Bacon Essays

[Leroy Turcios]

EssayesReligious Meditations. Places of Perswasion and Disswasion. Seene and Allowed (1597) was the first published book by the philosopher, statesman and jurist Francis Bacon. The Essays are written in a wide range of styles, from the plain and unadorned to the epigrammatic. They cover topics drawn from both public and private life, and in each case the essays cover their topics systematically from a number of different angles, weighing one argument against another. While the original edition included 10 essays, a much-enlarged second edition appeared in 1612 with 38. Another, under the title Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall, was published in 1625 with 58 essays. Translations into French and Italian appeared during Bacon's lifetime.[1][2] In Bacon's Essay, "Of Plantations" published in 1625, he relates planting colonies to war. He states that such plantations should be governed by those with a commission or authority to exercise martial law.[3]

Though Bacon considered the Essays "but as recreation of my other studies", he was given high praise by his contemporaries, even to the point of crediting him with having invented the essay form.[4][5] Later researches made clear the extent of Bacon's borrowings from the works of Montaigne, Aristotle and other writers, but the Essays have nevertheless remained in the highest repute.[6][7] The 19th-century literary historian Henry Hallam wrote that "They are deeper and more discriminating than any earlier, or almost any later, work in the English language".[8]

But having noticed the poor outcome, she cares only about how it bears upon her own feeling of hopelessness and the fortitude she needed to endure it. She does not consider it in relation to me, who spent such a long, unpleasant time with her. More generally, she is almost entirely incurious about what I might have got out of those dismal years. Her essays provide no indication of what she wanted me to achieve in the sessions, and the question of whether I managed to pass through the invisible Oedipus complex went unanswered in her paper on that topic.

The Essays, which are ten in number, abound withcondensed thought and practical wisdom, neatly, pressly,and weightily stated, and, like all his early works, aresimple, without imagery. They are written in his favoritestyle of aphorisms, although each essay is apparentlya continued work, and without that love of antithesisand false glitter to which truth and justness of thoughtare frequently sacrificed by the writers of maxims.

A second edition, with a translation of the MeditationesSacr, was published in the next year; andanother edition enlarged in 1612, when he was solicitor-general,containing thirty-eight essays; and one stillmore enlarged in 1625, containing fifty-eight essays, theyear before his death.

My last Essaies I dedicated to my deare brother MasterAnthony Bacon, who is with God. Looking amongst myPapers this vacation, I found others of the same nature:which, if I myselfe shall not suffer to be lost, it seemeth theWorld will not; by the often printing of the former. Missingmy Brother, I found you next; in respect of bond both ofneare Alliance, and of straight Friendship and Societie, andparticularly of communication in Studies. Wherein I mustacknowledge my selfe beholding to you. For as my Businessefound rest in my Contemplations, so my Contemplations everfound rest in your loving Conference and Judgment. So wishingyou all good, I remaine your louing Brother and Friend,

My Lord Ambassador, my Son: Seeing that your Excellencymakes and treats of Marriages, not only betwixt thePrinces of France and England, but also betwixt their languages(for you have caused my book of the Advancement ofLearning to be translated into French), I was much inclinedto make you a present of the last book which I published, andwhich I had in readiness for you. I was sometimes in doubtwhether I ought to have sent it to you, because it was writtenin the English tongue. But now, for that very reason, Isend it to you. It is a recompilement of my Essays Moraland Civil; but in such manner enlarged and enriched both innumber and weight, that it is in effect a new work. I kissyour hands, and remain your most affectionate friend and mosthumble servant, &c.

In the year 1618, the Essays, together with the Wisdomof the Ancients, was translated into Italian, anddedicated to Cosmo de Medici, by Tobie Mathew; andin the following year the Essays were translated intoFrench by Sir Arthur Gorges, and printed in London.

This tract seems, in former times, to have been muchvalued. The fables, abounding with a union of deepthought and poetic beauty, are thirty-one in number,of which a part of The Sirens, or Pleasures, may beselected as a specimen.

In the year 1619 this tract was translated by SirArthur Gorges. Prefixed to the work are two letters;the one to the Earl of Salisbury, the other to the Universityof Cambridge, which Gorges omits, and dedicateshis translation to the high and illustrious princessthe Lady Elizabeth of Great Britain, Duchess of Baviare,Countess Palatine of Rheine, and chief electress of theempire.

