part I value your reading more than your publishing them to

others. Thus, in extreme haste, I have scribbled to you I know not what," etc.t
" What these works of the alphabet may have been, I cannot guess," says Spedding, in commenting upon this letter, " unless they related to Bacon's cipher, in which, by means of two alphabets, one having only two letters, the other having two forms for each of the twenty-four letters, any words you please may be so written as to signify any other words, provided only that the open writing contains at least five times as many letters as the concealed." J
In the Promus, the mysterious letter has been compared with an entry in which Bacon seems to connect the plays with an alphabet : Ijsdem ^Uteris efficitur tragozdia et comedia (Tragedies and comedies are made of one alphabet), § and the first im- pression conveyed by this entry was that the alphabet was a secret term to express the comedies and tragedies, since Bacon quotes Aristotle to the effect that " Words are the images of cogitations, and letters are the images of words." The recent discoveries of Mr. Donnelly || and others seem to enhance the probability that the entry in question refers to the plays containing a cipher, the word alphabet bearing in this case a bifold allusion to the nature of the tragedies and comedies, and a double fitness.
* Spedding, III. 255 ; Sir T. M/s coll., p. 11.
t Spedding, I. 134, and Sir T. M. p. 14. X Let. Life, IV. 134.
§ Promus, 516. The Latin quotation from Erasmus' Adagia, 725.
II This was written in 1889.
AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 49
And how are we to interpret the following passage from a letter of March 27, 1621-2, to Mr. Tobie Matthew ? " If upon your repair to the court (whereof I am right glad) you have any speech with the Marquis [of Buckingham] of me, I pray place the alphabet, as you can do it right well, in a frame, to express my love, faithful and ardent, to him/'
It has been suggested that this was a proposal (not carried out) that Sir Tobie shoulcf collect and edit the plays, and fit them to be presented as a tribute to the Marquis. Or it is possible that the mysterious words express a wish that some message should be introduced in the alphabet cipher, which the Marquis would, supposing him to be a member of the secret society, be able to interpret. If so, this letter gives a hint of the system which the present writer believes to have been pursued with regard to nearly all these cipher notes or narra- tives, namely, that Bacon provided the materials or substance of the information to be conveyed, but that his " sons," or disciples, did the mechanical work of fitting type, and other particulars, for the reception of the matter.
We turn to a consideration of Bacon's character, his motives and aims in life, about which one would suppose that at this hour there could be no difficulty in arriving at a definite conclusion. How many distinguished pens have been busy with lives, treatises, and essays on Francis Bacon ! Here, at least, it may be expected that the mists of doubt and darkness shall have been cleared away, and that we may rest upon positive authority. We are prepared to receive many shocks to our feelings, to find flaws in the character which we would wish to be an entire and perfect chrysolite ; still, it will be at least satisfactory to know that the whole truth is laid out before us, even if the contraries of good and evil must appear in this as in all things human.
But here the confusion is worse than ever ; the contradictions, the divergencies of opinion, are as extraordinary amongst those who have read much or something about Bacon as they are amongst those who have read little or nothing. Who has been more admired, more shamed, more spitefully or conscientiously abused, more revered and loved than Francis Bacon? A strange
50 FRANCIS BACON
and wonderful man surely, who can be the subject of so many opposed opinions ! Somebody is right and somebody is wrong, that is clear, and we proceed to relieve the oppression produced by this cloud of witnesses, by putting down on paper some of the verdicts delivered by the numerous self-constituted judges who are the great authorities of the present day. To these we will add the utterances of Bacon's friends and contemporaries, who surely have an equal right to be heard.
The startling result is this : That it is hardly possible to produce a single statement concerning Bacon's character, dis- position, motives or aims, made by one "great authority," which is not contradicted by another authority, equally great. The following are specimens of this kind of comparison — they might be trebled in volume — but they are enough to show that in this, as in other particulars, there is a mystery, and a want of accurate knowledge concerning our great subject.
THE CHARACTER AND GENIUS OF FRANCIS BACON AS DESCRIBED BY GREAT AUTHORITIES.
He was mean, narrow, and wanting in moral courage.
" The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind." (Pope, Essay on Man.)
" A serenity bordering on meanness . . . his fault was meanness of spirit. The mind of Waller coincided with that of Bacon ... a narrowness to the lowest degree, an abjectness and want of courage to support him in any virtuous under- taking. ... Sir Anthony Weldon ... is likely enough to have exaggerated the meanness of Bacon." (Macaulay.)
" He was anything rather than mean."
" On the other hand, he was generous, open-hearted, affec- tionate, peculiarly sensitive to kindness, and equally forgetful of injuries. The epithet of ' great,' which has been so un- grudgingly accorded to him as a writer, might, without any singular impropriety, be applied to him as a man." (Prof. Fowler's Bacon, p. 28.)
AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 51
" Greatness he could not want." (Ben. Jonson, Discoveries.) " A man splendid in his expenses." (Sir Tobie Matthew.) " Weighted by the magnificence of his character." (Dr. Abbott's Introduction to Bacon's Essays.)
