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The Great Instauration

Bacon’s brainchild is his Great Instauration, a project he conceived for the step-by-

step restoration of a state of paradise upon earth, but coupled with the illumination of

mankind. In other words, whereas mankind was innocently ignorant in the original

paradise, in the future paradise all human souls will have reached a state of

knowledge of truth. Such illumined knowledge will be one based on experience or

practice of the truth, which truth (as all great Masters teach, including Bacon) is

love—for it is one thing to speak of love and believe in it, but quite another to really

know the truth of it.

A worldwide state of illumination or golden age is an ancient dream and prophecy of

all great sages who ever lived on earth, for which they laboured. Bacon’s great gift to

the world was his ability to see this anew and to both devise and inaugurate a

particular scientific method by which it might be more certainly achieved, suitable for

the approaching era. This new method he referred to as an art—the Art of Discovery;

whilst the Great Instauration itself he conceived as being comprised of six stages of

work, leading to a final stage of rest and enjoyment of the results of the labour—the

state of paradise.

Bacon planned his Great Instauration in imitation of the Divine Work—the Work of

the Six Days of Creation, as defined in the Bible, leading to the Seventh Day of Rest or

Sabbath. He saw his own work, which is itself built upon that of Jesus Christ, his

exemplar, as being like the light of the First Day, which would inaugurate and

illumine the unfolding of the rest. He also understood that the Seven Days of Creation

constitute an eternal archetype for a cyclic occurrence, associated for instance with

the seven-day cycle in which the solar wind or ‘breath’ from the Sun bathes the Earth

with its light-energy, and then switches polarity for the next seven days, and so on.

The Six Days Work of the Great Instauration, and its Seventh Day, is therefore also

cyclic, just like life itself, with each cycle building upon the previous one, so that

knowledge and ability steadily increases in cycle after cycle, and with there being

smaller cycles within greater cycles.

All good teachers practice what they teach, and so Bacon left not just an idea for

posterity but also a practical example, a working model for the rest of us to study,

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learn from and, if necessary, develop further. He provided us with examples of each

of the individual parts or stages of the Great Instauration, which he symbolised as

individual volumes, seven in all. These volumes may be seen illustrated in the

frontispiece engraving to the 1640 edition of Bacon’s Advancement of Learning, as

well as on the title page illustration to the same publication. In some instances there

is in fact one particular original volume published for the part of the Great

Instauration it illustrates, such as the 1623 De Augmentis Scientiarum to illustrate

Part 1, the 1620 Novum Organum to illustrate Part 2, and the 1623 Folio of

Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies to illustrate Part 4; but for Part 3

several publications comprise Bacon’s example of a Natural History, and not all of

them were published in his lifetime.

It should be emphasised that by ‘Natural History’ Bacon means a history or factual

record, suitably organised, that embraces natural, human and divine nature, not just

nature in the sense of our corporeal world. That is to say, the Great Instauration

concerns the acquisition of all knowledge (Bacon’s stated goal), for entirely

philanthropic or charitable purposes, and therefore includes knowledge of the human

psyche and human ethics as well as knowledge of the nature and operations of

divinity within all manifest life, physical and metaphysical. All too often Bacon is

called materialistic and utilitarian (in a materialistic sense), which is a travesty of the

truth and a point of view which misses the point of the Great Instauration.

Moreover, it should be noted that Bacon’s examples were made as starting

dissertations, providing inspiration and guidance as well as material to get things

going. They were not intended as dogmatic examples that have to be repeated ad

infinitum without change. He foresaw his method, like the whole project, as evolving,

and designed it accordingly.

Bacon’s method, his six stages, can be summarised as (1) a survey of the state of

things together with a plan of action, (2) the discovery, acquirement or development

of a method, (3) the collection of a history—a data bank—on which to draw, (4) the

presentation of the data to the eyes and heart by means of suitable drama and

illustrated examples, (5) the drawing out of temporary axioms or ideas of truth

derived from the experience of the drama, and (6) the development of final axioms or

certainties as a result of putting the ideas into action—the test being that ‘truth prints

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goodness’; therefore only if the action and its result is truly good, on all counts, will

we achieve illumination and the state of paradise.

As shown in the title page illustration to the 1640 edition of Bacon’s Advancement of

Learning, the six parts or ‘volumes’ of the Six Days’ Work are organised into two sets

of three, which cross-relate to each other as well as being related to the symbolism

and meaning of the Six Days of Creation:-

1. Partitions of the Sciences

(De Augmentis Scientiarum)

4. Ladder of the Intellect

(Scala Intellectus)

2. New Method

(Novum Organum)

5. Anticipations of the 2nd Philosophy

(Anticipationes Philosophiæ Secunda)

3. Natural History

(Historia Naturalis)

6. The Second Philosophy or Active

Science

(Philosophia Secunda aut Scientia Activæ)

However, in the frontispiece illustration to the 1640 edition of Bacon’s Advancement

of Learning, the six parts or ‘volumes’ of the Six Days’ Work are organised into three

sets. The first set is comprised of volumes 1 and 2, stacked lying down, one on top of

the other, on the end of the table to Bacon’s left. The second set consists of volumes 3

to 6, stacked upright on the bookshelf. The third set is the single volume, the mystical

seventh, in which Bacon is shown writing. This whole arrangement relates to Bacon’s

Pyramid of Philosophy, wherein the second set of volumes forms the Pyramid,

which has History as its base, Poesie (the Ladder of the Intellect) as its middle, and

Philosophy as its upper part. The first set provides the survey or plan and the method

by which the pyramid is built. The apex or capstone is the seventh volume (the third

set), which signifies knowledge of the ‘Summary Law of Nature’, which law Bacon

identified as Love, or Divine Charity—‘the work which God maketh from the

beginning to the end’.

