Chapter 25 Section 12

Notoginseng (15) Instances of Divorce.--Instances of this kind indicate some of the most common separations of character. ①It differs from some of the previous cases affixed under the companion case, in that the latter designate the separation of a quality from some concrete substance with which it is usually connected, and the cases of this separation are Indicates the separation of one property from another. ②It is also different from the signpost case, in that it does not stipulate, but only points out the possible separation of one quality from another.The usefulness of such instances is to detect false programs, to drive away frivolous theories derived from superficial appearances, and to serve as a ballast to the understanding. ③For example.Suppose that the properties in question are those four which Teresias regards as companions for food and companionship, namely, heat, light, thinness, and mobility, that is, the qualities of susceptibility to motion.

④ Here, we see many cases of divorce among them.The air is thin and mobile, but neither hot nor bright; the moon is bright but not hot; boiling water is hot but dull; the movement of an iron needle on a pivot is quick and light, but the body is cold , dense and opaque; there are many others of this kind. ① According to Fowler's commentary on the original Latin text, this sentence should be translated as "this kind of instance indicates the separation between some properties that often appear together". - translator ②The Kachin commentary states that cases of divorce may at first appear to be cases of friendship, but they are actually different.The latter indicates only the absence of a certain quality or attribute in the individual concrete thing with which it is usually associated, such as the lack of reason (reason is an attribute of human beings) in idiocy; while the former indicates a distinction between two similar classes of qualities , such as light is to heat.

Fleur said that what is referred to here is probably not the case of affixation mentioned in Article 34, but the case of the enemy mentioned in Article 33; and the difference between the case of divorce and the case of the enemy seems to be only in the form , only in the way of formulating propositions. - translator ③This language can also be found in Article 104 of Volume 1, which can be referred to. - translator ④ The basic concept of Teresias' philosophy is that heat and cold are the two major elements that constitute the universe, and the opposite between the two is equivalent to the opposite between the sun and the earth: "The sun is hot, Thin, light, and moving; the earth, on the contrary, is cold, dense, motionless, and lightless."See "De Rerum Natura", Vol. 1, Chapter 1.

Take another example.Assume that the properties to be investigated are substantiality and natural activity. It seems that natural activities cannot be found except in some objects.But in this plot we may also see instances of divorce: as in the magnetic action by which the magnet attracts iron, and the earth attracts weight,1 and other actions performed from a distance. .This kind of activity, as far as it takes place in time, takes up several moments rather than just a moment; as far as it takes place in space, it gradually transitions through little progress and distance.Hence this quality or activity must at a certain moment and at a certain place be suspended between the two bodies in motion.So the question becomes this: Is it the objects that are the two ends of the movement that affect or change some intermediate objects, so that Xingde passes from one end to the other through a series of physical contacts simultaneously and attached to the intermediate objects?Or is there no such thing at all, but only two ends, virtues, and distances?

It is true that among light, sound, and heat, and certain other things acting at a distance, there may be intermediary bodies affected and modified, and probably they are, for they require intermediates suitable for the transmission of motion. things.But there is no trace of the virtue of magnetism or attraction being contained in the middle, nor is the virtue hindered by any middle.In this way, since virtues or activities can be independent of intervening bodies, it is necessary to say that natural virtues or activities exist at a certain time and at a certain place without bodies, because they are neither attached to objects. Objects at both ends are not attached to intermediate objects.The action of magnetism is therefore a case of divorce between substantiality and action of nature. ②Another point may be added here as an inescapable corollary or payoff, namely, that from this point a mere human philosophy draws a sufficient evidence for the insubstantial the existence of the ontology.

③Because once it is admitted that natural virtues and activities emanating from objects can exist at a certain time and at a certain place completely independent of objects, this is close to admitting that natural virtues and activities can also be originally from an insubstantial noumenon It's launched.It should be noted that the need for substantiality in stimulating and producing natural activities is not less than that in supporting and transmitting natural activities. ① Fleur pointed out that Bacon undoubtedly distinguished the attraction of magnetism from the attraction of the earth in the third example of the previous article; and his use of the word "magnetism" here may only refer to attraction in a vague way. - translator

② Concerning the whole passage, Fleur commented: Bacon's idea seems to be that the activities of magnetism and earth's attraction are independent of intermediates (whether air, ether, or anything else), The second is carried out in time; so what is called natural action or natural virtue must have a time and space suspended between the body that exerts the action and the body that the action imposes.From this he deduced that natural activities can be carried out without substance. Exactly how gravity works has not been understood until now.We know this fact and its laws, but everything else is mere conjecture.Whether the transmission of this power requires a material medium, and whether the transmission of this power is carried out in time, these are unresolved and perhaps unresolved issues.Laplace (1749-1827, a famous French mathematician and astronomer) has calculated its speed (assuming it is still measurable), which is at least five times greater than the speed of light. Thousands of times.As for the medium, although there is every reason to believe that there is a subtle and frivolous ether in all space, there is no positive evidence to connect this medium with the phenomenon of gravitation.

