Sir Francis Bacon

Copyright Michael D. Robbins 2006

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Sir Francis Bacon—Philosopher, Statesman, Reformer of Thought, Utopian

January 22, 1561 (OS), London, England, 7:28 AM, LMT, or 7:42 AM (Source: More Notable Nativities and the astrologer William Lilly, for whom both times are quoted.) (Apparently) died, of bronchitis and pneumonia on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1626 OS, Highgate, England.                                                                        

(Ascendant, Aquarius; Sun and Mercury also in Aquarius, with Mercury conjunct the Ascendant; Moon and Jupiter in Aries; Venus conjunct Pluto in Pisces; Mars in Sagittarius; Saturn in Gemini; Uranus in Scorpio; Neptune in Taurus)

The incarnation of the present Master R. as Francis Bacon is well known to all occultists. In that incarnation, the “Count” (as he was later known) displayed his universal Aquarian genius, preparing himself for His coming role as the Mahachohan—beginning in 1925.

Francis Bacon was the harbinger of the Aquarian Age. He possessed the seminal vision of the new Aquarian Order. He, like Thomas More, was the author of a Utopia, and sought to see this Utopia established in the “New World”. As the Count de Saint Germain he was influential among the “founding fathers” of the United States, carrying forth his vision of a “New Order of the Ages”.

For many years the Master R. presided over the seventh ray Ashram; as Francis Bacon he was securely focussed within this transformational, alchemical energy. In the early 20^th century he “took” a number of his seventh ray initiates with him as he refocussed upon the third ray necessary to those who assume the role of Mahachohan. Even as Francis Bacon, the brilliance of the third ray (his monadic ray) can be seen, for, indeed, Bacon “sounded the bell which called the wits together”, gathering Western civilization into an intellectual effort which has dominated the last four hundred years, creating the Scientific Revolution, and initiating the process which is intended, as the centuries slip away, to supplant faith with knowledge.

A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch, and a miserable dinner.

A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.

A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it.
(Mars conjunct MC, opposition Saturn.)

A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.

Boldness is ever blind, for it sees not dangers and inconveniences whence it is bad in council though good in execution.

Books will speak plain when counsellors blanch.

By indignities men come to dignities.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.
(Mercury conjunct Sun & Ascendant.)

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

Friends are thieves of time.

He that hath knowledge spareth his words.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.

I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.

If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.

In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.

It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.

It is impossible to love and to be wise.
(Venus in Pisces square Saturn.)

Knowledge and human power are synonymous.
(Venus in Pisces conjunct Pluto.)

Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance.

Life, an age to the miserable, and a moment to the happy.

Little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth. For a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.

Money is like manure, of very little use except it be spread.

Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body, and it addeth no small reverence to men's manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Therefore set it down: That a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.

Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.

Opportunity makes a thief.

People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can't fool the neighbors.

People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.

Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider.

Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress.
(Jupiter & Moon in 2nd house.)

Science is but an image of the truth.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.

The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.
(Venus conjunct Pluto.)

The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
(Mars conjunct MC. Moon in Aries.)

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.

The mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.

The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.

The place of justice is a hallowed place.

The remedy is worse than the disease.

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.

The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate. (Jupiter in 2nd house.)

The worst men often give the best advice.

The worst solitude is to have no real friendships.

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

Therefore if a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she be blind, yet she is not invisible.

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.

With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half.

Without friends the world is but a wilderness. There is no man that imparteth his joys to his friends, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his grieves to his friend, but he grieveth the less.

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.

Consistency is the foundation of virtue.

Sir Francis BaconFor other people named Francis Bacon, see Francis Bacon (disambiguation).
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, KC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman and essayist. He was knighted in 1603, created Baron Verulam in 1618, and created Viscount St Alban in 1621; both peerage titles became extinct upon his death.

He began his professional life as a lawyer, but he has become best known as a philosophical advocate and defender of the scientific revolution. His works establish and popularize an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method. Induction implies drawing knowledge from the natural world through experimentation, observation, and testing of hypotheses. In the context of his time, such methods were connected with the occult trends of hermeticism and alchemy.

Early life
Bacon was born at York House Strand, London. He was the youngest of five sons of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Elizabeth I. His mother, Ann Cooke Bacon was the second wife of Sir Nicholas, a member of the Reformed or Puritan Church, and a daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, whose sister married William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the great minister of Queen Elizabeth.

