not to be either contemned or “* condemned.” In this spirit, mistaken for credulity, he says,* “the sympathy of individuals, that have been *‘ entire, or have touched, is of all others the most “incredible; yet according unto our faithful man- “ ner of examination of nature, we will make some “little mention of it. The taking away of warts, *« by rubbing them with somewhat that afterwards “ is put to waste and consume, is a common experi- * ment ; and I do apprehend it the rather because of “ my own experience. I had from my childhood a ** wart upon one of my fingers: afterwards, when I “‘ was about sixteen years old, being then at Paris, “there grew upon both my hands a number of “¢ warts, at the least an hundred, ina month’s space. “ The English ambassador’s lady, who was a woman “far from superstition, told me one day, she would - “help me away with my warts: whereupon she got “a piece of lard with the skin on, and rubbed the “ warts all over with the fat side; and amongst the “rest, that wart which I had had from my child- * Art. 997, page 530. - XXVi PREFACE. “hood: then she nailed the piece of lard, with the “fat towards the sun, upon a post of her chamber “ window, which was to the. south. The success ““was, that within five weeks’ space all the warts “went quite away: and that wart which I had so “Jong endured for company. But at the rest I did “little marvel, because they came in a short time, “and might go away in a short time again: but “the going away of that which had stayed so long “ doth yet stick with me.” Again,* “The relations touching the force of ‘‘ imagination, and the secret instincts of nature, are ‘so uncertain, as they require a great deal of exami- “ nation ere we conclude upon them. — I would have “it first thoroughly inquired, whether there be any “ secret passages of sympathy between persons of “ near blood, as parents, children, brothers, sisters, “ nurse-children, husbands, wives. &c. ‘There be “many reports in history, that upon the death of “ persons of such nearness, men have had an inward “ feeling of it. I myself remember, that being in “ Paris, and my father dying in London, two or “ three days before my father’s death, I hada dream, “ which I told to divers English gentlemen, that “my father’s house in the country Was plastered all “ over with black mortar. There is an opinion “abroad, whether idle or no I cannot say, that “loving and kind husbands have a sense of their * Art. 986, page 525. PREFACE. | XXVil “‘ wives breeding children, by some accident in their ‘* own body.”* Passing from these objections to the uses of natu- ral history, they are explained by Lord Bacon in the treatise De Augmentis} and in the Novum Orga- num.—In the treatise De Augmentis, the subject of Natural History is thus exhibited. I. As to the Subject or 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, * There are in different parts of the Sylva Sylvarum facts evincing Bacon’s life of mind, and faculty of generalizing from his earliest infancy. See Art. 946, p. 508, when his mind is at work upon the nature of imagination, most probably before he was 12 years old, when he quitted his father’s house for the university, from whence at 16, he went with Sir Amyas Paulet to Paris, and returned after his father’s death. See also Art. 151, page 91, when in Trinity College meditating upon the nature of sound. See also Art. 140, page 87, and 148 page 89, and Art. 248, page 127. + There is considerable difference between the arrangement of this part in the Advancement and the De Augmentis. Z XXVIil PREFACE. 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 * There is scarcely a page of his works which does not con- tain 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 natu ‘ral philosophy, it is not much better than an empirical prac-~ “ tice.” 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 “‘feioned 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 mo- PREFACE. XXLX supported by history upon experience: as their only “and true basis; and so the basis of natural: phi- “losophy is natural history; the stage next the “‘ tions 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 obser- ‘* vation of the common properties, or the passions and appe- “* tites of the matter of both states; for, as to the separation “ that is supposed betwixt the etherial and sublunary bodies, it ** seems to me no more than a fiction, and a degree of supersti- tion mixed with rashness, &c.—Our chiefest hope, and de- ‘pendence in the consideration of the celestial bodies, is, “¢ therefore, placed in physical: reasons, 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 ten- dency to generalize, see Articles 91, 92, 93, in page 56; and above all, see his suggestions in the Novum Organum, respect- ing Magical Instances, or great effects produced from appa- rently small causes. See note A. page 497 of vol. III. of this Work. The correctness of the reasoning [ am not now in- vestigating ; I am merely stating the fact as an illustration of the union between all nature, and of Bacon’s facility is discovering this union. XXX PREFACE. “ basis is physick ; the stage next the vertical point ‘48 metaphysick : 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 enquiry “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 Osse, « Scilicet atque Ossee frondosum involvere Olympum.” Of this work there have been many editions: and there is an edition in Latin* published in Holland in 1648+ and 1661 ;* and at Frankfort in 1665.$ There are some observations upon the Sylva Sylvarum in Archbishop Tennison’s work|| which * 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 philo- “sophy, as the Organum doth directions for the work. It ‘‘is an 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 an history of such things ‘orderly ranged; but thrown intoa 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 “ Jess ornament, but not much the less use. PREFACE. — XXxl ~ thus conclude, “ Whilst I am speaking of this work “ of his lordship of Natural History, there comes to “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 lius 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 under- “ stood 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 of 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 “ T believe is lost.” Archbishop Tennison then annexes some specimens of the translation. XXXil PREFACE. “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 sus- “ pense 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 dis- “ missed 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 won't goon; “let us go on with this, for this is in our power. «“ And then he dictated to him afresh, for some “hours, withont the least hesitancy of speech, or « discernible interruption of thought.” SYLy er -0