plified so thoroughly all during the life of Friar Bacon, and of
Friar Bacon's great teacher, Albertus Magnus. One would expect that at
least in science credit would be given properly, and that the false
notions introduced by litterateurs and historians of politics should
not be allowed to dominate the situation.

The position popularly assigned to Bacon in the history of science is
indeed one of those history lies, as the Germans so bluntly but
frankly call them, which, though very generally accepted, is entirely
due to a lack of knowledge of the state of education and of the
progress of scientific investigation long before his time. The reason
for this ignorance is the unfortunate tradition which has been so long
fostered in educational circles, {287} that nothing worth while ever
came out of the Nazareth of the Middle Ages, or the centuries before
the so-called reformation and the Renaissance. The ridiculously utter
falsity of this impression we shall be able properly to characterize
at the end of the next chapter.

As a matter of fact, it would have been much truer to have attributed
the origin of experimental science to his great namesake, Roger Bacon,
the Franciscan friar, whose work was done at Paris and at Oxford
during the latter half of that wonderful thirteenth century that saw
the rise and the development of the universities to that condition in
which they have practically remained ever since. Even Bacon, however,
is not the real originator of the inductive method, since, as we shall
see, the writings of his great teacher, the profoundest scholar of
this great century, whose years are almost coincident with it, Albert
Magnus, the Dominican, who afterwards became Bishop of Ratisbon,
contained many distinct and definite anticipations of Bacon as regards
the inductive method.

The earlier Bacon, the Franciscan, laid down very distinctly the
principle, that only by careful observation and experimental
demonstration could any real knowledge with regard to natural
phenomena be obtained. He not only laid down the principle, however,
but in this, quite a contrast to his later namesake, he followed the
route himself very wonderfully. It is for this reason that his name is
deservedly attached to many important beginnings in modern science,
which we shall have occasion to mention during the course of this and
the next chapter. His general attitude of mind toward natural science
can be best appreciated from the famou