See the opinion of Aquinas, in Degerando, Hist. Com. des Syst. iv. 499; of Duns Scotus, ibid. iv. 523.
49
Liber Excerptionum, Lib. i. c. i.
50
Tr. Ex. Lib. i. c. vii.
51
Tenneman, viii. 461.
52
Mores Catholici, or Ages of Faith, viii. p. 247.
53
Tenneman, viii. 460.
54
If there were any doubt on this subject, we might refer to the writers who afterwards questioned the supremacy of Aristotle, and who with one voice assert that an infallible authority had been claimed for him. Thus Laurentius Valla: "Quo minus ferendi sunt recentes Peripatetici, qui nullius sectæ hominibus interdicunt libertate ab Aristotele dissentiendi, quasi sophos hic, non philosophus." Pref. in Dial. (Tenneman, ix. 29.) So Ludovicus Vives: "Sunt ex philosophis et ex theologis qui non solum quo Aristoteles pervenit extremum esse aiunt naturæ, sed quâ pervenit eam rectissimam esse omnium et certissimam in natura viam." (Tenneman, ix. 43.) We might urge too, the evasions practised by philosophical Reformers, through fear of the dogmatism to which they had to submit; for example, the protestation of Telesius at the end of the Proem to his work, De Rerum Natura: "Nec tamen, si quid eorum quæ nobis posita sunt, sacris literis, Catholicæve ecclesiæ decretis non cohæreat, tenendum id, quin penitus rejiciendum asseveramus contendimusque. Neque enim humana modo ratio quævis, sed ipse etiam sensus illis posthabendus, et si illis non congruat, abnegandus omnino et ipse etiam est sensus."
55
Ages of Faith, viii. 247: to the author of which I am obliged for this quotation.
56
Algazel. See Hist. Ind. Sc. b. iv. c. i.
57
Tenneman, viii. 830.
58
Degerando, iv. 535.
59
Leibnitz's expressions are, (Op. t. vi. p. 16): "Quand j'étais jeune, je prenois quelque a l'Art de Lulle, mais je crus y entrevoir bien des défectuosités, dont j'ai dit quelque chose dans un petit Essai d'écolier intitulé De Arte Combinatoria, publié en 1666, et qui a été réimprimé après malgré moi. Mais comme je ne méprise rien facilement, excepté les arts divinatoires que ne sont que des tromperies toutes pures, j'ai trouvé quelque chose d'estimable encore dans l'Art de Lulle."
60
Works, vii. 296.
61
Fratris Rogeri Bacon, Ordinis Minorum, Opus Majus, ad Clementem Quartum, Pontificem Romanum, ex MS. Codice Dubliniensi cum aliis quibusdam collato, nunc primum edidit S. Jebb, M.D. Londini, 1733.
62
Opus Majus, Præf.
63
Contents of Roger Bacon's Opus Majus.
Part I. On the four causes of human ignorance:—Authority, Custom, Popular Opinion, and the Pride of supposed Knowledge.
Part II. On the source of perfect wisdom in the Sacred Scripture.
Part III. On the Usefulness of Grammar.
Part IV. On the Usefulness of Mathematics.
(1) The necessity of Mathematics in Human Things (published separately as the Specula Mathematica).
(2) The necessity of Mathematics in Divine Things.—1o. This study has occupied holy men: 2o. Geography: 3o. Chronology: 4o. Cycles; the Golden Number, &c.: 5o. Natural Phenomena, as the Rainbow: 6o. Arithmetic: 7o. Music.
(3) The necessity of Mathematics in Ecclesiastical Things. 1o. The Certification of Faith: 2o. The Correction of the Calendar.
(4) The necessity of Mathematics in the State.—1o. Of Climates: 2o. Hydrography: 3o. Geography: 4o. Astrology.
Part V. On Perspective (published separately as Perspectiva).
(1) The organs of vision.
(2) Vision in straight lines.
(3) Vision reflected and refracted.
(4) De multiplicatione specierum (on the propagation of the impressions of light, heat, &c.)
Part VI. On Experimental Science.
64
Op. Maj. p. 1.
65
Ibid. p. 2.
66
Ibid. p. 10.
67
I will give a specimen. Opus Majus, c. viii. p. 35: "These two kinds of philosophers, the Ionic and Italic, ramified through many sects and various successors, till they came to the doctrine of Aristotle, who corrected and changed the propositions of all his predecessors, and attempted to perfect philosophy. In the [Italic] succession, Pythagoras, Archytas Tarentinus and Timæus are most prominently mentioned. But the principal philosophers, as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, did not descend from this line, but were Ionics and true Greeks, of whom the first was Thales Milesius.... Socrates, according to Augustine in his 8th book, is related to have been a disciple of Archelaus. This Socrates is called the father of the great philosophers, since he was the master of Plato and Aristotle, from whom all the sects of philosophers descended.... Plato, first learning what Socrates and Greece could teach, made a laborious voyage to Egypt, to Archytas of Tarentum and Timæus, as says Jerome to Paulinus. And this Plato is, according to holy men, preferred to all philosophers, because he has written many excellent things concerning God, and morality, and a future life, which agree with the divine wisdom of God. And Aristotle was born before the death of Socrates, since he was his hearer for three years, as we read in the life of Aristotle.... This Aristotle, being made the master of Alexander the Great, sent two thousand men into all regions of the earth, to search out the nature of things, as Pliny relates in the 8th book of his Naturalia, and composed a thousand books, as we read in his life."
68
Ibid. p. 36.
69
Autonomaticè.
70
Op. Maj. p. 46.
71
See Pref. to Jebb's edition. The passages, there quoted, however, are not extracts from the Opus Majus, but (apparently) from the Opus Minus (MS. Cott. Tib. c. 5.) "Si haberem potestatem supra libros Aristotelis, ego facerem omnes cremari; quia non est nisi temporis amissio studere in illis, et causa erroris, et multiplicatio ignorantiæ ultra id quod valeat explicari.... Vulgus studentum cum capitibus suis non habet unde excitetur ad aliquid dignum, et ideo languet et asininat circa male translata, et tempus et studium amittit in omnibus et expensas."
72
Part ii.
73
Parts iv. v. and vi.
74
Op. Maj. p. 476.
75
Op. Maj. p. 15.
76
Ibid. p. 445, see also p. 448. "Scientiæ aliæ sciunt sua principia invenire per experimenta, sed conclusiones per argumenta facta ex principiis inventis. Si vero debeant habere experientiam conclusionum suarum particularem et completam, tunc oportet quod habeant per adjutorium istius scientiæ nobilis (experimentalis)."
31.
