dedication "to the illustrious Henry Howard, Earl of Norfolk," at the beginning of a curious little book "written in French by Roland Freart, Sieur de Cambraye,” and “rendered English by John Evelyn, Fellow of the Royal Society.1

Evelyn obtained a charter for the society from Charles II., and named it The Royal Society. The rare literary accumulations of the noble. family of the Howards were contributed to the library. 2

The rules which forbid the publication of names would, of course, prohibit the Rosicrucians from writing their names in books which were likely to reveal the course of their studies, or their connection with a certain clique of persons; and so, in effect, we find. They must adopt feigned initials, or mottoes, in order to identify themselves amongst their initiated friends alone. This again explains the disfigurement which so often distresses the purchaser of good old books of a certain class, and which is caused by the cutting out of large pieces of the titlepages, or frontispieces, or fly-leaves, or the cancelling, by scribbling with pen and ink, sometimes six or eight names on the page. It is the exception and not the rule, in books professedly Rosicrucian, and previous to the eighteenth century, to find in them the name of any owner, although they may, apparently, have passed through many hands.

The same circumstance explains the mystery as to the disappearance of Bacon's library — which is a mystery, although the world has been content to take it very apathetically. Bacon's library must have been something quite remarkable for his day. Like Prospero, we know that his books were dearer to him far than state or public life, which was always a toil and burden to his nature.

1 This little work is entitled An Idea of Painting. We commend the consideration of it to Baconian readers, believing that Evelyn merely "rendered English" that which had first appeared in France, by publishing the original English of Bacon, written when he was a young man living and travelling in the south of France, and perhaps in Italy.

2 See Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature.

"Being so reputed

In dignity, and for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel; those being all my study, . . .

I to my state grew stranger, being transported

And rapt in secret studies."

Prospero, in his fall and banishment, is represented as most highly commending the kindness of the noble Gonzalo, who "Of his gentleness,

Knowing I loved my books, he furnished me

From my own library with volumes that

I prize above my dukedom."

Without trespassing on the domain of the novelist, we may fairly believe that Bacon's feelings were the same, even if he did not actually experience a similar episode in the days of his cruel ruination and banishment from the home of his youth.

Where is Bacon's library? Undoubtedly the books exist and are traceable. We should expect them to be recognisable by marginal notes; yet these notes, whether in pencil or in ink, may have been effaced. If annotated, Bacon and his friends would not wish his books to attract public attention. Yet not only their intrinsic worth, but their priceless value as belonging to their beloved master, would have made the friends and followers of Bacon more than commonly anxious to ensure the safety of these books. Bacon himself, we feel sure, would have taken steps to this end. Yet it is observable that in neither of his wills (elaborate and detailed in particulars though they be) does he mention his library. Copies of all his writings, "fair bound," were to be placed in the King's library, and in the university libraries at Cambridge and Oxford, in Trinity College, Cambridge, and "Bennet College, where my father was bred," and in the libraries of Lambeth and Eton.

–(think of

The MSS. in his "cabinets, boxes, and presses the quantity of papers suggested by these words) — were to be taken possession of by three trustees, Constable, Selden, and Herbert, and to be by them perused and by degrees published. But of books there is not a word, and observation has led the present writer to the conclusion that during his life Bacon assigned his books to certain of his friends for life, or for use,

and that eventually these books were to find their way into the great libraries where they now repose, and where future research will oblige them to yield up their secret, and to say what hand first turned their pages, whose eyes first mined into them to extract the precious ore so long buried beneath the dust of oblivion? Where, in what books, do we find this gold of knowledge, seven times tried in the crucible of poetic philosophy, cast into living lines, and hammered upon the muses' anvil into the "well-tuned and true-filed lines" which are not of an age but for all time?

We earnestly exhort young and able scholars, whose lives lie before them, to follow up this subject. Think of the new worlds of knowledge that remain to be explored and conquered. Who can tell the contents of the library at Eton, in which Bacon took such a lively interest? Who has ever thoroughly examined the hoards of manuscripts of Bacon's time at Lambeth Palace, at the Record Office, at Dulwich, or at the British Museum? Baconians, reading with modern search-lights rather than by the dim rays shed from even the best lamp of the last century, cannot fail in future to perceive many things which escaped the notice of previous observers, however diligent.

