THIS IS THE FORM AND RULE OF OUR
ALPHABET
May God, the Creator, Preserver, and Renewer of the Universe,
protect and govern this work, both in its ascent to his Glory, and
in its descent to the Good of Mankind, for the sake of his Mercy
and good Will to Men, through his only Son (Immanuel). God
us.
In the "Promus," which is the name of Bacon's notebook now in the MSS. department of the British Museum, Bacon tells us that "Tragedies and Comedies are made of one Alphabet." His beautiful prayer, described as the Form and Rule of our Alphabet, was first published in 1679 in "Certaine Genuine Remains of Sir Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam and Viscount St. Albans," where it appears as a fragment of a book written by the Lord Verulam and entituled, "The Alphabet of Nature." In the preface we are told that this work is commonly said to be lost. "The Alphabet of Nature" is, of course, "The Immortal Plays," known to us as Shakespeare's, which hold "The Mirror up to Nature," and are now no longer lost, but restored to their great author, Francis Bacon.