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Feb 11, 1860J The header and Saturday An...
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BIQORAPHY* TT7HENCE is it that so much m...
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* Notivollc Bio<ira V hh Gtntralo. Tome ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Roger Bacon* It Is Pleasant To Read A Bo...
ardent was his love for intellectual freedom and moral puxityr ¦ and , although remaining an orthodox son of . the Church , as the Church then was , to the fhd of his life , ^ object cjeariy was ^ o spread knowledge ambng . the people , without regard to the effect that that knowledge might : have on long-cherished ppmions . . For this purpose he advocated the cultivation of the ^ Hebrew and Greek languages , and made almost superhuman efforts to acquire them " Those who look back to the thirteenth century frequently forget how nearly on a par was the intelligence of the educated and the uneducated . In those days men who held themselves to be scholars werefor the most part , content with a little Latin and
, some scholastic theology ; and this latter , while it had the effect of -causing them to treat the unlearned with supreme contempt , usually was of the vilest and meanest sort ; but among the entirely untaught , there was that genuine love of practical instruction which is so characteristic of our race ; besides which there had long been a deeply-seated belief that , in the unknown regions of chemistry , mathematics and astronomy were hidden truths which a student who would turn his eyes stedfastly in that direction , and determine not to be hampered or hindered by ignorance in high places , might assuredly bring to light for their good and that of all succeeding time . In this opinion time has proved them to be right , although the lio-ht did not arise in that part of the heavens where it was
jnost looked for . P ¦> . ™ i j In these opinions it is probable that the powerful in Church and State to some degree participated . But they were content with things as they were . If philosophy were to advance , who could tell but - " that it might-militate against received traditions—traditions which , as it seemed to them , Were the very life and soul of the -Christian common weal th . And think not that this was an idle fear ; for had not the Crusaders brought from the far East strange tongues and stranger opinions—Arabic literature , and Greek philosophy ? And had not these two new discoveries already produced . heresies and rebellions more than enough P Were there not already the Albie-ehses in the south , who avowed that their opinions were
to be found in the Greek Scripture ; arid the Paterini , who , like unto them in detestable unbelief , dwelled in the forests of Germany , gave no obedience to the Pope , and ate flesh on Fridays ? . Was there not Abelard too , who from the same godless armoury had furnished himself with weapons which had-well-nigh , worsted the great Saint Bernard himself P . " . Bacon had not long been a member of the order of St . Francis , ere his genius and his thirst for knowledge displayed itself in colours which were not a little alarming to those who were set over him . We are eoiignorant of his life ' s history , that the struggle he underwent with stolidity in high places is no \ y only to be conjectured . The result , however , g ives iis aii insight into what must have gone before . He was branded as a magician ; or , at least , as one who studied unlawful things , was confined to his cell , and writing mate * -
rials were even , it is said , denied him . This cruelty was not / however , of long duration .. The fame and the sufferings of the poor monk came , at last , to the ears of the Pope * who did himself everlasting honour by stepping in to save Bacon from liis enemies . In a papal brief , dated May 23 rd , in the second year of his pontificate , Clement IV . ordered him to put on record his discoveries , and forward them to Rome without delay . The alacrity with which the neglected scholar set to work , and the immense amount of labour which he performed in little more than a year and a half , aro evidence of the intense delight he . experienced at his deliverance from the restraints of his ignorant superiors , by one whom he and they alike acknowledged as the highest authority on earth . The pleasure was greater , inasrmich as he had never sought the Papal countenance for his labours . ¦ . . . ^ .
The volume that we have now before us contains two of the treatises which he wrote at the Pope ' s desire . They have never before been printed . These documents will modify many of our opinions , both as to Bacon ' s philosophy and the times in which he lived ; for , while showing that even then knowledge could be . attained on subjects which ' we aro apt to think are open to us alone , they bring out m the strongest relief the clensenoss of the human inind as it then ordinarily existed . Bacon believed , as other men , of
Jus generation did , that in the all but unknown Greek , Hebrew ; , and Arabian literatures wore contained secrets of the greatest value ; ho therefore set to work to learn those tongues , and to compile a comparative grammar of thorn for future philological explorers . Those Who know what the difficulties are in mastering two or three ancient languages when surrounded with every help that modern scholarship has to offer will best appi'eoiate him who , without any of these aids , had the courage to begin and the will to carry out so great a labour . Not content even with what could bo learned in his own land , ho
crossed the sea simply for the sake of conversine * with torqign students . He did not find many , for he tolls us : " There are not four scholars in western Europe who undorotand Greek , Arabic , or Hebrew grammar . I know them well , for on both sides of the sea I have made diligent inquiries and undergone much labour in those matters . " With that strong 1 faith in the justice and the . kindly appreciation of posterity which none , but the greatest minds over soem to have , }\ q looked forwftrd to the time when ho mig ^ t say- — " Jamquo opus oxogi , quod nco Jovis ira , nco ignis Nqq potowt forrura , rioo edax aboloro votuatae . " Such faith in ultimate justice must over have its rewardj bufc how strange hna that reward hitherto been ! For two centuries nfber his death branded by on ignorant and licentious clergy
as . little better than a heretic , and altogrether a wizard , he is now thought of , by most of us , more as an illustration of the injustice and ultimate nullity of dogmatism , than oil account of those , things for which he laboured so bravely and so well . " The fashion of this world passeth away" as surely if not as rapidly in those things that relate to tlie mind of man , as in . the houses . he builds , or the garments wherewith he clothes himself ; and we are but too apt not to consider out of what material our present greatness has . been built . Had there been no Roger Bacon , with his astounding hints on physical science and his proofs of the worthlessriess of scholasticism in dealiiig with it , there might have been no Wycliffe to apply the same principles to a different class of phenomena , and no patient , brave yet doubting people ready to welcome the light when liberty of thought became an avowed principle .
