Roger Bacon : essays contributed by various writers on the occasion of the commemoration of the seventh centenary of his birth / collected and edited by A.G. Little.

Date:
1914
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Roger Bacon : essays contributed by various writers on the occasion of the commemoration of the seventh centenary of his birth / collected and edited by A.G. Little. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the execution. There is no doubt that Bacon was right in this criticism, and the history of some of the Latin translations is sufficient to make their worthlessness in- telligible. In many cases they were translated from the Arabic by wretched Arabic scholars ; while the Arabic versions were not generally from the original Greek. Most frequently they were from Syriac translations, through which a knowledge of Aristotle first penetrated to the Arabs. Thus the steps would be : Original Greek, Syriac version, Arabic translation of the Syriac, Latin version of the Arabic. It is not wonderful that in too many cases Aristotle was indeed “ translated ”, and that there should be found in his harder works what Bacon calls “ horrible difficulties ”. ‘ Bacon himself knew Greek well. Among his unprinted works1 is a fragment of a Greek grammar ; and so easy did he think the language that he professed himself able to teach any one to read the ordinary authors within three days. For this boast he has been much blamed ; Prantl, the historian of Logic, with all the German capacity for hurling hard names, calls him “ a swindler and a charlatan like his celebrated namesake ”. I think it probable that the particular passage in the Opus Tertium has been some- what misunderstood, and that we must not interpret the language very strictly. ‘ The Fourth part of the Opus is in some respects the most remarkable. In it Bacon handles mathematics, their utility for science and for theology. It is for what he says here that one would claim highest credit for him. Mathe- matics he calls the gate and key of the natural sciences, the alphabet of philosophy. In it alone do we have perfect and complete demonstration. While therefore mathematics is necessary for all science whatsoever, it is particularly needful and useful for natural philosophy. “ Physicists”, says Bacon, “ ought to know that their science is powerless unless they call in the aid of mathematics.” (Naturales mundi sciant quod languebunt in rebus naturalibus, nisi mathematicae noverunt potestatem.—De Coelestibus MS.)2 This opinion is not taken up loosely, not thrown out by chance ; it is grounded on a broad and comprehensive theory of natural action. For, according to Bacon, all natural phenomena, all generation, change, transformation, must 1 [Printed in 1902, ed. Nolan and Hirsch.] 2 [Charles, Roger Bacon, 137, note: Steele, Opera hactenus inedita, Fase. IV, p. 342.]