Francis Bacon:
STUCK IN A FRAME
"The Secretary of Nature"
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(1561-1626)1
"The world's a bubble and the life of man Less than a span."2
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Introduction:-
Bacon's real claim to fame is: not that he, as the lord chancellor, in 1621, was removed from office for accepting a litigant's bribe; nor, that he was the real writer of the Shakespearean plays (one of the controversies in English literature, the "Baconian controversy")3; but rather Francis Bacon is known as a philosopher, one of the first order. Bacon delineated the principles of the inductive method, which constituted a breakthrough in the approach to science, even though philosophers and scientists of the day, - and seemingly today, yet - repudiated both his theories and methodology, alike. Bacon argued that the only knowledge of importance to man was empirically rooted in the natural world; and that a clear system of scientific inquiry would assure man's mastery over the world. He was the originator of the expression, "Knowledge is power." He was quite taken up by the "materialist" theories and the resultant discoveries of both Copernicus and Galileo. Bacon, along with Galileo are known in the literature as "the great anti-Aristotelians who created the 'modern scientific' view of Nature."
Francis Bacon was born at London. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, at the age of twelve. He studied law and became a barrister in 1582; two years later he took a seat in the House of Commons. His opposition, in 1584, to Queen Elizabeth's tax program retarded his political advancement. While in the earlier days he supported the earl of Essex, Bacon, in 1601, was involved in his prosecution. With the accession of James I (1566-1625) and thereafter, a number of honours were bestowed on Bacon: he was knighted in 1603, made Solicitor General in 1604, Attorney General in 1613, and Lord Chancellor in 1618.
He had powerful enemies, foremost among them was Sir Edward Coke. "Bacon and Coke were bitter political rivals, in Parliament and the law courts." They even contended for the hand of the same woman, a widow, Lady Elizabeth Hatton, - "beautiful, widowed, and rich."
Bacon, not having come from a rich family, and always pressed for money: accepted, and this is one of the great surprises of history, a litigant's bribe. This was in 1621; so, just four months after he was raised to the peerage, Bacon was evicted from office. ("I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am guilty of corruption, and do renounce all defense.") Francis Bacon went into retirement and died in 1626; he was buried at Saint Michael's Church in St. Albans, just north of London, Hertfordshire.
If one is to get to know about another person's life and their work it will be necessary to take an historical look at the times during which that person lived; this is particularly so of Francis Bacon. Let us first start by looking to the principal actors of the age. Our leading lady is Elizabeth the First, the Queen of England.
Elizabeth I, lived between the years 1533 and 1603. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She was, after her mother's execution, declared illegitimate, but in 1544 Parliament reestablished her in the succession. On her accession in 1558 (she reigned until 1603) England's low fortunes, included: religious strife, a huge government debt, and failure in wars with France. Her reign took England through one of its greatest periods, a period that saw the country united to become a first-rate European power with a great navy; a period in which commerce and industry prospered and colonization began. Elizabeth followed in her father's footsteps and asserted the Tudor concept of strong rule. She reestablished Anglicanism, and measures against Catholics grew harsher. Although she had many favorites, Elizabeth never married, but she used the possibility of marriage as a diplomatic tool. Vain, fickle in bestowing favors, prejudiced, vacillating, and parsimonious, she was nonetheless considered to be a great monarch, highly aware of the responsibility of rule and immensely courageous.
Other personages of the time should be considered. There would be the 2nd earl of Essex, Robert Devereux (1566-1601) who quite literally lost his head over Elizabeth. Then there was the Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley (1532-88), who received a number of favours from the queen. Dudley's wife Amy was reported to have committed suicide, but did she? Eventually, Dudley himself was found poisoned to death. Then there was James I (James VI of Scotland), son of Mary, Queen of Scots; and, indeed, Mary, herself. And a string of others, including: Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520-98), Sir Francis Walsingham (1530-90), Sir Francis Drake (1540-96), Sir Edmund Spencer (1552-1599), Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), Edward Coke (1552-1634), Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86), and Shakespeare (1564-1616). All of these historical figures should be looked up, I have no time but to only mention them at this place.
I have yet to undertake an exhaustive examination of Bacon's life; it has been done many times before. The standard biography is that of James Spedding.4
Before passing on to saying a few words about Bacon's philosophy it is worthwhile to make the comparison between Sir Thomas More and Francis Bacon, as Frederic R. White did:
Francis Bacon's major contribution to philosophy was his application of induction, the approach used by modern science, rather than the a priori method of medieval scholasticism.
