what is a short biography of francis bacon

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon was an English Renaissance statesman and philosopher, best known for his promotion of the scientific method.

(1561-1626)

Who Was Francis Bacon?

Francis Bacon served as attorney general and Lord Chancellor of England, resigning amid charges of corruption. His more valuable work was philosophical. Bacon took up Aristotelian ideas, arguing for an empirical, inductive approach, known as the scientific method, which is the foundation of modern scientific inquiry.

Statesman and philosopher Francis Bacon was born in London on January 22, 1561. His father, Sir Nicolas Bacon, was Lord Keeper of the Seal. His mother, Lady Anne Cooke Bacon, was his father's second wife and daughter to Sir Anthony Cooke, a humanist who was Edward VI's tutor. Francis Bacon’s mother was also the sister-in-law of Lord Burghley.

The younger of Sir Nicholas and Lady Anne's two sons, Francis Bacon began attending Trinity College, Cambridge, in April 1573, when he was 12 years old. He completed his course of study at Trinity in December 1575. The following year, Bacon enrolled in a law program at Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, the school his brother Anthony attended. Finding the curriculum at Gray's Inn stale and old fashioned, Bacon later called his tutors "men of sharp wits, shut up in their cells if a few authors, chiefly Aristotle, their dictator." Bacon favored the new Renaissance humanism over Aristotelianism and scholasticism, the more traditional schools of thought in England at the time.

A year after he enrolled at Gray's Inn, Bacon left school to work under Sir Amyas Paulet, the British ambassador to France, during his mission in Paris. Two and a half years later, he was forced to abandon the mission prematurely and return to England when his father died unexpectedly. His meager inheritance left him broke. Bacon turned to his uncle, Lord Burghley, for help in finding a well-paid post as a government official, but Bacon’s uncle shot him down. Still just a teen, Francis Bacon was scrambling to find a means of earning a decent living.

Counsel and Statesman

Fortunately for Bacon, in 1581, he landed a job as a member for Cornwall in the House of Commons. Bacon was also able to return to Gray's Inn and complete his education. By 1582, he was appointed the position of outer barrister. Bacon's political career took a big leap forward in 1584 when he composed A Letter of Advice to Queen Elizabeth, his very first political memorandum.

Bacon held his place in Parliament for nearly four decades, from 1584 to 1617, during which time he was extremely active in politics, law and the royal court. In 1603, three years before he married heiress Alice Barnham, Bacon was knighted upon James I's ascension to the British throne. He continued to work his way swiftly up the legal and political ranks, achieving solicitor general in 1607 and attorney general six years later. In 1616, his career peaked when he was invited to join the Privy Council. Just a year later, he reached the same position of his father, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. In 1618, Bacon surpassed his father's achievements when he was promoted to the lofty title of Lord Chancellor, one of the highest political offices in England. In 1621, Bacon became Viscount St. Albans.

In 1621, the same year that Bacon became Viscount St. Albans, he was accused of accepting bribes and impeached by Parliament for corruption. Some sources claim that Bacon was set up by his enemies in Parliament and the court faction, and was used as a scapegoat to protect the Duke of Buckingham from public hostility. Bacon was tried and found guilty after he confessed. He was fined a hefty 40,000 pounds and sentenced to the Tower of London, but, fortunately, his sentence was reduced and his fine was lifted. After four days of imprisonment, Bacon was released, at the cost of his reputation and his long- standing place in Parliament; the scandal put a serious strain on 60-year-old Bacon's health.

Philosopher of Science

Bacon remained in St. Alban's after the collapse of his political career. Retired, he was now able to focus on one of his other passions, the philosophy of science. From the time he had reached adulthood, Bacon was determined to alter the face of natural philosophy. He strove to create a new outline for the sciences, with a focus on empirical scientific methods—methods that depended on tangible proof—while developing the basis of applied science. Unlike the doctrines of Aristotle and Plato, Bacon's approach placed an emphasis on experimentation and interaction, culminating in "the commerce of the mind with things." Bacon's new scientific method involved gathering data, prudently analyzing it and performing experiments to observe nature's truths in an organized way. He believed that when approached this way, science could become a tool for the betterment of humankind.

Biographer Loren Eisley described Bacon's compelling desire to invent a new scientific method, stating that Bacon, "more fully than any man of his time, entertained the idea of the universe as a problem to be solved, examined, meditated upon, rather than as an eternally fixed stage upon which man walked." Bacon himself claimed that his empirical scientific method would spark a light in nature that would "eventually disclose and bring into sight all that is most hidden and secret in the universe."

During his young adulthood, Bacon attempted to share his ideas with his uncle, Lord Burghley, and later with Queen Elizabeth in his Letter of Advice. The two did not prove to be a receptive audience to Bacon's evolving philosophy of science. It was not until 1620, when Bacon published Book One of Novum Organum Scientiarum (novum organum is Latin for "new method"), that Bacon established himself as a reputable philosopher of science.

According to Bacon in Novum Organum , the scientific method should begin with the "Tables of Investigation." It should then proceed to the "Table of Presence," which is a list of circumstances under which the event being studied occurred. "The Table of Absence in Proximity" is then used to identify negative occurrences. Next, the "Table of Comparison" allows the observer to compare and contrast the severity or degree of the event. After completing these steps, the scientific observer is required to perform a short survey that will help identify the possible cause of the occurrence. Unlike a typical hypothesis, however, Bacon did not emphasize the importance of testing one's theory. Instead, he believed that observation and analysis were sufficient in producing a greater comprehension, or "ladder of axioms," that creative minds could use to reach still further understanding.

Writing Career

During his career as counsel and statesman, Bacon often wrote for the court. In 1584, he wrote his first political memorandum, A Letter of Advice to Queen Elizabeth . In 1592, to celebrate the anniversary of the queen's coronation, he wrote an entertaining speech in praise of knowledge. The year 1597 marked Bacon's first publication, a collection of essays about politics. The collection was later expanded and republished in 1612 and 1625.

In 1605, Bacon published The Advancement of Learning in an unsuccessful attempt to rally supporters for the sciences. In 1609, he departed from political and scientific genres when he released On the Wisdom of the Ancients , his analysis of ancient mythology.

Bacon then resumed writing about science, and in 1620, published Novum Organum , presented as Part Two of The Great Saturation . In 1622, he wrote a historical work for Prince Charles, entitled The History of Henry VII . Bacon also published Historia Ventorum and Historia Vitae et Mortis that same year. In 1623, he published De Augmentis Scientarium , a continuation of his view on scientific reform. In 1624, his works The New Atlantis and Apothegms were published. Sylva Sylvarium, which was published in 1627, was among the last of his written works.

Although Bacon's body of work covered a fairly broad range of topics, all of his writing shared one thing in common: It expressed Bacon's desire to change antiquated systems.

Death and Legacy

In March 1626, Bacon was performing a series of experiments with ice. While testing the effects of cold on the preservation and decay of meat, he stuffed a hen with snow near Highgate, England, and caught a chill. Ailing, Bacon stayed at Lord Arundel's home in London. The guest room where Bacon resided was cold and musty. He soon developed bronchitis. On April 9, 1626, a week after he had arrived at Lord Arundel's estate, Francis Bacon died.

In the years after Bacon's death, his theories began to have a major influence on the evolving field of 17th-century European science. British scientists belonging to Robert Boyle's circle, also known as the "Invisible College," followed through on Bacon's concept of a cooperative research institution, applying it toward their establishment of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge in 1662. The Royal Society utilized Bacon's applied science approach and followed the steps of his reformed scientific method. Scientific institutions followed this model in kind. Political philosopher Thomas Hobbes played the role of Bacon's last amanuensis. The "father of classic liberalism," John Locke, as well as 18th-century encyclopedists and inductive logicians David Hume and John Mill, also showed Bacon's influence in their work.

