him speaking of having expended two thousand livres in the pursuit of
learning. If the comparative value assumed be correct, this sum
represented between $30,000 and $40,000 of our currency.]

[Footnote 15: _Opus Tertium_. Cap. iii. pp. 15-17.]

[Footnote 16: _Opus Tertium_. Cap. xx. p. 65.]

[Footnote 17: _Opus Tertium_. Capp. xvi., xvii. Roger Bacon's urgency to
the Pope to promote the works for the advancement of knowledge which
were too great for private efforts bears a striking resemblance to the
words addressed for the same end by his great successor, Lord Bacon, to
James I. "Et ideo patet," says the Bacon of the thirteenth century,
"quod scripta, principalia de sapientia philosophiae non possunt fieri
ab uno homine, nec a pluribus, nisi manus praelatorum et principum
juvent sapientes cum magna virtute." "Horum quos enumeravimus omnium
defectuum remedia," says the Bacon of the seventeenth century,
"...opera sunt vere basilica; erga quae privati alicujus conatus et
industria fere sic se habent ut Mercurius in bivio, qui digito potest in
viam intendere, pedem inferre non potest."--_De Aug. Scient_. Lib. II.
_Ad Regem Suum_.

A still more remarkable parallelism is to be found in the following
passages. "Nam facile est dicere, fiant scripture completae de
scientiis, sed nunquam fuerunt apud Latinos aliquae condignae, nec
fient, nisi aliud consilium habeatur. Et nullus sufficeret ad hoc, nisi
dominus papa, vel imperator, aut aliquis rex magnificus, sicut est
dominus rex Franciae. Aristoteles quidem, auctoritate et auxiliis regum,
et maxime Alexandri, fecit in Graeco quae voluit, et multis millibus
hominum usus est in experientia scientiarum, et expensis copiosis, sicut
historiae narrant." (_Opus Tertium_, Cap. viii.) Compare with this the
following passage from the part of the _De Augmentis_ already
cited:--"Et exploratoribus ac speculatoribus Naturae satisfaciendum de
expensis suis; alias de quamplurimis scitu dignissimis nunquam fiemus
certiores. Si enim Alexander magnam vim pecuniae suppeditavit
Aristoteli, qua conduceret venatores, aucupes, piscatores et alios, quo
instructior accederet ad conscribendam historiam animalium; certe majus
quiddam debetur iis, qui non in saltibus naturae pererrant, sed in
labyrinthis artium viam sibi aperiunt."

Other similar parallelisms of expression on this topic are to be found
in these two authors, but need not be here quoted. Many resemblances in
the words and in the spiri