The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

584 DESCRIPTION OF THE INTELLECTUAL GLOBE.
latter position is the truth, and that the former perhaps, the case demands that we should confictions of astronomers, if any one looks at them demn, without postponing the conviction, the
soberly, in reality mock nature, and are found doctrine of Aristotle, it is not consistent with
empty of facts: it is consistent that the notion- our purpose.
their concomitant —of the eternity of the hea- Another question proposed was, what that subvenly bodies, should incur the same censure. stance is contained in the interstellar spaces 3
And if any one should make religion an objec- These are either a void, as Gilbertus conceived;
tion, we would have him thus answered; that it or filled with a substances which is to the stars
was the boast of the heathens to attach eternity what air is to flame, the hypothesis most closely
only to the heaven and the sun, but that sacred approaching the experience of our senses; or
Scripture ascribes it equally to heaven and earth. filled with a substance essentially the same with
For there we read not only that 1" the sun and the that of the stars themselves, luminous, and to a
noon bear faithful witness in heaven;" but that certain degree empyrean, but of a secondary orall ", generations come and pass away, but the der, being of a light not so brilliant and corusearth remaineth forever." And we find the cating, which seems to be meant by the received
fleeting and perishable nature of both coupled in opinion that a star is the denser part of its own
one and the same oracle; "heaven and earth sphere. For there can be no objection to conshall pass away, but my word shall not pass ceiving it a bright, transparent medium, for conaway." Then if any should insist, that never- veying stronger light. Telesius has acutely obtheless it cannot be denied, but that on the sur- served, that common air contains within itself a
face of the earth, and the contiguous parts, certain quantity of light, using this argument,
innumerable changes take place,-not in heaven; that there are certain animals which see by night,
we meet the objection thus: that we do not make whose visual organs are adapted to receive and
them equal in all respects; and yet, if we take kindly entertain this weak sort of light. For it
the upper and lower regions of the air, as they is a less credible supposition that a visual act
are called, to be the surface or exterior coat of hea- takes place without any light, or from the internal
ven; even as we regard that space among our- illuminating power of the spirit. And even flame
selves, within which animals, plants, and minerals itself is seen diaphanous, to such a degree as to
are contained, as the surface or outer garment of give out the form of opaque substances, as is
earth, there too we find numerous and manifold seen in the wick of candles, much more to be the
productions. Wherefore it seems as if all colli- vehicle for the form of more intense light. For
sion and disturbance took place only on the the flame of tallow or wax is more lustrous, and,
frontiers of heaven and earth, as is frequently the if we may use the expression, more igneous; but
case in matters civil, when the inland provinces the flame of spirits of wine is more opaque, and
of two neighbouring countries enjoy continued as it were more aeriform, so that the flame is not
peace, and are only thrown into commotion by inspissated. And I also made an experiment on
the more rare and formidable kinds of war. this subject, which was done by taking a wax
And with respect to that other part of the candle and raising it in a sconce, (using a metal
supposed heterogeny of the heavenly bodies, as one for the purpose of protecting the body of the
maintained by Aristotle, that they are not subject candle from the flame, which was to be circumto heat, lest perchance the conflagration dreaded fused,) and placing the sconce in a goblet in
by Heraclitus might be the result, but that they which was a small quantity of spirits of wine,
are warmed, per accidens, by the friction and and first lighting the candle, and then ioniting
diverberation of the air; wedo not understand what the spirits of wine; when you might clearly see
this straggler from experience means, contradicting the radiating and white light of the candle in the
too, as he does, the sense of antiquity on the subject. midst of the flame of the spirits of wine; which
But it is nothino wonderful to find thlst manu* was weak, and approaching to a mere pellucid
divorcing any given subject from experience, medium. And in like manner there are often
and presently turning away in a sort of scorn seen in the heavens luminous belts, affording a
from nature,-at once pusillanimous and auda- distinctly visible light of their own, vividly
cious. Of that, however, we shall presently illuminating the darkness of the night, through
speak, when we come to the question,, whetlier the substance of which, however, the stars are
the stars are real fires," and more largely and plainly discernible. And that difference between
corrpectly in our counsels respecting the History a star, and the interstellar air is not justly deof Virtues, where we shall discourse of the scribed by the terms rare and dense, that is, by
sources, and cradles of heat and cold, as yet the star being denser, the ether rarer. For geneunknown to and untouched by man. Thus we rally here among us flame is a body subtler than
thave stated the question with respect to the hete- the air, I mean more expanded, and having in it
rogeny of the heavenly bodies. For though, less matter for the space it occupies, which may
prgbably obtain also in the heavenly bodies. It
* Aristotle. is a gross mistake, if they really suppose the star