as there is in a squeezed and softened one; for it manifestly contracts sweetness by the process. But for the more re

markable transformations and alterations of bodies of uniform structure such violent means are of little avail; since bodies do not acquire thereby a new consistency that is constant and quiescent, but one that is transitory, and ever striving to recover and liberate itself. It would not be amiss however to make some careful experiments for the purpose of ascertaining whether the condensation or the rarefaction of a body of nearly uniform structure (as air, water, oil, and the like), being induced by violence, can be made to be constant and fixed, and to become a kind of nature. This should first be tried by simple continuance, and then by means of helps and consents. And the trial might easily have been made (if it had but occurred to me) when I was condensing water, as mentioned above, by hammer and press, till it burst forth from its enclosure. For I should have left the flattened sphere to itself for a few days, and after that drawn off the water; that so I might have seen whether it would immediately occupy the same dimensions, which it had before condensation. If it had not done so, either immediately or at any rate soon after, we might have pronounced the condensation a constant one; if it had, it would have appeared that a restoration had taken place, and that the compression was transitory. Something of a similar kind I might have tried also with the expansion of air in the glass eggs. For after powerful suction I might have stopped them suddenly and tightly; I might have left the eggs so stopped for some days; and then tried whether on opening the hole the air would be drawn up with a hissing noise; or whether on plunging them into water, as much water would be drawn up as there would have been at first without the delay. For it is probable at least it is worth trying-that this might have been, and may be, the case; since in bodies of structure not quite so uniform, the lapse of time does produce such effects. For a stick bent for some time by compression does not recoil; and this must not be imputed to any loss of quantity in the wood through the lapse of time; since the same will be the case with a plate of steel, if the time be increased, and steel does not evaporate. But if the experiment succeed not with mere continuance, the business must not be abandoned, but other aids must be employed. For it is no small gain if by the application

of violence we can communicate to bodies fixed and permanent natures. For thus air can be turned into water by condensation, and many other effects of the kind can be produced; man being more the master of violent motions than of the rest.

The third of the seven modes above-mentioned relates to that which whether in Nature or in Art is the great instrument of operation, viz. heat and cold. And herein man's power is clearly lame on one side. For we have the heat of fire, which is infinitely more potent and intense than the heat of the sun as it reaches us, or the warmth of animals. But we have no cold save such as is to be got in winter time, or in caverns, or by application of snow and ice; which is about as much perhaps in comparison as the heat of the sun at noon in the torrid zone, increased by the reflexions of mountains and walls; for such heat as well as such cold can be endured by animals for a short time. But they are nothing to be compared to the heat of a burning furnace, or with any cold corresponding to it in intensity. Thus all things with us tend to rarefaction, and desiccation, and consumption; nothing hardly to condensation and inteneration, except by mixtures and methods that may be called spurious. Instances of cold therefore should be collected with all diligence; and such it seems may be found by exposing bodies on steeples in sharp frosts; by laying them in subterranean caverns; by surrounding them with snow and ice in deep pits dug for the purpose; by letting them down into wells; by burying them in quicksilver and metals; by plunging them into waters which petrify wood; by burying them in the earth, as the Chinese are said to do in the making of porcelain, where masses made for the purpose are left, we are told, under ground for forty or fifty years, and transmitted to heirs, as a kind of artificial minerals; and by similar processes. And so too all natural condensations caused by cold should be investigated, in order that, their causes being known, they may be imitated by art. Such we see in the sweating of marble and stones; in the dews condensed on the inside of window panes, towards morning, after a night's frost; in the formation and gathering of vapours into water under the earth, from which springs often bubble up. Everything of this kind should be collected.

Besides things which are cold to the touch, there are found others having the power of cold, which also condense; but which seem to act on the bodies of animals only, and hardly

on others. Of this sort we have many instances in medicines and plasters; some of which condense the flesh and tangible parts, as astringent and inspissatory medicaments; while others condense the spirits, as is most observable in soporifics. There are two ways in which spirits are condensed by medicaments soporific, or provocative of sleep; one by quieting their motion, the other by putting them to flight. Thus violets, dried rose leaves, lettuce, and like benedict or benignant medicaments, by their kindly and gently cooling fumes invite the spirits to unite, and quiet their eager and restless motion. Rose water too, applied to the nose in a fainting fit, causes the resolved and too relaxed spirits to recover themselves, and as it were cherishes them. But opiates and kindred medicaments put the spirits utterly to flight, by their malignant and hostile nature. And therefore if they be applied to an external part, the spirits immediately flee away from that part, and do not readily flow into it again; if taken internally, their fumes, ascending to the head, disperse in all directions the spirits contained in the ventricles of the brain; and these spirits thus withdrawing themselves, and unable to escape into any other part, are by consequence brought together and condensed, and sometimes are utterly choked and extinguished; though on the other hand these same opiates taken in moderation do by a secondary accident (namely, the condensation which succeeds the coming together) comfort the spirits, and render them more robust, and check their useless and inflammatory motions; whereby they contribute no little to the cure of diseases, and prolongation of life.

