A COMMENTARY

on
THE GREAT INSTAURATION
The Universal and General Reformation of the Whole Wide World
through the
Renewal of all Arts and Sciences
by
Peter Dawkins
Copyright@ The Francis Bacon Research Trust, 1983.
First printed and published by The Francis Bacon Research Trust in 1983,
The Dairy Office,
Castle Ashby,
Northampton, NN7 1LF.
ISBN : 0-86293-004-9
1
Frontispiece of "Sylva Sy,Ivarum". 1627.
CONTENTS
Page
Preface ............................................................................. 7
The Scheme of the Great Instauration ... . .. .. .. .. ... . . . . ... .. .. . . .. ... 17
The Six Parts of the Great Instauration ............................... 33
Charity - the Supreme Law or Rule
47
Extracts from:
The Third Degree Lecture of Freemasonry
50
The Fame and Confession of the Fraternity of
the Most Laudable Order of the Rosy Cross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
The Introduction to the Great Instauration .................... 57
The Epistle Dedicatory to the Great Instauration ........... 58
The General Preface to the Great Instauration .............. 60
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
i. Engraved portrait of Sir Francis Bacon, - Frontispiece to
Sylva Sylvarum (1627) ................................................................ 2
2. 'AA' headpiece to 'Preface to the Reader', Daemonology (1603) ............ 3
3. 'Pallas Athena' emblem from titlepage to Scripta in Naturali et
Universali Philosophia (1653) ...................................................... 3
4. Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor- portrait by Paul van Somer (1618).. 5
Reproduced by courtesy of the Earl of Verulam, Gorhambury
5. Miniature of Francis Bacon, aged 18 yrs., by Nicholas Hilliard (1578) ..... 6
Reproduced by courtesy of His Grace the Duke of Rutland, Be/voir Cast!!'
6. 'Mask' headpiece to 'Of Followers and Friends', Essays (1597) ............... .
7. 'AA' headpiece to 'Upon the Lines of Life of .... Shakespeare',
1st. Folio Shakespeare Plays (1623) ............................................... 12
8. 'Pallas Athena' emblem from titlepage to Nova Atlantis (1643) ................ 12
9. Page 33, Minerva Britanna (1612) ........................................................ 13
10. Page 34, Minerva Britanna (1612) ........................................................ 14
11. Frontispiece to Of the Advancement and Proficience of Learning (1640) 15
12. Titlepage to Spratt's The History of the Royal Society of London (1667). 16
Reproduced by courtesy of' the Royal Society.
13. 'Dionysian' headpiece to 'The Generall Argument', Advancement
of Learning (1640) ....................................................................... 17
14. Diag: The Pyramid of Philosophy........................................................ 20
15. Diag: The Tree of Philosophy ............................................................. 28
16. "Mente Videbor" emblem from titlepage to Minerva Britanna (1612) ...... 31
17. Titlepage to Of the Advancement and /'roficience of Learning (1640) .... 32
18. 'Pan' headpiece to the 'Dedication', Faerie Queen (1617) ....................... 33
19. Titlepage to Novum Organum (1620) ................................................... 34
20. Titlepage to Sylva Sylvarum (1626-7) ................................................... 37
21. "Tempore Patet Occulta Veritas" emblem from titlepage to
New Atlantis (1626-7) .................................................................. 45
22. Frontispiece to La Sagesse Mysterieuse des Anciens (1641) ................... 46
23. 'Archer' headpiece used in the Jst. Folio Shakesoeare Plays (1623) ......... 47
24. Titlepage to Scripta in Naturali et Universali Philosophia (1653) ............ 48
25. Statue of Sir Francis Bacon in St. Michael's Church, St. Albans (c.1627). 49
26. 'Wheatsheaf' headpiece to Meditationes Sacrae (1597) ........................... 50
27. 'Three Principles' emblem from titlepage to Getreue Reden (1654) ........ 51
28. Titlepage to Historia Regni Henrici Septimi (1642) ............................... 52
29. 'Pan' headpiece to Essay, 'Of Fame', Resuscitatio (1657) ....................... 53
30. 'Pelican' emblem from titlepage to Histoire du Regne de Henry VII (1673) 55
31. Titlepage to Sermones Fideles (1641) .................................................. 56
32. 'Grail' headpiece to the 'Dedication', Advancement of Learning (1640) ... 58
33. 'Date Palm' emblem from titlepage to De Augmentis Scientiarum (1645) 58
34. Frontispiece to De Augmentis Scientiarum (1645) ................................ 59
35. 'Grail' headpiece to 'The Preface to the Great Instauration',
Advancement of Learning (1640) .................................................. 60
36. 'Handshake' emblem from titlepage to Progrez et Advancement
aux Sciences (1624) ..................................................................... 63
4
6
PREFACE
Except by a few who have studied and laboured quietly,
sufficient credit and the right kind of attention has not been
given either to the man, Francis Bacon, or to his great scheme
and work which he founded, the Great Instauration. One of the
reasons for this inattention or misinterpretation is because it has
not previously been generally known, or noticed, that both the
person and the work of he who is known as Francis Bacon, and he
who is referred to as Christian Rosy Cross, are the same. Rejoin
these two personas of Philosopher and Mystic, add also the third
persona of Poet extraordinaire, and we have the real man,
Francis Rosicross, Shaker-of-the-Spear of light against the
dragon of ignorance, who could think like a philosopher, receive
and give illumination like a poet-seer, and command and execute
like an initiate-king.
His great work was and is the Regeneration or Renewal of all
Arts and Sciences, so that man may know truth and practise
truth. His great gift to the world was the idea and plan of this
great scheme, together with a method by which it might be
accomplished, and an actual practical starting point and organ-
ised ways for it to be continued generation after generation. The
8Ventual name he gave to the immense scheme was The Great
Instauration. At the heart of this scheme was the method for its
gradual attainment, which he called the Art of Interpreting
Nature or a perfect Method of all Arts- a New Method or Novum
Organum. This method was seen to be inseperable from the .
collection of a Natural and Experimental History gathered from
the facts of nature and experience of all kinds, to form a
foundation upon which a Temple of true Philosophy could be
raised. This History is the Librum Naturae or Book M, requiring
many researchers and many generations to bring it to any
semblence of completion sufficient to draw out, ascertain and
prove any axioms or speculations concerning Truth and the Laws
or the Universe. The final philosophy or knowledge of truth
reached- the Second Philosophy- constitutes the Pyramid of
Philosophy (in the heart of which is C.R.C.'s tomb), comprising
7
the tried and tested Axioms or Axiomata. To collect the History
and build the Pyramid requires a brotherhood or fraternity of
men and women eager and willing to dedicate their lives in this
service, to share willingly their discoveries and knowledges, and
to work selflessly and patiently for the common good. The
nature of the work and its method automatically selects those
who can best carry it out, and excludes those who are not yet
fitted to do so- because the first common rule is CHARITY or
Love in Action, whilst the second rule is a desire to seek and
bring Truth to light. Without these, none of the rest can be
fulfilled. This brotherhood is the "fraternity in learning and
illumination" mentioned in the Baconian philosophical public-
ations- a world-wide association or Society of like minds and
hearts, on which the sun never sets. The original model for this
world Society, as set up and governed by Francis Rosicross, was
called the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross or Knights of the Order
of the Helmet, or alternatively the College of the Six Days'
Work. Freemasonry is one of the developments from the original
model, as part of the overall scheme.
The initial idea of what later became developed as the Great
Instauration came as a vision to Francis whilst he was still young
(13-14 yrs. old) and at University, at the time of the appearance
of a supernova in the constellation of Cassiopiea. He never lost
this vision, but tested it out and developed it as a practical
scheme. In all his continental travels (between 1576 to 1582) he
tried to interest the learned of all nations in his new method and
the collecting of a Librum Naturae, with little success. But at
home, whilst ostensibly studying at Grays Inn, he began work on
it in earnest, first of all preparing the way, by a careful analysis
and assessment of his experience of the state of the western
nations, their religion and learning, and how best to carry
through his scheme in the light of so many dangers and
obstructions. After five years of preparation (1583-1588), he
called together his three child-hood friends, who had studied and
been initiated with him at the Platonic Academy of Gorhambury,
and who shared with him his great dream of philosophical
reformation. These four worked together, both at home and
abroad, to lay the foundations of the work, and of the fraternity
that would begin it and be a working example for future
generations. With the assistance of scholars and, poets -"good
pens" whom they employed or liased with- they enlarged and
almost recreated the English language, embodying a Cabbala
within it so that it became a sacred or "magical" language, and
8
began to translate the Classics and many other works, old and
new, into the new language, writing new works of poetry, drama
and treatise, publishing anonymously or under pseudonyms and
'masks' as they went along. They also began the labour of
collecting information to make the Librum Naturae.
In 1593 four more 'brethren' were added to the initial four,
completing the circle of Principals that would form the core of
the Rosicrucian College. Their presence was heralded publicly
that year in a cryptic way, in the first use of their symbolic
name as the name William Shakespeare,* printed at the end of
the Dedication in the republished poem Venus and Adonis. When
ready, they began to collect together and initiate a further fifty-
six of their friends and eo-workers, to form the experimental
College or Fraternity of the Rose Cross. By the end of 1594 this
complete College was in being, and was publicly announced by
means of a symbolic drama enacted in the Christmas Revels at
Gray's Inn (called The Prince of Purpoole, or Order of the
Knights of the Helmet).
During the quietly revolutionary times of 1602-4, when Queen
Elizabeth died and King James came to the Throne of England,
and certain new stars appeared in the constellations of Cygnus
and Serpentarius, the Baconian-Rosicrucian work - up to then
carried out in the strictest secrecy - began to be made public.
