Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

AND HTS SECRET SOCIETY. 367
the range of observation within a manageable area, we withhold
any notice of paper-marks in books produced by " authors "
living only after Bacon's time. Yet it is right to caution observers
that they should by no means discontinue their notes
and researches in books published, even for the first time, after
1626.
Startling disclosures are made by collating these paper-marks,
and other technical particulars, in books which, from internal
evidence, are judged to have been written or aided by Francis
or Anthony Bacon, and which, by these external and demonstrable
signs, are " hall-marked " by the paper-maker and the
printer. To any one sufficiently possessed by the spirit of inquiry
or love of truth, to labour after it, and personally to test
and follow up the statements and suggestions made above, it
will, we think, be difficult to resist the conclusions to which we
have been drawn. They will perceive that, if indeed Anthony
Bacon was not (as we think) a considerable author, poet, and
playwright, yet that, for more than twenty-five years, he energetically
collaborated with the beloved younger brother, whom
he equalled in wit, though not in profound learning ;
the style of
writing of the brothers, twins in heart and soul, being in these
lighter works almost indistinguishable.
It must also, we think, be ere long made manifest that the
works hitherto attributed to Francis Bacon are samples only,
tastes of his quality; giving, as they were intended to
give, excellent
hints and indications of the manifold works of all kinds
and (as Ben Jonson declared) in " all numbers, " actually written,
constructed and published by his
dictated, or directed by him ;
" Method.
Which of Bacon's works is in the true sense complete ?
Perfect
in its kind it may be (as, for instance, any single essay).
But can any of these works be considered finished and exhaustive?
Does any one of them " fill up" its own subject? On the
contrary, almost all are in some sort fragmentary; ] and, for our
1 Perhaps the History of Henry VII. should be excepted. Tet even this
begins as though it were the end or concluding portion of a History of Hichard
III., and not as would be expected in a separate and complete history.