section in the Distribution Preface, are introduced the Types

and Platforms of Invention, in certain selected subjects worthy
of remark, which we are convinced allude to the plays. We
find in "Valerius Terminus," Bacon disclosing his mind upon his
two methods of publishing. And we cannot believe this woi'k
was published hy accident, and left in private hands without
instructions, containing as it does such vital points. It seems to

* " For corruption is a reciprocal to generation : and tliey two, are as Nature
two termS; or boundaries; and the guides to life and death" ("Natural
History," Century IV., Experiment .328, p. 73).

TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 349

us it was intentionally reserved, that this point upon publishing
privately (or reserved to a private succession of hands) might not
prematurely be made known. This work is an example of the
method of publishing in point to its own remarks.*

It is well worthy a passing remark that lioger Bacon (who,
whether in any way connected with Francis Bacon by way of
descent or not, Avas a remarkable character) must have exerted a
powerful influence upon Bacon, inasmuch as joined to the identity
of name, Roger Bacon was an experimentalist and discoverer after
Francis Bacon's own heart, f Roger Bacon was a Friar, a member
of the Order of St Francis, commonly called Franciscans. In
"Romeo and Juliet" Ave find two holy Franciscan Friars intro-
duced, viz.. Friar Laurence and Friar John, the former playing a
large part as Romeo's confessor and assistant to the lovers. The
really striking part is that Friar Laiu'ence is introduced as an
Alchemist or Rosicrucian, that is if evidence is anj'thing. For
example, in the third scene, second act, Avith the first introduction
of Friar Laiu'ence, Ave find him immediately pictured as a her-
balist or botanist, collecting Aveeds and floAvers.

* The " Confessio Frateiuitatis R. C. ad Erudites Euro^ire " opens thus : —
" "Whatsoever you have heard, 0 mortals, concerning our Fraternity by the
trunq'd sound of the Fama R. C, do not either believe it hastily, or Avilfully
suspect it" (1615).
Compare : —

Let the bu'd of loudest lay

On the sole Arabian tree,

Herald sad and trumpet be,

To whose sound chaste wings obey.

(" Phcenix and Turtle.")

t That Bacon was Avell acquainted with the Avorks of his namesake Roger
Bacon is certain. It has been remarked often hoAv closely Bacon's four idols
resemble the four hindrances to knowledge of Roger Bacon's "Opus Magus."
But whether this was the real source of inspiration is, of course, only conjec-
ture. But in ' ' The History of Life and Death " we find Bacon has borrowed
some stories from the " De Mirabel. Potest. Artis et Natur^v " of Roger Bacon.
One of these is the story of the Lady of Formerey, or the Lady of the Wood,
who, whilst seeking a white doe, met a forest ranger who had reucAved
his youth by means of an ointment which he had sonieAvhere found in the
forest.

35© ROSICRUCIAN PARALLELS

ScKNK \\\.— Filar Laitkence's Cell.

Enter FrUir Laurence, tvith a baslri.

Fri. The gi'ey-ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night,
Checkering the eastern clo\ids with streaks of light ;
And Hecked darkness like a drnnkard reels
From forth day's path, and Titan's fiery wheels :
Now ere the sun advance his burning eye,
The day to cheer, and night's dank dew to dry,
I must up-fill this osier cage of ours,
With l)aleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers.
The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb ;
"What is her burying grave, that is her womb :
And from her womb children of divers kind
We sucking on her natural bosom find :
Many for many virtues excellent,
None but for some, and yet all different.
0, mickle is the powerful grace, that lies
In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities :
For nought so vile that on the earth doth live,
But to the earth some special good doth give ;
Nor aught so good, but, strain 'd from that fair use,
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse :
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied ;
And vice sometime 's by action dignified.
Within the infant rind of this weak flower
Poison hath residence, and med'cine power :
For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part ;
Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart.
Two such opposed kings encamp them still
In man as well as herbs, — grace, and rude will ;
And, where the worser is predominant.
Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

Now, we maintain this is a complete picture of a dealei- in
Natural Magic, as we meet them over and over again either as
Alchemists, Kosicrucians, or Occultists of the Mediaeval and Ke-
naissance periods. Baptista Porta, in his treatise on "Natural
Magic," enumerates a whole catalogue of secret formulae for pro-
ducing extraordinary eflects by employing the occult powers of
nature. Even the magic of the ancient ChaldaBans was lint a
profound knowledge of the power of simples and minerals.
Study the lengthy passage quoted, and it will be evident tlie
"■hostly Friar Laurence is a student in this Natural Magic.

TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 351

0, iiiickle is the powerful grace, that lies

In herbs, plants, stones, and their true ipmlities.

In man as well as hcrhs — grace, and rude will.

And we see him gutheiiiig his " baleful weeds " in the grey
dawn, before the snn has arisen, whilst the dew was on them, an
essential thing, which shows the author's complete knowledge
on this point. We find this repeated in " Cymbeline " by the
Queen : —

Queen. "Whiles yet the dew 's on ground, gather those flowers ;
Make haste : Who lias the note of them ?

(Act i. sc. 6.)

It was always before dawn, or during the night, that herbs
were gathered for magical purposes : —

In such a night
Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs
That did renew old iEson.

(" Jlerchant of Venice.")

The Franciscan Friar, Roger Bacon, in his treatise on the
*' Admirable Force of Art and Nature," devotes the first part of
his work to natural facts. He gives us hints of gunpoAvder, and
predicts the use of steam as a proi^elling power. The hydrau-
lic press, the diving-bell, and kaleidoscope are all described.
("Alchemy, or the Hermetic Philosophy.") Now Francis Bacon
in his " New Atlantis " completely parallels all this, giving us
predictions of telephones, phonographs, explosives unquenchable
in water, torpedoes, and all sorts of inventions realised since his
age. Mackenzie, in his " Royal Masonic Cyclopsedia," enters
Roger Bacon amongst the list of Rosicrucians, and describes him
thus : —

" Bacon, Roger. — A famous Franciscan friar of the eleventh
century, and a believer in the philosopher's stone and in astrology.
He is said to have invented gunpowder ; but this is doubtful, as
are also his pretensions to be considered the originator of tele-
scopes and spectacles. He made a famous brazen head, which,
artfully fitted with acoustic apparatus, gave forth oracles."

352 ROSICRUCIAN PARALLELS

Now it is a very curious parallel that Friar Laurence is not
only a Franciscan friar, like Roger Bacon, but (in scene vi. act 2)
alludes to Gunjwwder /

Friar Laurence. These violent deliglits have violent ends,
And in their triumph die ; like Ji^x and j)oivder,
"\\^lich, as they kiss, consume.

Eomeo and Juliet repeatedly luring i!i the word ghostly in
connection with Friar Laurence : —

Romeo. Hence will I to my gliosthj father' a cell,
His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell.

(Act ii. sc. 3.)

Friar Laurence. Go and pardon sin ! wast thou Avith Rosaline 1
Romeo. With Rosaline, my ghostly father ?

Jiolict. Good even to my ghosthj confessor.

{Ibid., sc. 3.)
(Act ii. sc. 6.)

Romeo. How hast thou the heart
Being a divine, a ghosthj confessor,
A sin ahsolver, and my friend profess'd.
To mangle me with that word banished ?

(Act iii. sc. 3.)

It is indeed curious to find Friar Laurence constantly bringing
in gunpowder in his speeches. Here it is again —

Friar L. Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love.
Mis-shapen in the conduct of them both,
Like ])owder in a skilless soldier's tlask.
To set a lire by thine own ignorance.

Again —

Romeo. As if that name,

Shot from the deadly level of a gun
Did murder her.

Romeo. Let me have

A dram of poison ; such soon-speeding gear
As will disperse itself through all the veins,
That the life-weary taker may fall dead ;
And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath
As violently as hasty powder fir d
Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's toomb.

(Act iii. sc. 3.)

(Act iii. sc. 3.)

(Act. V. sc. 1.)

TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 353

The Perfect Number 3G.

