HW: Francis Bacon?

Karl Hiller khiller at NICKEL.UCS.INDIANA.EDU
Wed Dec 11 03:19:21 EST 1996


So I was reading "New Atlantis" by Sir Francis Bacon for a class, and I
noticed this passage.  The speaker is one of the ruling class of a
utopian island:

"You shall understand that there is not under the heavens so chaste a
nation as this of Bensalem, nor so free from all pollution or foulness.
It is the virgin of the world..."
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

There's nothing else to connect this to the Hawkwind song of the same
name (no undead or anything), but it is a pretty distinctive phrase.   I
wonder if Hawkwind may have borrowed the phrase from someone who got it
from Bacon?  ("New Atlantis" was published in 1627).

Is this a useful bit of trivia for the Codex?

Karl



More information about the boc-l mailing list