Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 63
be pronounced witnout a curse, and that his son could one day
bo restored in blood." (Hepworth Dixon, Story, i. 6. See
the same book, pp. 46-18G.)
Unloved as he ivas unloving, he had but few friends and ivas
little reverenced.
This is the impression conveyed by most of Bacon's antipathetic
biographers — a view of his character which Dr. Abbott
tries hard to reconcile with " the spirit of genuine affection which
breathes " through the records ofhisfriends and contemporaries,
and, we may add, through all the letters which refer to him,
written to him or of him, where his personal relations with intimate
friends and acquaintances are touched upon. (See infra.) It
is difficult, sometimes, to decide whether to place the criticisms
upon Bacon's character on the side of the goats or of the sheep.
They are often so self-contradictory and neutralising that the
writers appear to be writing against their own convictions —
rejecting the evidence patent and unchallenged of eye-witnesses,
in favour of theories and personal antipathies found long after
their great subject had passedaway. As to forming a judgment
upon detached expressions, notes or sentiments, culled from
Bacon's works with a special purpose, and with special glosses
attached, to suit certain theories, we protest that no author's private
character can be rightly so judged ; and with regard to
Bacon, in particular, passages to prove the exact opposite to
everything so advanced could be produced.
"All who were good and great loved and honoured him."
Aubrey.)
(John
" My conceit of his person was never increased towards him by
his place or honours; but I have and do reverence him for the
greatness that was only proper to himself, in that he seemed to
me ever, by his work, one of the greatest of men, and most
worthy of admiration, that hath been in many ages. In his
adversity I ever prayed God would give him strength, for greatness
he could not want. Neither could I condole a word or
syllable for him, as knowing no accident can happen to virtue,