In a mutual flame from hence.

So they loved, as love in twain

Had the essence but in one;

Two distincts, division none:

Number there in love was slain.

Hearts remote, yet not asunder;

Distance, and no space was seen

'Twixt the turtle and his queen:

But in them it were a wonder.

So between them love did shine,

That the turtle saw his right

Flaming in the phoenix' sight;

Either was the other's mine.

Property was thus appalled,

That the self was not the same;

Single nature's double name

Neither two nor one was called.

Reason, in itself confounded,

Saw division grow together,

To themselves yet either neither,

Simple were so well compounded,

That it cried, How true a twain

Seemeth this concordant one!

Love hath reason, reason none,

If what parts can so remain.

Whereupon it made this threne

To the phoenix and the dove,

Co-supremes and stars of love,

As chorus to their tragic scene.

Threnos.

Beauty, truth, and rarity,

Grace in all simplicity,

Here enclosed in cinders lie.

Death is now the phoenix' nest

And the turtle's loyal breast

To eternity doth rest,

Leaving no posterity:

'Twas not their infirmity,

It was married chastity.

Truth may seem, but cannot be:

Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;

Truth and beauty buried be.

To this urn let those repair

That are either true or fair

For these dead birds sigh a prayer.

by Shakespeare

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Bacon was a very influential figure in England in his time, he achieved a lot and contributed a lot, he has

even been considered the father of modern science. But this part of his history is well enough documented

that I need not cover it.

Bacon was involved in all kinds of influential business, including the writing of the King James Bible, and

the colonization of America.

Bacon also wrote The New Atlantis, which I quoted from in the previous chapter. This was considered by

most to be a work of fiction, however, considering that we know Bacon was a Rosicrucian himself, and it is

clear he was writing about the Rosicrucians, we can take his description of Salomon's House (the

Rosicrucians) literally. I'm certain that this was the intention as the whole story only builds up to a long

description of what is clearly the Rosicrucians, and then the story ends. The New Atlantis was also

appended with Magnalia Naturae, Praecipue Quoad Usus Humanos, which is a list of uses of the Stone, as

quoted in chapter 5.

Bacon faked his own death, and somewhat amusingly. One report, although unconfirmed, claims that

Bacon attended his own funeral. Note particularly the references to the "conservation and induration of

bodies" and a direct mention of the "Stone", in his last letter:

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On 9 April 1626 Bacon died while at Arundel mansion at Highgate outside London of pneumonia. An influential

account of the circumstances of his death was given by John Aubrey. Aubrey has been criticized for his evident

credulousness in this and other works; on the other hand, he knew Thomas Hobbes, the fellow-philosopher and friend

of Bacon. Aubrey's vivid account, which portrays Bacon as a martyr to experimental scientific method, had him

journeying to Highgate through the snow with the King's physician when he is suddenly inspired by the possibility of

using the snow to preserve meat:

"They were resolved they would try the experiment presently. They alighted out of the coach and went into a poor

woman's house at the bottom of Highgate hill, and bought a fowl, and made the woman exenterate it".

As a result of being out in the cold in order to stuff the fowl with snow, Bacon contracted a fatal case of pneumonia.

Some people, including Aubrey, consider these two contiguous, possibly coincidental events as related and causative

of his death: "The Snow so chilled him that he immediately fell so extremely ill, that he could not return to his Lodging

... but went to the Earle of Arundel's house at Highgate, where they put him into ... a damp bed that had not been laynin

... which gave him such a cold that in 2 or 3 days as I remember Mr Hobbes told me, he died of Suffocation."

Being unwittingly on his deathbed, the philosopher wrote his last letter to his absent host and friend Lord Arundel:

"My very good Lord,—I was likely to have had the fortune of Caius Plinius the elder, who lost his life by trying an

experiment about the burning of Mount Vesuvius; for I was also desirous to try an experiment or two touching the

conservation and induration of bodies. As for the experiment itself, it succeeded excellently well; but in the journey

between London and Highgate, I was taken with such a fit of casting as I know not whether it were the Stone, or some

surfeit or cold, or indeed a touch of them all three. But when I came to your Lordship's House, I was not able to go

back, and therefore was forced to take up my lodging here, where your housekeeper is very careful and diligent about

me, which I assure myself your Lordship will not only pardon towards him, but think the better of him for it. For indeed

your Lordship's House was happy to me, and I kiss your noble hands for the welcome which I am sure you give me to it.

I know how unfit it is for me to write with any other hand than mine own, but by my troth my fingers are so disjointed

with sickness that I cannot steadily hold a pen."

Francis Bacon, by en.wikipedia.org

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42. Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle was one of the founding members of the Royal Society and considered the first modern

chemist. He was also an alchemist (a few of the founders were.)

He wrote "The Sceptical Chymist". It was this book that undermined alchemy and made it unpopular to

believe. Boyle's intention was not to destroy alchemy, but to question the cause of it and all things. At the

time many people were taking the alchemical books literally, or at least misinterpreting them, which made

progress very difficult if the alchemical books were to be a foundation for modern chemistry. The main

point of the book was to question what things were made out of, what the elements actually were.

Unfortunately the book was too successful and used as an argument against alchemy, which was not its