Nor should we omit the means of preparing bodies to receive cold. Among others I may mention that water slightly warm is more easily frozen than quite cold.

Besides, since nature supplies cold so sparingly, we must do as the apothecaries do, who when they cannot get a simple, take its succedaneum or quid pro quo, as they call it; such as aloes for balsam, cassia for cinnamon. In like manner we should look round carefully to see if there be anything that will do instead of cold; that is to say, any means by which condensations can be effected in bodies otherwise than by cold, the proper office of which is to effect them. Such condensations, as far as yet appears, would seem to be limited to four. The first of these is caused by simple compression, which can do but little for permanent density, since bodies recoil, but which

perhaps may be of use as an auxiliary. The second is caused by the contraction of the coarser parts in a body, after the escape of the finer; such as takes place in indurations by fire, in the repeated quenchings of metals, and like processes. The third is caused by the coming together of those homogeneous parts in a body which are the most solid, and which previously had been dispersed, and mixed with the less solid; as in the restoration of sublimated mercury, which occupies a far greater space in powder than as simple mercury, and similarly in all purging of metals from their dross. The fourth is brought about through sympathy, by applying substances which from some occult power condense. These sympathies or consents at present manifest themselves but rarely; which is no wonder, since before we succeed in discovering Forms and Configurations, we cannot hope for much from an inquiry into sympathies. With regard to the bodies of animals indeed, there is no doubt that there are many medicines, whether taken internally or externally, which condense as it were by consent, as I have stated a little above. But in the case of inanimate substances such operation is rare. There has indeed been spread abroad, as well in books as in common rumour, the story of a tree in one of the Tercera or Canary Isles (I do not well remember which) which is constantly dripping; so as to some extent to supply the inhabitants with water. And Paracelsus says that the herb called Ros Solis is at noon and under a burning sun filled with dew, while all the other herbs round it are dry. But both of these stories I look upon as fabulous. they were true, such instances would be of most signal use, and most worthy of examination. Nor do I conceive that those honey-dews, like manna, which are found on the leaves of the oak in the month of May, are formed and condensed by any peculiar property in the leaf of the oak; but that while they fall equally on all leaves, they are retained on those of the oak, as being well united, and not spongy as most of the others are.

If

As regards heat, man indeed has abundant store and command thereof; but observation and investigation are wanting in some particulars, and those the most necessary, let the alchemists say what they will. For the effects of intense heat are sought for and brought into view; but those of a gentler heat, which fall in most with the ways of nature, are not explored, and therefore are unknown. And therefore we see that by

the heats generally used the spirits of bodies are greatly exalted, as in strong waters and other chemical oils; that the tangible parts are hardened, and, the volatile being discharged, sometimes fixed; that the homogeneous parts are separated, while the heterogenous are in a coarse way incorporated and mixed up together; above all that the junctures of composite bodies, and their more subtle configurations are broken up and confounded. Whereas the operations of a gentler heat ought to have been tried and explored, whereby more subtle mixtures and regular configurations might be generated and educed, after the model of nature, and in imitation of the works of the sun; as I have shadowed forth in the Aphorism on Instances of Alliance. For the operations of nature are performed by far smaller portions at a time, and by arrangements far more exquisite and varied than the operations of fire, as we use it now. And it is then that we shall see a real increase in the power of man, when by artificial heats and other agencies the works of nature can be represented in form, perfected in virtue, varied in quantity, and, I may add, accelerated in time. For the rust of iron is slow in forming, but the turning into Crocus Martis is immediate; and it is the same with verdigris and ceruse; crystal is produced by a long process, while glass is blown at once; stones take a long time to grow, while bricks are quickly baked. Meanwhile (to come to our present business), heats of every kind, with their effects, should be diligently collected from all quarters and investigated,— the heat of heavenly bodies by their rays direct, reflected, refracted, and united in burning-glasses and mirrors; the heat of lightning, of flame, of coal fire; of fire from different materials; of fire close and open, straitened and in full flow, modified in fine by the different structures of furnaces; of fire excited by blowing; of fire quiescent and not excited; of fire removed to a greater or less distance; of fire passing through various media; moist heats, as of a vessel floating in hot water, of dung, of external and internal animal warmth, of confined hay; dry heats, as of ashes, lime, warm sand; in short heats of all kinds with their degrees.

But above all, we must try to investigate and discover the effects and operations of heat when applied and withdrawn gradually, orderly, and periodically, at due distances and for due times. For such orderly inequality is in truth the daughter