He cared so little about them that he takes no notice of Napier's invention of Logarithms.

He was not able to trace how the direct information of the senses might be rightly subordinated to the rational, but not self-evident results of geometry and arithmetic.
He was impatient of the subtleties of astronomical calculations; they only attempted to satisfy problems about the motion of bodies in the sky, and told us nothing of physical fact; they gave us, as Prometheus gave to Jove, the outside skin of the offering, which was stuffed inside with straw and rubbish.

He entirely failed to see that before dealing with physical astronomy, it must be dealt with mathematically.

"It is well to remark," as Mr.Ellis says, "that none of Newton's astronomical discoveries could have been made if astronomers had not continued to render themselves liable to Bacon's censure." Bacon little thought that in navigation the compass itself would become a subordinate instrument compared with the helps given by mathematical astronomy.

In this, and in other ways, Bacon rose above his time in his conceptions of what _might be_, but not of what _was_; the list is a long one, as given by Mr.
Spedding (iii.