Question — Essay-type
Broadly discuss Bacon’s essays as ‘dispersed meditations’.
Introduction
In the history of the great Elizabethan age, the name of Sir Francis Bacon [1561-1625], a true child of the Renaissance stands out remarkably. He was a great scholar. Bacon’s genius was versatile with his colourful personality. He was perhaps more famous as a man of letters and science than as a great politician. Today he is chiefly known as a man of letters and as a great intellectualist. His importance is evident in the sphere of English essays, and truly he is characterized as the father of English essays. His essays have rightly been described as counsels, civil and moral. From the first the popularity of Bacon’s essays was great because of their brevity and compactness of thought.
Bacon’s essays as ‘dispersed meditations’
Bacon described his essays as ‘dispersed meditations’. He also described his essays as brief notes set down rather significantly than curiously, using the word ‘curiously’ to mean elaborately. There is little systematic development of thought in his essays. Almost every essay is a miscellaneous collection of ideas relating to a particular subject.
Of course, Bacon does not stray away from the subject that he places before himself. There are no digressions in his essays, nothing irrelevant or unrelated to the theme. He does not allow his mind or fancy to roam. But we cannot describe his essays as well-knit compositions because there are no tight connections between the various ideas, and the ideas do not seem to flow from one another.
For instance, the essay, “Of Truth” gives us a number of ideas on the subject. There is certainly a semblance of what may be called a logical development in the essay, and yet this essay can be best described as a collection of ideas do not strictly grow from one another. Bacon begins with ideas that standards of truth in religious, philosophical and moral spheres keep changing from time to time. Then he proceeds to examine the tendency of human beings to feel more pleased by lies than by truth, and finds it difficult to explain why people should tell lies for the sake of lies and it meditates upon the subject.
In the essay, “Of Marriage and Single Life” we find Bacon’s worldly wisdom and much of this wisdom is crucial. The very opening sentence of this essay is cynical because Bacon here expresses the view that a married man with children cannot undertake great enterprises. He offers the advice that those who have children should devote themselves more to future welfare because their children will grow and live in the future, and that a man without a family may, however, devote himself mainly to the present. This essay is a glaring example of how ideas have been jumbled together.
There is a greater cohesion in the essay, “Of Great Place”. But even here we find a miscellaneous collection of ideas on a particular subject. Bacon here tells us that people lose their freedom when they attain high positions, and rising to a high position is a laborious process. Moral precepts, generalizations, quotations, comments on human nature and inferences from it—these are all brought together.
The essay, “Of Friendship” has greater length than can strictly be justified by the ideas expressed to illustrating the great and historical personalities felt the need for friendship. Apart from that, the author logically tells us about the principal fruits of friendship. Each fruit of friendship has probably been handled and the development of ideas in each paragraph is logical.
The essay, “Of Suitors” is again a conglomeration of thoughts. There is no proper arrangement of thoughts in this essay. Here Bacon begins by talking about persons who undertake suits dealing with a ‘suit of controversy‘ or a ‘suit of petition‘, and Bacon turns his attention to the suitors, advising them to be careful in choosing an intermediary who undertake their suits. In this essay Bacon speaks of suitors or patrons and of those who undertake suits, and he speaks sometimes of one category and sometimes of another category. The thoughts here are really and literally ‘dispersed meditations’.
Even the essay, “Of Studies” is full of dispersed meditations. Bacon here first tells us the three chief uses of studies; then he speaks of those who spend too much time in studies, those who use studies too much for ornament, and those who form judgements wholly by the rules emerging from their studies. He also speaks of the value of practical experience, and then he goes on to say about the crafty men who condemn studies and simple men who admire them, and also wise men who use them.
In the second paragraph, Bacon tells us why we should study and then abruptly classifies books into three or four categories–those that are to be tasted, swallowed, chewed and digested, and finally those that may be read ‘by deputy’. In this paragraph he speaks of the contribution that reading, conference and writing make towards the development of a man. The essay concludes with a description of how different branches of studies mould the mind differently. In short, in this essay we also have a collection or compendium of ideas.
Conclusion
Many of Bacon’s essays have the appearance of random jotting of meditation which come to the mind of an educated man thinking upon a particular topic. While none of the ideas are irrelevant to the theme concerned, they do not develop from one another. Thus, his essays are often not close-knit and do not present what may be termed ‘structural unity’.
