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Hearne's Preface to P. Langtoft's Chronicle (appendix, num. xi.).
Joseph Glanvill, in his Scepsis Scientifica (dedication) says,
"Solomon's house in the New Atlantis was a prophetic scheme
of the Royal Society "; and Henry Oldenburg (c. 1615-1677),
a work begun by the single
one of the first secretaries of the society, speaks of the new
eagerness to obtain scientific data as
care and conduct of the excellent Lord Verulam." Boyle, in
whose works there are frequent eulogistic references to Bacon,
regarded himself as a disciple and was indeed known as a second
The predominating influence of Bacon's philosophy is
Bacon.
thus clearly established in the generation which succeeded his
own. There is abundant evidence to show that in the uni-
versities of Oxford and Cambridge (especially the latter) the new
spirit had already modified the old curricula. Bacon has fre-
quently been disparaged on the ground that his name is not
mentioned by Sir Isaac Newton. It can be shown, however, that
Newton was not ignorant of Bacon's works, and Dr Fowler
explains his silence with regard to them on three grounds: (1)
that Bacon's reputation was so well established that any definite
mention was unnecessary, (2) that it was not customary at the
time to acknowledge indebtedness to contemporary and recent
writers, and (3) that Newton's genius was so strongly mathe-
matical (whereas Bacon's great weakness was in mathematics)
that he had no special reason to refer to Bacon's experimental
principles.

positive spirit of his system. Theological questions, which had | Ode to the Royal Society, and to Dr John Wallis's remarks in tortured the minds of generations, are by him relegated from the province of reason to that of faith. Even reason must be restrained from striving after ultimate truth; it is one of the errors of the human intellect that it will not rest in general principles, but must push its investigations deeper. Experience and observation are the only remedies against prejudice and error. Into questions of metaphysics, as commonly understood, Bacon can hardly be said to have entered, but a long line of thinkers have drawn inspiration from him, and it is not without justice that he has been looked upon as the originator and guiding spirit of what is known as the empirical school. Bacon's Influence.-It is impossible within our limits to do more than indicate the influence which Bacon's views have had on subsequent thinkers. The most valuable and complete discussion of the subject is contained in T. Fowler's edition of the Novum Organum (introd. § 14). It is there argued that, both in philosophy and in natural science, Bacon's influence was immediate and lasting. Under the former head it is pointed out (i.) that the fundamental principle of Locke's Essay, that all our ideas are product of sensation and reflection, is briefly stated in the first aphorism of the Novum Organum, and (ii.) that the whole atmosphere of that treatise is characteristic of the Essay. Bacon is, therefore, regarded by many as the father of what is most characteristic in English psychological speculation. As he himself said, he "rang the bell which called the wits together." In the sphere of ethics he is similarly regarded as a forerunner of the empirical method. The spirit of the De Augmentis (bk. vii.) and the inductive method which is discussed in the Novum Organum are at the root of all theories which have constructed a moral code by an inductive examination of human consciousness and the results of actions. Among such theories utilitarianism especially is the natural result of the application to the phenomenon of conduct of the Baconian experimental method. In this connexion, however, it is important to notice that Hobbes, who had been Bacon's secretary, makes no mention of Baconian induction, nor does he in any of his works make any critical reference to Bacon himself. It would, therefore, appear that Bacon's influence was not immediate.

In the sphere of natural science, Bacon's importance is attested by references to his work in the writings of the principal scientists, not only English, but French, German and Italian. Fowler (op. cit.) has collected from Descartes, Gassendi, S. Sorbière, Jean Baptiste du Hamel, quotations which show how highly Bacon was regarded by the leaders of the new scientific movement. Sorbière, who was by no means partial to things English, definitely speaks of him as "celuy qui a le plus puissamment solicité les interests de la physique, et excité le monde à faire des expériences" (Relation d'un voyage en Angleterre, Cologne, 1666, pp. 63-64). It was, however, Voltaire and the encyclopaedists who raised Bacon to the pinnacle of his fame in France, and hailed him as "le père de la philosophie expérimentale" (Lettres sur les Anglois). Condillac, in the same spirit, says of him, personne n'a mieux connu que lui la cause de nos erreurs." So the Encyclopédie, besides giving a eulogistic article "Baconisme," speaks of him (in d'Alembert's preliminary discourse) as "le plus grand, le plus universel, et le plus éloquent des philosophes." Among other writers, Leibnitz and Huygens give testimony which is the more valuable as being critical. Leibnitz speaks of Bacon as 'divini ingenii vir," and, like several other German authors, classes him with Campanella; Huygens refers to his bonnes méthodes." If, however, we are to attach weight to English writers of the latter half of the 17th century, we shall find that one of Bacon's greatest achievements was the impetus given by his New Allantis to the foundation of the Royal Society (q.v.). Dr Thomas Sprat (1635-1713), bishop of Rochester and first historian of the society, says that Bacon of all others "had the true imagination of the whole extent" of the enterprise, and that in his works are to be found the best arguments for the experimental method of natural philosophy (Hist. of the Royal Society, pp. 35-36, and Thomas Tenison's Baconiana, pp. 264-266). In this connexion reference should be made also to Cowley's