Pervading all this, as an invisible presence, is Divinity—the Wisdom of God that is

inspired into the human heart or recorded in books of wisdom such as the Bible—the

Wisdom that inspires, guides and teaches us. Bacon urged us to become proficient in

discovering and reading both Great Books—the Book of God’s Word (Divinity) and

the Book of God’s Works (Philosophy), the latter being but the handmaiden to the

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former, the mistress. The role of the handmaiden is to serve her mistress. Since the

mistress is love, or the wisdom that is love, then the handmaiden’s service can only be

an act of love, the love of love, which is charity. Only by this means can the Great

Instauration be achieved.

To Bacon, philosophy and science are two words for virtually the same thing, like

mind and soul, but with this difference: just as the soul signifies the shining or

illumined mind (i.e. Sol, ‘Sun’), so science signifies the knowledge that the love of

wisdom (i.e. philosophy) becomes when put into practice. Hence Bacon’s ‘Second

Philosophy’ is also called by him the ‘Active Science’, emphasising his intention that

such a ‘new’ philosophy, based upon his method, will be an enlightened one, and is

nothing less than philanthropy, or charity.

Bacon’s ‘temple’, which is to be constructed in the human mind according to his

principles and method, and on which he has made a start, is his ‘Pyramid of

Philosophy’. A pyramid is a ‘pyre’ of flame—a temple of light.

I have held up a light in the obscurity of Philosophy, which will be seen

centuries after I am dead. It will be seen amidst the erection of Tombs,

Theatres, Foundations, Temples, of Orders and Fraternities for nobility

and obedience—the establishment of good laws as an example to the

World. For I am not raising a Capitol or Pyramid to the Pride of men,

but laying a foundation in the human understanding for a holy Temple

after the model of the World. For my memory I leave it to Men's

charitable speeches, to foreign Nations and the next Ages, and to my

own Country after some Time has elapsed.

Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning, Bk II.

But we are not dedicating or building any Capitol or Pyramid to human

Pride, but found a holy temple in the human Intellect, on the model of

the Universe… For whatever is worthy of Existence is worthy of

Knowledge—which is the Image (or Echo) of Existence.

Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, Bk I, Aph.120.

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Bacon’s Pyramid of Philosophy has history for its base, upon which is built, layer

upon layer, first physics, then metaphysics, and finally the crowning knowledge of the

supreme law of love. Physics is concerned with material and efficient causes, and

metaphysics with formal and final causes. These causes are laws. The formal causes

are what Bacon, like Plato, calls ‘Forms’, which are the living Ideas (i.e. Angels) of

God that lie behind all Creation. The final causes are the greatest of those living Ideas

(i.e. Archangels), of which the supreme cause (the Summary Law of Nature) is divine

Love. Bacon urges us to discover and know these causes, and most of all the supreme

cause, so that we may do good by practising them. Therefore, because love is an

emotion, he urges us to study emotions.

For the principles, fountains, causes, and forms of motions, that is, the

appetites and passions of every kind of matter, are the proper objects of

philosophy.

Francis Bacon, Thoughts on the Nature of Things.

It is rightly laid down that ‘true knowledge is knowledge by causes’. Also

the establishment of four causes is not bad: material, formal, efficient

and final.

Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, Bk II, Aph.3.

For knowledges are as pyramids, whereof History is the basis. So of

Natural Philosophy, the basis is Natural History; the stage next the

basis is Physique [Physics]; the stage next the vertical point [apex] is

Metaphysique. As for the vertical point, opus quod operatur Deus à

principio usque ad finem,1 the Summary Law of Nature, we know not

whether man's enquiry can attain unto it.

Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning, Bk II.

Bacon’s Pyramid of Philosophy is a true pyramid—that is to say, it has a triangular

base, with three sides joined together at the apex in a single point. In terms of

Platonic solids it symbolises the element fire. Each side represents one of the three

main aspects of truth to be researched, practised and known—Divine, Human and

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Natural—which correspond to the Hermetic description of the three ‘Heads’—God,

Man and Cosmos.

So there are these three: firstly, God, Father and the Supreme Good;

secondly, the cosmos; thirdly, man.

The Corpus Hermeticum, Bk 10, 14.

In Philosophy, the contemplations of man do either penetrate unto God,

or are circumferred to Nature, or are reflected and reverted upon

himself. Out of which several inquiries there do arise three knowledges,

Divine Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, and Human Philosophy or

Humanity. For all things are marked and stamped with this triple

character of the power of God, the difference of Nature and the use of

Man.

Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning, Bk II.

God does not ignore man, he knows him fully, as God also wishes to be

known. This is the salvation for man: knowledge of God.

The Corpus Hermeticum, Bk 10, 15.

The apex of the pyramid represents the summary (or supreme) law of life—the law of

Love, which is divine Charity or Goodness.

© Peter Dawkins, FBRT, 1999

Ref:

1 Eccles. 3:11 — ‘(No man can find out) the work that God maketh from the beginning

to the end.’

* The Corpus Hermeticum quotations are from The Way of Hermes, translated by

Clement Salaman, Dorine van Oyen and William D. Wharton (London: Duckworth,

1999).