BAG 
BAG 
rive on the sice point at home; which are 
to be answered by your adversary.. 
The men being thus disposed be sure to 
make good your trey and ace points ; hit 
boldly, and come away as fast as you can. 
When you come to a bearing have a care 
of making when you need not ; and doublets 
now will stand you most in stead. If both 
bear together, he that is first, off, without 
doublets, wing one; if both bear, and one 
goes off with doublets, he wins two. If 
your- table be clear before your adversary’s 
men are cpnre in, that is back-gammon, 
which is three ; but if you thus go off with 
doublets, it is four. 
The great dexterity of this game is to be 
forward, if possible, upon safe terms ; and 
so to point the men that it shall not be 
possible for the adversary to pass, though 
you have entered your men, till you give 
him liberty, after having got two to one of 
the advantage of the game. 
Back staff, in the sea language, an in- 
strument formerly used for taking the sun’s 
altitude at sea : so called because the back 
of the observer is turned towards the sun 
during the observation. 
Back stays of a ship, are ropes belonging 
to the main-mast and fore-mast, and the 
masts belonging to them ; serving to keep 
them from pitching forwards or over-board. 
BACKING, in law, a warrant of justice 
of peaee, where a warrant granted in one 
jurisdiction is required to be executed in 
another; as where a felony has been com- 
mitted in one county and the offender 
resides in another ; in which case, on proof 
of the hand-writing of the justice who grant- 
ed the warrant, ajustice in such other county 
indorses or writes his name at the back of it, 
thereby giving authority to execute the 
warrant in such other county. 
BACON (Roger), in biography, an Eng- 
lish monk of the Franciscan order, celebrat- 
ed for his genius and learning, was born near 
Ilchester in Somersetshire, in the year 1214. 
He commenced his studies at Oxford ; from 
whence he removed to the university of Pa- 
ris, which at that time was esteemed the cen- 
tre of literature : here he made such progress 
in the sciences, that he was esteemed the 
glory of the university, and was in high esti- 
mation with several of his countrymen, par- 
ticularly with Robert Groothead, or Grorit- 
bead, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, his great 
friend and patron. Having taken the degree 
of doctor, he took the habit of the Fi'anciscan 
order, either while he was in France, or soon 
after his return to England, about the year 
1240. He now pursued his favourite study 
of experimental philosophy with unremitting 
ardour and assiduity. In this pursuit, in 
experiments, instruments, and in scarce 
books, he informs us he spent, in the course 
of 20 years, no less than 20001. which sum 
was generonsly furnished to him by some 
of the heads of the university, to enable 
him the better to pursue his noble re- 
searches. But such extraordinary talents, 
and progress in the sciences, which in that 
ignorant age were so little known to the 
rest of mankind, while they raised the ad- 
miration of the more intelligent, could not 
fail to excite the envy of his illiterate fra- 
ternity, whose malice he further drew upon 
him by the freedom with which he treated 
the clergy in his writings, in which he spared 
neither their ignorance nor their want of 
morals : these therefore found no difficulty 
in possessing the vulgar with the notion of 
Bacon’s dealing with the devil. Under this 
pretence he was restrained from reading 
lectures ; his writings were confined to his 
convent; and at length, in 1278, he liimself 
was imprisoned in his cell, at 64 years of 
age. Being allowed, however, the use of 
his books, he still proceeded in the rational 
pursuit of knowledge, correcting his for- 
mer labours, and writing several curious 
pieces. 
When Bacon had been ten years in con- 
finement, Jerom de Ascoli, general of his 
order, who had condemned his doctrine, 
was chosen pope by the name of Nicho- 
las IV. ; and being reputed a person of great 
abilities, and one who had turned his 
thoughts to philosophical studies. Bacon re- 
solved to apply to him for his discharge ; and 
to shew both the innocence and the usefulness 
of his studies, addressed to him a treatise 
“ On the Means of avoiding the infirmities 
of Old Age.” What effect this had on the 
pope does not appear ; it did not at least 
produce an immediate discharge : however, 
towards the latter end of his reign, by the 
interposition of some noblemen, Bacon ob- 
tained his liberty ; after which he spent the 
remainder of his life in the college of his 
order, where he died in the year 1294, at 80 
years of age, and was buried in the Fran- 
ciscan church. Such are the few particu- 
lars which the most diligent researches have 
been able to discover concerning the life 
of this very extraordinary man. 
Bacon’s printed works are : 1, “ Epistola 
Fratris Rogeri Baconis de Secretis Operibus 
Artis et Naturae, et de Nullitate Magiae 
Paris, 1542, in 4to. Basil, 1593, in 8vo. 
