A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



duced writings strangely at variance in tone and in 

 content with the others. This anachronistic thinker 

 was the English monk, Roger Bacon. 



ROGER BACON 



Bacon was born in 1214 and died in 1292. By 

 some it is held that he was not appreciated in his 

 own time because he was really a modern scientist 

 living in an age two centuries before modern science 

 or methods of modern scientific thinking were known. 

 Such an estimate, however, is a manifest exaggeration 

 of the facts, although there is probably a grain of 

 truth in it withal. His learning certainly brought 

 him into contact with the great thinkers of the 

 time, and his writings caused him to be imprisoned 

 by his fellow - churchmen at different times, from 

 which circumstances we may gather that he was 

 an advanced thinker, even if not a modern sci- 

 entist. 



Although Bacon was at various times in durance, 

 or under surveillance, and forbidden to write, he was 

 nevertheless a marvellously prolific writer, as is shown 

 by the numerous books and unpublished manuscripts 

 of his still extant. His master-production was the 

 Opus Majus. In Part IV. of this work he attempts 

 to show that all sciences rest ultimately on mathe- 

 matics; but Part V., which treats of perspective, is of 

 particular interest to modern scientists, because in 

 this he discusses reflection and refraction, and the 

 properties of mirrors and lenses. In this part, also, it 

 is evident that he is making use of such Arabian 

 writers as Alkindi and Alhazen, and this is of especial 



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