Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

38 FRANCIS BACON
others, to advance not only politics and statesmanship, but religion
and the cause of the church. It will, however, be easily
seen that if Bacon would carry forward such work, in times so
" dark and dangerous," he must do it secretly, and by the aid
of powerful friends and assistants. We, therefore, find ourselves
engaged in tracing the workings of a great secret society;
and since, so far as we have discovered, that work depended
mainly upon Bacon himself, it is necessary to regard his life and
actions from a totally new point of view, and to acknowledge at
the outset that, excepting in the capacity of lawyer, which he
disliked and shrank from; of courtier, for which he felt himself
"unapt;" and of statesman, for which he pronounced himself
to be " least fit," very little is really known about Francis Baccn.
This lack of satisfactory information has probably led modern
writers too much to copy from each other, without duly weighing
and examining statements made hastily, to turn a phrase,
or of malice prepense. It is usual, in other cases, to lay great
store by the evidence of respectable contemporary authority.
(Need we remind any one of the eagerness with which such pieces
of evidence, even the weakest, have been snatched at and enshrined
as gems of priceless value, when they seemed to affect William
Shakspere ?) But, with Francis Bacon, the case is altered.
Evidence of contemporary writers, such as Ben Jonson, or Dr.
Sprat, president of the Koyal Society, or of Bacon's secretary,
afterwards the Queen's chaplain, Dr. Bawley, or of his intimate
friend and life-long correspondent, Sir Tobie Matthew, is waived
aside, when they pour out, in eloquent language, their witness as
to his greatness, his genius, his sweetness, and devoutness of
disposition and mind. Aubrey is " a gossip " when he echoes
the tale, and says, emphasising the words, that " all who were
good and great loved him." The rest were "prejudiced," or
" partial, " or did not mean what they said.
Why are such records of Bacon's closest friends, secretaries,
coadjutors, and contemporaries, as well as those of his most
painstaking biographers, and of his most appreciative disciples
and followers, to be rejected in favor of two lines of poetry
penned more than a hundred years after his death, and of a hos-