Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

358 FRANCIS BACON
" Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity; but, hecause
the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge;
yea, he gave good heed, and sought out and set in order many
proverbs. * The Preacher sought to find out many acceptable
words, 2 and that which was written was upright, words of
truth. The words of the wise are as goads, 3 and as nails fastened
by the Masters of Assemblies, which are given from one
shepherd. And further by these, my son, be admonished; of
making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness
of the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God and keep His commandmeuts, for fhis is the whole
duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment
with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be
evil."
Here is the model of a charge from a " Master of Assemblies"
to his " Sons," the Sons of Science, the Brethren in love and religious
union. In their youth they must Remember their Creator,
in mature years labour in the cause of truth, till the time comes
when the frail pitcher is broken, even in the act of drawing fresh
supplies from the heavenly fountain; its contents or its emptiness
will be seen, and every secret thing made known and judged
in the broad light of day.
This digression is intended to illustrate
the manner in which
these Baconian ideas are linked together in one great chain,
each symbol or image merging into or mixing itself up with another.
To return once more to the pitcher or pot — Bacon's special
mark, the humble vessels which his friends raised to honour.
Who is so dull and unimaginative as to be incapable of fitting
together the scraps of erudition here disjointedly scattered hefore
him? Who will check and refuse to see in this water-mark
Bacon's well-conceived emblem of himself and his disciples as
1 See the De Aug. viii. ii. in which, when discoursing of The Doctrine Concerning
Scattered Occasions, Bacon extols the use of proverbs like the aphorisms
of Solomon, " to which there is nothing comparable," and which he expounds
and comments upon through twenty octavo pages.
2 See Bacon's record of the necessity for doing this (De Avg. vi. i) and a
few of his immense contributions to language in jottings amongst his private
notes (Pronms, 116-159, 272-326, 1370-1439, etc.)
3 Quoted in the Promus. fol. 88, 239, and again in Advt. of L. i. and tho
Wisd- of the Ancients, xxviii., from the Vulgate Eccl. xii. 11,