Novum organum · Francis Bacon
FOOTNOTES
Hence we may consider the form of any quality in body as something convertible with that quality, _i.e._, when it exists the quality is present, and _vice versâ_. In this sense, the form of a thing differs only from its efficient cause in being permanent, whereas we apply cause to that which exists in order of time. The _latens processus_ and _latens schematismus_ are subordinate to form, as concrete exemplifications of its essence. The former is the secret and invisible process by which change is effected, and involves the principle since called the law of continuity. Thus, the succession of events between the application of the match to the expulsion of the bullet is an instance of latent progress which we can now trace with some degree of accuracy. It also more directly refers to the operation by which one form or condition of being is induced upon another. For example, when the surface of iron becomes rusty, or when water is converted into steam, some change has taken place, or latent process from one form to another. Mechanics afford many exemplifications of the first latent process we have denoted, and chemistry of the second. The _latens schematismus_ is that visible structure of bodies on which so many of their properties depend. When we inquire into the constitution of crystals, and into the internal structure of plants, we are examining into their latent schematism.--_Ed._
“Ne tenues pluviæ, rapidive potentia solis Acrior, aut Boreæ penetrabile frigus adurat.” --Virg. Georg. i. 92, 93. [84] This notion, which he repeats again, and particularizes in the 18th aph. of this book, is borrowed from the ancients, and we need not say is as wise as their other astronomical conjectures. The sun also approaches stars quite as large in other quarters of the zodiac, when it looks down upon the earth through the murky clouds of winter. When that luminary is in Leo, the heat of the earth is certainly greater than at any other period, but this arises from the accumulation of heat after the solstice, for the same reason that the maximum heat of the day is at two o’clock instead of noon.--_Ed._ [85] Bouguer, employed by Louis XIV. in philosophical researches, ascended the Andes to discover the globular form of the earth, and published an account of his passage, which verifies the statement of Bacon. [86] Montanari asserts in his book against the astrologers that he had satisfied himself by numerous and oft-repeated experiments, that the lunar rays gathered to a focus produced a sensible degree of heat. Muschenbröck, however, adopts the opposite opinion, and asserts that himself, De la Hire, Villet, and Tschirnhausen had tried with that view the strongest burning-glasses in vain. (Opera de Igne.) De la Lande makes a similar confession in his Astronomy (vol. ii. vii. § 1413). Bouguer, whom we have just quoted, demonstrated that the light of the moon was 300,000 degrees less than that of the sun; it would consequently be necessary to invent a glass with an absorbing power 300,000 degrees greater than those ordinarily in use, to try the experiment Bacon speaks of.--_Ed._
But there is a species of collective instance which Bacon does not seem to have contemplated, in which particular phenomena are presented in such numbers at once, as to make the induction of their law a matter of ocular inspection. For example, the parabolic form assumed by a jet of water spouted out of a hole is a collective instance of the velocities and directions of the motions of all the particles which compose it seen together, and which thus leads us without trouble to recognize the law of the motion of a projectile. Again, the beautiful figures exhibited by sand strewed on regular plates of glass or metal set in vibration, are collective instances of an infinite number of points which remain at rest while the remainder of the plate vibrates, and in consequence afford us an insight into the law which regulates their arrangement and sequence throughout the whole surface. The richly colored lemniscates seen around the optic axis of crystals exposed to polarized light afford a striking instance of the same kind, pointing at once to the general mathematical expression of the law which regulates their production. Such collective instances as these lead us to a general law by an induction which offers itself spontaneously, and thus furnish advanced posts in philosophical exploration. The laws of Kepler, which Bacon ignored on account of his want of mathematical taste, may be cited as a collective instance. The first is, that the planets move in elliptical orbits, having the sun for their common focus. The second, that about this focus the _radius vector_ of each planet describes equal areas in equal times. The third, that the squares of the periodic times of the planets are as the cubes of their mean distance from the sun. This collective instance “opened the way” to the discovery of the Newtonian law of gravitation.--_Ed._
Crucial instances, as Herschel remarks, afford the readiest and securest means of eliminating extraneous causes, and deciding between the claims of rival hypotheses; especially when these, running parallel to each other, in the explanation of great classes of phenomena, at length come to be placed at issue upon a single fact. A curious example is given by M. Fresnel, as decisive in his mind of the question between the two great theories on the nature of light, which, since the time of Newton and Huyghens, have divided philosophers. When two very clean glasses are laid one on the other, if they be not perfectly flat, but one or both, in an almost imperceptible degree, convex or prominent, beautiful and vivid colors will be seen between them; and if these be viewed through a red glass, their appearance will be that of alternate dark and bright stripes. These stripes are formed between the two surfaces in apparent contact, and being applicable on both theories, are appealed to by their respective supporters as strong confirmatory facts; but there is a difference in one circumstance, according as one or other theory is employed to explain them. In the case of the Huyghenian theory, the intervals between the bright stripes ought to appear absolutely black, when a prism is used for the upper glass, in the other half bright. This curious case of difference was tried, as soon as the opposing consequences of the two theories were noted by M. Fresnel, and the result is stated by him to be decisive in favor of that theory which makes light to consist in the vibrations of an elastic medium.--_Ed._
This species of reasoning is liable to several paralogisms, against which Bacon has not guarded his readers, from the very fact that he stumbled into them unwittingly himself. The two principal ones are false exclusions and defective enumerations. Bacon, in his survey of the causes which are able to concur in producing the phenomena of the tides, takes no account of the periodic melting of the Polar ice, or the expansion of water by the solar heat; nor does he fare better in his exclusions. For the attraction of the planets and the progression and retrograde motion communicated by the earth’s diurnal revolution, can plainly affect the sea together, and have a simultaneous influence on its surface. Bacon is hardly just or consistent in his censure of Ramus; the end of whose dichotomy was only to render reasoning by dilemma, and crucial instances, more certain in their results, by reducing the divisions which composed their parts to two sets of contradictory propositions. The affirmative or negative of one would then necessarily have led to the acceptance or rejection of the other.--_Ed._ [136] Père Shenier first pointed out the spots on the sun’s disk, and by the marks which they afforded him, computed its revolution to be performed in twenty-five days and some hours.--_Ed._ [137] Rust is now well known to be a chemical combination of oxygen with the metal, and the metal when rusty acquires additional weight. His theory as to the generation of animals, is deduced from the erroneous notion of the possibility of spontaneous generation (as it was termed). See the next paragraph but one.
