when in his own preordinate time he is pleased to reveal his inscrutable Judgments which so far exceed humane comprehension yet this we know that the Devil makes it his main businesse to abuse mankind and to prevent or destroy whatever tends to his good and this appears in that he is so averse and unwilling to make known such Treasures as are hid even to his own devoted Servants lest when they can keep them no longer they should dedicate them to Pious uses and so the good should in Processe of time come to be partakers of them I make no question but Balaam who while he lived was a notorious Sorcerer did cordialy desire to dye the death of the Righteous and though he was willing enough to have cursed Gods Israel to get som of Balaacks Gold yet it is full as probable he would have purchast some of their Prayers at his death with the wages of unrighteousnesse and give me leave to tell you that my ever-honoured Lord the Noblest Philosopher of his time was wont to say often That he believed that such hidden Treasures as well as those of Mineral discoveries being freely devoted by Religious Princes to holy and charitable uses and ends and to none but such and accordingly by them granted only to persons of known integrity abhorring all self-interest and aiming solely at the Glory of God in promoting great designs for the publick good of his Church and People may and will most probably be recovered by Persons so qualified as hath been already hinted For as God at first created all things for the lawfull use of man so whatever we find written in his Word he hath revealed to the self-same purpose though he hath neither dated the time nor yet always clearly directed the manner but leavs us as Creatures whom he hath endued with Reason to proceed as just occasion shall be afforded we read in the Gospel that Christ chargeth us to seek with a gracious Promise That we shall find and to seeking he annexeth knocking with the like Promise That it shall be opened unto us Now who sees not that there never was more need both of industrious seeking and of importunate knocking by honest and holy endeavours thâ—n there is at this day when the sad consequences of the â—ate Civiâ— war have driven so many whole families which formerly flourisht to seek their daily bread from the hands of such as had been their underlings and to knock aloud at the Gates of such as oppressed them to keep them from starving for want of that Almes which they were wont to distribute Therefore I humbly conceive in such an Article of necessity as this any lawfull course whereby such poor Souls may be compleatly relieved without any charge at all to the publick will now be most gratefull and acceptable to all good men And this very consideration hath beyond all other motives encouraged me in this Exigence and juncture of time to reveal my incomparably-great Lord and Masters most reserved Cabal for as his strongest Obligation to my Gratitude he would in a good mood and in his greatest recesse privately impart to me That the highest Perfection and Elucidations of humane â—…ason do but rove at Metaphysical Notions and that most Philosophical speculations are both obscure and uncertain did not Divine Contemplation rap us with the Apostle into the third Heaven and beam into us a glimpse of that supernatural light wherewith the intellectual Angels themselves are illuminated to which he added that the superficial discernments of Philosophy incline a man to Atheism but the intrinsecal and through-discovery of the grounds of the same confirm him in the solid fundamentals of true Religion for said he our corporeal substance is too much of kin to the brute Animals but our Souls are so many sparks or beamlings of that eternal lâ—ght which is the fountain of the Sun from whence all visible light doth stream A d further that had not the All wise Creator appointed a tutelar Aâ—gel to every man as his Guardian and Conductor through this vale of misery then that Arch-enemy the Prince of this world or some of his subordinate legionary Spirits would deal far worse with each of us than ever he did with Job himself and as an argument of his inveterate rancour and virulent policy he more than once asserted that this great Impostor and Spirit of delusion hath suggested and raised innumerable errors and contagious Heresies out of the different opinions of the greatest Fathers of the Primitive Church to the end that he might thereby scandalize Religion it self and make it seem but a stalking-horse and to be esteemed but an umbrella for self-interest and hypocritical Machiavilians and he sometimes modestly intimated to me that since I was not then fix'd and not sufficiently arm'd against such potent temptations the best way I could take both to avoid such delusions and also to improve my Contemplations to my eternal advantage was to retire my self from all popular parts of the world to uâ—frequented solitudes and there after my first fruits offer'd in an ingenuous confession of all my sins and unfeigned sorrow testified in my serious endeavour to forsake them all and wholly to resign my self to my Creators will which though it should conclude me a vessel of dishonour yet like the humble clay in the hands of this great Potter I should not dare to dispute his Decree but that I should submissively acknowledge that his Omnipotence cannot erre in the dispensations of his Mercies or distributions of his Justice and righteous Judgements