Biographers believe that Bacon received an education at home in his early years, and that his health during that time, as later, was delicate. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1573 at the age of twelve, living for three years there with his older brother Anthony.

At Cambridge he first met the Queen, who was impressed by his precocious intellect, and was accustomed to call him "the young Lord Keeper."

Here also his studies of science brought him to the conclusion that the methods (and thus the results) were erroneous. His reverence for Aristotle conflicted with his dislike of Aristotelian philosophy, which seemed barren, disputatious, and wrong in its objectives.

On June 27, 1576, he and Anthony were entered de societate magistrorum at Gray's Inn, and a few months later they went abroad with Sir Amias Paulet, the English ambassador at Paris. The disturbed state of government and society in France under Henry III afforded him valuable political instruction.

The sudden death of his father in February 1579 necessitated Bacon's return to England, and seriously influenced his fortunes. Sir Nicholas had laid up a considerable sum of money to purchase an estate for his youngest son, but he died before doing so, and Francis was left with only a fifth of that money. Having started with insufficient means, he borrowed money and became habitually in debt. To support himself, he took up his residence in law at Gray's Inn in 1579.

Career
In the fragment De Interpretatione Naturae Prooemium (written probably about 1603) Bacon analyses his own mental character and establishes his goals, which were threefold: discovery of truth, service to his country, and service to the church. Knowing that a prestigious post would aid him toward these ends, in 1580 he applied, through his uncle, Lord Burghley, for a post at court which might enable him to devote himself to a life of learning. His application failed, and for the next two years he worked quietly at Gray's Inn giving himself seriously to the study of law, until admitted as an outer barrister in 1582. In 1584 he took his seat in parliament for Melcombe in Dorset, and subsequently for Taunton (1586). He wrote on the condition of parties in the church, and he wrote down his thoughts on philosophical reform in the lost tract, Temporis Partus Maximus, but he failed to obtain a position of the kind he thought necessary for success..

In the Parliament of 1586 he took a prominent part in urging the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. About this time he seems again to have approached his powerful uncle, the result of which may possibly be traced in his rapid progress at the bar, and in his receiving, in 1589, the reversion to the Clerkship of the Star Chamber, a valuable appointment, the enjoyment of which, however, he did not enter into until 1608.

During this period Bacon became acquainted with Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1567-1601), Queen Elizabeth's favourite. By 1591 he was acting as the earl's confidential adviser. Bacon took his seat for Middlesex when in February 1593 Elizabeth called a Parliament to investigate a Catholic plot against her. His opposition to a bill that would levy triple subsidies in half the usual time (he objected to the time span) offended many people; he was accused of seeking popularity, and was for a time excluded from the court. When the Attorney-Generalship fell vacant in 1594 and Bacon became a candidate for the office, Lord Essex's influence could not secure him the position; in fashion, Bacon failed to become solicitor in 1595. To console him for these disappointments Essex presented him with a property at Twickenham, which he subsequently sold for £1800, equivalent to a much larger sum now.

Memorial to Francis Bacon, in the chapel of Trinity College, CambridgeIn 1596 he was made a Queen's Counsel, but missed the appointment of Master of the Rolls. During the next few years, his financial situation remained bad. His friends could find no public office for him, a scheme for retrieving his position by a marriage with the wealthy widow Lady Elizabeth Hatton failed, and in 1598 he was arrested for debt. His standing in the queen's eyes, however, was beginning to improve. He gradually acquired the standing of one of the learned counsel, though he had no commission or warrant and received no salary. His relationship with the queen also improved when he severed ties with Essex, a fortunate move considering that the latter would be executed for treason in 1601; and Bacon was one of those appointed to investigate the charges against him, and examine witnesses, in connection with which he showed an ungrateful and indecent eagerness in pressing the case against his former friend and benefactor. This act Bacon endeavoured to justify in A Declaration of the Practices and Treasons, etc., of ... the Earl of Essex, etc. He received a gift of a fine of £1200 on one of Essex's accomplices.

The accession of James I brought Bacon into greater favour; he was knighted in 1603, and endeavoured to set himself right with the new powers by writing his Apologie (defence) of his proceedings in the case of Essex, who had favoured the succession of James. In the course of the uneventful first parliament session Bacon married Alice Barnham, the daughter of a well-connected London alderman. Little or nothing is known of their married life. In his last will he disinherited her.

