66 HISTORY OF SCIENCE. 



judices of their age, that they seemed as if " born out of due time " 

 the harbingers of a brighter day in advance of their epoch. Among 

 the best known of these is the Englishman, ROGER BACON, born at 

 Ilchester in Somersetshire in 1214. He studied at the University of 

 Paris, where he took the degree of doctor in the faculty of theology. 

 His love of knowledge induced him to master Latin, Greek, Hebrew, 

 and Arabic, and to peruse a multitude of books written in those lan- 

 guages. Gifted with a genius worthy of a better epoch, he perceived 

 that no real progress in science would be reached by the path then 

 followed, and he proposed to repudiate the authority of Aristotle, and 

 appeal to nature by experiments. He contended also for mathematics 

 as the first and foremost of the sciences, as that only which could guide 



FIG. 24. ROGER BACON. 



the interpretation of experiments. This being in the period when the 

 scholastic philosophy was at its acme, and Aristotle ruled the schools 

 with an absolute despotism, Roger Bacon's revolt raised against him 

 a host of adversaries. The most bitter were the brethren of the Fran- 

 ciscan Order, which he had joined, hoping probably in the tranquillity 

 of the cloister to pursue his chosen studies more freely than in the 

 bustle of the world. This association proved, however, the bane of 

 his life, for he was accused by his superiors of magic and dealings with 

 Satan, and in a general chapter he was condemned, and forbidden to 

 write. On renewed charges of this kind he was more than once 

 committed to prison, where he finally remained for ten years. When 

 released, at an advanced age and with shattered health, he continued 

 his writing, and died peaceably at Oxford in 1292. 



Roger Bacon's studies appear to have embraced a wide field. He 

 was well acquainted with mathematics, and was versed in the theore- 