and that if the Almighty should recall and pardon me and confirm me in the hopes of his undeserved mercy and think me fit to be put again into the dispatch of any temporal affairs which may tend to his glory and the publick good that then I should use all possible diligence to find out in the three Kingdoms or in the whole race of man-kind such a number of men capable of my Lordâ— Character as in effect Abraham interceded for who by their righteousness at least in Gods acceptation might have made an attonement for condemn'd Sodom and having found but a few such that then I should not need to doubt of accomplishing all his Philosophical designs portrayed in his New Atlantis or his Cabalistick Theory concredited only to me in the management of the same and he hop'd by this way to reduce in time all Errors Schisms and Heresies in Religion to the Orthodox Faith according to the un-erring Canon of Sacred Scripture So great an estimation and reverend an opinion had my great Lord and Master of the prevalent and operative sanctity of those truly humble Persons whom he appointed as the Hermits and Hospitallers of his Solomons House by the Energy of whose divinely-sublimed Souls and inspired Intellectuals he not only suppos'd but propos'd that all his Philosophical seeming miracles should take their wish'd effect now far soever they transcend all that the antient Magi or the
earnest Prayer on her dove-like wings presents them before his Mercies seat and unfeigned Penitence softly sheaths up the sword of his Iustice And for your better encouragement if you come cheerfully into this Philosophical work you shall also enter into the school of Christ for I shall provide men excellency qualified in Theology Morality and Humanity whose examples as well as doctrines shall direct you in the waies of eternal life and daily walk hand in hand with you towards Christs paradise the Saints New Jerusalem But me thinks I hear some self-conceited and censorious Critick thus prevaricate upon the whole design Truly I must professe it seems to my understanding very like a Lunacie in any whatsoever to propose or undertake so magnificent a Fabrick as the Atlantick Solomons House without so muâ—h as Straw to burn Bricks for its foundation no Princes Coffers Monopoly Smoke-mony Lottery Impost or Mart upon the discovery but to the incredulous no not so much as a partner save Providence in this new way of search for never discovered Mines and recovering desperately deserted Works To which I answer first If your Ancestors in former Ages had been such Scepticks fire had been for ever concealed in the Flint and all Metals in their native beds Thule with the Western Islands and America had been as yet un-discovered pray tell me Is not Divine Providence the dispensator of Gods Omnipotence which the Eagle-sighted eye of this Philosophical Lords illuminated intellect most perspicuously discovered and therefore resolved thus to prove it without detriment or hazard to any individual person Is it not then a God-like imitation the Lord of the universal World brought all things which never had being out of nothing this Lord of universal Philosophy thereby offers mankind that good which never can be useful to him but by this means which will cost him nothing the dead in Law to search the dead and barren Mountains and recover the dead and buried works for Mineral treasure here is nothing but the dead and the dead are nothing to the living But these dead here to whose lives the Law and Opinion hath set a period by searching the graves of Minerals preserve their lives for the present and in time find their own Resurrection by a temporal Expiation of their fatal Crimes though their other hopes prove frustrate but if the Almighty crowns their labors observe how glorious it will prove the Prince or State that shall then Rule shall receive the first fruits thousands of poor Subjects shall eat the bread of comfort thereby Offenders shall be purged and freed Trade shall be increased and Customs augmented a matchlesse Academy erected and maintained new Arts discovered for the universal good and honor of the Nation the honorable Trustees of the whole work shall merit glory and gain Philosophical recreations the experimenting Philosophers shall have a competent and comfortable subsistence during life and after their change their respective Statues erected in the City of Wells And as the Athenians when they dedicated a lively Image to the memory of the antient Philosopher Pherecides gave it a golden tongue as a proper Emblem of his excellent eloquence so each of theirs shall hold a significant Character of their peculiar Inventions in their well-proportion'd hands Which word hands minds me of a saying of my Lords concerning the Convicted which was That he did stedfastly believe that the hands of such whose stony hearts God had penetrated by true penitence would make a more speedy easie and successeful progresse in any Mineral work they undertook than three times the number of the most skilful Miners that work for wages only For that learned Lord was of opinion That the Subteranâ—an Spirits did much hinder the perfect discoveries of the richest Mines somtimes by their apparitions often by the mischievous Gambols they plaid there as by raising Damps extinguishing the Miners lights firing the sulphurous matter of the Mine and scorching the greedy and faithless Workmen For not only Socrates Plato and Aristotle