Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

30 FRANCIS BACON
and unpractised in matters of subtlety and speculation, or were
impatient, and in a manner incapable, of receiving such things
as did not directly fall under and strike the senses. And
even to this day, if any man would let new light in upon the
human understanding, and conquer prejudice, without raising
contests, animosities, opposition, or disturbance, he must still go
on in the same path, and have recourse to the like method of allegory,
metaphor, and allusion. " Bacon had said in the Advancement
of Learning — -and he repeated in the De Augmentis in
1623—that such parabolic teaching and method of interpretation
was deficient, and that he was about to set forth examples
for the instruction of others. His assertions and conclusions
were never challenged or contradicted. On the contrary, his
contemporaries tacitly acquiesced in his statements, and posterity
has endorsed the estimate given by the great men of his
time as to his vast and profound learning and his excellent judgment.
When, therefore, we meet with other works of his time,
not published under his name, but abounding in " the like
method " and use of allegory, metaphor, and allusion, we may
with reason question the origin of such works; we may even
consider it to be a matter of considerable doubt. In any case
we shall be prepared to find Bacon's own works abounding with
metaphors and similes, and his new and subtle ideas and theories
" wrapped or delivered " in a veil of parable, and allegory,
and symbolic language.
Having regard to such considerations as the foregoing, it was
thought necessary to test the matter by forming a kind of dictionary
or harmony of the metaphors, similes, and figurative expressions
in the acknowledged works of Bacon and in Shakespeare.
About forty thousand of such figurative passages have
been brought together from the two groups of works, and it is
thus made clear that the metaphors and figures used are to a
marvellous extent the same. They exhibit everywhere the same
knowledge, the same opinions and tastes, and often the same
choice of words; they mutually elucidate and interchange ideas;
they are found to be connected by innumerable small links and
chains with certain fixed ideas which reappear throughout the