Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

130 FRANCIS BACON
on the subject ready to hand, 1 delivers a speech, " advising the
exercise of war; " the second counsellor extols the study of
philosophy. This counsellor is very well read iu Shakespeare.
He describes ivitches, tohose power is in destruction, not in preservation,
2 and advises the Prince not to be like them or like some
comet or blazing star 3 which should threaten andportend nothing
but death and dearth, combustions and troubles of the world.
begs hirn to be not as a lamp that shiueth not to others, and yet
seeth not itself, but as the eye of the world, that both carrieth
and useth light. To this purpose he commends to him the collecting
of a perfect library of books, ancient and modern, and of
MSS. in all languages; of a spacious, wonderful garden (botanic
and zoological gardens in one), " built about with rooms to
stable all rare beasts and to cage all rare birds, " and with lakes,
salt and fresh, " for like variety of fishes.
He
And so you may have
in small compass a model of universal nature made private. " 4
Thirdly, he proposes " a goodly huge cabinet," a museum of all
the rarities and treasures of nature and art, wherein shall be
collected " whatsoever singularity chance aud the shuffle of
things hath produced." The fourth " monument " which is to
perpetuate the fame of the Prince is
to be " so furnished with
mills, instruments, furnaces, and vessels as may be a palace fit
for a philosopher's stone." Laboratories for experimental
science are here indicated; they are, we see, the same as are
more fully described in the Rosicrucian journey, New Atlantis,
and it appears probable that they expressed in the device, as in the
Rosicrucian document, a meaning and aim which tended to unite
the works of Vulcan (art) with those of Minerva (wisdom or
nature). 5
1 See Speckling — Military arts compatible with learning, iii. 2G9 ;
promoted
by it, iii. 307-314 ; when just, successful, iv. 28, 29; warlike disposition the
strength of a nation, v. 81; injured by the sedentary arts, v. 84; healthful,
x. 83 ; the history of war, proposed, as deficient, iv. 270.
2 See Macb. i. 3, 18-29; iii. 5, 24-34; iv. 1, 48-00.
3 Jul. CfflS. ii. 2, 25-30. All's W. i. 3, 81-85. Macb. ii. 3, 55-60.
4 " A small model of the barren earth." Eichard II. iii. 2.
5 See Essay of Erichthonius. Spedding, "Works, vi. 736.