learning; and from similar causes originated the subsequent institutions which gradually took their rise, and at length compacted the whole into organised bodies. As the students began to increase in numbers, something like a regular system soon sprang up as necessary for the good order of the communities which were formed. The students lived together in certain houses which acquired the distinctive appellation of halls, each of which had its own internal regulations, while they attended in common the public lectures which were given by any who could command an audience. Some kind of system was soon found necessary; some distinction between scholars and masters was obvious; some regulations as to the course of instruction became indispensable; some exercises to show the proficiency of the students were naturally exacted. Thus originated degrees, professors, and disputations.

Colleges were afterwards added: they were founded on the model of the religious houses, and were endowed usually for the sole purpose of the maintenance of a certain number of persons termed fellows and scholars, under the government of a head, who were to devote themselves to the cultivation of literature, and conform to the ordinances of their founder, very much in the same way as the monks of the different orders were under similar obligations to the religious observances of their societies. The colleges were, in several instances, established upon the basis of the original halls, and thus, in many cases, the names became synonymous. Some of the colleges afterwards began to admit within their walls independent students, besides the members of their foundation.

The public lectures, exercises, and disputations of the universities were carried on in appropriate public buildings called schools. To these public libraries were subsequently added; and, in process of time, a certain regular system or course of studies became fixed, and was distinguished into several faculties, in which the distinction of a degree was granted. The faculty of

arts was understood to comprehend the whole of the liberal sciences as then known; after passing through this the student might advance into the superior faculties of law, theology, and medicine.

Remarks nearly similar will apply to the probable origin of the other universities of Europe. It was not till from various causes they had become places of resort for learning, that they were regularly constituted as universities, and had privileges conferred upon them by the sovereigns of the respective countries in which they were situated. Thus, Paris had probably been long a seat of science before it was partially organised as an university in 1101, and subsequently more fully recognised, and a charter granted to it, by Philip Augustus about 1200. It long maintained a more distinguished reputation than any other European school. The universities of Bologna, Padua, Salamanca, and a few more, trace their origin to about the same date. Various others, especially those of Germany, were erected about a century later. The original plan and constitution of all these universities bore a general resemblance, as to the faculties recognised, and the degrees conferred. The annexation of colleges appears to have been almost peculiar to the English universities ; and has since, probably, exercised a considerable influence over their condition, and the progress of science in this country.

The studies pursued in the universities of Europe, from these ages down to a comparatively recent period, comprised hardly any thing but servile comments upon Aristotle; and the school exercises consisted of frivolous verbal disputes raised with endless ingenuity out of every subject which could supply matter capable of being so perverted; each branch of knowledge being valued precisely in proportion to the degree of perplexity in which it could thus be involved. The most favourite subjects were, of course, metaphysics and theology.

Students absorbed in such puerile discussions were

not likely to advance far in the acquisition of sound knowledge, nor to do much towards promoting the discovery of new truths. We have, however, in these times one brilliant example of a student and a monk who rose superior to the prejudices of his age, and became the harbinger of a more enlightened epoch.

Roger Bacon.

Roger Bacon was born near Ilchester in 1214. At Oxford he made distinguished progress in the usual course of literature and the school logic. He subsequently went to complete his studies in the university of Paris, then in such high repute as to attract students from all parts of Europe. He here obtained the degree of doctor, and laid the foundation of his extended celebrity. Returning to England he took the habit of the Franciscan order, and pursued his enquiries at Oxford into a vast variety of subjects, far beyond what then constituted the usual range of study. His ardour in the pursuit of knowledge led him to attempt new investigations in almost every department which he studied; and with the assistance of various liberal patrons, whose favour his high reputation had now secured, he is said to have expended large sums in collecting books, and procuring and constructing apparatus, which he had devised for the prosecution of experimental enquiries.

He appears to have been well versed in mathematics, and in the theory of mechanics as then known; though it does not seem that he made any advances in these departments. In astronomy he has left indications of attainment far superior to those of his contemporaries ; and pointed out the necessity for a further reformation of the calendar beyond the Julian correction, the same as that which has been since applied. In practical mechanics and in chemistry we have on record many of his actual inventions, and still more unfinished projects and speculations, many of which have been since

realised. The principle of the composition of gunpowder is distinctly pointed out in his writings, though he never brought it into practice, actuated, as it is said, by motives of humanity. He describes clearly the diving bell, and various self-moving machines. He attained considerable skill in medicine; and wrote on various parts of moral, philosophical, and metaphysical learning.

His discoveries in optics have been the subject of much discussion; he certainly appears to have understood the theory of lenses. Alhazen had remarked that small objects, such as letters, viewed through a segment of a glass sphere, were seen magnified, and that the larger the segment of the sphere, the greater will be the degree of magnification. The spherical segment was supposed to be laid with its flat side on the letters or object. Bacon discusses the comparative advantages of segments, including a greater or less portion of the spherical surface; but though his arguments have been considered by some to involve certain errors, yet, upon the whole, what he has said is admitted to give a more general view of the subject than had hitherto been taken, and to prove sufficiently that he knew how to trace the progress of the rays of light through a spherical transparent body, and understood how to determine the place of the image. Dr. Smith, in his Optics, has endeavoured to show that these conclusions were purely theoretical, and that Bacon had never made any actual experiments on the subject. This has been controverted by Mr. Molyneux, who contends that Bacon was not only acquainted with the properties of lenses theoretically, but that he also applied them practically.

His knowledge, however, was clearly such, that if he did not himself reduce it to practice in the actual formation and use of lenses, he made known principles which could hardly have remained long without such application. The use of lenses, especially as spectacles, was certainly a very early invention, but in an ignorant age we cannot expect to find the origin of discoveries

very carefully recorded, and to trace their beginning is often like attempting to pursue a river to its source, where we are soon totally baffled among the multiplicity of small streams which unite to form it.

Dr. Smith, after fully discussing all the evidence, is of opinion that lenses were in use for assisting vision about 1313, but that nothing further can be collected with certainty. Some passages in Bacon's writings, which were once interpreted as referring to the principle of the telescope, seem to have been completely misunderstood, and to contain in reality nothing of the kind. He seems unquestionably to have believed in the possibility of transmuting metals, and probably also in astrology; but was superior to his age in absolutely rejecting the pretensions of magic.

Roger Bacon's great merit is to be found, not so much in the mere details of his various inventions and projects, as in the bold appeal which he made to experiment and the observation of nature; he stood forth as the champion of unfettered enquiry, and vindicated the rejection of all the trammels of authority in matters of science. In an age like that in which he lived, indeed, there were few capable of profiting by his example and instructions; but there were not wanting those who were able to appreciate their value, nor again those who had good reason to dread the influence of such principles, and who accordingly took measures to impede their progress, and, if possible, to suppress their promulgation. A pretext was supplied in the allegation that Bacon's pursuits were allied to magic, though he had actually written a work expressly against that art; he was accordingly prohibited from reading lectures in the university, and was subjected to confinement in his convent. He had his eyes open to the corruptions and superstitions of the Romish church, and avowed the most enlightened views in recommending the cultivation of natural science, with the express object of leading men to more just conceptions of the true foundations of religion: this, of course,