The Culture of the Middle Ages 46 1 honor and wealth. Or if he would show the results of his researches in Paris the whole world would follow him. But since either of these courses would hinder him from pursuing the great experiments in which he takes delight, he puts honor and wealth aside, knowing well that his knowledge would secure him wealth whenever he chose. For the last three years he has been working at the invention of a mirror which should produce combustion at a fixed distance, and he will, with God's aid, soon reach his end. In a curious letter " On the hidden workings of nature and art and the emptyness of magic," Bacon forecasts the wonderful achievements which he believed would come with the progress of applied science. I will now enumerate the marvelous results of art and 196. Bacon nature which will make all kinds of magic appear trivial for ^[ s , and unworthy. Instruments for navigation can be made progress in which will do away with the necessity of rowers, so that inventions, great vessels, both in rivers and on the sea, shall be borne condensed.) about with only a single man to guide them and with greater speed than if they were full of men. And carriages can be constructed to move without animals to draw them, and with incredible velocity. Machines for flying can be made in which a man sits and turns an ingenious device by which skillfully contrived wings are made to strike the air in the manner of a flying bird. Then arrangements can be devised, compact in themselves, for raising and lowering weights indefinitely great. . . . Bridges can be constructed ingen- iously so as to span rivers without any supports. Some other hopes expressed elsewhere in this letter seem a bit fantastic, even to us, habituated as we are to the most incredible achievements. We may, how- ever, yet learn to make gold and to prolong human life almost indefinitely, as Bacon believed would be possible.
