8o PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



and Diderot to name the most famous "devoted their 

 labours to researches of erudition only," and were not, like 

 the first, earnest practical inquirers, observers, manipulators, 

 and experimentalists ; so that Roger Bacon belongs to the 

 same genus as Humboldt. 



Roger Bacon was not only familiar with the science of 

 the ancients and that of the Arabs, but he knew Arabic, 

 Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and was able to compose works in 

 the three last tongues on mathematics, physics, chemistry, 

 astronomy, medicine, geography, physiology, and theology. 

 His equipment in point of scholarship alone was of a far 

 more weighty kind than Francis Bacon's, it is clear. Then 

 he spent his fortune in travels, books, instruments, and 

 experiments, in all of which Francis (books excepted) did 

 not spend half-a- crown. That speaks volumes as regards 

 earnestness ; but what is more to the purpose and far more 

 significant, Roger devoted all his time, energy, and mind 

 to scientific pursuits, and suffered years and years of im- 

 prisonment for his science ; the other devoted his time and 

 faculties to worldly ends, and dabbled in science only for 

 worldly purposes. If he, too, went to prison, it was for debt 

 incurred for diamond rings. 



What now were the achievements of Roger Bacon in 

 natural philosophy which give him a unique place in the 

 history of the Middle Ages, and made him the precursor of 

 modern science to the exclusion of his great namesake ? 



A. In the first place, Roger's clear insight, as G. H. 

 Lewes has pointed out, is displayed in the recognition of 

 the essential connection of all the sciences. " All sciences," 

 says he, " are connected together, and mutually assist one 

 another, like members of the same body, each one of which 

 performs its own function, not only for itself, but for all the 

 others."* Here we have the interaction of the sciences on 

 one another noticed with a force which Francis failed to 

 express when he faintly reproduced the same idea (Nov. 

 Org. I. 107). 



* " Omnes sciential sunt connexae et mutuis se fovent auxiliis, sicut 

 partes ejusdem totius, quarum quaelibet opus suum peragit, non solum 

 propter se, sed pro aliis." (Opt4s Tertium, iv.) 