It is a remarkable coincidence that the 1623 Folio, known
by the name of Shakespeare, contains exactly thirty-six plays,*
because this was the perfect number of Pythagoras. The num-
ber One was the point within the circle, and denoted the central
fire, or God, Four referred to the Deity, for it was considered
the number of numbers. It is the first solid figure ; a point being
1, a line 2, a superficies 3, and a solid 4. It was also the
Tetractys ; a Word sacred amongst the Pythagoreans, and used
as a most solemn oath, because they considered it the root and
principle, the cause and maker of all things. Plutarch interprets
this word differently. He says it is called Koff/zo^, the JForld, and
therefore refers to the number Thirfi/sic (36), which consists of the
first /(/«/• odd numbers, added into the first /owr even ones — thus : —

l-f2= 3

3 + 4= 7

5-f6 = ll

7-1-8 = 15

Total . 36

(Lecture IX., Oliver's " Signs and Symbols," p. 199. 1837.)

" The Tetractys was no other than the Glorious Tetragramma-
ton of the Jews. The sum of all the principles of Pythagoras is
this. The Monad is the principle of all things. From the Monad
came the intermediate Duad, as matter subjected to the cause
Monad ; from the Monad and the intermediate Duad, numbers ;
from numbers, points ; from points, lines; from lines, superficies; from
superficies, solids ; from these solid bodies whose elements are
four — fire, water, air, earth ; of all which transmutated and totally
changed the world consists " (Stanley, " History," Phil., vol. iii.,
pp. 1, 100).

* " Troilus and Cressida" is strangely omitted from the catalogue of the
plays in the 1623 Folio Shakespeare, — making the total number 36. This, we
are convinced, was done imrjwsely to give two cipher numbers, 35, 36, ju«t
as 52, 53 represent Shakespeare mathematically 1616.

Z

354 ROSICRUCIAN PARALLELS

I here re-introduce for the benefit of readers unacquainted
with my work, " Bacon, Shakespeare, and the Rosicrucians," two
extracts sho-wing the identity of John Heydon's " Voyage to the
Land of the Rosicrucians " -Nvith Bacon's " New Atlantis." Line
for line, and word almost for word, Heydon reproduces from
l^eginning to end Bacon's narrative. Critics have replied by
calling John Heydon a mountebank and impostor. They are
ignorant of the fact ihai an ideal liejmblic or Utopia was essentially
a liosicrucian dreum, exemplified in the " City of the Sun " by
Campanella, and the "Reipublicse Chi-istianopolitanae " of the
Rosicrucian protagonist, John Valentine Andreas. We possess a
copy of both the latter, and their resemblance to each other is
striking. These Utopias are perfectly in keeping with the
Reformation of Society, the Restoration of Knowledge, and the
Renewal of Arts, which the Rosicrucians proposed. These were
also Bacon's ends testified abundantly throughout his works.
His mind was bent on tooling fonmrd, and we may see in 'the
description of the scientific marvels of his " New Atlantis,"
anticipation of this century.

Heydon's "Voyage to the Land
of the rosickucians."

Bacon's "New Atlantis."

" The morrow after our three dayes, " The morrow after our three days

there came to us a new man, cloathed were past, there came to us a new

in azure, save that his turban was man that we had not seen before,,

white ivith a small red crosse * at the clothed in bhie as the former was,

top. He had also a tippet of fine save that his turban was white, with

linnen. He did bend to us a little, a small red cross on the top ;* he had

and put his arms broad ; we saluting also a tippet of fine linen. At his

him in a very lowly manner. He coming in he did bend to us a little,

desired to speak with some few of us, and put his arms abroad. "We of our

whereupon six onely stayed, and the parts saluted him in a very lowly and

* " We were all distributed amongst the Lords, but our old Lord and I,
most unworthy, were to ride even with the King, each of us bearing a snow-
vJiite ensign with a Red Cross" ("Chemical Marriage of Christian Rosy
Cross," 1616).

The Rosicrucian emblem was a red cross — the Red Cross of the Knight
Templars, of whom they were the direct successors. See Hargreave
.Jennings. Emblem on title page of his book, ' ' The Rosicrucians : their
Rites and Mysteries."

