Azim Hossain Imo

Masters in English Literature

Masters in English Language Teaching (JU)

Q: Bacon is an aphoristic”--- explain in reference of “Of Study”

Q: Explain Bacon’s technique of writing easy.
Q: What makes the essay “Of Study” inimitable ?—discuss.
Q: Evaluate “Of Study” as an essay.
Francis Bacon is the father of English prose. He expresses his subtle thought through a very
simple and clear language. The essays of Bacon are inimitable not only for their pragmatic
subject matter but also for their superior style.
Baconian prose can be discussed in two divisions of technique such as element of style and
qualities of style. Diction, terseness, reference and allusions and similes and metaphors are
classified in the element of style. Strong logical argument, simplicity and straight forward
statement can also be placed in quality of style. In combination of these two sorts of style,
Bacon’s essays become the finest example of aphoristic and inimitable prose. Besides, the
influenced of the renaissance and his contemporary writers is greatly visible in Bacon’s
essays.
Terseness of expression and epigrammatic brevity in the essays “Of Study” is the sign of
Bacon’s aphoristic view . In fact, the essays of Bacon have to be read slowly because of the
compact and condensed thought. Almost every sentence is brief and precise but hits the
readers mind than any other big tales.
Bacon uses much enriched and highly latinized diction in his essay. His vocabulary is clear
cut and easy to understand his point view. Moreover, like his other essays, here in “Of
Study” he uses Latin reference like “abeunt studia in mores”. He alludes from The Bible
when he advised to go to the schoolmen
This aphoristic style always depends on the device of balance and antithesis. In the essay
“Of Studies”, Bacon says, Studies serve for ornament and for ability He further says “Read
not to contradict, nor to believe, but to weigh and consider”. This sort of weighing and
balancing makes his style antithetical.
In Bacon’s style there is an over luxuriance of figures of speech. Bacon is master of simile
and metaphor. His usages of similes and metaphors are vivid. They strike, they charm and
sometimes they thrill. He compares the summery of books with distaste water, “distilled
books are like common distilled waters, flashy things”. He compares précising the bookish
knowledge with pruning of plants.
Like his almost all other essays, in “Of study” we find it full of bywords, he says, “Some
books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested”.
He again tells, “reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact
man.” Then “ histories make man wise”.
We see a great Machiavellian influences, worldly wisdom and Renaissance enlightenment
in his writing but his writing style does not match all the Elizabethan writer. Bacon seems to
follow Niccolo Machiavelli to write his easy as Machiavelli who was a thinker of
Renaissance period is also straight forward and pragmatic in his speech. In “Of Study”,
Bacon brings some very utilitarian advice with the help of science and philosophy.
In brief, we can conclude that Bacon’s style is polished and compact. Its wealth of metaphor
is characteristically Elizabethan and reflects the influence of the Renaissance. His essays at
 Azim Hossain Imo
Masters in English Literature
Masters in English Language Teaching (JU)

once are easy, simple, graceful, rhetorical and condensed which is inimitable.