Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

AND HIS SECBET SOCIETY. 333
immense aids to the study of " Elizabethan"
literature, but hurtful to no one.
and " Jacobean"
" It is much to be regretted that in tracing so curious an art
as that of the manufacture of modern paper, any definite conclusion
as to the precise time or period of its adoption should
hitherto have proved altogether unattainable. The Royal Society
of Sciences at Gottingen, in 1735 and 1763, offered considerable
premiums for that especial object, but, unfortunately, all researches,
however directed, were utterly fruitless." 1
So says our guide. But is it credible that in the history of mechanical
arts paper-making and printing are the only such
mechanical arts which have no record of their own origin ?
We cannot believe it. Some day, when the secret brotherhoods,
especially the higher grades, shall have persuaded themselves
that "the time is ripe," or when narrow protectionist
systems shall, liberally and pro bono publico, give way to free
trade in knowledge (as they have given way to Francis Bacon's
other great desiderata— freedom of thought and freedom of
the press ) — then it will, we are convinced, be easy for those
who hold the keys to unlock this closed door in the palace of
Truth, and to let us know the rights about these precious and
inoffensive arts and crafts.
The following is a list of the water-marks which we have
found in books previous to the Baconian period, or in MSS. or
other documents. The paper seems to be all foreign, from mills
chiefly in Holland or Germany. Some of these figures were retained
in the end of the sixteenth century and developed into
other forms. Each figure seems to have been varied almost
indefinitely. In our limited research we have seldom found two
precisely alike, and there seem to be about sixty figures, not
reckoning " nondescripts" and doubtful forms or variations:
1. Animals. Quadrupeds—Ape or Monkey, Bull, Cat (or
Panther?), Dog (Hound or Talbot), Goat, Horse, Lamb (some-
1 Herring, Paper and Paper-making, 34.