Under that of Sir Thomas More was written: Dum Morus immeritè fubmittit colla fecari, Non moritur facinus, qui grave morte fugit. Giovio wrote in very elegant Latin a description of Britain *, at the end of which are the lives and characters of fome learned men which that country has produced, written by George Lily, and fent over to Italy to the Bishop of Nocera. Amongst others are the lives of Dean Colet, William Lily the celebrated grammarian, Linacre, Dr. Pace, Bishop Fisher, &c. Of our learned countryman Linacre, Giovio fays, that he became acquainted with that great fcholar Hermolaus Barbarus. As Linacre was one day in the Vatican Library at Rome, and was turning over fome Greek MS. Hermolaus went up to his desk, where he was, and thus accofted "England," fays Jovius, "is a country fo falubrious "from the temperature of its air, that very few of its in habitants have need of phyficians, except the wealthy and the rich, whofe tables are crowded with food of "every kind, and with wines from every part of the world." VOL. IV. him: him: "Non tu hercle, inquit, ftudiofe hofpes "(uti ego planè fum) Barbarus effe potes, quòd "leliffimum Platonis librum (id erat Phædon) "diligenter evolvas. Ad id Linacrus læto ore "refpondit, Nec tu, facrate heros, alius effe jam potes quàm ille famâ notus Patriarcha Italorum Latiniffimus." "This acquaintance, so "accidentally produced," adds Jovius, " contri"buted to enrich Linacre with many excellent "volumes, with which he returned to London, "and was foon made tutor to Prince Arthur, to "whom he dedicated "Proclus on the Sphere." "He tranflated likewife, with the greatest fe"licity of labour, "Galen on the Preservation of "Health," and became no lefs fuccefsful than "learned in his art. But from his art, as rather "contributing more to profit than to procure im"mortal fame, he took refuge in the study of an"cient learning, called back to it by Latimer "and Grocyne, who, as it were in a triumvirate, "undertook to tranflate Ariftotle." Jovius adds, that he was fo much confidered by Henry the Eighth, that dreffed in a long flowing robe of purple, and with a black filk gown over his fhoulders, he had a diftinguished place with all the great men of the kingdom in his Majesty's Court. He was, for a great part of his life, a valetudinarian, and preferved it by a very strict attention attention to his diet. However eminently useful to all other persons with respect to their health, he was completely useless to himself with respect to the disease under which he laboured. He died at London, leaving by his will to the College of Physicians a large house which he had in that city. Giovio, in his Museum at Cremona, appears to have paffed by our illuftrious countryman Roger Bacon. ROGER BACON. THIS acute and learned Franciscan Monk was of a gentleman's family in Dorsetshire, according to Mr. Selden, and was born in 1214. He began his studies very early at Oxford, and then went to Paris, where he studied mathematics and phyfic; and, according to him, was made Profeffor of Divinity in the University of that city. He returned to Oxford foon afterwards, and applied himself to the study of the learned languages*, in which G 2 How much the ftudy of the learned languages was neglected in his time, Roger Bacon himself informs us; for in a letter to his patron Clement the Fourth, he informs which he made fo rapid a progress, that he wrote a Latin, a Greek, and an Italian Grammar. He makes great complaints of the ignorance of his times, and fays, the Regular Priests ftudied chiefly fcholaftic divinity, and that the Secular Priests applied themselves to the ftudy of the Roman law, but never turned their thoughts to philofophy. The learned Dr. Freind, in his Hiftory of Phyfic, very defervedly calls this extraordinary man "the miracle of the age in which he lived;" and fays, that he was the greatest mechanical genius that had appeared fince the days of Archimedes. Roger Bacon, in a Treatife upon Optical Glaffes, defcribes the Camera Obfcura, with all forts of glaffes that magnify or diminish any object, bring it nearer to the eye, and remove it farther; and Dr. Freind fays, that the telescope was plainly known to him, "Some of thefe, "and his other mathematical inftruments," adds that learned Writer, "coft 2001. or 300l." and Bacon fays himfelf, that in twenty years he fpens him, that there were not four amongst the Italians who understood the grammatical rudiments of Greek, Latin, and Italian; and he adds, that even the Latin tongue, for the beauty and correctness of it, was hardly known to any one. He fays, that the Scholars, as they were then salled, were fitter for the cradle than for the chair. 2000l. in books and in tools; a prodigious fum for fuch fort of expences in his day. Bacon was almoft the only Aftronomer of his age; for he took notice of an error in the Calendar with respect to the aberration of the folar year; and propofed to his patron, Clement the Fourth, a plan for correcting it in 1267, which was adopted three hundred years afterwards by Gregory XIII, Bacon was a chymift, and wrote upon medicine. There is ftill in print a work of his, on retarding the advances of old age, and on preferving the faculties clear and entire to the remoteft period of life; and, with a littleness unworthy of fo great a mind as his was, he fays, "that he does not chufe to exprefs himself fo clearly as he might have "done respecting diet and medicines, left what he writes fhould fall into the hands of the "Infidels." Gunpowder, or at leaft a powder that had the fame effect, feems to have been known to him, and was perhaps invented by him; for in a letter of his to John Parifienfis, he says, "In omnem diftantiam quam volumus, poffumus artificialiter componere ignem comburentem, ex "Jale petræ et aliis, viz. fulphure & carbonum "pulverem. Præter hanc fcilicet combuftionem), ང funt alia ftupenda, nam foni velut tonitus et |