CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.
"Read, not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse ; but to weigh and consider."
THE object with which this book has been written is to invite attention and help in clearing some obscurities, and answering some difficult questions, which have lately presented themselves, in the course of a close investigation into the works and aims of Francis Bacon and his friends.
Although, for the sake of brevity, propositions are here stated rather than argued, it must not be thought that such statements are dogmatic, or that the conclusions drawn by the writer are intended to be forced upon others.
So far as is possible, facts have been distinguished from conjectures, suggestions, or inferences. Nevertheless, since, to most minds, it is helpful to learn what general conclusions have resulted from certain disconnected items of evidence, such con- clusions as have been reached are frankly offered, and will readily be withdrawn, if proof or stronger evidence should be forthcoming on the contrary side.
Let those who peruse these pages regard them only as the faint rays of a lamp of inquiry, which may guide others, stronger and more capable, to come forward and work, till this mine of truth shall be thoroughly explored, and its treasures brought to the surface.
10 FRANCIS BACON
The chain of argument which has been formed is of the following kind :
1. There is a mystery about the life, aims, and actual work of Francis Bacon. Ben Jonson (whose accuracy is never questioned) acknowledges this in his verses to Bacon :
" Thou stand'st as though a mystery thou didst."
And Jonson's testimony to Bacon's immense and poetic genius, " filling up all numbers" etc., would be unintelligible if we were to maintain that all is known which could be known about Bacon and his works.
The more we study these, the more we weigh his utterances, his fragmentary papers, his letters, his ambiguous or enigmatic notes, his wills, and the dedications and prefaces to many of his acknowledged or suspected works, — the more closely we compare the opinions expressed on any of these subjects, so much the more clearly do we perceive the mystery, the apparent contradictions which exist in his life and writings, and which embroil and confuse the statements of his innumerable critics and biographers. The apparent " contraries of good and evil " are, in Bacon's case, so many and so strong, that there is hardly an opinion expressed concerning him by one " great authority " which is not absolutely contradicted by another equally great.
2. In spite of Bacon's distinct and repeated statements as to the deep and prevailing darkness, the ignorant grossness of his own era ; — in spite of his catalogue of the " deficiencies " of learning, deficiencies which, commencing with lack of words, extend through some forty distinct departments of learning ; and not only to " knowledges," but to everything requisite to form a fine and polished style, or to express noble thoughts : — in spite of all this, we are taught to believe in an outburst of literary genius and of " giant minds," simultaneously all over the world, during the age in which he lived. Yet we are compelled to confess that Bacon's statements have never been challenged or refuted.
Philology shows a marvellous correspondence in the English literature of the Elizabethan and Jacobean period. True, some works are superior to others, as are the first efforts of a clever boy to the compositions of his mature manhood — still, a very decided resemblance in thought, opinion, knowledge, and diction
AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 11
is perceptible, when the works of the time are exhaustively compared.
This likeness extends even to foreign works, especially when they are divested of their Latin, French, German, Italian, or Spanish mantles, and appear as "translations" in very Baconian diction. In many cases the translations appear to be the originals. *
3. It is manifestly impossible that any one man, however gigantic his power, could have performed, single-handed, all that we believe to have been done and written by Francis Bacon. But many entries in his private notes, many hints in his letters and acknowledged works, indicate his faith in the efficacy of united efforts, and that, besides the mystery which surrounded himself, there was also a mystery concerning many of his nearest relations and friends, who seemed to have worked for the same ends as he did, and perfectly to have understood the ambiguous language in which he expressed himself. Secret societies were common in the Middle Ages, and Bacon, we believe, was the centre of a secret league for the advancement of learning. This revival of learning was the " New Birth of Time " — the " Renaissance."
4. Examination into the history of the secret societies of the Middle Ages shows the Rosicrucian fraternity as the one of all others which would have been best fitted to promote Bacon's lofty aims ; its very constitution and mode of procedure seeming to be the result of his own scheme or " method."
5. It further appears that no sharply defined line could be drawn between the method and objects of the Rosicrucians and those of the Freemasons ; and that, in fact, although the pro- phetic imagination of Bacon carried him into the highest flights of poetic and religious aspiration, and into the sublimest regions whither the Rosicrucian brethren strove to follow him, yet he was observant and practical enough to see that there were things in heaven and earth unheard of in ordinary philosophy ; that only a few in his own times would be able to comprehend them, and that, even in the ages to come, such things must be "caviare to the general," and quite beyond the reaches of their souls.