The writings of Bacon will never be popular books , but for the historical and philosophical student they will always retain great value , containing , as they do , the inmost thoughts of a man who exercised so great an influence over the mind of mediaeval England . Mr . Brewer is nearly all that could be wished for as an editor . This is the best edited book of the series , and all are carefully done .
Feb 11, 1860j The Header And Saturday An...
Feb 11 , 1860 J The header and Saturday Analyst * 137
Biqoraphy* Tt7hence Is It That So Much M...
BIQORAPHY * TT 7 HENCE is it that so much more attention is devoted to systema-VV tic biography in France than in England ? Besides the " Biographie Universelle , " of which a new edition is appearing , Vapereau s '" Dictipnnaire des Contemporains , " and many similar publications , we have the " New General Biography" of the Didots , the excellence whereof , notwithstanding notable defects , we deem it a duty fervently to commend . This undertaking has reached its thirtieth volume , and fifteen more volumes are to appear . Judged by our English ideas , the work is marvellously cheap . Each volume contains about five hundred pages . The double columns , closely but clearly printed , offer an immense amount of reading ; yet each volume is sold in France for three francs , and in England for three shillings . Now , we are not the idolaters of cheapness b y itself . Cheapness is only to be valued where an article really good is made accessible through the cheapness to a larger number of persons capable of appreciating it . Books of reference are indispensable to a library , however limited ; and the smallest library is not complete without a biographical dictionary . The" most earnest students are often the poorest students . There are few , however , so very poor as not to be able to afford for the forty-five volumes of a biographical dictionary seven pounds , especially when this sum is spread over ten years ^ lt is books for the thorough student , hot booivs for the multitude ,, that it is important to have cheap , and in -this respect students in France arid Germany have a great advantage overdose of England . At what an insignificant price are editions of the ancient classical writers procurable in Germany ! The constitution of the English universities , so contrary to the idea and the original objects of a imiversity everywhere , is the main cause why the poor student in England has not the same facilities in regard to books as the poor student in other parts , of Europe ; We feel , at all events , that it is a disgrace to us that England has not yet produced , cheap or deai-, a single biographical dictionary worthy of the name . When will the English student be able to put on his shelves an English biographical dictionary of fifty volumes at half-a-crown the volume , transcending in merit this which we owe to-the enterprise of the Didots P Here is scope for generous , high-minded emulation among our publishers . It is but / air to say that the Didots , for several generations , have been scholars as well as publishers , and have thus been raised above the mercenary aspirings of the mere tradesman . It is difficult to believe that the most successful sale of the JNew General Biography can do more than cover the expenses , But even wore it not to do this , the Didots would probably be satisfiedwith a grand achievement , which honoured alike themselves and their nation . Warmly as we applaud the noble spirit which has animated the Didots in the " New General Biography , " and the till out which marks the worlc as a whole , we yet believe that England could give birth to a biographical dictionary of a much more perfect kind . There are numerous and gross inaccuracies , of which . perhaps only a Frenchman could be guilty . These inaccuracies are almost sure to . abound where the subject is ah English one . We ta } k of defending England , but there is one thing 1 against which England and Englishmen must always be absolutely defenceless—a Frenchman s . blunders . These , in the domain of'biography , are not so amusing as elsewhere , for the heroic temper which biography should nourish docs notnut us much in the mood to laugh . Moreover , in these volumes , French hinn-nnniiv nnrtiiuips more snaee than the bioerranhy of all the world
besides . The most eminent persons of every ago and country except France are dismissed frequently in a paragraph or two , or even entirely omitted , while in reference to thousands of French nood es and nobodies we have the most detailed narratives . Charles Dickons is despatched in a few meagre lines , but the inbe ot Lebruns , whoso glory is so essentially a French glory that the majority of Englishmen have never suspected their existence , occupy about fifty columns . We , in England , who have been taught by Shakespeare and the rest of the demigods to know what sublime and genuine poetry is , have been in the habit of bohevjng that the French Rave had no poets of the forompst rank , and few poets of any kind . But in turning- to the pages of the " Now General Biography we encounter Frqnoh poets by the hundred , from the highest wjg { * J the lowest . One of the principles , however , epidinfr a , b ° f "JB dictionary , should surely Ibe to give most prominence to that wmo »
* Notivollc Bio<Ira V Hh Gtntralo. Tome ...
* Notivollc Bio < ira hh Gtntralo . Tome trontifimo . Vfsxla ) Didot ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 11, 1860, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11021860/page/13/
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