The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-03-24

TOR many years, 1t seems ne
4 found no encouragement, indeed
every encouragement. in his order,
and his spirit became Filtered
against his times. But in 265 he had
been made happy by a letter from
Pope Clement ":
ITO our beloved son, Brother
Bacon, called Roger We
have received with pleasure the
letter of thy devotion; and we have
we'll considered what our beloved
son Bonecor. Knight. has by word
or mouth set forth to us.
80, then, that we may under
stand more clearly what thou pur-
poSeSt, it is our will and we COM
mand thee by our apostolic man.
date, that, Notwithstanding the
prohibition Of any prelate. or any
constitution of thy order, thou
sendest to us speedily in good
script that work, which, while we
hold a minor Office, We requested
thee to communicate to our be-
loved son Raymond. Do this
as secretly as possible, wtnout
delay
1t was now that Bacon wrote. and
dispatched to the Pope, his opus
Majus"; and then, lest it should
have been lost on the way, he sent
another work, the Opus Minus"
covering the same ground; and still
later a briefer exposition, the opus
tertium."
So haraSsed was this man, who in
the midst of obscurantiSm fought
for the right to pave the way for
modern science. We Go not know
whether his manuscripts ever
reached the Pope; Clement died the
next year. and Bacon went to his
own grave without any further word
of encouragement from the world.
1t is remarkable how like the
words of a later Bacon the challenge
which Roger filings in the face of
Aristotle and all who think that
knowledge can grow merely by copy
ing antiquity or authority. If I
had my way" he declared Il should
burn all the books of Aristotle, for
the study of them can only lead to
the loss Of time, produce error, and
increase ignorance
Il n
A RISTOTLE perhaps had planted
"a the tree of knowledge. but this
had hardly begun to produce its
fullest fruits. IF we could continue
70 live for endless centuries we NOR
tails could never hope to reach full
and complete knowledge Of all the
things which are to be known. No
one knows enough of nature COM
pletely to describe the peculiarities
of single fly and give reason for its
color, and why it has just SO many
feet, no more and no less"
Here, in this curiosity about the
ways of nature lay new note; soon
men would awaken to the fact that
the greatest book of all lay almost
unopened before their eyes, while
they lost themselves in accounts of
hildJ OIlleT Illell IldQ SSCIl.
There are two ways of pursuing
knowledge" he says, argument, and
experiment" But argument is end
less, and every argument begets an
equal and contrary argument for
ever; by this way lin forty years we
learn no more than could be taught
IN one" And then again he speaks
with the voice of Francis Bacon:
There are four principle stum-
bling blocks to conlprehending
truth, which hinder well-nigh
every scholar; the example of trail
and untrustworthy authority, long
established custom, the sense of
the ignorant crowd, and the hiding
of ones own ignorance under the
show of wisdom.
In these every man is involved,
and every state be set. For in
every act of life, or business, or
study, these three worst argu-
ments are used for the same con-
illusions; this was the way of our
ancestors, this was the custom,
this was the common view; there
fore it should be held.
So Roger gave himself to science,
and met with a wild pugnacity the
resistance of his order. He pointed
out the error which was visiting the
Julian calendar, and calculated the
proper corrections; three centuries
later Gregory XII established the
present Gregorian calendar on the
basis of Rogers corrections; perhaps,
as Anatole France believed, even Les
savants ne sont pas curieux. and
science is no more anxious to
abandon the past than theology is.