Consequently, whoso would set about a " universal reforma- tion of the whole wide world," such as the Rosicrucians dreamed of, must begin in a very humble way, and on the low level, but
12 FRANCIS BACON
the very broad basis, which is the first stage or platform of Free- masonry.
6. A secret society implies and involves secret means of com- munication and mutual recognition — ciphers or secret writing. Mr. Donnelly's great discovery of cipher in the Shakespeare Folio of 1623 has been the cause of much investigation, not only into the typography of old books, but also into the art of crypto- graphy, which, in and after Bacon's time, forms an important element of education in the higher schools of learning, especially in the seminaries and Jesuits1 colleges on the Continent. "Every prince has his cipher."* It is certain that, in those dark and dangerous days, no correspondence of importance was conducted without the use of some secret writing or cipher,
So numerous are the works on cryptography published in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, that they form a small bibliography of themselves. The most important of these is a large octavo volume, published with a pseudonym (and under the auspices of the Duke of Brunswick, who is said to have patronized Shakespeare and his company) at Luneberg in 1623 (1624 New Style) — in the same year, namely, as that of the publication of Bacon's De Augmentis, in which his own cipher is described, and of the Shakespeare Folio, in which Mr. Donnelly has found a cipher narrative.
7. Inquiry as to cipher systems and their wide-spread use, and immensely varied forms, led to the observation that the use of stenography, or short-hand, though used as a method of " swift " writing, is, in some of the old books, found to be in- timately connected with cryptography. The results of this research, so far as it goes, tend to show Bacon again as the introducer and great encourager of this short-hand cipher. It even appears probable that he taught it to his young assistants and secretaries, and that by this means a great deal of his won- derful conversation, and the contents of many small treatises, tracts, sermons, etc., were taken from his lips, such discourses being at leisure written out, sometimes revised by himself, and published at various places and under various names, when the opportunity arose or when the time seemed ripe.
8. With regard to the peculiar typography and the "typo-
* Promus.
AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 13
graphical errors " which were tabulated from the Shakespeare Folio of 1623, it is found that the same peculiarities, the same " errors," the same variations in type, exist throughout the whole circle of Baconian (or " Rosicrucian ") publications of a certain period.. Such errors and peculiarities predominate in the most important works, especially in the head-lines, prefaces, indexes, tables of contents j^and " accidents " in printing, when very frequent in such places, or in the pagination of the book, are, as a rule, not in the text of the book itself. Usually one edition only contains these " errors and accidents ; " often this is the " second edition, carefully revised and augmented." Such books have every condition requisite for cipher.
9. In books where there are other distinct signs of Baconian origin, the wood-cuts have a strange connection and affinity. The collation of a large number of tracings and photographs from a certain class of books reveals a complete chain-work, linking one book to another. This chain invariably leads up to Francis Bacon and his friends, as the authors, " producers," or patrons of those works.
10. The same system of mutual connection is found to be kept up by "water-marks,1' or paper-marks, in these same books. These paper-marks are extremely numerous and vary very much. From three to twenty-four different patterns have been noted in one volume.
11. The tooling of the binding forms another chain of con- nection amongst these books.
12. Further examination discloses other secret marks, chiefly made, we think, to take the place of paper-marks, and inserted during the last stage of perfecting the book. They tally with each other, and also form a complete chain of evidence as to the workings of a secret society. Say that they are printers' marks ; yet they are secret marks produced with cunning, skill, and forethought, and not without expense as well as trouble.
13. All these secret signs are traceable, variously modified, and ingeniously introduced to suit the exigencies of modern printing and publishing, from the time of Bacon to the present day. The chain of connection seems to be complete. Inquiries amongst notable printing-firms and printers, and researches into books, supposed authorities on the subject, fail to produce defi- nite information ; but the facts are not denied nor these state-
14 FEANCIS BACON
ments refuted. The impossibility of getting a straightforward answer to the questions, "Are these things true?" or "Are these things untrue?" confirms the long-growing conviction that the same system which was set going in the time of Bacon is at the present time in full working order ; and that the Free- masons form the Arts and Crafts, the later-established and lower degrees of the society which, at the eighteenth degree, rises into the literary and religious Fraternity of " Rose Croix," or " Rosi- crucians" as they were called by Andreas.