Today, Bacon is still widely regarded as a major figure in scientific methodology and natural philosophy during the English Renaissance. Having advocated an organized system of obtaining knowledge with a humanitarian goal in mind, he is largely credited with ushering in the new early modern era of human understanding.

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• Best Known For: Francis Bacon was an English Renaissance statesman and philosopher, best known for his promotion of the scientific method.
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• To be ignorant of causes is to be frustrated in action.
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• Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.

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Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) was one of the leading figures in natural philosophy and in the field of scientific methodology in the period of transition from the Renaissance to the early modern era. As a lawyer, member of Parliament, and Queen's Counsel, Bacon wrote on questions of law, state and religion, as well as on contemporary politics; but he also published texts in which he speculated on possible conceptions of society, and he pondered questions of ethics ( Essays ) even in his works on natural philosophy ( The Advancement of Learning ).

After his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge and Gray's Inn, London, Bacon did not take up a post at a university, but instead tried to start a political career. Although his efforts were not crowned with success during the era of Queen Elizabeth, under James I he rose to the highest political office, Lord Chancellor. Bacon's international fame and influence spread during his last years, when he was able to focus his energies exclusively on his philosophical work, and even more so after his death, when English scientists of the Boyle circle ( Invisible College ) took up his idea of a cooperative research institution in their plans and preparations for establishing the Royal Society.

To the present day Bacon is well known for his treatises on empiricist natural philosophy ( The Advancement of Learning , Novum Organum Scientiarum ) and for his doctrine of the idols, which he put forward in his early writings, as well as for the idea of a modern research institute, which he described in Nova Atlantis .

1. Biography

2. natural philosophy: struggle with tradition, 3.1 the idols, 3.2 system of sciences, 3.3 matter theory and cosmology, 4. scientific method: the project of the instauratio magna, 5. scientific method: novum organum and the theory of induction, 6. science and social philosophy, 7. the ethical dimension in bacon's thought, major philosophical works by bacon, selected works on bacon, other secondary literature, other internet resources, related entries.

Francis Bacon was born January, 22, 1561, the second child of Sir Nicholas Bacon (Lord Keeper of the Seal) and his second wife Lady Anne Cooke Bacon, daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, tutor to Edward VI and one of the leading humanists of the age. Lady Anne was highly erudite: she not only had a perfect command of Greek and Latin, but was also competent in Italian and French. Together with his older brother Anthony, Francis grew up in a context determined by political power, humanist learning, and Calvinist zeal. His father had built a new house in Gorhambury in the 1560s, and Bacon was educated there for some seven years; later, along with Anthony, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge (1573–5), where he sharply criticized the scholastic methods of academic training. Their tutor was John Whitgift, in later life Archbishop of Canterbury. Whitgift provided the brothers with classical texts for their studies: Cicero, Demosthenes, Hermogenes, Livy, Sallust, and Xenophon (Peltonen 2007). Bacon began his studies at Gray's Inn in London in 1576; but from 1577 to 1578 he accompanied Sir Amias Paulet, the English ambassador, on his mission in Paris. According to Peltonen (2007):

During his stay in France, perhaps in autumn 1577, Bacon once visited England as the bearer of diplomatic post, delivering letters to Walsingham, Burghley, Leicester, and to the Queen herself.

When his father died in 1579, he returned to England. Bacon's small inheritance brought him into financial difficulties and since his maternal uncle, Lord Burghley, did not help him to get a lucrative post as a government official, he embarked on a political career in the House of Commons, after resuming his studies in Gray's Inn. In 1581 he entered the Commons as a member for Cornwall, and he remained a Member of Parliament for thirty-seven years. He was admitted to the bar in 1582 and in 1587 was elected as a reader at Gray's Inn. His involvement in high politics started in 1584, when he wrote his first political memorandum, A Letter of Advice to Queen Elizabeth . Right from the beginning of his adult life, Bacon aimed at a revision of natural philosophy and—following his father's example—also tried to secure high political office. Very early on he tried to formulate outlines for a new system of the sciences, emphasizing empirical methods and laying the foundation for an applied science ( scientia operativa ). This twofold task, however, proved to be too ambitious to be realized in practice. Bacon's ideas concerning a reform of the sciences did not meet with much sympathy from Queen Elizabeth or from Lord Burghley. Small expectations on this front led him to become a successful lawyer and Parliamentarian. From 1584 to 1617 (the year he entered the House of Lords) he was an active member in the Commons. Supported by Walsingham's patronage, Bacon played a role in the investigation of English Catholics and argued for stern action against Mary Queen of Scots. He served on many committees, including one in 1588 which examined recusants; later he was a member of a committee to revise the laws of England. He was involved in the political aspects of religious questions, especially concerning the conflict between the Church of England and nonconformists. In a tract of 1591, he tried to steer a middle course in religious politics; but one year later he was commissioned to write against the Jesuit Robert Parson (Jardine and Stewart 1999, p. 125), who had attacked English sovereignty.

From the late 1580s onwards, Bacon turned to the Earl of Essex as his patron. During this phase of his life, he particularly devoted himself to natural philosophy. He clearly expressed his position in a famous letter of 1592 to his uncle, Lord Burghley:

I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends, as I have moderate civil ends: for I have taken all knowledge to be my province; and if I could purge it of two sorts of rovers, whereof the one with frivolous disputations, confutations, and verbosities, the other with blind experiments and auricular traditions and impostures, hath committed so many spoils, I hope I should bring in industrious observations, grounded conclusions, and profitable inventions and discoveries; the best state of that province. This, whether it be curiosity, or vain glory, or nature, or (if one take it favourably) philanthropia, is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be removed. And I do easily see, that place of any reasonable countenance doth bring commandment of more wits than of a man's own; which is the thing I greatly affect. (Bacon 1857–74, VIII, 109)

In 1593 Bacon fell out favor with the queen on account of his refusal to comply with her request for funds from Parliament. Although he did not vote against granting three subsidies to the government, he demanded that these should be paid over a period six, rather than three, years. This led Sir Robert Cecil and Sir Walter Raleigh to argue against him in Parliament. Bacon's patron, the Earl of Essex, for whom he had already served as a close political advisor and informer, was not able to mollify the queen's anger over the subsidies; and all Essex's attempts to secure a high post for Bacon (attorney-general or solicitor-general) came to nothing. Nevertheless, the queen valued Bacon's competence as a man of law. He was involved in the treason trial of Roderigo Lopez and later on in the proceedings against the Earl of Essex. In his contribution to the Gesta Grayorum (the traditional Christmas revels held in Gray's Inn) of 1594–5, Bacon had emphasized the necessity of scientific improvement and progress. Since he failed to secure for himself a position in the government, he considered the possibility of giving up politics and concentrating on natural philosophy. It is no wonder, then, that Bacon engaged in many scholarly and literary pursuits in the 1590s. His letters of advice to the Earl of Rutland and to the Earl of Essex should be mentioned in this context. The advice given to Essex is of particular importance because Bacon recommended that he should behave in a careful and intelligent manner in public, above all abstaining from aspiring to military commands. Bacon also worked in this phase of his career for the reform of English law. In 1597 his first book was published, the seminal version of his Essays , which contained only ten pieces (Klein 2004b). His financial situation was still insecure; but his plan to marry the rich widow Lady Hatton failed because she was successfully courted by Sir Edward Coke. In 1598 Bacon was unable to sell his reversion of the Star Chamber clerkship, so that he was imprisoned for a short time on account of his debts. His parliamentary activities in 1597–98, mainly involving committee work, were impressive; but when the Earl of Essex in 1599 took command of the attempt to pacify the Irish rebels, Bacon's hopes sank. Essex did not solve the Irish question, returned to court and fell from grace, as Bacon had anticipated he would. He therefore lost a valuable patron and spokesman for his projects. Bacon tried to reconcile the queen and Essex; but when the earl rebelled against the crown in 1601, he could do nothing to help him. The queen ordered Bacon to participate in the treason trial against Essex. In 1601 Bacon sat in Elizabeth's last parliament, playing an extremely active role.

