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nydus/Novum organumPublic

Francis Bacon critiques the limitations of both dogmatic philosophy and extreme skepticism in their approaches to understanding nature. He proposes a new method that prioritizes sensory perception and establishes a structured, certain path for the mind to follow.

Page 143 of 375
Table of Contents

APHORISMS—BOOK II ON THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE, OR THE REIGN OF MAN

    1. After air, we consider those bodies to be most sensible of heat, which have been recently changed and contracted by cold, as snow and ice; for they begin to be dissolved and melt with the first mild weather. Next, perhaps, follows quicksilver; then greasy substances, as oil, butter, and the like; then wood; then water; lastly, stones and metals, which do not easily grow hot, particularly toward their centre.99 When heated, however, they retain their temperature for a very long time; so that a brick or stone, or hot iron, plunged in a basin of cold water, and kept there for a quarter of an hour or thereabout, retains such a heat as not to admit of being touched.
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