Likewise, there is no evidence sufficient to show whether magnetic and electric attraction require time to transmit, or require a medium for action.C. Wheatstone (1802-1875, famous British physicist and electrician) and others have made studies on the speed of conducted electricity in many different media. Do some calculations.See Section 796 of the first and second editions of the English translation of "Physics" by Ganot. - translator ③Fuller pointed out that the reasoning that Bacon used to reach this conclusion has to be said to be very fanciful, and to be honest, the whole discussion is too subtle, which is rare in Bacon's works.As for the conclusion itself, it is of considerable importance on a troublesome and much-discussed question, that of Bacon's theology. - translator

thirty eight Now it follows to speak of five other cases under a general title, which is called the case of the lamp or the case of the first news. ① These examples are to help the senses.For since the whole work of explaining nature begins with the senses, and proceeds from the perceptions of the senses by a direct, regular, and guarded path to the perceptions of the understanding, that is, to true concepts and principles,2 Then, it must be that the richer and more precise the representations of the senses are, the easier and smoother everything can be done. ① Fleur pointed out that the tasks of the various cases mentioned above are all to help the understanding; the following five cases of the so-called lights are to provide information to the senses or to fill up the lack of senses. - translator

②Refer to Articles 1, 19, and 69 of Volume 1. - translator Of these five instances of lamps, the first intensifies, magnifies, and corrects the immediate activity of the senses; is to point out the continuous process and series of things and movements, most of which are not observed until they come to an end or come to an end; the fourth is to provide some substitute for the senses when they are completely powerless; the fifth is excitement. Attention and attention to the senses, while drawing boundaries to the subtleties of things.Now I will discuss them in turn. three nine (16) Instances of portals—these instances assist the direct activity of the senses.We know that, of all the senses, it is evident that sight has the chief function in furnishing information.We should therefore devote our main effort to the aid of vision.There are no more than three kinds of help for vision: one is to enable it to see invisible things; the other is to enable it to see things that are farther away; the third is to enable it to see things more accurately and clearly.