44

If the foregoing examples are held sufficient to establish the influence of Bacon on the intellectual development of his immediate successors, it follows that the whole trend of typically English thought, not only in natural science, but also in mental, moral and political philosophy, is the logical fulfilment of Baconian principles. He argued against the tyranny of authority, the vagaries of unfettered imagination and the academic aims of unpractical dialectic; the vital energy and the reasoned optimism of his language entirely outweigh the fact that his contributions to the stock of actual scientific knowledge were practically inconsiderable. It may be freely admitted that in the domain of logic there is nothing in the Organum that has not been more instructively analysed either by Aristotle himself or in modern works; at the same time, there is probably no work which is a better and more stimulating introduction to logical study. Its terse, epigrammatic phrases sink into the fibre of the mind, and are a healthy warning against crude, immature generalization.

While, therefore, it is a profound mistake to regard Bacon as a great constructive philosopher, or even as a lonely pioneer of modern thought, it is quite unfair to speak of him as a trifler. His great work consists in the fact that he summed up the faults which the widening of knowledge had disclosed in medieval thought, and in this sense he stands high among those who were in many parts of 16th-century Europe striving towards a new intellectual activity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. Editions.-The classical edition is that of 1870 (vols. i.-iii., philosophical writings; iv.-v., translations; vi.-vii., R. L. Ellis, J. Spedding and D. D. Heath, 1st ed., 1857; 2nd ed., literary and professional works). B. Montagu's edition (17 vols., 1825-1834) is full but unscholarly. An extremely useful reprint philosophical), based on the first Ellis-Spedding edition, was pub(in one volume) of the philosophical works (with a few not strictly lished by J. M. Robertson (London, 1905); besides the original introductions, it contains a useful summary by the editor of the various problems of Bacon's life and thought. Numerous cheap (1901), and New Universal Library" series (1905); Sidney Lee, editions have lately been published, e.g. in the "World's Classics Of particular works there are numerous editions in all the chief English Works of Francis Bacon (London, 1905). languages. The following are the most important:-T. Fowler, Novum Organum (Oxford, 1878; ed. 1889), with notes, full introbibliography. This superseded the edition of G. W. Kitchin (Oxford, duction on Bacon's philosophy in all its relations, and a most valuable. 1855). The Essays have been edited more than twenty times since 1870; the following editions may be mentioned:-Archbishop and Gibson (Lond., 1886); E. A. Abbott (Lond., 1879): John Whately (6th ed., 1864); W. Aldis Wright (Lond., 1862); F. Storr Buchan (Lond., 1879); A. S. West (Cambridge, 1897); W. Evans (Edinburgh, 1897). A facsimile reprint of the 1st edition was published in New York (1904). Advancement of Learning:-W. Aldis

Wright (Camb., 1866; 5th ed., 1900): F. G. Selby (1892-1895); and Bristol cathedral, give ample testimony to his powers.
Classics series (introduction by Prof. T. Case, Lond., 1906). Perhaps his best works are to be found among the monuments
Wisdom of the Ancients and New Atlantis, in Cassell's National in Westminster Abbey.
Library" (1886 and 1903). G. C. M. Smith, New Atlantis (1900). See Richard Cecil, Memoirs of John Bacon, R.A. (London. 1801);
J. Fürstenhagen, Kleinere Schriften (Leipzig, 1884).

and also vol. i. of R. Cecil's works, ed. J. Pratt (1811).
Biography.-J. Spedding, The Life and Letters of Lord Baton
(1861), Life and Times of Francis Bacon (1878); also Dr Rawley's

BACON, LEONARD (1802-1881), American Congregational Life in the Ellis-Spedding editions, and J. M. Robertson's reprint preacher and writer, was born in Detroit, Michigan, on the 19th (above); W. Hepworth Dixon, Personal History of Lord Bacon of February 1802, the son of David Bacon (1771-1817), missionary (Lond. 1861), and Slory of Lord Bacon's Life (ib. 1862), John among the Indians in Michigan and founder of the town of ward, Early Life of Lord Bacon (1902); 1. Fowler, Francis Bacon Tallmadge, Ohio. The son prepared for college at the Hartford in English Philos." series (Lond.,

1881); R. W. Church's Bacon, (Conn.) grammar school, graduated at Yale in 1820 and at the in " Men of Letters " series (1884).