How to make the work public was a matter of great concern
to Francis. The manner of making it public, so that eventually
the whole world could be caught up in the work, was also an
integral part of the New Method itself. In the De Interpretatione
Naturae Proemium and Temporis Partus Masculus, (an incom-
plete folio of writings that were not published until after his
death or disappearance in 1626,) he sketches out the scheme of
the Great Instauration, and states that he intends to com-
municate his New Method, and the results to which it was to
lead, only to chosen followers; giving to the world merely a part
or exoteric doctrine, but enough to stimulate enquiry and begin
the process of collecting a Librum Naturae. In the De Dignitate
&. Augment is Scientiarum, published in 1623, he reiterates his
opinion that the highest and most effectual form of scientific
teaching is the ".methodus ad filios"; these "sons of wisdom"
being self-selected by virtue of their charity and desire to search
out truth diligently. The writings that were then published from
1605 onwards, were so designed and written with this in mind,
9
cryptically embodying much information beyond that in the open
text, and giving sign-posts or pointers on a treasure-trail that
can lead the diligent searcher to real discoveries, not only of
Francis' method, but of truth generally.
1605 saw the first publication of the series of Baconian
philosophical works dealing directly and openly with the Great
Instauration. This was The TWoo Bookes of Francis Bacon, Of
the proficience and advancement of Learning, divine and
humane, in English. The first book was written in 1603, and the
second book in 1604-5. At this time Francis began work on what
was later to be published in Latin as the Novum Organum, setting
forth his Art of Interpreting Nature. A fragment of these earlier
writings was published after his death, entitled Valerius
Terminus. The Novum Organum was not finally published until
1623, and then only in part (two books out of three). Dr. Rawley,
Francis' chaplain, declared that Francis had revised this work
every year for twelve years before he finally allowed its
publication. This would indicate that it was first in a fairly
complete form by 1608, which agrees tolerably well with a tract
Francis wrote to Bodley in 1607, again published after his death,
and entitled Cogitate et Visa. This tract was designed as an
introduction to a particular example of the New Method, such as
the Investigation of the Form of Heat at the beginning of Book II
of Novum Organum. The tract is in fact substantially reproduced
in Book I of Novum Organum. In it Francis speaks of why he had
been led to perceive the necessity of a reform in Philosophy. He
mentions that the question of how the New Method might best be
given to the world had been much in his thoughts, and states that
he has resolved to set forth the essential and operative part of
his New Method by means of an example.
1611 saw the publication of the First Folio of the Spenser
works, and the Authorised Version of the Bible- a matter close
to Francis' heart: "Let no man think or maintain that a man can
search too far or be too well studied in the Book of God's Word,
or in the Book of God's Works; Divinity or Philosophy: but
rather let men endeavour an endless progress or proficience in
both".
Soon after this, in 1614, the first of the series of 'Rosicrucian'
manifestos was published on the continent, in Germany- the
Fama Fraternitatis. The Confessio Fraternitatis was published
the next year, 1615, and The Chymical Wedding of Christian
10
Rosicross the year after. These continued to be republished
many times until 1620, the eve of the Thirty Years' War on the
continent. As Francis said, the advancement of learning can only
truly take place in times of peace.
In England, in 1616-17, King James was persuaded to allow
the foundation of a College for the advancement of learning, on
Baconian lines, called 'King James, his Academie or College of
Honour'. This College was the original of 'The Invisible College',
which later became 'The Royal Society'. 1617 was the year in
which Francis was raised to become Lord Keeper of the Great
Seal, and the Second Spenser Folio was published. In 1618
Francis was made Lord Chancellor, and created Baron Verulam;
and in 1620 Books I and II of the Novum Organum were published
in Latin, together with the Proemium or Introduction to the
Great Instauration, including a dedication to James I, a Praefatio
Generalis or General Preface, and Distributio Operis or Distrib-
ution of the Work of the Great Instauration. For the first time
the entire plan for the scheme of the Great Instauration was
made public, whilst at the same time, on the continent, the
'Rosicrucian' manifestos were stopped, and the Mayflower set
sail for the New World.
1621 saw the terrible events of, on the continent, the
beginning of the Thirty Years' War, and, in England, the sacrifice
of the Lord Chancellor (who had only just then been created
Viscount St. Alban in recognition of his extraordinary worth) to
save the neck of the King and his favourite, and thereby to avert
a possible civil war. Francis received a full pardon in 1622, but
stayed in retirement from 'official' life and much broken in
health. During these years (1621-4) he worked on getting his
final major publications ready for printing, so that when he
finally died to the world as Francis Bacon in 1626, there would be
enough information available to the world to stimulate and guide
the 'filii sapientiae' along the paths of the true Interpretation of
Nature. Two example Histories were published in 1622- Historia
Ventorum and The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry The
Seventh. Then the much revised and enlarged edition of the
Advancement of Learning was published in 1623, in Latin, as De
Dignitate & Augment is Scientiarum: and also, that same year,
was published the First Folio of Mr. William Shakespeares
Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies.
* * * * *
11
* Note:
Mr. William Shakespeare (sometimes spelt Shake-speare) is made
out to have both been born and died on St. George's Day. The
name William derives from Hwyll, the name of the Welsh Sun-
god, plus helm, or helmet. In all it means 'the Helmet of the
Son/Sun' or 'Helmet of Light' - the golden helmet or halo of a St.
George or Rose Cross Knight, who fights and conquers the
Kundalini Dragon of Nature and of Ignorance with his spear of
light. St. George, the human equivalent or embodiment of St.
Michael, is a 'Spear-shaker' or 'Shake-speare'. In the Greek
mythology St. Michael is called Apollo, and their feminine
counterparts are, repectively, Britannia and Pallas Athena, the
Patronesses and Muses of all knight-heroes and of the Arts and
Sciences. Pallas Athena literally means "Shaker-of-the-Spear".
Apollo and Athena together dwell upon the top of Mount
Parnassus, the Mount of Poetic Inspiration and Illumination. In
another aspect, Athena is the goddess Fame, who leads the Rose
Cross Knight to victory over death and ignorance.
12
L16orviriJ mJvmif.
T 0 tht 1mjl Honorabu Lord, tht L: Dinguull.
Hgoni; c . pcti w H 0 thirfieth after Honor, and renowne,
S1mbolum. B I r
y va iant all, or la fling workc o wit:
In he doth expetl:, her glorious crowne ,
Except by tabor, he atcheiveth it;
primus rump And fWeatiebrow for never merit may
li le la ' '
primusim rw.mp- l:o droufie floath, impart her living bay.
lilfc pedes. S1l: s.
. .Ipfc n;nufut. '" HA M I L CARS fonne, hence fuall thy glory liue
1
pilagercs przcc Wh , h AI d'dllC fl:\ dth
olitaiilidimiutls ooret e pes, 1 nroremo ea eway,
crapedcsmOfi:" With Czfars ceke that would the on fee giue
tolcrare bbo.. , ) ,
rem, iubcr. And firfl on foote, the deepcfl: foor,ds affay:
LucandeCato CC I C K . h fL d' 1.'. b ft
ne. ,et a.rpet mg tes, o a tes ravours oa ,
Munditi:lS mu lie- " The manly hart) brave Atl:ion loveth moll.
ribus Jaborcm vJ.
ris coavcnirc.
Mar ius apLtd Sa
llllliwn.
Difa ptur virtwtem (X me verumi f,tbortm
Fortu,amex aliu: nunc t( mea tk.tura /,,[[,
De(nrfumdabit ,et magna inUY pr.unia
13
Ex mlu mvri&HI llou kgn. !<f
To the moll iudicious, and learoed , Sir F RAN C I S B A C 0 N , Knight-.
T
HE Viper here, that ftung the fbtepheard fwaine,
(While careles ofhimfelfe aflecpe he lay,)
\Vith Hyfope caught, is cut by him in twaine ,
Her fat might take, the poifon quite away,
And heale his wound, that wonder tis to fee,
Such fovcraigne helpe, tbould in a Serpent be.
By this fame Leach, is meant the virtuous King ,
Who can with cunning, out of manners ill ,
Make wholefome !awes,,. and take away the fling ,
Wherewith foulevice, doth greeuethe virtuous fiill:
Or can prevent, by quicke and wife fordight,
ere, it gathtrs further might.
Afra venenato pupugit quem vipera morfu,
Dux Gregis antidotum l;rfus ab hofte petlt:
Vipe1 eis itidem leges ex morlbus aptas
OoCtus 1\pollin<:Honlicit arte S 0 L 0 N.
Cura ded.Jt le&er , er quod natflrl remittie
lnv'-Cia iuaa ncrat &:c.
GI TO
14
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15
16
THE SCHEME OF THE INSTAURATION
Francis Bacon's immense scheme, which he was inspired with
and which he attributed to divine revelation, was none other than
a method for the total regeneration of the Arts and Sciences, and
for the gradual restoration of the world to its Edenic state,
wherein man may become again as Adam before the Fall, but
with the difference that he will have not only the original moral
purity but also the knowledge, understanding and mastery of all
things - most of all of himself.
The great Christ impulse given to mankind via the Buddha,
Zoroaster and Christ Jesus, at the beginning of the Piscean Age,
taught man how to love -to love one another, to love life, to
love Truth. The Piscean Age having developed and tested this
quality, the Aquarian Age is to take the process of man's
enlightenment one further stage; and this next stage concerns
the development of man's understanding - to understand each
other, to understand life, to understand Truth.
For there are three steps or degrees to be taken in the
process of enlightenment: the first step is to love Truth, the
second step is to understand Truth, and the third step is to serve
Truth. Francis Bacon considered that man was able to and
should endeavour to return to the moral purity or virginity of the
Garden of Eden state, and regain his original sovereignty over
Nature given to Adam by God, by striving to know and
understand all things, particularly himself. Francis taught that
the true purpose of acquiring knowledge and understanding of
truth was so that mankind could better serve God and all life, in
true love or charity:
"Lastly, I would address one general admonition to all; that
they consider what are the true ends of knowledge, and that
they seek it not either for pleasure of the mind, or for
contention, or for superiority to others, or for profit, or
fame, or power, or any of those inferior things; but for the
17
benefit and use of life; and that they perfect and govern in
charity."
