M. stands for Magider or Founder — ^the head of the association.

Now in Bacon's " New Athmtis " we find him presenting us with a venerable man who is called the *^T%rsar^^* or father. ''The Father of the Family whom they call the Tirsan" (vide paasim^ ''New Atlantis"). This man always addresses the others with the title of sons.
" ' Gk)d bless thee, my son ; I will give thee the greatest jewel I have. For I will impart unto thee, for the love of God and men, a relation of the true state of Solomon's House.
" ' The End of our Foundation is the knowledge of Causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of Human Empire, to the effecting of all things possible.' "
With the last paragraph we see Bacon's philosophy speaking in disguise, as if Bacon was himself the orator.
" And when he had said this, he stood up ; and I, as I had been taught, kneeled down ; and he laid his right hand upon my head, and said; 'God bless thee, my son, and God bless this relation which I have made.' "
Now, elsewhere in his works,^ Bacon addresses himself to his
1 The heading of the Fxlnm Labyrinthi is enUtled ** Ad FUios ''—to (my) sons. This is written at the top of the page in Bacon's hand. — Spkddino.
32 THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS.
son, though he had no issue at alL Can we not see in this pro- tagonist of the "New Adantis'* — who is Cicerone, and who describes all the discoveries and sciences of the nineteenth century, anticipating them as the result of his inductive and experimental method — Bacon himself) All the descriptions of the marvels of scientific discoveries, Sound Houses, which anticipate the Tele- phone, Observatories, Zoological and Botanical Gardens, &c., &c., are sheer projections of the genius of Bacon's mind, seeing like Moses from Mount Pisgah, the promised land, which his instru- ment or ofganum is to realize. It is an ideal Island placed with true prophetic insight in the west, where new worlds were just discovered, — ^it is America which is to realize, and has realized some of these prophecies. But we see more. The Ship de- vice, is Bacon's precious Argosy bound through the pillars of Hercules to this ideal Utopia in the west of his imagination. This is what he calls " Anticipation of the Mind." The *' New Atlantis " ^ is an ideal vision of the New World of intellectual discovery, to which Bacon's emblematic ship is sailing through the pillars of Hercules,^ and which he foresaw would be America. If Columbus discovered the New World, Bacon discovers an intellectual New World of wonders — ^the result of his inductive method, and every description in the " Atlantis " of the scientific wonders therein described are efforts (and in most cases marvel- lous successes) to realize the future. For he repeatedly tells us that there will be much going to and fro,^ that light will come to
1 "The ' New Atlantis ' aeems to have been written in 1624, and, though not finished, to have been intended for publication as it stande. It was published aooordingly by Dr Rawley in 1627, at the end of the volume containing the Sylva Sylvarum; for which place Bacon had himself de- signed it, the subjects of the two being so near akin ; the one representing his idea of what bhould be the end of the work whidi in the other he sup- posed himself to be beginning. For the story of Solomon's House is nothing more than a vision of the practical results which he anticipated from the study of natural history diligently and systematically carried on through successive generations." — Spedding.
* The sciences seem to have their Hercules* pillars, which bound the desires and hopes of mankind. {Ot. Instaurationf Prrf.)
' *' Nur should the prophecy of Daniel be forgotten, touching the last
THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS, 33
men, that mankind would master and conquer Nature — ^making her his slave.
We take the following from the '' Confession of the Rosicrucian Fraternity," published 1615 : —
"For conclusion of our Confession we must earnestly admonish you, that yon cast away, if not all, yet most of the worthless books of pseudo chjrmists, to whom it is a jest to apply the Most Holy Trinity to vain thiqgs, or to deceive men with monstrous symbols and enigmas, or to profit by the curiosity of the credu- lous ; our age doth produce many such, (mt of ffie greatest being a STAGE PLATER, a man with sufficient ingenuity for imposition." (Chapter XII., " Hist. Eosicrucians.")
We know that Shakespeare, who died 1616, was a stage-player as well as a manager and supposed author of the plays. If Bacon was a Bosicrucian, we may depend upon it that the real secret of the authorship was well known to many members of the brotherhood, as we have sufficient reason to see in the case of Ben Jonson.
