114 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWEST 



however, Roger Bacon, whose works have been 

 the subject of so much criticism. Singer^ is of 

 the opinion that only in the works of Bacon do 

 we encounter a clear and unmistakable demand 

 for the search into Nature. Taking into consid- 

 eration the facts of Bacon's personal idiosyncra- 

 sies and the weakness of the evidence of his sci- 

 entific achievements in contrast to his constant 

 demand for investigation and evidence, he con- 

 siders that Bacon's realization, in advance of his 

 age, of the nature and application of the ex- 

 perimental method is an established fact, that to 

 Bacon 'experimental science' was the sole means 

 of obtaining knowledge. Thus he quotes Bacon: 



All sciences except this either merely employ argu- 

 ments to prove conclusions, like the purely specula- 

 tive sciences, or have universal and imperfect conclu- 

 sions. Experimental science alone can ascertain to 

 perfection what can be effected by Nature, what by 

 art, what by fraud. It alone teaches how to judge all 

 the follies of the magicians just as logic tests argu- 

 ment. 



Arabic Science and Philosophy 



If we again look back several centuries before 

 Aquinas and Bacon to the Arabs, we find that, 

 while science declined in Europe, it was kept 



iCharles Singer: Historical Relations of Religion and Science. 

 In Science, Religion and Reality, London, 1926. 