Bacon looked forward to the next reign and tried to get in contact with James VI of Scotland, Elizabeth's successor. During James' reign Bacon rose to power. He was knighted in 1603 and was created a learned counsel a year later. He took up the political issues of the union of England and Scotland, and he worked on a conception of religious toleration, endorsing a middle course in dealing with Catholics and nonconformists. Bacon married Alice Barnhem, the young daughter of a rich London alderman in 1606. One year later he was appointed Solicitor General. He was also dealing with theories of the state and developed the idea, in accordance with Machiavelli, of a politically active and armed citizenry. In 1608 Bacon became clerk of the Star Chamber; and at this time, he made a review of his life, jotting down his achievements and failures. Though he still was not free from money problems, his career progressed step by step. In the period from 1603 to 1613 Bacon was not only busy within English politics. He also created the foundations of his philosophical work by writing seminal treatises which prepared the path for the Novum Organum and for the Instauratio Magna . In 1613 he became Attorney General and began the rise to the peak of his political career: he became a member of the Privy Council in 1616, was appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal the following year—thus achieving the same position as his father—and was granted the title of Lord Chancellor and created Baron of Verulam in 1618. In 1621, however, Bacon, after being created Viscount of St Alban, was impeached by Parliament for corruption. He fell victim to an intrigue in Parliament because he had argued against the abuse of monopolies, indirectly attacking his friend, the Duke of Buckingham, who was the king's favorite. In order to protect Buckingham, the king sacrificed Bacon, whose enemies had accused him of taking bribes in connection with his position as a judge. Bacon saw no way out for himself and declared himself guilty. His fall was contrived by his adversaries in Parliament and by the court faction, for which he was a scapegoat to save the Duke of Buckingham not only from public anger but also from open aggression (Mathews 1996). He lost all his offices and his seat in Parliament, but retained his titles and his personal property. Bacon devoted the last five years of his life—the famous quinquennium—entirely to his philosophical work. He tried to go ahead with his huge project, the Instauratio Magna Scientiarum ; but the task was too big for him to accomplish in only a few years. Though he was able to finish important parts of the Instauratio , the proverb, often quoted in his works, proved true for himself: Vita brevis, ars longa . He died in April 1626 of pneumonia after experiments with ice.

Bacon's struggle to overcome intellectual blockades and the dogmatic slumber of his age and of earlier periods had to be fought on many fronts. Very early on he criticized not only Plato, Aristotle and the Aristotelians, but also humanists and Renaissance scholars such as Paracelsus and Bernardino Telesio.

Although Aristotle provided specific axioms for every scientific discipline, what Bacon found lacking in the Greek philosopher's work was a master principle or general theory of science, which could be applied to all branches of natural history and philosophy (Klein 2003a). For Bacon, Aristotle's cosmology, as well as his theory of science, had become obsolete and consequently so too had many of the medieval thinkers who followed his lead. He does not repudiate Aristotle completely, but he opposes the humanistic interpretation of him, with its emphasis on syllogism and dialectics ( scientia operativa versus textual hermeneutics) and the metaphysical treatment of natural philosophy in favor of natural forms (or nature's effects as structured modes of action, not artifacts), the stages of which correspond—in the shape of a pyramid of knowledge—to the structural order of nature itself.

If any ‘modern’ Aristotelians came near to Bacon, it was the Venetian or Paduan branch, represented by Jacopo Zabarella. On the other hand, Bacon criticized Telesio, who—in his view—had only halfway succeeded in overcoming Aristotle's deficiencies. Although we find the debate with Telesio in an unpublished text of his middle period ( De Principiis atque Originibus, secundum fabulas Cupidinis et Coelum or On Principles and Origins According to the Fables of Cupid and Coelum , written in 1612; Bacon V [1889], 461–500), Bacon began to struggle with tradition as early as 1603. In Valerius Terminus (1603?) he already repudiates any mixture of natural philosophy and divinity; he provides an outline of his new method and determines that the end of knowledge was “a discovery of all operations and possibilities of operations from immortality (if it were possible) to the meanest mechanical practice” (Bacon III [1887], 222). He opposes Aristotelian anticipatio naturae , which favored the inquiry of causes to satisfy the mind instead of those “as will direct him and give him light to new experiences and inventions” (Bacon III [1887], 232).

When Bacon introduces his new systematic structure of the disciplines in The Advancement of Learning (1605), he continues his struggle with tradition, primarily with classical antiquity, rejecting the book learning of the humanists, on the grounds that they “hunt more after words than matter” (Bacon III [1887], 283). Accordingly, he criticizes the Cambridge University curriculum for placing too much emphasis on dialectical and sophistical training asked of “minds empty and unfraught with matter” (Bacon III [1887], 326). He reformulates and functionally transforms Aristotle's conception of science as knowledge of necessary causes. He rejects Aristotle's logic, which is based on his metaphysical theory, whereby the false doctrine is implied that the experience which comes to us by means of our senses (things as they appear ) automatically presents to our understanding things as they are . Simultaneously Aristotle favors the application of general and abstract conceptual distinctions, which do not conform to things as they exist. Bacon, however, introduces his new conception of philosophia prima as a meta-level for all scientific disciplines.

From 1606 to 1612 Bacon pursued his work on natural philosophy, still under the auspices of a struggle with tradition. This tendency is exemplified in the unpublished tracts Temporis partus masculus , 1603/1608 (Bacon III [1887], 521–31), Cogitata et Visa , 1607 (Bacon III, 591–620), Redargutio Philosophiarum , 1608 (III, 557–85), and De Principiis atque Originibus …, 1612 (Bacon V [1889], 461–500). Bacon rediscovers the Pre-Socratic philosophers for himself, especially the atomists and among them Democritus as the leading figure. He gives preference to Democritus' natural philosophy in contrast to the scholastic—and thus Aristotelian—focus on deductive logic and belief in authorities. Bacon does not expect any approach based on tradition to start with a direct investigation of nature and then to ascend to empirical and general knowledge. This criticism is extended to Renaissance alchemy, magic, and astrology ( Temporis partus masculus ), because the ‘methods’ of these ‘disciplines’ are based on occasional insights, but do not command strategies to reproduce the natural effects under investigation. His criticism also concerns contemporary technical literature, in so far as it lacks a new view of nature and an innovative methodological program. Bacon takes to task the ancients, the scholastics and also the moderns. He not only criticizes Plato, Aristotle, and Galen for these failings, but also Jean Fernel, Paracelsus, and Telesio, while praising the Greek atomists and Roger Bacon.

Bacon's manuscripts already mention the doctrine of the idols as a necessary condition for constituting scientia operativa . In Cogitata et Visa he compares deductive logic as used by the scholastics to a spider's web, which is drawn out of its own entrails, whereas the bee is introduced as an image of scientia operativa . Like a bee, the empiricist, by means of his inductive method, collects the natural matter or products and then works them up into knowledge in order to produce honey, which is useful for healthy nutrition.

In Bacon's follow-up paper, Redargutio Philosophiarum , he carries on his empiricist project by referring to the doctrine of twofold truth, while in De Principiis atque Originibus he rejects alchemical theories concerning the transformation of substances in favor of Greek atomism. But in the same text he sharply criticizes his contemporary Telesio for propagating a non-experimental halfway house empiricism. Though Telesio proves to be a moderate ‘modern’, he clings to the Aristotelian framework by continuing to believe in the quinta essentia and in the doctrine of the two worlds, which presupposes two modes of natural law (one mode for the sublunary and another for the superlunary sphere).

