《弗朗西斯·培根的私生活故事》序言
作者：阿尔弗雷德·多德
阿尔弗雷德·多德是二十世纪的英国人和“梅森”。他写了一部关于弗朗西斯·培根最好的传记。
他的同事们评论说：“阿尔弗雷德·多德是一个光明之使者。他以自己的心体验了关于弗朗西斯·培根的生活、性格和工作，发现了鲜为人知、鲜为人知的事实。”
他认为：“为了人类和后世的利益，人们应该了解他多年来启示着我们思想的那位最高贵的英国人，诗的王子，最杰出的哲学家，最睿智的伦理老师，人类有史以来最伟大的天才——我们最强大的君主伊丽莎白·都铎的真正的亲生的儿子。”
“培根为英格兰而生，用他自己的话来说，——为子孙后代做仆人。他的巨大劳动被他的同胞们忽视了，早就应该被挖掘出来了。
不管我们怎么拒绝他，我们无法把他赶出去。他的思想进入我们的思想，他的灵魂进入我们的灵魂。我们是他的一部分。
无论我们在密室里，在舞台上，在实验室里，在学术殿堂里，在公共媒体和我们的私人书房中，人们每天都在引用他的思想，就像海水中的盐一样离不开他。
如果他是一个流氓和一个骗子，那么最真实的是我们已经把一个流氓和一个骗子作为我们的榜样。但是本·琼森说弗朗西斯·培根是美德的化身；我认为他的证词——一个认识培根的熟人的判断——比接受从不认识他的批评家的意见更明智，他们无法看穿时代的阴霾，会被时间的迷雾所迷惑，把阴影误认为现实。
无论如何，让我们作为英国人在法律面前，假定他是无辜的，因为我可以向你保证，他从来没有被证明犯有任何不法行为。考虑一下事实然后决定。我们希望能成为这样的陪审员。”（摘自本书《序言》）
【原文】
Francis Bacon's Personal Life-Story
by Alfred Dodd
SEE THE TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE
Alfred Dodd was a twentieth century Englishman and Mason who wrote perhaps the finest biography of Francis Bacon. His peers have said that "Alfred Dodd, a merchant of light, reasoned within himself the little-known and less understood facts concerning the life, character, and work of Francis Bacon; and judged it to be for the benefit of humanity and the after ages that men should become acquainted with his thoughts that had revolved for many years around our noblest Englishman, the Prince of Poets, the most illustrious philosophers, the wisest of ethical teachers, the greatest genius ever born to the human race -- the true-born son of our most puissant sovereign, Elizabeth Tudor."
He was born for England, to set the land he loved on new lines, "to be a Servant to Posterity," to quote his own words. And the revelation of his stupendous labours, overlooked by his compatriots, is long overdue.
Deny him as we will, we cannot cast him out. His mind has passed into our minds, his soul into our soul. We are part of him. We absorb his thoughts in the secret Lodge, on the Stage, in our laboratories, in the Halls of Learning, in quotations daily in the public Press and in our private studies -- as inseparable as the salt from the sea. If he be a rogue and a cheat, then it is most true that we have taken a rogue and a cheat to be our Exemplar. But Ben Jonson said that Francis Bacon was the embodiment of Virtue; and I think it wiser to abide by his testimony -- the verdict of a man who knew him personally -- than to accept the opinions of critics who never knew him, who only see through the haze of the Age and who may thus be confused by the Time-Mists of the Centuries and mistake Shadows for Reality.
At all events let us as Englishmen before the Law, assume that he is innocent, for never yet, I can assure you, has he been proved to be unequivocally guilty of any wrongdoing. Consider the facts and then decide . . . and such jurors we wish him. (From the Preface.)
