1 whole number, to consider of the former labours and collections, we have three that take care, out of them, to direct new experiments, of a higher light, more penetrating into nature than the former. These we call Lamps. "We have three others that do execute the experiments so directed, and report them. These we call Inoculators. 66 Lastly, we have three that raise the former discoveries by experiments into greater observations, axioms, and aphorisms.2 These we call Interpreters of Nature. women. "We have also, as you must think, novices and apprentices, that the succession of the former employed men do not fail; besides a great number of servants and attendants, and men And this we do alsɔ: we have consultations, which of the inventions and experiences which we have discovered shall be published, and which not: and take all an oath of secrecy, for the concealing of those which we think. fit to keep secret: though some of those we do reveal sometimes to the state, and some not.3 "For our ordinances and rites: we have two very long and fair galleries: in one of these we place patterns and samples of all manner of the more rare and excellent inventions: in the other we place the statua's of all principal inventors. There we have the statua 1 qui labores et collectiones priores penitus introspiciunt et quasi ruminantur. 2 The translation adds that this was only done after consultation with the whole body. Quod faciunt non nisi consultatione et colloquis prius habitis cum sociis universis. 3 Etsi nonnulla ex iis, cum consensu, interdum Regi aut Senatui revelemus: alia autem omnino intra notitiam nostram cohibemus. of your Columbus, that discovered the West Indies: also the inventor of ships: your monk that was the inventor of ordnance and of gunpowder: the inventor of music the inventor of letters: the inventor of printing the inventor of observations of astronomy: the inventor of works in metal: the inventor of glass: the inventor of silk of the worm: the inventor of wine the inventor of corn and bread: the inventor of sugars and all these by more certain tradition than you have. Then have we divers inventors of our own, of excellent works; which since you have not seen, it were too long to make descriptions of them; and besides, in the right understanding of those descriptions you might easily err. For upon every invention of value, we erect a statua to the inventor, and give him a liberal and honourable reward. These statua's are some of brass; some of marble and touch-stone; some of cedar and other special woods gilt and adorned: some of iron; some of silver; some of gold. "We have certain hymns and services, which we say daily, of laud and thanks to God for his marvellous works and forms of prayers, imploring his aid and blessing for the illumination of our labours, and the turning of them into good and holy uses. -66 Lastly, we have circuits or visits of divers principal cities of the kingdom; where, as it cometh to pass, we do publish such new profitable inventions as we think good. And we do also declare natural divinations1 of diseases, plagues, swarms of hurtful creatures, scarcity, tempests, earthquakes, great inundations, comets, temperature of the year, and divers other things; 1 Prædicimus etiam antequam adveniant (id quod ad Naturales Divinationes pertinet) morbos epidemicos, &c. and we give counsel thereupon what the people shall do for the prevention and remedy of them." And when he had said this, he stood up; and I, as I had been taught, kneeled down; and he laid his right hand upon my head, and said; "God bless thee, my son, and God bless this relation which I have made. I give thee leave to publish it for the good of other nations; for we here are in God's bosom, a land unknown." And so he left me; having assigned a value of about two thousand ducats, for a bounty to me and my fellows. For they give great largesses where they come upon all occasions. [THE REST WAS NOT PERFECTED.] MAGNALIA NATURÆ, PRÆCIPUE QUOAD USUS HUMANOS.1 THE prolongation of life. The restitution of youth in some degree. The curing of diseases counted incurable. More easy and less loathsome purgings. The increasing of strength and activity. The increasing of ability to suffer torture or pain. The altering of complexions, and fatness and lean ness. The altering of statures. The altering of features. The increasing and exalting of the intellectual parts. Versions of bodies into other bodies. Making of new species. Transplanting of one species into another. 1 This paper follows the New Atlantis in the original edition, and concludes the volume. |