what experiment meant in the development of human
knowledge, and he was obsessed with the idea, so commonplace
to us, that knowledge should have its utility and
its practical bearing. “His chief merit
is that he was one of the first to point the way to
original research—as opposed to the acceptance
of an authority—though he himself still
lacked the means of pursuing this path consistently.
His inability to satisfy this impulse led to a sort
of longing, which is expressed in the numerous passages
in his works where he anticipates man’s greater
mastery over nature."(23)
(23) Dannemann:
Die Naturwissenschaften in ihrer Entwicklung und
in ibrem Zusammenhange,
Leipzig, 1910, Vol. I, pp. 278-279.
Bacon wrote a number of medical treatises, most of
which remain in manuscript. His treatise on the
“Cure of Old Age and the Preservation of Youth”
was printed in English in 1683.(24) His authorities
were largely Arabian. One of his manuscripts
is “On the Bad Practices of Physicians.”
On June 10, 1914, the eve of his birth, the septencentenary
of Roger Bacon will be celebrated by Oxford, the university
of which he is the most distinguished ornament.
His unpublished MSS. in the Bodleian will be issued
by the Clarendon Press (1915-1920), and it is hoped
that his unpublished medical writings will be included.
(24) It may be interesting to note
the three causes to which he attributes old age:
“As the World waxeth old, Men grow old with
it: not by reason of the Age of the World,
but because of the great Increase of living Creatures,
which infect the very Air, that every way encompasseth
us, and Through our Negligence in ordering our
Lives, and That great Ignorance of the Properties
which are in things conducing to Health, which
might help a disordered way of Living, and might
supply the defect of due Government.”
What would have been its fate if the mind of Europe
had been ready for Roger Bacon’s ferment, and
if men had turned to the profitable studies of physics,
astronomy and chemistry instead of wasting centuries
over the scholastic philosophy and the subtleties
of Duns Scotus, Abelard and Thomas Aquinas? Who
can say? Make no mistake about the quality of
these men—giants in intellect, who have
had their place in the evolution of the race; but
from the standpoint of man struggling for the mastery
of this world they are like the members of Swift’s
famous college “busy distilling sunshine from
cucumbers.” I speak, of course, from the
position of the natural man, who sees for his fellows
more hope from the experiments of Roger Bacon than
from the disputations of philosophy on the “Instants,
Familiarities, Quiddities and Relations,” which
so roused the scorn of Erasmus.
