Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

360 FRANCIS BA CON
at least, was a Christian philosophical society, or a society for
promotiDg Christian knowledge.
4. That the subject-matter of the books does not necessarily
affect the paper-marks.
5. That the three marks, the double candlesticks, the grapes,
and the pitcher or pot, are notably " Baconian, " the pot
especially being found in all Bacon's acknowledged works, and
throughout the correspondence of Anthony and Francis,
especially when their correspondent was of the Reformed
Church.
7. The extraordinary but not unaccountable habit of tearing
6. That, where any one pattern is varied many times in the
same book, there is usually no other mark except in the flyleaves.
out the fly-leaves at the beginning and end of valuable books of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries often makes it impossible
to declare that the book in hand possessed no other mark
besides those which we see.
8. The fly-leaves were wont, in many of our " Baconian "
books, to be very numerous : five or eight are common numbers
for the sheets. They were probably intended for the making
of notes, a practice which Bacon enjoins and so highly commends.
In old, untouched libraries there are usually some books
where the fly-leaves have been thus utilised. Perhaps, when
filled with notes, they were to be taken out, and forwarded to
some central point of study, either to an individual or to a committee,
who should by their means add to the value of any subsequent
edition or " collection " which might be published.
It is
certain that fly-leaves have been stolen for the sake of the old
paper, for etching or for forged reprints ; but this does not account
for the fact that certain books, when sent, without any
special orders, to be repaired by a Freemason binder, have returned
with this large number of fly-leaves restored ; in many
of our public libraries such extra leaves in books rebound have
paper-marks.
9. In Bacon's acknowledged works the changes are rung
upon the three paper-marks, the pot, the grapes, and the can-