However, substantial evidence suggests that Bacon's emotional interests lay elsewhere. John Aubrey in his Brief Lives states that Bacon was "a pederast". Bacon's fellow parliamentary member Sir Simonds D'Ewes in his Autobiography and Correspondence writes of Bacon: "yet would he not relinquish the practice of his most horrible & secret sinne of sodomie, keeping still one Godrick, a verie effeminate faced youth, to bee his catamite and bedfellow". Bacon's mother Lady Ann Bacon expressed clear exasperation with what she believed was her son's behaviour. In a letter to her other son Anthony, she complains of another of Francis's companions "that bloody Percy" whom, she writes, he kept "yea as a coach companion and a bed companion" ("coach companion" in Bacon's day carried louche connotations, as the interior of a traveling coach was one of the few places affording privacy). Bacon exhibited a strong penchant for young Welsh serving-men. One such person, Francis Edney, received the enormous sum of two hundred pounds in Bacon's will. [1]

Meanwhile (in 1608), he had entered upon the Clerkship of the Star Chamber, and was in the enjoyment of a large income; but old debts and present extravagance kept him embarrassed, and he endeavoured to obtain further promotion and wealth by supporting the king in his arbitrary policy.

However, Bacon's services were rewarded in June 1607 with the office of Solicitor. In 1610 the famous fourth parliament of James met. Despite Bacon's advice to him, James and the Commons found themselves frequently at odds over royal prerogatives and the king's embarrassing extravagance, and the House was dissolved in February 1611. Through this Bacon managed in frequent debate to uphold the prerogative, while retaining the confidence of the Commons. In 1613, Bacon was finally able to become attorney general, by dint of advising the king to shuffle judicial appointments; and in this capacity he would prosecute Somerset in 1616. The parliament of April 1614 objected to Bacon's presence in the seat for Cambridge—he was allowed to stay, but a law was passed that forbade the attorney-general to sit in parliament—and to the various royal plans which Bacon had supported. His obvious influence over the king inspired resentment or apprehension in many of his peers.

Bacon continued to receive the King's favor, and in 1618 was appointed by James to the position of Lord Chancellor. In his great office Bacon showed a failure of character in striking contrast with the majesty of his intellect. He was corrupt alike politically and judicially, and now the hour of retribution arrived. His public career ended in disgrace in 1621 when, after having fallen into debt, a Parliamentary Committee on the administration of the law charged him with corruption under twenty-three counts; and so clear was the evidence that he made no attempt at defence. To the lords, who sent a committee to inquire whether the confession was really his, he replied, "My lords, it is my act, my hand, and my heart; I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed." He was sentenced to a fine of £40,000, remitted by the king, to be committed to the Tower during the king's pleasure (his imprisonment in fact lasted only a few days). More seriously, Lord St Alban was declared incapable of holding future office or sitting in parliament. He narrowly escaped being deprived of his titles. Thenceforth the disgraced viscount devoted himself to study and writing.

Nieves Mathews in her book, Francis Bacon: The History of a Character Assassination (1996, Yale University Press) alleges that Bacon was completely innocent of the bribery charges and that writers from later times were themselves guilty of slandering Bacon's reputation. Bacon, commenting on his impeachment as Chancellor in which he claims to have been forced to plead guilty to bribery charges in order to save King James from a political scandal stated:

I was the justest judge, that was in England these last fifty years. When the book of all hearts is opened, I trust I shall not be found to have the troubled fountain of a corrupt heart. I know I have clean hands and a clean heart. I am as innocent of bribes as any born on St. Innocents Day.

Monument to Bacon at his burial place, St Michael's church in St AlbansIn March, 1626, Lord St Alban came to London. Continuing his scientific research, he was inspired by the possibility of using snow to preserve meat. He purchased a chicken (fowl) to carry out this experiment. While stuffing the chicken with snow, he contracted a fatal case of pneumonia. He died at Highgate on 9 April 1626, leaving assets of about £7,000 and debts to the amount of £22,000.

