PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 513 



&nd I shall transfer to this place the account which I have given of 

 him in the Philosophy. I do this the more willingly because I regard 

 the existence of such a work as the Opus Majus at that period as a 

 problem which has never yet been solved. Also I may add, that the 

 scheme of the Contents of this work "which I have given, deserves, as 

 I conceive, more notice than it has yet received. 



"Roger Bacon was born in 1214, near Ilchester, in Somersetshire, 

 of an old family. In his youth he was a student at Oxford, and made 

 extraordinary progress in all branches of learning. He then went to 

 the University of Paris, as was at that time the custom of learned Eng- 

 lishmen, and there received the degree of Doctor of Theology. At 

 the persuasion of Robert GrostSte, bishop of Lincoln, he entered the 

 brotherhood of Franciscans in Oxford, and gave himself up to study 

 with extraordinary fervor. He was termed by his brother monks Doc- 

 tor Mirabilis. We know from his own works, as well as from the 

 traditions concerning him, that he possessed an intimate acquaintance 

 with all the science of his time which could be acquired from books ; 

 and that he had made many remarkable advances by means of his own 

 experimental labors. He was acquainted with Arabic, as well as with 

 the other languages common in his time. In the title of his works, 

 we find the whole range of science and philosophy, Mathematics and 

 Mechanics, Optics, Astronomy, Geography, Chronology, Chemistry, 

 Magic, Music, Medicine, Grammar, Logics, Metaphysics, Ethics, and 

 Theology; and judging from those which are published, these works 

 are full of sound and exact knowledge. He is, with good reason, sup- 

 posed to have discovered, or to have had some knowledge of, several 

 of the most remarkable inventions which were made generally known 

 soon afterwards; as gunpowder, lenses, burning specula, telescopes, 

 clocks, the correction of the calendar, and the explanation of the 

 rainbow 7 . 



" Thus possessing, in the acquirements and habits of his own mind, 

 abundant examples of the nature of knowledge and of the process of 

 invention, Roger Bacon felt also a deep interest in the growth and 

 progress of science, a spirit of inquiry respecting the causes which pro- 

 duced or prevented its advance, and a fervent hope and trust in its 

 future destinies; and these feelings impelled him to speculate worthily 

 and wisely respecting a Reform of the Method of Philosophizing. The 

 manuscripts of his works have existed for nearly six hundred years in 

 many of the libraries of Europe, and especially in those of England . 

 and for a long period the very imperfect portions of them which were 

 VOL. I. 33 