Andover Theological Seminary in 1823, and from 1825 until his Philosophy.--Beside the introductions in the Ellis-Spedding death on the 24th of December 1881 was pastor of the First Kuno Fischer, Fr. Bacon (1856, 2nd ed., 1875, Eng. trans. by John Church (Congregational) in New Haven, Connecticut, occupying

a pulpit which was one of the most conspicuous in New England, influence (1857, ed.

1858 and 1877); G. L. Craik, Lord Bacon, his and which had been rendered famous by his predecessors, Moses Writings and his Philosophy (3 vols., 1846-1847, ed. 1860); A. Dorner, Stuart and Nathaniel W. Taylor. In 1866, however, though De Baconis Philosophia (Berlin, 1867, London, 1886): J. x. Licbig, he was never dismissed by a council from his connexion with Verulam's wissenschaftliche Principien (Berl., 1860); E. H. Böhmer, that church, he gave up the active pastorate. He was, from Über F. B. v. Verulam (Erlangen, 1864); Ch. Adam, Philos. de 1826 to 1838, an editor of the Christian Spectator (New

Haven); Francis Bacon (Paris, 1890); Barthélemy St Hilaire, Étude sur was one of the founders (1843) of the New Englander (later the Francis Bacon (Paris, 1890); R. W. Church, op. cit.; H. Heussler, Yale Review); founded in 1848 with Dr R. S. Storrs, Joshua ding, History of Modern Philosophy (Eng. trans.,

1900); J. M. Leavitt, Dr Joseph P. Thompson and Henry C. Bowen, primarily Robertson, Short History of Freethoughi (Lond., 1906): Sidney Lee, to combat slavery extension, the Independent, of which he was Great Englishmen of the 16th century (Lond., 1904).

For the relations an editor until 1863; and was acting professor of didactic between Bacon and Ben Jonson see The Tale of the Shakespeare theology in the theological department of Yale University from Epitaphs by Francis Bacon (New York, 1888); for Bacon's poetical 1866 to 1871, and lecturer on church polity and American church gifts see an article in the Fortnightly Review (March 1905). For the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy see SHAKESPEARE. history from 1871 until his death. Gradually, after taking up

(R. AD.; J. M. M.) his pastorate, he gained greater and greater influence in his

denomination, until he came to be regarded as perhaps the most BACON, JOHN (1740-1799), British sculptor, was born. in prominent Congregationalist of his time, and was sometimes Southwark on the 24th of November 1740, the son of Thomas popularly referred to as “ The Congregational Pope of New Bacon, a cloth-worker, whose forefathers possessed a considerable England.” In all the heated theological controversies of the day, estate in Somersetshire. At the age of fourteen he was bound particularly the long and bitter one concerning the views put apprentice in Mr Crispe's manufactory of porcelain at Lambeth, forward by Dr Horace Bushnell, he was conspicuous, using his where he was at first employed in painting the small ornamental influence to bring about harmony, and in the councils of the pieces of china, but by his great skill in moulding he soon attained Congregational churches, over two of which, the Brooklyn the distinction of being modeller to the work. While engaged councils of 1874 and 1876, he presided as moderator, he manifested in the porcelain works his observation of the models executed great ability both as a debater and as a parliamentarian. In by different sculptors of eminence, which were sent to be burned his own theological views he was broad-minded and an advocate at an adjoining pottery, determined the direction of his genius; of liberal orthodoxy. In all matters concerning the welfare of he devoted himself to the imitation of them with so much success his community or the nation, moreover, he took a deep and that in 1758 a small figure of Peace sent by him to the Society constant interest, and was particularly identified with the for the Encouragement of Arts received a prize, and the highest temperance and anti-slavery movements, his services to the premiums given by that society were adjudged to him nine latter constituting probably the most important work of his times between the years 1763 and 1776. During his apprentice-life. In this, as in most other controversies, he took a moderate ship he also improved the method of working statues in artificial course, condemning the apologists and defenders of slavery on stone, an art which he afterwards carried to perfection. Bacon the one hand and the Garrisonian extremists on the other. first attempted working in marble about the year 1763, and His Slavery Discussed in Occusional Essays from 1833 to 1846 during the course of his early efforts in this art was led to improve (1846) exercised considerable influence upon Abraham Lincoln, the method of transferring the form of the model to the marble and in this book appears the sentence, which, as rephrased by (technically "getting out the points") by the invention of a Lincoln, was widely quoted: “If that form of government, more perfect instrument for the purpose. This instrument pos- that system of social order is not wrong-if those laws of the sessed many advantages above those formerly employed, it was Southern States, by virtue of which slavery exists there, and is more exact, took a correct measurement in every direction, was what it is, are not wrong-nothing is wrong." He was carly contained in a small compass, and could be used upon either attracted to the study of the ecclesiastical history of New England the model or the marble. In the year 1769 he was adjudged and was frequently called upon to deliver commemorative the first gold medal for sculpture given by the Royal Academy, addresses, some of which were published in book and pamphlet his work being a bas-relief representing the escape of Aeneas form. Of these, his Thirteen Historical Discourses (1839), dealing from Troy. In 1770 he exhibited a figure of Mars, which gained with the history of New Haven, and his Four Commemorative him the gold medal of the Society of Arts and his election as Discourses (1866) may be especially mentioned. The most imA.R.A. As a consequence of this success he was engaged to portant of his historical works, however, is his Genesis of the New execute a bust of George III., intended for Christ Church, Oxford. England Churches (1874). He published A Manual for Young He secured the king's favour and retained it throughout life. Church Members (1833); edited, with a biography, the Seled Praca Considerable jealousy was entertained against him by other tical Writings of Richard Baxter (1831); and was the author of a sculptors, and he was commonly charged with ignorance of classic number of hymns, the best-known of which is the one beginning, style. This charge he repelled by the execution of a noble head

