REVIEWS 68i 



act the part of the glass of the greenhouse and are actually the cause of the 

 vertical distribution of temperature. The continued existence of the " tro- 

 popause " during cloudless weather is hard to explain if his hypothesis is 

 true, and even more so the fact that in North-West Europe it is during 

 cloudy cyclonic weather and not fine anticyclonic conditions that the 

 stratosphere tends to lose its sharply defined under edge. 



But this is a minor point, and the known facts about the free atmosphere 

 have been clearly and accurately set out. 



Although the book is written to meet Australian needs, the European 

 reader should find much of interest, especially when reading about the 

 " Southerly Burster " and the violence of the tropical revolving-storms. He 

 is not likely, however, to accept the author's theories concerning the origin 

 of the shallow " lows " of Northern Australia. 



The book is a curious mixture of accurate information in many branches 

 of meteorology and daring speculation in a few, and deserves a wide 

 circulation. 



E. V. Newnham. 



Secretum Secretorum. Cum Glossis et Notulis Tractatus Brevis et UtiUs ad 

 Declarandum Quedam Obscura Dicta Fratris Roger: nunc primum 

 edidit Robert Steele Accedunt Versio Anglicana ex Arabico Edita 

 per A. S. Fulton Versio Vetusta Anglo-Normanica nunc Primum 

 Edita. (Opera Hactenus Inedita Rogeri Baconi, Ease. V.) [Pp. 

 Ixiv -f- 318, with 7 illustrations]. (Oxonia : E. Typographeo Claren- 

 doniano. Price 285. net.) 



The publication of Roger Bacon's works, interrupted by the ^yar, has been 

 resumed, and Mr. Robert Steele and those associated with him are to be 

 congratulated on the appearance of the volume before us, which is the fifth 

 instalment of Mr. Steele's edition of the hitherto unpublished works of Bacon. 

 The preparation of the volume, with its mass of learned information, must 

 have entailed much labour ; and we have nothing but praise for the way in 

 which the work has been carried out. 



The chief interest of the work before us hes in its revelation of the outlook 

 of Roger Bacon and his contemporaries. Science, like every other human 

 achievement, is of slow growth ; and to some people its past history can 

 be as interesting almost as are its present results, for it reveals the epic 

 struggle of the human mind in its endeavour to come to an understanding 

 with the forces of nature and the mysteries of existence. As an historical 

 document, the Secretum Secretorum, with Bacon's Introduction and Glosses, 

 is certainly of interest, although regarded objectively and without an historic 

 sense it may appear to be a rather weird hotch-potch of odds and ends. 

 What is perhaps most striking is the extent to which an intellectual giant 

 like Roger Bacon remained a child of his age, steeped in theological ways of 

 looking at things, and, while denouncing some superstitions of his day, yet 

 chnging to many others. The flame is mingled with the smoke, and dis- 

 entangles itself but slowly. 



The Secretum Secretorum professes to have been written by Aristotle 

 in his old age as a secret manual for the guidance of his former pupil, Alexander 

 the Great. It claims to give the quintessence of knowledge and wisdom in 

 a concise form suitable for a busy man of affairs who wants " wisdom while 

 you wait." Kingship and state-craft, the wise choice of counsellors and 

 ambassadors, the administration of justice and the collection of taxes, the 

 organisation of armies and the conduct of war, physiology and physiognomy, 

 medicine and magic, astrology and alchemy— such are the topics of instruction 

 contained in this manual. There is much wisdom in some of its doctrines. 



