Francis Bacon Research Trust

The Great Instauration, Part III

A Natural History

Engraved title-page to Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum or A Natural History, published in 1626/7, printed in London by J. Haviland for William Lee. The engraving was made by Thomas Cecill. (The same plate was used in subsequent editions, with just the date altered as appropriate.)

The illustration is cabalistic in design, Its main features consist of two free-standing pillars, as for the 1620 Novum Organum title-page, with a globe over an altar-like plaque between them. Above shines the divine light, in which the Name of God (YHVH) is inscribed, depicting the Word of God, with two cherubs either side. The light is descending as a ray of light through the enveloping (and concealing) clouds of glory to illumine the globe. This globe is called the Mundus Intellectualis, or ‘World of the Mind’. It represents our mind or soul, and the world mind or soul. (The mind becomes soul when it is illumined.) The motto reads ‘Et videt Deus lucem quod esset bona’, which is the first creative utterance of God: ‘And God said Let there be Light and there was light’ (Genesis 1, 4). The background of the illustration depicts the four alchemical elements and related spheres of life as the ground on which the pillars and plaque are based (earth), the sea (water), the sky (air) and the divine light enveloped in clouds of glory (fire). Notably the Intellectual Globe hovers over the sea, in the exact centre of the picture.

The twin pillars, called in tradition various names such as the Pillars of Enoch, Pillars of Solomon, Pillars of Hercules or The Great Pillars, constitute one of the major features in ancient temple design and are known in Freemasonic lore as the landmarks which may not be removed. (Since they represent symbolically the polarity of all life, they of course cannot be removed!) They, or what they mean, are vitally important features in Bacon’s scheme. One of their meanings is that they represent Strife and Friendship, personified as Mars and Venus, whose love affair produces Harmony. Harmony itself was personified as the great goddess Demeter, whose daughter is Persephone, representing Beauty. Persephone is a representation of the pure soul, who gives birth to Dionysus, the illumination of the soul. This picture would seem to be representing this.

Interestingly, whereas the Novum Organum title-page pillars are plain, Roman Doric in style, those of the Sylva Sylvarum title-page pillars are elaborate, with Corinthian capitals and sculpted designs on the lower parts of the columns. These sculpted lower parts of the columns bear a resemblance in style to the columns of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, although they were of the Ionic Order of architecture. Artemis, who is Apollo’s sister, is celebrated as a great nature goddess, but she is also goddess of the mind, symbolised by the moon.

The book representing the first part of the Great Instauration, the De Augmentis Scientiarum, was not printed with a title-page illustration when it was published in 1623, but it seems significant that two of the three parts of the Great Instauration as originally published (the Novum Organum and Sylva Sylvarum) display two of the three classical Orders in the design of their pillars. One is left to infer, therefore, that the De Augmentis Scientiarum has the Ionic Order associated with it in Bacon’s scheme. If so, this produces a Freemasonic sequence of symbolism, where Part 1 of the Great Instauration is signified by the Ionic Order, Part 2 by the Doric, and Part 3 by the Corinthian. The most usual Freemasonic allocation of this symbolism is that the Ionic represents Wisdom, the Doric signifies Strength, and the Corinthian refers to Beauty, their relationships being summed up in the reference to the single pillar ‘whose base is Wisdom, whose shaft is Strength, and whose chapiter is Beauty’. This gives another clue as to the design and working of Bacon’s scheme, which the positioning of the six books (i.e. parts) of the Great Instauration in the title-page illustration of the 1640 edition of The Advancement of Learning explain further.

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