Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

G2
FRANCIS BACON
" A friend unalterable to his friends." (Sir Tobie Matthew's
character of Bacon.)
No man knew better, or felt more deeply, the duties of friendship.
(Basil Montagu.)
See also the whole subject argued in Spedding's Evenings with
a Reviewer, vol. i., and Letters and Life, i. 104-100, 250-254,
295, 370-375; ii. 69-105, 123-102, 105, 367.
" The fictitious biography paints him as bound by the sacred
ties of gratitude and affection to the Earl of Essex, who, after
striving, in the most disinterested spirit, to procure for him a
great office and a wealthy wife, had, failing in these efforts, generously
bestowed upon him Twickenham Park; as helping and
advising that Earl, so long ashe could do it safely and with
profit, but as going over to his enemies when the hour of danger
came; and when the Earl's rash enterprise gave those enemies a
legal advantage over him, as straining his utmost skill as an
advocate and a writer, to take away the life and to damn the
memory of a noble and confiding friend. A plain story of the
times will show that the connexion of Bacon with Essex was
one of politics and business; that this connexion was in the highest
degree injurious to Bacon and to Bacon's family; that Essex
caused him to lose for fourteen years the post of Solicitor; that
Twickenham Park had never been the property of Essex, and
was not given by him to Bacon; that the connexion between
them ceased with Essex's own acts; . -.' . that ' the rash enterprise'
for which Essex suffered on the block was treason of so black a
shade, — so odious in the conception, so revolting in the details,
as to arm against him every honest man; . . . that, while Essex
'was yet free from overt and unpardonable crimes, Bacon went
beyond the extremest bounds of chivalry to save him. That in
acting against Essex, when Essex had stained his hands with
blood and his soul with treason, Bacon did no more than he was
bound to do as a public man; that, though he could not save
the guilty chief, he strove, and not in vain, to rescue from the
gallows his misled accomplices; finally, that to the generous
suppressions of the State Paper, which he drew up under her
Majesty's command, was due the fact that Essex's name should