1
He also pointed out that the highest aim of man's researches
was to try to discover not only the metaphysical laws- the
'Forms' or causes of the more physical laws and phenomena,- but
also to try to seek out an understanding of the Supreme or
Summary Law of all Nature, that of Love itself, the Cause of
causes, and the principal Rule that should govern all that a man
thinks or does:
"They say then that Love was the most ancient of all the gods
.... This Love I understand to be the appetite or instinct of
primal matter; or to speak more plainly, the natural motion
of the atom; which is indeed the original and unique force
that constitutes and fashions all things out of matter. Now
this is entirely without parent; that is without cause. For
the cause is as it were the parent of the effect; and of this
virtue there can be no cause in nature (God always excepted):
there being nothing before it, therefore no efficient; nor
anything more original in nature; therefore neither kind nor
form. Whatever it be therefore, it is a thing positive and
inexplicable. And even if it were possible to know the
method and process of it, yet to know it by way of cause is
not possible; it being, next to God, the cause of causes -
itself without cause. That the method even of its operation
should ever be brought within the range and comprehension of
human enquiry, is hardly perhaps to be hoped; with good
reason therefore it is represented as an egg hatched by night.
Such certainly is the judgement of the sacred philosopher,
when he says, 'He hath made all things beautiful according
to their seasons; also he hath rubmitted the world to man's
enquiry, yet so that man cannot find out the work which God
worketh from the beginning to the end.' For the Summary
Law of nature, that impulse of desire impressed by God upon
the primary particles of matter which makes them come
together, and which by repetition and multiplication produces
all the variety of nature, is a thing which mortal thought may
glance at, but can hardly take in."2
In imitation of divine Law, that is to say, the Logos or Torah
revealed to man, the scheme of the Great Instauration is made to
fall into six parts that give entrance to or culminate in the
mystical seventh part, the Sabbath of man's endeavours, thus
18
echoing the seven-runged ladder or chain of evolutionary degrees
that lead up to the Kingdom of perfect Light (the Throne of God,
Iu-Pater, the Father of Light), and the Six Days' Work of
Creation that culminates in the Sabbath. In addition to this,
throughout the scheme runs a triple principle, echoing the Law of
the Holy Trinity.
THE PYRAMID OF PHILOSOPHY
Thus the intention is to erect a true Pyramid of Science or
Philosophy, which can then be put into action or "Art". This
Pyramid or Temple is three-faced or aspected, each face dealing
with one of the three basic knowledges or aspects of Philosophy:
Divine, Human and Natural.
"In Philosophy, the contemplations of man do either penetrate
unto God,- or are circumferred to nature,- or are reflected
or reverted upon himself. Out of which several enquiries
there do arise three know ledges, divine philosophy, natural
philosophy and human philosophy or humanity. For all things
are marked and stamped with this triple character of the
power of God, the difference of nature and the use of man."
3
The speculative or scientific aspects of Philosophy are thus
Divine Philosophy, Human Philosophy and Natural Philosophy.
The operative or artistic counterparts are Ecclesiatical
Prudence, Human Prudence and Natural Prudence.
The Pyramid, besides being three-faced, is also three-tiered:
the base or first stage being Histor-y (i.e. well ordered and
digested experience), the second or middle stage being Physics
(i.e. concerning material and efficient causes), and the third and
final stage being Metaphysics (i.e. concerning formal and final
causes).
"For Knowledges are as whereof History is the
basis. So of Natural Philosophy, the basis is Natural History;
the stage next the basis is Physique; the stage next the
vertical point is Metaphysique. As for the vertical point,
Opus quod operatur Deus a principio usque ad finem, the
Summary Law of Nature, we know not whether man's enquiry
can attain unto it. But these three be the true stages of
Knowledge, and are to them that are depraved no better than
19
SUMMARY PHILOSOPHY
SPEC+ATNE ----------
DIVINE PHILOSOPHY HUMAN PHILOSOPHY NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
(concerning the Nature of Divinity) (concerning tt1e Nature of Humanity) (concerning the Nature of the Universe)
' \

I I I /
Cause or
1//(:;jl;j//
\\ METAPHYSICS
(eoneternin<' formal and final causes)
ECCLESIASTICAL PRUDENCE HUMAN PRUDENCE NATURAL PRUDENCE

OPERATNE
I
EXPERIMENTAL
I
MECHANICAL
I
MAGICAL
Diagram G:
THE PYRAMID OF PHILOSOPHY
(Solomon's Seal and the Christ Star)
20
the giant's hills ... But to those who refer all things to the
glory of God, they are the three acclamations, Sancte,
sancte, sancte! holy in the description or dilation of His
works; Holy in the connection or concantenation of them;
and holy in the union of them in a perpetual and uniform
Law."4
Thus Divine Philosophy is constructed of Eeelesiastieal
History, Divine Physies and Divine Metaphysies; Human
Philosophy is built up of Civil History (i.e. Human Experience),
Human Physies and Human Metaphysies; and Natural Philosophy
has Natural History, Natural Physies and Natural Metaphysies for
its stages. In operative terms, each knowledge (Divine, Human
and Natural) is put into practice in three corresponding ways:
Experimental, Meehanieal and Magieal.
In the reading of Francis' open and acknowledged works we
are given a presentation of his Great Instauration mostly in
terms of Natural Philosophy only, although a complete outline of
the scheme is given or at least hinted at in the Novum Organum
and other works. For instance:
"Again: some will doubt rather than object; whether we
speak of perfecting by our method Natural Philosophy only, or
the other Sciences as well, Logic, Ethics, Politics. But we
certainly understand that what we have said refers to all:
and just as common Logic which rules things by means of
Syllogism pertains not only to natural Sciences, but to all; so
our5 too, which proceeds by Induction, embraces all things .
. For we construct a History and Tables of Discovery as much
of Anger, Fear, Modesty, and the like; or of the examples of
civil affairs; and no less of the mental emotions of Memory,
of Composition and Division, Judgement and the rest; as of
Cold and Heat, Light, Vegetation, or the like. But however,
since our method of Interpretation, after due preparation and
arrangement of History, looks not only into the motions and
processes of the Mind, (as does common Logic,) but also into
the Nature of Things; so we regulate the mind that it may be
able to apply itself to the Nature of Things, by methods apt in
all cases."
5
Even in this Aphorism, although Francis is referring to the
whole scheme with its three basic sciences or philosophies, yet
he still only names one of the other two (besides Natural
21
Philosophy) openly- that is to say, Human Philosophy (i.e.
Logic, Ethics and Politics). Divine Philosophy remains unnamed,
although inferred. This is intentional and all part of the plan and
method of the Great Instauration. Even the final parts of the
Great Instaura tion are only briefly given and discussed with
reference to Natural Philosophy, and no examples are given such
as for the first parts, although Francis openly states that he has
dealt with ALL parts. The Tables of Anger, Fear, etc., are, for
instance, presented before the eyes as the Shakespeare Plays, as
a contribution towards the fourth part of the Great Instaura tion.
All these parts and aspects are concealed in various degrees of
"veiling" or secrecy, waiting to be discovered and developed. It
is all part of the treasure trail - the game of hide and seek; for
which game Francis advises thus:
The limitations of human knowledge are three:
" ... the first, that we do not so place our felicity in
knowledge, as we forget our mortality: the second, that we
make application of our knowledge, to give ourselves repose
and contentment, and not distaste or repining: the third, that
we do not presume by the contemplation of nature to attain
to the mysteries of God.
" And as for the third point, it deserveth to be a little stood
upon, and not to be lightly passed over: for if any man shall
think by view and enquiry into these sensible and material
things to attain that light, whereby he may reveal unto
himself the Nature or Will of God, then indeed is he spoiled
by vain philosophy: for the contemplation of God's creatures
and works produceth (having regard to the works and
creatures themselves) knowledge, but having regard to God,
no perfect knowledge, but wonder, which is broken know-
ledge. And therefore it was most aptly said by one of Plato's
school, That the sense of man carrieth a resemblance with
the sun, which, as we see, openeth and revealeth all the
terrestrial globe; but then ag_ain it obscureth and concealeth
the stars and celestial globe: so doth the sense discover
natural things, but it darkeneth and shutteth up divine."
6
22
DMNITY & PHILOSOPHY
The divine things or mysteries of God cannot be attained by
contemplation of God's works. Rather, they can only be sought
through the means of divine grace, as a revelation from God
inspired into man's heart.
Man's intuitive heart, the innermost part of the mind or soul,
receives the Word of the Inner Teacher; and then passes this
revelation of the holy Wisdom or Will of God, inspired through
Love, to the outer mind or intellect to comprehend as best it
may. This inspiration that comes to man via the heart, Francis
calls Divinity, whilst the role of the intellect in observing,
analysing and conceptualising is termed Philosophy. Both
together, Divinity and Philosophy, combine to create and evolve
man's knowledge or consciousness, his soul. Of the two Francis
points out that Divinity (the role of the heart) is the chiefest,
and is like the mistress who is served and helped by her
handmaiden, Philosophy (the role of the intellect). In other
words, the heart should rule the head (and not the other way
around), but the head should assist and work in conjunction with
the heart, much as the Lord Chancellor serves the King (to give
another relevant analogy).
"Now let us come to that learning, sacred and inspired
Divinity, the Sabbath and port of all men's labours and
peregrinations."
7
"Wherefore we conclude that sacred theology, (which in our
idiom we call Divinity,) is grounded upon the word and oracle
of God, and not upon the light of nature ... "
8
"The knowledge of man is as the waters, some descending
from above, and some springing from beneath; the one
informed by the light of nature, the other inspired by divine
revelation. The light of nature consisteth in the notions of
the mind and the reports of the senses ... So then, according
to these two differing illuminations or originals, knowledge is
first of all divided into Divinity and Philosophy."