14. The Eosicrucians and the Freemasons speak in their books of the necessity for a " universal language." This language is to be partly by signs, but also largely by symbols or emblems. It is the language of the " Renaissance." A collation of passages shows that all the metaphors, similes, symbols, and emblems of the Eosicrucians and Masons, and of all the works which we connect with them, are included in the works of Bacon. The greater contains the less, and the language is his. No one has since improved upon it, although many have paraphrased and diluted his words, as well as his original thoughts.
15. Bacon's most intimate friends, relations, and correspondents seem to have been all either Eosicrucians, Freemasons, or Illumi- nati, as, in Italy and parts of Germany, they were sometimes called.* Their names continually appear in connection with the works produced under the auspices of these societies ; their portraits often include the recognized marks of distinction ; and in many cases notable resemblance to portraits of Bacon ; even their epitaphs and their very graves comply with the rules of the section of the society to which they belonged, and the " Great Master " who led them.
16. It is not concluded, from the evidence which has been collected, that Bacon originated secret societies, or that there were no religious fraternities or trade guilds, before his time, possessing secrets which they kept for mutual help and pro- tection.
On the contrary, all evidence goes to show that such institu- tions did exist, in a rude and inefficient condition ; that in all probability Sir Nicholas Bacon and others had conceived a
* Baconian Masons are apparently the modern " Speculative " Masons who are traceable to the 16th century.
AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 15
thought of attempting to follow the example of Sir Thomas More and to erect some such society, for the purpose of reviving learn- ing, and benefitting the Future Ages. But it remained for the genius, energy, and untiring devotion of Francis Bacon to accom- plish these things, and he seems to have been peculiarly fitted for the purpose.
Throwing the whole weight of his gigantic intellect and the enthusiasm of " that greaf heart of his " * into the work of methodising and perfecting previous weak and disjointed schemes, he built up, step by step, stone by stone, the great fabric of learning, the " Solomon's House " which his descen- dants have kept in repair, and to which the " future ages " have made additions in some departments.
It was Bacon who designed the exquisite machinery or " engine " which still exists for the reception, arrangement, digestion, and wide-spread distribution of knowledge. It was he who, finding the new truth in vain trying to struggle up in a thankless soil, and the learning of the ancients smothered and buried in the dust of oblivion, set himself the task of raking and digging up and setting it forth again, polished and glorified with all the lustre of his radiant mind. The organisation or " method of transmission " which he established was such as to ensure that never again, so long as the world endured, should the lamp of tradition, the light of truth, be darkened or extinguished ; but that, continually trimmed and replenished with the oil of learning, it should be kept alight, a little candle in a dark place, or a beacon set on a hill, burning with undimmed and perpetual brightness.
Many questions arise in the course of the inquiries with which the following pages are concerned — doubts and knotty points which cannot yet be definitely settled, but which must be considered open questions, fair subjects for discussion and further research. Present knowledge is not equal to the task of solving many such enigmas, and doubtless these will for a while continue to obtrude themselves. But we say " present know- ledge" speaking in regard to the world and readers in general. There is little room for doubt that the difficulties and obstacles which we have met with, and the obscurity which enshrouds so much of the history of Bacon and his friends, are neither dark
* Dr. Rawley's Life of Bacon.
16 FRANCIS BACON
nor difficult to a certain clique of learned men, still representing the brethren of the Rosie Cross. As to the lower degrees of Masonry, the Arts and Grafts (or the mysteries of handiworks), there are, doubtless, a limited number of personages, presiding over some of the Freemason lodges, by whom all these details are perfectly well understood.
It is by no means so sure that even the high initiates in any branch of the society are informed of all or of the same particulars. Probably the supreme head, or Imperator, and two or three of his subordinates, are acquainted with the whole history of the society, and with every detail of its method and present work. But with regard to the lower orders of the fraternity, it does not appear, from the evidence we have collected, that they possess any true knowledge or idea of their origin. Perhaps they believe the fictitious histories which we shall presently have occasion to glance at. But, at all events, so far as observation and inquiry have enabled us to ascertain, every craft or mechanical art, connected with Freemasoniy, still keeps up the old secret signs, which, though now perhaps use- less anachronisms, were, at the time of their invention and institution, excellent and ready means for the transmission of information and mutual intelligence, not only from man to man, in a living generation, but from man to posterity, and to " the future ages."
