Summary
Joabin tells the narrator that one of the Fathers of the House of Salomon is coming to the main part of the island and that the crew will be able to select one member to have a private audience with him.
The narrator is selected.
When he meets the Father of the House of Salomon, he is told he will learn all about the foundation of the island, its geography, and its philosophical purpose.
The Father of the House of Salomon explains that the island is equipped with deep caves, high towers, bodies of water, orchards and gardens, enclosures where animals are raised and studied, houses to simulate extreme weather, and Chambers of Health where the air is purified.
They also have many kitchens, bakehouses, and breweries where they make food and drink both for pleasure and for medicinal purposes, as well as dispensaries and shops for medication.
The Father goes on: the island makes its own fabrics and textiles, contains heat through a number of furnaces, and conducts experiments using light in rooms of radiation.
They have precious stones, places where they experiment with sound, houses for testing out new flavors and tastes, engine-houses where they make engines for all technologies, a mathematics wing, and finally, a place for the "deceits of the senses," whereby they study phenomena like apparitions and illusions.
Analysis
Though New Atlantis is an unfinished text, this section of the narrative can be considered a type of climax for the narrator's tale. Here, the Father of Salomon's House explains, finally, what Salomon's House is, what it does, and how it does it. The mysterious organization – which could have raised eyebrows for some readers, given how vaguely it is discussed in the first half of the text – is revealed to be one of benevolence, learning, and progress.
The Father details the various geographic and man-made spaces on the island that have been dedicated to the study of different parts of the human experience: the people perform experience on light, sound, taste, medicine, and a variety of other sensations and technologies that appear to be much more advanced than anything Europeans would have seen at the time.
The repetition of the phrase "We have also" in this section of the narrative is significant, because it emphasizes the grand extent to which Salomon's House has dedicated itself and the island to discovery and knowledge acquisition.
Central to the structure of Salomon's House is scientific inquiry about the natural world. Indeed, as the Father explains the process by which knowledge is collected, synthesized, and interpreted, he is in fact explaining a scientific method known as the Baconian Method. While this particular mode of scientific experimentation enjoyed little popularity at the time, Bacon himself is considered a contributor to what we now know as the Scientific Method still used today. Roles like "Merchants of Light" and "Interpreters of Nature" all nod to different aspects of this methodology, in which one hypothesizes, experiments, and draws broader conclusions based on the results of those experiments.
Thus, through the Father of Salomon's House, Bacon argues that a utopian society would be one that placed advancements in science – and a methodical approach to the natural world – at the heart of its values and culture.
