ite. As clearly as ever it
was proclaimed, Bacon announces that an authority is worth only the
reasons that he advances. These thirteenth century teachers are
supposed, above all, to have fairly bowed down and worshipped at the
shrine of Aristotle. Many of them doubtless did. In every generation
the great mass of mankind must find someone to follow. As often as
not, their leaders are much more fallible than Aristotle. Bacon,
however, had no undue reverence for Aristotle or anyone else, and he
realized that the blind following of Aristotle had done much harm. In
his sketch of Gilbert of Colchester, which was published in the
"Popular Science Monthly" for August, 1901, Brother Potamian calls
attention to this quality of Roger Bacon in a striking passage.

"Roger Bacon, after absorbing the learning of Oxford and Paris,
wrote to the reigning Pontiff, Clement IV., urging him to have the
works of the Stagirite burnt in order to stop the propagation of
error in the schools. The Franciscan monk of Ilchester has left us,
in his Opus Majus, a lasting memorial of his practical genius. In
the section entitled, "Scientia Experimentalis," he affirms that
"Without experiment, nothing can be adequately known. An argument
proves theoretically, but does not give the certitude necessary to
remove all doubt; nor will the mind repose in the clear view of
truth, unless it finds it by way of experiment." And in his Opus
Tertium: "The strongest arguments prove nothing, so long as the
conclusions are not verified by {293} experience. Experimental
science is the queen of sciences and the goal of all speculation."

Lest it should be thought that these expressions of laudatory
appreciation of the great thirteenth century scientist are dictated
more by the desire to magnify his work and to bring out the influence
in science of the churchmen of the period, it seems well to quote an
expression of opinion from the modern historian of the inductive
sciences, whose praise is scarcely if any less outspoken than that of
others whom we have quoted and who might be supposed to be somewhat
partial in their judgment. This opinion will fortify the doubters who
must have authority, and at the same time sums up very excellently the
position which Roger Bacon occupies in the history of science.

Dr. Whewell says that Roger Bacon's Opus Majus is "the encyclopedia
and Novum Organon of the thirteenth century, a work equally wonderful
wit