Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-03-28
HOW BACON SAVED HIS SKIN

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HOW BACON SAVED HIS SKIN
THE announcement by Professor Voynich,
l. of New York, that Professor William
Romaine Newbold, Of the University Of Penn
sylvania, has discovered the key to the
Roger Bacon volume in cipher In which there
is II record of the use of both the telescope
and the microscope in the thirteenth cen
tury, is likely to provoke the inquiry why
Bacon concealed the results of some Of his
scientific inv"s legations from the people of
his generation.
The answer is simple. Bacon lived in
the thirteenth century. All scientific dis
Cussion of his time was based on custom and
authority. There was virtually no expert
mental science. When an alert and curious
minded man studied nature itself in order
TO find out its secrets he was suspected,
especially II his conclusions differed from
those based on authority and custom. As
II was, Bacon, who was one Of the greatest
scholars Of his time, spent many years in
prison because of the views which he ex.
pressed They differed from those of his
contemporaries.
There is in existence cipher manu-
script, however, which is generally credited
TO Bacon. 1t has passed from hand to hand
for centuries without ever being translated.
DR.. Newbold has been at work on it for n
long time, and he will tell the College Of
Physicians next month some of the things
which he has found. Among them, as al
ready indicated by Professor Noynich, is
that Bacon had both telescope and
microscope and that he used them. The
date of the invention Of the telescope is
usually put about three centuries larcr than
Bacon, or in the early part of the seven
tccnth century.
But the interesting and significant feature
of the Bacon cipher manuscript lies in its
relation TO the intellectual temper Of the
thirteenth century. a man who set forth
views on science or religion which differed
from those of his time did so at the peril
of his life. This condition continued for
centuries. Calico suffered because he said
that the earth rcvolved around the sun. His
contemporaries insisted that he was wrong.
They could see the sun revolving around
the earth, and the Bible told about the sun
standing still in the heavens. What better
authority was needed to prove Gaileo wrong
than holy writ and the evidence Of the
senses? II Bacon had announced that Sat
urn had rings and that Jupiter had moons
Imprisonment would have been regarded as
too mild n punishment for his heresy.
Whether he knew this much about the
heavenly bodies we shall not know until
Dr. Newbold tells what he has found in the
cipher manuscript.
We are wont to congratulate ourselves on
our more liberal point of view. But il is
not so much more liberal as we think it is
Two or three generations ago all the ortho-
doX were dcnouncng Darwin as "A hereto
because hts announced theories about the
creation Of man differed from the account
in Genesis. In an earlier age he would
have been burned at the stake. The nine.
tccnth century England Of Darwin was q
little more humane in its punlshments than
the thirteenth century England of Roger
Bacon. Otherwise they were very much the
same. Views which differed from those based
on custom and authority were denounced in
both periods A little progress has been
made, however, for the number Of men who,
with William James, are willing 10 admit
the chance that those who disagree with
them may be right is much larger than it
used TO be.
But it is not so large as it ought to be.
Take for purposes Of illustration an extreme
and controversial case at the present mo
ment. The Bolshevists Of Russia are try
ing to set UP a communist system in place
of what they call the capitalist system of
economic organization Of society. There is
q disposition in the rest OF the world TO
regard its own system as perfect because
it is the system to which the people
are aCCumstomcd. Virtually all of the
|
based on custom. The relative merits of
ndividualism and communism are rarely
discussed. They are not even considered
BY persons In places of authority. II these
persons could get hold Of Lenine and
Trorzky they would be disposed to treat
them as the authorities treated Roger
Bacon because his views on religion and
science differed from the views of his gen
Grafton.
We are not arguing that communism is
right. We do not think ii is workable or
will ever be workable on any large scale
so long as human nature remains what il
is But "" are willing TO admit that our
| views on what is economically possible in
! the organization of society may b. Us mis-
! taken as we're the views Of the contcm
| porar!cs Of Roger Bacon on the organiza
! tiou Of III" solar system. Yet We and all who
| believe in the present system, with all It's
! defects, will continue 10 oppose communism
and the Boshevists and wll insist that i,