"O God, beneath Thy guiding hand of Jupiter Tonans, and many of his emblematical figures are in

Our exiled fathers crossed the sea." perfect classical taste. He died on the 4th of August 1799 and material in the commemorative volume issued by his congregation,

There is no good biography, but there is much biographical was buried in Whitfield's Tabernacle

. His various productions Leonard Bacon, Pastor of the First Church in New Haven (New which may be studied in St Paul's cathedral, London, Christ Haven, 1882), and there is a good sketch in Williston Walker's Church and Pembroke College, Oxford, the Abbey church, Bath, I Ten New England Leaders (New York, 1901).

[graphic]

Leonard Bacon's sister DELIA BACON (1811-1859), born in | Browne, who had again asserted the rights of the house of Suffolk Tallmadge, Ohio, on the 2nd of February 1811, was a teacher in schools in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, and then, until about 1852, conducted in various eastern cities, by methods devised by herself, classes for women in history and literature. She wrote Tales of the Puritans (1831), The Bride of Fort Edward (1839), based on the story of Jane M'Crea, partly in blank verse, and The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded (1857), for which alone she is remembered. This book, in the preparation of which she spent several years in study in England, where she was befriended by Thomas Carlyle and especially by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was intended to prove that the plays attributed to Shakespeare were written by a coterie of men, including Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh and Edmund Spenser, for the purpose of inculcating a philosophic system, for which they felt that they themselves could not afford to assume the responsibility. This system she professed to discover beneath the superficial text of the plays. Her devotion to this one idea, as Hawthorne says, "had thrown her off her balance," and while she was in England she lost her mind entirely. She died in Hartford, Connecticut, on the 2nd of September 1859.

There is a biography by her nephew, Theodore Bacon, Delia Bacon: A Sketch (Boston, 1888), and an appreciative chapter, "Recollections of a Gifted Woman," in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Our Old Home (Boston, 1863).

Leonard Bacon's son LEONARD WOOLSEY BACON (1830-1907), graduated at Yale in 1850, was pastor of various Congregational and Presbyterian churches, and published Church Papers (1876); A Life Worth Living: Life of Emily Bliss Gould (1878); Irenics and Polemics and Sundry Essays in Church History (1895); History of American Christianity (1898); and The Congregationalists (1904). (W. WR.) BACON, SIR NICHOLAS (1509-1579), lord keeper of the great seal of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was the second son of Robert Bacon of Drinkstone, Suffolk, and was born at Chislehurst. He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1527, and afterwards spent some time in Paris. Having returned to England and entered Gray's Ian, he was called to the bar in 1533, and four years later began his public life as solicitor of the court of augmentations. Quickly becoming a person of importance he obtained a number of estates, principally in the eastern counties, after the dissolution of the monasteries, and in 1545 became member of parliament for Dartmouth. In 1546 he was made attorney of the court of wards and liveries, an office of both honour and profit; in 1550 became a bencher and in 1552 treasurer of Gray's Inn. Although his sympathies were with the Protestants, he retained his office in the court of wards during Mary's reign, but an order was issued to prevent him from leaving England. The important period in Bacon's life began with the accession of Elizabeth in 1558. Owing largely to his long and close friendship with Sir William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burghley, his brother-in-law, he was appointed lord keeper of the great seal in December of this year, and was soon afterwards made a privy councillor and a knight. He was instrumental in securing the archbishopric of Canterbury for his friend Matthew Parker, and in his official capacity presided over the House of Lords when Elizabeth opened her first parliament. In opposition to Cecil, he objected to the policy of making war on France in the interests of the enemies of Mary queen of Scots, on the ground of the poverty of England; but afterwards favoured a closer union with foreign Protestants, and seemed quite alive to the danger to his country from the allied and aggressive religious policy of France and Scotland. In 1559 he was authorized to exercise the full jurisdiction of lord chancellor. In 1564 he fell temporarily into the royal disfavour and was dismissed from court, because Elizabeth suspected he was concerned in the publication of a pamphlet, " A Declaration of the Succession of the Crowne Imperiall of Ingland," written by John Hales (q.v.), and favouring the claim of Lady Catherine Grey to the English throne. Bacon's innocence having been admitted he was restored to favour, and replied to a writing by Sir Anthony