Mr Waite writes (page 35, "Real History of the Rosicru- cians ") : —
"Somewhere about the year 1614 a pamphlet was published anonymously in German, called 'Die Reformation der Ganzen Weiten Welty which, according to De Quincey, contained a distinct proposition to inaugurate a secret society, having for its object the general welfare of mankind. This description is simply untrue ; the ' Universal Reformation ' is an amusing and satirical account of an abortive attempt made by the god Apollo to derive assistance towards the improvement of the age from the wise men of antiquity and modem times. It is a fairly literal translation of Advertisement 77 of Boccalini's ' Eagguagli di PaniassOf Centuria Prima ; ' its internal connection with Rosi-
ages of the world : — "Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased ;*' clearly intimating that the thorough passage of the world (which now by so many distant voyages seems to be accomplished, or in coarse of accomplishment), and the advancement of the sciences, are destined by fate, that is, by Divine Providence, to meet in the same age.
C
34 THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS.
cracianism is not clear, but it has been generally reprinted with the society's manifestos, alchemical interpretations have been placed on it, and it is cited by various authors as the first publication of the Fraternity."
The reader is begged to mark that it is the god Apollo who makes this movement for the improvement and reformation of the entire world. Now we find Lord Bacon figuring in Oeorge Withers' '' Qrtai Assizes^ held ai Parnassus" as President repre- senting the god Apollo, and presiding over all the learning of his age. Note, these assizes are held at Parnassus, with which compare Boccalini's title, " Ragguagli di Pamasso.*' Throughout Boccalini's work, Apollo is presented as protagonist. The con- nection of the 77th Advertisement of Boccalini's ''Bagguagli di Pamasso" with the Society may be not yet clear, but the very fact that it is found in the Brotherhood's manifestoes, and that it is cited as the first publication of the Bosicrucians, is in itself the strongest possible evidence in favour of relationship. The subject-matter speaks for itself, being thoroughly in har- mony with the Beformation. Apollo summons the seven wise men of Greece to make an inquiry as to the state of society. They severally deliver separate remedies for the diBeases of the age. But the age is found too rotten and corrupt for cure. Here is the graphic description of the state of the age : —
" At these words the philosophers stript him in a trice, and found that this miserable wretch was covered all over four inches thick with a scurf of appearances. They caused ten razors to be forthwith brought unto them, and fell to shaving it off with great diligence, but they found it so far eaten into his very bones that in all the huge colossus there was not one inch of good live flesh, at which, being struck with horror and despair, they put on the patient's cloaths again, and dismist him. Then, convinced that the disease was incurable, they shut themselves up together, and abandoning the case of publike affairs, they resolved to provide far the safety of their own rqmtatians.'* (" Universal Reformation.")
In this passage we see as it were, an explanation of the rise
THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS. 35
and origin of the society. The age is beyond any sort of radical core ; and the LUeraH of Apollo must provide for the safety of their own reputations. Here we have a hint of the danger accompanying any attempt at an open Reformation. In such an agOy only one possible way lay clear, and that was just what we find was aimed at by this society of Kosicrucians. That was, to form a secret Literary Brotherhood, embracing the highest intellects and the purest hearts in all Europe. We see that it was simultaneously put forward, as a general movement throughout Europe from several different centres or countries. Boccalini was a Venetian, Andreas was a native of Wirtembirg ; and we read of Lord Bacon presiding at the '' Oreai Assizes held by Apollo and his Assessours at Parnassus" How is it we find a follower of the law, like Lord Bacon, representing Apollo, and presiding over, not only the learning of the age, but the poetiy of the age also 1 How is it Shakespeare, whose name figures amongst the Assessours, is not in his proper place as Apollo 1 Did he not prefix to the ''first heir of his invention," Venus and Adonis, these lines, which seem so appropriate for an Apollo of arti—
" Yilia miretar valgus ; mihi flavus Apollo Pocola Castalia plena ministret aqua."
