Bacon’s ‘Essays’: ‘Dispersed Meditations’

Introduction
Bacon described his essays as “dispersed meditations”, as “brief notes set down
rather significantly than curiously”. He regarded the essay as a receptacle for detached
thoughts. Many of his essays do indeed resemble note book jottings-one gets a good
idea, from observation or from some book and quickly notes it down briefly, so as not to
forget it. Some of his essays, especially the earlier ones, are strings of sentences that
read like maxims. These sentences are not linked by any development of ideas.
There is of course no digression from the central subject. Bacon never strays away from
the subject. There is no irrelevant matter, no going off at a tangent. But the essays are
not “well-knit” compositions: there is no systematic development from one thought or
idea to the next; the ideas do not evolve smoothly from one another. In, these earlier
essays, of which Of Studies and Of truth are typical examples, ideas have been put
together almost at random, as they occurred, though they all relate to the particular
subject. There is no detailed discussion of the subject. And what is more remarkable is
that in the interests of brevity and condensation of thought, even conjunctions and other
logical connections are sometimes left out.

Brief and Undeveloped

These essays are very brief in length. The ideas have not been developed. The
sentences are all crisp, short and sententious. Each sentence stands by itself, the
concentrated expression of weighty thought. There is so much of condensation that each
sentence could easily be developed into a paragraph. This is not to say that each
sentence does the work of a paragraph but that it contains matter that could be
elaborated into a paragraph. As Hugh Walker remarks, these essays (such as Of Studies)
read like running analysis of paragraphs. Bacon does not treat the subject fully; he
expresses an idea in a few words and then passes on to the next idea, to be expressed in
equally terse terms.
The essay Of Studies is a suitable example of those essays of Bacon which read like a
string of aphorisms and maxims. It begins with the statement that studies serve for
delight, for ornament and for ability. Next he says that it is not good to spend too much
time on studies or take too much from books for ornamentation of speech. He passes on
to tell us that study is perfected by experience. Then he states that “Crafty men condemn
studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them” and so on.
Though if one notices carefully one can see the implicit connections between the
various ideas expressed these connections are not worked out by the author. The reader
has to supply them by himself.
“Suitors are so distasted with delays and abuses, that plain dealing in denying to deal in
suits first, and reporting the success barely, and in challenging no more thanks that one
hath deserved, is grown not only honourable but also gracious.”
The essays alternates between the suits, the suitors, those who undertake to get suits
granted and the patrons of petitions, without any apparent sense of logical development.
There is no proper arrangement of thoughts here. The thoughts here are
literally-”dispersed meditations”. There are a number of abrupt transitions of thought. A
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 number of other essays too have this quality of looking like the jottings of random
thoughts on a particular subject. We have once again a collection of terse sentences
reading like maxims in of Marriage and Single Life. Here Bacon gives the advantages
and disadvantages of either state of life.
Abruptly, he goes on to chaste women being proud of their chastity and sober men
being faithful husbands. Then he says that a husband who is respected by his wife for his
wisdom will commend her loyalty as well. At the end of the essay Bacon points out that
bad husbands of ten have good wives. Now all these ideas, while, being in a broad sense
related to the central subject, do not arise from one another. In other words, they are
merely a collection of thoughts on a subject, put down as they occur, in any order. There
is a lack of connection between them. None of them is elaborated or given a detailed
treatment. They are significantly set down, in the sense that they are profound thoughts
expressing the wide and ripe wisdom of their author gathered from books and
experiences and observation of life. They are useful and valuable guidelines for a man
aiming for worldly success, but they are not dealt with elaborately.
We find this “looseness of construction” in Of Revenge again, though this is one of
Bacon’s later essays. There is a collection of maxims which express shrewd observation
and wit but remain separate flashes with no apparent continuity or development of
thought.
(i)   “Revenge is a kind of wild justice”
(ii)  “The most tolerable sort of revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to
remedy”.
All these lines and more stand out for their striking aphoristic quality but Bacon
does not work out connections or details.

Essays not quite “Dispersed Meditations”

It would, however, be a mistake to call all the essays of Bacon “dispersed
meditations”. There are some which have received at his hand, a rather detailed
treatment, and which cannot be termed as “sketchy”. In these essays, Bacon finds room
for conjunctions and connective clauses. Ideas are not left undeveloped and transitions
from one thought to another are not so abrupt. In the essays Of Friendship, leaving
aside the fact that too much space has been devoted to illustrating the statement mat the
need of friends is felt even by the great, there is a logical approach in the enumeration of
the principle fruits of friendship. Each advantage is properly handled and ideas are
developed smoothly. There is not that abrupt transition of thought that characterises
some of Bacon’s other essays.
Of Empire can be said to contain an almost exhaustive treatment of the dangers that
beset a king in those days. In Of Seditions and Troubles, there is a quite closely reasoned
and connected account of the causes and remedies of discontentment and agitation that
may fester and burst out into trouble for the country.
The essay, Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms, is an example of a more or less
close-knit piece of writing, in which the ideas are well developed.
Aphoristic sentences are found in these essays too but attention has been ‘given to
other factors as well. Bacon has taken the trouble to “weave together the disjecta

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membra of his meditations” in most of his later essays. Though the general conception
of the essay as “loose thoughts, thrown out without much regularity” is not completely
discarded, the loose thoughts are not quite so disconnected in the later essays, like Of
Riches, Of Empire, Of Seditions and Troubles, Of Simulation and Dissimulation, Of
Friendship, Of the True Greatness of. Kingdoms, Of Truth etc. Another important
development in the later essays is in the use of figurative language that lends colour and
warmth to the abstract arguments. If we take the meaning of “curiously” to be literary
“care” or “elaborate treatment”, these essays cannot be said to be brief notes set down
significantly but not curiously. They are no longer brief notes or jottings and though
they are still “significant”, they also have a sense of richness about them. They are no
longer merely strings of compressed wisdom, but are “more flowing and gracious in
manner.” Bacon has made use of metaphors and similes extensively and a few of them
even have a poetical quality. The most obvious example of this:
“It is heaven upon earth to have a man’s mind move in charity, rest in providence, and
turn upon the poles of truth.”                                                              (Of Truth)

Conclusion
We see therefore, that it would not be possible to put all the essays of Bacon in the
category of “dispersed meditations”, or say that all of them are brief notes. His earlier
essays indeed resemble note book jottings - condensed, pithy statements strung together
with no apparent connection except in their relation to the subject. But when Bacon
realized that his essays were rather popular, his conception of its treatment underwent a
change. He has therefore taken greater trouble in his later essays to enrich the style. The
essays deal with a variety of subjects but they are no longer merely aphoristic.
Metaphors and similes enliven the style. There is an attempt to bring about some
connection and continuity in the ideas and thoughts expressed. They are still
meditations, but not quite so dispersed. They are still “significant” but there is also an
attempt at setting them down “curiously” - for in some essays there is indeed to be found
a fairly well reasoned, detailed and logical treatment of the subjects.

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