to which Lady Catherine belonged. He thoroughly distrusted Mary queen of Scots; objected to the proposal to marry her to the duke of Norfolk; and warned Elizabeth that serious consequences for England would follow her restoration. He seems to have disliked the proposed marriage between the English queen and Francis, duke of Anjou, and his distrust of the Roman Catholics and the French was increased by the massacre of St Bartholomew. As a loyal English churchman he was ceaselessly interested in ecclesiastical matters, and made suggestions for the better observation of doctrine and discipline in the church. He died in London on the 20th of February 1579 and was buried in St Paul's cathedral, his death calling forin many tributes to his memory. He was an eloquent speaker, a learned lawyer, a generous friend; and his interest in education led him to make several gifts and bequests for educational purposes, including the foundation of a free grammar school at Redgrave. His figure was very corpulent and ungainly. Elizabeth visited him several times at Gorhambury, and had previously visited him at Redgrave. He was twice married and by his first wife, Jane, had three sons and three daughters. His second wife was Anne (d. 1610), daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, by whom he had two sons. Bacon's eldest son, Nicholas (c. 1540-1624), was member of parliament for the county of Suffolk and in 1611 was created premier baronet of England. This baronetcy is still held by his descendants. His second and third sons, Nathaniel (c. 1550-1622 and Edward (c. 1550-1618), also took some part in public life, and through his daughter, Anne, Nathaniel was an ancestor of the marquesses Townshend. His sons by his second wife were Anthony (1558-1601), a diplomatist of some repute, and the illustrious Francis Bacon (q.v.).

See G. Whetstone, "Remembraunce of the life of Sir N. Bacon," in the Frondes Caducae (London, 1816); J. A. Froude, History of England, passim (London, 1881 f.).

BACON, ROGER (c. 1214-c. 1294), English philosopher and man of science, was born near Ilchester in Somerset. His family appears to have been in good circumstances, but in the stormy reign of Henry III. their property was despoiled and several members of the family were driven into exile. Roger completed his studies at Oxford, though not, as current traditions assert, at Merton or at Brasenose, neither of which had then been founded. His abilities were speedily recognized by his contemporaries, and he enjoyed the friendship of such eminent men as Adam de Marisco and Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln.

Very little is known of Bacon's life at Oxford; it is said he took orders in 1233, and this is not improbable. In the following year, or perhaps later, he crossed over to France and studied at the university of Paris, then the centre of intellectual life in Europe. The two great orders, Franciscans and Dominicans, were in the vigour of youth, and had already begun to take the lead in theological discussion. Alexander of Hales was the oracle of the Franciscans, while the rival order rejoiced in Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas.

The scientific training which Bacon had received, mainly from the study of the Arab writers, showed him the manifold defects in the systems reared by these doctors. Aristotle was known but in part, and that part was rendered well-nigh unintelligible through the vileness of the translations; yet not one of those professors would learn Greek. The Scriptures read, if at all, in the erroneous versions were being deserted for the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Physical science, if there was anything deserving that name, was cultivated, not by experiment in the Aristotelian way, but by arguments deduced from premises resting on authority or custom. Everywhere there was a show of knowledge concealing fundamental ignorance. Bacon, accordingly, withdrew from the scholastic routine and devoted himself to languages and experimental research. The only teacher whom he respected was a certain Petrus de Maharncuria Picardus, or of Picardy, probably identical with a certain mathematician, Petrus Peregrinus of Picardy, who is perhaps the author of a MS. treatise, De Magnete, contained in the Bibliothèque Impériale at Paris. The contrast between the obscurity of such a man and

the fame enjoyed by the fluent young doctors roused Bacon's indignation. In the Opus Minus and Opus Tertium he pours forth a violent tirade against Alexander of Hales, and another professor, not mentioned by name, but spoken of as alive, and blamed even more severely than Alexander. This anonymous writer,' he says, acquired his learning by teaching others, and adopted a dogmatic tone, which has caused him to be received at Paris with applause as the equal of Aristotle, Avicenna, or Averroes.

