Remembering Francis Bacon

REMEMBERING FRANCIS BACONtc "REMEMBERING FRANCIS BACON"

P. V. Laxmi Prasad

Next to Shakespeare, Bacon was a familiar name to reckon with in the 16^th century English Literature and, still, he carries that name in every household connected with literature.  He is the greatest prose writer par excellence and a model essayist for others to emulate his writings.  He is today remembered for his essays which are, undoubtedly, true spices of human life.  A living writer in the hearts of millions of readers, Bacon is read across the globe by a diverse section of society i.e. from literate to literati. He is highly praised in glorious terms not only by his readers but also by his critics.  As a trend setter, his essays address the core issues of human life ranging from the elementary to the serious, and from the sensitive to the critical.  They represent side by side an amalgamation of humanistic concerns and the eternity of Bacon’s contribution to literature.  Bacon was a reflection of what he had written in them.  He is topical, social, fully relevant and a distinct reality reflecting our times in a fitting manner.

Bacon’s essays are treatises for they deal in detail with a single subject.  They concentrate on a specific topic. Subject, for Bacon, is an important aspect of writing.  He hardly deviates from subject midway through the essay.  They vary from individual to institution, from child to parent, from philosopher to common man, from ruler to traitor, from Judge to suitor.  His subject matter refreshes always with a new form i.e. quotations, illustrations and allusions. Each of his master-pieces originates a rich supply of ideas.  He uses profound thoughts to effectively convey his preachings.  Precision and accuracy are his chief forte.  Unlike Charles Lamb, Bacon is impersonal, i.e. he writes about others and writes for the common good of people.

The quintessential features of his writing are: shortness of titles, accurate diction, brilliant conceits, epigrammatic style, paradoxical and didactic statements and antitheses.  Bacon is at times individual, representative, intellectual and still at others, philosophical, moral and judicious.  He lays down moral principles to lead a virtuous, decent and dignified life.  As Latin was the language of the day, he uses it to perfection with the help of Biblical allusions and Italian Phrases.  His quotations are fully relevant to contemporary society.  They are, in general, used as “quotable quotes” in schools and colleges.  Every piece of his writing symbolizes artistic beauty and perfect craftsmanship. In short, they are doctrines and discourses about common interest of human life.

There is a touch of beauty, artistic perfection, and practical wisdom that is evident in a few of the following moral, philosophical & intellectual prescriptions.

1. Bacon’s discrimination between bad husbands & good wives is fully relevant to the contemporary institution of marriage where parents of a bride look for moral qualities in a groom.  Sometimes, their study of a suitable groom goes wrong.  As a result their daughters get bad husbands.  Ironically, these bad husbands get from good to very good counterparts.  They command respect, loyalty and even appreciation from them.  This is truly applicable in context of Indian society. “It is often seen that bad husbands have very good wives” (of Marriage & Single Life).

2. Bacon rightly comments on the role of a woman who plays different parts in her married life with the counterpart.  This is fully reflected in his farsightedness when he said: “Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle ages and old men’s nurses” (of Marriage & Single Life).
Bacon means that men marry whenever they want to. But a woman who marries him has to serve at every stage of his life in different capacities.  The capacity of a woman serving man in these stages is clearly brought out.

3. Exposing the vices of authority, Bacon rightly explains them when he said: “the vices of authority are chiefly four: delays, corruption, roughness and facility” (of Great place). The authorities enjoy a higher position and status than that of a common man.  But red tapism by bureaucrats leads eventually to uneven delays, high-level corruption, roughness of handling the work.  These are fully relevant to Indian administrative system where these vices are largely at work.  The common man is usually the victim of these vices.  Bacon asks the people in higher positions to avoid these vices.

4. Bacon refers to the purpose and benefit of friendship when he said in one of his essays on (of Friendship).  “A principal fruit of friendship is the ease & discharge of the fullness and swellings of the heart”.  One of the important benefits of friendship is to exchange freely and openly the feelings, and the emotions with each other.  A man will get relieved when he does so with his friend. He can share his thoughts with a sense of freedom and open mind with him.  But contrary to what Bacon said, friendship today loses its significance it is merely for fun and enjoyment.

5. “Reading maketh a full man:
conference a ready man;
& writing an exact man”
(of studies) Bacon shows us how reading influences the personality of (of studies) Bacon shows us how reading influences the personality of a man. A man, Bacon writes, will be quick, alert, exact, precise, thoughtful, wise, and intelligible and acknowledgeable upon the reading of books.  It makes him/her rise to the occasion and respond to the urgencies of life.  These are the three pillars on which the edifice of communication stands.

6. “Revenge is a kind of wild Justice” (of Revenge)
Bacon refers to the principle of revenge in human beings. He said that man’s nature in taking revenge against some one who does some wrong/injury is something cruel, barbaric and unjustified.  It is an act of injustice.  In other words, revenge means taking into one’s hands the entire judicial system.  Bacon lays stress on the point of legal justice rather than illegal justice. This is truly applicable to the contemporary world where revenge plays a major role in dividing people.

7. Next, Bacon shows us the difference in the degree of affection of parents towards their children.  He calls it to be unequal & sometimes unworthy especially in the case of a mother who brings up her children in their development.  “A wise son rejoiceth the father, but an ungracious son shames the mother (of parents and children).
Bacon strongly condemns this partisan attitude on the part of the mother who milks, nourishes and nurtures her children affectionately.

8. Advising and cautioning the youngsters on different sides of love, Bacon rightly said that nuptial love makes a couple bind together so long as they live.  They are eternally united in their conjugal love.  But, love of friends continues to be a subject of romantic interest.  It merely influences the on-lookers.  It is short lived and does not last longer.  Finally love that is rejected, polluted and negated, destroys the true spirit of love and results in the mockery of love. “Nuptial love maketh man kind, friendly love perfecteth it, but wanton love corrupteth and embaseth it (of love).

9. Bacon projects his thoughts on the moral side of the world in one of his essays
(of Goodness)
“This (Goodness) of all virtues and dignities of the mind, is the greatest, being the character of the Deity, and with out it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing, no better than a kind of vermin”.
He is right in preaching that goodness exists as a normal and fundamental character of the deity.  Man becomes a busy mischievous and wretched thing when he lacks in goodness.  As a moral principle, the deity is no exception to this virtue.  He stresses the point of inculcating a moral virtue like goodness.

10. Writing about envy among human beings, Bacon said:

“For envy is a gadding passion, and walketh the streets, and doth not keep home”.
Envy wanders from place to place searching the lives of people on the streets and sowing the seeds of it upon human beings.  It leaves behind people a subject matter to fight among themselves. It does not live at home.  It stays at an inn.

Lastly, Bacon is no barrier to age, colour, creed, sex and religion.  He is a thorough human being to the core.  He is read irrespective of the continent, the country and the society that is from the rulers to the ruled, from autocracy to democracy, from ethnic race to multiple races, from the richest to the poorest.  Above all, his works are naked truths of life in totality. They free human minds from innocence, ignorance and immaturity.  They are highly critical, didactic, judicious and logical.  They contain absolute knowledge and practical wisdom. His works receive worldwide recognition, appreciation and readership largest ever than expectations.  In short, Bacon is a citizen both of continental and cosmopolitan society.  No literary household in the world is complete without a book of Bacon on the shelf.