88 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



one of the greatest, best, and most beautiful achievements 

 ever attempted by the Church of God." 



This is not all. Roger Bacon had the daring to question 

 the Ptolemaic System on every point, and he attacked it 

 precisely on the point which, later, attracted the attention a*nd 

 labour of Copernicus. Space prevents us from going fully 

 into this matter. 



In all this, then, Roger proved that he was an astronomical 

 observer and mathematician of high order. 



H. There is another thing which he seems to have 

 studied, or at least deeply pondered over, and the outcome 

 of his meditation on that subject is not the least astonishing 

 evidence of his universality. Alchemy, which he practised 

 with perseverance, led him almost to anticipate the doctrine of 

 animal magnetism. " The soul," says he, "acts upon the 

 body, and its chief act is speech. Now speech, actuated by 

 profound thought, by direct will, by strong desire and a 

 powerful conscience, keeps in itself the power which the soul 

 has communicated to it, and carries that power outside ; it is 

 the soul which through speech acts both upon physical forces 

 and upon other souls, which bend to the will of the 

 operator.* Nature obeys thought, and the acts of men have 

 an irresistible energy. Therein are explained characters, 

 charms, and sortileges ; therein also lies the explanation of 

 miracles and prophecies, which are only natural phenomena. 

 A soul which is pure and sinless can thereby command 

 elements and change the order of the world ; this is why the 

 Saints have wrought so many prodigies/' 



When we bear in mind all these proofs of scientific 

 genius, we cannot wonder that Humboldt should have 

 considered Roger Bacon as " the greatest apparition of 

 the Middle Ages/'f and should have endorsed the eulogium 

 of Leland : " He went round and into the whole of philo- 

 sophy in such a manner that he left no part of it unexplored." 



I. There is still another aspect in which Roger Bacon 

 ought to be considered his practical prescience, or his 

 faculty of conceiving practical applications. For, when 



* Opus Majus, p. 251 ; Opus Tertium, Cap. XXVI I. 

 f Cosmos, Vol. II., p. 398. 



