Opus majus

41쪽

many of them mere displays of geometrical ingenui ty, Precisely those whicli ai med at the interpretation Os nature, an dat the adaptation os the laws of luminous radiation to human

and Allia gen, the concentration of parallel rays Dona reflectingSursaces firmed by reVolutions os a Conic section ; though horufar he was indebled sor this knowledge to Peter Peregrinus or to Vitello cannot be stat ed with certa in ty. of the magni*ing powers of ConveX lenses Bacon had a Clear Comprehen Sion. He imagined, and was with in meas urable distance of effecting, the combination os lenses whi Ch was to bring sar things near but which was not to be reali ged illi the time os Galileo. In i6l4, 1 ur years after the invention of the telescope,

Combach. professor of philosophy in the Universi ty of Mar-purg, Publi Shed this great work Os Bacon Viri eminentissimi. 'It would be interesting to know whether the allusion in the Novum Or anum lib. i. 8O to the work of an obscure monti monachi alicujus in cellula ') has resere nee to this Work. The

Comitata est Visa was writ ten bes ore Combach 's edition was published ; but eXamples of the Petra citet a werct num Oro US, and it can hard ly have been uni nown to Francis Bacon. In any case it must have been known to Descartes, to whose CPOCh-mal ing reSearches on Dioptrique it assured ly contribu teda stimulating influe iace. This at least they have in Common, that light is looked iapon as correlated with Other modes of propagation os force through the Ether. With the scientific Renascen ce of the si Xteentii CentUry, Roger Bacon 'S nam e Slowly emerged si om the clarkness whichi, ad en wrappod it for three Centuries. Astrologors liko Dee, Heyden, and Allen hailed him as a Champion of their Out-worn cre ecl. Men os greater mark and Sotander jud gement. like Selden and Mead, were structi by his emancipation Domthe pedant ry of the School S, and by his forecasis, macie ni SOremote a time, os an age of industriat and scientific discOVery. His central aim, the enlisiment of progressive intellect in thecause Of morai and religio tis renovation, was apprecia ted bynone. But since the publication os his principat work in theeighteenth century, his nam e has gradu atly ascended to ardes

42쪽

XXXV l

INTRODUC ION

iis permanent position, On the losty summits which were theearli est to tal e the moria ing' os European thought. II. BACON'S POSITION IN THE METAPHYSICAL CONTROVERSIES OF THE THIRTE ENTH CENTUR U. It is too osten sorgoiten that Bacon was a Schoolman ira ined in scholastic methods, and ready to talae part in thephilosophic discussions whicli interes ted his contemporaries.

It is not perhaps Sur prising that this si de of his work should have been ignored; sor in the opus Majus, though visibieeno Ugh to an attentive reader, it is thrown into the shade by the prominence gi ven to POSitive science, and by the practi calapplication os science to political and religious purpoSes. Certa in Chapters of the Opus Vcrtium, Whicli supplement to oliasty Or imperfeci treat ment in the larger work chapters 38 52), afford bet ter illustrations of Bacon 's aptitude formetaphysical discusSion. Neverthel ess, the position os Bacon

in the scholastic controversies of the thirteenth centuryrema ined an uni nown quantity tili the appea rance os Prosessor Charies's monograph. His comprehensi Ve SurVey of Bacon 'sun published works includes a caresul Study Os, and copio useXtracis Dona the important fragment of the Scriptum Principale. entit ted Communia Naturalium ' of whicli copies existin the Magarine library in Paris and in the Brit isti Museum. Hauroau's comprehen Si Ue work on ScholasIic Philosofis hasma de it easy to refute the illusion stili, howeUer not entiret y dissipated, that scholasticism implies a special set os philosophi caltenets or an uniform method of treat ment. Philosophicat writers in the thirte enth ccntvry differed Dona one another no less than philosophicat writers in the ninete enth ; though in ei ther casea certa in similari ty in the subjecis Considered, and in the modeos handi ing them, was impresSed by the circumstances of the

time. Scholastic philosophy means Simply philosophy taught

in mediaevat schoOlS. Anci belween the schools of the twelfth, of the thirteenth, and of the si urteenth centurieS, there uere great and essentiat differen ces.

43쪽

im per Ctly to a treati Se of Alberi or Of Aquinas SCem S, an clis, a tran Sition qui te as abrupi as to e XChange a Volume Os Addison or Swist sor one of Schopen haver or Carlyle. In theone Case as in the Other, a lide os revolution had sine pi belweenthe Centuries. For it was nothing less than a revolution sor theweStern mirad to recei Ue Uery sud enly from the Moliam med an worid the resulis of three centuries of Arabian learn in g, includ-ing as it dici ait the more serious part of Aristotie's work enriched with keen wit ted and audacio us comment. and ACCOm

os the twelsth century a systematic school of translatorsisoni the Arabic. of whom the Jew, Johia A Uendeath other-wise known as Johannes Hispalensis). Domini C Gundi salvi archdeacon os Segovia. the translator of Algagel, and Gerardos Cremona. best known by his translations of the Alma gest

Their translations os Aristolle, includi nil his P si , Metas Sira and Pscholo T, utere not long in finding their way