Castalia, as everybody knows (and as Shakespeare learnt at the Stratford Grammar School), takes us to the foot of Mount Parnassus, to the Temple of ApoUo—to the famous Spring, to the home of the Muses. We find in the Winters Tale, the Temple and Oracle of Apollo at Delphi introduced. Delphi was supposed to be exactly in the middle of the earth, and therefore called umbilicus orbis terrarum. But how is it we say that Shake- speare, who commences his poetic career with a Latin quotation, which plainly indicates his intention to drink at the Castalian Spring, at the pure fount of the Qolden Apollo itself, does not preside over the Great Assizes held by Apollo and his Assessours at Parnassus? Why permit himself to derogate to an in- significant position, low down on the list, with Ben Jonson,
36 THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS.
Davenant^ Drayton, and others I One thing must, so far, be plain to the impartial critic, — that is, there is a remarkable double connec- tion to be traced between Boccalini's Advertisement 77 (out of ihe ''Eagguagli di Pamasso'') and the "Universal Reformation," which reproduces it literally as a Eosicrucian manifesto. On the other hand, there is a likeness in the *^6reai Assizes KM by Apollo and his Assessours cU Parnassus'* to Boccalini's title, which is remarkable. Boccalini's work furnishes word for word the " Universal Eeformation,*' with its story of Apollo and the seven Sages of Greece, as applied to the age.
The title of the " Fama " ran-^" A Universal Reformation of the Whole Wide World, by order of the God Apollo, is published by the Seven Sages of Greece." Thales gives his opinion: — "The true and immediate cure, then, for these present evils consists in necessitating men to live with candour of mind and purity of heart, which cannot be better effected then by making that little window in men's breasts which his Majesty hath often promised to his most faithful vertuosi ; for when those who use such art in their proceedings shall be forced to speak and act, having a window whereby one may see into their hearts^ they will learn the excellent virtue of being, and not appearing to be ; they will conform deeds to words, and their tongues to sincerity of heart ; all men will banish lies and falsehood, and the diabolical spirit of hypocrisy will abandon many who are now possest with so foul a fiend."
This idea is repeated in the following sonnet: —
XXIV.
" Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd Thy beauty's form in table of my heart ; My body is the frame wherein 'tis held. And perspective it is best painter's art For through the painter must you see his skill. To find where your true image pictured lies ; Which in my bosom's shop is hanging still, That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes.
THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS, 37
Now aee what good tums eyes for eyes have done : Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me Are windows to my breast^ where-through the sun Deh'ghts to peep, to gaze therein on thee ;
Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art ;
They draw but what they see, know not the heart.''
Then Solon thus began : — " In my opinion, gentlemen, that which hath put the present age into so great confusion is the cruel hatred and spiteful envy which is seen to reign generally amongst men. All hope then for these present evils is from the infusion of charity, reciprocal affection, and that sanctified love of our neighbour which is God's chiefest commandment to mankind.''
We thus see that the work of Boccalini, of which this is only the seventy-seventh Advertisement, is a book dealing with the diseases of the society of its time. Boccalini was a Venetian. It appears that these works, like the " Fama " in Germany and Boccalini's in Italy, appeared somewhat contemporaneously, as if the result of an organised movement. Anthony Bacon, the devoted brother of Francis Bacon, lived a great number of years abroad, and some time at Venice. The two brothers seem always to have been in active correspondence.
Anthony Bacon was lame, and it is possible that he is alluded to in the Sonnets, where we have the line —
" Speak of my lameness and I straight will halt."
'— Sonnets, 37, 39.
We find also in the Sonnets the poet saying, ''both your poets," as if there were two.
Here is the Ust of " the Great Assizes holden by Apollo and his Assessours at Parnassus."
Apollo.
Thx Lord Vebulam, Chancellor of Pamasaus.
Sib Philip Sidnev, High Constable of Pamaasns.
William Budmvs, High TreaBorer.
John Pious, Eabl of Mirandula, High Chamborlaine.
38 THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS.
Julius GiESAB Sgauoer. Isaac Casaubok.
Erasmus Rotssodam. John Seldbn.
Justus Lifsitts. Hugo Gbotius.
John Babcklay. Daniel Heinsius.
John Bodine. Conbadus Vorstius.
