the mineral with a balance and with fire. Then I place it into water, into sulfuric acid, and so forth, in short, I combine the mineral with everything that I have at hand and in this way I learn ever more of its properties. And as for inventions, who does not know that a clock is a combination of wheels, springs, dials, bells, etc.? Who does not know that gunpowder is a combination of sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal?
These three laws, manifest in discoveries and inventions, entail important corollaries. The law of gradualness implies the following:
a) Since every discovery and invention requires perfecting, let us not pride ourselves only on discovering or inventing something completely new, but let us also work to improve or get to know more exactly things that are already known and already exist. Not only that naturalist makes a contribution who travels to distant lands in order to there discover some hitherto unknown animal or plant, but also he who locally studies in greater depth the life of earlier-known beings. Let us not necessarily exert ourselves to construct a clock or other machine that the world has never seen, but let us also work to improve presently-existing machines so as to make them cheaper, more durable, less complicated, and so on.
b) The same law of gradualness demonstrates the necessity of expert training. Who can perfect a watch, if not a watchmaker with a good comprehensive knowledge of his métier? Who can discover new characteristics of an animal, if not a naturalist?
From the law of dependence flow the following corollaries:
a) No invention or discovery, even one seemingly without value, should be dismissed, because
