e filmy speculations of their
own. Friar Bacon, however, had one great pupil whose work he thoroughly
appreciated because it exhibited the opposite qualities. This was
Petrus--we have come to know him as Peregrinus--whose observations on
magnetism have excited so much attention in recent years with the
republications of his epistle on the subject. It is really a monograph
on magnetism written in the thirteenth century. Roger Bacon's opinion of
it and of its author furnishes us the best possible index of his
attitude of mind towards observation and experiment in science.

I know of only one person who deserves praise for his work in
experimental philosophy for he does not care for the
discourses of men and their wordy warfare, but quietly and
diligently pursues the works of wisdom. Therefore what others
grope after blindly, as bats in the evening twilight, this man
contemplates in their brilliancy _because he is a master of
experiment_. Hence, he knows all of natural science whether
pertaining to medicine and alchemy, or to matters celestial or
terrestrial. He has worked diligently in the smelting of ores
as also in the working of minerals; he is thoroughly
acquainted with all sorts of arms and implements used in
military service and in hunting, besides which he is skilled
in agriculture and in the measurement of lands. It is
impossible to write a useful or correct treatise in
experimental philosophy without mentioning this man's name.
Moreover, he pursues knowledge for its own sake; for if he
wished to obtain royal favor, he could easily find sovereigns
who would honor and enrich him.

Similar expressions might readily be quoted from Thomas Aquinas, but his
works are so easy to secure and his whole attitude of mind so well
known, that it scarcely seems worth while taking space to do so. Aquinas
is still studied very faithfully in many universities, and within the
last few years one of his great text-books of philosophy has been
replaced in the curriculum of Oxford University, in which it occupied a
prominent position in the long ago, as a work that may be offered for
examination in the department of philosophy. It is with regard to him
particularly that there has been the greatest revulsion of feeling in
recent years and a recognition of the fact that here was a great thinker
familiar with all that was known in the physical scien