Masons mark the stones they chisel with marks which they do not understand ; but the architect who decorates his building, externally and internally, with the symbolic ornamentation of the Renaissance, is a Freemason of higher rank, and we do not suppose, from the specimens which we see of recent workman- ship, that he, like the mechanics in his employ, works or designs in mere " base imitation " of his predecessors. The very nature, position, or circumstances of the buildings thus decorated pro- hibit the belief that their ornaments are casually or aimlessly applied.
In like manner, craftsmen, employed in the arts and trades of paper-making, printing, engraving, and book-binding, continue to reproduce, under certain circumstances, not only the old secret marks, but the old hieroglyphic or symbolic pictures, modified to suit modern requirements.
Here, again, it is plain that the simple craftsman is the mere
AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 17
tool, obediently performing, he knows not precisely what, or wherefore. But who orders and guides that workman ? Who dictates the style of the peculiar designs which we see repeating the same story, handing down the same lamp of tradition which was lighted in the days of Queen Elizabeth? Whosoever he may be who dictates or designs, he is not, like the workman, ignorant of the what or the wherefore. When you meet with him and question him, he will not tell you that he " does not know ; " he will reply that he " cannot tell" To this is often added some suggestion as to the improbability of such a method being now in existence : "Is it likely that this system should continue ? Of what use could it be at the present time ? " To the latter question we can only reply that, if this system was established in connection with a society bound by repeated vows of secrecy and constancy to continue it from one generation to another, we cannot see at what point they could ever break it off, except by discovery. It is precisely because of its apparent inutility in the present day, and because it seems that such secrecy now hinders and confounds knowledge (without any compensating advantages), that we desire to aid in lifting that curtain which Bacon intended should be one day raised; and which we have good reason for knowing that many of his followers desire to see withdrawn, though they may not move one finger for the purpose.
At the present hour it does indeed appear as if such marks and symbols were practically useless — anachronisms, in free England at least. Yet neither can we truly say that they are totally valueless, seeing that, little as we understand their purport, we have been able to use them as guides through a strange and unmapped region.
The very nature of the case makes it impossible to be accurate in describing these occult signs. Many of them, doubtless, are mere blinds, the puzzling dust of which we shall read, cast in our eyes with intent to deceive and mislead us. This is right, and as it should be ; for it would be but a poor secret which could easily be discovered ; and from Bacon, and in anything which he devised, we should expect the utmost ingenuity and subtlety combined with the greatest power and the wisest fore- thought ; — a scheme planned by Prospero, with mischievous improvements by Puck, and carried out by him in conjunction with Ariel.
18 FRANCIS BACON
We are armed and well prepared for a volley of perhaps good- natured abuse and derision from those, on the one hand, who wish to discourage others from following up the lines of research which are here indicated ; on the other hand, from that very numerous class which so often attracted Bacon's notice — those, namely, who, never having studied a subject, are the more positive, either that it is a delusion, or that it is not worthy of study. His remarks on such critics are so satisfactory and exhaustive, that this prospect in no way troubles us.
There is yet a third class which has been before us throughout the process of collecting the particulars included in the following- pages — students not too easily satisfied, but willing to take some personal trouble to reach the bottom of things, and to get at the truth. To these we need not say, as to the former class of readers :
" Before you judge, be pleased to understand."
But we do entreat that, accepting nothing at second-hand, taking nothing for granted, they will contribute some personal help in testing, disproving, or confirming the statements and suggestions made in this book, for, the sooner error is confuted and truth established, the better for all.
If these statements be incorrect, such especially as are con- nected with trades and crafts, it must be easy for heads of great houses connected with such crafts plainly and unreservedly to confute them. Men are not usually found backward in contradicting other men's assertions when they consider their own knowledge superior. And to the simple question, "Am I tvrong?" the answer "Fes'1 would be at once conclusive and satisfactory, if delivered by a competent authority and an honourable man.
Such an answer has hitherto been withheld, and it cannot be thought unreasonable if for the present we continue in the faith that the statements and theories here set forth are approximately correct. When those who have it in their power absolutely to confirm or refute our observations will do neither the one nor the other ; when published books are found invariably to stop short at the point where full information is required, (and which must be in the possession of those who, having written up to that point, know so well where to stop and what to omit,) then we are assured that the questions remain unanswered, the books incom-
AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 19
plete, because those who have in their possession the information which we need, are bound by vows to withhold it. In Free- masons' language, they " cannot tell " — an expression which recurs with remarkable frequency in correspondence on these subjects, and which is judiciously or graciously varied and para- phrased : "I regret to be unable to give you the information you seek " — " I am sorry that I can tell you nothing which will assist your researches " — " These inquiries are most interesting — I wish it were in my power to help you," etc.
