BACON, Roger, his Opus Majus (1267 A.D.). Newly edited and published with intro cluction and full English analygs of the Latin text, by J. H. Bridges (2 vols., 1897). An ade quate•publkation after 630 years of one of the most remarkable productions of the human inind. The work is an exhortation addressed to Pope Clement urging him to initiate a re form of Christian education in order to estab lish the ascendency of the Roman Catholic Church over all nations and religions of the world. Its central theme was the consolidation of the Roman Catholic faith as the supreme agency for the dvilization of mankind. Its author wished to see recognition of °all the sciences,b since all are part of one and the same complete wisdom. He first gave experi ment the distinct and supreme place which was later revived by Descartes, and carried out in modern science. He formed a clear conception of chemistry, in his day not yet separated from alchemy; and of a science of living things, as resulting with chemistry from physics. In the
part of his work dealing with moral philosophy, Bacon makes the first attempt. ever made at the comparative study of the religions of the world. His protests against the intellectual prejudices of the time, his forecasts of an age of industry and invention, the prominence given to ex.pen ment, alike as to the test of received opinion and the guide to new fields of discovery, render comparison with Francis Bacon unavoidable. In wealth of words, in brilliancy of imagina tion, Francis Bacon was immeasurably his superior. But Roger Bacon had the sounder estimate and the firmer grasp of that com bination of deductive with inductive method which marks the scientific discovery.
Philippine Islands, a town in the province of Albay, Island of Luzon. Pop. about 14,540.