FRANCIS BACON BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS

 

FRANCIS BACON

●      Born on 22 Jan 1561 at York House, London

●      Died on 9 April, 1626

●      Father's Name- Nicholas Bacon

●      He belongs to Renaissance period, Jacobean age prose writer.

●      Known as Father of English Essay

●      Influenced by Michael De Montaigne ( French Writer)

●      Montaigne- Father Of Essay

●      Education- Trinity College Cambridge ( Without Degree)

●      Associated with Gray's Inn ( To practice as a  Barrister)

●      At Cambridge he first met Queen Elizabeth

●      “The Young Lord Keeper”.

●      Pope- ‘The wisest, the brightest, the meanest of mankind”.  ( Essay on man Epistle 4)

●      According to Bacon his essays are “Dispersed Meditation”.

●      1604- Knighthood (Sir Francis Bacon)

●      1613- Attorney General

●      1618- Lord Chancellor (highest position)

●      1618- Baron Verulam

●      1621- Viscount St. Albans

●      1621- He Depraved of corropution

      Collection of Essays

●      1st edition 1597- 10 Essays

●      2nd edition 1612- 38 Essays

●      3rd edition 1625- 58 Essays

●      Of Love, Of Truth,Of Death, Of Friendship, Of Great Place, Of Ambition, of Aetheism, Of Revenge, Of Marriage and single life

●      Scientific works- Advancement of Learning, New Atlantis, The Great Instauration

     WORKS

      Advancement of Learning (1605)

●      1^st  Intellectual work of Bacon

●      Written in letter form to King James-I

●      New Atlantis - Incomplete novel

●      1624- published in Latin, 1627- published in English

●      A utopian romance based on Thomas Moore's Utopia

●      Story of a mythical Island - Bensalm, discovered by the crew of a European Ship after they are lost in the Pacific Ocean.

●      Solomon's House( fictional institution in Bacon's Essay)

●      The Great Instauration- Latin work in 6 books, he called it Instauratio Magna

●      (Partitions of the Sciences, New Method(Novum Organum), Natural History, Ladder of the Intellect, Anticipations of the Second philosophy, The Second Philosophy or Active Science)

●      Novum Organum- 2nd book (1620)

●      Published in Latin

●      In this work he gives Baconian Method/Inductive method/ Scientific Method

●      He rejects Aristotle's Deductive method.

      OF GREAT PLACE

●      Main focus- “Position of man at great place”

●      Man is servant of three things 1- Fame, 2- State, 3- Business

●      “Men in great place are thrice servants , servants to the state, servant of fame and servant to the buisness, so as they have freedom, neither in their persons, nor in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their times”.

      OF STUDIES

●      In this essay Bacon described the  benefits of reading. Reading enhance readers intellect and help him to fight with diverse situations.

●      “ Studies Serve for delight, for ornament and for ability”.

●      “Crafty men Condemn studies, simple man admire them and wise men use them”

●      “Some books are to be tasted, other to be swallowed and some to be chewed and digested”.

●      “To spend too much time in studies is sloth, to use them too much for ornament is affection, to make judgement wholly by their rule is humour of a scholar”.

      OF REVENGE

●      “Revenge is a kind of wild justice which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought to weed it out.”

      OF DEATH

●      “ MEN fear death as children fear to go in the dark”.

      OF MARRIAGE AND SINGLE LIFE-

●      “ Wife's are young men's mistress, companions for middle age and old man's nurses”.

●      “ He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune”.

      Of Parents and Children-

●      “Children Sweeten labour's, but they make misfortunes more bitter”

      Of Friendship-

●      “Whatsoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god”

      Of Love-

●      “It is impossible to be love and to be wise”

      Of Truth-

●      “What is truth? Saying jesting Pilate and would not say for an answer”