ROGER BACON. 89 



once the laws of nature have been discovered, speculation 

 has ended, and application commences. No force is so 

 hidden in nature but man's mind can reach it; none so 

 tremendous but his will can master it. If here, on the 

 subject -of the possibilities of science, Roger Bacon gives 

 a free rein to his imagination (as he does in a measure 

 when speaking of the power of magnifying glasses see 

 page 84), it must be owned, nevertheless, that his expec- 

 tations were not altogether extravagant, since we have now 

 suspension bridges, submarine boats, diving-bells, balloons, 

 steamers, railways that is, marvels not unlike those which 

 he predicted were possible achievements. 



" Instruments will be made," he says,* t( to navigate 

 without the assistance of rowers, and float and direct the 

 largest ships, with one man to conduct them, and more 

 quickly than if they were full of sailors ; vehicles (carriages) 

 which will roll along with inimaginable speed without any 

 team ; instruments to fly aloft, in the middle of which 

 a man will move some spring which will put in motion 

 artificial wings beating the air like those of birds ; a small 

 instrument three fingers in length and the same size in height 

 capable of raising and lowering incredible weights without 

 fatigue. With its assistance it will be possible for one to fly 

 with his friends from the depth of a dungeon, and come down 

 on the earth at will. Another instrument will be used to drag 

 any resisting object on an even ground, and will enable one 

 man to carry a thousand persons against their will ; there will 

 be an apparatus to walk on the bottom of the sea and of rivers 

 without any danger ; instruments to swim and remain under 

 water; bridges over rivers without any piles or columns; in 

 fact, all kinds of marvellous machines and apparatus." 



Out of the wonderful variety of his achievements, we have 

 steadily to remember that Roger's pre-eminent work, and 

 therefore paramount claim on us, was the introduction of the 

 EXPERIMENTAL METHOD the starting-point of modern pro- 

 gress in Europe. To him, then, belongs the glory of having 

 pointed out, and traced, the sole road of science, of having 

 " created both the law and the practice of experimentation." 



* De Mirabili. 



