ROGER BACON, an Englishman, and a Franciscan friar, lived
in the XIII century. He was a great Astrologer, Chymist, Mathematician,
and Magician . There runs a tradition in English annals, that this friar
made a brazen head, under the rising of the planet Saturn, which spake
with a man's voice, and gave responses to all his questions. Francis Picus
says, "that he read in a book wrote by Bacon, that a man might foretel
things to come by means of the mirror Almuchesi , composed according
to the rules of perspective; provided he made use of it under a good constellation,
and first brought his body into an even and temperate state by chymistry."
This is agreeable to what John Picus has maintained, that Bacon gave
himself only to the study of Natural Magic . This friar sent several instruments
of his own invention to pope Clement IV. Several of his books have been
published (but they are now very
182
scarce,) viz. Specula Mathematica & Perspectiva, Speculum
Alchymiæ, De Mirabili Potestate Artis & Naturæ, Epistolæ,
cum Notis , &c. In all probability he did not perform any thing
by any compact with devils, but has only ascribed to things a surprising
efficacy which they could not naturally have. He was well versed in judicial
astrology. His Speculum Astrologiæ was condemned by Gerson
and Agrippa. Francis Picus and many others have condemned it only because
the author maintains in it, that, with submission to better judgments,
books of magic ought to be carefully preserved, because the time draws
near that, for certain causes not there specified, they must necessarily
be perused and made use of on some occasions. Naude adds, "that Bacon was
so much addicted to judicial astrology, that Henry de Hassia, William of
Paris, and Nicholas Oresmius, were obliged to inveigh sharply against his
writings." Bacon was fellow of Brazen-nose college in Oxford in the year
1226. He was beyond all compeer the glory of the age he lived in, and may
perhaps stand in competition with the greatest that have appeared since.
It is wonderful, considering the age wherein he lived, how he came by such
a depth of knowledge on all subjects. His treatises are composed
with that elegancy, conciseness, and strength, and abound with such just
and exquisite observations on nature, that, among the whole line of chymists,
we do not know one that can pretend to contend with him. The reputation
of his uncommon learning still survives in England. His cell is shewn at
Oxford to this day; and there is a tradition, that it will fall whenever
a greater man than Bacon shall enter within it. He wrote many treatises;
amongst which, such as are yet extant have beauties enough to make us sensible
of the great loss of the rest. What relates to chymistry are two
small pieces, wrote at Oxford, which are now in print, and the manuscripts
to be seen in the public library at Leiden; having been carried thither
among Vossius's manuscripts from England. In these treatises he clearly
shews how imperfect metals may be ripened into perfect ones. He entirely
adopts Geber's notion, that mercury is the common basis of all metals,
and sulphur the cement; and shews that it is by a gradual depuration of
the mercurial matter by sublimation, and the accession of a subtle sulphur
by fire, that nature makes her gold; and that, if during the process, any
other third matter happen to
183
intervene, besides the mercury and sulphur, some base metal arises:
so that, if we by imitating her operations ripen lead, we might easily
change it into good gold.
Several of Bacon's operations have been compared with the experiments
of Monsieur Homberg, made by that curious prince the duke of Orleans; by
which it has been found that Bacon has described some of the very things
which Homberg published as his own discoveries. For instance, Bacon teaches
expressly, that if a pure sulphur be united with mercury, it will commence
gold: on which very principle, Monsieur Homberg has made various experiments
for the production of gold, described in the Memoire de l'Academie Royale
des Sciences. His other physical writings shew no less genius and force
of mind. In a treatise 1 Of the secrets Works of Nature ,
he shews that a person who was perfectly acquainted with the manner nature
observes in her operations, would not only be able to rival, but to surpass
nature herself.
This author's works are printed in 8vo and 12mo, under the title
of Frater Rogerius Baco de Secretis Artis & Naturæ, but
they are become very rare. From a repeated perusal of them we may perceive
that Bacon was no stranger to many of the capital discoveries of the present
and past ages. Gunpowder he certainly knew; thunder and lightning, he tells
us, may be produced by art and that sulphur, nitre, and charcoal, which
when separate have no sensible effect, when mingled together in a due proportion,
and closely confined, yield a horrible crack. A more precise description
of gunpowder cannot be given with words: and yet a Jesuit, Barthol. Schwartz,
some ages afterwards, has had the honour of the discovery. He likewise
mentions a sort of inextinguishable fire, prepared by art, which indicates
he knew something of phosphorus. And that he had a notion of the rarefaction
of the air, and the structure of the air-pump, is past contradiction. A
chariot, he observes, might be framed on the principle of mechanics, which,
being sustained on very large globes, specifically lighter than common
air, would carry a man aloft through the atmosphere; this proves that he
likewise had a competent idea of aerostation.
184
There are many curious speculations in this noble author, which will
raise the admiration of the reader: but none of them will affect him with
so much wonder, as to see a person of the most sublime merit fall a sacrifice
to the wanton zeal of infatuated bigots.
See BOERHAAVE'S Chym. p. 18.
Footnotes
183:1 De Secretis Naturæ Operibus.
...
