but spent his time at the public schools.

He went early over to Paris, where he made still greater progress in all parts of learning, and was looked upon as the glory of that university and an honour to his country. At Paris he did not confine his studies to any particular branch of literature, but endeavoured to comprehend the sciences in general fully and perfectly by a right method and constant application.

When he had attained the degree of Doctor, he returned again to his own country, and, as some say, took the habit of the Franciscans in 1240, when he was about twenty-six years of age; but others assert that he became a monk before he left France. After his return to Oxford, he was considered by the greatest men of that university as one of the ablest and most indefatigable inquirers after knowledge that the world had ever produced; and therefore they not only showed him all due respect, but likewise, conceiving the greatest hopes from his improvements in the method of study, they generously contributed to his expenses, so that he was enabled to lay out, within the compass of twenty years, no less than £2000 in collecting curious authors, making trials of various kinds, and in the construction of different instruments for the improvement of useful knowledge.

But if this assiduous applica

tion to his studies, and the stupendous progress he made in them, raised his credit with the better part of mankind, it excited the envy of some, and afforded plausible pretences for the malicious designs of others. It is very easy to conceive that the experiments he made in all parts of natural philosophy and the mathematics must have made a great noise in an ignorant age, when scarcely two or three men in a whole nation were tolerably acquainted with those studies, and when all the pretenders to knowledge affected to cover their own ignorance by throwing the most scandalous aspersions on those branches of science which they either wanted genius to understand, or which demanded greater application to acquire than they were willing to bestow. They gave out, therefore, that mathematical studies were in some measure allied to those magical arts. which the Church had condemned, and thereby brought suspicion upon men of superior learning. It was owing to this suspicion that Bacon was restrained from reading lectures to the young students in the university, and at length closely confined and almost starved, the monks being afraid lest his writings should extend beyond the limits of his convent, and be seen by any besides themselves and the Pope. But there is great reason to believe that though his application to the occult sciences was their pre

in them, as might have secured him a very high character, if he had never distinguished himself in any other branch of literature. In all branches of the mathematics he was well versed. In mechanics particularly, the learned Dr. Friend says, that a greater genius had not arisen since the days of Archimedes. He comprehended likewise the whole science of optics with accuracy, and is very justly allowed to have understood both the theory and practice of those discoveries which have bestowed such high reputation on those of our own and other nations who have brought them into common use. In geography, also, he was admirably well skilled, as appears from a variety of passages in his works, which was the reason that induced the judicious Hakluyt to transcribe a large discourse out of his writings into his collection of travels. But his skill in astronomy was even more remarkable, since it appears that he not only pointed out the error which occasioned the reformation in the calendar, and the distinction between the old style and the new, but also offered a much more effectual and perfect reformation than that which was made in the time of Pope Gregory XIII.

He was so thoroughly acquainted with chemistry, at a time when it was scarcely known in Europe, and principally cultivated among the Arabians, that Dr. Friend ascribes the honour of introducing it to him, who

speaks in some part or other of his works of almost every operation now used in chemistry.

Three capital discoveries, or attempted discoveries, of his deserve to be particularly considered. The first is the invention of gunpowder, which, however confidently ascribed to others, was unquestionably known to him, both as to its ingredients and effects. The second is that which goes under the name of alchemy, or the art of transmuting metals, of which he has left many treatises, some published and some still remaining in Ms., which, whatever they may be thought of now, contain a multitude of curious and useful passages independently of their principal subject. The third discovery in chemistry, not so deserving of the reader's attention, was the tincture of gold for the prolongation of life, of which, Dr. Friend says, he has given hints in his writings, and has said enough to show that he was no pretender to this art, but understood as much of it as any of his successors.'

As to the vulgar imputation on his character of his leaning to magic, it was utterly unfounded, and the ridiculous story of his making a brazen head, which spoke and answered questions, is a calumny indirectly fathered upon him, having been originally imputed to Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln. That he had too high an opinion of judicial astrology, and some other arts of that nature, was not so

properly an error of his as of the age in which he lived; and considering how few errors, among the many which infected that age, appear in his writings, it may be easily forgiven.

WILLIAM LEE.

There is a singular confusion pervading the early history of the stocking-frame : persons, places, and dates are all jumbled up together in the accounts given of the inventor and the invention, and these accounts it is difficult to reconcile, unless we implicitly believe the evidence of a painting which long adorned the Stocking-weavers' Hall in Redcross Street, London. This portrait represented a man in collegiate costume, in the act of pointing to an iron stocking-frame, and addressing a woman who is knitting with needles by hand. The picture bore the following inscription: In the year 1589, the ingenious William Lee, A.M., of St. John's College, Cambridge, devised this profitable art for stockings (but, being despised, went to France), yet of iron to himself, but to us and to others of gold; in memory of whom this is here painted."

In Deering's Account of Nottingham we learn that William Lee (whose name is sometimes written Lea) was a native of Woodborough, a village about seven miles from Nottingham. He was heir to a considerable freehold estate, and a graduate

of St. John's College, Cambridge. It is said that he fell in love with a young country girl, who during his visits paid more diligent attention to her work, which was knitting, than to the fond speeches of her lover. He endeavoured, therefore, to invent a machine which might facilitate and forward the operation of knitting, and by this means furnish the object of his affections with more leisure to converse with him. Beckmann says: "Love indeed is fertile in inventions, and gave rise, it is said, to the art of painting; but a machine so complex in its parts, and so wonderful in its effects, would seem to require longer and greater reflection, more judgment, and more time and patience than could be expected in a lover. But even if the case should appear problematical, there can be no doubt in regard to the inventor, whom most of the English writers positively assert to have been William Lee.' Deering expressly states that Lee made the first loom in the year 1589, the date inscribed on the picture.

But this is not the only version of the story. Another one states that Lee was expelled from the university for marrying contrary to the statutes. He had no fortune, and his wife was forced to contribute to their joint support by knitting. Lee, while watching the movement of her fingers, conceived the happy idea of imitating