Sir Francis Bacon's Journals - Sir Francis Bacon's New ...

104Sir Francis Bacon’s Journalsgreat authors have their due, as time, which is the author of authors, be not deprived of hisdue, which is, further and further to discover truth.Upon my leave I take to Gloucester and fi nd a church of glorious gardens. 8 My stepstake me to a secluded area; a small graveyard, almost in abandonment. I lean ’gainst a wallfor rest. My eyes close, my voice whispers: “Monstrous stream of nectar or attic honey, castme from this ground to thy heaven of sweetness.” ’Twas of a gentle voice that whisperethin response, as if from afar: “How strange is this I attend to?”My eyes open, my body turns. Nothing to be seen, except for the wall, which standsbefore me. “Good morrow!” I press my ear ’gainst cold surfaces of a wall and am overflowed. My voice rises in unnecessary tone: “Should you lurk beyond, reveal yourself, Sir.”“Why so, Sir?” Claimeth the voice.“You are a labyrinth, in which the very haste I move with will make me lose my way.”To which the voice returned no other answer but this: “No labyrinth, young Sir. Therebe some vault, or hollow, or isle, 9 behind the wall, and some passage to it towards thefarther end of that wall against which you speak; our voices communicateth with the airof the hollow.” 10I stand fi xed, contemplating with my hand ’gainst the wall for touch, the last of thesenses, and most ignoble, yet of as great necessity as the other, and of as much pleasurecatcheth me. This sense is exquisite in men, and by his nerves dispersed all over the body,perceives any tactile quality. His organ the nerves; his object those fi rst qualities, hot,dry, moist, cold; and those that follow them, hard, soft, thick, thin, &c. Many delightsomequestions are moved by philosophers about this sense; the organs, objects, mediums,which for brevity I omit. 11 Go, get you home, away from this ghostly place, FrancisBacon for your twenty and four years rest upon thy shoulders.I enter my dreary steps into my chambers, and upon equal fashion to the House ofCommons where I sit for Melcombe in Dorset. Beside me be Hatton, Bromley, Egertonand our spymaster Sir Walsingham. Should I be compelled to web these gentlemen intomy Journal, would take mass of work.I win the ear of the fastidious House. I am claimed English. I do not think much ofmy appearance, and so none else. I remain obscure; interlaced moderate relaxation of mindwith gentle exercise on horseback and playing at bowls; studying, walking, taking the air891011Thomas Allen. Even Queen Elizabeth I., attributed him to a paradigmatic of great astrologywith Dr. Dee—Aubrey’s Brief Lives“The church referred to is the Cathedral, and the length of the gallery is said to be twenty-fi veyards. See Rudder, History of Gloucestershire, p. 178.”—James SpeddingSpedding supposes aisle is meantFrancis Bacon: Sylva Sylvarum, vol. i. chapter ii. (148). This experiment may allow writers towiden imagination and impregnate Lord Bacon meeting or visiting someone. It should benoted that this church in Gloucester possibly has some secret vault or passageway as Lord Baconstated himself that should strongly be recommended to archaeologists to “inquire more particularlyof the frame of that place” should this have not already been done. In Penn Leary’s accountof The Oak Island Enigma written in 1953, there is a map showing Oak Island as Gloucester Isleand the like phenomena is experienced in many outdoor ancient Greek theatresRobert Burton: The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1653