Bacon as an essayist—discuss in the light of Of Friendship


Bacon as an essayist—discuss in the light of Of Friendship


    In the history of English literature Bacon ranks among the creators of modern prose. His position as a classic is secured. Bacon is in the annals of English essays what Euclid was in the history of Geometry. He is an enlightened empiricist.
   Bacon’s essays are reflective and philosophical. His ‘Of Friendship’ is an elaborate discursive of a particular subject namely the fruit of friendship. Here he discusses the subject in a neat and frankly manner. He is a moralist and his essays are meant for men of ambition of Renaissance which desires self-realization. Didactic note is also a feature of his essays. But he did not look at the world through the spectacle of books. He understands the value of direct experience and observation. In his “Of Friendship’ truly enough he speaks out the true function or fruit of friendship. To him one can open his mind to a true friend without any hesitation and thus can be benefited. It we keep the suffocation within we will destroy our mental peace but if we share it with a friend the suffocation will decline. It is well said that sharing joys double the joy whereas sharing cares reduces it. Friendship is here described is healthful. It brings a fairday after the tempest and storms of affection. In the light of friendship darkness flies away and one will get clear light after consulting with a friend. The fruits of friendship are therefore like pomegranate—full of many kernels.
   Bacon’s sentences are like condensed, aphorism. His sentences are antithetical, epigrammatic and terse; ‘whosever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god”. “It redoubleth joys and cutteth griefs in halves” etc. These short and condensed sentences are like separate and independent units each of which is capable of being developed into a short independent essay.
   Bacon was a great scholar and in his essays we come across a number of references and a number of Latin quotations. These enrich his essays and make them more attractive. In “Of Friendship’ we are the references of—Epimenides the Candian, Numa the Roman, Empedocles the Sicilian, Apollonius of Tyana, L. Sylla, Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, Brutus, Calpuruia, Augustus Caesar, Agrippa, Maecenas, Tiberius, Sejanus, Comineus and many more. He was fond of quotating Latin phrases. In ‘Of Friendship’ we have such quotations as “Magno civitas, monga solitude”, “Participes curaurum”, “Corn e edito” etc.
   Bacon’s prose is fairly uninvolved and short in structure, even when the sentences draw out they are given the force and clearness by the use of balance. No author was ever so concise as Bacon. There is a combination of intellect and imagination. The closest reasoning in the boldest metaphor, the condensed brilliance of illustrations, identified with the development of thought.


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