Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

28 FRANCIS BACON
purposes ; for it serves for an infoldment, and it likewise serves
for illustration. In the latter case, the object is a certain method
of teaching; in the former, an artifice for concealment. Now,
this method of teaching, used for illustration, was very much in
use in thef ancient times. For, the inventions and conclusions
of human reason (even those that are now common and trite)
being then new and strange, the minds of men were hardly
subtle enough to conceive them, unless they were brought nearer
to the sense by this kind of resemblances and examples. And
hence the ancient times are full of all kinds of fables, parables,
enigmas, and similitudes; as may appear by the numbers of
Pythagoras, the enigmas of the Sphinx, the fables of iEsop, and
the like. The apophthegms, too, of the ancient sages, commonly
explained the matter by similitudes. Thus Menenius
Agrippa, among the Romans (a nation at that time by no means
learned), quelled a sedition by a fable. In a word, as hieroglyphics
were before letters, so parables were before arguments.
And even now, and at all times, the force of parables is and has
been excellent; because arguments cannot be made so perspicuous,
nor true examples so apt.
" But there remains yet another use of poesy parabolical,
opposite to the former; wherein it serves (as I said) for an
infoldment ; for such things, I mean, the dignity whereof requires
that they should be seen, as it were, through a veil; that is,
whenthe secrets and mysteries of religion, policy, and philosophy
are involved in fables or parables. Note, whether any mystic
meaning be concealed beneath the fables of the ancient poets is a
matter of some doubt. For my own part I must confess that I am
inclined to think, that a mystery is involved in no small number of
them. Nor docs the fact that they are commonly left to boys and
grammarians, and held in slight repute, make me despise them;
but rather, since it is evident that the writings in which these
fables are related are, next to sacred story, the most ancient of
human writings, and the fables themselves still more ancient, I
take them to be a kind of breath, from the traditions of more
ancient nations, which fell into the pipes of the Greeks. But
since that which has hitherto been done in the interpretation of
these parables, being the work of unskillful men, not learned
beyond commonplaces, does not by any means satisfy me, I think
to set down Philosophy according to the ancient parables among
the desiderata, of which work I will subjoin one or two examples;
not so much, perhaps, for the value of the thing, as for the
sake of carrying out my principle, which is this : whenever I set
down a work among the desiderata (if there be anything obscure
about it) I intend alivays to set forth either instructions for the
execution of it, or an example of the thing; else it might be