Bacon, Sir Francis.
Bacon, Sir Francis. Also called Lord Bacon, was an English statesman, philosopher, and essayist, born in London, January 22, 1561 and died April 9, 1626. Among his many writings, the New Atlantis is the one which is relied on to assert his connection with Freemasonry. Issued in 1627, that was a sketch of an ideal commonwealth, including an establishment for scientific research called Solomon’s House, which idea is said to have led to the establishment of the Royal Society, an honorary body of British scientists, to which a number of Freemasons belonged and the favor of which Freemasonry probably enjoyed, for the simple reason that the latter was the remnant of a scientific architectural fraternity. Such was the theory of Christopher Friederich Nicolai (1733-1811), a German Masonic writer, who also linked Freemasonry with Rosicrucianism in his book History of Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. But the character of the logic of that work has led to many erroneous conclusions by giving too much weight to a few suggestive facts and ignoring others. Thus, it is stated that the eminent astrologers of England, as we learn from Ashmole’s Diary, were on terms of intimacy with the Freemasons in the 17th century, and that many Fellows of the Royal Society were also prominent members of the Grand Lodge of 1717. But we do not learn any such thing from Ashmole’s Diary, and we do not know that many Fellows of the Royal Society were prominent members of the Grand Lodge. Furthermore, if both statements were true, they prove no more than that London was not so large a place in the 17th century that two educated men would not be familiar with each other, even though in different professions or vocations.
