Science in Early England. 29 



haste or carelessness appears in them. There is evidence 

 that he intended all these works merely as a preliminary to 

 a still greater one, of which the Compendium Philosophise 

 is a part. 



To do justice to him, and to give extracts showing the 

 intellectual level on which he stood, would far exceed the 

 limits of a page or two. One can only regret that such a 

 man should not have been able to command the leisure 

 and encouragement which would have been his lot in a 

 more enlightened age. That he was a believer in alchemy 

 there is no doubt, but for this he cannot be blamed; nor 

 for a belief in magic, though he is most emphatic in 

 assigning it a subordinate place. The one quotation 

 which follows, from the Appendix to the Compendium 

 Philosophise, will show to what extent he forecasted the 

 labours of engineers and mechanicians, while at the same 

 time he is evidently not letting his imagination run riot, 

 but keeps within reasonable bounds, as if he knew the 

 range of human powers. "That I may the better demon- 

 strate the inferiority and indignity of magical power to 

 that of Nature and Art, I shall awhile discourse on such 

 admirable operations (of Art and Nature) as have not the 

 least magic in them. . . . And first of such engines 

 as are purely artificial. 



"I. It is possible to make engines to sail withal, so 

 that either fresh or salt water vessels may be guided by 

 the help of one man, and made to move with a greater 

 swiftness than others which are full of rowers to drive 

 them along. 



"II. It is possible to make a chariot move with an 

 inestimable swiftness, such as the scythed chariots were, 

 wherein our forefathers fought, and this motion to be 

 without the help of any living creature. 



"III. It is possible to make engines for flying; a man 

 sitting in the midst thereof, by turning only an instrument 