Bacon, during his stay in Paris, acquired considerable renown. He took the degree of doctor of theology, and seems to have received the complimentary title of doctor mirabilis. In 1250 he was again at Oxford, and probably about this time entered the Franciscan order. His fame spread at Oxford, though it was mingled with suspicions of his dealings in the black arts and with some doubts of his orthodoxy. About 1257, Bonaventura, general of the order, interdicted his lectures at Oxford, and commanded him to place himself under the superintendence of the body at Paris. Here for ten years he remained under supervision, suffering great privations and strictly prohibited from writing anything for publication. But his fame had reached the ears of the papal legate in England, Guy de Foulques, who in 1265 became pope as Clement IV. In the following year he wrote to Bacon, ordering him notwithstanding any injunctions from his superiors, to write out and send to him a treatise on the sciences which he had already asked of him when papal legate. Bacon, whose previous writings had been mostly scattered tracts, capitula quaedam, took fresh courage from this command of the pope. He set at naught the jealousy of his superiors and brother friars, and despite the want of funds, instruments, materials for copying and skilled copyists, completed in about eighteen months three large treatises, the Opus Majus, Opus Minus and Opus Tertium, which, with some other tracts, were despatched to the pope. We do not know what opinion Clement formed of them, but before his death he seems to have bestirred himself on Bacon's behalf, for in 1268 the latter was permitted to return to Oxford. Here he continued his labours in experimental science and also in the composition of complete treatises. The works sent to Clement he regarded as preliminaries, laying down principles which were afterwards to be applied to the sciences. The first part of an encyclopaedic work probably remains to us in the Compendium Studii Philosophiae (1271). In this work Bacon makes a vehement attack upon the ignorance and vices of the clergy and monks, and generally upon the insufficiency of the existing studies. In 1278 his books were condemned by Jerome de Ascoli, general of the Franciscans, afterwards Pope Nicholas IV., and he himself was thrown into prison for fourteen years. During this time, it is said, he wrote the small tract De Retardandis Senectutis Accidentibus, but this is merely a tradition. In 1292, as appears from what is probably his latest composition, the Compendium Studii Theologiae, he was again at liberty. The exact time of his death cannot be determined; 1294 is probably as accurate a date as can be fixed upon.

Works and Editions.-Leland said that it is easier to collect the leaves of the Sibyl than the titles of the works written by Roger Bacon; and though the labour has been somewhat lightened by the publications of Brewer and Charles, referred to below, it is no easy matter even now to form an accurate idea of his actual productions. An enormous number of MSS. are known to exist in British and French libraries, and probably

1 Brewer thinks this unknown professor is Richard of Cornwall, but the little we know of Richard is not in harmony with the terms in which he is elsewhere spoken of by Bacon. Erdmann conjectures Thomas Aquinas, which is extremely improbable, as Thomas was unquestionably not the first of his order to study philosophy, Cousin and Charles think that Albertus Magnus is aimed at, and certainly much of what is said applies with peculiar force to him. But some things do not at all cohere with what is otherwise known of Albert. It is worth pointing out that Brewer, in transcribing the passage bearing on this (Op. Ined. p. 327), has the words fratrum puerulus, which in his marginal note he interprets as applying to the Franciscan order. In this case, of course, Albert could not be the person referred to, as he was a Dominican. But Charles, in his transcription, entirely omits the important word fratrum.

not all have yet been discovered. Many are transcripts of works or portions of works already published and, therefore, require no notice.

The works hitherto printed (neglecting reprints) are the following:-(1) Speculum Alchimiae (1541)-translated into English (1597); French, A Poisson (1890); (2) De Mirabili Potestate Artis et Naturae (1542)-English translation (1659); (3) Libellus de Retardandis Senectutis Accidentibus (1590)— translated as the "Cure of Old Age," by Richard Brown (London, 1683); (4) Sanioris Medicinae Magistri D. Rogeri Baconis Anglici de Arte Chymiae Scripta (Frankfort, 1603)—a collection of small tracts containing Excerpta de Libro Avicennae de Anima, Breve Breviarium, Verbum Abbreviatum, Secretum Secretorum, Tractatus Trium Verborum, and Speculum Secretorum; (5) Perspectiva (1614), which is the fifth part of the Opus Majus; (6) Specula Mathematica, which is the fourth part of the same; (7) Opus Majus ad Clementem IV., edited by S. Jebb (1733) and J. H. Bridges (London, 1897); (8) Opera hactenus Inedita, by J. S. Brewer (1859), containing the Opus Tertium, Opus Minus, Compendium Studii Philosophiae and the De Secretis Operibus Naturae; (9) De Morali Philosophia (Dublin, 1860, see below); (10) The Greek Grammar of R. Bacon and a Fragment of his Hebrew Grammar, edited with introduction and notes by E. S. Nolan and S. A. Hirsch (1902); (11) Mctaphysica Fratris Rogeri, edited by R. Steele, with a preface (1905); (12) Opera hactenus inedita, by Robert Steele (1905).

