Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 209
men; yet, without such a natural and experimental history as
we shall now prescribe, we deny that there could be, or can be,
any progress in philosophy and other sciences worthy of mankind."
The author of Fama reflects in precisely the same fashion,
writing the thought of the sacred nature of such a work, and
the thought that it is a kind of second Scripture, with that
other most important reflection as to the necessity for unity,
and a combination of wits, if real progress is to be made and a
book of nature or a perfect method of all arts be achieved.
" Seeing the only wise and merciful God in these latter days
hath poured so richly His mercy and goodness to mankind,
whereby we do attain more and more to the knowledge of His
Son Jesus Christ, and of nature, ... He hath also made manifest
unto us many wonderful and never- heretofore-seen works and
creatures of nature; . . so that finally man might thereby
understand his own nobleness and worth, and why he is called
Microcosmus, and how far his knowledge extendeth in nature.
" Although the rude world herewith will be but little pleased,
but rather smile and scoff thereat; also the pride and covetousness
of the learned is so great, it will not suffer them to agree
together; but ivere they united, they might, out of all those things
which in this our age God doth so richly bestow upon us, collect
Librum Naturae, or a perfect method of all arts." x
" The College of the Six Days," which Bacon described, is,
we know, the College of the Rosicruciaus, who accept the New
Atlantis, in its old form, as a Rosicrucian document, and
allow it to be circulated under a changed title.
The hopelessness and impossibility of attempting to perform
single-handed all that his enthusiasm for humanity prompted,
and that his prophetic soul foresaw for distant ages, often
oppressed his mind, and as often he summoned his energies, his
philosophy, and his faith in God, to comfort and encourage him
to the work. This is all very distinctly traceable in the Promus
notes, which are so frequently quoted in the Shakespeare plays.
Amongst the early entries, in the sprawling Anglo-Saxon handwriting
of his youth, he records his intention to use " Ingenuous
honesty, and yet with opposition and strength. Good means
1 Fama Fratemitalis — Real History of the Rosicrucians ; A. S. Waite.
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