

OKR. 



IUCOX, HOOK.R. 



to tii aooneed upon hi* recantation of the obnoxious opinion', 



jal in mch caae*. which, if we may judge from *'" ' P U> Mejus,' 



Baron woiiM bavo conceived himself bound to accept, at least if lie 

 ireocnufrl Ih locality of the tribunal. A oonfirmation of tho pro- 

 eeedint; wa imnwdisUly obtained from the court of Rome. During 

 tea year* every effort mad* by him to proenra liii enlargement wai 

 without piieow. The two succeeding pontiff* hail short and buy 

 reign*, but on the accession of Jerome (Nicholas IV.) Bacon once more 

 tried ti attract notux. He sent to that pope, it is said, a treatise on 

 the rretho.1 of retarding the infirmities of old age, the only conse- 

 quence of which wai increased rigour and clow confinement; but 

 that which wa not to b* obtained from the jiutioe of the pope wa 

 conceded to private interest, and Bacon wai at 1 it restored to liberty 

 by the intercession of come powerful noble*. Some ray he died in 

 i : but the hot authorities unite in stating that he returned to 

 Oxfor.1. where he wrot- a compendium of theolojry, and died shortly 

 nft-r Nicholas IV., probably in 1292. as Anthony a Wood states. H 

 bnrie.1 in the church of the Franciscans at Oxford. 



Of the asMrUd works of Bacon there i* a very large catalogue, cited 

 mostly from Bale and Pits, in the preface to Dr. Jebb's edition of the 

 ' Opii Maju.' They amount to 101 treatise* in nil, on a great variety 

 nf nbjwts ; but probably mo*t of these were extracts from the ' Opus 

 Majin,' Ac. , with separata titles, while others are improperly attributed 

 to Rorer I'ju-on. The principal manuscripts of the ' Opus Mnjus ' are 

 no* in Trinity College Library, Dublin, discovered by Or. Jebb, which 

 forms the te*xt of hi* edition ; two in the Cottonisn Library, one in 

 the Harleian, one in the library of Corpus Chriati College, Cambridge ; 

 one in th>t of Magdalen College, two in the King's Library all con- 

 taining various part* of the work. These are independent nf the 'Opns 

 Slum* ' and ' Opus Tertium ' in the Cottonian Library, already men- 

 tioned ; of some in Lambeth palace, in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, 

 and . f revrral others at hum* and abroad. Pope Clement's letters are 

 in the Vatican library. 



Of printed works we have found the following : ' Pempectiva,' 

 Frankfurt, 1C1 4 ; ' Do Speoulis' and ' Specula Mathematics,' Frankfurt. 

 1SH, reprinted in 1071; ' De Mirabili I'oteatate Artis et Nature,' 

 Paris, IMS : Giranl. De 1'Admirable Pouuoir, &c., ou eat Traictci He 

 la Pierre Philomphale ' (translation of thu preceding), Ports, 1557, 

 reprinted in 1829; 'Script* qtuodam de Arto Chemise,' Frankfurt, 

 1803 and 1020; Speculum Alehemite,' and 'De Secretis Operibus Artis 

 t Naturae, et de Nullitate Hague.' in vols. it and v. of Zetzner's 

 Theatrum Chemicnm,' Strasbourg, 16J9 ; the ' Opu* Msjus,' edited by 

 Dr. Jebb. London, 1733; ' De Retardandis Senectutis Accideutibua,' 

 Oxford. 1590, translated by Dr. It Browne, London, 1683. In a volume 

 of tracts on ' Alchemy,' Lynn, 1557, there ar two attributed to Roger 

 Bacon; and there is one (the 'Speculum Alchemiw,' in English) in a 

 similar collection, London, 1683. 



