Summary of Francis Bacon essay

  of Truth  

   Of truth is Bacon’s great work of prose which shows his keen observation of human beings with their attributes of truth and lie. In the beginning, he states that people generally do not care for the truth.

 Moving on he describes the reasons why people do not like the truth. First, the truth is difficult to acquire without hard work and man is ever reluctant to work hard. Moreover, truth makes people bound to a certain fact. It diminishes the freedom.

   According to Bacon truth is like a bright day which shows the real self. Truth is like a pearl that shows what is visible to naked eye. People lie because it covers their real personality. Bacon rightly says that “A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure.” The mixture of truth and lie makes things interesting and pleases everyone.  

 Bacon compares lie with a snake crawling on its belly instead of walking on its feet. The false person has to let his head down because he feels guilty all the time due to his habit of speaking falsehood all the time to earn benefits in business.  Bacon quotes Montaigne who said that “a liar is a man who is brave towards God but is coward towards men.”  

Therefore Bacon concludes his essay with didacticism by giving a tinge of Christian morality. The essay is rich in manner and matter. This is a council, civil and moral and should be read slowly to understand the lucid and condensed prose style of Bacon.

Discuss of Revenge

Francis Bacons is against private revenge . He says that revenge is outside of law .Bacon points out that ignoring a wrong makes a man superior to the person who committed the first wrong. Bacon points out that wise men have enough to do with the present and the future rather than taking revenge. Since a wrong in the past cannot be made right, it's best to concentrate on trying to influence the present and future.

Bacon adds that no man seeks to do harm for its own sake and that getting mad at someone trying to better himself is not worth it. If a man does harm because he's just bad, well, that's his nature, and his ill nature dictates his actions.

If, Bacon argues, one engages in revenge that has no lawful remedy, then that revenge might be tolerable, but he warns that the person seeking revenge should make sure there is no law that will punish him. And it's only right that the person one is seeking revenge upon understands that he's the target because that knowledge may make him sorry for his original action.

Bacon ends the essay pointing out that public revenge on bad leaders is "for the most part fortunate" but reminds his reader that private revenge is "unfortunate."

Marriage and single.

  Sir Francis Bacon explores the themes of independence, liberty, and  marriage, throughout his essay "Of Marriage and Single Life."  Bacon examines the positives and negatives attached to being single and married. Bacon comments on the liberty that being single provides individuals who wish to live free from the restraints and responsibilities of marriage. He also mentions that single men have the time and money to give back to society in charitable ways. Bacon believes that single men are often "best friends, best masters, best servants." However, Bacon also writes that being single can make a man "cruel and hardhearted" because he does not enjoy the tenderness and love that married men often experience. Bacon proceeds to explain that he believes that only middle-aged men should get married at the right time and discusses why wives choose to marry bad husbands.  Bacon recognizes that independence gives single men liberty which provides them the opportunity and capital to help society, but can also make them callous in certain situations. He also explores the positives and negatives of being married throughout the essay.

 Of Friendship

Bacon establishes the importance of friendship by implication when he says "whatsoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god."  He expands on this theme in the same paragraph by saying that, without friends, the "world is but a wilderness." Bacon's essay is centered on what he calls the "fruit of friendship," of which there are three, and the first is the ability to get rid of all one's frustrations by having a true friend to listen.  Bacon lived in an era when men believed that our bodies were controlled by "humors" earth, air, fire and water and if the humors became unbalanced in our bodies, we got sick.  Bacon likens the balance of humors in the body to balance in the mind, and one restores balance to the mind by unburdening on self to a friend.  The next section of the essay is a long discussion of friendships and failed friendships in classical Roman history, and then Bacon articulates the "second fruit of friendship," which is the result of discussing one's problems with a sympathetic friends, and in the process of "communicating and discoursing with another," one actually becomes "wiser than himself."  But, the second fruit has another half that is just as important, and that is counsel from the friend, which, according to Bacon, is "drier and purer" than the counsel that comes from within oneself. Bacon compares the third fruit of friendship to a pomegranate, which hundreds of kernels.  Bacon argues that there are many things a man cannot do for himself--praise himself (modestly), ask for help that a friend can do for him with no embarrassment.  These are among the many kernels of friendship embodied in the third fruit.

