Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

168 FRANCIS BACON
glass; that airs may be wholesome or unwholesome; that some
flowers are sweeter than others; that some, but not all, can be
distilled
into perfumes; that some have the scent in the leaf, as
sweetbriar, 1 others in the Mower, as violets and roses; that
most odours smell best crushed or broken; that excess in nourishment
is hurtful — if a child be extremely fat it seldom grows very
tall; all mouldiness is a beginning of decay or putrefaction; heat
dries and shrivels things, damp rots; some parts of vegetables and
plants are more nourishing than others; yolks of eggs are more
nourishing than the whites; soup made of bones and sinews
would probably be very nourishing ; bubbles are in the form of a
sphere, 2 air within and a little skin of water without. No beast has
azure, carnation or green hair; 3 mustard provoketh sneezing, and
a sharp thing to the eyes, tears.
Sleep nourishes— after-dinner
sleep is good for old people. Boiling gives a bubbling sound;
mincing meat makes it easier for old teeth; Indian maize when
boiled is good to eat; flax and white of eggs are good for wounds.
Now, although it is true that here is hardly one particular
which is not turned to excellent account in the Shakespeare
plays, and in many minor works of Bacon's time, it is impossible
to ignore the fact that Bacon makes notes of these as things not
generally known; that the book in which he registered them was
not published until after his death, and then, as we are especially
told, with the notes revised, or not arranged in the order
in which they were written.
Amongst the commonplaces which we have enumerated, there
are other statements incorrect as they are picturesque and
poetical. Probably Bacon did not believe them himself; they
are often introduced with some such modification as " It may
be that," or " It is said that." Thus we are told that gums
and rock crystals are the exudations of stones ; that air can be
turned into water, water into oil ; that the celestial bodies are
1 "The leaf of eglantine out-sweetened not thy breath." Cymb. iv. 2.
2 See Emblems of a Bubble, in reference to the 'world.
3 This is alluded to in Troilus and Cressida, i. 2, where Pandarus says that
they are laughing at the white hair on Troilus' chin, and Cressida answers "
: A n't
had been & green hair, I should have laughed too."