3. Natural Philosophy: Theory of the Idols and the System of Sciences

Bacon's doctrine of the idols not only represents a stage in the history of theories of error (Brandt 1979) but also functions as an important theoretical element within the rise of modern empiricism. According to Bacon, the human mind is not a tabula rasa . Instead of an ideal plane for receiving an image of the world in toto, it is a crooked mirror, on account of implicit distortions (Bacon IV [1901], 428–34). He does not sketch a basic epistemology but underlines that the images in our mind right from the beginning do not render an objective picture of the true objects. Consequently, we have to improve our mind, i.e., free it from the idols, before we start any knowledge acquisition.

As early as Temporis partus masculus , Bacon warns the student of empirical science not to tackle the complexities of his subject without purging the mind of its idols:

On waxen tablets you cannot write anything new until you rub out the old. With the mind it is not so; there you cannot rub out the old till you have written in the new. (Farrington 1964, 72)

In Redargutio Philosophiarum Bacon reflects on his method, but he also criticizes prejudices and false opinions, especially the system of speculation established by theologians, as an obstacle to the progress of science (Farrington 1964, 107), together with any authoritarian stance in scholarly matters.

Bacon deals with the idols in the Second Book of The Advancement of Learning , where he discusses Arts intellectual (Invention, Judgment, Memory, Tradition). In his paragraph on judgment he refers to proofs and demonstrations, especially to induction and invention. When he comes to Aristotle's treatment of the syllogism, he reflects on the relation between sophistical fallacies (Aristotle, De Sophisticis Elenchis ) and the idols (Bacon III [1887], 392–6). Whereas induction, invention, and judgment presuppose “the same action of the mind”, this is not true for proof in the syllogism. Bacon, therefore, prefers his own interpretatio naturae , repudiating elenches as modes of sophistical ‘juggling’ in order to persuade others in redargutions (“degenerate and corrupt use … for caption and contradiction”). There is no finding without proof and no proof without finding. But this is not true for the syllogism, in which proof (syllogism: judgment of the consequent) and invention (of the ‘mean’ or middle term) are distinct. The caution he suggests in relation to the ambiguities in elenches is also recommended in face of the idols :

there is yet a much more important and profound kind of fallacies in the mind of man, which I find not observed or enquired at all, and think good to place here, as that which of all others appertaineth most to rectify judgment: the force whereof is such, as it doth not dazzle or snare the understanding in some particulars, but doth more generally and inwardly infect and corrupt the state thereof. For the mind of man is far from the nature of a clear and equal glass, wherein the beams of things should reflect according to their true incidence, nay, it is rather like an enchanted glass, full of superstition and imposture, if it be not delivered and reduced. For this purpose, let us consider the false appearances that are imposed upon us by the general nature of the mind …. (Bacon III [1887], 394–5)

Bacon still presents a similar line of argument to his reader in 1623, namely in De Augmentis (Book V, Chap. 4; see Bacon IV [1901], 428–34). Judgment by syllogism presupposes—in a mode agreeable to the human mind—mediated proof, which, unlike in induction, does not start from sense in primary objects. In order to control the workings of the mind, syllogistic judgment refers to a fixed frame of reference or principle of knowledge as the basis for “all the variety of disputations” (Bacon IV [1901], 491). The reduction of propositions to principles leads to the middle term. Bacon deals here with the art of judgment in order to assign a systematic position to the idols. Within this art he distinguishes the ‘Analytic’ from the detection of fallacies (sophistical syllogisms). Analytic works with “true forms of consequences in argument” (Bacon IV [1901], 429), which become faulty by variation and deflection. The complete doctrine of detection of fallacies, according to Bacon, contains three segments:

• Sophistical fallacies,
• Fallacies of interpretation, and
• False appearances or Idols.

Concerning (1) Bacon praises Aristotle for his excellent handling of the matter, but he also mentions Plato honorably. Fallacies of interpretation (2) refer to “Adventitious Conditions or Adjuncts of Essences”, similar to the predicaments, open to physical or logical inquiry. He focuses his attention on the logical handling when he relates the detection of fallacies of interpretation to the wrong use of common and general notions, which leads to sophisms. In the last section (3) Bacon finds a place for his idols, when he refers to the detection of false appearances as

the deepest fallacies of the human mind: For they do not deceive in particulars, as the others do, by clouding and snaring the judgment; but by a corrupt and ill-ordered predisposition of mind, which as it were perverts and infects all the anticipations of the intellect. (IV, 431)

Idols are productions of the human imagination (caused by the crooked mirror of the human mind) and thus are nothing more than “untested generalities” (Malherbe 1996, 80).

In his Preface to the Novum Organum Bacon promises the introduction of a new method, which will restore the senses to their former rank (Bacon IV [1901], 17f.), begin the whole labor of the mind again, and open two sources and two distributions of learning, consisting of a method of cultivating the sciences and another of discovering them. This new beginning presupposes the discovery of the natural obstacles to efficient scientific analysis, namely seeing through the idols, so that the mind's function as the subject of knowledge acquisition comes into focus (Brandt 1979, 19).

According to Aphorism XXIII of the First Book, Bacon makes a distinction between the Idols of the human mind and the Ideas of the divine mind: whereas the former are for him nothing more than “certain empty dogmas”, the latter show “the true signatures and marks set upon the works of creation as they are found in nature” (Bacon IV [1901], 51).

3.1.1 Idols of the Tribe

The Idols of the Tribe have their origin in the production of false concepts due to human nature, because the structure of human understanding is like a crooked mirror, which causes distorted reflections (of things in the external world).

3.1.2 Idols of the Cave

The Idols of the Cave consist of conceptions or doctrines which are dear to the individual who cherishes them, without possessing any evidence of their truth. These idols are due to the preconditioned system of every individual, comprising education, custom, or accidental or contingent experiences.

3.1.3 Idols of the Market Place

These idols are based on false conceptions which are derived from public human communication. They enter our minds quietly by a combination of words and names, so that it comes to pass that not only does reason govern words, but words react on our understanding.

3.1.4 Idols of the Theatre

According to the insight that the world is a stage, the Idols of the Theatre are prejudices stemming from received or traditional philosophical systems. These systems resemble plays in so far as they render fictional worlds, which were never exposed to an experimental check or to a test by experience. The idols of the theatre thus have their origin in dogmatic philosophy or in wrong laws of demonstration.

Bacon ends his presentation of the idols in Novum Organum , Book I, Aphorism LXVIII, with the remark that men should abjure and renounce the qualities of idols, “and the understanding [must be] thoroughly freed and cleansed” (Bacon IV [1901], 69). He discusses the idols together with the problem of information gained through the senses, which must be corrected by the use of experiments (Bacon IV [1901], 27).

Within the history of occidental philosophy and science, Bacon identifies only three revolutions or periods of learning: the heyday of the Greeks and that of the Romans and Western Europe in his own time (Bacon IV [1901], 70ff.). This meager result stimulated his ambition to establish a new system of the sciences. This tendency can already be seen in his early manuscripts, but is also apparent in his first major book, The Advancement of Learning . In this work Bacon presents a systematic survey of the extant realms of knowledge, combined with meticulous descriptions of deficiencies, leading to his new classification of knowledge. In The Advancement (Bacon III [1887], 282f.) a new function is given to philosophia prima , the necessity of which he had indicated in the Novum Organum , I, Aphorisms LXXIX–LXXX (Bacon IV [1901], 78–9). In both texts this function is attributed to philosophia naturalis , the basis for his concept of the unity of the sciences and thus of materialism.

