Preface to the Opus Majus, we find the following which may have supplied Francis Bacon with the titles of some of his works, or suggested subjects to him, or furnished ideas and materials for particular portions of his larger treatises: De Materia Prima; De Ponderibus; De Potestate Mirabili Artis et Natura; Communia Naturalis Philosophiæ; In Naturalem Philosophiam; Ars Experimentalis; De Fluxu et Refluxu Maris; Venti Novem Districtiones; De Retardatione Senectutis; De Universali Regimine Senum; De Prolongatione Vita; Antidotarium Vita Humanæ ; De Impedimentis Sapientiæ; De Causis Ignorantiæ Humana; De Utilitate Scientiarum; De Arte Memorativa; De Rebus Metallicis; De Cœlo et Mundo.

We are far from indulging the supposition that each of these subjects was discussed in a separate treatise. Several of the titles are evidently nothing more than variations. Many of them can still be discerned among the divisions and chapters of the Opus Majus, under such forms as might permit reference to them by distinct designations; nor do they all re-appear in Lord Bacon's works under exactly the same names, or as the epigraphs of separate productions. As, in many instances, they seem to have been originally distributed through the body of the Opus Majus, so the greater portion of them are in their supposed derivative form intermingled with the different productions of Lord Bacon; and any one who is familiar with the writings of the latter will at once perceive, or strongly suspect, the intimate connection between the earlier and latter schemes of the same philosophy. The following treatises of the chancellor may, however, be specially noted as exhibiting such a dependence: De Motu; De Sectione Corporum; Natural History, or Sylva Sylvarum; Historia Naturalis et Experimentalis ad condendam Philosophiam, sive Phænomena Universi; Indicia vera de Interpretatione Natura; Parasceve ad Historiam Naturalem et Experimentalem; De Fluxu et Refluxu Maris; Historia Ventorum; Historia Vitæ et Mortis; Of the Prolongation of Life; Historia Densi et Rari; De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum; Partitio artis retinendi sive retentivæ in doctrinam de adminiculis memoriæ, et doctrinam de memoria ipsa;* Historia Gravis et Levis; Articuli Quastionum circa Mineralia; Thema Cæli. It is to be observed, too, that as Roger Bacon had entitled his principal work, containing his proposed reform of philosophy, Opus Majus, or the Greater Work, manifestly with reference to his smaller detached essays, so Lord Bacon, for a

This is only the caption of De Augm. Scient., lib. V, cap. v.

very different reason, and in a vain-glorious spirit, proposed for his complete system of reform the title of Instauratio Magna, and applied to its third division the name of Partus Maximus Temporis, a high-sounding pretension which had haunted his mind from the commencement of his career.

But we shall not lay any exaggerated stress upon the correspondence between the two lists presented, although they are separated from each other in time by an interval of three hundred and fifty years. It may be necessary for the discernment of the interdepend ence between them that the relations of the authors should have been previously determined by a close scrutiny of their respective doctrines and productions; and thus what is perfectly evident to us may not be in any degree apparent to those to whom the subject is still novel. The progress of our investigations may, therefore, be indispensable to the revelation of the connection subsisting between the subjects and titles selected by the two philosophers, and may reflect back upon these lists the light which it kindles with other materials. But, to show even at this stage of our inquiries, that the resemblance indicated is neither slight in itself, nor an arbitrary imagination, we will illustrate our suspicions in connection with one of the works of Lord Bacon above mentioned.

The History of Life and Death is the most elaborate and the most complete of the special investigations comprising the Third Part of the contemplated Instauratio Magna. The conduct and arrangement of the inquiry, and frequent intimations scattered through its pages, prove that the direct aim and intention of the author was to discover artificial means for the prolongation of human life, and to conquer by science that Elixir of Life which had so long been the dream of the Alchemists. That such was its design is evident from the language employed in the dedication, "To the Present Age and to Posterity." "For I hope, and wish, that it may conduce to a common good; and that the noble sort of physicians will advance their thoughts, and not employ their time wholly in the sordidness of cures, neither be honored for necessity only, but that they will become coadjutors and instruments of the Divine omnipotence and clemency in prolonging and renewing the life of man; especially, seeing I prescribe it to be done by safe, and convenient, and civil ways, though hitherto unassayed."* This hope is of constant recurrence in Lord Bacon's works, though it is inconceivable how he could candidly represent it to be unassayed after the labors of the Saracens, the writings of Roger Bacon, and the experiments of the

• Bacon's Works, vol. xiv, p. 308; vol. x, p. 109.

