514 ADDITIONS. 



generally known, left the character and attainments of the author 

 shrouded in a kind of mysterious obscurity. About a century ago, 

 however, his Opus Majus was published 1 by Dr. S. Jebb, principally 

 from a manuscript in the library of Trinity College, Dublin ; and this 

 contained most or all of the separate works which were previously 

 known to the public, along with others still more peculiar and charac- 

 teristic. We are thus able to judge of Roger Bacon's knowledge and 

 of his views, and they are in every way well worthy our attention. 



" The Opus Majus is addressed to Pope Clement the Fourth, whom 

 Bacon had known when he was legate in England as Cardinal-bishop 

 of Sabina, and who admired the talents of the monk, and pitied him 

 for the persecutions to which he was exposed. On his elevation to 

 the papal chair, this account of Bacon's labors and views was sent, at 

 the earnest request of the pontiff. Besides the Opus Majus, he wrote 

 two others, the Opus Minus and Opus Tertium ; which were also 

 sent to the pope, as the author says, 2 'on account of the danger of 

 roads, and the possible loss of the work.' These works still exist un- 

 published, in the Cottonian and other libraries. 



" The Opus Majus is a work equally wonderful with regard to its 

 general scheme, and to the special treatises with which the outlines of 

 the plan are filled up. The professed object of the work is to urge the 

 necessity of a reform in the mode of philosophizing, to set forth the 

 reasons why knowledge had not made a greater progress, to draw back 

 attention to the sources of knowledge which had been unwisely neg- 

 lected, to discover other sources which were yet almost untouched, and 

 to animate men in the undertaking, by a prospect of the vast advan- 

 tages which it offered. In the development of this plan, all the lead- 

 ing portions of science are expounded in the most complete shape which 

 they had at that time assumed ; and improvements of a very wide and 

 striking kind are proposed in some of the principal of these depart- 

 ments. Even if the work had had no leading purpose, it would have 

 been highly valuable as a treasure of the most solid knowledge and 

 soundest speculations of the time ; even if it had contained no such 

 details, it would have been a work most remarkable for its general 

 views and scope. It may be considered as, at the same time, the En- 

 cyclopedia and the Novum Organon of the thirteenth century. 



1 Fratris Kogeri Bacon Ordinis Minorum Opus Majus ad Clementem Quartum, 

 Pontificem Romanum, ex MS. Codice Duhliniensi cum aliis quibvsdam collate nunc 

 primum edidit S. Jebb, M.D. Londini, 1733. 



2 Opus Majus, Prsef. 