Natural science is divided by Bacon into physics and metaphysics. The former investigates variable and particular causes, the latter reflects on general and constant ones, for which the term form is used. Forms are more general than the four Aristotelian causes and that is why Bacon's discussion of the forms of substances as the most general properties of matter is the last step for the human mind when investigating nature. Metaphysics is distinct from philosophia prima . The latter marks the position in the system where general categories of a general theory of science are treated as (1) universal categories of thought, (2) relevant for all disciplines. Final causes are discredited, since they lead to difficulties in science and tempt us to amalgamate theological and teleological points of doctrine. At the summit of Bacon's pyramid of knowledge are the laws of nature (the most general principles). At its base the pyramid starts with observations, moves on to invariant relations and then to more inclusive correlations until it reaches the stage of forms. The process of generalization ascends from natural history via physics towards metaphysics, whereas accidental correlations and relations are eliminated by the method of exclusion. It must be emphasized that metaphysics has a special meaning for Bacon. This concept (1) excludes the infinity of individual experience by generalization with a teleological focus and (2) opens our mind to generate more possibilities for the efficient application of general laws.

According to Bacon, man would be able to explain all the processes in nature if he could acquire full insight into the hidden structure and the secret workings of matter (Pérez-Ramos 1988, 101). Bacon's conception of structures in nature, functioning according to its own working method, concentrates on the question of how natural order is produced, namely by the interplay of matter and motion. In De Principiis atque Originibus , his materialistic stance with regard to his conception of natural law becomes evident. The Summary Law of Nature is a virtus (matter-cum-motion) or power in accordance with matter theory, or

the force implanted by God in these first particles, form the multiplication thereof of all the variety of things proceeds and is made up. (Bacon V [1889], 463)

Similarly, in De Sapientia Veterum he attributes to this force an

appetite or instinct of primal matter; or to speak more plainly, the natural motion of the atom; which is indeed the original and unique force that constitutes and fashions all things out of matter. (Bacon VI [1890], 729)

Suffice it to say here that Bacon, who did not reject mathematics in science, was influenced by the early mathematical version of chemistry developed in the 16 th century, so that the term ‘instinct’ must be seen as a keyword for his theory of nature. The natural philosopher is urged to inquire into the

appetites and inclination of things by which all that variety of effects and changes which we see in the works of nature and art is brought about. (Bacon III [1887], 17–22; V [1889], 422–6 and 510ff.: Descriptio Globi Intellectualis ; cf. IV [1901], 349)

Bacon's theory of active or even vivid force in matter accounts for what he calls Cupid in De Principiis atque Originibus (Bacon V [1889], 463–5). Since his theory of matter aims at an explanation of the reality which is the substratum of appearances, he digs deeper than did the mechanistic physics of the 17 th century (Gaukroger 2001, 132–7). Bacon's ideas concerning the quid facti of reality presuppose the distinction

between understanding how things are made up and of what they consist, … and by what force and in what manner they come together, and how they are transformed. (Gaukroger 2001, 137)

This is the point in his work where it becomes obvious that he tries to develop an explanatory pattern in which his theory of matter, and thus his atomism, are related to his cosmology, magic, and alchemy.

In De Augmentis , Bacon not only refers to Pan and his nymphs in order to illustrate the permanent atomic movement in matter but in addition revives the idea of magic in a ‘honourable meaning’ as

the knowledge of the universal consents of things …. I … understand [magic] as the science which applies the knowledge of hidden forms to the production of wonderful operations; and by uniting (as they say) actives with passives, displays the wonderful works of nature. (Bacon IV [1901], 366–7: De Augmentis III.5)

Bacon's notion of form is made possible by integration into his matter theory, which (ideally) reduces the world of appearances to some minimal parts accessible and open to manipulation by the knower/maker. In contrast to Aristotle, Bacon's knowing-why type of definition points towards the formulation of an efficient knowing-how type (Pérez-Ramos 1988, 119). In this sense a convergence between the scope of definition and that of causation takes place according to a ‘constructivist epistemology’. The fundamental research of Graham Rees has shown that Bacon's special mode of cosmology is deeply influenced by magic and semi-Paracelsian doctrine. For Bacon, matter theory is the basic doctrine, not classical mechanics as it is with Galileo. Consequently, Bacon's purified and modified versions of chemistry, alchemy, and physiology remain primary disciplines for his explanation of the world.

According to Rees, the Instauratio Magna comprises two branches: (1) Bacon's famous scientific method, and (2) his semi-Paracelsian world system as “a vast, comprehensive system of speculative physics” (Rees 1986, 418). For (2) Bacon conjoins his specific version of Paracelsian cosmic chemistry to Islamic celestial kinematics (especially in Alpetragius [al-Bitruji]; see Zinner 1988, 71). The chemical world system is used to support Bacon's explanation of celestial motion in the face of contemporary astronomical problems (Rees 1975b, 161f.). There are thus two sections in Bacon's Instauratio , which imply the modes of their own explanation.

Bacon's speculative cosmology and matter theory had been planned to constitute Part 5 of Instauratio Magna . The theory put forward refers in an eclectic vein to atomism, criticizes Aristotelians and Copernicans, but also touches on Galileo, Paracelsus, William Gilbert, Telesio, and Arabic astronomy.

For Bacon, ‘magic’ is classified as applied science, while he generally subsumes under ‘science’ pure science and technology. It is never identified with black magic, since it represents the “ultimate legitimate power over nature” (Rees 2000, 66). Whereas magia was connected to crafts in the 16 th and 17 th centuries, Bacon's science remains the knowledge of forms in order to transform them into operations. Knowledge in this context, however, is no longer exclusively based on formal proof.

Bacon's cosmological system—a result of thought experiments and speculation, but not proven in accordance with the inductive method—presupposes a finite universe, a geocentric plenum, which means that the earth is passive and consists of tangible matter. The remaining universe is composed of active or pneumatic matter. Whereas the interior and tangible matter of the earth is covered by a crust which separates it from the pneumatic heaven, the zone between earth and the “middle region of the air” allows a mixture of pneumatic and tangible matter, which is the origin of organic and non-organic phenomena. Bacon speaks here of “attached spirit” (Rees 1986, 418–20), while otherwise he assumes four kinds of free spirit: air and terrestrial fire, which refer to the sublunary realm; ether and sidereal fire, which are relevant to the celestial realm. Ether is explained as the medium in which planets move around the central earth. Air and ether, as well as watery non-inflammable bodies, belong to Bacon's first group of substances or to the Mercury Quaternion .

Terrestrial fire is presented as the weak variant of sidereal fire; it joins with oily substances and sulphur, for all of which Bacon introduces the Sulphur Quaternion. These quaternions comprise antithetical qualities: air and ether versus fire and sidereal fire. The struggle between these qualities is determined by the distance from the earth as the absolute center of the world system. Air and ether become progressively weaker as the terrestrial and sidereal fire grow stronger. The quaternion theory functions in Bacon's thought as a constructive element for constituting his own theory of planetary movement and a general theory of physics. This theory differs from all other contemporary approaches, even though Bacon states that “many theories of the heavens may be supposed which agree well enough with the phenomena and yet differ with each other” (Bacon IV [1901], 104). The diurnal motion of the world system (9 th sphere) is driven by sympathy; it carries the heavens westward around the earth. The sidereal fire is powerful and, accordingly, sidereal motion is swift (the stars complete their revolution in 24 hours). Since the sidereal fire becomes weaker if it burns nearer to the earth, the lower planets move more slowly and unevenly than the higher ones (in this way Bacon, like Alpetragius, accounts for irregular planetary movement without reference to Ptolemy's epicycle theory). He applies his theory of consensual motion to physics generally (e.g., wind and tides) and thus comes into conflict with Gilbert's doctrine of the interstellar vacuum and Galileo's theory of the tides (for Bacon, the cycle of tides depends on the diurnal motion of the heavens but, for Galileo, on the earth's motion).

