Discuss the life and works Francis Bacon.

Ans.

LIFE AND WORKS

Francis Bacon, the younger son of Sir Nicholas Bacon was born at York House in the Strand, on the second of January, 1561. His father, the Lord keeper, had eight children from two marriages-six from the former and two from the later wife. Francis was the youngest. His mother exercised very strict control over her two sons Anthony and Francis. He was educated at Trinity College. Then in 1576, he entered in Gray’s Inn as a law student and was called to the bar in 1582. He was admitted to the bar as ‘Utter Barrister’ in 1582. He become ‘benches’ in 1586, a reader in 1588 and double 1600. He became a Member of Parliament in 1584. He was an ambitious person. To fulfil his ambition. He attached himself to the Earth of Essex, the Queen’s favourite and received from the Earl the gift of an estate at Twickenham.

Bacon was a man of great practical wisdom and even in marriage he did not ignore the profit motive. In 1606, he married the daughter of London Alderman, Miss Alice Burnham, not for love but for fortune. He became Solicitor General to Government in 1607 and in 1612 was offered to manage Parliament for the king because many disputes had cropped up since 1610. In 1613. He was promoted to be Attorney General. Despite his best efforts the interests of the king and Parliament could not be harmonized but he still craved for personal advancement and unscrupulously secured these at the expense of his principles. All the arts and artifices, vilest and tricks, treason and treachery have been advocated in his essays.

This great essayist died on 9th April, 1626 and was buried in St. Michael’s Church at St. Alban where his secretary, Sir Thomas meautys, erected a moment to his memory.

Works of Sir Francis Bacon

Bacon’s literary career began some time in the nineties of the sixteenth century and extended to 1626, the year of his death. His literary production is of great worth and significance and is of a very high quality.

The ‘Essays’ appeared in 1597 and their publication is a landmark in the English literary history These ‘Essays’ (numbering ten) have immortalized Bacon who called them ‘first jottings’ and earned for him the title of “The Father of the English Essays’. He added more essays in the two subsequent editions of 1612 and 1625. Besides the essays which were written after the example of the French man of letters, Montaigne, Bacon had done much other work of great literary value.

Bacon’s works include:

(i) The Advancement of Learning in two books.

(ii) ‘Valerius Terminus’,

(iii) ‘Reflections on the Nature of Things’

(iv) ‘Reflections on the Nature of Man’

(v) Novum Organum’ (The New Instrument)

(vi) ‘The History of King Henry VII’

(vii) The New Atlantis’

(viii) ‘Of the wisdom of the Ancients’

His personality

Bacon was an ambitious person. There can be no doubt about his intellectual caliber, and the range and depth of his knowledge. Bacon planned the formulation of Baconian Philosophy in six parts, and termed it ‘Instauration Magna’ (The Great Instauration). Not all of the great System could even be attempted by the author, so stupendous was the work. If completed, Bacon thought, all the knowledge and wisdom of the world would be continued in and explained and available to mankind. The six parts are:

(i) The Partitions division or classification of the Sciences.

(ii) The New Instrument (Novum Organum) Indications regarding the Interpretation of Nature.

(iii) natural and Experimental history for the foundation of philosophy.

(iv) The Ladder of the Intellect.

(v) Anticipations of the Second Philosophy, and

(vi) Second Philosophy or Active Science.

The 1612 edition, contained thirty eight (38) essays. The essay ‘Of Honour and Reputation’ of the first edition (1597) was omitted and twenty nine titles were added, of the remaining nine of the first edition that were retained in the second edition the essay ‘Of Followers and Friends’ was revised and simplified under the new title ‘Of Friendship’. the new essays in this edition were:

1. Of Religion

2. Of Death

3. Of Goodness and Foodness of Nature

4. Of Cunning

5. Of Marriage and Single Life

7. Of Nobility

8 Of Great Place

9. Of Empire

10. Of Counsel

11. Of Dispatch

12. Of Love

13. Of Atheism

14. Of Superstition

15. Of Wisdom for Man’s Self

16: Of Seeming Wise

17. Of Riches

18. Of Ambition

19. Of Young Men and Age

20. Of Beauty

21. Of Deformity

22. Of Nature in Man

23. Of Custom and Education

24. Of Fortune

25. Of Followers

26. Of Praise

27. Of Judiciary

28. Of Vain Glory

29. Of Greatness of Kingdoms

The third edition was published under Bacon’s supervision in 1625. There were fifty eight (58) essays in this edition. As was the case with the essays of the first edition in the second edition, the essays of the second edition were considerably altered and enlarged. Twenty new titles were added and these were:

1. Of Truth

2 Of Revenge

3. Of Adversity

4. Of Simulation and Dissimulation

5. Of Envy

6. Of Boldness

7. Of Seditions and Troubles

8. Of Travel

9. Of Delays

10. Of Innovations

11. Of Honour and Reputation

12. Of Suspicion