B A C 



180 



BAG 



Atefc- 



Gammon 



I 



Bacon, 

 R >gxr. 



him bearing his men to his greatest advantage, and 

 will also give you the chance of his making a blot, 

 that you may hit. But if, upon a calculation, you 

 find you have a throw, or a probability of saving your 

 gammon, never wait for a blot, because the odds are 

 greatly against hitting it. 



Laws of Back-gammon. 



1. -If you take a man or men from any point, that 

 an or men must be played. 



2. You are not understood to have played any man 

 till placed upon a point, and quitted. 



Si If you play with 14 men only, there is no pe- 

 nalty attending it, because with a lesser number you 

 play to a disadvantage, by not having the additional 

 man to make up your tables. 



4. If you bear any number of men before you have 

 entered a man taken up, and which consequently you 

 was obliged to enter, such men, so borne, must be 

 entered again in your adversary's tables, as well as the 

 man takeu up. 



5.- If you have mistaken your throw, and played it, 

 and if your adversary has thrown, it is not in your or 

 his choice to alter it, unless both parties agree. 



BACK Staff, or Bac k Quadrant, the name 

 f an instrument invented by Captain Davis, for ta- 

 king the altitude of the sun at sea. It is called the 

 English quadrant by the French. See Quadrant. 



U) 



BACON, Roger, known also by the appellation 



f the Admirable Doctor, was the greatest philosopher 

 f the 13th century, and, in the estimation of some 

 respectable writers, the brightest genius which mo- 

 dern Europe ever produced. He was born at Ilches- 

 ter, in the year 1214, and, to the utmost verge of a 

 long life, employed his versatile talents in cultivating 

 the richest fields of science and literature. His early 

 studies, at Oxford, were pursued with an eagerness 

 and assiduity, which, at the same time, insured success, 

 and earned the strongest marks of favour from his 

 instructors. Transferring the scene of his education 

 from England to France, in conformity with the 

 usual practice of the times, he availed himself of the 

 prelections delivered by the most distinguished pro- 

 fessors in the university of Paris. His extraordinary 

 attainments, however, are to be attributed less to any 

 advantages derived from scholastic tuition, than to 

 his own intense and indefatigable application. If we 

 form an estimate of the merits of his contemporaries 

 lrom the voluminous remains of the applauded tri- 

 umvirate, Albertus, Aquinas, and Bonaventura, to 

 whose irrefragable authorities almost every school 

 paid implicit deference, and whose names eclipsed 

 the glories of all their rival doctors, we shall easily 

 perceive how little Bacon owed to his preceptors, 

 and how much may be achieved by the well-directed 

 labours of a sound and vigorous mind. His intimate 

 knowledge of Oriental and Grecian learning was un- 

 rivalled, in an age when minute attentions to words 

 constituted the whole of what was called erudition, 

 and when frivolous philological distinctions were mis- 

 taken for the profundities of abstract science. But 

 to his higher praise be it recorded, that, though 

 long assailed by the rancour of prejudice, and ob- 

 structed by the vengeance of bigotry, he was the 



first in modem times, who, spurning the trammels of 

 veteran authorities, pointed out the true road to dis- 

 covery, and demonstrated the utility of his method, 

 by exemplifying it in a brilliant train of successful 

 investigations. At Paris he was advanced to the de- 

 gree of doctor in divinity ; and when he was twenty- 

 six years of age, he entered into the community of 

 Friars-Minor, (or Grey Friars, ) founded by St Fran- 

 cis ; a monastic order which was then rising into 

 great influence. About this time he returned to 

 Oxford, where, having obtained a very extensive 

 and valuable apparatus, he devoted himself chiefly to 

 the study of mechanics, optics, astronomy, and che- 

 mistry. The mendicant brotherhood, to whose so- 

 ciety he was unfortunately united, envious of hie 

 matchless honours, or fearful of his future ascendan- 

 cy, conspired to blast the reputation, and to defeat 

 the liberal ambition of one whose aims, uncontami- 

 natcd by secular views, were exclusively directed to 

 the advancement of the highest and most useful 

 branches of human knowledge. He was slanderous- 

 ly reported to be addicted to necromancy and the 

 unholy " communion of devils ;" and so powerful 

 were the secret intrigues of his adversaries, that, 

 though the heads of the university were friendly to 

 his interest, it was deemed expedient, not only to 

 prevent him from taking any share in the instruction 

 of the youth, but even to condemn him to a rigorous 

 confinement, aggravated by the harshest privations, 

 and uncheered by the offices of friendship. It ie 

 said, that this hostility was inflamed by other pas- 

 sions not less cruel than jealousy. The monks and 

 ecclesiastics were exasperated by the just animad- 

 versions which Bacon had been heard to pass on the 

 gross ignorance and errors of tiie religious orders, 

 and by the indignant severity with which he had 

 censured their prevalent vices. On the exaltation of 

 Clement IV. to the papal dignity, he obtained s 

 temporary respite from his persecutions; and this in- 

 terval of unmolested quiet, was dedicated wall fresh 

 ardour to the favourite occupations which had never 

 ceased to engage his mind. Clement enje>yed his dig- 

 nity only for three years; and his successor, Gregory 

 X., was too much engrossed with the miseries ot the 

 Christian's in Palestine, to bestow a single thought: 

 on the protection of a philosopher's retirement, or 

 the redress of a philosopher's wrongs. It does not 

 appear, however, that the persona! liberty of BacOB 

 was again abridged till the year 127S, when he- war 

 seized and imprisoned in France ; and at the same 

 time, an order was given by the guardian of the Fran- 

 ciscans, Jerome d'Ascoli, bishop of PaljEstrina, after- 

 ward! Nicolas IV., interdicting the- perusal of hit 

 writings. He lingered in this captivity lor more 

 than ten years ; but at length he regained hii I 

 dom, and once more found his way to Oxi^ rd, 

 where, at the venerable age of seventy-eight, death 

 put a period to his labours and vexations, in the year 

 1298. 



The published works of this great man are not 

 numerous. The best known of these works is en- 

 titled ()j'V< Majus, containing an abstract of hit 

 other treatises. An edition of this book Was print- 

 ed by Bowyer in 1733, under the inspection of Dr 

 Jebb. Another book, under the title of EpUiqis. 



6 



Riea, 

 Roger. 



