" (Vol. II. pp. 312-317.) But the
resemblances in their systems, although striking in some particulars,
are on the whole not too great to be regarded simply as the results of
corresponding genius, and of a common sense of the insufficiency of the
prevalent methods of scholastic philosophy for the discovery of truth
and the advancement of knowledge. "The same sanguine and sometimes rash
confidence in the effect of physical discoveries, the same fondness for
experiment, the same preference of inductive to abstract reasoning
pervade both works," the _Opus Majus_ and the _Novum Organum_.--Hallam,
_Europe during the Middle Ages_, III. 431. See also Hallam, _Literature
of Europe_, I. 113; and Mr. Ellis's Preface to the _Novum Organum_, p.
90, in the first volume of the admirable edition of the _Works of Lord
Bacon_ now in course of publication.]
[Footnote 18: _Opus Tertium_. Cap. xv. pp. 55, 56.]
[Footnote 19: _Id_. Cap. x. p. 33.]
[Footnote 20: The famous Grostete,--who died in 1253. "Vir in Latino et
Graeco peritissimus," says Matthew Paris.]
[Footnote 21: _Comp. Studii Phil_. Cap. vi.]
[Footnote 22: _Opus Minus_, p. 330.]
[Footnote 23: This was Michael Scot the Wizard, who would seem to have
deserved the place that Dante assigned to him in the _Inferno_, if not
from his practice of forbidden arts, at least from his corruption of
ancient learning in his so-called translations.
Pages:
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391