Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

310 FBANCIS BACON
If,
speaking from without the charmed circle, we are expected
to declare an express opinion regarding these things, it
must be after this kind: Whatever paper-mills may have existed
in England before the erection of Sir JobnSpielman's at Dartford,
they must have been small, private (perhaps attached to religious
houses), employed only in the manufacture of ivriting paper,
and at all events quite inadequate to Bacon's purposes
wben he " was for volumes in folio," when he " feared to glut
the world with his writings," and when the " Reformation of the
whole wide world" was to be attempted by means of the press.
The erection of the first great paper-mill in England is almost
coincident with the establishment of the great printing-houses,
whose first and noblest work was the printing and publication
of the Bible in nearly every language of the globe. ,
" It is certain that printing was the great instrument of the
Reformation in Germany, and of spreading it throughout
Europe ; it is equally certain that the making of paper, by
means of the cotton or flaxen fibre, supplied the only material
which has been found available for printing. "Whether this coincidence
was simply accidental, or was the effect of that high
arrangement for high purposes which we so often find in
the history of Providence, may be left to the consideration of the
Christian. But it is evident that if printing had been invented
in any of the earlier ages, it would have been comparatively
thrown away. . . . But at the exact period when printing was
given to the world, the fabric was also given which was to meet
the broadest exigency of that most illustrious invention." 1
And who in those days had reason to
know these things better
than Francis Bacon ? Who more likely than he to have
inspired the enterprise of erecting the great paper-mill which
was to serve as an " instance of the wit or hands of man, " and
to be ranked by him amongst " Helps to the Understanding in
the Interpretation of Nature " 1
Bacon never uttered opinions on subjects which he had not
studied. Neither did he exhort others to undertake works which
he had in no way attempted. When, therefore, we find him
1 Dr. Croly's introduction to Paper and Paper making, p. xii.