Works and philosophy
Bacon's works include his Essays, as well as the Colours of Good and Evil and the Meditationes Sacrae, all published in 1597. His famous aphorism, "knowledge is power", is found in the Meditations. Bacon also wrote In felicem memoriam Elizabethae, a eulogy for the queen written in 1609; and various philosophical works which constitute the fragmentary and incomplete Instauratio magna, the most important part of which is the Novum Organum (published 1620). Bacon also wrote the Astrologia Sana and expressed his belief that stars had physical effects on the planet.

Bacon did not propose an actual philosophy, but rather a method of developing philosophy; he wrote that, whilst philosophy at the time used the deductive syllogism to interpret nature, the philosopher should instead proceed through inductive reasoning from fact to axiom to law. Before beginning this induction, the inquirer is to free his mind from certain false notions or tendencies which distort the truth. These are called "Idols" (idola), and are of four kinds: "Idols of the Tribe" (idola tribus), which are common to the race; "Idols of the Den" (idola specus), which are peculiar to the individual; "Idols of the Marketplace" (idola fori), coming from the misuse of language; and "Idols of the Theater" (idola theatri), which result from an abuse of authority. The end of induction is the discovery of forms, the ways in which natural phenomena occur, the causes from which they proceed. Bacon's developments of the inductive philosophy would revolutionize the future thought humanity.

Bacon's somewhat fragmentary ethical system, derived through use of his methods, is explicated in the seventh and eighth books of his De augmentis scientiarum (1623). He distinguishes between duty to the community, an ethical matter, and duty to God, a purely religious matter. Any moral action is the action of the human will, which is governed by reason and spurred on by the passions; habit is what aids men in directing their will toward the good. No universal rules can be made, as both situations and men's characters differ.

Bacon distinctly separated religion and philosophy, though the two can coexist. Where philosophy is based on reason, faith is based on revelation, and therefore irrational—in De augmentis he writes that "[t]he more discordant, therefore, and incredible, the divine mystery is, the more honor is shown to God in believing it, and the nobler is the victory of faith."

Posthumous reputation
Bacon's ideas about the improvement of the human lot were influential in the 1640s and 1650s among a number of Parliamentarian scholars. During the Restoration Bacon was commonly invoked as a guiding spirit of the new-founded Royal Society. In the nineteenth century his emphasis on induction was revived and developed by William Whewell, among others.

Bacon and Shakespeare
There is a persistent discussion ([1], [2],[3], [4]) amongst historians, researchers, and many scholars who have and continue to engage in an ongoing debate as to whether Bacon was in fact the real Shakespeare. Since the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a number of writers extended Bacon's acknowledged body of work by claiming that Bacon was the author of the plays of William Shakespeare. There is disputed evidence for this via Bacon's Shakespeare notebook, The Promus and The Northumberland Manuscript.

