Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

AND HIS SECBET SOCIETY. 277
life render them independent." They should also be men of
superior prudence and good address, with a tranquil, wellcultivated
mind and retentive memory. But " he who wishes to
teach, mast be content to learn." A self-sufficient, conceited
person, however able, can, therefore, never be a good Mason.
" Arrogance and presumption appear not on the one hand, or
diffidence and inability on the other, but all unite in the same
plan."
The second book of Masonry gives an illustration of the ceremonies
connected with the opening and closing of a lodge, in
which account we seem to see a reflection of Bacou's cogitations
on the means of ensuring help from worthy and capable men,
who should prepare to guard the entrances and approaches to
the Temple of Wisdom. In the first sentence note the use of his
Promus entry, " Avenues." x
" Our care is first directed to the external avenues of the lodge,
and the proper officers, whose province it is to discharge that
duty, execute the trust with fidelity." 2
By certain mystic forms these officers intimate that it is safe
for the ceremonies to proceed, or they detect impostors and
unfit persons who must be excluded. The ceremonies are religious,
and intended not only to remind the master and brethren
of their many duties, but also to inculcate a reverential awe of
the Deity, that " the eye may be fixed on that object from whose
radiant beams light only can be derived."
At the closing of the lodge, " each brother faithfully locks up
the treasure which he has acquired in his own repository, and,
pleased with his own reward, retires to enjoy and disseminate
among the private circle of his friends the fruits of his labour
and industry in the lodge." This paragraph seems to imply
that the brethren adopted Bacon's advice regarding the taking
of notes, and that they habitually stored up their newly gained
treasures of learning in order to add to the
common fund, and
p. 76.
1 Promus, 1432; and conip. Montaigne Ess. " To Learn to Die"—Ed. Hazlitt,
2 Preston, p. 33.