Friday, September 17, 2010

Francis Bacon's Labours

One of the books that changed my life when I read it was Alfred Dodd's, The Martyrdom of Francis Bacon. Following is a quote from that book (pp. 31-32) which nicely sums up Bacon's drive of revealing Truth and educating the masses with his philosophy.

"Under the cloak of the Secret Literary Society Francis Bacon built up his "forms," the dramatic creation of personalities; speaking his own thoughts to the world through their mouths. Now can be better understood his saying: 'Motley's the only wear: it is my only suit . . .'

'Invest me in my Motley: give me leave
To speak my Mind, and I will through and through
Cleanse the foul body of th' infected world
If they will patiently receive my medicine.'
--As You Like It

"So . . . in the 'despised weed' (disguise) of a dramatist, Shakespeare, he 'procured the good of all men.' Through his stories he tried to uplift common humanity educationally and ethically, giving his countrymen, in his open works as well as his concealed ones, a vocabulary of some twenty thousand words. He painted broad canvasses of life that taught the triumph of goodness and the dethronement of evil . . . great epics of moral power. He showed in the most practical manner, to succeeding generations of scholars, that he knew how to hold the mirror up to Nature, because he knew the secret of applied metaphysics, the interpretation of Nature according to the Novum Organum, i.e., part III. In short, he demonstrated that he fully understood the laws that govern human nature, and how to blend creative effort along definite lines in order to produce characters in art form, the various 'forms' that live in the Great Plays. Had he openly declared his views that he put into the mouths of his various characters, Francis Bacon would have been brought into conflict with Church and State. He wrote his views under the mask of a living man, as Sir Nicholas had done. This man was buried in the heart of the country . . . literally buried in Stratford Church--and had been for seven years--when Part IV of the 'Types and Models,' interpretive of Nature, were mysteriously produced in 1623 under the title of Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. This book contains the various 'forms' of mental and moral passion--of 'Light and Heat'--to illustrate his experimental natural philosophy."

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