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At the head is Apollo and next to him is Verulam, or Bacon, his chancellor. From this single circumstance it is evident that the God of Music and Poetry regarded Bacon as worthiest among mortals of the chief seat in Parnassus.

The Assize is opened with the statement, that the

Learned Scaliger, the second of the twaine
Second to none in Arts did late complaine
To wise Apolo, of some strange abuses,
Committed against him and the Nine Muses.
Your Grace well knowes (I need not to relate)
How Typographie doth concern your state,
Which some pernicious heads have so abus'd,
That many wish it never had been us'd:
This instrument of Art, is now possest
By some, who have in Art no interest:
For it is now imploy'd by Paper-wasters,
By mercenary soules and Poetasters,

Who weekly utter, slanders, libells, lies,
Under the name of spacious novelties.

This is not a bad description of the periodical press of today, though the newspaper when this was written had been but a few years in

vogue.

(The Court thus set) the sturdy Keeper then,
Of the inhospitall Trophonian Den

His trembling Pris'ners brought unto the barre
For sterne aspect, with Mars hee might compare

But by his belly, and his double chinne,
Hee look'd like the old Hoste of a New Inne.

Thus when sone Ben his fetter'd cattell had

Shut up together in the pinfold sad;

John Taylour, then the Court's shrill Chantecleere
Did summon all the Jurours to appeare:

He had the Cryers place; an office fit,

For him that had a better voyce than wit.

The obnoxious newspapers, Mercurius Britannicus, Aulicus, Civicus, Poste, Spye, Scottish Dove, and several offending scribblers, after a hearing received various sentences; the Scottish Dove being a foreign sheet, the lightest, which was

that

Hee to his native countrey must repaire,
And was on paine of death prohibited

To crosse the Seas, or to repasse the Tweede.

As the "Great Assizes" has been misunderstood hitherto, and the present writer has made a study of the first fifty years of English newspapers in the British Museum for historical purposes, he thinks it well to make the foregoing extracts to disclose its scope and wit, though his sole purpose in speaking of it is to show how highly the poetical genius of Bacon was regarded by his contemporaries.

X

THE ROSE CROSS

MUCH has been said of Bacon's connection with that influential Society which flourished in England in the reigns of Elizabeth and James, known as "Rosicrucian," whose very existence was so carefully concealed that few outside of its fellowship knew of its existence. At what date in the world's history it originated we will hardly venture to inquire; it is sufficient to our purpose that the public announcement of its existence occurred in 1614, when was published in Cassel the "Allgemeine und General-Reformation der ganzen weiten Welt." This work declares that it was first formed

By four persons only, and by them was made the magical language and writing, with a large dictionary, which we yet daily use to God's praise and glory.

Says Mackey:

Many writers have sought to discover a close connection between the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons, and some, indeed, have advanced the theory that the latter are only the successors of the former. Whether this opinion be correct or not, there are sufficient coincidences of character between the two to render the history of Rosicrucianism highly interesting to the Masonic student.1

In England, there still exists a society of Rosicrucians which was "founded upon the remains of the old German association." We are told that

Modern times have eagerly accepted, in the full light of science, the precious inheritance of knowledge bequeathed by the Rosicrucians. . . . It is not desirable, in a work of this kind, to make

1 Albert G. Mackey, An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, vol. 11, p. 639. New York, 1912.

disclosures of an indiscreet nature. The Brethren of the Rosy Cross will never and should not, at peril and under alarm, give up their secrets. This ancient body has apparently disappeared from the field of human activity, but its labors are being carried on with alacrity, and with a sure delight in an ultimate success.1

Among the members of the ancient Society appear these initials, "Fra. F. B., M. P. A.," which, plainly stated, stand for Francis Bacon, Magister, Pictor, Architectus. Waite, perhaps the best historian of the Rosicrucian Order, introduces it to us in these words:

Beneath the broad tide of human history there flow the stealthy undercurrents of the secret societies which frequently determine in the depths the changes that take place upon the surface. The facts and documents concerning the Fraternity of the Rose Cross are absolutely unknown to English readers. Even well-informed people will learn with astonishment the extent and variety of the Rosicrucian literature, which hitherto has lain buried in rare pamphlets, written in the old German tongue, and in the Latin commentaries of the later alchemists.

Says Heckthorne:

A halo of poetic splendour surrounds the Order of the Rosicrucians; the magic lights of fancy play round their graceful day dreams, while the mystery in which they shrouded themselves lends additional attraction to their history. But their brilliancy was that of a meteor. The literature of every European country contains hundreds of pleasing fictions, whose machinery has been borrowed from their system of philosophy, though that itself has passed away.2

The writer has long been a member of the Masonic order of the Red Cross, which is popularly supposed to have inherited its title from the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, a supposition which, having a knowledge of the history of this and other societies akin to Masonry, he believes to be of doubtful validity.

The title of the Brotherhood is derived from Rosa-Crux, a

1 Royal Masonic Cyclopædia. London, 1877.

2 C. W. Heckthorne, Secret Societies in All Ages and Countries. London, 1897.

red rose affixed to a cross, presumably of gold. So many intellectual subtleties have been employed by fanciful theorists in attempts to explain the precise signification of these ancient symbols, believed to be older than the Christian era, that their more obvious and truer significance has been unnecessarily obscured. To the Rosicrucians of the age of Elizabeth, it hardly seems questionable that the rose was the symbol of silence, as among the ancients it was originally derived from the pagan tradition that the God of Love made the first rose, which he presented to the God of Silence. From this tradition originated the custom of carving a rose on the ceilings of banquet halls, or rooms where people met for gayety and diversion, to intimate that under it whatever was spoken or done was not to be divulged; hence our term sub rosa used to indicate secrecy. The Cross, of course, signified salvation, to which the Society of the Rose-Cross devoted itself by teaching mankind the love of God and the beauty of brotherhood, with all that they implied.

The following has been recognized as having been written by Bacon, and will not be doubted by any acquainted intimately with his style:

I was twenty when this book was finished; but methinks I have outlived myself; I begin to be weary of the sun. I have shaken hands with delight, and know all is vanity, and I think no man can live well once but he that could live twice. For my part I would not live over my hours past, or begin again the minutes of my days; not because I have not lived well, but for fear that I should live them worse. At my death I mean to make a total adieu of the world, not caring for the burthen of a tombstone and epitaph, but in the universal Register of God I fix my contemplations on Heaven. I writ the Rosicrucian Infallible Axiomata in four books, and study, not for my own sake only, but for theirs that study not for themselves. In the law I began to be a perfect clerk; I writ the Idea of the Law, etc., for the benefit of my friends, and practice in King's Bench.1 I envy no man that knows more

1 The reader is referred to Bacon's Historia Vita et Mortis, and legal writings, including the Attorney's Academy.

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