How these works stand related to one another can only be determined by internal evidence. The smaller works, chiefly on alchemy, are unimportant, and the dates of their composition cannot be ascertained. It is known that before the Opus Majus Bacon had already written some tracts, among which an unpublished work, Computus Naturalium, on chronology, belongs probably to the year 1263; while, if the dedication of the De Secretis Operibus be authentic, that short treatise must have been composed before 1249.

It is, however, with the Opus Majus that Bacon's real activity begins. It has been called by Whewell at once the Encyclopaedia and the Organum of the 13th century.

Part I. (pp. 1-22), which is sometimes designated De Utilitate Scientiarum, treats of the four offendicula, or causes of error. These are, authority, custom, the opinion of the unskilled many, and the concealment of real ignorance with pretence of knowledge. The last error is the most dangerous, and is, in a sense, the cause of all the others. The offendicula have sometimes been looked upon as an anticipation of Francis Bacon's Idola, but the two classifications have little in common. In the summary of this part, contained in the Opus Tertium, Bacon shows very clearly his perception of the unity of science and the necessity of encyclopaedic treatment.

Part II. (pp. 23-43) treats of the relation between philosophy and theology. All true wisdom is contained in the Scriptures, at least implicitly; and the true end of philosophy is to rise from the imperfect knowledge of created things to a knowledge of the Creator. Ancient philosophers, who had not the Scriptures, received direct illumination from God, and only thus can the brilliant results attained by them be accounted for.

Part III. (pp. 44-57) treats of the utility of grammar, and the necessity of a true linguistic science for the adequate comprehension either of the Scriptures or of books on philosophy.

The more important MSS. are:-(1) The extensive work on the fundamental notions of physics, called Communia Naturalium, which is found in the Mazarin library at Paris, in the British Museum, and in the Bodleian and University College libraries at Oxford; (2) on the fundamental notions of mathematics, De Communibus Mathematicae, part of which is in the Sloane collection, part in the Bodleian; (3) Baconis Physica, contained among the additional MSS. in the British Museum; (4) the fragment called Quinta Pars Compendii Theologiae, in the British Museum; (5) the Compendium Studii Theologiae, in the British Museum; (6) the logical fragments, such as the Summulae Dialectices, in the Bodleian, and the glosses upon Aristotle's physics and metaphysics in the library at Amiens. See Little, The Grey Friars in Orford (1892).

At the close of the Verb. Abbrev. is a curious note, concluding with the words," ipse Rogerus fuit discipulus fratris Alberti!”

The necessity of accurate acquaintance with any foreign language | the nature and cause of the rainbow, which is really a very fine and of obtaining good texts, is a subject Bacon is never weary specimen of inductive research. of descanting upon. A translator should know thoroughly the language he is translating from, the language into which he is translating, and the subject of which the book treats.

Part IV. (pp. 57-255) contains an elaborate treatise on mathematics, "the alphabet of philosophy," maintaining that all the sciences rest ultimately on mathematics, and progress only when their facts can be subsumed under mathematical principles. This fruitful thought he illustrates by showing how geometry is applied to the action of natural bodies, and demonstrating by geometrical figures certain laws of physical forces. He also shows how his method may be used to determine some curious and long-discussed problems, such as the light of the stars, the ebb and flow of the tide, the motion of the balance. He then proceeds to adduce elaborate and sometimes slightly grotesque reasons tending to prove that mathematical knowledge is essential in theology, and closes this section of his work with two comprehensive sketches of geography and astronomy. That on geography is particularly good, and is interesting as having been read by Columbus, who lighted on it in Petrus de Alliaco's Imago Mundi, and was strongly influenced by its reasoning.

Part V. (pp. 256-357) treats of perspective. This was the part of his work on which Bacon most prided himself, and in it, we may add, he seems to owe most to the Arab writers Kindi and Alhazen. The treatise opens with an able sketch of psychology, founded upon, but in some important respects varying from, Aristotle's De Anima. The anatomy of the eye is next described; this is done well and evidently at first hand, though the functions of the parts are not given with complete accuracy. Many other points of physiological optics are touched on, in general erroneously. Bacon then discusses vision in a right line, the laws of reflection and refraction, and the construction of mirrors and lenses. In this part of the work, as in the preceding, his reasoning depends essentially upon his peculiar view of natural agents and their activities. His fundamental physical maxims are matter and force; the latter he calls virtus, species, imago agentis, and by numberless other names. Change, or any natural phenomenon, is produced by the impression of a virtus or species on matterthe result being the thing known. Physical action is, therefore, impression, or transmission of force in lines, and must accordingly be explained geometrically. This view of nature Bacon considered fundamental, and it lies, indeed, at the root of his whole philosophy. To the short notices of it given in the 4th and 5th parts of the Opus Majus, he subjoined two, or perhaps three, extended accounts of it. We possess at least one of these in the tract De Multiplicatione Specierum, printed as part of the Opus Majus by Jebb (pp. 358-444). We cannot do more than refer to Charles for discussions as to how this theory of nature is connected with the metaphysical problems of force and matter, with the logical doctrine of universals, and in general with Bacon's theory of knowledge.

