452 A. D. 1292. 



genius, foaring above the incomprehenfible jargon which was then call- 

 ed philofophy, by the native force of his own mind made fuch difco- 

 veries in real fcience and experimental philofophy, that the bare recital 

 of them mufl aftonifh us. His works plainly fhow, that many mathe- 

 matical inflruments, fuppofed the inventions of later ages, were known 

 to, or invented by, him, though loft at his death, till they were re-in- 

 vented by feveral ingenious men of later times. His defcription of 

 fpecula compounded of feveral glafles placed at proper diftances, which 

 enabled him to bring the fun, moon, and ftars, apparently near to him, 

 and to read letters at a great diftance, applies exadly to our modern te- 

 lefcopes. Our modern fpedlacles are furely no other than his reading 

 glaffes, which magnified the letters for the ufe of old men and thofe 

 whofe eyes were weak. He underflood the conftrudlion of burning 

 glaffes, microfcopes, and the camera obfcura. In his writings he main- 

 tains, that greater wonders may be accomplifhed by the powers of na- 

 ture, if properly known, than by the pretended arts of magic. He af- 

 firms, that chariots may be made to go without horfes ; that machines 

 may be made, by which a man may mount up in the air ; others, by 

 which he may walk at the bottom of the fea ; and others, by which one 

 man may counteradt the force of a thoufand. He compounded falt- 

 petre, fulphur, and charcoal, into a powder, by which he produced arti- 

 ficial thunder and flame, and by which a city or an army could be de- 

 flroyed : and he knew many of the fuppofed-modern improvements in 

 chymiftry *. All the rules of arithmetic (not then, as now, a common 

 fcience) were familiar to him ; and he difcovered the exad; period of 

 the year, and methods for correding the calendar. In fliort, he was in- 

 defatigable in the profecution of fcience ; and he expended upon ex- 

 periments, by the afliftance of his friends, no lefs than two thoufand 

 pounds, a fum fully equivalent to at leaft fifty thoufand in the prefent 

 time. This illuftrious man would alone have been fufficient to illumin- 

 ;ite a dark age, if his ardour for difcovery had not been repreffed by the 

 jealous defpotifm of ignorant priefts, from whom he fuffered much per- 

 lecution and feveral imprifonments, whereby the world was deprived of 

 the fruits of many of the bell years of his aftonifliing ingenuity and 

 incomparable induftry. After having made more difcoveries in fcience 

 than any other man ever did in any age or country, he died in a good 

 old age on the 1 1''' of June, 1292 ; and after his death fcience relapfed 

 into a flumber of about two centuries. [See his own Opus majus. — IVoocfs 

 injl. Oxon. L. i.] 



The commerce witli France was interrupted by a fquabble between 



* Petni! Peregriniis, wlio wrote upon almoft all fame writer is quoted under the name of Petnis 

 tlie qualities of the magnet, is faid by fome to he PcUcgriiuis hy Baptifta Jella Porta in liis Magia 

 no other than Bacon uiidcr an affumcd name. The nalurolis, L. vii, c. 27. 