It only remains for us to take a general view of the character of 

 Rover Bacon's writing*, and of the contents of the ' Opus Hajus.' It 

 is surprising how little i known of this work, the only one to which 

 we can appeal, if we would show that philosophy was successfully 

 cultivated in an English uuivrrxity during the 13th century. It is of 

 course in Latin, but in Lstin of so simple a character, that wo know 

 of non<- In the middle ages more easy to road ; and it forms a brilliant 

 exception to the stiff and barbarous styl* of that and succeeding 



The charge of heresy appears to be by no means so wall founded as 

 a Protestant would wish. Throughout the whole of his writings Bacon 

 i* a strict Roman Catholic, that is, he expressly submit* matter* of 

 opinion to the authority of the Church. His leal for Christianity, in 

 iu Latin or western form, break* out in every page ; and all science 

 is considered with direct reference to theology, and not otherwise : 

 bat at the *am* time, to the credit of his principles, considering the 

 persecuting age in which he lived, there is not a word of any other 

 force except that of persuaion. He take* care to have both authority 

 and reason for every proposition that he advance* ; perhaps indeed he 

 might have experienced forbearance at the hand of those who were 

 hU persecutors, bad b* not so clearly made out prophets, apostles, and 

 fathers to have been partakers of his opinions. " But let not your 

 Serenity imagine," be says, " that I intend to excite tho clemency of 

 your Holiness, in order th*t the papal majesty should employ force 

 against weak authors and the multitude, or that my unworthy self 

 hoti I I raise any stumbling-block to study." Indeed the whole scope 

 of the 6rst part of the work is to prove, from authority and from 

 reason, that philosophy and Christianity cannot disagree a sentiment 

 altogether of hi* own revival, in an age in which all philosophers, and 

 in particular, were considered a* at best of dubious 



The reasoning of Bacon is generally directly dependent upon hi* 

 I'ltiuissa, which, though often wrong, seldom lead him to the prevailing 

 extreme of sl-iinlity. Even his astrology and alchemy, those two 

 groat blot* upon hi* character, as they are usually called, are, when 

 con-iderrd by the aide of a later age, harmles* modifications, irrational 

 only became unproved, and neither imposnible nor unworthy of the 

 investigation of a philosopher, in the absence of preceding experiments. 

 liis astroWy is physical " \\ ith ivgard to human afiairs, truo matbe- 

 BwxieiaDs do not presume to make certain, but consider how the body 

 b altered by the heavens; and the body being altered, the miud is 



excited to public and private acts, free will existing all the same." 

 He appear* to hare firmly believed in planetary influence, and in 

 (articular the effect of the constellations on the several parts of the 

 human body. 



We must draw a wide distinction between the thin^i which Bacon 

 relates as upon credible authority, and the opinions which ho proffssn* 

 himself to entertain from his own inveatirotion*. In almost every 

 page we meet with something now considered extremely absurd, and 

 with rea'on. But before the multiplication ot books, and the free 

 interchange of fact." and opinions by means of tho printing-press, a 

 book which was written in one country found its way but slowly into 

 others, one copy at a time ; and a man of learning seldom met those 

 with whom ho could discuss tha probability of any narrative. The 

 adoption of the principle that a story must bo rejected because it is 

 strange, would then have amounted to a disbelief of all that had been 

 written on physics a state of mind to which we cannot conceive any 

 one of that age bringing himself. Nor can we rightly decide what 

 opinion to form of Bacon as n philosopher, until we know how much 

 he rejected as well as how much he believed. These remarks apply 

 particularly to his alohomy : he does not say ho had made gol 1 him- 

 self, but that others had asserted themselves to Dave made it ; and his 

 account of the drink by which men had lived hundreds of years is a 

 relation taken from another. It is fair to notice that there in not in 

 Bacon's alchemy any direction for tha use of prayers, fasting, or 

 ptmetary hour*. 



