BACON (Roger)

, an English monk of the Franciscan order, an amazing instance of 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 Paris, which at that time was esteemed the centre of literature; and where it seems he made such progress in the sciences, that he was esteemed the glory of that university, and was there greatly caressed by several of his countrymen, particularly by Robert Groothead or Grouthead, afterwards bishop of Lincoln, his great friend and patron. Having taken the degree of doctor, he returned to England in 1240, and took the habit of the Franciscan order, being but about 26 years of age; but according to some he became a monk before he left France. 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 2000l, an amazing sum in those days, and which sum it seems was generously furnished to him by some of the heads of the university, to enable him the better to pursue his noble researches. By such extraordinary talents, and amazing progress in the sciences, which in that ignorant age were so little known to the rest of mankind, while they raised the admiration of the more intelligent few, could not fail to excite the envy of his illiterate fraternity, whose malice he farther 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 himself was imprisoned in his cell, at 64 years of age. However, being allowed the use of his books, he still proceeded in the rational pursuit of knowledge, correcting his former labours, and writing several curious pieces. |

When Bacon had been 10 years in confinement, Jerom de Ascoli, general of his order, who had condemned his doctrine, was chosen pope by the name of Nicholas IV; and being reputed a person of great abilities, and one who had turned his thoughts to philosophical studies, Bacon resolved 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 obtained 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 Franciscan church. Such are the few particulars 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 Naturæ, et de Nullitate Magiæ: Paris, 1542, in 4to. Basil, 1593, in 8vo. 2. Opus Majus: London, 1733, in fol. published by Dr. Jebb. 3. Thesaurus Chemicus: Francf. 1603 and 1620. These printed works of Bacon contain a considerable number of essays, which have been considered as distinct books in the catalogue of his writings by Bale, Pitts, &c; but there remain also in different libraries several manuscripts not yet published.

By an attentive perusal of his works, the reader is astonished to find that this great luminary of the 13th century was deeply skilled in all the arts and sciences, and in many of them made the most important inventions and discoveries. He was, says Dr. Peter Shaw, beyond all comparison the greatest man of his time, and he might perhaps stand in competition with the greatest that have appeared since. It is wonderful, considering the ignorant age in which he lived, how he came by such a depth of knowledge on all subjects. His writings are composed with that elegance, conciseness and strength, and adorned with such just and exquisite observations on nature, that, among all the chemists, we do not know his equal. In his chemical writings, he attempts to shew how imperfect metals may be ripened into perfect ones; making, with Geber, mercury the common basis of all metals, and sulphur the cement.

His other physical writings shew no less genius and force of mind. In his treatise Of the Secret Works of Art and Nature, he shews that a person perfectly acquainted with the manner observed by nature in her operations, would be able to rival, and even to surpass her. In another piece, Of the Nullity of Magic, he shews with great sagacity and penetration, whence the notion of it sprung, and how weak all pretences to it are. From a perusal of his works, adds the same author, we find Bacon was no stranger to many of the capital discoveries of the present and past ages. Gunpowder he certainly knew: thunder and lightning, he tells us, may be produced by art; for that sulphur, nitre and charcoal, which when separate have no sensible effect, yet when mixed together in due proportion, and closely confined, and fired, they yield a loud report. A more precise description of gunpowder cannot be given in words. He also mentions a sort of unextinguishable fire prepared by art: which shews he was not unacquainted with phosphorus: and that he had a notion of the rarefaction of the air, and the structure of an air-pump, is past contradiction. He was the miracle, says Dr. Freind, of the age he lived in, and the greatest genius, perhaps, for mechanical knowledge, that ever appeared in the world since Archimedes. He appears likewise to have been master of the whole science of optics: he has aecurately described the uses of reading-glasses, and shewn the way of making them. Dr. Freind adds, that he also describes the camera obscnra, and all sorts of glasses, which magnify or diminish any object, or bring it nearer to the eye, or remove it farther off. Bacon says himself, that he had great numbers of burning-glasses: and that there were none ever in use among the Latins, till his friend Peter de Mahara Curia applied himself to the making of them. That the telescope was not unknown to him, appears from a passage where he says, that he was able to form glasses in such a manner, with respect to our sight and the objects, that the rays shall be refracted and reflected wherever we please, so that we may see a thing under what angle we think proper, either near or at a distance, and be able to read the smallest letters at an incredible distance, and to count the dust and sand, on account of the greatness of the angle under which we see the objects; and also that we shall scarce see the greatest bodies near us, on account of the smallness of the angle under which we view them. His skill in astronomy was amazing: he discovered that error which occasioned the reformation of the calendar; one of the greatest efforts, according to Dr. Jebb, of human industry: and his plan for correcting it was followed by pope Gregory the 13th, with this variation, that Bacon would have had the correction to begin from the birth of our Saviour, whereas Gregory's amendment reaches no higher than the Nicene council.