The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1867-05-18
fnformation.
The True History of Frinr Bacon.

The True History Of Frinr Bacon.
Almast every boy has certain curiosity about
Roger Bacon, the reputed discoverer OF gunpOw-
der and whose possession Of tho Brazep Head,
which he is reported to have taught to speak, has
given him the reputation of being magician.
Although it is not quite certain that ne invented
gunpowder which is claimed by the Chinese some
centuries before Bacon lived, and it is quite GER
tcin that he never made brazen head talk, he
was one of the most learned men OF his age, and
wrote over eighty philosophical and scientific
.reatises
Roger Bacon was born near Leicester, in Eng
land in 1914, one year before the signing of the
Magma Charta. He was educated at Oxford,
studied at Paris, and returned to Oxford with a
doctors degree granted by the French University,
and confirmed by the English University. He
next took the VOWS OF San Franciscan friar in
re igious house of Oxford, where he closely
It died languages and experimental philosophy.
B his success made him many enemies, and his
lures were interdicted by the authorities. The
charge made against him was that Of practicing
magic. Whst would hays been said, my dearchil-
dren, had Robert Heller given, in those dark and
ignorant times, one Of those admirable entertain
ments which even how excite the wonder and ad-
mration of the most educated and scientific
audiences!
We must always remember that absurd as we
now know alchemy and astrology to be, yet in
those early times many great and useful discov-
cries were made in the arts and sciences by the
men who were searching after a vain thing; and
that Bacon was one Of the truest philosophers of
the middle ages is now generally admitted. He
was also one OF the most learned men of the time,
being profound mathematician and a sound
scholar. You may Judge how little learning
there was in those times when 1 tell you that
Bacon was famous above most of his monkish
associates simply because he understood Greek.
When Pope Clement the Fourth assumed the
Triple Crown, Bacon who had known him when
he was acting as legate in England, wrote to him
and asked him to take his writings under his pro-
lection. Clement granted his request, and Bacon
set to work and commenced the arrangement Of
his greatest work, the "Opps Majus." When he
had finished he sent it to Rome but only
few days after Clement had received it, THAT emf
nent man was seized with his last Illness and so
the learned monks hopes were frustrated.
In his sixty-fourth year he was summoned be-
fore couscil of Franciscans at Paris, who con-
demned his writings and committed him to close
confinement, w!,ero he remained for ten years. 1t
is uncertain what the precise accusation against
him was Some say it was for recommending in
novations i'll science and advocating things in
philosophy which cast discredit upon the Bible
history. such as Joshua commanding the sun to
stand still, which Bacon declared impossible, and
that it only meant to say that the inaage of the
marks on, an instrument which he said he had
invented, and which is, no doubt, the telescope,
also brought him into considerable trouble, since
his bigoted prosecutors maintained it to be the
result of magic.
You would be puzzled, my dear children, to
know whether to laugh or to cry over the folly
tiFita nen, who were the slaves
OF u al -, an A.. SCRABBLE superstition. ~
Th.C 6leon discov red what is known optic
ia y ,uh and hora; rao.
son to suppose that he conceived the telescope,
although there is no evidence to show that he
carried his conception into practice, or invented
the instrument tor there is great difference
between conceving certain thing to be possible
and the making it. Still he exactly describes a
telescope, although some of the effects which he
and Almost 1 IdiicrooG1is' NV If "r"
He asserted that by means Of this instrument
he could make small army appear large one,
and that the sun and moon could be made to de-
scend, to all appearance, ana stand over the heads
OF the enemy. But the exact words will no doubt
please yoU better, and SO / will give them:
I've can so shape transparent substances and
SO arrange them with respect to our sight and
objects, that rays can be broken and bent as we
please so that objects may be far off or
near, under whatever angle WE please, and thus
from an incredible distance we may read the
smallest letters, and number the grains of dust
anu s1iitt, Oh ACCOUNT OF Cne greatness OF the
angle under which see them and we may
manage so as hardly to see bodies when near to
us. on account of the smallness of the angle
under which we cause them to be seen; for vision
OF this sort is not a consequence of distance, ex-
cept that as it affects the magnitudcof the angle
and thus boy may seem . giant, and q man
mountain"
The above sentence is a proof that Roger Bacon
was only speaking theoretically, and that he had
never looked through telescope, otherwise he
would have known that boy at distance will,
when seen through a telescope, look like boy,
and not us a giant Still it is clear that Bacon
had got the rough idea of a telescope, but had
never put his idea into bodily shape. II is not
known TO a certainty when he dfed-some say in
1892, which would have made him sevon.y-eight
years old; while others sayhe died in prison four
years earlier. He was, however, a very great
man for his age, and like his greater nainesake
Francis Bacon, who lived three hundred and fifty
years after him, vastly helped on the great ma
chine Of human advancement
II. 49, ..-s- M