In vain have we endeavoured to extract the answer, " I do not know" Such a phrase does not seem to exist amongst the formulas of Freemason or Rosicrucian language.
It has been our effort, throughout this work, to keep each subject distinct from every other ; at the same time to show how all are inseparably linked and bound together ; how every clue pursued in this argument leads to the same point ; and how lines converge to the centre.
In attempting this, all effort at pleasing composition in our book has had to be renounced, for it is better to be understood than applauded ; and frequent repetitions are needful in order to spare the reader from puzzling and from the worry of perpetual foot-notes or references. He may often be disappointed at the slight, sketchy treatment which very interesting and important matters have received. But since the present object is to rouse inquiry, rather than to clinch any argument, or to silence objectors, it seems the wisest plan first to state and suggest, not stopping at every turn in order to prove each statement.
It is notorious that, in such matters as are here brought forward, judgment will and must be delivered according to each man's light and knowledge. Those who know most will understand most, inquire most, and be the most interested and sympathetic. But we cannot " go beyond Aristotle in the light of Aristotle."
And surely our sympathies should rather be with those " who seek to make doubtful things certain " than with those others " who labour to make certain things doubtful." If so, let us beware of forming opinions positive and stereotyped upon matters of which we have but little knowledge, and which are only now beginning to be duly weighed and sifted. It is
20 FRANCIS BACON
in vain to assume a knowledge if we have it not ; and judgments delivered under the wig of Folly are sure to be soon reversed. Bacon underwent such mock trials in his own life-time, and he has told us how lightly he regarded them. " We decline," he says, " to be judged by a tribunal which is itself upon its trial."
To the end that this investigation may be the more easily and swiftly performed, we append a few notes, but for brevity's sake (and to avoid the deterring appearance of erudition which, to some minds, is produced by an array of quotations and refer- ences) these have been curtailed to a minimum. They will not satisfy the real lover of truth, but such a one will pursue the subject for himself, and dig to the very roots of matters which can be here merely noted or pointed out.
Before concluding these preliminary remarks, we wTould ask leave to say a few words respecting an idea which has lately become the fashion. This idea finds expression in the statement that it is impossible to credit the Baconian theories because they are contrary to common sense.
Common sense, we are assured, tells, or should tell us, that the notion is absurd that a great secret society exists in the present day ; that there are ciphers introduced into many Baconian books ; that Bacon wrote all that philology declares him to have written ; or that he inaugurated the vast amount of works of all kinds which evidence seems to show that he did inaugurate. On the whole no one with any common sense can suppose that things are true wThich the speaker (whose common sense is always excel- lent) does not understand.
Such remarks, from those who have never studied the matter in question, invariably suggest the inquiry, — What is this omniscient common sense, which is supposed capable of deciding without effort, and by some mysterious short cut, many hard and knotty points which have cost the investigator so much pains and labour ?
Surely common sense is not, as many seem to imagine, a kind of intuitive genius, or even a penetrative insight. Rather it should be defined as the power of reasoning upon experience.
For example, suppose a man never to have seen or heard of an egg ; could any amount of sense, common or uncommon, lead him to expect that some day the shell would be cracked from
AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 21
within, and that a living ball of fluff and feathers would soon come forth ? Yet, having seen one such egg, and the chicken which issued from it, the man would, on finding another egg, expect a like result. If, after watching a hen roost for many days or weeks, seeing the same phenomenon frequently repeated, he still remains doubtful as to what might come out of an egg, thinking it equally probable that, instead of a chicken, a mouse, a frog, or a swarm of bees might appear, we should consider him a fool, entirely without common sense, incapable of reasoning by analogy or experience. And so with all cases in which common sense is exercised.
Now, it is plain that things which are entirely new to us, things of which we have never had any previous experience, are not matters upon which we can successfully decide by common sense. On the contrary, we must use some sense out of the common if we would attain to the knowledge and compre- hension of totally new sciences or branches of learning; and to learn new things, as Shakespeare tells us, is the end of study :
Biron. What is the end of study ? Let me know.
Long. Why, that to know which else we should not know.
Biron. Things hid and barrd, you know, from common sense.
King. Aye, that is study's glorious recompense.
