Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

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22 FRANCIS BACON
Now, it is plain that things which are entirely new to us,
things of which we have never had any previous experience, are
not matters upon which we can successfully decide by common
sense. On the contrary, we must use some sense out of the common
if we would attain to the knowledge and comprehension of
totally new sciences or branches of learning ; and to learn new
things, as Shakespeare tells us, is the end of study
JBiron.
Lonij.
"What is the end of study ? Let me know.
Why, that to know which else we should not know.
Biron. Things hid and barr'd, you know, from common sense.
King. Aye, that is study's glorious recompense.
Those who, without any experience in the questions involved,
pronounce that Bacon could not have written Shakespeare, or
that there is no cipher in the Plays, or that Bacon did not found
Freemasonry and Kosicrucianism, or that, although the former
society exists, the latter does not, are going in direct opposition
to common sense, or to reason based upon experience.
For experience has shown that the philology, science, ethics,
and many other particulars in the Plays prove them, by internal
evidence, to be the products of Bacon's heart, brain, and hand
and hundreds of other "pieces of evidence, connected with the
circumstances of their publication, confirm the doctrines which
are founded upon internal evidence. The evidence is precisely
of the same kind as that which has been held good in examining
the claims of many authors to their accredited works; and the
same rules of criticism which are employed in one case should
hold good in another, where the same similarities are seen in
infinitely greater numbers.
From the Promus 1 we gather the elements of a new
phraseology, newly coined words, turns of expression, metaphors,
proberbial sayings, and quotations from five or six
languages; from the Natural History and the History ofLife and
Death, a mass of scientific facts, new and curious in the day's
when they were recorded and published. From the Novum
Organum and the Advancement of Learning, a mass of new
1 Bacon's private MS. notes, in the Harleian collection, British Museum.