ause he was in advance of it; he is no schoolman,
but a modern thinker, whose conceptions of science are more just and clear
than are even those of his more celebrated namesake.[4] In this view there
is certainly some truth, but it is much exaggerated. As a general rule, no
man can be completely dissevered from his national antecedents and [v.03
p.0156] surroundings, and Bacon is not an exception. Those who take up such
an extreme position regarding his merits have known too little of the state
of contemporary science, and have limited their comparison to the works of
the scholastic theologians. We never find in Bacon himself any
consciousness of originality; he is rather a keen and systematic thinker,
working in a well-beaten track, from which his contemporaries were being
drawn by theology and metaphysics.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The best work on Roger Bacon is perhaps that of E. Charles,
_Roger Bacon, sa vie, ses ouvrages, ses doctrines d'apres des textes
inedits_ (1861). Against the somewhat enthusiastic estimate and modern
interpretation given in this work, are Schneider in his _Roger Bacon, Eine
Monographie_ (Augsburg, 1873); K. Werner, _Die Psychol. ... des Roger
Bacon_ and _Die Kosmologie ... des Roger Bacon_ (Vienna, 1879); S. A.
Hirsch, _Early English Hebraists_ (1899); _Book of Essays_ (London, 1905),
deals with Bacon as a Hebraist. The new matter contained in the
publications of Charles and Brewer was summarized by H. Siebert, _Roger
Bacon: Inaugural Dissertation_ (Marburg, 1861). Cf. also J. K. Ingram, _On
the Opus Majus of Bacon_ (Dublin, 1858); Cousin, "Fragments phil. du moyen
age" (reprinted from _Journal des savans_, 1848); E. Saisset, "Precurseurs
et disciples de Descartes," pp. 1-58 (reprinted from _Revue de deux
mondes_, 1861); K. Prantl, _Gesch. der Logik_, iii. 120-129 (a severe
criticism of Bacon's logical doctrines); Held, _Roger Bacon's praktische
Philosophie_ (Jena, 1881); Karl Pohl, _Das Verhaeltniss d. Philos. zur
Theol. bei Roger Bacon_ (Neustrelitz, 1893); articles in _Westminster
Review_, lxxxi. 1 and 512; A. Parrot, _Roger Bacon et ses contemporains_
(1894); E. Fluegel, _Roger Bacons Stellung in d. Gesch. d. Philos._ (1902);
S. Vogl, _Die Physik Roger Bacos_ (1906). For the popular legend see
_Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon_ (London, 1615; reproduced in Thoms, _Early
Prose Romances_, iii.); R. Greene's _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_ (1587 or
1588), and in publication of the Percy Society, vol. xv.