An exceedingly rough and dirty outline of the basic structure of Bacon’s New Atlantis (for internal use

only, please)

First section:

a) The voyage of the ship from Peru to Bensalem

b) The induction or assimilation of the ship’s crew into Bensalem
c) An account, given by the governor of the House of Strangers, of how Bensalem was “converted
to the [Christian] faith” (p. 47)

Second section:

a) An account, also given by the governor, of the history of Bensalem in the context of the history
of the world
b) The narrator’s own account of the Feast of the Family
c) Joabin’s ‘supplement’ to the governor’s and narrator’s accounts
d) Joabin’s account of the laws regulating marriage and erotic matters in Bensalem, e.g., Adam and
Eve’s pools

Third section:

a) The Father of Salomon’s account (to the narrator) of the purpose, layout, organization, customs,
activities, etc., of Salomon’s House
b) His account of the relation of the House to the rest of Bensalem
c) His send-off, especially his grant of permission to the narrator to publish the aforementioned
accounts to the rest of the world