His unpublished MSS. in the Bodleian will
be issued by the Clarendon Press (1915-1920), and it is hoped that his
unpublished medical writings will be included.
(24) It may be interesting to note the three causes to which he
attributes old age: "As the World waxeth old, Men grow old with
it: not by reason of the Age of the World, but because of the
great Increase of living Creatures, which infect the very Air,
that every way encompasseth us, and Through our Negligence in
ordering our Lives, and That great Ignorance of the Properties
which are in things conducing to Health, which might help a
disordered way of Living, and might supply the defect of due
Government."
What would have been its fate if the mind of Europe had been ready for
Roger Bacon's ferment, and if men had turned to the profitable studies
of physics, astronomy and chemistry instead of wasting centuries over
the scholastic philosophy and the subtleties of Duns Scotus, Abelard and
Thomas Aquinas? Who can say? Make no mistake about the quality of these
men--giants in intellect, who have had their place in the evolution of
the race; but from the standpoint of man struggling for the mastery of
this world they are like the members of Swift's famous college "busy
distilling sunshine from cucumbers.
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