f auguring all questions, past, present,
and to come.

To know more than the rest of the world in any respect, but particularly
in natural philosophy, was a certain method by which to earn the name of
a necromancer in the middle ages, and there are few whose occult fame
has stood higher than that of Roger Bacon. He was afraid, therefore, to
speak plainly--indeed, it was the custom of the early philosophers to
couch their knowledge in what Bacon himself calls the "tricks of
obscurity;" and in his celebrated "_Epistola de Secretis_," he adverts
to the possibility of his being obliged to do the same thing, through
"_the greatness of the secrets_ which he shall handle." With regard to
the invention of his greatest secret, we shall give the words in which
he speaks of the properties of gunpowder, and afterward show in what
terms he concealed his knowledge. _"Noyses_," he says, "_may be made in
the aire like thunders_, yea, with greater horror than those that come
of nature; _for a little matter fitted to the quantity of a thimble,
maketh a horrible noise and wonderful lightning_. And this is done after
sundry fashions, _whereby any citie or armie may be destroyed_." A more
accurate description of the explosion of gunpowder could scarcely be
given, and it is not to be supposed that Bacon simply confined himself
to the theory of his art, when he knew so well the consequences arising
from a practical application of it. On this head there is a legend
extant, which has not, to our knowledge, been printed before, from which
we may clearly see why he contented himself with the cabalistic form in
which he conveyed his knowledge of what he deemed a fatal secret.

Attached to Roger Bacon's laboratory, and a zealous assistant in the
manifold occupations with which the learned Franciscan occupied himself,
was a youthful student, whose name is stated to have been Hubert de
Dreux. He was a Norman, and many of the attributes of that people were
conspicuous in his character. He was of a quick intelligence, and hasty
courage, fertile in invention, and prompt in action, eloquent of
discourse, and ready of hand; all excellent qualities, to which was
superadded an insatiable curiosity. Docile to receive instruction, and
apt to profit by it, Hubert became a great favorite with the
philosopher, and to him Bacon expounded many of the secrets--or supposed
secrets--of the art which he strove to, bring to perfection. He
instructed him also in the co