With quaternion theory we see that, in the final analysis, Bacon was not a mechanist philosopher. His theory of matter underwent an important transformation, moving in the direction of ‘forms’, which we would nowadays subsume under biology or the life sciences rather than under physics. Bacon distinguishes between non-spiritual matter and spiritual matter. The latter, also called ‘subtle matter’ or ‘spirit’, is more reminiscent of Leibniz' ‘monads’ than of mechanically defined and materially, as well as spatially, determined atoms. The spirits are seen as active agents of phenomena; they are endowed with ‘appetition’ and ‘perception’ (Bacon I [1889], 320–21: Historia Vitae et Mortis ; see also V, 63: Sylva Sylvarum , Century IX: “It is certain that all bodies whatsoever, though they have no sense, yet they have perception: for when one body is applied to another, there is a kind of election to embrace that which is agreeable, and to exclude or expel that which is ingrate”).

These spirits are never at rest. In the Novum Organum , then, Bacon rejected the “existence of eternal and immutable atoms and the reality of the void” (Kargon 1966, 47). His new conception of matter was therefore “close to that of the chemists” in the sense of Bacon's semi-Paracelsian cosmology (Rees 2000, 65–69). The careful natural philosopher tries to disclose the secrets of nature step by step; and therefore he says of his method: “I propose to establish progressive stages of certainty” (Bacon IV [1901], 40: Novum Organum , Preface). This points towards his inductive procedure and his method of tables, which is a complicated mode of induction by exclusion. It is necessary because nature hides her secrets. In Aphorism XIX of Book I in his Novum Organum Bacon writes:

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, and from these principles, the truth of which it takes for settled and immoveable, proceeds to judgment and to the discovery of middle axioms. And this way is now in fashion. The other derives axioms from the senses and particulars, rising by 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. (Bacon IV [1901], 50)

The laws of nature, which Bacon intended to discover by means of his new method, were expressed in the ‘forms’, in which the ‘unbroken ascent’ culminates. Through these forms the natural philosopher understands the general causes of phenomena (Kargon 1966, 48). In his endeavor to learn more about the secret workings of nature, Bacon came to the conclusion that the atomist theory could not provide sufficient explanations for the “real particles, such as really exist” (Bacon IV [1901], 126: Novum Organum , II.viii), because he thought that the immutability of matter and the void (both necessary assumptions for atomism) were untenable. His language turned from that of Greek physics to the usage of contemporary chemists. This is due to his insight that “subtlety of investigation” is needed, since our senses are too gross for the complexity and fineness of nature, so that method has to compensate for the shortcomings of our direct comprehension. Only method leads to the knowledge of nature: in Sylva Sylvarum , Century I.98 Bacon deals explicitly with the question of the asymmetrical relationship between man's natural instrument (i.e., the senses) and the intricacy of nature's structures and workings.

Bacon distinguishes ‘animate’ or vital spirits, which are continuous and composed of a substance similar to fire, from lifeless or inanimate spirits, which are cut off and resemble air: the spirits interact with gross matter through chemical processes (Bacon IV, 195–6 ( Novum Organum , II.xl)). These spirits have two different desires: self-multiplication and attraction of like spirits. According to Kargon (1966, 51):

Bacon's later theory of matter is one of the interaction of gross, visible parts of matter and invisible material spirits, both of which are physically mixed.

Spirits interact with matter by means of concoction, colliquation and other non-mechanical chemical processes, so that Bacon's scientific paradigm differs from Descartes' mechanist theory of matter in his Principia Philosophiae (1644), which presupposes res extensa moving in space. Bacon's theory of matter is thus closely related to his speculative philosophy:

The distinction between tangible and pneumatic matter is the hinge on which the entire speculative system turns. (Rees 1996, 125; Paracelsus had already stated that knowledge inheres in the object: see Shell 2004, 32)

Bacon's theory of matter in its final version was more corpuscular than atomist (Clericuzio 2000, 78). Bacon's particles are semina rerum : they are endowed with powers, which make a variety of motions possible and allow the production of all possible forms. These spirits are constitutive for Bacon's theory of matter. As material, fine substances, composed of particles, combined from air and fire, they can, as we have seen, be either inanimate or animate. Bacon thus suggests a corpuscular and chemical chain of being:

Small wonder, then, that Bacon's spirits are indispensable for his conception of physiology:

the vital spirits regulate all vegetative functions of plants and animals. Organs responsible for these functions, for digestion, assimilation, etc., seem to act by perception, mere reaction to local stimuli, but these reactions are coordinated by the vital spirit. These functions flow from the spirit's airy-flamy constitution. The spirit has the softness of air to receive impressions and the vigour of fire to propagate its actions. (Rees in OFB VI, 202–3)

This physiological stratum of Bacon's natural philosophy was influenced by his semi-Paracelsian cosmology (on Paracelsus see Müller-Jahncke 1985, 67–88), which Graham Rees (Rees and Upton 1984, 20–1) has reconstructed from the extant parts of the Instauratio Magna . Detailed consideration therefore has to be given to Bacon's theory of the ‘quaternions’.

Bacon's speculative system is a hybrid based on different sources which provided him with seminal ideas: e.g., atomism, Aristotelianism, Arabic astronomy, Copernican theory, Galileo's discoveries, the works of Paracelsus, and Gilbert. In his theory he combines astronomy, referring to Alpetragius (see Dijksterhuis 1956, 237–43; Rees and Upton 1984, 26; Gaukroger, 2001, 172–5; and see Grant 1994, 533–66, for discussion of the cosmology of Alpetragius), and chemistry (Rees 1975a, 84–5):

[i]t was partly designed to fit a kinematic skeleton and explain, in general terms, the irregularities of planetary motion as consequences of the chemical constitution of the universe. (Rees 1975b, 94)

Bacon had no explanation for the planetary retrogressions and saw the universe as a finite and geocentric plenum, in which the earth consists of the two forms of matter (tangible and pneumatic). The earth has a tangible inside and is in touch with the surrounding universe, but through an intermediate zone. This zone exists between the earth's crust and the pure pneumatic heavens; it reaches some miles into the crust and some miles into air. In this zone, pneumatic matter mixes with tangible matter, thus producing ‘attached spirits’, which must be distinguished from ‘free spirits’ outside tangible bodies. Bacon's four kinds of free spirits are relevant for his ‘quaternion theory’:

The planets move around the earth in the ether (a tenuous kind of air), which belongs to the ‘mercury quaternion’: it includes watery bodies and mercury. Terrestrial fire is a weakened form of sidereal fire. It is related to oily substances and sulphur, and constitutes the ‘sulphur quaternion’. The two quaternions oppose each other: air/ether vs. fire/sidereal fire. Air and ether loose power when terrestrial and sidereal fires grow more energetic—Bacon's sulphur and mercury are not principles in the sense of Paracelsus, but simply natural substances. The Paracelsian principle of salt is excluded by Bacon and the substance, which plays a role only in the sublunary realm, is for him a compound of natural sulphur and mercury (Rees and Upton 1984, 25).

Bacon used his quaternion theory for his cosmology, which differs greatly from other contemporary systems (Rees 2000, 68):

• the diurnal motion turns the heavens about the earth towards the west;
• under powerful sidereal fire (i.e., principle of celestial motion) the motion is swift: the revolution of the stars takes place in twenty-four hours;
• under weaker sidereal fire—nearer to the earth—planets move more slowly and more erratic.

Bacon, who tried to conceive of a unified physics, rejected different modes of motion in the superlunary and in the sublunary world (Bacon I [1889], 329). He did not believe in the existence of the (crystalline) spheres nor in the macrocosm-microcosm analogy. He revised Paracelsian ideas thoroughly. He rejected the grounding of his theories in Scripture and paid no attention at all to Cabbalistic and Hermetic tendencies (Rees 1975b, 90–1). But he extended the explanatory powers of the quaternions to earthly phenomena such as wind and tides.

