in the clear
view of truth unless it finds its way by means of experiment." To this
he later added in his "Opus Tertium": "The strongest argument proves
nothing so long as the conclusions are not verified by experience.
Experimental science is the queen of sciences, and the goal of all
speculation."

It is no wonder that Dr. Whewell, in his "History of the Inductive
Sciences," should have been unstinted in his praise of Roger Bacon's
work and writings. In a well-known passage he says of the "Opus Majus":

Roger Bacon's "Opus Majus" is the encyclopedia and "Novum
Organon" of the thirteenth century, a work equally wonderful
with regard to its wonderful scheme and to the special
treatises by which the outlines of the plans are filled up.
The professed object of the work is to urge the necessity of a
reform in the mode of philosophizing, to set forth the reasons
why knowledge had not made greater progress, to draw back
attention to the sources of knowledge which had been unwisely
neglected, to discover other sources which were yet almost
untouched, and to animate men in the undertaking of a prospect
of the vast advantages which it offered. In the development of
this plan all the leading portions of science are expanded in
the most complete shape which they had at that time assumed;
and improvements of a very wide and striking kind are proposed
in some of the principal branches of study. Even if the work
had no leading purposes it would have been highly valuable as
a treasure of the most solid knowledge and soundest
speculations of the time; even if it had contained no such
details it would have been a work most remarkable for its
general views and scope.

As a matter of fact the universities of the Middle Ages, far from
neglecting science, were really scientific universities. Because the
universities of the early nineteenth century occupied themselves almost
exclusively with languages and especially formed students' minds by
means of classical studies, men in our time seem to be prone to think
that such linguistic studies formed the main portion of the curriculum
of the universities in all the old times and particularly in the Middle
Ages. The study of the classic languages, however, came into university
life only after the Renaissance. Before that the undergraduates of the
universities had occupied themselves almost enti