TO BACON'S WRITINGS.

355

rest avoided tlie room. He said : —
' I am by office governour of this
house of strangers, and by vocation a
Christian priest of the Order of the
Rosie Crosse, and am come to ofi'er
you my service, as sti-angers and
chiefly as Christians. The State hath
given you licence to stay on land for
the space of six weeks, and' let it not
trouble you if your occasions ask
further time, for the law in this point
is not precise.

submissive manner, as looking that
from him we should receive sentence
of life or death. He desired to speak
with some few of us ; whereupon six
of us only stayed, and the rest avoided
the room. He said : ' I am by office
governor of this House of Strangers,
and by vocation I am a Christian
priest ; and therefore am come to you
to offer you my service both as stran-
gers, and chiefly as Christians. Some
things I may tell you, which I think
you will not be unwilling to hear.
The state hath given you licence to
stay on laud for the space of six
weeks. And let it not ti'ouble you if
your occasions ask further time, for
the law in this point is not precise ;
and I do not doubt but myself shall
be able to obtain for you such further
time as shall be convenient.

' ' ' We have sound-houses, where we
})ractise and demonstrate all sounds
and their generation. We have har-
monies (read the " Harmony of the
AVorld ") which you have not, of
quarter and lesser kindes of sounds —
divers instruments of musick to you
unknown, some sweeter than any you
have, together with bells and rings
that are dainty and sweet. (See my
book of "Geomancy and Telesmes.")
"We represent small sounds as gi'eat
and deep, gi'eat sounds as extenuate
and sharpe ; we make divers tremb-
lings and warblings of sounds which
in their originall are entire. We re-
present and imitate all articulate
sounds and letters (read my "Cab-
bala, or Art, by which Moses showed
so many signs in ^Egypt"), and the
voices and notes of many beasts and
birds. We have certain helps which,
set to the ear, do further the hearing
greatly. We have strange and arti-
ficiall ecclios, reflecting the voice

' ' ' We have also sound - houses,
where we practise and demonsti'ate
all sounds and their generation. We
have harmonies, which you have not,
of quarter-sounds, and lesser slides of
sounds ; divers instruments likewise
to you unknown, some sweeter than
any you have ; with bells and rings
that are dainty and sweet. We re-
present small sounds as great and
deep, likewise great sounds extenuate
and sharp. We make divers tremb-
lings and warbling of sounds, which
in their original are entire ; we repre-
sent and imitate all articulate sounds
and letters, and the voices and notes
of beasts and birds. We have certain
helps, which set to the ear do further
the hearing gi-eatly. We have also
divers strange and artificial eclios re-
flecting the voice many times, and as
it were tossing it ; and some that give
back the voice louder than it came,
some shriller, and some deeper ; yea,
some rendering the voice differing in

356 ROSICR UCIAN PARALLELS.

many times, and, as it were, to sing the letters or articulate sound from
it, some that give back the voice that they receive. We have also
louder than it came, some shriller, means to convey sounds in trunks
some deejver, some rendring the voice and pipes in strange lines and dis-
differing in the letters, or articular tances.'"
sound, from that they receive. We
liave also means to convey sounds in
trunks and pipes, in strange lines and
distances. ' "

These marvels so wonderfully realised at the present day in
the speaking tube, telephone, phonograph, can hardly be called
happy guesses. It is probable between Bacon's motto (attached
to "Novum Organum" and "Advancement of Learning," 1640),
from Daniel {^^ Multi pertransihunt et migeUtur scieniia," Many
shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased), and these
prophecies or forestalments of nineteenth century discoveries,
there is a connection pointing to the end of the times. I am
persuaded Bacon's "New Atlantis" is the most extraordinary
realisation of modern discovery on record. Madame Blavatsky
Avrites : " We are at the very close of the cycle of 5000 years of
the present Aryan Kaliyuga; and between this time and 1897,
there will be a large rent made in the Veil of Nature, and
materialistic science will receive a death blow " (" The Secret
Doctrine," vol. i., p. 612).