SCIENCE IN EARLY ENGLAND. 739 



instinctively, after even casually turning over a few pages, that the 

 style is vastly superior to and more scientific than anything that has 

 gone before. There is a solidity and keenness of penetration about it 

 which is sadly wanting in his predecessors, who were content to hand 

 down what they had learned without so much as a show of criticism. 

 Boger Bacon was born at Ilchester, in Somersetshire, in 1214. He 

 took the degree of doctor of theology in the University of Paris, famed 

 in those days above Oxford, Salerno, or Montpellier, and acquired a 

 mastery of the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic literature of his time. 

 He joined the Franciscan order of monks, but incurred much opposi- 

 tion from them, even to the extent of being thrown into prison on sev- 

 eral occasions on account of having fallen under the suspicion of 

 magic. His proposal to repudiate Aristotle altogether, and appeal to 

 nature by experiment, was also very unpopular. He spent forty years 

 of his life in study, and over £2,000 in buying books and materials and 

 in traveling; and his own reward was neglect, poverty, and persecution. 

 Fortunately for the world, Clement IV, who had been his friend before 

 his elevation to the papal chair, encouraged him to write, and at his 

 instance he produced these works which have placed him among the 

 immortals: The Opus Majus, Opus Minus, Opus Tertium, and Com- 

 pendium Philosophise. The first of these, planned on a splendid scale, 

 is divided into six parts, as follows : 



(1) On the four causes of human ignorance; authority, custom, pop- 

 ular opinion, and the pride of supposed knowledge. These seem to 

 bear a kind of lurking resemblance to Lord Bacon's Idols of the Tribe, 

 the Cave, the Market Place, and the Theatre; but, for whatever con- 

 nection there is, Francis, and not Roger, must be held accountable. 



(2) On the causes of perfect wisdom in the Sacred Scriptures. 



(3) On the usefulness of grammar. 



(4) On the usefulness of mathematics. This is again subdivided 

 into — 



(a) The necessity of mathematics in human things. 



(&) The necessity of mathematics in divine things. These are 

 enumerated as geography, chronology, cycles, and natural phe- 

 nomena, arithmetic, and music. 



(c) The usefulness of mathematics in ecclesiastical things, e. g. ; 

 the certification of faith, and the correction of the calendar. 



(d) The usefulness of mathematics in the State, for the sciences 

 of hydrography, geography, and astrology. 



(5) On perspective (i. e., optics), treated under four heads: The 

 organs of vision, the propagation of light in straight lines, reflection 

 and refraction, and the propagation of the impressions of light. 



(6) Of experimental science. 



Whewell says of this work that its plan was "to urge the necessity 

 of a reform in the mode of philosophizing; to set forth the reasons why 

 knowledge had not made a great progress; to bring back attention to 



