Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 207
of Rosicrucianism, and this is that very matter of making
collections or dictionaries which we spoke of in the last chapter.
Now, this was not only one of the ostensible objects of the
fraternity, but also the ostensible object of Francis Bacon.
He claims the idea as his own, and declares that neither Aristotle
nor Theophrastus, Dioscorides or Pliny, and much less any of
the modern writers, have hitherto proposed such a thing to
themselves. Spedding says Bacon would have found that such
a dictionary or index of nature as he contemplated in the
Novum Organum must be nearly as voluminous as nature herself,
and he gives the impression that such a dictionary was not
attempted by Bacon. Here, as will be seen, we differ from this
admirable biographer, and believe that Bacon did organise,
and himself commence, such a system of note-taking, alphabetising,
collating, "transporting," etc., as by the help of "his
twenty young gentlemen, " his able pens, devoted friends in every
corner of the civilised world, and especially from the Illuminati,
Rosy Cross brethren, and skilled Freemasons, to produce, within a
few years, that truly cyclopedian mass of books of reference,
which later writers have merely digested or added to.
Bacon claims as his own the method by which this great deficiency
is to be supplied.
Behold, then, the author of the Fama Fraternitatis making a
precisely similar claim
" After this manner began the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross
first by four persons only, and by them was made the Magical
Lannage and Writing with a large Dictionary."
May not the sentence just quoted help somewhat to account
for the extraordinary likeness, not only in ideas, but in words,
of books, scientific and historical, which appeared before the
or transcripts may have been made from Bacon's
publication of the great collections? Is it possible that copies
great manuscript
dictionaries by those who would, with his ever-ready help,
proceed to " make" or " produce" a book? Were such budding
authors (Rosicrucians) allowed to come under his roof to write
their books, and use his library and his brains? — questions at
present unanswerable, but to be answered. Visions of Ben