Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

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AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 75
good specimen of the kind of knowledge and criticism displayed
by the press articles of this date.
The most prodigious wit that ever lived — Fond of quibbles —
Could not pass by a jest.
" His speech, when he could pass by a jest, was nobly censorious."
(Ben Jonson, Dominus Verulamius.)
Bacon's paradoxical manner of turning a sentence so as to
read two ways has been the frequent subject of comment. A
large number of puns and quibbles are to be found even in bis
graver works, and Ben Jonson's remark shows that, however
much he might try to exclude these plays upon words from
his writings, the habit of punning was so confirmed in him as to
be, in Jonson's opinion, a disfigurement to his oratory.
" The most prodigious wit that ever I knew ... is of your
Lordship's name, albeit he is known by another. " (Sir Tobie
Matthew, letter to Bacon.)
Want of imagination of the higher type.
" Of looks conversing with the skies, of beauty born of murmuring
sound that passes into the face, he takes no account. It
is the exclusion of the higher type that leads him to doubt
whether beauty is a hindrance or a help in running the race of
life." (Storr of Ess. of Beauty.)
" There is hardly a trace in Bacon of that transfusing and
transforming imagination which creates a new heaven and a
new earth; which reveals the elemental secrets of things, and
thrills us with a shock of surprise and delight as a new revelation.
. . . There is more of poetry in Browne's Hydriotaphia
than of poetry in Bacon's collected works. Yet of poetry, in all
but the strictest and highest sense of the word, Bacon is full.
(Storr, int. lxxxiii.
See below.)
Imagination of the highest type.
" Bacon, whose vast contemplative ends embraced the image
of the universal world." (Storr.)
" His life of mind was never exceeded, perhaps never equalled.
The extent of his views was immense. . . . His powers were