“Limus ut hic durescit, et hæc ut cera liquescit Uno eodemque igni.”--Virg. Ecl. viii. [139] See Table of Degrees, No. 38. [140] Riccati, and all modern physicists, discover some portion of light in every body, which seems to confirm the passage in Genesis that assigns to this substance priority in creation.--_Ed._ [141] As instances of this kind, which the progress of science since the time of Bacon affords, we may cite the air-pump and the barometer, for manifesting the weight and elasticity of air: the measurement of the velocity of light, by means of the occultation of Jupiter’s satellites and the aberration of the fixed stars: the experiments in electricity and galvanism, and in the greater part of pneumatic chemistry. In all these cases scientific facts are elicited, which sense could never have revealed to us.--_Ed._ [142] The itinerant instances, as well as frontier instances, are cases in which we are enabled to trace the general law of continuity which seems to pervade all nature, and which has been aptly embodied in the sentence, “natura non agit per saltum.” The pursuit of this law into phenomena where its application is not at first sight obvious, has opened a mine of physical discovery, and led us to perceive an intimate connection between facts which at first seemed hostile to each other. For example, the transparency of gold-leaf, which permits a bluish-green light to pass through it, is a frontier instance between transparent and opaque bodies, by exhibiting a body of the glass generally regarded the most opaque in nature, as still possessed of some slight degree of transparency. It thus proves that the quality of opacity is not a contrary or antagonistic quality to that of transparency, but only its extreme lowest degree.
In many cases the result of a number of particular facts, or the collective instances rising out of them, can only be discovered by geometry, which so far becomes necessary to complete the work of induction. For instance, in the case of optics, when light passes from one transparent medium to another, it is refracted, and the angle which the ray of incidence makes with the superficies which bounds the two media determines that which the refracted ray makes with the same superficies. Now, all experiment can do for us in this case is, to determine for any particular angle of incidence the corresponding angle of refraction. But with respect to the general rule which in every possible case deduces one of these angles from the other, or expresses the constant and invariable relation which subsists between them, experiment gives no direct information. Geometry must, consequently, be called in, which, when a constant though unknown relation subsists between two angles, or two variable qualities of any kind, and when an indefinite number of values of those quantities are assigned, furnishes infallible means of discovering that unknown relation either accurately or by approximation. In this way it has been found, when the two media remain the same, the cosines of the above-mentioned angles have a constant ratio to each other.
Hence, when the relations of the simple elements of phenomena are discovered to afford a general rule which will apply to any concrete case, the deductive method must be applied, and the elementary principles made through its agency to account for the laws of their more complex combinations. The reflection and refraction of light by the rain falling from a cloud opposite to the sun was thought, even before Newton’s day, to contain the _form_ of the rainbow. This philosopher transformed a probable conjecture into a certain fact when he deduced from the known laws of reflection and refraction the breadth of the colored arch, the diameter of the circle of which it is a part, and the relation of the latter to the place of the spectator and the sun. Doubt was at once silenced when there came out of his calculus a combination of the same laws of the simple elements of optics answering to the phenomena in nature.--_Ed._ [151] As far as this motion results from attraction and repulsion, it is only a simple consequence of the last two.--_Ed._ [152] These two cases are now resolved into the property of the capillary tubes and present only another feature of the law of attraction.--_Ed._ [153] This is one of the most useful practical methods in chemistry at the present day.
Punctuation errors were corrected. Inconsistent hyphenation was retained. “De la Lande” and “La Lande” both appear in text and were retained. “Shenier”, editor’s spelling of “Scheiner”, was retained. On p. 37, a paragraph break was inserted before "There is a clear example ...". On p. 44, “the” was changed from “The” (the usual method). On p. 85, “that” was changed from “That” (that a species). On p. 86, “that” was changed from “That” (that an instrument). On p. 118, “aëriform” was changed from “aeriform” (aëriform or igniform). On p. 178, “borrow” was changed from “brorrow” (to borrow a term from the grammarians). On p. 204, “sufficiently” was changed from “sufficietly” (but sufficiently dense). On p. 219, “quantity” was changed from “quanity” (quantity of gold). In footnote [5], “psychological” was changed from “pyschological” (most other psychological). In footnote [23], “that” was changed from “tha” (that we have nothing). In footnote [33], "72" was changed from “22” (Acad. Prior. ii. 72.). In footnote [60], “ix.” was changed from “x.” (Livy, lib. ix.). In footnote [71], “οὐσία” was changed from “οὐδία”. In footnote [86], “necessary” was changed from “necesary” (necessary to invent). In footnote [87], “liquor” was changed from “liqour” (the liquor rose). In footnote [161], “the” was changed from “th” (by the flame).]
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