Adiuan Turnebus. Augustine Mamgardus.
Tht Jurors.
George Withers. Michael Drayton.
Thomas Cart. Francis Beaumont.
Thomas May. John Fletcher.
William Daysnant. Thomas Haywood.
Joshua Sylvester. William Shakespeare.
George Sanders. Philip Massinqer.
Joseph Scaliger, the Censonr of Manners in Parnassus. Ben Jonson, Keeper of the Trophonian Denne. John Taylour, Cryer of the Court. Edmund Spenser, Clerk of the Assizes.
This was written by George Withers, and whether an account of what he remembered, or heard, or invented, it is impossible to say. Withers was a poet, and the position he assigns Shake- speare and Bacon respectively is evidence of his valae of Shakespeare.
Nicolai, the friend of Lessing, and the editor of "Moses Mendelssohn," claimed Lord Bacon as the founder of Free Masonry. Nicolai had a theory of his own, and sought to derive everything from the Bosicrucians. In the year 164G the celebrated philosopher, Elias Ashmole, who founded the museum at Oxford, was initiated in a Lodge at Warrington, as he has himself recorded in his diaiy. Now we are going to quote from Oliver's " Discrepancies of Freemasonry,'' about this meeting at Warrington, wherein we shall see Nicolai giving his opinion — a most valuable one — that the persons who met were Bosicrucians.
" ' Do any of you know that the Ashmolean Masonry is al- together ignored on the continent of Europe 1' the Surgeon inquired.
"'Bro. Frederick Nicoki has given it a decided contradic- tion,' the Skipper replied. 'He says that the object of the
THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS. 39
meeting at Warrington, so far from being Masonic, was simplj for the purpose of carrying out a philosophical idea which had been promulgated by Lord Bacon in his ' New Atlantis ' of the model of a perfect society, instituted for the secret purpose of interpreting nature, and of producing new arts and marvellous inventions for the benefit of mankind, under the name of Solomon's House, or the College of the Six Days' Work, which, in plain language, was intended to be an ideal society for the study of natural philosophy. Tht persons present at these meetings are said by Nicdai to have been BosicrucianSy^ and we know this to be true of Ashmole himself. He asserts, further, that these men erected, in their Lodge, two Great Pillars, which they called the Pillars of Hermes, in front of Solomon's House, and they used a chequered pavement, a ladder of seven staves or rounds, and many other secret symbols. And as they held their subsequent meetings in Mason's Hall, London, they adopted the tools of working masons ; and this, he says conclusively, was the origin of Sytabolical Masonry. And as it was invented about the time of the Eestoration, the judicial murder of Charles the First was introduced as an incidental legend.' " (Page 78).
Everybody acquainted with Bacon's works must call to mind the two pillars, between which his device of a ship is passing, or the other of the globe of the intellectual world, flanked by the two columns. But the '*New Atlantis" of Bacon proves that he belonged to some secret or Masonic Society, inasmuch as the College of the Six Days (or creation) and Solomon's Temple, speak loudly enough for themselves: How is it we find in 1646, a few years after Bacon's death, a party of persons meeting in a Lodge to carry out the ideas promulgated in the ''New Atlantis")
^ Profeisor Bnhle affirms as the " maia thesis " of his oonolnding chap- ter, that " Freemasonry is neither more nor less than Rosicrncianism as modified by those who transplanted it into England." This is De Quincey's opinion also : " For I affirm, as the main thesis of my concluding labours,
THAT FREK-HASONBT IS NEITHSB MORE NOB LESS THAN B0SICBUCIANI8M AS MODIFIED BT THOSE WHO TRANSPLANTED IT UNTO ENGLAND. "—" Hist
Critioo-Inquiry," chap. y.
