retained with great steadiness, in spite of all the efforts of the conqueror and his successors to substitute the Norman in its place. It even gradually gained ground, and in the course of this period forced its way into the courts of justice, from which it had been excluded almost three hundred years.

The extravagances of dress and follies of fashion have been subjects of complaint and satire in every age, and in none more justly than in this period. In the remaining monuments of those times, we meet with many descriptions of the splendid expensive dresses of the great, and many complaints of the ridiculous, deforming, inconvenient fashions adopted by persons of all ranks. The magnificent costly dresses of the barons and knights who attended the marriage of Alexander III. king of Scotland, and Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry III. at York, in 1251, are thus mentioned by Matthew Paris, who was present at that solemnity: "The royal marriage was solemnized privately, and very early in the morning, to avoid being incommoded by the multitudes of nobles of England, France, Scotland, and other countries who were then jn York, and ardently desired to see it. It would raise the surprise and indignation of my readers to the highest pitch, if I attempted to describe at full length the wantonness, pride, and vanity, which the nobles displayed on this occasion, in the richness and variety of their dresses, and the many fantastical ornaments with which they were adorned. To mention only one particular:-The king of England was attended on the day of the marriage by a thousand knights, uniformly dressed in silk robes; and the next day these knights appeared in new dresses, no less splendid and expensive."

THIS extraordinary man was born near Ilchester, A. D. 1214, and at a proper age was sent to Oxford, where he prosecuted his studies with so much ardour and success, that he gained the friendship and patronage of the greatest men in the university. Having spent some years at Oxford in the study of the languages, logic, and other branches of philosophy, he removed, according to the custom of those times, to Paris, where at this time not only the greatest men in Europe resided and taught, but many of the English nation, by whom Bacon was highly encouraged and caressed. Among others he became known to Robert Grouthead, or, as the French write it, Grossetiste, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, who became his great patron and singular good friend. While he remained here, he did not confine his studies to any particular branch of literature, but endeavoured to embrace and comprehend the sciences in general, not however in a slight or superficial manner, but fully, perfectly, and to the bottom, by the help of a right method, and a constant and eager application.

As the love of learning was his ruling passion, he returned to his native country A. D. 1240, being then about twenty-six years of age, settled at Oxford, and entered into the Franciscan order of monks in that city, that he might prosecute his studies in tranquillity and with advantage. After

his return to Oxford, he was considered by the greatest men of that university, as one of the ablest and most indefatigable inquirers after knowledge, that the world ever produced; and therefore they shewed him all the respect, and had for him all the esteem, that his great abilities deserved.

Bacon soon abandoned the beaten track which was pursued by the scholars of that period, who spent their time in the study of very faulty translations of the works of Aristotle, and in reading commentaries on those works which had been written by men who did not well understand the original language. That he might not mis-spend his time in the same manner, he made himself a perfect master of the Greek tongue. Not contented with this, he applied directly to the study of nature, and engaged in a course of laborious, expensive, and well-conducted experiments, as the only means of arriving at certainty and of making useful discoveries. By the generosity of his friends and patrons he was enabled to expend on those experiments, in twenty years, no less a sum than two thousand pounds, equal in weight of silver to six thousand pounds, and in efficacy to thirty thousand pounds, of our money at present. This was indeed a great sum; but no money was ever better employed: for in the course of those experiments, he made a greater number of useful and surprising discoveries in geometry, astronomy, physics, optics, mechanics, and chemistry, than ever were made by one man in an equal space of time.

The construction of the specula or spying-glasses, used by the astronomers of this period, was well known to Bacon. There is however sufficient evidence, that they were applied to the same purposes, and answered the same ends, with our telescopes, which are thought to be of much later invention. "Specula, or spying-glasses (says Roger Bacon), may be erected on a rising ground, opposite to cities or armies, in such a manner that all things done by the enemy may be discovered; and this may be done at any distance we please. For, according to the laws of optics, an object may be viewed through as many glasses as we think fit, if they are properly placed; and they may be placed, some nearer, and some more remote, so that the object may be seen at any distance we desire.-Spying-glasses may be so formed, and so placed, that we shall be able to read the smallest letters at an incredible distance, to number even the dust and sands, and to make the sun, moon, and stars, to descend, or at least seem to descend, from heaven." From this passage, to which several others might be added, it appears to be undeniable, that this learned friar was in possession of an instrument of similar use and construction with our telescope, though not, perhaps, so neat and portable.

