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Francis Bacon As A Essayist
Francis Bacon As A Essayist
Dispersed Meditations
Bacon charged his essays with the serious spirit and stately manners of
Seneca. For him his essays were dispersed meditations and receptacle
for detached thoughts. He is practical under the influence of
Machiavelli. Utilitarianism is obvious in his essays. He shrewdly
instructs how to lead a successful life. That’s why his essays are called
counsels civil and moral.
Bacon’s essays are capsules of impersonal wisdom. They may not give
immediate pleasure but give lasting guidance. They are objective and
logically constructed. Thus as an essayist Bacon is not friendly,
confidential, intimate and familiar with the reader. His essays are for
the most part detached and impersonal. This conclusion demands
reconsideration. In fact, Bacon’s essays bear a close imprint of his
personality, though he is not disposed to unbend himself in his works.
On this basis Pope’s following statement is appreciated:
The themes of Bacon’s essays are various. They range from Goodness
to Gardens and from Envy to Masques and Triumphs. The essay ‘Of
Studies’ is about books and reading. Here Bacon explains reasons and
purpose of study. At the same time he suggests the modes of selecting
the books and manner of study. In ‘Of Truth’ he says that some men
do not care for truth. He mentions its reasons also.
Bacon’s Style
In his early essays the sentences are short, crisp and sententious.
There are few connectives. Though there is no continuity, there is a
strong sense of rapid movement. As Bacon’s essays are argumentative
in nature, his style becomes antithetical. With an impartial air, he
balances the opposing arguments. There are number of quotations and
allusions in his essays.
Bacon's essays are not personal. Yet they are essays because they
are "a series of personal comments rather than finished arguments".
Certainly these essays do not have that incompleteness and freedom
and whimsical and humorous presentation which mark the essays of
Lamb, Stevenson and Chesterton. His essays again do not have that
lucidity of expression and urbanity of style and social criticism, which
mark the essay of Addison and Steele. Bacon uses his essay for
philosophical observations. But the charm of his essays lies in their
brevity and neatness of structure. His counsels are written in crisp and
epigrammatic sentences, which read like aphorisms. In some of his
essays, as for examples, Of Gardens, there is a personal note.
Conclusion
Francis Bacon's essays which are called counsels however different in
tone and treatment and Bacon as an essayist. Bacon calls his essays
'detached meditations'. They are "brief notes set down rather
significantly than anxiously". But Bacon also suggests that his essays
are 'cultured glances' rather than finished examinations of subjects.
Bacon was the first essayist in English Literature. His essays are like
Montaigne's essays in that they are more economical and less
dogmatic. But they are unlike Montaigne's essays in that they have
neither their discursiveness nor their grace. Montaigne is mainly
concerned with his individual opinions but Bacon is concerned with
the type of readers he is addressing. As a matter of fact, Bacon wrote
for the young man of ambition of his own class who wanted complete
self-realisation in public life. That is why his essays are so many
counsels meant for these men of ambition. The subject and the brief
treatment of them indicate Bacon's intention. He writes about travel,
friendship, riches usury, ambition, studies, etc.