Page images
PDF
EPUB

rations and surpassed generations then yet to come; but he rather indicated than executed great things; he erected the scaffolding of a high edifice, leaving to others the care of its construction. Leibnitz was all that he desired to be; he introduced into philosophy a high standard of intelligence, but he regarded the science of nature through the medium of artificial light, his system of metaphysics seems made rather to astound and overthrow than to enlighten mankind. Newton gave birth to novel optics, and demonstrated the doctrine of gravitation. God forbid that I should attempt to detract from the glory of that illustrious man! I simply direct attention to the material ready to his hand and utilised by him in his grand discoveries. I note that Galileo furnished him with the theory of weight; Kepler the laws of the stars in their revolutions; Huyghens the combination and results of centripetal and centrifugal forces; Bacon the grand principle of tracing all phenomena to the ultimate cause; Descartes his method of reasoning, his geometrical analysis, an infinite variety of physical facts, and, what possibly was of the greatest importance, the annihilation of all prejudice. The glory of Newton was thus in profiting by all the advantages he enjoyed, by the moulding into one all foreign elements; uniting his own, which were enormous, and by incorporating the whole in his Calculus, which is as sublime as it is profound."

Sir David Brewster, in his life of Newton, says :-" The revelations of infinite wisdom are not vouchsafed to man in a day. A light so effulgent would paralyse the noblest intellect. It must break in upon it by degrees; and even each separate ray must be submitted to the ordeal of various minds-to the apprentice skill of one age, and to the master genius of another."

I imagine Europe in A.D. 1200 as a large hall, so dark that it is almost impossible for one to grope his way in safety. I see Roger Bacon enter and place a light in one corner of it. I see him followed in slow procession by some 28 others, each bear

ing and depositing his peculiar light in the place selected by himself. I see the hall gradually lighting up. I see Newton, the last of the train, solemnly enter and deposit his. I see the hall one blaze of light in A.D. 1699.

Lord Beaconsfield, when addressing the members of the Manchester Athenæum, said:" Knowledge is like the mystic ladder in the patriarch's dream. Its base rests on the primeval earth-its crest is lost in the shadowy splendour of the empyrean; while the great authors, who, for traditionary ages, have held the chain of science and philosophy, of poesy and erudition, are the angels ascending and descending the sacred scale, maintaining, as it were, the communication between man and heaven."

SKETCHES OF THE LIVES AND WRITINGS

OF

EMANCIPATORS OF THE EUROPEAN MIND.

BACON, ROGER-1214-1292.

Roger Bacon, born near Ilchester, in Somerset, became a Franciscan monk, devoted his life to the study of nature, and may justly be regarded as the pioneer of modern European thought. Considering the age in which he lived, he may be said to rank second to no man as an original thinker and discoverer. In moral philosophy he laid down some excellent precepts for the conduct of life. He approximated the discovery of the telescope, the camera obscura, and gunpowder, and not only detected the error in the calendar, but suggested the reformation subsequently made in it by Gregory XIII. But few of his time had the knowledge, or intelligence, necessary to enable them to appreciate his labours. His ignorant colleagues attributed his opinions and discoveries to the agency of the devil, and denounced his doctrines as dangerous. The Pope, at their instance, forbade him to teach at the university, suffered him to be thrown into prison, and even to be deprived of necessary food. He remained in prison till Clement IV., one of his few admirers, ascended the papal throne. Clement not merely liberated Bacon, but demanded a collection of his works. They were afterwards printed under the title of "Opus Majus." In the latter portion of his life, possibly to refute the suggestion of heresy, he wrote his "Compendium of Theology."

DANTE (PROPERLY DURANTE ALIGHIERI)—
1265-1321.

Dante, born in Florence, studied philosophy at Florence, Bologna, and Padua, and afterwards theology in Paris. He was a soldier and a statesman. In 1300 he was appointed one of the priors, or superior magistrates, of his native city, but in 1302 was banished for resisting the interference of Pope Boniface VIII. in the struggle between the Bianchi and the Neri, the two factions into which the Florentines were then divided. At the instance of the former and weaker party, Pope Boniface VIII. sent Charles of Valois to quiet the troubles in Florence. Dante resisted this papal interference, which he regarded as dangerous to the state. He and the leaders of the Bianchi were banished in 1302. Thenceforth his life was an almost uninterrupted series of misfortunes. Restoration to his former position—the desire of his heartwas never granted. He was not without friends, who, admiring his genius and commisserating his misfortune, gave him welcome hospitality; but his soul revolted against the eating of other men's bread. He was an inveterate Ghibeline. He hated the Guelphs and the Pope. All power and splendour not lodged in the Emperor was in his view misplaced.

He was the first and the greatest of the modern poets of Italy. It has been said of him that he created the Italian language. In the year 1309, he wrote a work on monarchy, "De Monarchie," a valuable source of information respecting the great struggle of the Guelphs and Ghibelines, and its influence on the then Christian world. That struggle was a part of the great convulsion which attended the separation of the civil from the ecclesiastical power. The work that made Dante immortal is his "Divina Commedia." Not a single pope or cardinal is admitted by him into his heaven, though

« PreviousContinue »