but weak Henry the Third ascended the throne. His early education appears to have been carefully attended to in the midst of domestic relations, and after he had made thorough preparation for college, he entered the University of Oxford, intending there to complete his studies. But the passion for studying upon the continent had already become very general with the sons of English gentlemen, and Bacon, with others, removed from Oxford to the University of Paris, at that time the most celebrated seat of learning in Europe, there to complete his collegiate course. At Paris he became acquainted with many English students whom he had not hitherto known, and many of whom afterward rose to eminence in their own country. With some of these he there formed an intimacy which continued through life.

Having obtained his doctor's degree at the University, Bacon returned to England, and soon after, in 1240, he entered the Franciscan order of monks, though some writers suppose he had assumed the religious habit before he left France.

At the time of his return to Oxford, Bacon was regarded by the most learned and accomplished scholars of that University, as so able and indefatigable an inquirer after knowledge, that they willingly defrayed the expenses of advancing science by experiments--the method of investigation which he had determined to follow. His discoveries, however, were little understood by the mass even of his own order; and because, by the aid of mathematical knowledge, he performed things above the comprehension of the common people, he was suspected of magic. Even his own fraternity finally rose against him, and not only persecuted him, and refused to admit his works into their library, but finally had interest enough with the general of their order to obtain his apprehension and imprisonment. Clement the Fourth at that time occupied the papal chair, and having received information respecting the character of Bacon's works, he requested him to transmit a copy of them to Rome for inspection. Bacon, in compliance with the request, in 1267, collected and enlarged his various productions, and sent a copy of them thither. This collection is still extant, and is known as the Author's Opus Majus, or Great Work. Dr. Jebb, its learned and accomplished editor remarks, in his preface to the folio edition which he published of it, that 'Bacon seems in it to have principally proposed two things—either by laying down a good scheme for philosophy to excite the pope to reform the errors which had then crept into the church; or, if he could not effect this, to propose such expedients as might break the power of Antichrist, and retard his progress. For he appears to have been firmly persuaded that the church would soon be reformed, either by means of the pope himself, who was a man of integrity, or because the exorbitant dominion of Antichrist would become obnoxious to mankind, and so fall to destruction.'

When Bacon had been confined ten years in prison, Jerome d'Ascoli, general of the Franciscan order, and who had condemned his doctrines, was

chosen pope, and assumed the name of Nicholas the Fourth. As he was reputed to be a person of great abilities, and one who had turned his thoughts much to philosophical subjects, Bacon resolved to apply to him for his release ; and in order to show that his studies had been both innocent and useful, he addressed to him a treatise 'On the means of avoiding the infirmities of old age. This important work was afterward translated into English, by Dr. Richard Browne, under the title of 'The cure of old age, and preservation of youth,' and was, by the learned translator, regarded as one of the most important works ever written.

Whether this treatise produced any immediate effect upon the mind of the pope or not, does not appear; but toward the latter part of Nicholas' reign, Bacon, through the influence of some of those English noblemen with whom he had formed an intimacy while pursuing his studies at Paris, obtained his liberty, and returned to Oxford, where he passed the remainder of his life in peace, and died in the college of his order on the eleventh of June, 1294, and in the eighty-first year of his age.

Bacon, in the opinion of Dr. Peter Shaw, a very competent judge of merit, was, 'beyond all comparison, the greatest man of his time, and might perhaps stand in competition with the greatest that have appeared since. It is wonderful, considering the ignorant age in which he lived, how he came to such a knowledge on all subjects. His writings are composed with such elegance, conciseness, and strength, and adorned with such just and exquisite observation on nature, that among all the chemists, we do not know his equal.' 'From a repeated perusal of his works,' the same skillful chemist proceeds to remark, 'we find that Bacon was no stranger to many of the most important discoveries of the present and of past ages. Gunpowder he certainly knew thunder and lightning, he tells us, may be produced by art; for that sulphur, nitre, and charcoal, which, when separate, have no sensible effect, yet when mixed together in a due proportion, and closely confined and fired, they yield a loud report. A more precise description of gunpowder could not be given in language.'