are of opinion that there are multitudes of evil Spirits in the Aery Region as also in the Waters and the hollow Concaverns of the Earth but divers of our more modern learned Writers and Theologians are of the same perswasion as Tho. Aquinas Gaudentius Merula Pselius Bodinus and St. Agustine who conceive that God hath permitted their temporal habitations therein partly for mens tryal as that of Job and partly for the punishment of the wicked as the Demoniack in the 5. of St. Marks Gospel out of whom Christ cast a whole legion of Devils and by whose permission they destroyed a numerous Herd of the Gadarens Swine These were created in the beginning as Divines conclude out of the 38. of Job when the Morning-stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy as may be conjectured by the Archangel Michaels victory over Lucifer and his rebellious Army of ambitious Spirits And Christ himself tels us in the 10 of Luke He beheld Satan as Lightning fall from Heaven What need I say more That audacious Spirit who had the impudence to tempt our Saviour dares continually circle the Earth still like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour But Faith is the best Armor and fervent Prayer the sharpest sword to vanquish him who being but so resisted flies from us and true Contrition and humble Penance conjures him away And I pray you who ought to be more cordially penitent than such whom the just Laws and their own consciences having cast into the jaws of death Gods mercy hath reprieved to expiate their crimes in so innocent and hopefull a work as this to the good of their afflicted souls their Countries profit and his own glory for Penitence Reformation and vertuous Emulation are the most prevalent Engines to effect this noble Enterprise which I had rather decline and utterly relinquish than use any corrosive or compulsory means to constrain any of my penitential brethren to proceed in or accelerate their labours as the Spaniard doth to his miserable Miners in America and others in other places Now concerning the validity and grandure of this Mysterious Attempt you are to understand that the College of our most honoured Physicians which is the Philosophical Oracle of our Commonwealth have candidly certified the late Lord Protector Oliver Cromwel That as the Design was heroick and magnificent so if it were not prejudiced and obstructed by the obloquy and sinister contrivance of self-interessed persons it was like to produce much profit and honor to this our native Country In a word howsoever you value my Invitation to participate in my Mineral profession neglect not my cordial Counsel in matters of Devotion and sincere Penitence For 't is conceived by some truly religious and very learned that the Penitent only shall recruit the Regiments and glorious Host of the intellectual Angels by supplying the place of them that fell with Lucifer in his great Rebellion To which God
to whom all Honour Obedience Praise and Thanksgiving is now and ever due Amen An Abridgement of my Lord Bacon's Atlantis GOD blesse thee my Son I will give thee the greatest Jewel I have For I will impart unto thee for the true love of God and Men a relation of the true State of Solomons House Son to make you know the true State of Solomons House I will keep thiâ— order First I will set forth unto you the end of our Foundation Secondly the Preparations and Instruments we have for our works Thirdly the several Employments and Functions whereto our Fellows are assigned And fourthly the Ordinances and Rites which we observe The end of our Foundation is the knowledge of Causes and secret motions of things and the Enlarging of the bounds of Humane Empire to the effecting of all things possible The Preparations and Instruments are these We have large and deep Caves of several Depths The deepest are sunk 600 Fathome And some of them are digged and made under great Hills and Mountains So that if you reckon together the Depth of the Hill and the Depth of the Cave they are some of them above three miles deep For we find that the depth of an Hill and the depth of a Cave from the Flat is the same thing both remote alike from the Sun and Heavens Beams and from the open Air. These Caves we call the Lower Region And we use them for all Coagulations Indurations Refrigerations and Conservations of Bodies We use them likewise for the Imitation of Natural Mines And the producing also of new Artificial Metals by Compositions and Materials which we use and lay there for many years We use them also sometimes which may seem strange for Curing of some Diseases and for Prolongation of Life in some Hermits that choose to live there well accommodated of all things necessary and indeed live very long by whom also we learn many things We have Burials in several Earths where we put divers Cements as the Chineses do their Porcellane But we have them in greater Variety and some of them more fine We also have great variety of Composts and Soils for the making of the Earth fruitfull We have high Towers The highest about half a Mile in height And some of them likewise set upon high Mountains So that the vantage of the Hill with the Tower is in the highest of them three Miles at least And these places we call the Upper Region Accounting the Air between the High places and the Low as a Middle Region We use these Towers according to their several Heights and Situations for Insolation Refrigeration Conversion And for the