Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 295
ment » is known at the Royal Society; neither is it mentioned
in any other account of Sir Christopher Wren which we have
met with, although the fact that he was, in 1680, chosen President
of that society, might naturally suggest some instances of
his connection with mathematical science and mechanical inventions.
Observe, that here is another precocious boy who
" invents " or designs a plan for a universal method, a Novum
Organum. Will any one produce Sir Christopher Wren's Treatise
on Rivers, or any proof of his having written such a work?
In no life or biography of Sir Christopher Wren do we find
any of the statements which this work on Freemasonry inserts
concerning him, and which (as usual in these cases) are relegated
to afoot-note.
His biographer continues:
" His other numerous juvenile productions in mathematics
prove him to be a scholar of the highest eminence. He assisted
Dr Scarborough in astronomical preparations, and experiments
upon the muscles of the human body ; whence are dated the first
introduction of geometrical and mechanical speculations in
anatomy. He wrote discoveries on the longitude ;
on the variations
of the magnetical needle ; de re nautica veterum ;
how to
find the velocity of a ship in sailing; of the improvements of
galleys, and how to restore wrecks. Besides these, he treated on
the convenient way of using artillery on ship-board ;
how to
build on deep water; how to build a mole into the sea, without
Puzzolan dust or cisterns, and of the improvement of river navigation
in joining of rivers. In short, the tvorks of this excellent
genius appear to be rather the united efforts of a whole century
than the production of one man."
Here, it will be observed, the writer is saying of Sir Christopher
Wren the same, in other words, that Dr. Sprat said of Bacon, that
" though he might not allow him to be equal to a thousand men, he
was at least equal to twenty. "
And, looking back at the catalogue of Wren's performances,
not only are we disposed to look askance upon statements which
come to us in such questionable shape, and which have such a
curious affinity with particulars of researches which we doknow
to have employed the nimble brain and the equally nimble pen
of Bacon; but further (since it is pleasant to understand what