9
"The doctrine of religion, as well moral as mystical, is not to
be attained but by inspiration and revelation from God. The
use, not withstanding, of reason in spiritual things, and the
latitude thereof, is very great and general: for it is not for
23
nothing that the apostle calleth religion 'our reasonable
service of God' ... "
10
"The use of human reason in religion is of two sorts: the
former, in the conception and apprehension of the mysteries
of God to us revealed; the other, in the inferring and deriving
of doctrine and direction thereupon. The former extendeth to
the mysteries themselves; but how? by way of illustration,
and not by way of argument. In the former, we see, God
vouchsafeth to descend to our capacity, in the expressing of
His mysteries in sort as may be sensible unto us; and doth
graft His revelations and holy doctrine upon the notions of
our reason, and applieth His inspirations to open our under-
standings, as the form of the key to the ward of the lock: for
the latter, there is allowed us a use of reason and argument,
secondary and respective, although not original and absolute.;;
"And if it be said, that the cure of men's minds belongeth to
Sacred Divinity, it is most true; but yet Moral Philosophy
may be preferred unto her as a wise servant and humble
handmaid. For as the Psalm saith, 'that the eyes of the
handmaid look perpetually towards the mistress', and yet no
doubt many things are left to the discretion of the handmaid,
to discern of the mistress' will; so ought Moral Philosophy to
give constant attention to the doctrines of Divinity, and yet
so as it may yield of herself, within due limits, many sound
and profitable directions."
12
"If one considers the matter rightly, Natural Philosophy is,
after God's Word, the surest medicine for Superstition, and
also the most approved nourishment of Faith. And so she is
rightly given to Religion as a most faithful handmaiden; the
one manifesting the Will of God, the other His power. Nor
was he wrong who said, 'Ye do err, not knowing the
Scriptures, nor the power of God' : connecting and conjoining
information as to His will with meditation on His power in
indissoluble bonds."
13
"Let it be observed, that there be two principal duties and
services, besides ornament and illustration, which philosophy
and human learning do perform to faith and religion ... The
one, because they are an effectual inducement to the
exaltation of the glory of God ... The other, because they
minister a singular help and preservative against unbelief and
24
error : for as our Saviour sayeth, 'You err, not knowing the
Script.ures, nor the power of God'; laying before us two books
or volumes to study, if we would be secured from error; first,
the Scriptures, revealing the will of God; and then the
creatures expressing His power; whereof the latter is a key
unto the former; not only opening our understanding to
conceive the true sense of the Scriptures, by the general
notions of reason and rules of speech; but chiefly opening our
belief, in drawing us into a due meditation of the omni-
potency of God, which is chiefly signed and engraven upon His
works."
14
The Will of God is the active, creative aspect of the Logos or
Holy Wisdom, the Divine Light or Son of God; whilst the Power
of God is that which made Universal Matter. Thus the eye which
looks towards the spiritual or governing aspect of Creation is
regarding the Will of God; and the eye which views the material
aspect of Creation is dealing with the Power of God.
"In the work of the creation we see a double emanation of
Virtue from God; the one referring more properly to Power,
the other to Wisdom; the one expressed in making the
subsistence of the matter, and the other in disposing the
beauty of the form."
15
PUBLIC & PRIVATE- OPEN & SECRET-
THE SCHOOL OF DAY & OF NIGHT.
It must be stressed that Francis Bacon founded and estab-
lished a complete scheme, with studies and examples in all six
parts, in all three philosophies (Divine, Human and Natural), in
all three stages (History, Physics and Metaphysics), and in both
modes (speculative and operative), in order to teach his method
and commence the whole scheme in all its fullness. He also
chose to give us such examples as would be capable of lighting
our way:
"But the next is in every way to be looked into more accurately;
namely, that many things in our History will seem to the ordinary
apprehension, and even to any Intellect accustomed to things as
they now are, to be of some curious and useless subtilty. And so
we have spoken and must speak of this before all things. We say
that we, now at the beginning and for a time, seek only Light-
25
bringing not Fruit-bearing experiments; after the example of the
Divine Creation, as we have often said, which on the first day
produced Light only, and to it assigned one whole day, nor on
that day added any thing of material work."
16
But, in order to play the 'game', the vast bulk of Francis'
studies and examples were purposely veiled from the immediate
public eye, so that a man would have to make an effort and
search for truth of his own accord, make his own discoveries and
achievements in the process, and step by initiatory step prepare
himself and his life so as to become fitted to discover or receive
the deeper and more sacred truths. In accordance with a
carefully detailed initiatory plan, all the necessary clues to lead
the seeker along the treasure trail are clearly given every inch of
the way. Nothing is ommitted that can help the seeker to find
his way. The very way in which Francis chose to present his
method to the world thus constitutes the principal example of
how his method can and does work, and how of its own accord it
selects its filii sapientiae but rejects those not yet ready, fit or
capable of either understanding or practising the teaching.
"That the discretion anciently observed, though by the
precedent of many vain persons and deceivers abused, of
publishing part and reserving part to a private succession, and
of publishing in such a manner whereby it may not be to the
taste or capacity of all, but shall as it were single and adopt
his reader, is not to be laid aside; both for the avoiding of
abuse in the excluded, and the strengthening of affection in
the admitted."
17
"To ascend further by scale I do forbear, partly because it
would draw on the example to an over-great length, but
chiefly because it would open that which in this work I
determine to reserve."
1
8
".... So too our plan is that our teaching should quietly enter
into souls fit and capable of it ...
1119
Francis' wisdom and teaching, and his own examples and
experiments - together with those of the men and women who
have laboured as true "Sons of the Sciences", "Sons of Wisdom",
either with him or since, or who laboured before him and from
whom he inherited wisdom knowledge -are preserved either in
writing or in memory, both of which he developed to a high and
26
well-managed art. This work included the herculian task of
improving and building up the English language in terms both of
the number of words and of their meanings and usage:
"The custody or retaining of knowledge is either in writing or
11 20
memory ....
This total knowledge is handed down, as in the past, by means
of Tradition (i.e. the expressing or transferring of knowledge to
others). But, like all other knowledges outlined in the
Advancement and Proficience of Learning, he developed this to a
fine science and art, making full use of each of its parts (i.e.
organ of tradition, method of tradition, and illustration of
tradition) and subdivisions (i.e. speech and writing, including
cipher, emblems, gestures, hieroglyphs and symbols; magisterial
teaching and probationary intimations, parables, revelations,
aphorisms, assertations and proofs, questions and determinations,
vulgar or public, received or initiatory; and rhetoric, or the art
of eloquence, etc.). Generally speaking, Francis' public prog-
ramme for Natural Philosophy was officially begun in 1616-17 as
The King James' Academy or College of Honour, later to become
known as The Invisible College, which gave birth to The Royal
Society and many other offshoots or allied research societies.
His programme for Human Philosophy was put into action
principally via Freemasonry, which he revivified and reorganised,
and which he made into a specific training school and research
college for human ethics. Divine Philosophy was mostly studied,
cared for and put into action by the Rosicrucian Fraternity, in its
most secret or sacred sense, which Francis also reorganised and
reinspired at that time as part of an overall plan. But these were
intended as "Light-bearers", to kindle and inspire innumerable
other movements, organisations, groups and individuals to re-
search and put into operation the three basic philosophical
studies.
SUMMARY PHILOSOPHY
The study and practice of each of the three basic philosophies
are not always exactly separate from each other, but intermingle
one with another in various ways; and so there is also a Summary
Philosophy or universal science which embraces all the others, or
rather, from which the other three philosophies develop and
manifest:
27
PRUDENCE
(Operative)
~
\
- _)
'
"In Philosophy, the contemplations of man do either penetrate
unto God, or are circumferred to nature, or are reflected or
reverted upon himself. Out of which several enquiries there
do arise three knowledges, divine philosophy, natural philo-
sophy, and human philosophy or humanity. For all things are
marked and stamped with this triple character of the power
of God, the difference of nature and the use of man. But
because the distributions and partitions of knowledge are not
like several lines that meet in one angle, and so touch but in
one point; but are like the branches of a tree, that meet in a
stem, which hath a dimension and quantity of entireness and
continuance, before it come to break itself into arms and
boughs: therefore it is good, before we enter into the former
distribution, to erect and constitute one universal science, by
the name of philosophia prima, primitive or summary philo-
sophy, as the main and common way, before we come where
the ways part and divide themselves ....
"Therefore, because in a writing of this nature, I avoid all
subtilty, my meaning touching this original or universal
philosophy is thus, in a plain and gross description by
negative: That it be a receptacle for all such profitable
observations and axioms as fall not within the compass of any
of the special parts of philosophy or sciences, but are more
common and of a higher stage .. "
21
POETRY
Finally, it should be noted what an important and vital place
Poetry (i.e. the imaginative arts) has in this scheme, even as it
had for the Ancients. These arts are used to present History (i.e.
recorded Experience) to the mind (i.e. the soul, in Baconian
terms) both in a well-ordered and inter-related way, and also in a
living artistic way that appeals and speaks to the feelings and
heart of man's soul as well as to the soul's outer, intellectual
mind. In this manner the heart is stimulated to perform its
function of receiving divine inspiration through sympathy and
love, so as to illumine and warm the thoughts of the mind. Cold
intellectualism is thus avoided.
Then, after the illuminated mind or soul has drawn further
conclusions or "Speculations" from these "Inventions" or poetic-
ally presented "Axioms", this learning is transferred back to the
29
sphere 0f action (in which the whole world is the stage) for
further experimentation and practical use, via the imaginative or
poetic arts. Poetry, the science and art of the Imagination, is
thus the mediator or Janus between History and Reason, and
between Decision and Action or new Experience, just as it is also
the mediator between the impressions of the heart and the
reflections of the head. Eventually the more certain conclusions
that form the true Interpretation of Nature are and will be
arrived at.
"The Knowledge which respecteth the faculties of the mind of
man is of two kinds; the one respecting his Understanding
and Reason, and the other his Will, Appetite, and Affection;
whereof the former produceth Position or Decree, the latter
Action or Execution. It is true that the Imagination is an
agent or nuncius in both provinces, both the judicial and the
ministerial. For Sense sendeth over to Imagination before
Reason hath judged: and Reason sendeth over to Imagination
before the decree can be acted: for Imagination ever
procedeth Voluntary Motion. Saving that this Janus of
Imagination hath differing faces: for the face towards
Reason hath the print of Truth, but the face towards Action
hath the print of Good ..... For as for poesy, it is rather a
pleasure or play of Imagination, than a work or duty thereof.
