Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

236 FRANCIS BACON
open themselves; but, at the touch of an unfriendly body, they
shrink up." *
In the Anatomy of Melancholy (which, as lias been said, seems
to be the sweepings of Bacon's note-books on all
subjects connected
with the Doctrine of the Union of Mind and Body) all
these ideas are reproduced and expanded.
The chapter containing the passages of the Digression of
Spirits is particularly interesting and instructive, forming, as it
does, a connecting link between the science and the poetry of
the plays. Who that reads such sentences as the following,
which catch the eye as it travels hastily down those pages, but
must be reminded of the scenes and lines in the Tempest, Macbeth,
Lear, and the Midsummer Night's Dream, and other plays,
which are familiar in our mouths as household words?
" Fiery spirits 2 ' are such as commonly work by blazing-stars,
fire-drakes, 3 or ignis fatui; 4 which lead men oft influmina aut
prcecipitia, saith Bodine, lib. 2, Theat. Naturae, fol. 221; . . . likewise
they counterfeit suns and moons, 5 stars oftentimes, and sit
on ship-masts, ... or which never appear, saith Cardan, but
they signify some mischief or other to come unto men, though
some again will have them to pretend good and victory; . . . and
they do likely come after a sea-storm. . . .
" Aerial spirits, or devils, are such as keep quarter most
part in the air, cause many tempests, thunder and lightnings,
tear oaks, fire steeples, houses, strike men 6 and beasts, make it
rain stones, 1 . . . counterfeit armies in the air, strange noises,
l " A south wind friendly." Winter's Tale, v. i.
" Friendly drop " (of poison).
Romeo and Juliet, v. 3. " A huge infectious troop of pale distemperatures and
foes to life." — M. M. v. 1.
2Comp. 3 Hen. VI. ii. 1, 21-38, and with " That fire-drake did I hit. . . .
The devil was amongst thern."' Henry VIII. v. 3.
3 Fierce, fiery warriors fight upon the clouds. The heavens blaze forth the death
of princes. Jul. Cces. ii. 2.
4 The willo' the wisp. Loh. "Thou Lob of Spirits" of Puck.—M. N. D. ii. 1.
See Puck's behaviour, ib. iii. 1. " Sometimes a horse I'll be ; . . . sometime a
fire." See also the Fool of the Walkinq Fire and Flibbertigibbet, Lear, iii. 2, and
Ariel's tricks upon Stephano and his fellows in The Tempest, iv. i.
5 Comp. 3 Hen. VI. ii. 1, 25-31.
6 Compare Prospero's account of his own performances in his speech to the
elves (Temp. v. 1), and Macb. iv. 1, 44-61.
7 "The gods throw stones of sulphur." Cymb. v. 5. "Are there no stones
in heaven?" Oth. v. 2. "Let the sky rain potatoes," Mer. Wiv. v. 5,