NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 11 



ship and of the Novum Organum may not wane, but Bacon of 

 the prison-cell and the Opus Major steadily approaches him in 

 brightness. 



More than three centuries before Francis Bacon advocated the 

 experimental method, Roger Bacon practiced it, and the results as 

 now revealed are wonderful. He wrought with power in many 

 sciences, and his knowledge was sound and exact. By him, more 

 than by any other man of the middle ages, was the world brought 

 into the more fruitful paths of scientific thought the paths 

 which have led to the most precious inventions ; and among these 

 are clocks, lenses, burning specula, telescopes, which were given 

 by him to the world, directly or indirectly. In his writings are 

 found formulae for extracting phosphorus, manganese, and bis- 

 muth. It is even claimed, with much appearance of justice, that 

 he investigated the power of steam, and he seems to have very 

 nearly reached some of the principal doctrines of modern chem- 

 istry. But it should be borne in mind that his method of investi- 

 gation was even greater than its results. *' In an age when theo- 

 logical subtilizing was alone thought to give the title of scholar, 

 he insisted on real reasoning and the aid of natural science by 

 mathematics ; in an age when experimenting was sure to cost a 

 man his reputation, and was likely to cost him his life, he insisted 

 on experimenting, and braved all its risks. Few greater men have 

 lived. As we read the sketch given by Whewell of Bacon's pro- 

 cess of reasoning regarding the refraction of light, he seems di- 

 vinely inspired. 



On this man came the brunt of the battle. The most con- 

 scientious men of his time thought it their duty to fight him, and 

 they fought him steadily and bitterly. His sin was not disbelief in 

 Christianity, not want of fidelity to the Church, not even dissent 

 from the main lines of orthodoxy ; on the contrary, he showed 

 in all his writings a desire to strengthen Christianity, to build up 

 the Church, and to develop orthodoxy. He was attacked and con- 

 demned mainly because he did not believe that philosophy had 

 become complete, and that nothing more was to be learned ; he 

 was condemned, as his opponents expressly declared, " on account 

 of certain suspicious novelties" " propter quasdam novitates sus- 

 pectas" % 



Upon his return to Oxford, about 1250, the forces of unreason 

 beset him on all sides. Greatest of all his enemies was Bonaven- 

 tura. This enemy was the theologic idol of the period : the 

 learned world knew him as the " seraphic Doctor " ; Dante gave 

 him an honored place in the great poem of the middle ages ; the 

 Church finally enrolled him among the saints. By force of great 

 ability in theology he had become in the middle of the thirteenth 

 century general of the Franciscan order ; thus, as Bacon's master, 



