Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/496

 460 Readings in European History 195. Roger Bacon's eulogy of one who devoted himself to experi- mental science. VI. ROGER BACON AND THE BEGINNING OF MODERN EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE The following passage makes clear Bacon's attitude toward investigation, and also shows that he was not the only one who was turning, his attention to experi- ment, which was to prove so fruitful in the following centuries. One man I know, and one only, who can be praised for his achievements in experimental science. 1 Of discourses and battles of words he takes no heed : he pursues the works of wisdom and in them finds satisfaction. What others strive to see dimly and blindly, like bats blinking at the sun in the twilight, he gazes at in the full light of day, because he is a master of experiment. Through experiment he gains knowledge of natural things, medical, chemical, indeed of everything in the heavens and on earth. He is ashamed that things should be known to laymen, old women, soldiers, plowmen, of which he is ignorant. There- fore he has looked closely into the doings of those who melt metals and who work in gold and silver and other metals and in minerals of all sorts ; he knows everything relating to the art of war, the making of weapons, ind the chase ; he has looked carefully into agriculture, mensuration, ancl farming work ; he has even taken note of remedies, lot casting, and charms used by old women and by wizards and magicians, and of the devices and deceptions of conjurers, so that nothing which deserves investigation should escape him, and in order that he might be able to expose the impostures of the magicians. If philosophy is to be carried to its perfection and is to be handled with certainty and advantage, his aid is indis- pensable. As for reward, he neither receives it nor looks for it. If he frequented the courts of kings and princes he would easily find those who would bestow upon him both 1 Of Peter of Maricourt, to whom Bacon refers, very little is known.