When he was but sixteen years old he began histravels, the indispensable end of every finished educationin England. He repaired to Paris, where heresided some time under the care of Sir Amyas Paulet,the English minister at the court of France.

In this same year (1597) he again took his seatin Parliament. He soon made ample amends forhis opposition speech in the previous session; butthis time he gained the favor of the Court withoutforfeiting his popularity in the House ofCommons.

Another mortification awaited him at this period.A relentless creditor, a usurer, had him arrested fora debt of three hundred pounds, and he was conveyedto a spunging-house, where he was confinedfor a few days, until arrangements could be madeto satisfy the claim or the claimant.

We now arrive at a painfully sad point in the lifeof Bacon; a dark foul spot, which should be hiddenforever, did not history, like the magistrate of Egyptthat interrogated the dead, demand that the truth,the whole truth, should be told.

The object of all his hopes, the price, perhaps,of his conduct to Essex, seemed in 1606 to be withinhis reach; but he was once more to be disappointed.His old enemy, Sir Edward Coke, prevented thevacancy. The following year, however, after longand humiliating solicitation, he attained the office towhich he had so long aspired, and was appointedSolicitor-General to the Crown.

In 1613, by a master stroke of policy, he createda vacancy for himself as Attorney-General, and managedat the same time to disserve his old enemy,Coke, by getting him preferred in rank, but at theexpense of considerable pecuniary loss.

After his new appointment, he was relected tohis seat in the House of Commons; he had gained16so much popularity there, that the House admittedhim, although it resolved to exclude future Attorneys-General;a resolution rescinded by later Parliaments.

In 1616, Bacon was offered the formal promiseof the Chancellorship, or an actual appointment asPrivy Councillor; he was too prudent not to preferan appointment to a promise, and he was accordinglynominated to the functions of member of thePrivy Council. His present leisure enabled him toprosecute vigorously his Novum Organum, but heturned aside to occupy himself with a propositionfor the amendment of the laws of England, on which17Lord Campbell, assuredly the most competent ofjudges, passes a high encomium.

At length, in 1617, Sir Francis Bacon attainedthe end of the ambition of his life, he became LordKeeper of the Seals, with the functions, though notthe title, of Lord High Chancellor of England. Hispromotion to this dignity gave general satisfaction;his own university, Cambridge, congratulated him;Oxford imitated the example; the world expecteda perfect judge, formed from his own model in hisEssay of Judicature. He took his seat in the Courtof Chancery with the utmost pomp and parade.

How widely different from this is his own language!It is fair justice to appeal from the judgeto the tribunal of the philosopher and moralist; itis appealing from Philip drunk to Philip sober;unhappily it is likewise

We now find Bacon wholly devoting himself tothe pursuits for which nature adapted him, and fromwhich no extent of occupation could entirely detachhim. The author redeemed the man; in the philosopherand the poet there was no weakness, nocorruption.

This was not, however, a mere translation; forhe made in it omissions and alterations; and appearsto have added about one third new matter;in short, he remodelled it. His work, replete withpoetry and beautiful imagery, was received withapplause throughout Europe. It was reprinted inFrance in 1624, one year after its appearance inEngland. It was immediately translated into Frenchand Italian, and was published in Holland, thegreat book-mart of that time, in 1645, 1650, and1662.

Bacon was very prepossessing in his person; hewas in stature above the middle size; his foreheadwas broad and high, of an intellectual appearance;his eye was lively and expressive; and his countenancebore early the marks of deep thought.

In keenness of observation he has been equalled, though,perhaps, never surpassed. But the largeness of his mindwas all his own. The glance with which he surveyed theintellectual universe, resembled that which the archangel,from the golden threshold of heaven, darted down into thenew creation.

Mr. Macaulay is of opinion that the two leadingprinciples of his philosophy are utility and progress;that the ethics of his inductive method are to dogood, to do more and more good, to mankind.

These forty-one Essays were afterwards again augmentedto fifty-eight, with the new title of The Essaiesor Covnsels, Civill and Morall; they werelikewise improved by corrections, additions, and illustrations.By the peculiarity of Bacon, already noticed,the later Essays rise in beauty and interest.

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