Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

344 FRANCIS BACON
with the name of " Clement Edmundes, Remembrancer of the
Cittie of London. " To occupy such a position Edmundes must
have been a man of some standing; his, therefore, cannot be the
boyish portrait which figures at the top of this title-page. May
we not rather believe it to be that of the youth who for seven years
devoted himself, heart and soul, to the study of the ancient
authors, and who thus speaks of these very Commentaries, with
which we see that he was more than ordinarily acquainted ? 1
" As for Julius Caesar, the excellency of his learning needeth
not to be argued from his education, or his company, or his
speeches; but in a farther degree doth declare itself in his writings
and works; whereof some are extant and permanent, and
some have unfortunately perished. For first . . . there is left
unto us that excellent history of his own tears, which he entitled
only a Commentary, . . . wherein all succeeding times have
admired the solid weight of matter, and the real passages and'
lively images of actions and persons, expressed in the greatest
propriety of words and perspicacity of narration that ever was. " 2
The one little candlestick referred to is the only one of the
kind which as yet we have met with ; it may, however, be expected
that other examples will be found in early editions of
some of the boyish works published by his friends; for we suppose
this figure to represent some utterance or aspiration of the
youthful student, that he might himself be a humble light, or
candle-holder, for others. This conjecture is not unreasonable,
seeing that immediately after his death, and for fifty years subsequently,
his immediate friends and followers developed and
made conspicuous use of this symbol in editions of his acknowledged
works, and in others which we ascribe to him.
And would any one find it easy to devise an emblematic
water-mark more suitable for works such as Francis Bacon engaged
in than this of the double candlesticks, with their
varied, " bifold " meanings? Once perhaps the mounts of
knowledge, then rocks, castles, towers difficult to scale or
1 Again we insert a saving clause in regard to " Anthonie," the " deare
brother," fellow-student in youth, twin in mind and face, who may prove to
have been the translator orinditer of these "Commentaries." 2 See a long
criticism, from which the above is condensed Advancement of Learning, i, I.