Peter Dawkins

FRANCIS BACON: HERALD OF THE NEW AGE

INTRODUCTION

Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), the Elizabethan and Jacobean
magus, was pre-eminently a man of mystery, as pointed out by his
great friend and poet, Ben Jonson, who adulated Bacon and knew his
secret life. Bacon lived through two reigns of English monarchs-the
Tudor Queen Elizabeth I and the Stuart King James I-during which
he played a major part at all levels of society, much of it deliberately con
cealed both for safety's sake and also for profounder reasons.

Francis Bacon is mostly known as having been one of the most
notable and influential philosophers since Socrates and Plato, and
many people credit him with having been the principal founder of
modern science and, by inference, modern society. Because of this he is also
used by some people as a scapegoat for the evils of modern society, tho
people tending to forget the equally great or greater blessings which
modern science has brought to the world, and that society was by no
means free of evil either before or during Bacon's time. We might ju
as well accuse the Buddha, or the Christ, or Mohammed, for the many
evils that have been promulgated by people the world over who have
claimed to be following the teachings of those great masters of wis
and compassion.

Bacon himself was an immensely wise and compassionate man
and his philosophy is entirely based upon love and devoted to
philanthropy. He offers us a scientific method, dedicated to God or Divine
Love, by means of which, through the practice of compassion or char
ty, we could make the world a paradise.

This book, Francis Bacon - Herald of the New Age, aims to help
make known the more hidden life and work of this great man who, as
head of the Rosicrucians c.1580-1626, brought together the greates
talents of that time in order to create what is now regarded as the gold
en age of English Literature, and to inaugurate a programme or
hod by which mankind might more easily and steadily reach
enlightenment and create a vastly greater and more important Golden
Age of wisdom, peace and prosperity worldwide...… (mere)