Presentation Assignment

Submitted To: Sir Abdullah Saleem

Class: BSP (1)
Subject: Communication Skills
Group Members
Usama Ramzan (Leader) (190083)
Alishba Sultan (190166)
Javeria Fatima (190085)
Muhammad Shoaib Farooq (190079)
Faisal Umar (190208)
Muhammad Shoaib (190096)
Saqib Ahmed Abbasi (190097)
Shehryar Kishwar (190098)
Raheel Ahmed (190092)
Naveed Ahmed (190081)
Burhan Ali (190207)
 Essay Writing
OF TRUTH
(Francis Bacon)
About Author:
Francis Bacon was a prose writer of renaissance age, a great
philosopher and pioneer of scientific thoughts. He was born on 22
January 1561 in London. He was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon. Bacon
studied at Cambridge University. He published his ideas, initially in “
Novum Organum”. He had set some goals in his life. One is to serve
his country, second is to serve the church and the other is to learn the
truth. His interest in his science and reasoning lead him to write
critically about the aspects of life. He wrote many essays which till
today receives appreciation and is up to date. Being an essayist his
aim was to share the wisdom of his life.
Bacon’s style is most remarkable for his preciseness. He has a great
command of condensation of the sentences. Each sentence of his
essay contains multiple meanings and references. He combines
wisdom with brevity and his short, pithy sayings become famous as
mottoes and useful expressions. His writing style is aphoristic which
means a compact, condensed and epigrammatic style of writing. He
was expert in expressing truth in few possible words with beauty. His
essays are the example of this aphoristic style. His essay “Of
Truth” has many examples of the aphoristic style.

Significance:
Truth has its own significance. Falsehood brings disgrace and truth
brings honor. Even those persons, who do not speak truth, know its
worth. Furthermore, the truth is required not only in the field of
technology and philosophy but also in every field of life. Bacon refers
Montaigne, who says that a liar is always brave towards God but
cowards towards humans. By telling a lie, a lier directly challenges
God. He knows that he has to face God on doomsday yet he promotes
falsehood. Thus, he is brave enough to get punishment in enteral life.

Vocabulary:
Word Meaning Sentence
Giddiness Dizziness, Loss 1) She suffered from dizziness and blured
of balance, Vision.
Shakiness 2) A fit of dizziness came over her.

Shrunken Smaller, Slim 1) She know looked small, shrunken and

decrease, Pathetic.
Lessen 2) His cheeks looked shrunken, like
withered apples.
Melanchole Sadness, 1) Melancholy descended over her with
Depression, the rain.
Woe 2) He was cold, haughtily, melancholy and
dull.
Wooing To seek the “The wooing of Daphnis” is also
affection of anonymous.
someone

Bondage Slavery, 1) His bondage lasted for six years.

Oppression, 2) The black farmer is in bondage to
Domination cotton; for him still “Cotton is king”.

Odious Hateful, terrible, 1) He had to repay the odious deft to

Insufferable the council.
2) His attention turned to the odious favor.

Providence Fate, Destiny, Evidently this was the limit imposed

Predestinals by divine providence upon that sort of
fully.
Discoursing Talk, Speak, While discoursing they had
Consult claimed the stair and
arrival at the bell ringer’s door.
Daintily Casually, She blew her nose as
freely, Easily daintily as possible.

Severity Seriousness, The criminal was punished

Gravity, with severity.
Extremity

Summary:
Of truth is Bacon’s great work of prose which shows his keen observation of
human beings with their attributes of truth and lie. In the beginning, he states that
people generally do not care for the truth. He gives the example of Pilate, the
governor of Roman Empire while conducting the session with Jesus Christ, does
not pay attention to the truth and said: “what is the truth? Said Jesting Pilate, and
would not stay for an answer.”
Moving on he describes the reasons why people do not like the truth. First, the
truth is difficult to acquire without hard work and man is ever reluctant to work
hard. Moreover, truth makes people bound to a certain fact. It diminishes the
freedom.
According to Bacon truth is like a bright day which shows the real self. Truth is like a
pearl that shows what is visible to naked eye. It cannot show anything by adding
unrealistic elements. Falsehood can show something apparent in dark.
People lie because it covers their real personality. Bacon rightly says that “A
mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure.” The mixture of truth and lie makes things
interesting and pleases everyone. He states if everything is presented as its real
color with no additional praise, flattering comments, and illusions the society will
become indolent.
Same is the case with poets. They add false praises in their poetry to reach a
higher level of accomplishments. Truth is utmost important in every aspect of life
civil or business. A bit of lie added to truth is like making an alloy of copper and
gold. It becomes easier to work with these metals but at the same times, it makes
it impure.
Bacon compares lie with a snake crawling on its belly instead of walking on its feet.
The false person has to let his head down because he feels guilty all the time due
to his habit of speaking falsehood all the time to earn benefits in business. There is
no shameful act than to be a liar.
Bacon quotes Montaigne who said that “a liar is a man who is brave towards God
but is coward towards men.” He emphasizes on the wickedness of the falsehood by
saying that these are the negative qualities of men which will call upon the
judgment of God upon mankind.
Therefore Bacon concludes his essay with didacticism by giving a tinge of Christian
morality. The essay is rich in manner and matter. This is a council, civil and moral
and should be read slowly to understand the lucid and condensed prose style of
Bacon.

Theme:
The main theme of this essay “OF TRUTH” is that there are many people who do
not place much value on truth, as they find lies more interesting. Man loves
falsehood because Bacon say that truth is if the bright light of the day and would
show what men, in actual are.

Conclusion:
At the end of the essay, we find some morality. Bacon tries his best to convince his
readers and compels them to speak the truth. The last argument, which he
advances, is the “fear of doomsday”. A liar would be punished on the day of
judgment, says sir Francis Bacon.
To conclude, Bacon in this essay persuades people to speak the truth at any cost.
He appreciates those people who stick with the truth. Thus, his tune in this essay is
didactic; style is lucid and examples are rich. Solid references from Greeks,
Romans, other subjects and various philosophers demonstrate experience and
knowledge of the writer in every field of life. In short, the whole essay is worth
reading for the person, who wants success in both the worlds.

The End