View of divers Meteors as Wind Rain Snow Hail And some of the Fiery Meteors also And upon them in some places are dwellings of Hermits whom we visit sometimes and instruct what to observe We have great Lakes both Salt and Fresh whereof we have use for the Fish and Fowl We use them also for Burials of some Natural Bodies For we find a difference in things buried in Earth or in Air below the Earth and things buried in Water We have also Pools of which some do strain Fresh Water out of Salt And others by Art do turn Fresh Water into Salt We have also some Rocks in the midst of the Sea And some Bays upon the Shore for some Works wherein is required the Air and Vapour of the Sea We have likewise violent Streams and Cataracts which serve us for many Motions And likewise Engines for Multiplying and Enforcing of Winds to set also on going divers Motions We have also a number of Artificial Wels and Fountains made in imitation of the Natural Sources and Baths as tincted upon Vitriol Sulphur Steel Brass Lead Nitre and other Minerals And again we have little Wels for Infusions of many things where the Waters take the vertue quicker and better than in Vessels or Basins And amongst them we have a Water which we call water of Paradise being by that we do to it made very Soveraign for Health and Prolongation of Life We have also great and spacious Houses where we imitate and demonstrate Meteors as Snow Hail Rain some Artificial Rains of Bodies and not of Water Thunder Lightnings Also Generations of Bodies in Air as Froggs Flies and divers others We have also certain Chambers which we call Chambers of Health where we qualifie the Air as we think good and proper for the cure of di Diseases and preservation of Health We have also fair and large Baths of several mixtures for the Cure of Diseases and the restoring of Mans Body from Arefaction and other for the Confirming of it in Strength of Sinews vital parts and the very Juice and Substance of the Body We also have large and various Orchards and Gardens wherein we do not so much respect beauty as variety of Ground and Soil proper for divers Trees and Herbs And some very spacious where Trees and Berryes are set whereof we make divers kinds of Drinks besides the Vineyards In these we practise likewise all Conclusions of Grafting and Inoculating as well of Wild-Trees as Fruit-Trees which produceth many effects And we make by Art in the same Orchards and Gardens Trees and Flowers to come earlier or later than their Seasons and to come up and bear more speedily than by their Natural Course they do We make them also by Art much greater than their Nature And their Fruit greater and sweeter and of different Taste Smel Colour and Figure from their Nature And many of them we so order that they become of Medicinal Use We have also means to make divers Plants rise by Mixtures of Earth without Seeds And likewise to make divers New Plants differing from the vulgar and to make one Tree or Plant turn into another We have also Parks and Enclosures of all sorts of Beasts and Birds which we use not only for view or Rareness but likewise for Dissections and Tryals That thereby we may take light what may be wrought upon the Body of Man Wherein we find many strange Effects as Continuing Life in them though divers Parts which you account Vital be perished and taken forth Resuscitating of some that seem Dead in Appearance and the like We try also all Poysons and other Medicines upon them as well of Chirurgery as Physick By Art likewise we make them Greater or Taller than their kind is And contrary wise Drawf them and stay their Growth We make them more Fruitful and Bearing than their kind is And contrarywise Barren and not Generative Also we make them differ in Colour Shape and Activity many wayes We find means to make Commixtures and Copulations of divers Kinds which have produced many New Kinds and them not Barren as the general opinion is We make a number of Kinds of Serpents Worms Flies Fishes of Putrefaction whereof some are advanced in effect to be Perfect Creatures like Beasts or Birds And have Sexes and do propagate Neither do we
this by Chance but we know before hand of what Matter and Commixture what Kind of those Creatures will arise We have also Particular Pools where we make Tryals upon Fishes as we have said before of Beasts and Birds We have also Places for Breed and Generation of those Kinds of Worms and Flies which are of Special Use such as are with you your Silk-worms and Bees I will not hold you long with recounting of our Brew-houses Bake-houses and Kitchins where are made divers Drinks Bread and Meats rare and of especial effects Wines we have of Grapes and Drink of other Juyce of Fruits of Grains and of Roots and of Mixtures with Honey Sugar Manna and Fruits dried and decocted Also of the Tears or Woundings of Trees And of the Pulp of Canes And these Drinks are of several Ages some to the Age or Last of forty years We have Drinks also brewed with several Herbs and Roots and Spices Yea with several Fleshes and White-Meats whereof some of the Drinks are such as they are in effect Meat and Drink both So that divers especially in Age do desire to live with them and with little or no Meat or Bread And above all we strive to have Drinks of Extreme Thin Parts to insinuate into the Body and yet without all Biting Sharpness or Fretting Insomuch as some of them put upon the back of your hand will with a little stay passe thorow