as been touched in my Introduction to the Literature of the
15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries.

[850] Tiraboschi, t. iv. p. 150.

[851] There is a very copious and sensible account of Roger Bacon in
Wood's History of Oxford, vol. i. p. 332 (Gutch's edition). I am a
little surprised that Antony should have found out Bacon's merit.

The resemblance between Roger Bacon and his greater namesake is very
remarkable. Whether Lord Bacon ever read the Opus Majus, I know not; but
it is singular, that his favourite quaint expression, _praerogativae_
scientiarum, should be found in that work, though not used with the same
allusion to the Roman comitia. And whoever reads the sixth part of the
Opus Majus, upon experimental science, must be struck by it as the
prototype, in spirit, of the Novum Organum. The same sanguine and
sometimes rash confidence in the effect of physical discoveries, the
same fondness for experiment, the same preference of inductive to
abstract reasoning, pervade both works. Roger Bacon's philosophical
spirit may be illustrated by the following passage: Duo sunt modi
cognoscendi; scilicet per argumentum et experimentum. Argumentum
concludit et facit nos concludere quaestionem; sed non certificat neque
removet dubitationem, ut quiescat animus in intuitu veritatis, nisi eam
inveniat via experientiae; quia multi habent argumenta ad scibilia, sed
quia non habent experientiam, negligunt ea, neque vitant nociva nec
persequuntur bona. Si enim aliquis homo, qui nunquam vidit ignem,
probavit per argumenta sufficientia quod ignis comburit et laedit res et
destruit, nunquam propter hoc quiesceret animus audientis, nec ignem
vitaret antequam poneret manum vel rem combustibilem ad ignem, ut per
experientiam probaret quod argumentum edocebat; sed assumta experientia
combustionis certificatur animus et quiescit in fulgore veritatis, quo
argumentum non sufficit, sed experientia. p. 446.

[852] See the fate of Cecco d'Ascoli in Tiraboschi, t. v. p. 174.

[853] Le Boeuf, Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscript. t. xvii. p. 711.

[854] Gregorius, cognomento Bechada, de Castro de Turribus, professione
miles, subtilissimi ingenii vir, aliquantulum imbutus literis, horum
gesta praeliorum materna lingua rhythmo vulgari, ut populus pleniter
intelligeret, ingens volumen decenter composuit, et ut vera et faceta
verba proferret, duodecim annorum spatium super hoc opus operam dedit.
Ne vero vilesceret propter verbum vulgare, non sine praecepto episc