9o PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



It will not appear unfair if we now ask what Francis 

 Bacon has done which can possibly be compared with the 

 wondrous work of Roger ? 



True it is that Roger Bacon's work was " the continuation 

 of that of the Arabs," as some writers have said with ludicrous 

 assumption of authority by way of depreciation ; but if his 

 was to be truly scientific work, it must of necessity have 

 been a continuation of that science which existed before 

 him. That filiation was the only possible one, and what 

 is more, the only one worth anything. By tradition, 

 training, erudition, originality, practical work, discoveries, 

 the Arabs, as we have seen, had for four centuries been at 

 the head of civilisation. The passion for natural science, 

 which by degrees brought in the conception of a universe 

 ruled by immutable laws, sprang among, and was derived 

 from, the Arabs and chiefly from Avicenna and Averroes 

 who were the real ushers of the scientific Revival. They 

 were the sole custodians of knowledge from India to Spain, 

 whilst Europe was intellectually benumbed by anarchy; 

 and the fact that Roger Bacon was their pupil and their con- 

 tinuator constitutes his most invaluable merit, and one of 

 his chief claims to remembrance ; for, although he came 

 after such masterly teachers, he left his mark for all times 

 by his daring innovations, and the impetus he cannot fail 

 to have given far and wide in his and subsequent times 

 until the Revival. Francis Bacon, sad to say, with his wont 

 presumption, despised both the Arabs and their pupil one 

 of the five most admirable geniuses of ten centuries.* 



No comment is necessary. The contrast we have drawn 

 between the two Bacons is so strong, that once perceived, 

 it can never be forgotten. The splendid work of the first 

 Bacon enables us to determine the shadowy work of the 

 second ; we can measure the distance that separates them ; 

 we can distinguish the man of science from the pretender. 

 And if the distance is so great, how much greater is that 

 which separates Francis Bacon from such men as the princes 

 of science, who, before and around him, are the true repre- 

 sentatives of the Revival ! 

 * Hildebrand, Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Dante, Roger Bacon. 



