Part VI. On Experimental Science.

[Footnote 64: _Op. Maj._ p. 1.]

[Footnote 65: _Ibid._ p. 2.]

[Footnote 66: _Ibid._ p. 10.]

[Footnote 67: I will give a specimen. _Opus Majus_, c. viii. p. 35: "These two kinds of philosophers, the Ionic and Italic, ramified through many sects and various successors, till they came to the doctrine of Aristotle, who corrected and changed the propositions of all his predecessors, and attempted to perfect philosophy. In the [Italic] succession, Pythagoras, Archytas Tarentinus and Timæus are most prominently mentioned. But the principal philosophers, as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, did not descend from this line, but were Ionics and true Greeks, of whom the first was Thales Milesius.... Socrates, according to Augustine in his 8th book, is related to have been a disciple of Archelaus. This Socrates is called the father of the great philosophers, since he was the master of Plato and Aristotle, from whom all the sects of philosophers descended.... Plato, first learning what Socrates and Greece could teach, made a laborious voyage to Egypt, to Archytas of Tarentum and Timæus, as says Jerome to Paulinus. And this Plato is, according to holy men, preferred to all philosophers, because he has written many excellent things concerning God, and morality, and a future life, which agree with the divine wisdom of God. And Aristotle was born before the death of Socrates, since he was his hearer for three years, as we read in the life of Aristotle.... This Aristotle, being made the master of Alexander the Great, sent two thousand men into all regions of the earth, to search out the nature of things, as Pliny relates in the 8th book of his _Naturalia_, and composed a thousand books, as we read in his life."]

[Footnote 68: _Ibid._ p. 36.]

[Footnote 69: _Autonomaticè._]

[Footnote 70: _Op. Maj._ p. 46.]

[Footnote 71: See _Pref._ to Jebb's edition. The passages, there quoted, however, are not extracts from the _Opus Majus_, but (apparently) from the _Opus Minus_ (_MS. Cott._ Tib. c. 5.) "Si haberem potestatem supra libros Aristotelis, ego facerem omnes cremari; quia non est nisi temporis amissio studere in illis, et causa erroris, et multiplicatio ignorantiæ ultra id quod valeat explicari.... Vulgus studentum cum capitibus suis non habet unde excitetur ad aliquid dignum, et ideo languet et _asininat_ circa male translata, et tempus et studium amittit in omnibus et expensas."]

[Footnote 72: Part ii.]

[Footnote 73: Parts iv. v. and vi.]

[Footnote 74: _Op. Maj._ p. 476.]

[Footnote 75: _Op. Maj._ p. 15.]

[Footnote 76: _Ibid._ p. 445, see also p. 448. "Scientiæ aliæ sciunt sua principia invenire per experimenta, sed conclusiones per argumenta facta ex principiis inventis. Si vero debeant habere experientiam conclusionum suarum particularem et completam, tunc oportet quod habeant per adjutorium istius scientiæ nobilis (experimentalis)."]

[Footnote 77: _Op. Maj._ p. 60.]

[Footnote 78: _Ibid._ p. 64.]

[Footnote 79: "Veritates magnificas in terminis aliarum scientiarum in quas per nullam viam possunt illæ scientiæ, hæc sola scientiarum domina speculativarum, potest dare." _Op. Maj._ p. 465.]

[Footnote 80: One of the ingredients of a preparation here mentioned, is the flesh of a dragon, which it appears is used as food by the Ethiopians. The mode of preparing this food cannot fail to amuse the reader. "Where there are good flying dragons, by the art which they possess, they draw them out of their dens, and have bridles and saddles in readiness, and they ride upon them, and make them bound about in the air in a violent manner, that the hardness and toughness of the flesh may be reduced, as boars are hunted and bulls are baited before they are killed for eating." _Op. Maj._ p. 470.]

[Footnote 81: _Op. Maj._ p. 473.]

[Footnote 82: Quoted by Jebb, _Pref._ to _Op. Maj._]

[Footnote 83: Mosheim, _Hist._ iii. 161.]

[Footnote 84: _Op. Maj._ p. 57.]

[Footnote 85: Mosheim, iii. 161.]