Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

154 FRANCIS BACON
Bacon to the value of the theatre as a means of popular education,
is the passage which he omitted from the Advancement
of Learning in its early form, but inserted in the Be Augmentis
in 1G23, when that work, the crowning work of his scientific and
philosophical labours, appeared simultaneously with the first
collected edition of the Shakespeare plays. The passage was
not intended to be read by the " profane vulgar, " who might
have scorned the Chancellor for praising the much-despised stage.
It was, therefore, reserved for the Latin, and thus rendered, for
the time, accessible only to the learned — for the most part
Bacon's friends:
" Dramatic poesy, which has the theatre for its world, would
be of excellent use if well directed. For the stage is capable
of no small influence, both of discipline and of corruption. Now,
of corruptions in this kind we have enough; but the discipline
has, in our times, been plainly neglected. And' though in
modern states play-acting is esteemed but as a toy, except when
it is too satirical and biting, yet among the ancients it was used
as a means of educating men's minds to virtue. Nay, it has
been regarded by learned men and great philosophers as a kind
of musician's bow, by which men's minds may be played upon.
And certainly it is most true, and one of the greatest secrets of
nature, that the minds of men are more open to impressions
and affections when many are gathered together, than when
they are alone." l
The brief records which are published of Bacon's last days
show him, still in sickness and poverty, possessing the same
sweet, gentle, patient, and generous spirit which had been with
him in the brilliant and exciting days of prosperity; even in his
misfortune and ruin making himself happy with his books and
his experiments, trying to leave his work in such a condition
that others could readily take up and complete that which life
was too short and fortune too adverse for him to accomplish
before his death.
His will is brief, but touching in its thought for everybody connected
with him, and for the sanguine spirit which it displays. 2
" My name and memory I leave to men's charitable speeches,
1 De Aug. ii. 13.
2 The following is from Hepworth Dixon's Story, p. 479.