Those who, without any experience in the questions involved, pronounce that Bacon could not have written Shakespeare, or that there is no cipher in the Plays, or that Bacon did not found Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism, or that, although the former society exists, the latter does not, are going in direct opposition to common sense, or to Reason based upon Experience.
For experience has shown that the philology, science, ethics, and many other particulars in the Plays prove them, by internal evidence, to be the products of Bacon's heart, brain, and hand ; and hundreds of other pieces of evidence, connected with the circumstances of their publication, confirm the doctrines which are founded upon internal evidence. The evidence is precisely of the same kind as that which has been held good in examining the claims of many authors to their accredited works ; and the same rules of criticism which are employed in one case should hold good in another, where the same similarities are seen in infinitely greater numbers.
22 FKANCIS BACON
From the Promus * we gather the elements of a new phrase- ology, newly coined words, turns of expression, metaphors, proverbial sayings, and quotations from five or six languages ; from the Natural History and the History of Life and Death, a mass of scientific facts, new and curious in the days when they were recorded and published. In the Novum Organum and the Advancement of Learning, we find a fund of new ideas, theories, aphorisms, and philosophical reflections, and in the Wisdom of the Ancients, parables "new" and "deep," with mythological interpretations different from any previously offered.
Now, when all these things are seen reflected in the poetry of Shakespeare and other supposed authors, in days when we have the authority of the great Verulam himself for pronouncing knowledge "deficient" in nearly every branch of polite learning, common sense tells us that the author who wrote the notes, and the author who used them in his prose and poetry, were one and the same.
Again, when we find Shakespeare writing in many different styles, — styles so varied that his warmest admirers differ and wrangle over them, assigning bits of his plays first to one author, and then to another, calling some plays " spurious," others " doubtful ; " when we find some of his poetry very prosy, and some of his prose finest poetry, — when the same observations recur with Bacon's acknowledged works, Ben Jonson praising both authors in the same words, but saying that Bacon alone filled all numbers ; when we find the analogies between the two groups of works made patent by thousands of extracts and passages, on all conceivable subjects, and notably by a harmony of many thousand metaphors and similes, common sense is forced to declare that here again the author is one and the same.
Experience shows that Freemasonry exists, exercising the same functions, rules, and system as it did nearly three hundred years ago, Reason tells us that what is a fact concerning the lower grades of a society is likely to be equally a fact concern- ing the upper grades of the same society; and when we see the Freemasons exhibiting and proclaiming themselves, in their meetings, dresses, and ceremonials, much as they did at their
* Bacon's private MS. notes, in the Harleian collection, British Museum.
AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 23
first institution, we find it contrary to common sense to main- tain that the retiring and silent Rosicrucians, whose rules from the first enforced concealment and silence, cannot now be in existence, because they are not seen or generally recognised.
With regard to the use of ciphers, it is true that modern society has little or no experience of their use ; but since the art of cryptography constituted in Bacon's time an important part of a learned education, it is contrary to common sense to say that the introduction of ciphers into printed books is either impossible or improbable ; or that, though the societies which used them may still exist, working on their original lines, it is absurd to suppose that they know of the ciphers or use them still. If the society exists, its ciphers exist also.
There are some drawbacks to the delight of pursuing these many and various questions. One is the conviction which presses upon us, that all the information which we seek is perfectly well known to certain living persons ; that the par- ticulars which, with painful slowness, we rake for and sift from the dust of time, from books whose titles are generally forgotten, from manuscripts whose very existence is generally unknown, are all formally recorded, or have been verbally transmitted to those certain few ; so that, in the endeavours now made toward reaching absolute truth in these particulars, we are doing what Bacon would call actum agere — doing the deed done — a process always unsatisfactory, and one from which we seek to deliver others who may follow in our footsteps.
It is, moreover, disheartening to know that this book must be, of its very nature, imperfect. It must go forth unfledged, " flying," as Bacon says, " out of its feathers." Hardly will it have flown, ere the " dogs," Bacon's cynics, and his critics, the " birds of prey," will be after it, and hunt it down, and peck it to pieces. Yet if, perchance, it may be fortunate enough to attract the attention of some dozen students in our great libraries, workers in any department of knowledge, this little work will have fulfilled its mission. Perhaps some fresh streams of information may flow in to assist subsequent portions of this book. At all events, even common criticism, hostile though it may be, will, we trust, lend further aid to the clearing- up of errors or misapprehensions, and to the "finding out Truth, though she be hid indeed within the centre."
24 FRANCIS BACON