Antiquitas Sæculi Juventus Mundi

Dugald Stewart, in his Dissertation prefixed to the *Encyclopædia Britannica*, ed. 7., p. 30., points out two passages of writers anterior to Lord Bacon, in which this thought occurs. The first is in his namesake, Roger Bacon, who died in 1292: "Quanto juniores tanto perspicaciores, quia juniores posteriores successione temporum ingrediuntor labores priorum."—*Opus Majus*, p. 9. ed. Jebb. The *Opus Majus* of Roger Bacon was not, however, printed until the last century, and could not have been known to Lord Bacon unless he had read it in manuscript. The second is from Ludovicus Vives, *De Caus.…