Essay Francis Bacon Of Ambition Summary |WORK|
Julieta Bassette
There are three things associated with the honor: to do well for others, to reach a glorious position in the society, and to rise is the fortune. If an ambitious man has all these three intentions, he is a right man to be rewarded. And the king, who has the ability to recognize such people is the wise man.Bacon ends the essay by setting some guidelines for the emperors in choosing their ministers. They should hire the people who are sensitive to their duty, love their work and are ambitious, people who are driven by their conscience and love to work more with a willing mind.Of Ambition AnalysisGenre:Of Ambition is an argumentative essay by Francis Bacon, in which he argues about the benefits and outbursts of being ambition. He demonstrates various situations in which ambition is highly useful and one can appoint a highly ambitious person. While he also makes the audience aware of the positions on which appointing an ambitious person might invite problems for them.
Bacon starts the essay by using the simile of choler for ambition. Ambition is something that induces in a man a spirit to achieve something in his life. Such ambitiousness can be benefitting as well as harmful. Bacon deals with the topic purely on political merits and demerits. He mentions the various position on which ambitiousness is highly required. These include a post of a soldier, a post of security guard etc. on such posts, an ordinary person cannot survive as requires a life-threatening risk.For the post like administration etc. an ambitious man is highly restricted as they involve dependency on other posts which highly challenging for them.This essay is not only for the guidance of the emperors of his time, however, it proves to be persistence throughout the ages. Even his arguments are valid for the present time as well. This essay contains some guiding principles for the head of the state when they are about to hire the ministers. He mentions various criteria for the ministers. If these criteria are filled in a candidate he should hire him. They should hire the people who are sensitive to their duty, love their work and are ambitious, people who are driven by their conscience and love to work more with a willing mind.
Furthermore, readers hardly find any essay of Bacon in which he has not mentioned any example from Ancient Romans; Of Ambition is also not different from other essays of Sir Francis Bacon in this regard. Let us see what he further says about ambitions and ambitious persons.
Bacon's essay is about the uses of ambition in the service a prince or of the state, and about the best ways to manage ambitious men. He begins by dividing the ambitious into two groups: those that are able to gratify their ambition (who become, he says, merely "busy") and those that are frustrated. Frustrated ambitions are the source of much discontent in government, and such men often would rather bring the state down with them than fail. Bacon advises that princes avoid using ambitious men in their service, but in cases where there is no alternative (as in the selection of military leaders) it is important to have a strategy in place to manage such people. One strategy could be to ensure that they are always moving forward, and so always remain "busy"; another is to select one ambitious person as a favorite, and use his talents against other ambitious people who would seek to depose the prince. In this regard he mentions the example of Tiberius and his use his favorite Marco to depose Sejanus. Bacon says that the person whose only goal is to have the most power is "the decay of the whole age," and concludes by saying that honorable ambition consists of three things: the opportunity to do good, the ability to influence leaders to do good, and the desire to increase his fortune by the doing of good. A wise prince is one who can discern these qualities.