Part VI. (pp. 445-477) treats of experimental science, domina omnium scientiarum. There are two methods of knowledge: the one by argument, the other by experience. Mere argument is never sufficient; it may decide a question, but gives no satisfaction or certainty to the mind, which can only be convinced by immediate inspection or intuition. Now this is what experirace gives. But experience is of two sorts, external and internal; the first is that usually called experiment, but it can give no complete knowledge even of corporeal things, much less of spiritual. On the other hand, in inner experience the mind is illuminated by the divine truth, and of this supernatural enlightenment there are seven grades.

Experimental science, which in the Opus Tertium (p. 46) is distinguished from the speculative sciences and the operative arts in a way that forcibly reminds us of Francis Bacon, is said to have three great prerogatives over all other sciences:-(1) It verifies their conclusions by direct experiment; (2) It discovers truths which they could never reach; (3) It investigates the secrets of nature, and opens to us a knowledge of past and future. As an instance of his method, Bacon gives an investigation into

The seventh part of the Opus Majus (De Morali Philosophia), not given in Jebb's edition, is noticed at considerable length in the Opus Tertium (cap. xiv.). Extracts from it are given by Charles (pp. 339-348).

As has been seen, Bacon had no sooner finished this elaborate work than he began to prepare a summary to be sent along with it. Of this summary, or Opus Minus, part has come down and is published in Brewer's Op. Ined. (313-389), from what appears to be the only MS. The work was intended to contain an abstract of the Opus Majus, an account of the principal vices of theology, and treatises on speculative and practical alchemy. At the same time, or immediately after, Bacon began a third work as a preamble to the other two, giving their general scope and aim, but supplementing them in many points. The part of this work, generally called Opus Tertium, is printed by Brewer (pp. 1-310), who considers it to be a complete treatise. Charles, however, has given good grounds for supposing that it is merely a preface, and that the work went on to discuss grammar, logic (which Bacon thought of little service, as reasoning was innate), mathematics, general physics, metaphysics and moral philosophy. He founds his argument mainly on passages in the Communia Naturalium, which indeed prove distinctly that it was sent to Clement, and cannot, therefore, form part of the Compendium, as Brewer seems to think. It must be confessed, however, that nothing can well be more confusing than the references in Bacon's works, and it seems well-nigh hopeless to attempt a complete arrangement of them until the texts have been collated and carefully printed.

All these large works Bacon appears to have looked on as preliminaries, introductions, leading to a great work which should embrace the principles of all the sciences. This great work, which is perhaps the frequently-referred-to Liber Sex Scientiarum, he began, and a few fragments still indicate its outline. First appears to have come the treatise now called Compendium Studii Philosophiae (Brewer pp. 393-519), containing an account of the causes of error, and then entering at length upon grammar. After that, apparently, logic was to be treated; then, possibly, mathematics and physics; then speculative alchemy and experimental science. It is, however, very difficult, in the present state of our knowledge of the MSS., to hazard even conjectures as to the contents and nature of this last and most comprehensive work.

Bacon's fame in popular estimation has always rested on his mechanical discoveries. Careful research has shown that very little can with accuracy be ascribed to him. He certainly describes a method of constructing a telescope, but not so as to lead one to conclude that he was in possession of that instrument. Burning-glasses were in common use, and spectacles it does not appear he made, although he was probably acquainted with the principle of their construction. His wonderful predictions (in the De Secretis) must be taken cum grano salis; he believed in astrology, in the doctrine of signatures, and in the philosopher's stone, and knew that the circle had been squared. For his work in connexion with gunpowder, the invention of which has been claimed for him on the ground of a passage in his De mirabili potestate artis et naturae, see Gunpowder.

Summary. The 13th century, an age peculiarly rich in great men, produced few, if any, who can take higher rank than Roger Bacon. He is in every way worthy to be placed beside Albertus Magnus, Bonaventura, and Thomas Aquinas. These had an infinitely wider renown in their day, but modern criticism has restored the balance in his favour, and is even in danger of erring in the opposite direction. Bacon, it is now said, was not appreciated by his age because he was in advance of it; he is no schoolman, but a modern thinker, whose conceptions of science are more just and clear than are even those of his more celebrated namesake. In this view there is certainly some truth, but it is much exaggerated. As a general rule, no man can be completely dissevered from his national antecedents and 'See Dühring, Kritische Ges. d. Phil. 192, 249-251.

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