Dr. Freind unhesitatingly ascribes to Bacon the honor of first introducing chemistry into Europe; and observes that in different parts of his works, he speaks of almost every operation now made in that science. That he was entirely familiar with the science of Optics also, is perfectly evident from the accuracy with which he described the use of reading-glasses, and gave directions for making them. He also describes the camera obscura, and all sorts of glasses which magnify or diminish objects, bring them near to the eye, or remove them farther from it. A passage in his writings indicates a knowledge of the telescope also; for he expressly says, 'that he was able to form glasses in such a manner with respect to our sight and the object, that the rays shall be refracted and reflected wherever we please, so that we may see a thing under whatever angle we think proper, either near by or far off, and be able to read the smallest letters at an incredible distance, and to

count even the grains of dust and sand, in consequence of the greatness of the angle under which these objects shall be seen.'

Bacon's skill in astronomy too, when we consider the disadvantages under which he, in his investigations, must have labored, was amazingly great. Ho discovered the error in the computation of time, which resulted in the reformation of the calendar; one of the greatest efforts, in the opinion of Dr. Jebb, of human industry; and his plan for correcting it was followed by pope Gregory the Thirteenth, only varying from it in that Bacon would have had the correction reach back to the birth of Christ, while Gregory carried it only as far as the Nicene council.

All these mighty efforts of mind, it must not be forgotter, were made centuries before Schwarts developed, to the public, the composition of gunpowder, or Newton reduced to a science the principles of Optics, or Galileo constructed his telescope.

We are, however, admonished that our time will not permit us longer to dwell upon this important character in English literature; and we shall therefore here bring our remarks upon him, and upon the period which we have thus far contemplated, to a close-simply observing that its literary developments do great credit to the five or six centuries which it embraces. The immediate predecessors of Chaucer, that great poet himself, and his contemporaries, will next occupy our attention. We must, however, first briefly notice John Wickliffe; for, perhaps no man ever exerted a more powerful influence cver his age, than did that learned ecclesiastic.

Lecture the Second.

THE ERA OF EDWARD THE THIRD-JOHN WICKLIFFE--THE PRECURSORS OF CHAUCER-GEOFFREY CHAUCER-JOHN GOWER-SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE,

THE

THE entire annals of English history do not, perhaps, present another period more splendid, in all respects, than the age of Edward the Third. Besides that illustrious monarch himself, than whom a superior never occupied the English throne, it was the era of Wickliffe, emphatically the Father of the Reformation, and of Chaucer, the Father of English poetry.

JOHN WICKLIFFE, certainly not the least brilliant of the great lights of this remarkable period, was born at Wickliffe, Yorkshire, in 1324. He early entered Queen's College, Oxford, but soon after removed to Merton College in the same university, because the scholastic theology which at that time prevailed in the latter institution was better calculated to display the acuteness of his intellect, and enable him to distinguish himself above his fellows. After having successfully graduated at the college to which he was attached, he, for some years, turned his exclusive attention toward theological studies, and finally obtained the divinity professorship. He had not long discharged the important duties which this new position imposed upon him, before he was made doctor in divinity, and raised, in 1361, to the position of master of Baliol College in the same university. His reputation now advanced so rapidly, that in 1365, he was elevated to the head of Canterbury Hall, a new Oxford College just at that time founded. His election to this important office was made by the students of the college themselves, and as the tenets which he now entertained in opposition to the Church of Rome, began to undisguisedly manifest themselves, he was strenuously opposed by a number of monks who had gained admission to the college, and who wished a head of their own order. Wickliffe and his secular associates, however, gained the ascendency in the contest which followed; and the monks were, accordingly, expelled from the college. From this sentence of expulsion, they immediately appealed to Cardinal Langham, Archbishop of Canterbury, under whose control the college then was. The