40 THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS.
This shows the enormous secret influence Bacon exercised over the minds of men. And we cannot lightly wave aside the opinion of such a man as Nicolai, that these persons were Hosi- crucians. It is easy for people to make the assertion that Masonry and Bosicrucianism were separate and distinct, as has been said. They may have become so afterwards, but there is strong evidence to show that about Bacon's time, that is, the early part of the 17th and end of the 16th century, Bosi- crucianism made a great sensation and noise in Europe, promis- ing and setting forth an universal scheme for the reformation of society, in just such fashion as Bacon puts forth in his '' New Atlantis." The Rosicrucians called themselves Invisibles. They said that God covered them with a cloud in order to shelter them from their enemies. This idea of the cloud we find Bacon re- peating : — ' vain to note them for deficient : deficient they are no doubt, con- sisting mostly of fables and fragments, but the deficience cannot be holpen ; for antiquity is like fame, capti inter nubUa eondit, her head is muffled from our sight." ^Now this is a remarkable passage— for first Bacon denies the deficiency of the heathen antiquities, then cautiously compromises, for fear of saying too much, and finally takes refuge in a simile, which shows the estimation that he held, and how he fully appreciated, the heights of the peaks of antiquity, which he identifies with fame, — too lofty for common sight or comprehension. There is something in these words and the comparison of the heathen antiquities with Fame (hidden in a cloud), that recalls the '^Fama Fra- temitatis " of the meritorious order of the Rosy Cross. It is just these heathen antiquities and Pagan rites, which it was the aim of the Eosicrucians and Free Masons to shelter, preserve, and hand on as lamps for posterity. Take up any of the thousand books on Freemasonry, and they take one back at once in their histories to the Mysteries — and particularly Yirgils. Here is what a masonic writer writes upon the 'purpose and object of Freemasonry : —
THE PROPHEC Y OF PARA CELSUS. 4 1
'' In concluding my work, I repeat that the freemasons' society was founded for the purpose of concealing the rites of the ancient pagan religion, under the cover of operative masonry ; and that, although the religion is extinct^ its ceremonials remain, and clearly develop the origin of the institution."
Between 1613 and 1630 there was an enormous amount of literature published in Europe about the Eosicrucians. This period coincides with the best and ripest years of Bacon's life — including the last thirteen years, during the latter part of which (the final five years) he lived in continual retirement, study, and correspondence, which, in itself, is curious enough.^ It is striking that the period of the rise and decline of Rosicrucianism in £urope, exactly coincides with Bacon's life ! Four years after his death in 1630, the Rosicrucian literature is already upon the decline. In Bawley's ^'life of Bacon" we find he had corres- pondence with foreigners, and that he possessed an extraordinary power of raising admiration in others. That this was due only to his Inductive Philosophy, or prose works, is quite inconceivable. Even the learned King James declared of Bacon's work, the " Novum Organum," that " It was like the peace of God — it passed all understanding." We know that Coke ridiculed his ship device, as a " Ship of Fools," — that Hervey declared he wrote *' philosophy like a Lord Chancellor," so that the idea that his system was understood or appreciated at its full value by his own age is quite erroneous. What, then, was the secret of his intimacy and attraction for foreign worthies) Bawley relates that many came from a great distance merely from curiosity to see him.
^'Amongst the rest, Marquis Fiat, a French nobleman, who came ambassador into England, in the beginning of Queen Mary, wife to King Charles, was taken with an extraordinary desire of
^ *' The last five yean of Yob life, being withdrawn from civil affiiirs, and from an active life, he en^loyed wholly in contemplation and atndies." — ^Bawley, " Life," p. 6. " His fame Ui greater and aoonda loader in foreign parts abroad, than at home in his own nation." — Und., p. 11.
42 THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS.
aeeing him ; for which he made way by a friend ; and when he came to him, being then through weakness confined to his bed, the marquis saluted him with this high expression, ' Thai his lordship had been ever to him like the angeb, of whom he had often heard, and readmuch of them in hooks, but he never saw them,* After which they contracted an intimate acquaintance, and the marquis did so much revere him, that besides his frequent visits, they wrote letters one to the other, under the titles and appellations of faiher and son,^ As for his many salutations by letters from foreign worthies devoted to learning, I forbear to mention them, because that is a thing common to other men of learning or note, together with him." {" Life," p. 12.)
If Bacon were the promoter or head of some great secret society like the Kosicrudans, anxious to promote the welfare of man- kind and reform society, we can quite understand this influence, and it is only this sort of influence which could work upon men in those ages from afar, and be likely to provoke such words as are quoted in italics above. But what greater proof can we have than the "New Atlantis," with its Solomon, and Temple, its College of Creation or the Six Days, and its entire aim and object !
