Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 77
and the most splendid imagery, " etc., etc. (Basil Montagu.)
" The Wisdom of the Ancients, . . a kind of parabolical
poetry. The fables abounding with the deepest thought and
beauty. ... To the Advancement of Learning he brings every
species of poetry by which imagination can elevate the mind
from the dungeon of the b xly to the enjoying of its own essence.
. . . Metaphors, similitudes, and analogies make up a great part
of his reasoning. . . . Ingenuity, poetic fancy, and the highest
imagination and fertility cannot be denied him." (Craik.)
" The creative fancy of a Dante or Milton never called up
more gorgeous images than those suggested by Bacon, and we
question much whether their worlds surpass his in affording
scope for tbe imagination. His extended over all time. His
mind brooded over all nature, . . . unfolding to the gaze of the
spectator the order of the universe as exhibited to angelic intelligences.
" (Devey.)
" The tendency of Bacon to see analogies . . . is characteristic
of him, the result of . . . that mind not truly philosophic,
but truly poetic, which will find similitudes everywhere in
heaven aud earth." (Dr. Abbott.)
" He had the liveliest fancy and. most active imagination.
But that he wanted the sense of poetic fitness and melody, he
might be almost supposed, with his reach and play of thought,
to have been capable, as is maintained in some eccentric modern
theories, of writing Shakespeare's plays. No man ever had a
more imaginative power of illustration drawn from the most remote
and most unlikely analogies ; analogies often of the quaintest
and mo^t unexpected kind, but often, also, not only felicitous
in application, but profound and true." (Church, pp. 21, 22;
see, also, pp. 19, 24, 173, 197, 200, 204, 217, 171, 201 ; and note
that Dr. Church here gives Bacon every attribute of the poet
excepting the power to write poetry.)
" Gentle and susceptible in genius. . . . A mind susceptible of
all impressions. . . . Trott, a lover of poetry and wit, advanced
him money. ... As a bencher Bacon became the light and
genius ... of Gray's Inn; . . . dressed the dumb show, led