And if it be a work, we speak not now of such parts of
learning as the Imagination produceth, but of such sciences as
handle and consider of the Imagination ... "
22
" so as it appeareth that poesy serveth and conferreth to
magnanimity, morality, and to delectation. And therefore it
was ever thought to have some participation of divineness,
because it doth raise and erect the mind, by submitting the
shows of things to the desires of the mind; whereas reason
doth buckle and bow the mind into the nature of things."
23
TRUTH
By this means Truth will be discovered in all her nakedness
and beauty, in the course of Time. The only purpose for
discovering Truth, as well as for testing that it is indeed Truth, is
to put it into action. If it is Truth, then the action will not only
be useful, it will be wholly good.
30
"And so the chief things of all are, in this kind, Truth and
Usefulness; and effects themselves are to be accounted of
more worth, in so far as they are pledges of truth, than as
they give the comforts of life."
24
"Nay, further, in general and in sum, certain it is that Veritas
and Bonitas differ but as the seal and the print: for Truth
prints Goodness; and they be the clouds of error which
descend in the storms of passions and perturbations."
25
Goodness is the manifestation of Truth. To live in Truth is
the purpose and goal of life, as another, earlier Fra. C.R.C. once
said. He who lives truth really knows truth, and he who knows
truth has the chance to live in truth. When this is so for all
mankind, then the Great Instauration will be complete.
31
32
THE SIX PARTS OF THE INSTAURATION
THE FIRST PART
The Arrangement of the Sciences
A map of the arrangement and inter-relationships of the
Knowledges, Divine, Human and Natural, is sketched out in the
1623 publication, De Dignitate & Augmentis Scientiarum, which
is itself an expanded and more complete version of the earlier
1605 publication, Of the Proficience and Advancement of
Learning, and later published again in English in expanded form
in 1640 as Of the Advancement and Proficience of Learning, or
the Partitions of Sciences. This part provides a survey and
appraisal of the terrain of the Sciences as existing in Bacon's
time - how it lies, where it is deficient and where it is
satisfactory -in preparation for the raising of the true Pyramid
of Sciences upon properly surveyed anrllaid out ground.
"Therefore I did conclude with myself, that I could not make
unto your Majesty a better oblation than of some Treatise
tending to that end, whereof the sum will consist of these two
parts; the former, concerning the excellency of Learning and
Knowledge, and the excellency of the merit and true glory in
the augmentation and propagation thereof: the latter, what
the particular acts and works are, which have been embraced
and undertaken for the Advancement of Learning; and again,
what defects and undervalues I find in such particular acts;
to the end, that ... I may excite your princely cogitations to
visit the excellent treasure of your own mind, and thence to
extract particulars for this purpose, agreeably to your
magnanimity and wisdom." 26
"The First Part exhibits the sum or universal description of
that Learning or Knowledges in the possession of whereof
men hath hitherto been estated. For we thought good to
make some stay even upon Sciences received, and that for
this consideration, that we might give more advantage to the
33
34
perfection of ancient knowledges, and to the introduction of
new: for we are carried, in some degree, with an equal
temper of Desire, both to improve the labours of the
Ancients, and to make farther progress ....
"Nevertheless we adjoin such Partitions of Sciences as
comprehended, not only such things that are found out and
observed already, but such also as we are thereto pertaining
and have been hitherto pretermiss'd."
27
THE SECOND PART:
The New Method, or Well-grounded Information concerning the
Interpretation of Nature, or A True Guide to the Interpretation
of Nature
This part deals with the method by which the Pyramid of
Sciences is to be raised upon the prepared ground.
Information about and a description of Francis Bacon's New
Method, which he calls "the Interpretation of Nature" - intended
as a systematic means or instrument to help the mind to discover
and truly comprehend the laws of Nature (that is, of the Works of
God, individual and universal) without error - was first published
in 1620, in Latin, as the Novum Organum. Only two out of the
three books of this Novum Organum were made public; the third
remained unpublished and reserved, to all intents and purposes
(like many of his voluminous works), to either a "private
succession" or for "future ages" to discover.
The first book is entitled Aphorisms on the Interpretation of
Nature and the Realm of Man; whilst the second book is called
Aphorisms on the Interpretation of Nature or the Reign of Man.
The former introduces the whole method, outlining the subject
matter (which is Human Power and Human Knowledge). The
latter describes the objects of Human Power and Knowledge, and
gives the actual rules of the method with carefully edited, step-
by-step "examples of particulars" drawn from Francis' own
researches concerning the discovery of Forms (i.e. the meta-
physical laws that lie beyond and behind the purely physical laws,
as the real c8.uses of all that is) of Heat and Cold, Light and
Colour, Gravity and Levity, Magnetism or Sympathy and
Antipathy, Life and Death, and many others. He only gives
extracts from what are obviously most profound metaphysical
35
researches and observations, but does so in ways that not only
illustrate his method, but also display scintillating clues to the
deep truths he has found or begun to discover.
His examples deal with the three Tables of First Present-
ation, the Table of Rejection or Exclusion, and the First Vintage.
The Remaining Helps or Ministration to the Intellect are dealt
with in the unpublished third book, except for the first of the
nine Helps which is given in detail in the last half of Book II, to
give a lead-in to the student to discover or work out examples of
the rest for himself.
"Now that we have coasted past the Ancient Arts, we will
prepare the Human Intellect for its passage to new lands of
discovery. And so this second Part has for its end Instruction
as to a better and more perfect use of Reason in discovery of
things, and the true aids of the Intellect: so that (as far as
the frail condition of humanity allows) the Intellect may be
raised by it, and enabled to scale the steep and dark ascents
of Nature. This Art (which we term the Interpretation of
Nature) is in kind Logical; although between it and ordinary
Logic there is a vast, immeasurable difference ... "
28
THE THIRD PART:
Universal Phenomena, or Natural and Experimental History with
regard to an Ordered Philosophy
The third part concerns the building of the first stage of the
Pyramid of Sciences, the ground having been surveyed and
planned out, and the best method of construction having been
ascertained.
This first stage of the Pyramid is History:- i.e. Tables of
observation based on experience and experiment, suitably sorted
and arranged for "presentation to the Intellect"; which Francis
also calls "well ordered and digested experience". These Tables
lead from the three Tables of First Presentation (also called
Tables and Coordinations of Instances), through the Table of
Rejection, to the Table of Affirmation (or First Vintage), and
thence to the nine Remaining Helps that culminate in the
Ascending and Descending Ladder of Axioms (or Tables of
Invention). The Ladder of Axioms forms the fourth part of the
Great Instauration.
36
37
"But our purpose is not only to point out and munite the way,
but to enterprise it: wherefore the Third Part of the work
compriseth Phaenomena Universi, as to say, all kind of
Experience, and Natural History, of such kind as may be
fundamental for the building up of Natural Philosophy. For
neither can any exact way of Demonstration or Form of
interpreting Nature both guard and support the mind from
error and lapse, and withall present and minister matter for
knowledge. But they who proposed to themselves not to
proceed by Conjectures and Divinations, but to find out. ,t;tcl
to know, whose end and aim is not to contrive Fictions and
Fables, but to search with diligence into the nature of, and,
as it were, anatomise this true world, must derive all from
the very things themselves.
"Nor can the substitution and compensation of wit, or
meditation, or argumentation suffice to this travail, inqui-
sition, and mundane perambulation; no, not if all the wits in
the world should meet together. Wherefore we must either
take a right course, or desert the business for ever: and to
this day the matter hath been so managed, that it is no
marvel if nature hath not disclosed herself. For first,
defective and fallacious information of sense; negligent,
unequal, and as it were, casual observation; vain Tradition
and from idle report; Practise, intent on the work, and
servile, experimental attempt, ignorant, dull, wild, and
broken; lastly slight and poor Natural History; have towards
the raising of Philosophy congested most depraved matter for
the understanding. After this, preposterous subtlety of
arguing, and ventilation, hath essayed a late remedy to things
plainly desperate; which doth not any way recover the
business or separate errors.
"Wherefoce there is no hope of greater advancement and
progress, but in the Restauration of Sciences. And the
commencements hereto must, by all means, be derived from
Natmal History; and that too, of a new kind and provision:
for to no purpose you polish the Glass, if images be wanting:
not only faithful guards must be procured, but apt matter
prepared."
29
:l8
THE FOURTH PART:
The Ladder of the Intellect, or The Thread of the Labyrinth, or
The Method of the Mind in the Comprehension of Things Exemplified,
or The Intellectual Sphere rectified to the Globe
The fourth part is involved with the presentation of the
History to the mind using the imaginative arts as the Janus or
Media tor /Interpreter.
The second and third stages of the Pyramid of Philosophy are
comprised of the knowledges (Divine, Human and Natural)
concerning physical and metaphysical laws respectively. The
intention is that the collected History should be put together into
an appropriate poetical form, (guided or infused by divine
inspiration), called Tables of Invention or Discovery, so that the
whole mind (heart and intellect) may feel and observe them as a
complete panorama of inter-relationships, based on carefully
observed experience but now emphasised and presented, as it
were in a frame, in order to stimulate the mind to notice and
cognise the deepest truths and profoundest laws that lie behind
the mask of Nature. Francis Bacon and his fraternity gave the
world the Shake-speare Plays as examples of such Tables of
Invention, in particular concerning Human and Divine Philosophy,
"set, as it were, before the Eyes" of the soul. From these Tables,
intermediate (i.e. temporary) axioms or speculations may be
drawn.
"Now we have both fortified and environed the understanding
with faithful auxiliaries and forces, and by a strict muster
raised a complete Army of Divine works, there seems nothing
remaining but that we set upon Philosophy itself. But in so
difficult and dubious an enterprise, there are some particulars
which seem necessarily to be interposed partly for instruct-
ion, partly for present use.
"Of these the first is, that the examples of Inquisition and of
Invention be propounded according to our rule and method
represented in particular subjects; chiefly making choice of
such subjects, which amongst other things to be enquired, are
most noble, and in mutual relation, most adverse; that there
may not want an example in every kind. Nor do we speak of
those examples which for illustration sake are annexed to
every particular precept and rule, (for we have sufficiently
quit our selves hereof in the Second Part of the work,) but we
39
mean directly the types and platforms which may present, as
it were, to the eye, the whole procedme of the mind, and the
continued fa brick and order of Invent ion, in certain selected
subjects; and they various and of remark ....