See Jourdain, Recte ches sιιν l'age et Portiue aera fra ctions Las esia'Aristote, Pp. Io - 12 ed. IS 3 . The history of mediaevat translations frona Greeli into Arabic, somelimes through intermediate Syriae version S, and si om Arabic into Latin, deserves more elaborate treat ment than it haS yet received ; provide d always that the writer of such a history combined the two condition A So constantly insisted on by Bacon : knowledge of the languages concerned and knowledge os the subjecis troated. Meatilinae much usefulproliminary work has been done in this directiora by Such writers as Wuesten

44쪽

xxxviii INT NODUCTION. Os ei ther, eXcept through the criticis in Os their opponent S, notably through that of Alberi and Aquinas, yet Such criticis in is too det alled and definite to admit os clo ubi that their

deductions from Aristolle and Dom his Arabian commenta tors led them to the assertion Os the uni ty of Substance in Other words, to the ultimate identity of matter, mind, and God. As quoted by Alberi, the language of David was It is manifest that there is one Sole Substance, not Onlyos ali hodies, but also os ali fouis, and that this is nothingbut God himself. God, matter, and mirad, a re one and the Same sole substance' Albert. Summa Theolog. part II. traCt. Xii. UReSt. 72, memb. 4, art. 2). David hept himselfwith in the limits of philosophic theory. He is sa id to have been personalty intimate with Innocent III; and at least during his life time his herestes escaped noti Ce. It wRSother ise with his contemporary Amavry of Benn CS, Who, maintaining the Same opinionS was condemned by the Popeand forced public ly to di favow them. But they furvived in his discipies, who used them in ways directly hostile to Catholic faith and discipline. A Counc it was held in Paris

papal legate, that the stud y of the Physic and Metaphysic os

Aristolle was prohibited, On the misi aken Supposition that the ultimate so urce of these heresi es was to be found there :a mi stat e due probably to the comments of A Uerro OS, withwhicli the first translations of these works into Latin were

See Jean de Latinoy's work De varia Aristotelis in Academia Parisiensi fortuna liber Paris, 1653 , in whicli Seven stages are not2d, from the condemnation os Aristolle in Iaos, to the condemnation of his opponents by the Pariementos Paris in I 624. Cf. Haureau, Hist. de la Philos. ScolaSL, Pari II. vol. ii.

45쪽

POSITION AMONG SCHO OLMEN.

eSSence, haUing the capaci ty, potentia, to beCome the subjeci ofform, WaS the resely. How, then, distinguisti matter frona this sol utia Z Vet, is this be so is matter is potentialty the subjectos ali possibi e sortiis, we have in matter Something that under-lies ali substance. Suppose ali fornas destroyed, matter hold ingin it se is ali the conditions of e X istence stili rema in S. HOW, then, distinguisti matter from God λAlbert's attempted solution of the problem is involved and

obscure in the eX treme, and it must not occupy us here. Weare concerned with Bacon 's. Pacon attacked the problem in his own way, and with a fuit Sense Os iis importance. His Concita SionS a re CX pressed in the seventii Chapter of the turthpart of the opus Majus, and in the thirty-eighth chapter of the opus Terrium : and a stili surther eκ position of them is und in the ui published work of Bacon atready mentioned, entit ted Communia Naturalium .' This treati se on Physical Philosophy Consi sis of Mur paris, of whicli the discussion os

SubStan Ce, Bacon maintains, can be predica ted ne ither os matter nor of forna; but only of the compotand whicli resulis

Dona their union. Compositum habet rationem Per SO CXiS- tendi in ordine entium : non sic materia et forma.' Malter and forna a re not substanceS subStance resulis si Om th Cir union

genus generalissimum, Substantia composita universalis.'ThiS may be corporal or spirituat. Corporat substance maybe terrestriat or celestiat. Terrestriat SubStan Ce may bea mi X ture os elemenis, or a single element. Mi Xed substance may be animate or in animate. Animate subStance may be

Sensiti Ve si . e. animal) Or Vegetat. Animal substance may berational or irrationat. To ea ch of these grades in the hierarchy os substance be longcorreSPOnding grades, not mere ly in the hierarchy of forna, butalso in the hierarchy os matter Matter,' sayS Bacon, is notwhat moSi tea Chers of philosophy maintain it to be, una

46쪽

Xl INTRODUCTION. numero. '' In the descending Scale Dona generat to speciat, ach grade of matter, like each grade of sortia, is distinct frona the preceding. One hind of matter is separa ted from another by specific dissere iaces, just as form is separat ed si Om firm. The differetice het ween an ass and a horse is not a differen coos forni only; it is a differende os matter' Commun. Natur.'Pari II. Dist. ii. Ch. 6 . Bacon has condensed these Vi eius in the diagrammatic form

The varianis in this M S. sor the schedules of Substantia composita and forma are Unim portant. ThOSe os mauria are

How Rro we to estimate these speculations Θ It is obvio usin the fit si place that they stand in mari ed Opposition to, Orat least in distinction frona. theories current among BACon 'Scontemporaries. To jud ge rightly of them we must bear inmind that throughout the greater part of the thirteenthcentUry questions were bet nil agitat ed of even greater importa iace than the Contro Versy be tween reali Sm and nominali Sm.

The panthe istic tendericies discerni ble in Averroes and other Arabian thinhers had been diffused, as we haVe Seen, by menlike Amavry and David os Dinant They were responSible, as Some thought, for the di fastro his anarchy whicli early in

the century had devasta ted sola thern France. Bacon waS