We find the Eosicrudans putting in a decided appearance as an association about 1600. A writer ("Mysteries of Antiquity ") says :— " We see from the account of the Society of Christian Rosy Cross, that it claims to date from about the year 1490, but we do not read of the associaiian under that name prior to 1600, and the impossibility of the narrative, points out to us that the name of the founder is mythical, and that its allegory is derived from the symbols of the order itself, which is no doubt of antiquity." The date of that extraordinary work, Chester's "Love's Martyr," is 1601. "At the supposed revival of Bosi-
1 Thk is exactly the fonn of addran used in the " New AtiantiB" by the man of " middle Btatnre'' and "comely" appearance — (.e., " God bless thee, my son " (p. 13). The nse of these familiar terms bespeak a secret brother- hood, the language of a craft.
THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS, 43
cracianism at Pans, in March 1623, the Order was said to number thirty-six members." The date that the collected form of the so- called Shakespearian plays, appear for the first time (as the first folio edition, 1623), is the same date as this revival of Kosicru- cianism at Paris. Yarker writes (" Mysteries of Antiquity '') : — "Most of their symbols resemble those used in our Masonic degrees, especially the Arch, and Bossb Crucis, and they trace their doctrines through the same channel as modem Freemasons, and assert the derivation of their mysteries through Enoch, the Patriarchs, and Moses to Solomon." With Solomon we find ourselves in mysterious touch again with Bacon, who is never weary of quoting him, and who introduces him ever thus : — "The glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of the King is to find it out, as if according to the innocent play of children, the Divine Majesty took delight to hide his works, to the end to have them found out." (Posrim, " Works.")
To those who maintain there is no mystery, no reserve, and no implied privacy of publication hinted at, or suggested by Bacon in his works, we present the following passage for study and reflection. It is not this single passage, but many others to the same effect that might be quoted.
" Now for my plan of publication, it is this. Those parts of the work which have it for their object to find out, and bring into correspondence, such minds as are prepared and disposed for the argument, and to purge the floors of men's understandings, — I wish to be published to the world and circulate from mouth to mouth ; the rest I would have passed from hand to hand with selection and judgment Not but that I know it is an old trick of impostors to keep a few of their follies back from the public which are indeed no better than those which they put forward ; bat in this case it is no imposture at all, but a sound foresight, which tells me that the formula itself of Interpretation, and the discoveries made by the same, will thrive better if committed to the charge of some fit and selected minds, and kept private."
Elsewhere he talks of an mcd method of transmission^ which
44 THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS.
reminds us at once of Masonry. But whatever may be objected to our arguments, one thing is pkin — (that is), Bacon speaks of two methods belonging to his philosophic system. One is his Inductive Philosophy — the other Anticipation of the Mind, of which we have a hint in the prophetic scientific discoveries of his "New Atlantis.*' In the " Advancement of Learning," Bacon writes : — "Another diversity of method there is," [he is speaking of the different methods of communicating and transmitting knowledge] which hath some affinity with the former, used in some cases by the discretion of the ancients, but disgraced since by the impostures of many vain persons, who have made it as a false light for their counterfeit merchandises; and that is, enigmatical and disclosed. The pretence whereof [that is, of the enigmatical method] is to remove the vulgar capacities from being admitted to the secrets of knowledges, and to reserve them to selected auditors, or wits of such sharpness as can pierce the veil."
We here find Bacon alluding to the ancients and their " enig- matical and disclosed" — (that is, open and secret) — methods of writing — methods which have been disgraced by bastard or false art, which shows us, not only that he understood what " counter- feit merchandise " meant, but that he understood the ancients and their secret doctrines sufficiently well to make these compari- sons and observations. Of course, Bacon is alluding to such art as, for example, Virgil's Vlth Book, which Warbarton (in his " Divine Legation ") was the first to show was " enigmatical and disclosed" — 1.«., " The Mysteries," and nothing else. Mark how Bacon is down upon false art, which we find paralleled in Sonnet 68 :—
^* And him as for a map doth Nature store To show false art what beauty was of yore."