"Wherefore to examples of this sort we assign the Fourth Part
of our work, which indeed is nothing else but a particular and
explicit application of the Second Part."
30
THE FIFTH PART:
Forerunners, or Anticipations of the Second Philosophy
The fifth part concerns the making and storing of temporary
axioms or speculations concerning truth about life, its laws and
operations, and the Spirit that it expresses, until these axioms
can be properly and fully tested by the complete process that is
proposed -of which the final stage is to test the axiom in action,
and to keep on testing, modifying, revising, until a result is
obtained that is wholly good and beneficial to all life.
"For the unlearned man knows not what it is to descend into
himself, or to call himself to account; nor the pleasure of
that suivissima vita, indies sentire se fieri meliorem. The
good parts he hath he will learn to show to the full, and use
them dexteriously, but not much to increase them: the faults
he hath he will learn how to hide and colour them, but not
much to amend them: like an ill mower, that mows on still,
and never whets his scythe: whereas with the learned man it
fares otherwise, that he doth ever intermix the correction
and amendment of his mind with the use and employment
thereof. Nay, further, in general and in sum, certain it is
that Veritas and Bonitas differ but as the seal and the print:
for Truth prints Goodness; and they be the clouds of error
which descend in the storms of passions and perturbations."
31
"For we are founding in the human Intellect a true pattern of
the Universe; such as it is actually found to be, not such as
any one's own reason may have suggested it to him. But this
cannot be completed, save after a most diligent dissection
and anatomy of the world. We declare that those foolish
models, and as it were apish imitations of worlds, which men's
fancies have erected in their systems of Philosophy, are to be
seat tered to the winds. And so let men know, as we said
40
above, what a difference there is between the Phantoms of
the human mind, and the Ideas of the Divine Mind. The
former are nothing but fanciful abstractions: the latter are
the true signatures of the Creator upon creatures, as they are
impressed and limited in matter by real and exquisite lines.
And so the chief things of all are, in this kind, Truth and
U se{ulness; and effects themselves are to be accounted of
more worth, in so far as they are pledges of truth, than as
they give the comforts of life."
32
The poetic form of the Tables of Invention is designed so that
the heart as well as the intellect is appealed to, stimulating the
heart to open out like a flower or cup to receive divine
inspiration or illumination regarding the History presented, at
the same time as the reason is pondering upon and analysing what
is shown. The result can then be illumined knowledge -the light
of nature interpreted with the help of the light of divine
wisdom -and this can then be put into action. If the result is
useful and truly good in the most universal way, then the more
certain conclusions concerning Truth, that are to form the sixth
part of the Great Instauration, may be drawn from them. But
these more certain conclusions should not be drawn too readily or
hastily from experience, until time has proved the action to be
good in every possible way; and many intermediate experiments
and axioms may be necessary.
Again, the method of translating the philosophical conclusions
or axioms into the sphere of action is via Poetry, in its many
forms. The main examples given to the world by Francis and his
friends for this part of the Great Instauration -a beginning for
others to develop and add to, as were the Shakespeare Plays for
the fourth part - are the powerful and dramatic ceremonies and
rituals, profound lectures, and beautiful poetry of word, move-
ment, colour, music, symbology, order, and much else, of the
revivified and recreated Freemasonic and Rosicrucian Orders, all
of which act on man's psyche to produce certain highly beneficial
effects - not to mention the charitable works and labours of
research organised by these fraternities - the real goodness and
benefit of which can only be judged in the course of time.
"But the Fifth Part is added only for a time, and paid as
interest until the Principal be raised. For we are not so
precipitantly bent upon the end, as too slightly to pass over
what we casually meet with by the way. Wherefore the Fifth
41
Part of the Work is composed of such things as we have, or
found out, or experimented, or superadded; nor yet do we
perform this by the reasons and rules of Interpretation, but by
the same application of the understanding which others in
enquiry and invention use to practise. For seeing from our
perpetual converse with nature, we hope greater matters
from our meditations than we can promise to ourselves from
the strength of our own wit; these observations may be as
tents pitched in the way, into which the mind, in pursuit of
more certain collections, may turn in, and for a while repose
herself. Yet in the mean, we promise not to engage ourselves
upon the credit of those observations; because they are not
found out nor tried by the right form of Interpretation.
33
THE SIXTH PART:
The Second Philosophy, or Knowledge in Action
The sixth part is comprised of the "more certain conclusions"
regarding Truth and its Laws. This is the final Philosophy
(Philosophia Secunda, sive Scientia Activa), gleaned from the
"new experiments" concerning Goodness and Usefulness, which
themselves were the result of all the previous stages in Francis'
method. It is "a Philosophy discovered by lawful Interpretation
of Nature", that is, by the New Method. Moreover, the Second
Philosophy is not simply conceived to be made up of well-proven
Axioms concerning Divine Philosophy, Human Philosophy and
Natural Philosophy, but also includes the "common parent" or
"stem" of these three, called the Original or Universal Philosophy
(also referred to as the Primitive or Summary Philosophy), in
which may be found an understanding of the Summary Law of
Nature - the Law of Love -the vertical point or capstone of the
Pyramid of Sciences.
This Second Philosophy completes the final form of the
Pyramid, by perfecting it; its two stages of philosophical truth
(physical and metaphysical) being built upon the experience of
that knowledge in action, as Charity or Goodness. The
Speculative and Operative Arts cannot be separated, for "Truth
prints Goodness"; nor can the Poetic Art be absent, which
mediates and unites the other two. Good History, inspired (and
inspiring) Poetry and true Philosophy constitute the real Pyramid
of Sciences, the whole transfixed and illumined by the light of
Divine Wisdom.
42
The vtswn of this sixth part, which Francis went some way
towards beginning and establishing, ready for others to develop,
is hinted at in his New Atlantis, part only of which was published
(and that highly edited according to the rules of the game). It is
none other than a Society or Fraternity of men and women who
are able to "live in truth", knowing truth to some sufficient
extent and practising that truth throughout their daily lives. It is
a vision of the true Brotherhood of Humanity of the much-quoted
Golden Age, towards which we are growing, or trying to grow.
It seems quite probable that part of the methods, teachings
and way of life developed through the Freemasonic and Rosi-
crucian fraternities have sufficiently stood the test of time, and
may be considered as "more certain conclusions" concerning
Truth, worthy to be placed as part of the Second Philosophy;
whereas much else in that field has been and still is being revised
and modified as time goes on. Whatever one considers to be true
Freemasonry or Rosicrucianism nowadays, there is no doubt that
Francis Bacon's original fraternity was established as a working
model and experiment which, if successful, would point the way
to the achievement of a world-wide Brotherhood of Man. Almost
from the start (and as intended), many offshoots and separate
new plants sprang from the mother tree -and still continue to do
so. In the mainstream of Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism, -
despite many changes, additions and diversifications, particularly
during the 18th century,- the main core and method of the
teaching is still as it was first set out, and its fundamental
principles still stand as fundamental principles, tried, tested and
found to be true.
From the beginning Francis intended to give to the world
"Light-bringing" thoughts, derived from "Light-bringing" experi-
ments, so as to guide and illumine the way. Thus he deliberately
aimed high- right for the Summary Law of Nature, the Law or
Cause that first brought Light into being, the Law of Love.
Although he doubted if men would ever reach a full understand-
ing of the most sublime Law of all, that lies at the heart of all
Creation, yet the little that he did learn, comprehend and test
concerning this Love, Francis taught and put into operation, both
personally and via his Freemasonic and Rosicrucian brotherhoods.
The name Francis uses to describe it, is CHARITY: and because
it is the Cause of all causes, it is the Key of all works. The
knowledge and understanding of it is eminently to be desired, and
essential. Charity, whether it be Divine Love or human Love,
43
has an infinite variety of aspects, degrees and ways of
manifestation or working. Those principles of Charity which
Francis discovered, he scattered for posterity, via his brother-
hood and his writings, as "seeds of a more sincere Truth" and as
"landmarks" on the path of Light.
"Now the Sixth Part of our Work, whereto the rest are
subservient and ministrant, doth altogether disclose and
propound that Philosophy which is educed and constituted out
of such a legitimate, sincere and severe enquiry as we have
already taught and prepared. But to consummate and perfect
this last Part is a thing exalted above our strength, and
beyond our hopes. We have given it, as we trust, not
contemptible beginnings; the prosperous success of mankind
shall give it issue; and peradventure such as men in this
present state of mind and employments cannot easily con-
ceive and comprehend. And the case concerns not contem-
plative felicity alone, but indeed men's affairs and fortunes,
and all the power of works. For Man, Nature's minister and
interpreter, doeth and understands so much as he hath by
Operation or Contemplation observed of Nature's Order; nor
can know or do any more: for neither can any forces unloose
and break asunder the chain of Causes; nor is nature
otherwise, than by obedience unto it, vanquished."
34
"We are determined to try whether we cannot lay the
foundations of human power and dignity more firmly, and
extend its boundaries more widely. And although dispersedly
and in some special subjects we have things more true, more
certain (as we believe), and even more fruitful than those
which men as yet have made use of; (we have gathered them
into the Fifth Part of our Instauration;) yet we propound no
universal or complete Theory. For the time for so doing does
not seem to be yet come. Nor do we expect to live to
complete the Sixth Part of the Instauration (which is destined
for a Philosophy discovered by lawful Interpretation of
Nature); but we hold it sufficient if we proceed soberly and
usefully in the intermediate part, and meanwhile scatter for
posterity seeds of a more sincere Truth, and be not wanting
to the commencement of so great matters.
35
"Many things in our History will seem to the ordinary
apprehension, and even to any Intellect accustomed to things
as they now are, to be of some curious and useless subtilty.
44
And so we have spoken and must speak of this before all
things. We say that we, now at the beginning and for a time,
seek only Light-bringing not Fruit-bearing experiments; after
the example of the Divine Creation, as we have often said,
which on the first day produced Light only, and to it assigned
one whole day, nor on that day added anything of material
work."
