And in this matter the example of several
bodies made by art was of great service to me: for I recognize no
difference between these and natural bodies beyond this, that the
effects of machines depend for the most part on the agency of
certain instruments, which, as they must bear some proportion to the
hands of those who make them, are always so large that their figures
and motions can be seen; in place of which, the effects of natural
bodies almost always depend upon certain organs so minute as to
escape our senses. And it is certain that all the rules of mechanics
belong also to physics, of which it is a part or species, [so that
all that is artificial is withal natural]: for it is not less
natural for a clock, made of the requisite number of wheels, to mark
the hours, than for a tree, which has sprung from this or that seed,
to produce the fruit peculiar to it. Accordingly, just as those who
are familiar with automata, when they are informed of the use of a
machine, and see some of its parts, easily infer from these the way
in which the others, that are not seen by them, are made; so from
considering the sensible effects and parts of natural bodies, I have
essayed to determine the character of their causes and insensible
parts.
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