In his admirable treatise (De Scientia Perspectiva) he hath explained at great length, and with wonderful perspicuity, the theories of reflected

vision or catoptrics, and of refracted vision or dioptrics, as well as of direct vision or optics; and from these theories he hath deduced many useful inventions; and, amongst others, that of reading-glasses, which are thus plainly described: " If a man view letters, or other small objects, through the medium of a crystal or glass, which is the lesser portion of a sphere, whose convexity is towards the eye, he will see the letters much better, and they will appear to him larger. This instrument is useful to old men, and to those who are weak-sighted, because by it they may see the smallest letters of sufficient magnitude." By his skill in catoptrics, he rivalled Archimedes in the constructing of burning-glasses. "I have caused many burning-glasses (says he) to be made, in which, as in a mirror, the goodness of nature may be displayed. Nor are they to be accounted too expensive, when we consider the wonderful and useful things they can perform. The first I got made cost me sixty pounds of Parisian money, equal to about twenty pounds sterling: but afterwards I got a better one made for ten Parisian pounds, or five marks sterling; and since I have become more expert, I have discovered that better ones may be made for two marks, nay for twenty shillings, or even cheaper. But in this great attention and dexterity are required." In a word, there is the clearest evidence in the works of this wonderful man, that he was acquainted with the construction of all the different kinds of instruments for viewing objects to advantage, which have been so much admired as modern inventions.

This much at least is certain, that friar Bacon had acquired so extensive a knowledge of the mechanical powers, and their various combinations, and had thereby performed so many surprising things, that he was suspected of being a magician. To remove that suspicion, he wrote his famous epistle, concerning the secret operation of art and nature, and the nullity of magic. In that epistle he reprobates the use of magical characters, verses, incantations, invocation of spirits, and various other tricks, as criminal impositions on the credulity of mankind; and affirms, that more wonderful works may be performed by the combined powers of art and nature, than ever were pretended to be performed by the power of magic. "I will now (says he) mention some of the wonderful works of art and nature, in which there is nothing of magic, and which magic could not perform. Instruments may be made, by which the largest ships, with only one man guiding them, will be carried with greater velocity than if they were full of sailors.-Chariots may be constructed that will move with incredible rapidity, without the help of animals ;-instruments of flying may be formed, in which a man sitting at his ease, and meditating on any subject, may beat the air with his artificial wings, after the manner of birds;-a small instrument may be made to raise or depress WORTHIES.

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the greatest weights ;-an instrument may be fabricated, by which one man may draw a thousand men to him by force, and against their wills;as also machines which will enable men to walk at the bottom of seas or rivers without danger :-That all those instruments are made in our times, is most certain, and I have seen them all, but that for flying, which I have never seen, though I am well acquainted with the wise man who invented it."

Bacon, who was one of the most active and intelligent, as well as one of the most honest and communicative, of those ancient chemists, speaks with great confidence of the reality of a medicine which would answer both the purposes of prolonging life and transmuting metals: "That medicine (says he) which could remove all the impurities of baser metals, and change them into the finest gold and silver, could also remove all the corruptions of the human body, to such a degree, that life might be prolonged through many ages."

Nothing can be more certain than that Bacon had discovered the composition of gunpowder, and the terrible effects it was capable of producing, both which he hath described in several parts of his works, though these things are generally supposed to have been first discovered almost a century after his death. In one place, he says,-" Sounds like thunder, and coruscations, may be made in the air, and even with greater horror than those which are made by nature. For a little matter, properly prepared, about the bigness of a man's thumb, makes a horrible noise, and produces a dreadful coruscation; and by this a city or an army may be destroyed in several different ways." In the last chapter of the same treatise, concerning the secret operations of art and nature, he discovers the ingredients of which this terrible thundering composition is made: "By saltpetre, sulphur, and the powder of wood-coal, you may make this thunder and coruscation, if you understand the art of compounding them." It is true, that in the original, the letters which compose the words carbonum pulvere (powder of wood-coal) are not placed in their proper order. But this was evidently done to prevent the art of making this dangerous composition from being commonly known and practised, because he knew that it might be employed to very pernicious purposes.

But the world was long deprived of the advantage, and Bacon of the honour, of these discoveries, by the ignorance, envy, and malice of the monks of his order. For believing, or pretending to believe, that he was a magician, and held a criminal intercourse with infernal spirits, they put him under close confinement, and prohibited him from sending any of his writings out of his monastery, except to the pope. In this confinement he languished several years; till having sent a copy of his Opus