Alchemists. In the treatise De Augmentis Scientiarum he divides medicine into three heads; the maintenance of health, the cure of diseases, and the prolongation of life.* In another part of the same work he asserts the possibility of discovering the means of retarding old age, and restoring any degree of youth, notwithstanding his acknowledgment of the incredibility of such achievements. He has also prescribed medicines for the prolongation of life, and the latter part of the Historia Vita et Mortis is devoted to this topic and to artificial rejuvenescence.

There are four of the works ascribed to Roger Bacon, which must have been devoted wholly or in part to this attractive investigation. These are De Retardatione Senectutis, probably the treatise addressed to Pope Nicholas IV.; De Universali Regimine Senum; De Prolongatione Vita; and Antidotarium Vita Humanæ. But our investigations are not limited to a consideration of these titles. In the last part of the Opus Majus we find a brief indication of the views of the Franciscan friar. "Another example of the capabilities of experimental science may be borrowed from medicine; and this is with respect to the prolongation of human life, since the art of medicine has no remedy beyond the preservation of health. But the further extension of long life is possible."§ Like Lord Bacon, he asserts that "medical writers have not given any statement of the medicines which might conduce to this result, nor are they to be found in their works, but they have confined themselves solely to the art of maintaining health."|| Like Francis Bacon, too, he alleges that "experimental science can discover methods of attaining the desired end far superior to any that had been theretofore sought." If the hurried indications of Roger Bacon's brief outline be compared with the elaborate essay of his namesake, a singular agreement in the details will be discovered in the two writers. Both appeal to the longevity of the patriarchs; both refer to the remarkable vitality of certain animals; both record remarkable instances of the duration of human life; both cite the singular case of Artephius; both attribute the weakness of old age and death to the desiccation of the body, but as this doctrine descends from Aristotle,** they might both have borrowed it independently and indirectly from that source. Both recommend pearls, the bezoar stone, ambergris, rosemary, as useful medicines for the purpose

De Augm. Scient., lib. IV, cap. ii, vol. viii, p. 219.

† De Augm. Scient., lib. III, cap. v, vol. viii, p. 197. Hist. Vitæ et Mortis, vol. x, pp. 177-180.

§ Opus Majus, Pars VI, cap. xii, p. 352. Ed. Ven., 1750. || Пb., 354. ¶ Ib., p. 355. co Aristot., Probl., lib. I, II, III.

contemplated; and both urge the importance of attending to the general regimen in the same particulars. The latter and longer portion of Lord Bacon's essays is, indeed, little more than an ample commentary on Friar Bacon's concise indications.* In addition to these numerous and striking correspondences, there is a general similarity of ideas, views, and even expressions, which would be very surprising as an accidental coincidence.

Another example of similar indebtedness is furnished in the case of the rainbow. In the varied circle of the natural phenomena, there is none to which the "Lord High Chancellor of England," and "of nature," as he has been sometimes termed, more frequently recurs than to the colors of the rainbow. On every possible occasion the Iris is introduced as a thesis, or as an illustration. Roger Bacon had preceded him in paying marked attention to this topic;‡ and, though there is considerable similarity between his explanation of its production and that offered by his successor, he has explained the phenomena more clearly and more accurately. In the course of his remarks, he shows that he had observed the properties of the reflection and refraction of light; the equality of the angles of incidence and reflection, and probably also the polarization of light.

