In 1905 was published a book called "Letters from the Dead to the Dead," by Oliver Lector. In it attention is drawn to the remarkable features of some of the books on emblems printed during Bacon's life, and to the evidence that he was in some manner connected with the publication of many of these volumes. The author claims this to be especially the case with the "Emblemata Moralia et Bellica," 1615, of Jacob de Bruck, of Angermundt, and the "Emblemata Ethic Politica" of J. Bornitius. The emblem pictures for the most part appear to be picture puzzles. In the "Critique upon the Mythology of the Ancients" Bacon says:-- "It may pass for a farther indication of a concealed and secret meaning, that some of these fables are so absurd and idle in their narration as to proclaim and shew an allegory afar off. A fable that carries probability with it may be supposed invented for pleasure, or in imitation of history; but, those that would never be conceived or related in this way, must surely have a different use." If this line of reasoning be applied to the illustrations in the emblem books, it is clear that they conceal some hidden meaning, for they are apparently unintelligible, and the accompanying letterpress does not afford any illumination. Jean Baudoin was the translator of Bacon's "Essaies" into the French language (1626). Baudoin published in 1638-9 "Recueil D'Emblèmes divers avec des Discours Moraux, Philos. et Polit." In the preface he says: "Le grand chancelier Bacon m'ayant fait naître l'envie de travailler à ces emblèmes ... m'en a fourni les principaux que j'ai tirés de l'explication ingénieuse qu'il a donnée de quelques fables et de ses autres ouvrages." Here is definite evidence of Bacon's association with a book of emblems. The first volume of Emblemata in which traces of Bacon's hand are to be found is the 1577 edition of Alciat's "Emblems," published by the Plantin Press, with notes by Claude Mignault. It is in this edition, in Emblem No. 45, "In dies meliora," that for the first time the light A and the dark A is to be found. In previous editions this device is absent. For this volume a new design has been engraved in which it appears. In the emblem books written in Italian Bacon does not appear to have been concerned, unless an exception be made of Ripa's "Iconologia," a copy of which contains his handwriting and initials. In some way he had control of a large number of those written in Latin, and bearing names of Dutch, French, and some Italian authors, and also of several written in Dutch and of the English writers. The field is a very wide one, and only a few of the principal examples can be mentioned.