Francis Bacon Research Trust

Part VII

(Frontispiece to the 1640 edition of Francis Bacon’s Advancement of Learning)

On the table, on Bacon’s left, are piled two books—Books I and II of the Great Instauration. On the shelf directly above are stacked the remaining volumes referred to in Bacon’s writings—Books III, IV, V and VI. Each book represents Bacon’s example of one part of the Great Instauration—the ‘light’ by means of which to get the project going.

However, open on his writing desk in front of him is a seventh book, in which Bacon is shown writing. This is the hidden or mystical Book VII of the Great Instauration, signifying what Bacon calls ‘the sabbath or port’ of human endeavour, a time of enlightenment and joy.

Bacon does not mention this seventh book openly in his writings, but his whole symbolic system, based upon the biblical Seven Days of Creation (i.e. Six Days of Work and One Day of Rest), infers its existence.

On the left-hand page of the open book are written two words, ‘Mundus’ and ‘Mens’ (i.e. ‘World’ and ‘Mind’), whilst on the right-hand page Bacon has just completed writing the phrase, ‘Conubio jungam stabili’ (i.e. ‘The connection made firm by marriage’). This is a reference to the major concern of Bacon’s, that there should be a marriage between the rational and the empirical, between thought and action, between heaven (the mind or sphere of thought) and earth (the world or sphere of action), echoing and explaining the famous ‘As above, so below’ statement of Hermes Trismegistus:-

It is most true, it is without error, it is the sum of verity: That which is beneath is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below, for the performance of the wonders of one thing.

The Emerald Tablet of Hermes.

By this means we presume we have established for ever, a true and legitimate marriage between the Empirical and Rational faculty; whose fastidious and unfortunate divorce and separation hath troubled and disordered the whole race and generation of mankind.

Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning, Preface (1640).

The understanding of man and his will are twins by birth as it were; for the purity of illumination and the liberty of will began together. Nor is there in the universal nature of things so intimate a sympathy as that of truth and goodness.

Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning, Bk V (1640).

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...

Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning, Bk 2 (1605).

Bacon’s concept of Paradise, the Seventh Day of Peace, is the condition that pertains when mankind’s thoughts are true and actions are good, with every true thought leading immediately into good action, and every good action manifesting the true thought. Such thoughts and actions are and can only be based on love, for God is Love, which is Truth in thought and Goodness in deed. If our minds are illumined with truth, then the actions which follow as a result should be charitable. The latter proves and fulfils the former. Only then can we say with all honesty that we know the truth, and such knowledge is a great joy.