Bacon: As an Essayist

As a man of letters, Bacon is popularly known for his prose style. His way of writing shares, no
doubt, a number of qualities with that of Elizabethan and Jacobean writers; but it have, at the
time, some special features of its own. Thus, it remains for the main part of the aphoristic--- with
the result that Bacon is the most quotable writer of the world. His essays are remarkable for their
brevity. His sentences are short and rapid but they are forceful. In other words, as Dean Church
observes They come down like the strokes of a hammer.


Bacon evolved a prose style that proved for the first time that English can also be used to express
fine thoughts in simple sentences. Bacon, in fact, wrote more than one style and suits his style to
his subject. In his first collection of Essays he illustrates the definition of essay as meditative
but in his later essays he acquired blood and flesh. The stylistic changes are to bring the greater
clarity. In his earlier essays his sentences are sketchy and in incomplete manner but in later
essays there is warmth and clarity. Most of his words are read like proverbs:

For a lie faces God and shrinks from man. (Of Truth)

It is strange desire to seek power and loss liberity
or, to seek power over other and to loss power over
a mans self (Of Great Pleasure)
Thus, there is not even a single essay which does not contain such wisdom of human heart. His
sentences ore over packed with meaning and they are often telegraphic in nature.

But the aphoristic statement of his essays depends on such expression--- such as balance and
antithesis which marked the structure of his sentences. In his essay Of Studies there is
threefold balances:

Studies serves for delight, for ornament and for ability.

Some books are tasted, other to be swallowed, and
a few are be chewed and disguised.

Studies make a full man, conferences a ready man and
writing an exact man.
Thus, his style is clearly rhetorical; and he has the power to attracts its readers even thought he
cannot convince them.

In this sense, one has to study another feature of Bacons style--- his extensive use of images,
metaphors, similes. Bacon draws his imagery even from the human life or from the common
facts of nature. He gives striking metaphors and similes to prove his point. As he says in Of
Studies: distilled books are like distilled water flashy things. His similes are most of the
time apt, vivid and different. Classical mythology, biblical, astronomy, philosophy, natural
observation, domestic aspects etc are pressed to communicate with the meaning.

Bacon expressed his thoughts in a few words or sentences. His essays are to be read slowly and
carefully, not because the words are obscure but because the thought expressed in them is
compact and condense. In his essay Of Truth, Bacon brought the idea for mans natural love
for lie. The poetic figure of speech is brought out in the statement:
Certainly it is heaven upon earth, to have a mans mind
move in charity, rest in providence,
and turn on the poles of truth.

Bacons words are without wit and humour--- in ordinary sense of meaning--- but he is capable
of creating humour to please his readers: By pains man comes to greater pain. Through
indignities man can rise to dignities. (Of Great Palace)

Though Bacons style is heavy in learning yet it is flexible. Bacon, on the whole, is not difficult
at all. Though there are some Latinism words in his essays but which are difficult to follow yet
they does not lead to obscurity. Bacons style bears the stump of Bacon, the man, who is not only
the widely studied essayist but one, who wrote with great care permitting nothing superfluous in
it. What, Johnson says of Bacon the speaker, is equally true of Bacon the writer:
No man ever wrote with care, or suffered less emptiness,
less idleness n what he said. He hearers what
should cough or took a side from him without loss.

In conclusion, Bacons style bears the stamp of its own, though there is some controversy,
whether he wrote one style or two. Bacons essays cover a span of 28 years and within this short
period these essays were published. Bacons style is not a personal, or the chatty style of
Montaigne or Lamb. His essays are distinctive and aphoristic full of learned quotations and
allusions. But what is important about his style is his brevity. One may put forward the point,
Bacon was, indeed, a great artist who expresses his thoughts and feelings in his style.
Bacon as an essayist
9:14 AM today
Bacon challenged the basic beliefs of man e.g. truth, love, friendship, honesty, secrecy and
reshaped them. He challenged the most established norm and ideals of mankind.

He questioned everything; he questioned what was, generally, considered unquestionable. He
was an iconoclast. His approach was revolutionary. He begins his essays with a challenging
statement i.e. what is truth, what is friendship and what is love.

He was very skeptical. He believed that the test of the truth of everything is in practical
observation. He believes that experience is the basis of every judgment. This is called empirical
approach. And no doubt he was an empiricist. His way of thinking was inductive. It was based
upon facts and upon data. His spirit of inquiry and spirit of skepticism was the outcome of
Renaissance. Bacon was very utilitarian. Like a scientist, he did only what was useful.

His training had been as a scholastic but his approach was anti-scholastic. He was bitterly against
the scholastic approach. He said that the arguments of scholastics appear to be very intelligent
and philosophical but actually these are nothing but only mental luxury. He said that scholastic
try to prove the proven, means, who is God, what is sin or reward. In philosophy, this attitude is
called begging in question. What is to be proved, it is taken as supposed.

Bacon says the reasoning of schoolmen is in fact very smart and full of life but actually this life
is like the life of worms in rotten flesh. They appear to be very active but this is a very deadly
activity. They are not agent of life rather they are the agents of death. The arguments of
scholastics kill the mind than to develop the mind. Thus Bacon demolished the scholasticism
with their own tools.

Bacon gave the theory of duality of truth. He proved that ideals are definitely good but ideals
are only for ideal and perfect people. Imperfect people cant follow the ideals and when they
cant follow them they go reverse and tell lies. Bacon said that everyone should try to be as good
as possible. One must realize his faculties. An imperfect man must compromise with his
imperfection. Instead of cursing himself one should compromise with his imperfection. This is
called expediency. That truth is only for ideal people and for common man expediency should
be the principle.

Bacon said that there are two kinds of truths heavenly truth and earthly truth. He further said
that heavenly truth is contained in Bible and it is for salvation. But earthly truth is in the laws
of nature and in the means of science and it is necessary for earthly success. And this earthly
truth is different from heavenly truth. Both are opposite to each other and cant function for its
opposite and one must be able to differentiate between them. This is called relativity of truth or
duality of truth. L. C. Knight wrote that Bacon did not give the theory of the duality of truth but
he only stated the facts who actually believe in their conducts.

What Bacons essays reveal is that:

1. Man in relation to the world and society.
2. Man in relation to himself
3. Man in relation his Maker.