Up to and during Bacon's time there existed philosophies rooted not so much in reason but in pure faith; philosophies promoted by the church. [See Saint Anselm (1033-1109) and Thomas Aquinas' (1225-1274) and, more generally, the Scholastic School.] Bacon was "violently opposed to speculative philosophies and the syllogistic quibbling of the Schoolman ..., Bacon argued that the only knowledge of importance to man was empirically rooted in the natural world."
The Elizabethan Times:-
"In many external respects, the life of Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was similar to that of Sir Thomas More [1478-1535], a century before. Both came from distinguished families, and both received excellent educations. Both studied law and both practised that profession. Both entered public life at a comparatively early age, and both finally arrived, at the end of their political careers, at the Lord Chancellorship. Moreover, each fell into disfavour with his sovereign; each was accused of taking bribes; each was condemned and imprisoned in the Tower. Finally, each was the most distinguished writer and thinker of his time, and each was in a sense, a martyr to his faith. More died because of his steadfast devotion to his religion. Bacon, so the story goes, met his death through devotion to experimental science. While testing the preservation powers of snow, he contracted a chill and perished. This external similarity does not extend, however, to the characters of the two men. More was a man of the utmost integrity, sweetness, and generosity; Bacon was by no means admirable." (p. 207.)
Bacon's Philosophy:-
"There are and can be only two ways of searching into and discovering truth. The one flies from the senses and particulars to the most general axioms: this way is now in fashion. The other derives axioms from the senses and particulars, rising by a gradual and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the most general axioms last of all. This is the true way, but as yet untried."
Thus, Bacon delineated the principles of the inductive thinking method, which, while as a method goes back to the times of Aristotle, constituted a breakthrough in the approach to science. It was just these kind of materialist theories that brought about the great discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo. Bacon could see that the only knowledge of importance to man was empirically rooted in the natural world; and that a clear system of scientific inquiry would assure man's mastery over the world.5
Bacon's first work was The Advancement of Learning (1605). His second came along in 1620, Novum Organum; it was part of his larger philosophical work known as Instauratio Magna, of which he only completed two parts: this, Novum Organum, and De Augmentis Scientarum.7 De Augmentis Scientarum, which came out in 1623, was an expansion of his 1605 work. Apothegms came out in 1624. His aphoristic Essays were continually worked on between 1597 and 1625. Bacon's utopian fable about the island of "Bensalem," the New Atlantis, came out in 1627, appended to Sylva Sylvarum. And his final work, The World, came out three years after his death.
Carlyle thought Bacon was one of the few who could "converse with this universe, first hand." And Lord Macaulay thought that Bacon "had a wonderful talent for packing thought close, and rendering it portable ... brilliant, expedient"; but, nonetheless, Bacon was to Macaulay a "thoroughly dishonest man."8 One who so dazzled others by his brilliant mind that he made them forget "the standards of ordinary decency and morality." Bacon acknowledged his weakness: "I will not question whether you ... pass for a disinterested man or no; I freely confess myself that I am not, and so, I leave it there."
2 "The World's a bubble, and the Life of Man Less than a span" is the opening line to Bacon's poem, "Life," one of blupete's poetry picks.
3 See W. G. Thorpe's The Hidden Lives Shakespeare & Bacon and their Business Connection; with some Revelations of Shakespeare's Early Struggles 1587-1592 (London: Chiswick Press, 1897).
4 Life Letters of Francis Bacon, 7 vols., [1861-1874]; there are numerous briefer lives as for example see Bowen.
5 That is not to say that Bacon did not believe that there was a God, for, as he said in "Of Atheism": "I had rather believe all the fables in the legends and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind."
6 Henry Hallam, Introduction to Literature ..., as quoted by OED2.
7 Scholars located in Christendom, in those days, wrote in Latin: the point is, that the few that read, read Latin. Latin then was to the world of thinkers what English is today to scientists -- an international language which facilitated free movement of thought and research.
8 For what Macaulay thought of Bacon's character is set forth, in his usual brilliant fashion, by Macaulay in his 100 page essay on Bacon.
Bacon's Writings:-
"The style of Bacon has an idiosyncracy which we might expect from his genius."6
Earlier, we referred to the comparison which Frederic R. White made between Sir Thomas More and Francis Bacon. Their lives were remarkably paralleled, but as White points out there was little similarity between their writings. "More was a classicist and a humanist; his Utopia is well-planned ... Bacon ... [was a] scientist; his New Atlantis is incomplete, ill-proportioned, somewhat heavy in style, and dogmatically devoted to the glorification of natural science."