Bacon's two systems were closely connected:

System 2 depends on System 1, since explanations for terrestrial things were subordinated to explanations of the cosmological level. The table of System 2 shows Bacon's matter theory. His quaternion theory is relevant for System 1. System 2 is explained in terms of ‘intermediates’, which combine the qualities of the items in one quaternion with their opposites in the other.

Bacon's system is built in a clear symmetrical way: each quaternion has four segments, together eight and there are four types of intermediates. Thus, the system distinguishes twelve segments in all. He wanted to explain all natural phenomena by means of this apparatus:

There are two principal intermediates:

Bacon's bi-quaternion theory necessarily refers to the sublunary as well as to the superlunary world. Although the quaternion theory is first mentioned in Thema Coeli (1612; see Bacon V [1889], 547–59), he provides a summary in his Novum Organum (Bacon II [1887], 50):

it has not been ill observed by the chemists in their triad of first principles, that sulphur and mercury run through the whole universe … in these two one of the most general consents in nature does seem to be observable. For there is consent between sulphur, oil and greasy exhalation, flame, and perhaps the body of a star. So is there between mercury, water and watery vapors, air, and perhaps the pure and intersiderial ether. Yet these two quaternions or great tribes of things (each within its own limits) differ immensely in quantity of matter and density, but agree very well in configuration. (Bacon IV [1901], 242–3; see also V [1889], 205–6; for tables of the two quaternions and Bacon's theory of matter see Rees 1996, 126, 137; Rees 2000, 68–9)

Bacon regarded his cosmological worldview as a system of anticipations, which was open to revision in light of further scientific results based on the inductive method (Rees 1975b, 171). It was primarily a qualitative system, standing aside from both mathematical astronomers and Paracelsian chemists. It thus emphasized the priority which he gave to physics over mathematics in his general system of the sciences.

Bacon's two quaternions and his matter theory provide a speculative framework for his thought, which was open to the future acquisition of knowledge and its technical application. His Nova Atlantis can be understood as a text which occupies an intermediate position between his theory of induction and his speculative philosophy (Klein 2003c; Price 2002).

It is important to bear in mind that Bacon's speculative system was his way out of a dilemma which had made it impossible for him to finish his Instauratio Magna . His turn towards speculation can only be interpreted as an intellectual anticipation during an intermediate phase of the history of science, when a gigantic amount of research work was still to be accomplished, so that empirical theories could neither be established nor sufficiently guaranteed. Speculation in Bacon's sense can therefore be seen as a preliminary means of explaining the secrets of nature until methodical research has caught up with our speculations. The speculative stance remains a relative and intermediate procedure for the ‘man of science’.

The Great Instauration , Bacon's main work, was published in 1620 under the title: Franciscus de Verulamio Summi Angliae Cancellaris Instauratio magna . This great work remained a fragment, since Bacon was only able to finish parts of the planned outline. The volume was introduced by a Prooemium , which gives a general statement of the purpose, followed by a Dedication to the King (James I) and a Preface , which is a summary of all “directions, motifs, and significance of his life-work” (Sessions 1996, 71). After that, Bacon printed the plan of the Instauratio , before he turned to the strategy of his research program, which is known as Novum Organum Scientiarum . Altogether the 1620 book constitutes the second part of Part II of the Instauratio , the first part of which is represented by De Augmentis and Book I of The Advancement of Learning . When Bacon organized his Instauratio , he divided it into six parts, which reminded contemporary readers of God's work of the six days (the creation), already used by writers like Guillaume Du Bartas ( La Sepmaine, ou Création du Monde , 1579, transl. by Joshua Sylvester, Bartas His Devine Weekes & Workes , 1605) and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola ( Heptaplus , 1489).

Bacon sees nature as a labyrinth, whose workings cannot be exclusively explained by reference to “excellence of wit” and “repetition of chance experiments”:

Our steps must be guided by a clue, and see what way from the first perception of the sense must be laid out upon a sure plan. (Bacon IV [1901], 18)

Bacon's Plan of the Work runs as follows (Bacon IV [1901], 22):

• The Divisions of the Sciences.
• The New Organon; or Directions concerning the Interpretation of Nature.
• The Phenomena of the Universe; or a Natural and Experimental History for the foundation of Philosophy.
• The Ladder of Intellect.
• The Forerunners; or Anticipations of the New Philosophy.
• The New Philosophy; or Active Science .

Part 1 contains the general description of the sciences including their divisions as they presented themselves in Bacon's time. Here he aimed at a distinction between what was already invented and known in contrast to “things omitted which ought be there” (Bacon IV [1901], 23). This part could be taken from The Advancement of Learning (1605) and from the revised and enlarged version De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum (1623).

Part 2 develops Bacon's new method for scientific investigation, the Novum Organum , equipping the intellect to pass beyond ancient arts and thus producing a radical revision of the methods of knowledge; but it also introduces a new epistemology and a new ontology. Bacon calls his new art Interpretatio Naturae , which is a logic of research going beyond ordinary logic, since his science aims at three inventions: of arts (not arguments), of principles (not of things in accordance to principles), and of designations and directions for works (not of probable reasons). The effect Bacon looks for is to command nature in action, not to overcome an opponent in argument. The Novum Organum is the only part of the Instauratio Magna which was brought near to completion.

Part 3 was going to contain natural and experimental history or the record of the phenomena of the universe. According to De Augmentis Scientarum (Bacon IV [1901], 275), natural history is split up into narrative and inductive, the latter of which is supposed “to minister and be in order to the building up of Philosophy ”. These functional histories support human memory and provide the material for research , or the factual knowledge of nature, which must be certain and reliable. Natural history starts from and emphasizes the subtlety of nature or her structural intricacy, but not the complexity of philosophical systems, since they have been produced by the human mind. Bacon sees this part of Instauratio Magna as a foundation for the reconstruction of the sciences in order to produce physical and metaphysical knowledge. Nature in this context is studied under experimental conditions, not only in the sense of the history of bodies, but also as a history of virtues or original passions, which refer to the desires of matter (Rees 1975a). This knowledge was regarded by Bacon as a preparation for Part 6, the Second Philosophy or Active Science , for which he gave only the one example of Historia Ventorum (1622); but—following his plan to compose six prototypical natural histories—he also wrote Historia vitae et mortis (1623) and the Historia densi , which was left in manuscript. The text, which develops the idea of Part 3, is called Parasceve ad Historiam Naturalem et Experimentalem.

Part 4, which Bacon called The Ladder of Intellect or Scala Intellectus , was intended to function as a link between the method of natural history and that of Second Philosophy/Active Science. It consists not only of the fragment Filum labyrinthi (Bacon III [1887], 493–504), but also includes the Abecedarium nouum naturae (OFB XIII, xxi), which was planned as a preface to all of section 4 “[to] demonstrate the whole process of the mind” (OFB XIII, xxii). Filum labyrinthi is similar to, but not identical with, Cogitata et Visa . Speaking of himself in an authorial voice, Bacon reflects on the state of science and derives his construction of a research program from the gaps and deficiencies within the system of disciplines: sciences of the future should be examined and further ones should be discovered. Emphasis must be laid on new matter (not on controversies). It is necessary to repudiate superstition, zealous religion, and false authorities. Just as the Fall was not caused by knowledge of nature, but rather by moral knowledge of good and evil, so knowledge of natural philosophy is for Bacon a contribution to the magnifying of God's glory, and, in this way, his plea for the growth of scientific knowledge becomes evident.

