ulam_ justly
takes notice of, as such, and calls _Philosophiae Genus Empiricum, quod in
paucorum Experimentorum Angustiis & Obscuritate fundatum est_. For I
neither conclude from one single Experiment, nor are the Experiments I make
use of all made upon one Subject: Nor wrest I any Experiment to make it
_quadrare_ with any preconceiv'd Notion. But on the contrary, I endeavour
to be conversant in divers kinds of Experiments, and all and every one of
those Trials, I make the Standards or Touchstones, by which I try all my
former Notions, whether they hold out in weight, and measure, and touch,
&c. For as that Body is no other then a Counterfeit Gold, which wants any
one of the Proprieties of Gold, (such as are the Malleableness, Weight,
Colour, Fixtness in the Fire, Indissolubleness in _Aqua fortis_, and the
like) though it has all the other; so will all those Notions be found to be
false and deceitful, that will not undergo all the Trials and Tests made of
them by Experiments. And therefore such as will not come up to the desired
_Apex_ of Perfection, I rather wholly reject and take new, then by piecing
and patching, endeavour to retain the old, as knowing such things at best
to be but lame and imperfect. And this course I learned from Nature; whom
we find neglectful of the old Body, and suffering its Decaies and
Infirmities to remain without repair, and altogether sollicitous and
careful of perpetuating the _Species_ by new _Individuals_. And it is
certainly the most likely way to erect a glorious Structure and Temple to
_Nature_, such as she will be found (by any _zealous Votary_) to reside in;
to begin to build a new upon a sure Foundation of Experiments.

But to digress no further from the consideration of the _Phaenomena,_ more
immediately explicable by this Experiment, we shall proceed to shew, That,
as to the rising of Water in a _Filtre_, the reason of it will be manifest
to him, that does take notice, that a _Filtre_ is constituted of a great
number of small long solid bodies, which lie so close together, that the
Air in its getting in between them, doth lose of its pressure that it has
against the _Fluid_ without them, by which means the Water or Liquor not
finding so strong a resistance between them as is able to counter-ballance
the pressure on its superficies without, is raised upward, till it meet
with a pressure of the Air which is able to hinder it. And as to the Rising
of Oyl, melted Tallow, Spirit of Wine