Customer Reviews:
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 Not What I Thought it Would Be July 30, 2007
It's not what I thought it would be. It seemed to be advertised as an esoteric Rosicrucian document, but it's really just Bacon's portrait of an ideal society. It's true that society has Rosicrucian ideals, but it is mostly a politcal book.
 Bacon is a rarity: an author that who writes with verve and insight! September 20, 2005
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a fascinating read and my favorite of all Bacon's writings.
A Must Have for the Esoteric Scholar! September 6, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I loved this book. It tied so much together for me regarding the mystery schools. If you are an esoteric fanatic like me, then this must be added to your collection.
A Mystical Journey to America August 25, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is Francis Bacon's model for America. Many believe it is the vision of the ancient spiritual adepts. Fascinating reading and most provoking.
 Two visions of The Good Life March 29, 2005
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is a very short text: 85pp for the two pieces, plus an intro. Each piece gives a brief description of one thinker's ideal world, a Utopia of a sort. This book is strengthened by presenting two such different views, casting them into sharp contrast.
The first, by Bacon, makes much of pomp, ceremony, and fine accoutrements. He starts by describing the wonderful pageant put out for any man whose living descendants exceed thirty in number. He is paraded among and served by his issue, and granted gifts by the benevolent ruler. At this point - only at this point - is a woman of the realm mentioned. His wife, should she have survived such a feat of childbearing, is to be presented as well, in a carriage, tightly enclosed. A featureless box, the best to which a woman might aspire. (Bacon goes out of his way to disparage More's Utopia, in an amusing aside.)
The remainder of the story details the alchemical feats and workshops of the land. They interested Bacon much the way a candy store might interest a child, with no thought as to how they might be provisioned or staffed. Although the many labs are of interest to today's technologist, the country's means of feeding itself and its voracious researchers remains unsaid.
Campanella's "City of the Sun" is a Utopia of very different character. Above all, it focusses its energies on war more than any other city since Sparta. He demands training in arms for men and women both from the earliest age on, though women would enter combat only in final resort. Even the infirm are put to service however they may serve: the lame can watch and guard, the blind can work in some crafts, and so on. Women are expected to participate in industry, too, except in the woodworkers' and armorers' trades. This city is surprisingly free in religion - Jews are tolerated, if not too jewish, as well as Brahmins and others who acknowledge a soul. Hey, in those days, it was radical.
Both authors express ideas that repulse a modern mind. Even Campanella's enlightened treatment of women and religious minorities sounds brutal, until considered in the context of his time. Bacon's blinkered self-involvement would barely be worth a chuckle, until one considers his influence on history.
It's not formal, but it's a way to view history: what is it that each age most wanted itself to be? What views existed, and what views have survived? And how did the writers of each age differ from the man in the street, or more likely the man behind the plow?
//wiredwierd
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