Principal Dates In The Life Of Francis Bacon
(1561-1626)
1561 Born, 22 January, at York House in the Strand, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Seal, and Anne Cooke (his second wife). Bacon was the youngest of eight children, six of whom were by Sir Nicholas's first marriage.
1573 April. Goes up to Trinity College, Cambridge, with his elder brother, Anthony.
1576 June. Admitted to Gray's Inn (again with Anthony). September. Goes to Paris with Sir Amias Paulet, ambassador to France.
1579 February. His father dies, and (in June) he returns to England. Left with only a small inheritance, he is forced to seek a career in the law.
Anthony Bacon sets out on a long tour of the continent.
1582 June. Admitted Utter Barrister at Gray's Inn.
1584 November. First appearance in Parliament, representing Melcombe Regis in Dorset. (He remains in the Commons, representing various constituencies, until 1618, when he is made a peer. )
1585 c. Writes Advice to Queen Elizabeth, concerned chiefly with the recusants, and The Greatest Birth of Time.
1586 Becomes a Bencher of Gray's Inn.
1592 Writes four speeches for an entertainment, A Conference of Pleasure, celebrating Queen Elizabeth's accession day. Anthony Bacon returns from abroad and notes that his brother is 'bound and in deep arrearages' to Robert, Earl of Essex.
1593 In Parliament, speaks against a government proposal for subsidies, and as a consequence is forbidden to come into the Queen's presence.
With support from Essex, he begins his (unsuccessful) petition for the offices of Attorney-, and then Solicitor-,General.
1594 Writes six speeches for the Gray's Inn Christmas masque Gesta Grayorum. Begins to compile Formularies and Elegancies, a notebook of quotations and ideas; and writes legal and state pieces.
1595 Essex gives Bacon an estate (Twickenham) to console him on his failure to gain office.
Writes part of the device presented by Essex to celebrate the Queen's accession day (Of Love and Self-Love).
1596 Advises Fulke Greville on his studies and the Earl of Rutland on his travels.
1597 Publishes the Essays, with Colours of Good and Evil and Meditationes Sacrae. Writes Maxims of the Law.
Proposes marriage to Lady Hatton, who refuses and then marries his rival and enemy, Sir Edward Coke.
1598 Arrested for debt, but soon released.
Writes a pamphlet about a Jesuit conspiracy against the Queen.
1600 June. Takes part in proceedings against Essex after the Irish debacle (in which the Earl, close to defeat by the Irish, abandoned his command and returned to England without the Queen's permission).
July. Offers his services to Essex, a fortnight after the Earl has been released but not restored to the Queen's favour.
1601 February. Essex is arraigned after his rebellion and executed as a traitor. Bacon assists the prosecution in his trial, and publishes a Declaration of the Earl's crimes.
May. Anthony Bacon dies. Mortgages Twickenham Park.
1603 After Elizabeth's death, tries (unsuccessfully) to obtain King James's favour.
July. Knighted at Windsor, along with three hundred others.
Deeply in debt, he is assisted by Sir Robert Cecil (later Lord Salisbury).
Writes Valerius Terminus of the Interpretation of Nature, Temporis Partus Masculus (The Masculine Birth of Time), and De Interpretatione Naturae Proaemium (Preface to 'Of the Interpretation of Nature'). Begins work on a series of writings about the union of England and Scotland.
1604 Publishes Apology in certain imputations concerning the late Earl of Essex.
August. Appointed King's Counsel.
1605 Publishes The Advancement of Learning.
1606 May. Marries Alice Barnham, the daughter of a rich London alderman. There are no children of this marriage.
1607 Writes Cogita et Visa (Thoughts and Conclusions).
June. Appointed Solicitor-General.
1608 Writes Redargutio Philosophiarum (The Refutation of Philosophies) and short historical pieces.
1609 Publishes De Sapientia Veterum (Of the Wisdom of the Ancients).
1610 His mother dies, several years after losing her wits.
Devises plans for a history of Great Britain, and in Parliament speaks for the King's right to impose taxes.
1612 Publishes second edition of the Essays, enlarged and revised.
Writes Descriptio Globi Intellectualis and Thema Coeli (Description of the Intellectual Globe and Theory of the Heaven).
1613 October. Appointed Attorney-General.
Provides an expensive masque for the wedding of the King's favourite, Robert, Earl of Somerset. Writes against duels.
1616 Helps to prosecute Somerset for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury.
Writes a letter of advice to the new favourite, George Villiers (later Duke of Buckingham).
June. Made a Privy Councillor.
1617 March. Appointed Lord Keeper.
In and out of favour with the King and Buckingham for opposing them.
1618 January. Appointed Lord Chancellor.
July. Created Baron Verulam.
1620 Publishes Novum Organum (The New Organon) as the first part of the (uncompleted) Instauratio Magna (The Great Instauration).
1621 January. Created Viscount St Albans.
May. Sentenced by the House of Lords for taking bribes. Dismissed from the office of Chancellor. Fined and imprisoned briefly, he receives a limited pardon, and retains his title. Retires to his family home at Gorhambury.
1622 Publishes History of Henry VII, and (in monthly instalments) part of his proposed Natural History. Writes an Advertisement touching an Holy War.
1623 Publishes De Augmentis Scientiarum, a much enlarged Latin version of The Advancement of Learning.
Tries (in vain) to be made Provost of Eton.
1624 Writes New Atlantis, and publishes Apophthegms and a translation of some of the Psalms. Desperately short of money.
1625 Publishes the third edition of the Essays, again enlarged and revised.
1626 Dies, 9 April, at Highgate, over £20,000 in debt.
Less than three weeks later his widow marries one of his servants.

The strong Aquarius and Mercurial influences give a quick or mobile appearance to the features. The picture of Bacon in his youth especially shows some of Mercury or Aquarius in the shape of the head. Venus and Pluto conjunct in Pisces may emphasize the depth and the slight depression under the eyes, and may also have lent a mesmerising quality.

I