Bacon the Man:-
"Francis Bacon's life, with its slow rise to political power and its sudden awful fall, is a drama on the heroic scale of the old Greek tragedies. The world knows the famous last will and testament, where Bacon left his "soul to God above, his body to be buried obscurely, his name to the next ages, and to foreign nations." The world knows his writings, or the titles of them, at least. But there is a composition of Bacon's which the world has lately forgotten or overlooked. In the fullness of his power and reputation as Lord Chancellor of England, Bacon was impeached by Parliament for taking bribes in office, convicted, and banished from London and the law courts.
...
We shrink from the evidence; it is painful to see genius stoop for a mean prize. Perhaps the times were to blame. To live in the shadow of a Queen's favor, to strive continually for a King's smile, is not pretty work. It drove Sir Walter Raleigh to fantastic plots, to despair, egregious lying and the executioner's block. Outside the circle of royal patronage there was no way for an ambitious man to rise in government, no way at all." (Bowen, pp. 3-18.)
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Biographical Sketches: The Thinkers
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§ "Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things: old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read."
§ "Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon."
§ "Books (such as are worthy the name of books) ought to have no patrons but truth and reason."
§ "It is a secret both in nature and state, that it is safer to change many things then one." [1612 Bacon Ess., Reg. Health (Arb.) 59 As quoted in the OED.]
§ "I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death."
§ "What then remains but that we still should cry For being born, and, being born, to die?"
§ "They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea."
§ "If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties." (1605.)
§ "[The fact finder is to] set down a continuance of the naked events and actions, without the motives or designs." [1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. i. (1873) 90 Commentaries As quoted in the OED.]
§ "Fortune hath somewhat the nature of a woman; if she be too much wooed, she is the farther off."
§ "He that clears at once, will relapse. But he that cleareth by degrees, induceth an habite of frugality, and gaineth as well upon his mind as upon his estate." [1612 Bacon Ess. Expense (Arb.) 55 As quoted in the OED.]
§ "There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic. A man's own observation, what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health."
§ "How far the humours and affects of the body do alter or work upon the mind." [1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. ix. _3 (1873) As quoted in the OED.]
§ "Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper."
§ "There are four classes of Idols which beset men's minds. To these for distinction's sake I have assigned names: calling the first class, Idols of the Tribe; the second, Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the Market-Place; the fourth, Idols of the Theater."
§ "A great state left to an heir, is as a lure to all the birds of prey round about, to seize on him.." [1612 Bacon Ess., Riches (Arb.) 240 As quoted in the OED.]
§ "Judges ought to remember, that their office is Ius dicere, and not Jus dare; to interprete law, and not to make law, or give Law."
§ "Judges ought to be more Learned, then Wittie."
§ "The place of Justice is an hallowed place." [1612 Bacon Ess., Judicature (Arb.) 456 As quoted in the OED.]
§ "I have taken all knowledge to be my province."
§ "For all knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of knowledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself."
§ "The laws of the most kingdoms and states have been like buildings of many pieces, and patched up from time to time according to occasion, without frame or model. ... This continual heaping up of laws without digesting them maketh but a chaos and confusion, and turneth the laws many times to become but snares for the people. ... Then look into the state of your laws and justice of your land: purge out multiplicity of laws: clear the incertainty of them: repeal those that are snaring; and press the execution of those that are wholesome and necessary ..."
§ "He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief."
§ "Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed."
§ "New Things piece not so well." [1625 ---- Ess., Innovations (Arb.) 526 As quoted in the OED.]
§ "We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do."
§ "A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."
§ "Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise."
§ "It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty."
§ "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."
§ "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man."
§ "Be so true to thyself, as thou be not false to others."
§ "... the seed of knowledge."
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§ Elizabeth, the 25 year old daughter of Henry the VIII ascends to the throne.
§ Born in London.
§ Galileo is Born.
§ Becomes a barrister.
§ Becomes a member of parliament.
§ Spanish Armada.
§ Robert Dudley dies.
§ Prosecutes Essex.
§ Elizabeth I dies.
§ Knighted.
§ Nov 17th, 1603: the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, as the Attorney General Coke prosecutes.
§ Solicitor General.
§ Publishes The Advancement of Learning.
§ Coke is made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas on June 20th, 1606.
§ Attorney General.
§ Lord Chancellor.
§ Publishes Novum Organum.
§ Made a peer.
§ Accepts a litigant's bribe.
§ Publishes De Augmentis Scientarum.
§ Publishes Apothegms.
§ Dies.
§ His work Apothegms comes out posthumously.
§ His work The World comes out posthumously.
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