1 46 HER OES OF INVENTION AND DISCO VER Y. 



GALLERY OF GREAT INVENTORS AND 



DISCOVERERS. 



"All the inventions that the world contains, 

 Were not by reason first found out nor brains ; 

 But pass for theirs who had the luck to light 

 Upon them by mistake or oversight." — Butler. 



LMOST all useful discoveries, it has been remarked, 

 ^(^ have been made not by the brilliancy of genius, but by 

 the right direction of the mind to one object In all trades, in 

 all professions, success can be expected only from undivided 

 attention. This common-sense view of things, a Httle different 

 from that in the motto given above, is what we should adopt 

 as we travel through the world of invention and discovery. 



ROGER BACON. 



Roger Bacon, a learned English monk of the Franciscan 

 order, who flourished in the thirteenth century, was born near 

 Ilchester, in Somersetshire, in 12 14, and was descended ol a 

 very ancient and honourable family. He received the first 

 tincture of letters at Oxford, where, having gone through 

 grammar and logic, the dawnings of his genius gained him the 

 favour and patronage of the greatest lovers of learning, and 

 such as were equally distinguished by their high rank and the 

 excellence of their knowledge. It is not very clear, says the 

 "Biographia Britannica," whether he was of Merton College or of 



