ESSAYS

FRANCIS BACON
Assess Bacon as a prose writer.
OR
Practical wisdom is eminent in Bacons essays. Explain
OR
Comment on Bacons Prose Style.
Answer:
There are certain periods of time in the history of mankind which have a special attraction for a
student of literature. In the history of English Literature, such a period is a reign of Queen
Elizabeth- I when English Prose was flourishing and the man responsible for this was Francis
Bacon.
Bacon is one of the brightest stars in the galaxy of English essayists. He is the founder of modern
philosophic thought. His most important literary work is his Essays which are the appendices
to the advancement of learning. In his essays, Bacon provides practical philosophy of life.
Bacon presents his philosophy in a unique and unsurpassed style. He does not imitate Montaigne.
His essays are objective and impersonal.
The chief cause of the popularity of Bacons essays, is his compact and epigrammatic style,
which was very unfamiliar in an age when prose was written in loose and lengthy sentences. This
compact style, supported by his lucid and forceful language beautifies his sentences and makes
them appealing.
Let us examine the beauty of the following sentences :
Those that want friends to open themselves unto, are cannibals of their own hearts.
(Of Friendship)
Reading maketh full man, conference, a ready man and writing an exact man.
(Of Studies)
This compactness of his style makes his sentences pregnant with meaning.
In the choice of subjects, we find the breath of his intellect, his worldly wisdom, concern with
public life and material advancement. His essays are the detached musings of a philosopher
objective, impersonal and orderly in thought.
Bacons life was full of experiences. It was also practical and in the essays also, he expresses
practical thinking on each subject.
Alexander Pope calls him, The wisest brightest and meanest of mankind. He laid down the
rules of conduct for every field of practical life. He had a word of advice on every matter for

every person. For example in the essay On Gardens he assumes the role of a botanist and tells
us of hundreds of flowers and plants and suggests plants for an ideal garden as an expert
engineer.
In Of Building he reveals the sound knowledge of architecture.
Bacon is a pragmatic writer. He thinks that Ethics is the younger sister of theology. But for a
practical man, there is no gospel. To a king he offers a valuable advice for the successful rule
over the people. He tells him how seditions and revolt occurs and how they may be suppressed or
forestalled and nipped in the bud. He also warns him against powerful nobility and ambitious
countries. In the essay of Ambition, he says:
There is also a great use of ambitious man in being screens to Princes in the matters of danger
and envy.
He also tells where to use those ambitious people and where not and also dangers and benefits in
using ambitious men. Bacon is concerned with what men do than what they ought to do. He
declares that folly of one man is fortune of another man for no man prospers so suddenly as by
others errors Bacon points out that he endeavoured to make his essays natural and not vulgar
where a man should find more in experience and little in books.
Bacon presents the pill of practical wisdom to the reader by wrapping it up in a charming
wrapper of his style. The openings of Bacons essays are most lively and dramatic. Of Truth
opens with What is Truth? Said jesting Pilate and would not stay for an answer. Of Revenge
also has a dramatic opening: Revenge is a kind of wild justice. In this essay, Bacon further
says: The most tolerable sort of revenge is for those wrongs in which there is no law of
remedy.
He again quotes, We are commanded to forgive our enemies but you never read we are
commanded to forgive our friends.
Bacon was a man of letters. His stock of words is exceptionally rich. His essays show his
learning of classical Latin authors, the vulgate and many medieval philosophers. We often come
across quotations form Seneca, Plato and the Bible.
To Bacon, life was very much a question of fortune and virtue. In the essay Of Truth, he gives
reasons why people do not follow the path of truth. He says The mixture of falsehood is like
alloy in the coin of gold and silver which may make the metal work better. Again we have
practical evidence Lie faces God but shrinks from man.
Of Friendship is an essay where friendship is weighted on the base of advantages and
strangely, Bacon tells us three prominent advantages of friendship. We have two naked truthsThere is no such great flatterer as is a mans self and Men who want friends to open
themselves unto are the cannibals of their own hearts.

In the essays concerned with passion and critical relations, Bacon is somewhat dry. In
Of Marriage and Single Life, he keeps the view that unmarried or childless man have done
great things and children are liabilities. In the essays Of Love, Of Parents and Children, etc.
we find non passionate thinking which is practical but unsuitable to human nature. Bacon has
wonderful views about studies. He says, Studies serve for delight, for ornament and for ability.
And a natural observation that, Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them and wise
men use them.
Thus Bacon looks upon anything virtuous and vicious, good or bad form practical view point.
His essays were a welcome diversion for the Elizabethans who were tired of dreamy and
imaginative things in the contemporary literature.
Bacons essays, stuffed with rich blending of practical wisdom and morality, have a universal
appeal and therefore, they are a great asset for mankind.

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