Discuss of Love

Frances Bacon's essay "Of Love" details questions and answers regarding the very complicated concept of love. The essay begins by comparing love to the stage. According to Bacon, love mirrors the stage because it is filled with comedy, tragedy, mischief, and fury. Like the plays produced on the stage, love is multidimensional

 Bacon goes on to state that love makes people act in very different ways. People, consumed by love, will find themselves filled with "great spirits" and "weak passion(s).”

Perhaps the most thought provoking statement that Bacon makes in the essay is "That it is impossible to love, and to be wise." This could force one to think that to be in love makes them stupid.

Bacon goes on to present the different aspects of love. There is in man’s nature, a secret inclination and motion, towards love of others.  Here, Bacon readily admits that love possesses a power which no man can control. Regardless of the will to give love, love will, itself, spread out among those around him.

Discuss of Parents and children

All kinds of emotions and feelings of parents for their children, whether it is joy, grief, or fear, are private and personal that they don’t share with others. Having children make it easier for the parents to tolerate the hard labor that will benefit their children and ensures their prosperous future. However, for the parents, it is hard to tolerate the hardships since they think that these hardships or calamities will hinder their children’s well-being.  

 It is sometimes observed that parents don’t treat their all children with an equal affection; they discriminate between them which is not preferred, especially on the behalf of the mother. Bacon baked this argument with a quotation from Salomon that if a son does something appreciating, he is father’s son but if a son does something shameful, he is mother’s son.   It is the duty of the parents to choose a right profession for their children as soon as possible. However, if a child grows and shows interest in a totally different profession, the parents shouldn’t impose their selection on them. They should allow them to go on their own way.

Younger children are generally fortunate since they get a strong motivation for the hard work by their elder brothers. However, the motivation to hard work declines where the elder brother is disinherited and the young child hopes to get all the beneficiary of wealth from parents.

Discuss of Studies

Highlighting the importance of studies, Bacon’s essay illustrates the role studies play in an individual’s daily life. For Bacon, the study is always related to the application of knowledge in practical life. At the beginning of his essay, Bacon describes the three main purposes of study including studying for gaining delight, studies done for ornamenting one’s life and studying in order to improve one’s ability.

The author is the notion that only learned and well-read men can execute plans effectively, manage their daily affairs with expertise and lead a healthy and stable life. He further states that reading makes a full man; conference leads to a ready man while writing makes an exact man.  Bacon also puts forward some demerits of study as he thinks that studying for a prolonged period of time may lead to laziness.

He also condemns the act of studying from books solely without learning from nature around. The essay Of Studies further asserts the benefits of studies by considering this act as a medicine for the defects of human mind and the source of enhancing one’s wit. While discussing the importance of studying in an individual’s life, the essayist informs his readers about the benefits of reading good books.

For Bacon, some books are only meant to be tasted; others are there to swallow while some books are meant for chewing and digesting properly. Therefore, the readers must choose wisely before studying any book to enhance his/her knowledge about the world around. Bacon concludes his essay by suggesting that studies assist an individual in removing the defects of his/her mind as every problem of the human mind carries special importance for the individual and the world.

Discuss of Youth and age

In this essay Bacon tries to compare the traits young and old age. In the starting of the essay Bacon mentions that it is possible for a young man to have the maturity of that of an old man, but says that it is a very rare case. He compares youth to the first ideas or thoughts and says that they are never as wise as the seconds. But then again, the new inventions or discoveries of the youth seem to be more refreshing than those of the aged ones as their imagination are better. Even though the youth are full of desires and ambitions they are not matured enough to act on those desires until they are of a certain age.   He says that both young as well as aged have qualities that are unique such as Young men are better to invent, old men better to judge, Young men are better in doing, old men in calculating risks, Young men are better for new projects, old men for settled business.

Young men, he says, are full of excitement and new ideas, never stay quiet, are up to create a change and are innovative in nature. Even if their attempts fail they do not stumble, they keep going until they get the result they are looking for. They are like an unsteady horse he says, which doesn’t stop or turn. Whereas aged men are quite opposite, they think and consult too much, and are too steady to be adventurous and at the end are happy with the minimum rate of success that they achieve.  He says that the young have visions whereas the aged have dreams which are not as sound compared to the former. He says that there are some who think beyond their age but it diminishes along with their age, who have better grace in youth than in age.