The Selden and Pembroke collections of books at the Bodleian Library, the Cotton Library at the British Museum, the libraries of the Royal Society, the Antiquaries, and others directly connected with Bacon, the theological library at Sion College, Gresham College, the collection of Bacon's works in the University Library, Cambridge, and at Trinity College, should be examined, and every collection, public or private, which was commenced or much enlarged between 1580 and 1680, should be most thoroughly ransacked with a special eye to records, direct and indirect, of the working of Bacon and his friends, and with a view to tracing his books. It is probable that the latter will seldom or never be found to bear his name or signature. Rather we should expect, in accordance with Rosicrucian rules, that no name, but only a motto, an enigmatic inscription, or the initials of the title by which he passed amongst the brethren, would be found in these books. Yet it may reason

ably be anticipated that some at least are "noted in the margin," or that some will be found with traces of marks which were guides to the transcriber or amanuensis, as to the portions which were to be copied for future use in Bacon's collections or book of "commonplaces."

One word more, before quitting these rules of the Rosicrucians. The eighteenth rule shows that on the death of a brother nothing should be done which should reveal his connection with the fraternity. His tomb was to be either without epitaph or the inscription must be ambiguous. It is remarkable how many of the tombs of Bacon's friends and of the distinguished names of his time come under one or the other of these descriptions. Some of these will be noticed in their proper place. Meanwhile, let us remark that there seems to be only one satisfactory way of accounting for this apparently unnecessary rule. The explanation is of the same kind as that given with regard to rule 5, which prohibits the members of the society from professing a knowledge which they did not possess.

For suppose that the friends of deceased Rosicrucians had inscribed upon their tombs epitaphs claiming for them the authorship of works which had passed current as their writings, but which they did not really originate. The monuments would, in many cases, have been found guilty doing positive dishonour, not only to the sacred place in which they were erected, but even to the dead, whose memory they were to preserve, for they would actually declare and perpetuate untruths, or at the best half-truths, certain in the end to be discovered.

It is rare to find any epitaph by way of eulogium over the grave of any person who seems to have collaborated with Bacon, or to have been accredited with the authorship of any work which is suspiciously Baconian. Rarer still do we find on such tombs any hint that the so-called poet or philosopher ever wrote anything. In the few cases where this is asserted or suggested, there are reasons for believing, or actual proof, that the inscription, perhaps the monument itself, was put up by descendants or admirers some years after the death of the individual to whom the memorial was erected.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE VITAL SPIRITS OF NATURE.

"In Nature's infinite book of secresy, a little I can read."

-Antony and Cleopatra.

ACON seems to have been strongly influenced and stimu

BACON

lated by the study of the works of the celebrated theosophist, physician, and chemist, Paracelsus, whom he often cites (not always with approval), and from whose doctrine of the "Vital Spirits of Nature" it is clear that he must have derived the original germ of those lovely ideas of all-pervading life which reappear throughout his writings, and preeminently in the Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, and The Tempest.

When the comet or new star suddenly shone forth in 1572, in the constellation of Cassiopeia, it was marked as a portent or harbinger of success for the boy Francis, who in that year went up for the first time to Cambridge, and who even at that early age was manifesting sigus of future greatness.

Now it is worthy of note that this same portent was observed by Paracelsus as heralding the advent of "the artist Elias, by whose means a revelation was to be made which would be of the highest importance to the human race; and, again, this prophecy of Paracelsus was accepted by the Rosicrucians as true, and as finding its fulfilment in the fact that in the year 1572 the wonderful boy did make his appearance, and became the founder of their society.

"Paracelsus, in the eighth chapter of his Treatise on Metals, gives utterance to the following prognostication: God will permit a discovery of the highest importance to be made; it must be hidden till the advent of the artist Elias.'

"In the first chapter of the same work he says: And it is true, there is nothing concealed which shall not be discovered; for

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