The great points by which Bacon is known are his reputed know- 

 ledge of gunpowder and of the telescope. With regard t > the former, 

 it is not at all clear that what we call gunpowder is intended, though 

 some detonating mixture, of which saltpetre is an ingredient, is opoken 

 of as commonly known. The passage i an follows : ' Some things 

 disturb the ear so much, that if they were made to happen suddenly, by 

 night, and with sufficient skill, no city or army coul.l bear them 

 noise of thunder could compare with them. Some things strike terror 

 ou the sight, so that the flashes of the clouds are beyond comparison 

 led disturbing ; work* similar to which Gideon is thought to hare 

 performed in the camp of the Midianite*. And an instance we take 

 from a childish amusement, which exists in many parts of the world, 

 to wit, that with an instrument as Urge as tho human thumb, by the 

 violence of the salt called saltpetre, so horrible a noise is made by the 

 rupture of so slight a tiling as a bit of parchment, that it is thought 

 to exceed loud thunder, and the flash is stronger than the brightest 

 lightning." ' Opus Majus,' p. 474. 



There are indeed passages in the work ' De Secretis Operibus,' Ac. 

 (cited by HuUon, ' Dictionary,' article ' Gunpowder '), which expressly 

 mention sulphur, charcoal, and saltpetre as ingredients. But inde- 

 pendently of the claim of tho Chinese and the Indians, the receipt for 

 gunpowder is given by Marcus Qnccus, who it mentioned by an Arabic 

 physician of the 9th century, in his work, ' Liber Iguium,' now existing 

 only in Latin translations from the Greek. 



With regard to the telescope, it must be admitted that Bacon had 

 'conceived' the instrument, though there is no proof that bo carried his 

 conception into practice, or ' invented ' it. His wor,l arc these : \Ve 

 can so shape transparent substances, and so arrange them with respect 

 to our sight an 1 objects, that rays can be broken and bent a* we please, 

 so that object* may be seen far off or near, under whatever angle we 

 please ; and thus from an incredible distance we may read the smallest 

 letters, and number the grains of dust and sand, on account of the 

 greatness of the angle under which we *ee them ; and we may manage 

 so a* hardly to see bodies, when near to us, on account of the small- 

 ness of the angle under which we cause them to be seen ; for vision of 

 this sort is not a consequence of distance, except as that affect* the 

 magnitude of the angle. And thus a boy may seem a giant, and a man 

 a mountain," ic. The above contains a true description of a telescope ; 

 but if Bacon had constructed one he would have found that there are 

 im|>e>limeuU to the indefinite increase of the magnifying power, and 

 still more that a boy does not appear a giant, but a boy at a smaller 

 distance. 



It is worth notice, that these ideas of Bacon did, in after times, 

 produce either the telescope, or some modification of it, consisting iu the 

 magnifying of images produced by reflection, and that before the date 

 either of Jausen or Galileo. Thomas Digges, son of Leonard Digges, 

 in his ' Stratiotikoe,' London, 16UO, p. 369, thus speaks of what bis 

 father had done, in the presence, as ha assert*, of numerous living eye- 

 witnesses : "And such was his Folicitio and bappie successe, not only 

 in these conclusions, but also iu y" Optikc* ami Catoptikes, that he was 

 able by Perspcctiue Glasses, duely scituate upon ooiiuenieut nuglcs, in 

 such sort to discouer every particularitie of the country round about, 

 whorusoeuer the tjuune beames might pearse : as sithence Archimedes 

 .Bnlcon of Oxford onely excepU-d) I have not read of any in action 

 ouer able by meant natural to performe the like. Which |artl> 

 by the aid he had by one old written bouk of the same Bakon's 1 

 merits, that by strange aduenture, or rather Destinie, came to his 

 bands, though chiefely by couioyuiug continual! laborious Practise 

 with his Hathematicall Studies." The same Thomas Digges, in his 

 Pantometria,' London, 1591, Preface, repeats the story with more 

 detail, omitting however all mention of Bacon. 



The question has been agitated whether the invention of spectacles 

 >* due to Bacon, or whether they had been introduced just before he 