Servile — A flatterer, fawning on the great — A courtier by choice.
"Fearful to a fault of offending the powerful, ... his supplications almost servile. ... A servile advocate, that he might be a corrupt judge. ... He excused himself in terms which . . . must be considered as shamefully servile." (Macaulay.) -
" Mixed up with servile entreaties for place." (Sortaine, Life of Lord Bacon, 40, etc. Followed by Lord Campbell, pp. 3, 12, 26, etc.)
" For his want of leisure he was himself to blame, because he deliberately preferred the life of a courtier and a politician to the life of a seeker after truth." (Abbott, Francis Bacon, 413. See infra.)
Neither servile nor a flatterer.
" He must have been most of all a stranger amid the alien servility imposed upon him by the court of James I. . . . He was altogether too vast and grand for an easy flatterer." (Dr. Abbott, Introduction to the Essays.)
Bacon seems to have been several times in disgrace with his relations and others for not sufficiently cultivating the courtly subservience which was required in those days. See his letter to his uncle and aunt, Lord and Lady Burghley, who have reproached him with this. (Spedding, L. L. I. 12 — 59, and Spedding's Evenings with a Reviewer, I. 69.)
Intriguing, selfish, money-loving — Hunting after place and power from vanity and ambition.
" The boldest and most useful of innovators . . . the most obstinate champion of the foulest abuses ... a heart set on things which no man ought to suffer to be necessary to his happiness, on things which can be obtained only by the sacrifice of integrity and honour. . . . All availed him nothing, while some quibbling special pleader was promoted before him to the bench, while some heavy country gentleman took precedence of
52 FRANCIS BACON
him, by virtue of a purchased coronet, . . . could obtain a more cordial salute from Buckingham ; or while some buffoon, versed in all the latest scandal of the court, could draw a louder laugh from James.1' (Macaulay, 336, 317, 429 ; Campbell, pp. 3, 5, 25, etc. ; Sortaine, 93, etc.)
Generous, open-hearted — Regardless of money, place or pomp, for their own sakes.
" I will hereafter write to your lordship what I think of that supply ; to the end that you may, as you have begun, to your great honour, despise money where it crosseth reason of state or virtue." (Francis Bacon to Villiers, Nov. 29, 1616.)*
" Money is like muck — not good except it be spread.1' (Essay of Seditions. See Essays, Riches, Expense, etc.)
" To his easy liberality in the spending, was added a care- lessness in the keeping, which would be hardly credible," etc. (See Spedding, L. L. VII. 563, etc.)
Basil Montagu, Prof. Fowler , Hep worth Dixon, Storr, all bear the same witness.
"He was most desirous to obtain a provision which might enable him to devote himself to literature and politics. . . . His wishes were moderate/' (Macaulay, 298.)
He strove for money, position, etc., that by their means he might advance learning, science, and religion. (Anthony Bacon's correspondence. Dr. Rawley, Basil Montagu, Spedding, Fowler, Craik, Abbott, Wigston, etc.)
" Having all the thoughts of that large heart of his set upon adorning the age in which he lives, and benefiting, as far as possible, the whole human race." (Sir T. Matthew's preface to an Italian translation of the Essays.)
He was successful in his endeavours after wealth and place.
" During a long course of years Bacon's unworthy ambition was crowned with success. . . . He was elated if not intoxi- cated by greatness." (Macaulay, 336, 347, etc.) " Bacon deliberately sat down to build his fortunes . . . and, as we shall see, succeeded." The truth is, admiration for place and
* Compare Coriolanus, II. 2. Money or wealth " the muck of the world."
AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 53
power had dazzled his intellect and confounded his judgment. (Dr. Abbott's Introduction to Essays.)
He was singularly unsuccessful — There must have been some unexplained cause which kept him back.
" He stood long at a stay in the days of his mistress Elizabeth." (Dr. Rawley, JLife.) "But though Bacon's repu- tation rose, his fortunes were still depressed. He was still in great pecuniary difficulties." (Macaulay, 309.) " Countenance, encourage and advance men in all kinds, degrees and pro- fessions, for in the time of the Cecils, the father and the son, able men were, by design, and of purpose, suppressed." (Letter from Bacon to Villiers ; see, also, Dr. Church's Bacon, pp. 33, 58-9, 100.)
He married for money.
" He made a bold attempt to restore his position by matri- mony. Instead of offering incense to Venus he was considering a scheme to make his pot boil." (Campbell, Bacon, p. 40.) " He had some thoughts of making his fortune by marriage. . . . Bacon was disposed to overlook her faults for the sake of her ample fortune." (Macaulay, 310.) " Just at this period he was offering his heart to the daughter of a rich alderman." (Devey's ed. of Essays, Introduction, xix.)
He married a lady on whom he settled double the amount of her dowry.
(See Carleton to Chamberlain, May 11, 1606 ; Spedding's