Videntur enim corpora quandoque ab una spatiatione naturali in alteram migrare et se transferre, idque libenter et tanquam volentia, et formam mutantia; quandoque autem tantummodo a naturali spatiatione depulsa, et manente forma veteri in consuetam spatiationem reverti. Atque virtus illa progressiva in novum spatium a calido et frigido fere regitur. At virtus altera restitutiva non item, siquidem expandit se aqua in vaporem et aërem, oleum similiter et pinguia in halitum et flammam, ex vi caloris; nec (si perfecte transmigraverint) reverti satagunt; quin et aër ipse ex calore intumescit et extenditur. Quod si migratio fuerit semiplena, post caloris abscessum in se facile recidit; ut etiam in virtute restitutiva partes frigoris et caloris sint nonnullæ. At quæ non mediante calore sed violentia aliqua extensa sunt et distracta, etiam absque ulla frigoris accessione aut diminutione caloris in priora spatia (cessante violentia) cupidissime revertuntur; ut in exsuctione ovi vitrei, et follibus levatis. Id vero in solidis et crassis longe evidentius est. Nam si distendatur pannus vel chorda, remota vi magna velocitate resiliunt; atque eadem est compressionis ratio. Nam aër violentia aliqua contrusus et incarceratus multo conatu erumpit; atque adeo omnis ille motus mechanicus quo durum a duro percutitur, qui vulgo motus violenti nomine appellatur, per quem res solidæ mittuntur et volant per aërem et aquam, nihil aliud est quam nixus partium corporis emissi ad se expediendum a compressione; et tamen nusquam hic apparent vestigia calidi et frigidi. Neque est quod quis argutetur ex doctrina Telesii hoc modo, ut dicat; Esse singulis spatiationibus naturalibus assignatam portionem quandam calidi et frigidi, ex certa quadam analogia: Itaque fieri posse ut tametsi nihil addatur caloris et frigoris, tamen si spatia materiati extendantur aut contrahantur, res eodem recidat, quia plus et minus imponitur materiæ in spatio, quam pro ratione caloris et frigoris. Verum ista licet non absurda dictu, tamen sunt eorum qui semper aliquid comminisci solent ut quod semel visum est teneant, nec naturam et res persequuntur. Nam si addatur calor et frigus hujusmodi corporibus extensis aut compressis, idque majore mensura quam pro ratione et natura corporis ipsius, veluti si pannus ille tensus calefiat ad ignem, tamen nullo modo rem compensabit, nec

1 Recidit in original. — J. S.

impetum restitutionis exstinguet. Itaque planum jam fecimus, istam virtutem spatiationis ex calore et frigore in parte notabili non pendere, cum tamen sit ipsa illa virtus, quæ plurimum authoritatis his principiis tribuerit. Sequuntur duæ virtutes quæ omnibus in ore sunt, atque longe et late patent, per quas scilicet corpora massas sive congregationes majores rerum connaturalium petunt; in quarum observatione, ut in reliquis, aut nugantur homines aut plane aberrant. Schola enim communis satis habet, si motum naturalem a violento distinguat; et gravia deorsum, levia sursum ferri ex motu naturali pronuntiet. Verum parum proficiunt ad philosophiam hujusmodi speculationes. Ista enim natura, ars, violentia, compendia verborum sunt et nuga. Debuerunt autem hunc motum non tantum ad naturam referre, sed etiam affectum et appetitum particularem et proprium corporis naturalis in hoc ipso motu quærere. Sunt enim et alii motus complures

naturales ex passionibus rerum longe diversis. Itaque res secundum differentias proponenda est. Quin et ipsi illi motus quos violentos appellant magis secundum naturam appellari possint, quam iste quem vocant naturalem; si sit illud magis secundum naturam quod est fortius, aut etiam quod est magis ex ratione universi. Nam motus iste adscensus et descensus non admodum imperiosus est, nec etiam universalis, sed tanquam provincialis et secundum regiones; quin et aliis motibus obsequens et subjectus. Quod vero gravia deorsum ferri aiunt, levia sursum, idem est ac si dicerent, gravia esse gravia, levia levia. Quod enim prædicatur, id ex vi ipsa termini in subjecto assumitur. Si vero per grave densum, per leve rarum intelligunt, promovent nonnihil; ita tamen ut ad adjunctum et concomitans, potius quam ad causam, rem deducant. Qui vero gravium appetitum ita explicant, ut ad centrum terræ illa ferri contendant, levia ut1 ad circumferentiam et ambitum cœli, tanquam ad loca propria; asserunt certe aliquid, atque etiam ad causam innuunt, sed omnino perperam. Loci enim nullæ sunt vires, neque corpus nisi a corpore patitur, atque omnis incitatio corporis, quæ videtur esse ad se collocandum, appetit atque molitur configurationem versus aliud corpus, non collocationem aut situm simplicem.

1 So in the original; but the ut ought probably to be omitted. J. S.

NEW ATLANTIS.'

The Thema Cali, had it stood by itself, would have followed here; for it belongs properly to this class, and was written before the New Atlantis. But being so closely connected with the Descriptio Globi Intellectualis, which belongs to the next, it was thought better not to separate them.-J. S.

PREFA CСЕ.

THE New Atlantis seems to have been written in 1624, and, though not finished, to have been intended for publication as it stands. It was published accordingly by Dr. Rawley in 1627, at the end of the volume containing the Sylva Sylvarum; for which place Bacon had himself designed it, the subjects of the two being so near akin; the one representing his idea of what should be the end of the work which in the other he supposed himself to be beginning. For the story of Solomon's House is nothing more than a vision of the practical results which he anticipated from the study of natural history diligently and systematically carried on through successive generations.

In this part of it, the work may probably be considered as complete. Of the state of Solomon's House he has told us all that he was as yet qualified to tell. His own attempts to "interpret nature" suggested the apparatus which was necessary for success: he had but to furnish Solomon's House with the instruments and preparations which he had himself felt the want of. The difficulties which had baffled his single efforts to provide that apparatus for himself suggested the constitution and regulations of a society formed to overcome them: he had but to furnish Solomon's House with the helps in head and hand which he had himself wished for. His own intellectual aspirations suggested the result: he had but to set down as known all that he himself most longed to know. But here he was obliged to stop. He could not describe the process of a perfect philosophical investigation; because it must of course have proceeded by the method of the Novum Organum, which was not yet expounded. Nor could he give a particular example of the result of such investigation, in the shape of a Form or an Axiom; for that presupposed the completion, not only of the Novum Organur, but (at least in some one subject)