36
45
46
CHARITY- THE SUPREME LAW OR RULE
" 'The spirit of man is as the lamp of God, wherewith he
searcheth the inwardness of all secrets.' If then such be the
capacity and receipt of the mind of man, it is manifest that
there is no danger at all in the proportion or quantity of
knowledge, how large soever, lest it should make it swell or
out-compass itself; no, but it is merely the quality of
knowledge which, be it in quantity more or less, hath in it
some nature of venom or malignity, and some effects of that
venom, which is ventosity or swelling. This corrective spice,
the mixture whereof maketh knowledge so sovereign, is
Charity, which the Apostle immediately addeth to the former
clause: for so he saith, 'Knowledge bloweth up, but Charity
buildeth up'; not unlike that which he delivereth in another
place: 'If I spake', saith he, 'with the tongues of men and
angels, and had not charity, it were but as a tinkling cymbal';
not but that it is an excellent thing to speak with the tongues
of men and angels, but because, if it be severed from charity,
and not referred to the good of men and mankind, it hath
rather a sounding and unworthy glory, than a meriting and
substantial virtue."
37
" .... Charity, which is excellently called the bond of
perfection, because it comprehendeth and fasteneth all
virtues together .... So certainly, if a man's mind be truly
inflamed with charity, it doth work him suddenly into a
greater perfection than all the doctrine ~ morality can do,
which is but a sophist in comparison of the other. Nay
further, as Xenephon observed truly, that all other affections,
though they raise the mind, yet do it by distorting and
uncomeliness of ecstasies or excesses; but only love doth
exalt the mind, and nevertheless at the same instant doth
settle and compose it; so in all other excellencies, though
they advance nature, yet they are subject to excess; only
charity admitteth no excess. For so we see, aspiring to be
like God in power, the angels transgressed and fell; 'I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the
47
Most High': by aspmng to be like God in knowledge, man
transgressed and fell; 'Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil': but by aspiring to a similitude of God in goodness or
love, neither man nor angel ever transgressed, or shall
transgress. For unto that imitation we are called: 'Love your
enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that
curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and
persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father
which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the

"There is in man's nature, a secret inclination and motion
towards love of others; which, if it be not spent upon some
one, or a few, doth naturally spread itself towards many; and
maketh men become more humane and charitable; as is seen
sometime in Friars. Nuptial Love maketh Mankind; Friendly
Love perfecteth it; but Wanton Love corrupteth, and
imbaseth it."
39
48
49
Extracts from
THE THIRD DEGREE LECTURES OF FREEMASONRY
"Your admission among Masons in a state of helpless
indigence was an emblematical representation of the
entrance of all men on this, their mortal existence. It
inculcated the useful lessons of natural equality and mutual
dependence. It instructed you in the active principles of
universal beneficence and charity, and taught you to seek the
solace of your own distress by extending relief and consol-
ation to your fellow-creatures in the hour of their affliction.
Above all, it taught you to bend with humility and resignation
to the Will of the Great Architect of the Universe; and to
dedicate your heart, thus purified from every baneful and
malignant passion and fitted only for the reception of truth
and wisdom, as well to His Glory as to the welfare of your
fellow-creatures.
"Proceeding onwards, and still guiding your steps by the
principles of moral truth, you were led in the Second Degree
to contemplate the intellectual faculty, and to trace it from
its development, through the paths of heavenly science, even
to the Throne of God Himself. The secrets of Nature and the
principles of intellectual truth were then unveiled to your
view."
"To your mind, thus modelled by virtue and science, Nature,
however, presents one great and useful lesson more. She
prepares you, by contemplation, for the closing hour of your
existence; and when, by means of that contemplation, she has
conducted you through the intricate windings of this mortal
state, she finally instructs you how to die. Such, Brother
A.B., is the peculiar lesson of the Third Degree in Masonry,
the chief object of which is to teach the heart to seek for
happiness in the consciousness of a life well spent, so that,
when the shadows gather around, an unseen arm may sustain
the sinking head, and Death create not a captive but a
conqueror; it invites you to reflect on this awful subject, and
50
teaches you to feel that, to the just and virtuous man, Death
has no terrors equal to the stain of falsehood and dishonour."
"Let me now beg you to observe that the light of a Master
Mason is darkness visible, serving only to express that gloom
which rests on the prospect of futurity. It is that mysterious
veil of darkness which the eye of human reason cannot
penetrate, unless assisted by the light which is from above ....
Let the emblems of mortality which lie before you lead you
to contemplate your inevitable destiny, and guide your
reflections into that most interesting of all human studies,
the knowledge of yourself. Be careful to perform your
alloted task while it is day, for the night cometh when no man
can work. Continue to listen to the voice of Nature, which
bears witness that even in this perishable frame resides a
vital and immortal principle, which inspires a holy confidence
that the Lord of Life will enable us to trample the king of
terrors beneath our feet, and lift our eyes to that bright
Morning Star whose rising brings peace and salvation to the
faithful and obedient of the human race."
"And may the blessing of the Most High rest upon us, and
upon all true and faithful Brethren throughout the world;
may brotherly love prevail, and every moral and social good
cement us."
51
LVG.BA'rAVOll..
Franc.Hackium
A n m ~ Jd.f..::.
52
Extracts from
THE FAME AND CONFESSION OF THE FRATERNITY
OF THE MOST LAUDABLE ORDER OF THE ROSY CROSS
"Seeing the only wise and merciful God in these latter days
hath poured out so richly his mercy and goodness to mankind,
whereby we do attain more and more to the perfect
knowledge of His Son Jesus Christ and Nature, that justly we
may boast of the happy time, wherein there is not only
discovered unto us the half part of the World, which was
heretofore unknown and hidden, but He hath also made
manifest unto us many wonderful, and never-heretofore seen,
works and creatures of Nature, and moreover hath raised
men, indued with great wisdom, which might partly renew and
reduce all arts (in this our age spotted and imperfect) to
perfection; so that finally man might thereby understand his
own nobleness and worth, and why he is called Microcosmos,
and how far his knowledge extendeth in Nature.
"Although the rude World herewith will be but little pleased,
but rather smile and scoff thereat; also the pride and
covetousness of the learned is so great, it will not suffer
them to agree together; but were they united, they might out
of all those things which in this our age God doth so richly
bestow upon us, collect Librum Naturae, or a perfect Method
of all Arts: but such is their opposition that they still keep,
and are loth to leave the old course, esteeming Porphiry,
Aristotle, and Galen, yea and that which hath but a mere
show of learning, more than the clear and manifested Light
and Truth; who if they were now living, with much joy would
leave their erroneous doctrines .... "
"After two years Brother C.R ..... sailed .... into Spain, hoping
well .... that the learned in Europe would highly rejoice with
him, and begin to rule and order all their studies according to
those sound and sure foundations. He therefore conferred
with the learned in Spain, shewing unto them the errors of our
arts, and how they might be corrected, and from whence they
53
should gather the true Inditia of the times to come, and
wherein they ought to agree with those things that are past;
also how the faults of the Church and the whole Philosophia
Moralis was to be amended. He showed them new growths,
new fruits, and beasts, which did concord with old Philosophy,
and prescribed them new A.riomata whereby all things might
fully be restored. But it was to them a laughing matter; and
being a new thing unto them, they feared that their great
Name should be lessened if they should now again begin to
learn and acknowledge their many years' errors, to which they
were accustomed, and wherewith they had gained them
enough. Whoso loveth unquietness, let him be reformed.
"The same song was also sung to him by other Nations, the
which moved him the more (because it happened to him
contrary to his expectation,) being then ready bountifully to
impart all his arts and secrets to the learned, if they would
have but undertaken to write the true and infallible A:xiomata
out of all faculties, sciences and arts, and whole Nature, as
that which he knew would direct them, like a globe or circle,
to the only middle point and Centrum, and .... it should only
serve to the wise and learned for a Rule, that also there
might be a Society in Europe, which might have gold, silver,
and precious stones, sufficient for to bestow on Kings for
their necessary uses and lawful purposes: with which such as
be Governors might be brought up, for to learn all that which
God hath suffered man to know, and thereby to be enabled in
all times of need to give their counsel unto those that seek it,
like Heathen Oracles ....
1140
"Concerning the alteration and amendment of Philosophy, we
have (as much as at this present is needful) sufficiently
declared, to wit, that the same is altogether weak and faulty;
yet we doubt not, although the most part falsely do alledge
that she (I know not how) is sound and strong, yet notwith-
standing she fetches her last breath and is departing.
"But as commonly, even in the same place or country where
there breaketh forth a new accustomed disease, Nature also
there discovereth a medicine against the same; so there doth
appear for so manifold infirmities of Philosophy, the right
means, and unto our Patria sufficiently offered, whereby st1c
may become sound again, and altogether new.
54
"No other Philosophy we have, than that which is the head
and sum, the foundation and contents of all faculties,
sciences and arts ....
"If there be somebody now, which on the other side will
complain of our discretion, that we offer our Treasures so
freely, and without any difference to all men, and do not
rather regard and respect the godly, learned, wise or princely
persons, than the common people; those we do not
contradict, seeing it is not a slight and easy matter; but
withall we signify so much, that our Arcana or Secrets will no
ways be common and generally made known. Although the
Fama be set forth in five languages, and is manifested to
everyone, yet we do partly very well know, that the unlearned
and gross wits will not receive nor regard the same; as also
the worthiness of those who shall be accepted into our
Fraternity are not esteemed and known of us by man's
carefulness, but by the Rule of our revelation and
manifestation."
41
55
56
Extract from
THE INTRODUCTION TO THE GREAT INSTAURATION
"FRANCIS OF VERULAM reasoned thus with himself, and
judged it to be for the interest of the present and future
generations that they should be made acquainted with his
thoughts.
"Being convinced that the human intellect makes its own
difficultes, not using the true helps which are at man's
disposal soberly and judiciously; whence follows manifold
ignorance of things, and by reason of that ignorance mischiefs
innumerable; he thought all trial should be make, whether
that commerce between the mind of man and the nature of
things, which is more precious than anything of the earth,
might by any means be restored to its perfect and original
condition, or if that may not be, yet reduced to a better
condition than that in which it now is ....
