(6) Prearranged geometric figures;
(7) Shorthand (ars notatoria).
These are among the means of veiling secrets, he tells us, and “ill will it betide him who reveals them.”[339]
Bacon was not singular in holding the doctrine of secrecy in matters of science, nor was it peculiar to the age he lived in: it arose ages before his birth, and was held for ages after his death. To any objections that might have been raised against the doctrine, philosophers would probably have replied with Subtle and Mammon:—
“... was not all the knowledge
Of the Egyptians writ in mystic symbols?
Speak not the Scriptures oft in parables?[144]
Are not the choicest fables of the poets,
That were the fountains and first springs of wisdom,
Wrapp’d in perpetual allegories?