to the Palm and yet taste mild to the Mouth We have also Waters which we ripen in that fashion as they become Nourishing So that they are indeed excellent Drink And many will use no other Breads we have of several Grains Roots and Kernels Yea and some of Flesh and Fish Dried with divers kinds of Leavings and Seasonings So that some do extremely move Appetites Some do nourish so as divers do live of them without any other Meat Who live very long So for Meats we have some of them so beaten and made Tender and mortified yet without all Corrupting as a Weak heat of the Stomack will turn them into good Chilus As well as a Strong heat would Meat otherwise prepar'd We have some Meats also and Breads and Drinks which taken by Men enable them to Fast long after and some other that used make the very Flesh of Mens Bodies sensibly more Hard and Tough and their Strength far greater than otherwise it would be We have Dispensatories or Shops of Medicines wherein you may easily think if we have such variety of Plants and Living Creatures more than you have in Europe for we know what you have the Simples Drugs and Ingredients of Medicines must likewise be in so much the greater Variety We have them likewise of divers Ages and long Fermentations And for their Preparations We have not only all manner of exquisite Distillations and Separations and especially by Gentle Heats and Percolations through divers Strainers yea and Substances But also Exact Forms of Composition whereby they incorporate almost as they were Natural Simples We have also divers Mechanical Arts which you have not And Stuffs made by them As Papers Linnen Silks Tissues dainty Works of Feathers of wonderful lustre excellent Dies and many others and Shops likewise as well for such as are not brought into vulgar use among us as for those that are For you must know that of the things before recited many of them are grown into use throughout the Kingdom But yet if they did flow from our Invention we have of them also for Patterns and Principles We have also Furnaces of great Diversities and that keep great Diversity of Heats Fierce and Quick Strong and Constant Soft and Mild Blown Quiet Dry Moist And the like But above all we have Heats in imitations of the Suns and Heavenly Bodies Heats that passe divers inequalities and as it were Orbs Progresses and Returns whereby we may produce admirable effects Besides we have Heats of Dungs and of Bellies and Maws of Living Creatures and of their Bloods and Bodies and of Hayes and Herbs laid up moist of Lime unquenched and such like Instruments also which generate Heat only by Motion And further Places for strong Insolations And again places under the Earth which by Nature or Art yeeld Heat These divers Heats we use as the Nature of the Operation which we intend requireth We have also Perspective Houses where we make Demonstrations of all Lights and Radiations And of all Colours And out of Things uncoloured and Transparent we can represent unto you all several Colours not in Rain-bows as it is in Gemms and Prisms but of themselves Single We represent also all Multiplications of Light which we carry to great distance and make so sharp as to discern small Points and Lines Also all Colourations of Light All Delusions and Deceits of the Sight in Figures Magnitudes Motions Colours All Demonstrations of Shadows We find also divers means yet unknown to you of Producing of Light Originally from divers Bodies We procure means of seeing Objects Afar off as in the Heaven and remote places And represent Things Near as Afar off And Things Afar off as Near making Feigned distances We have also Helps for the Sight far above Spectacles and Glasses in use We have also Glasses and Means to see Small and Minute Bodies perfectly and distinctly As the Shapes and Colours of Small Flies and Worms Grains Flaws in Gemms which cannot otherwise be seen Observations in Urine and Blood not otherwise to be seen We make Artificial Rain-bows Heloes and Circles about Light We represent also all manner of Reflections Refractions and Multiplication of Visual Beams of Objects We have also Pretious Stones of all kinds many of them of great beauty and to you unknown Christals likewise And Glasses of divers kinds and among them some of Metals Vitrificated and other Materials beside those of which you make Glass Also a number of Fossiles and imperfect Minerals which you have not Likewise Load-sfones of Prodigious Vertue And other rare Stones both Natural and Artificial We have also Sound Houses where we practise and Demonstrate all Sounds and their Generation We have Harmonies which you have not of Quarter-Sounds and Slides of Sounds Divers Instruments of Musick likewise to you unknown some sweeter than any you have With Bells and Rings that are dainty and sweet We represent small sounds as great and deep Likewise Great sounds Extenuate and sharp we make divers tremblings and Warblings of Sound which in their Original are Entire we represent and imitate all Articulate sounds and Letters and the Voyces and Noats of Beasts and Birds We have certain Helps which set to the Ear do further the Hearing greatly We have also divers strange and Artificial Ecchoes Reflecting the Voice many times and as it were tossing it And some that give back the voice lowder than it came some shriller and some Deeper Yea some rendring the Voice Differing in the Letters or Acriculate Sound from that they receive We have all means