76 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



accessible to all in an equal degree ; so does Francis both 

 ignoring the great part played in the history of discovery by 

 native genius, by chance, and by analogy. 



II. Taking in the next place the errors which Roger 

 discarded, but of which Francis was a believer, we find that 

 {a) Roger disbelieves in magic ; Francis, on the contrary, 

 believes in it. (b) Roger disbelieves in astrology ; Francis, 

 on the other hand, believes in that art. (c) Roger, again, 

 -disbelieves in talismans, whereas Francis believes in their 

 power, and what is more, strongly believes in witchcraft and 

 spirits besides. This divergence of views, on subjects of such 

 capital importance, between two men who appeared at three 

 hundred years' distance from each other, and who are popularly 

 thought to have been representative characters the early 

 one of the Middle Ages, the other of the Revival is a 

 startling fact, since we find here the very reverse of what 

 we should expect. The modern Bacon entertained doctrines 

 which had died out three centuries before among many of 

 the educated class ; the earlier Bacon the man of the 

 Xlllth century entertained the very views which the 

 present world entertains with regard to these subjects.* 



III. Coming lastly to the third series in the parallelism 

 we are drawing, that is, the sound notions which the two 

 Bacons held in common, we find that both (a) projected a 

 dictionary of the Arts and Sciences ; (b) both treated of optics, 

 and called that branch "Perspective " ; both also used the ex- 

 pression "prerogatives of experiment" This double coincidence 

 is very remarkable, (c) Both denounced Scholasticism with 

 vehemence, as a school moving in a circle of abstractions, 

 foreign to the sense of reality and the contemplation of 

 nature a school at once artificial, subtle, disputatious, and 

 pedantic, shutting up the mind within its sphere, and remov- 

 ing it from natural phenomena. Both Bacons therefore 

 denounced Authority, (d) And denouncing Authority, they 



* In justice to Francis Bacon, we must not think that he was the only 

 eminent man of his time who believed in magic, astrology, talismans, and 

 spirits. No ; many men of science Kepler among them shared these 

 delusions. What is significant, however, is that instead of being in the 

 van of progress in these matters, Francis Bacon was less emancipated by 

 knowledge than some great minds of earlier ages. 