** In him those holy antique hours are seen, Without all ornament itself and true."
" Making Antiquity for aye his page."
THE PROPHEC Y OF PARA CELSUS, 45
This thoroughly falls in with Bacon's declaration that he is going ^^ usque ad aras" with the ancients, or "I going the same road as the ancients," all of which antiquity can be refoond in the WirUer^s Tale, Tempest, and Midsummer NigJWs Dream.
But since Bacon declares that if all sciences were lost " they might be found in Virgil," it may be as well to make farther inquiry into this matter : —
** But the universe to the eye of the human understanding is framed like a labyrinth ; presenting as it does on every side so many ambiguities of way, such deceitful resemblances of objects and signs, natures so irregular in their lines, and so knotted and entangled. And then the way is still to be made by the un- certain light of the sense, sometimes shining out, sometimes clouded over, through the woods of experience and particulars; while those who offer themselves for guides are (as was said) themselves also puzzled, and increase the number of errors and wanderers." (Preface, " Magna Instauratio.")
Compare : —
" Quale per incertam lunam, sub luce maligna, Est iter in sylvi* ; ubi coelum Jupiter umbrd Condidit et rebus nox abstulit atra oolorem."
— VirgU's " uEneid,'' Vlth Book.
Bacon goes on :—
" For my own part at least, in obedience to the everlasting love of truth, I have committed myself to the uncertainties and diffi- culties and solitudes of the ways, and relying on the divine assistance have upheld my mind both against the shocks and embattled ranks of opinion, and against my own private and inward hesitations and scruples, and against the fogs and clouds of nature, and the phantoms flitting about on every side."
And then follows, fortunately for us, else the critic would say we imagine these things : —
"This likewise I humbly pray, that things human may not interfere with things divine, and that from the opening of the ways of sense and the increase of natural light there may arise
46 THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS,
in our minds no incredulity or darkness with regard io the divine mystifies; but rather that the understanding being thereby purified and purged of fancies and vanity, and yet not the less subject and entirely submissive to the divine erodes^ may give to faith that which is faith's."
All these passages are extracts, in sequence, following each other closely, and so connected in imagery and style, as to leave the subject-matter and source unmistakable. To those who recognise in The Tempest and Dream, the art of Vila's Vlth Book of the '* ^neid," or the "Mysteries,*' this will speak volumes.
Bacon writes : —
" For the end which this science of mine proposes is the inven- tion not of arguments but of arts ; not of things in accordance with principles, but of principles themselves; not of probable reasons, but of designations and directions for works. And as the intention is different, so accordingly is the effect ; the effect of the one being to overcome an opponent in argument^ of the other to command nature in action."
Nature in action is a suspicious term, which suggests plays. Why does Bacon speak of artsi In another place, he says, " Life is short and art long." ^
But what indeed is important in this declaration : —
''For if I should profess that /, gaing the same road as the ancients, have something better to produce, there must needs have been some comparison or rivalry between us {not to he avoided by any art of words), in respect of excellency or ability of wU; and though in this there would be nothing unlawful or new, yet the contest, however just and allowable, would have been an unequal one perhaps, in respect of the measure of my own powers."
This is so startling as almost' to take our breath away, and we must remain lost in bewilderment. Here is the secret of the Great Restoration. For is this the way Bacon is going,
^ '* It u an ancient saying and complaint, that Lift is ahort and Art long ; wherefore it behoveth us, who make it our chiefeat aim to perfect ArU,"" etc.— PfVoce, " Hist of Life and Death."
THE PROPHECY OF PARACELSUS, 47
viz., to return the road of antiquity, and beat .^chylus, Euripides, Sophocles, at their own art, around their own altars, usqut ad aras ?
''And to make my meaning clearer and to familiarise the thing by giving it a name, I have chosen to call one of these methods or ways, Antidpatian of ihe Mind, the other, Interpretaiion of Nature,"
Now, we ask the world to tell us, where is the other method which Bacon entitles so beautifully. Anticipation of the Mind f