A notable expression occurs in Lord Bacon's Topics of Inquiry concerning light, which seems almost an anticipation of the theory of the prismatic colors. He says beautifully that "every color is the broken image of light."§ It is a pregnant phrase, especially after Newton's experiments with the prism. But the expression of Roger Bacon is still more significant, when taken in connection with the context wherein it appears, and interpreted by the more modern discoveries of Young and Fresnel. After speaking of the decomposition of the solar rays into the colors of the rainbow by transmission through crystals, he adds, "rugarum diversitas facit diversitatem coloris."||

While indicating, rather than demonstrating Lord Bacon's unavowed obligations to his predecessors, we may add an instance of his practice which may, perhaps, elucidate his customary procedure. He informs us that "the modes of destroying light must also be

Opus Majus, p. 353. “Cum enim regimen sanitatis debeat esse in cibo et potu, somno et vigilia, motu et quiete, evacuatione et retentione, aeris dispositione, et passionibus animæ, ut hæc in debito temperamento habeantur ab infantia; de his temperandis nullus homo vult curare, etiam nec medici," etc. De Augm. Sci., lib. II, cap, ii, vol. viii, p. 91; lib. V, cap. ii, p. 269. Opus Majus, P's. II, cap. viii, p. 22; Pars VI, cc. ii-xii, pp. 338-351. § Bacon's Works, vol. xv, p. 84.

Opus Majus, Ps. VI, cap. ii, p. 339; et vide cap. iii, and compare Nov. Org., lib. ii, aph. xxii.

remarked; as by the exuberance of greater light, and by dense and opaque mediums. The sun's rays, certainly, falling on the flame of a fire, make the flame seem like a kind of whiter smoke."* When this observation was employed by Lord Bacon, it must have been either vulgar and well-known, or unfamiliar. In the former case it is unnecessarily or improperly mentioned; in the latter it must have been regarded by him either as a novelty of his own detection, or as a fact noticed by others before him. Aristotle had stated that the sun's rays would extinguish fire. Lord Bacon must have been either cognizant or ignorant of Aristotle's observation. If he was ignorant of it, he certainly had not studied Aristotle's writings with that attention which he should have bestowed before he pretended to overthrow his system, or before he launched his unseemly and inappropriate vituperations against him. If he was aware of the fact, he should not have concealed his authority in order to produce this observation as a novelty. We leave his lordship amid the boughs of this branching tree of dilemmas; he may fall from one fork to another, but on whichever he rests he is likely to meet with ultimate impalement.

Francis Bacon hazards a short disquisition on the ebb and flow of the sea, which has been mercilessly criticised by De Maistre. Roger Bacon presents a still briefer examination of the same problem.‡ The subject continued to be a favorite bait for philosophers from the days when Aristotle was fabled to have drowned himself in the Euripus from despair of explaining its tides, till the time of Euler, McLaurin, and La Place. The chancellor does not imitate the Franciscan friar, when the former leaves the moon entirely out of the question, but his refutation of the notion of elevation is apparently directed against the exposition given by his predecessor, and the conclusion finally adopted bears a very suspicious resemblance to a remark uttered by Roger.§ The explanation offered by the former fails

• Bacon's Works, vol. xv, p. 84. † Aristot., Probl., lib III, c. xxiii, xxvi. Opus Majus, Ps. IV, Dist. iv, cap. v, pp. 63, 64.

§ Opus Majus, Ps. IV, Dist. iv, cap. v, p. 63. "Sed motus aquæ a motu cœli est confusus et inordinatus, et irregularis, propter hoc, quod virtus cœli primi nimis elongatur ab ejus origine," etc. Fr. Bacon, Op., vol. xv, p. 198. "We think that the motion of rotation, or of turning from east to west, is not properly a motion merely of the heavenly bodies, but manifestly of the universe, and a primary motion in all the great fluids, found to prevail from the highest part of heaven to the lowest part of the waters, in direction the same in all, in impulse, that is, in rapidity and slowness, widely different; in such wise, however, that in an order not in the least confused, (Roger Bacon had said, confusus, et inordinatus, et irregularis,) the rapidity is diminished as the bodies approach the globe of the earth," etc.

FOURTH SERIES, VOL. X.-2