download PDF version: 47.1MB - Global Grey

154 FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
Ilia bona optabilia sunt, haec mirabilia :
utraque nihilo
minus paria ;
boni tegitur.
quia, quidquid incommodi est, velamento majoris
(Those good things are desirable; these admirable: both,
nevertheless, are equal ; for, that which is distasteful to us, is
concealed behind the veil of a greater good.)
By merely reading to the end of the sentence, we
find the covering " velamentum " (the veil, the theatrecurtain)
that Bacon suggests, behind which a greater
good is concealed.
And now let us read the passage from the 53rd
Epistle to the end of the letter :
Ecce res magna, habere inbecillitatem hominis, securitatem
Dei Incredibilis !
Philosophiae
retundendam. Nullum telum in corpore ejus sedet; munita
est et solida : quaedam
eludit ;
defatigat,
vis ad omnem fortuitam vim
et velut levia tela laxo sinu
quaedam discutit, et in eum usque, qui miserat, respuit.
(Behold, it is a great thing, to have the weakness of a man,
and the security of a God (of a protecting deity)
! Tis in
credible what power Philosophy possesses to deaden the might
of hazard. No spear (dart) lodges in her body ;
she is guarded
and fortified :
many spears she scoffs at, as too light to pierce
her invulnerable breast ; many she shakes off, and hurls them
back at him that threw them.)
Here we find Seneca- Bacon twice using the
favourite word, " telum " (the spear, dart), we find
the words "shake" and "throw," for he is hinting at
the word " Shakespeare." The insults of others
glanced off Bacon's, the philosopher's, breast, or else
he drew out the spears hurled by others, and threw
them, as a merry poet's spears, as " Shakespeares,"
back at the opponents. We shall also find this
thought directly expressed in the Essays.