Sir John Romilly has shown good judgment in including the unpublished works of Roger Bacon in the series of “Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages,” now in course of publication under his direction.  They are in a true sense important memorials of the period at which they were written, and, though but incidentally illustrating the events of the time, they are of great value in indicating the condition of thought and learning as well as the modes of mental discipline and acquisition during the thirteenth century.

The memory of Roger Bacon has received but scant justice.  Although long since recognized as one of the chief lights of England during the Middle Ages, the clinging mist of popular tradition has obscured his real brightness and distorted its proportions, while even among scholars he has been more known by reputation than by actual acquaintance with his writings.  His principal work, his “Opus Majus,” was published for the first time in London in 1733, in folio, and afterwards at Venice in 1750, in the same form.  Down to the publication of the volume before us, it was the only one of his writings of much importance which had been printed complete, if indeed it is to be called complete,—­the Seventh Part having been omitted by the editor, Dr. Jebb, and never having since been published.

The facts known concerning Roger Bacon’s life are few, and are so intermingled with tradition that it is difficult wholly to separate them from it.  Born of a good family at Ilchester, in Somersetshire, near the beginning of the thirteenth century, he was placed in early youth at Oxford, whence, after completing his studies in grammar and logic, “he proceeded to Paris,” says Anthony Wood, “according to the fashion prevalent among English scholars of those times, especially among the members of the University of Oxford.”  Here, under the famous masters of the day, he devoted himself to study for some years, and made such progress that he received the degree of Doctor in Divinity.  Returning to Oxford, he seems soon to have entered into the Franciscan Order, for the sake of securing a freedom from worldly cares, that he might the more exclusively give himself to his favorite pursuits.  At various times he lectured at the University.  He spent some later years out of England, probably again in Paris.  His life was embittered by the suspicions felt in regard to his studies by the brethren of his order, and by their opposition, which proceeded to such lengths that it is said he was cast into prison, where, according to one report, he died wretchedly.  However this may have been, his death took place before the beginning of the fourteenth century.  The scientific and experimental studies which had brought him into ill-favor with his own order, and had excited the suspicion against him of dealing in magic and forbidden arts, seem to have sown the seed of the popular traditions which at once took root around his name.  Friar