Aids of the first kind (spectacles and the like do not count, since that only suffices to correct or relieve the defect of the sense of sight, but not to give more information) are the recently invented glass mirrors. ②It can magnify the size of the object a lot, so as to reveal its hidden and invisible details as well as its hidden structure and movement.By means of this instrument we are able to observe with astonishment the exact form and outline of a flea, a fly, and a worm, as well as colors and movements which were not seen before.It has also been said that under such glass a straight line drawn with a pen or pencil looks very uneven and crooked; this is because even the movement of the hand with the aid of a ruler and the ink or color In fact, none of the bleeds are really even, but the unevenness is so subtle that it cannot be detected without a glass mirror.There is a superstitious rhetoric here (as usual with novelties) that glass like this glorifies the work of nature and disgraces the work of technology.In fact, if we only say that the natural organizational structure is much more subtle than the artificial organizational structure, this is true.The so-called microscope, that is, the glass instrument of which I am speaking, is effective only for small things; so that if Democritus had seen it, he might have jumped up for joy at the thought of looking at atoms—then It was what he had proclaimed to be completely invisible—a way had finally been discovered.And therein lies the impotence and incompetence of this instrument; and its inability to do anything except to the minute, and even to that which is within a considerable body, inevitably destroys the usefulness of the invention.If its effectiveness can be extended to larger objects, ③ or to some details of larger objects, for example, it can make the structure of a piece of linen appear like a network tissue, or it can make people put jade, wine, excrement, blood If the subtleties and unevennesses in , trauma, etc., are discerned, then there will no doubt be great benefits to be derived from this discovery. ④①The original Latin text is bisoculi.Fleur notes that the invention of spectacles, like that of the microscope, has been attributed to Roger Bacon (and others are also claimed to have claimed the invention).No matter how similar this statement is, the invention of the so-called glasses can be traced back to at least the end of the thirteenth century.See Encyclopedia Britannica (Ninth Edition) for Spectacles and Microscope (Simple) entries. ②The original Latin text is perspicillum.Fleur notes that, from the tone of the text below, it is clear that Bacon has never seen such a microscope.He said it was a recent invention.We assume that Roger Bacon described what he imagined to be a microscope but never built it, and that the compound microscope was probably actually invented by Zacharias Jansen of middelberg, around 1590 year. ③Fuller pointed out that the existing microscopes for the sun have already achieved this goal. - translator ④Fuller pointed out that it goes without saying that modern microscopes with large magnifications can already do all these things. - translator Belonging to the second kind of help is another kind of glass mirror, which was discovered by Galileo in his memorable efforts. ① With the help of this tool, it is like using boats to open water traffic, people's handover of celestial bodies becomes closer and can be carried out.It allows us to see that the Milky Way is a group or a bunch of completely separated and different small stars; this was only a conjecture by the ancients, but now it is clearly visible.It also seems to indicate that ②the space in the so-called planetary orbit is not completely free of other stars, but that the sky is marked by stars before we see the star world, but they are too small to be seen without this tool. That's all.With this tool, we can also observe the small stars dancing around Jupiter; ③ from this we can infer that there are several centers of motion among the stars.With this tool, we can also observe and position the imbalance of light and shadow in the moon more clearly; thus we can make a kind of lunar map.With this tool we can also see spots in the sun, and similar phenomena.So long as we can safely trust such demonstrations,4 these are indeed noble discoveries.And I am not in doubt about such demonstrations, chiefly because the experiments ended with this little discovery, while many other things equally worth investigating have not been discovered by the same means. ⑤① Kachin noted that Bacon mentioned Galileo here in a tone of approval, which is worth noting.Some deny that the telescope was invented by Galileo; but it seems that he was the inventor.See Drinkwater's "Biography of Galileo" (Drink water's Life of Galileo), Chapter 6 of this Library of Useful Knowledge.Single lenses and their usefulness were known long before Galileo, and there are passages in the writings of Fracastorius and Baptista Parta which show that they attempted to combine two lenses. together.Roger Bacon also made some remarks, leading some to think that he was really the inventor of the telescope, see Palgrave's Merchant and Friar; but this does not seem to be the case .In any case, Galileo was always the first person to invent the telescope from scientific principles. He once combined a lens that is flat and convex on one side and a lens that is flat and concave on the other side, so that the latter is closer to the human eye, and the distance between them is determined by the difference in the focal distance between the two; The principle of a small telescope. He also built a microscope based on the same principle. ② Kachin noted that this refers to the satellites of Jupiter; it was discovered by Galileo. - translator ③ Fleur said that the "Encyclopedia Britannica" (Ninth Edition) recently included a treatise on the telescope (telescope), which has a very detailed description of its structure and history, where the invention of the trophy is attributed to Hans Lippershey, a spectacle maker in Middelburg who invented the telescope in 1608. Galileo, though not the actual inventor of the telescope, appears to have been the first to turn the telescope to scientific use, and it was undoubtedly through some of the discoveries he made with it that the telescope became famous.We also know that for a long time the best telescopes were available only from Galileo or his disciples.The first telescope he made was given to the Doge of Venice in 1609. - translator ④Galileo often mentioned that many peripatetic scholars tried to ignore all the arguments based on the discoveries he made through the telescope, saying that they were nothing more than optical deception. Fleur notes that Baden Powell's History of NaturalPhilosophy contains an interesting anecdote about Scheiner: Scheiner was a monk who reported to his superiors about sun spots, The educated priest gave him stern advice against such a monstrous notion. The reply reads: "I have searched through the writings of Aristotle and cannot find anything of the kind you refer to: therefore you may be sure that your senses or your glass mirror have deceived you." See page 171 of the book. - translator ⑤ Compare this passage with the passage in Chapter 5 of "Descriptio Globi Intellectualis".There Bacon spoke of Galileo's inventions and discoveries (the first results of which had just been announced) with more aspirational anticipation.That passage was written eight years ago, and from there, I think, we can understand why Bacon is now here again beginning to doubt how far those observations can be trusted.Having seen by that time that all accepted theories concerning the heavenly bodies were full of errors, he was prepared to hear a great deal of new and unexpected phenomena when he heard that telescopes enabled men to actually see heavenly bodies much deeper than before. At that time, he was only worried that the observers did not observe carefully and patiently but were eager to start forming new theories.But now, nine years have passed since the discovery of Jupiter's moons, spots in the sun, etc., and no new important discoveries have been announced, so he can't help being surprised by what people have seen much deeper than before. However, I was surprised at how little this layer was added, so I began to suspect that there were some shortcomings in either the tools or the observation methods. (Concerning the whole passage, Kachin comments: The mention here of the moons of Jupiter, of the possibility of many centres, shows that Bacon was at all ready to accept the truth, if only it were then revealed. The lunar chart he foresaw had reached a very The spots in the sun were also first discovered by Harriot in 1610 (Fleur suggested that the monk Xue Annuo can also be called the discoverer of this discovery), and thus calculated the sun Turns on its own axis about twenty-five days and seven hours a week. Bacon's prudence is justifiable, although his haste to assert that "this experiment ends with this little discovery" is not beyond reproach. where. - Translator ) Of the third class of aids are measuring rods, telescopes, and the like.These tools do not magnify vision, only correct and direct it. Besides, there may be other instances where the immediate, individual actions of the other senses help, but do not add to the already known information.Such cases are not suitable for our present purpose, so I will omit them.