"For while men are occupied in admiring and applauding the
false powers of the mind, they pass by and throw away those
true powers, which, if it be supplied with the proper aids and
can itself be content to wait upon nature instead of vainly
affecting to overrule her, are within its reach. There was but
one course left, therefore, -to try the whole thing anew upon
a better plan, and to commence a total reconstruction of
sciences, arts, and all human knowledge, raised upon the
proper foundations. And this, though in the project and
undertaking it may seem a thing infinite and beyond the
powers of man, yet when it comes to be dealt with it will be
found sound and sober, more so than what has been done
hitherto. For of this there is some issue; whereas in what is
now done in the matter of science there is only a whirling
about, and perpetual agitation, ending where it began. And
although he was aware how solitary an enterprise it is, and
how hard a thing to win faith and credit for, nevertheless he
was resolved not to abandon either it or himself; nor to be
deterred from trying and entering upon that one path which is
alone open to the human mind. Far better it is to make a
beginning of that which may lead to something, than to
engage in a perpetual struggle and pursuit in courses which
have no exit .... "
57
Extracts from
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY TO THE GREAT INSTAURATION
" And to say truth, I am wont for my own part to regard
this work as a child of Time rather than of wit .... "
"I wish that if there be any good in what I have to offer, it
may be ascribed to the infinite mercy and goodness of God,
and to the felicity of your Majesty's times; to which as I have
been an honest and affectionate servant in my life, so after
my death I may yet perhaps, through the kindling of this new
light in the darkness of philosophy, be the means of making
this age famous to posterity; and surely to the times of the
wisest and most learned of kings belongs of right the
regeneration and restorationof the sciences.
"Lastly, I have a request to make .... that you who resemble
Solomon in so many things .... would further follow his
example in taking order for the collecting and perfecting of a
Natural and Experimental History, true and severe (unincum-
bered with literature and book-learning), such as philosophy
may be built upon ... that so at length, after the lapse of so
many ages, philosophy and the sciences may no longer float in
air, but rest upon ~ h solid foundation of experience of every
kind, and the same well examined and weighed. I have
provided the machine, but the stuff must be gathered from
the facts of Nature .... "
58
LVGD. BAT.A.VOR.VM
Apud. Franci.kum .M.oiardum,
Et .Adrianum Wijngaerde. Amw JUI-5
59
Extracts from
GENERAL PREFACE TO THE GREAT INSTAURATION
"It seems to me that men do not rightly understand either
their store or their strength, but overrate the one and
underrate the other. Hence it follows, that either from an
extravagant estimate of the value of the arts which they
possess, they seek no further; or else from too mean an
estimate of their own powers, they spend their strength in
small matters and never put it fairly to the trial in those
which go to the main .... "
"Time is like a river, which has brought down to us things
light and puffed up, while those which are weighty and solid
have sunk .... "
"And there is another thing to be remembered; namely, that
all industry in experimenting has begun with proposing to
itself certain definite works to be accomplished, and has
pursued them with premature and unreasonable eagerness; it
has sought, I say, experiments of Fruit, not experiments of
Light; not imitating the divine procedure, which in its first
day's work created Light only and assigned to it one entire
day; on which day it produced no material work, but
proceeded to that on the days following .... "
"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 ... . In circumstances so difficult
neither the natural force of man's judgment nor even any
accidental felicity offers any chance of success. No
excellence of wit, no repetition of chance experiments, can
overcome such difficulties as these. Our steps must be
guided by a clue, and the whole way from the very first
perception of the senses must be laid out upon a sure plan.
Not that I would be understood to mean that nothing
60
whatever has been done in so many ages by so great labours.
We have no reason to be ashamed of the discoveries which
have been made, and no doubt the ancients proved themselves
in everything that turns upon wit and abstract meditation,
wonderful men. But as in former ages when men sailed only
by observation of the stars, they could indeed coast along the
shores of the old continent or across a few small and
mediterranean seas; but before the ocean could be traversed
and the new world discovered, the use of the mariner's
needle, as a more faithful and certain guide, had to be found
out; in like manner the discoveries which have been hitherto
made in the arts and sciences are such as might be made by
practice, meditation, observation, argumentation,- for they
lay near to the senses, and immediately beneath common
notions; but before we can reach the remoter and more
hidden parts of Nature, it is necessary that a more perfect
use and application of the human mind and intellect be
introduced.
"For my own part at least, in obedience to the everlasting
love of truth, I have committed myself to the uncertainties
and difficulties 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; in the hope of providing at last for the present
and future generations guidance more faithful and secure ....
"I have not sought (I say) nor do I seek either to force or
ensnare men's judgments, but I lead them to things them-
selves and the concordances of things, that they may see for
themselves what they have, what they can dispute, what they
can add and contribute to the common stock. And for myself,
if in anything I have been either too credulous or too little
awake and attentive, or if I have fallen off by the way and
left the inquiry incomplete, nevertheless I so present these
things naked and open, that my errors can be marked and set
aside before the mass of knowledge be further infected by
them: and it will be easy also for others to continue and
carry on my labours. And by these means I suppose that I
have established forever a true and lawful marriage between
the emperical and the rational faculty, the unkind and ill-
starred divorce and separation of which has thrown into
61
confusion all the affairs of the human family.
"Wherefore, seeing that these things do not depend upon
myself, at the outset of the work I most humbly and fervently
pray to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost,
that remembering the sorrows of mankind and the pilgrimage
of this our life wherein we wear out days few and evil, They
will vouchsafe through my hands to endow the human family
with new mercies. 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 in our minds no incredulity or darkness
with regard to the divine Mysteries; 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 Oracles, may give to faith that which
is faith's. Lastly that knowledge being now discharged of that
venom which the serpent infused into it, and which makes the
mind of man to swell, we may not be wise above measure and
sobriety, but cultivate truth in charity.
"And now having said my prayers I turn to men; to whom I
have certain salutary admonitions to offer and certain fair
requests to make. My first admonition (which was also my
prayer) is that men confine the sense within the limits of duty
in respect of things divine: for the sense is like the sun,
which reveals the face of the earth, but seals and shuts up the
face of heaven. My next, that in flying from this evil they
fall not into the opposite error, which they will surely do if
they think that the inquisition of Nature is in any part
interdicted or forbidden. For it was not that pure and
uncorrupted hatural knowledge whereby Adam gave names to
the creatures according to their propriety, which gave
occassion to the Fall. It was the ambitious and proud desire
of moral knowledge to judge of good and evil, to the end that
man may revolt from God and give laws to himself, which was
the form and manner of the temptation. Whereas of the
sciences which regard Nature, the divine philosopher declares
that 'it is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but it is the
glory of the King to find a thing out.' Even as though the
divine Nature took pleasure in the innocent and kindly sport
of children playing at hide and seek, and vouchsafed of His
kindness and goodness to admit the human spirit for His
playfellow at that game. Lastly, I would address one general
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admonition to all: that they consider what are the true ends
of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure of
the mind, or for contention, or for superiority to others, or
for profit, or fame, or power, or any of these inferior things;
but for the benefit and use of life; and that they perfect and
govern it in charity. For it was from lust of power that the
angels fell, from lust of knowledge that man fell; but of
charity there can be no excess, neither did angel or man ever
come in danger by it.
"The requests I have to make are these. Of myself I say
nothing; but in behalf of the business which is in hand I
entreat men to believe that it is not an opinion to be held, but
a work to be done; and to be well assured that I am labouring
to lay the foundation, not of any sect of doctrine, but of
human utility and power. Next, I ask them to deal fairly by
their own interests, and laying aside all emulations and
prejudices in favour of this or that opinion, to join in
consultation for the common good; and being now freed and
guarded by the securities and helps which I offer from the
errors and impediments of the way, to come forward
themselves and take part in that which remains to be done.
Moreover, to be of good hope, nor to imagine that this
Instauration of mine is a thing infinite and beyond the power
of man, when it is in fact the true end and termination of
infinite error; and seeing also that it is by no means forgetful
of the conditions of morality and humanity, (for it does not
suppose the work can be altogether completed within one
generation, but provides for its being taken up by another);
and finally that it seeks for the sciences not arrogantly in the
little cells of human wit, but with reverence in the greater
world .... "
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NOTES
1. 'Praefatio Generalis': De Dignitate & Augmentis Scientiarum ( 1623).
2. 'Cupid or an Atom': Wisdom of the Ancients (1625).
3. Advancement of Learning (1605).
4. Advancement of Learning ( 1605).
5. Novum Organum ( 1620).
6. Advancement of Learning ( 1605).
7. Advancement of Learning ( 1605).
8. Advancement of Learning (1605).
9. Advancement of Learning ( 1605).
10. Advancement of Learning (1605).
11. Advancement of Learning (1605).
12. Advancement of Learning ( 1605).
13. Novum Organum ( 1620).
14. Advancement of Learning ( 1605).
15. Advancement of Learning (1605).
16. Novum Organum (1620).
17. V alerius Terminus.
18. Valerius Terminus.
19. Novum Organum (1620).
20. Advancement of Learning ( 1605).
21. Advancement of Learning (1605).
22. Advancement of Learning (1605).
23. Advancement of Learning (1605).
24. Novum Otganum ( 1620).
25. Advancement of Learning ( 1605).
26. Advancement of Learning ( 1605).
27. 'Distribution of the Work': Advancement of Learning (1640).
28. 'Distributio Operis', De Dignitate & Augment is Scientiarum (1623).
29. 'Distribution of the Work': Advancement of Learning (1640).
30. 'Distribution of the Work': Advancement of Learning (1640).
31. Advancement of Learning (1605).
32. Novum Organum ( 1620).
33. 'Distribution of the Work': Advancement of Learning (1640).
34. 'Distribution of the Work': Advancement of Learning ( 1640).
35. Novum Organum ( 1620).
36. Novum Organum ( 1620).
37. Advancement of Learning ( 1605).
38. Advancement of Learning ( 1605).
39. 'Of Love': Essays (1625).
40. Fama Fraternitatis ( 1614).
41. Confessio Fraternitatis ( 1615).
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