Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

228 FRA NCIS BA CON
and that eventually these books were to find
their way into the
great libraries where they now repose, and where future research
will oblige them to yield up their secret, and to say what
hand first turned their pages, whose eyes first mined into them
to extract the precious ore so long buried beneath the dust of
oblivion? Where, in what books, do we find this gold of knowledge,
seven times tried in the crucible of poetic philosophy,
cast into living lines, and hammered upon the muses' anvil into
the " well-tuned and true-filed lines " which are not of an age
but for all time?
We earnestly exhort young and able scholars, whose lives lie
before them, to follow up this subject. Think of the new worlds
of knowledge that remain to be explored and conquered. Who
can tell the contents of the library at Eton, in which Bacon
took such a lively interest? Who has ever thoroughly examined
the hoards of manuscripts of Bacon's time at Lambeth Palace,
at the Record Office, at Dulwich, or at the British Museum?
Baconians, reading with modern search-lights rather than by the
dim rays shed from even the best lamp of the last century, cannot
fail in future to perceive many things which escaped the
notice of previous observers, however diligent.
The Selden and Pembroke collections of books at the Bodleian
Library, the Cotton Library at the British Museum, the libraries
of the Royal Society, the Antiquaries, and others directly connected
with Bacon, the theological library at Sion College,
Gresham College, the collection of Bacon's works in the University
Library, Cambridge, and at Trinity College, should be
examined, and every collection, public or private, which was
commenced or much enlarged between 1580 and 1680, should
be most thoroughly ransacked with a special eye to records,
direct and indirect, of the working of Bacon and his friends,
and with a view to tracing his books. It is probable that the
latter will seldom or never be found to bear his name or signature.
Rather we should expect, in accordance with Rosicrucian
rules, that no name, but only a motto, an enigmatic inscription,
or the initials of the title by which he passed amongst the
brethren, would be found in these books. Yet it may reason-