Part 5 deals with the forerunners or anticipations of the new philosophy, and Bacon emphasizes that the ‘big machinery’ of the Instauratio Magna needs a good deal of time to be completed. Anticipations are ways to come to scientific inferences without recourse to the method presented in the Novum Organum . Meanwhile, he has worked on his speculative system, so that portions of his Second Philosophy are treated and finished: De Fluxu et Refluxu Maris and Thema Coeli . For this part of the Great Instauration , texts are planned that draw philosophical conclusions from collections of facts which are not yet sufficient for the use or application of Bacon's inductive method.

Part 6 was scheduled to contain Bacon's description of the new philosophy, as the last part of his Great Instauration ; but nothing came of this plan, so that there is no extant text at all from this part of the project.

Already in his early text Cogitata et Visa (1607) Bacon dealt with his scientific method, which became famous under the name of induction . He repudiates the syllogistic method and defines his alternative procedure as one “which by slow and faithful toil gathers information from things and brings it into understanding” (Farrington 1964, 89). When later on he developed his method in detail, namely in his Novum Organum (1620), he still noted that

[of] induction the logicians seem hardly to have taken any serious thought, but they pass it by with a slight notice, and hasten to the formulae of disputation. I on the contrary reject demonstration by syllogism …. (Bacon IV [1901], 24)

Bacon's method appears as his conceptual plot,

applied to all stages of knowledge, and at every phase the whole process has to be kept in mind. (Malherbe 1996, 76)

Induction implies ascending to axioms, as well as a descending to works, so that from axioms new particulars are gained and from these new axioms. The inductive method starts from sensible experience and moves via natural history (providing sense-data as guarantees) to lower axioms or propositions, which are derived from the tables of presentation or from the abstraction of notions. Bacon does not identify experience with everyday experience, but presupposes that method corrects and extends sense-data into facts, which go together with his setting up of tables (tables of presence and of absence and tables of comparison or of degrees, i.e., degrees of absence or presence). “Bacon's antipathy to simple enumeration as the universal method of science derived, first of all, from his preference for theories that deal with interior physical causes, which are not immediately observable” (Urbach 1987, 30; see: sect. 2). The last type can be supplemented by tables of counter-instances, which may suggest experiments:

To move from the sensible to the real requires the correction of the senses, the tables of natural history, the abstraction of propositions and the induction of notions. In other words, the full carrying out of the inductive method is needed. (Malherbe 1996, 85)

The sequence of methodical steps does not, however, end here, because Bacon assumes that from lower axioms more general ones can be derived (by induction). The complete process must be understood as the joining of the parts into a systematic chain. From the more general axioms Bacon strives to reach more fundamental laws of nature (knowledge of forms), which lead to practical deductions as new experiments or works (IV, 24–5). The decisive instruments in this process are the middle or ‘living axioms,’ which mediate between particulars and general axioms. For Bacon, induction can only be efficient if it is eliminative by exclusion, which goes beyond the remit of induction by simple enumeration. The inductive method helps the human mind to find a way to ascertain truthful knowledge.

Novum Organum , I, Aphorism CXV (Bacon IV [1901], 103) ends the “pulling down” of “the signs and causes of the errors” within the sciences, achieved by means of three refutations, which constituted the condition for a rational introduction of method: refutation of ‘natural human reason’ (idols); refutation of ‘demonstrations’ (syllogisms) and refutation of ‘theories’ (traditional philosophical systems).

The Second Part of the Novum Organum deals with Bacon's rule for interpreting nature, even if he provides no complete or universal theory. He contributes to the new philosophy by introducing his tables of discovery ( Inst. Magna , IV), by presenting an example of particulars ( Inst. Magna , II), and by observations on history ( Inst. Magna , III). It is well known that he worked hard in the last five years of his life to make progress on his natural history, knowing that he could not always come up to the standards of legitimate interpretation.

Bacon's method presupposes a double starting-point: empirical and rational. True knowledge is acquired if we want to proceed from a lower certainty to a higher liberty and from a lower liberty to a higher certainty. The rule of certainty and liberty in Bacon converges with his repudiation of the old logic of Aristotle, which determined true propositions by the criteria of generality, essentiality, and universality. Bacon rejects anticipatio naturae (“anticipation of nature”) in favor of interpretatio naturae (“interpretation of nature”), which starts with the collecting of facts and their methodical (inductive) investigation, shunning entanglement in pure taxonomy (as in Ramism), which establishes the order of things (Urbach 1987, 26; see also Foucault 1966 [1970]), but does not produce knowledge. For Bacon, making is knowing and knowing is making (Bacon IV [1901], 109–10). In accordance with the maxim “command nature … by obeying her” (Sessions 1996, 136; Gaukroger 2001, 139ff.), the exclusion of superstition, imposture, error, and confusion are obligatory. Bacon introduces variations into “the maker's knowledge tradition” as the discovery of the forms of a given nature lead him to develop his method for acquiring factual and proven knowledge.

Bacon argues against “anticipation of nature”, which he regards as a conservative method, leading to theories that recapitulate the data without producing new ones conducive to the growth of knowledge. Moreover, such theories are considered to be final, so that they are never replaced.

“Anticipation of nature” resembles “conventionalism” (Urbach 1987, 30–41), according to which theories refer to unobservable entities (e.g., atoms, epicycles). The theories are “computation rules” or “inference licences” within this given framework, which give explanations and predictions of particular kinds of observable events. The conventionalist acceptance of making predictions concerning future events cannot be separated from the question of probability. Bacon's procedure of knowledge acquisition goes against “conventionalism”, because “anticipation of nature” does not reject authoritative and final speculations concerning “unobservables” and because it permits “ad hoc adjustments”. Nowadays, however,

philosophers would not accept the idea that just because we can't observe something directly … it follows that there is no such thing. (Huggett 2010, 82. See also Von Weizsäcker and Juilfs 1958, pp.67–70; Rae 1986 [2000], 1–27 and passim)

Conventionalist deep-level theories of the world are chosen from among alternative ways of observing phenomena. Although theories revealing the world structure are not directly provable or disprovable by means of observation or experiment, conventionalists might maintain their chosen theory even in the face of counter-evidence. They therefore avoid changes of theory. Any move to a new theory is not taken on the basis of new evidence, but because a new theory seems to be simpler, more applicable or more beautiful. Laws of nature are generally understood as being unrevisable (O'Hear 1995, 165). The famous debate, sparked by Thomas Kuhn, on paradigmatic and non-paradigmatic science and theory is relevant here. Bacon's position—open to scientific progress—is nearer to Kuhn than to Duhem or Poincaré. For Bacon, “anticipation of nature” (as a mode of “conventionalism”) produces obstacles to the progress of knowledge. Traditional methods shun speculation concerning things which are not immediately visible; Bacon's speculation, however, is an element of “interpretation of nature”. He presupposes hypothetical theories, but these do not go beyond the collected data. His acceptance of hypotheses is connected with his rejection of “ anticipation of nature”. Thus, hypotheses are related to the axioms of “interpretation of nature”, which go beyond the original data. The amount of established facts is not identical with that of possible data (Gillies 1998, 307). Anticipation is rejected, only if it “flies from the senses and particulars to the most general axioms” (OFB XI, xxv). Because of the dangers of premature generalization, Bacon is careful about speculations and rigorously rejects any dogmatic defense of them and the tendency to declare them infallible.

…the philosophy that we now possess clutches to its breast certain tenets with which (if we look into it carefully) they want wholly to conceive men that nothing difficult, nothing with real power and influence over nature, should be expected from art or human effort; […] These things, if we examine them minutely, tend wholly towards a wicked circumscription of human power and an intentional and unnatural despair which not only confounds the presages of hope but breaks every nerve and spur of industry, and throws away the chances afforded by experience itself—while all they care about is that their art be considered perfect, expending their effort to achieve the most foolish and bankrupt glory of having it believed that whatever has not been found out or understood so far cannot be found out or understood in the future. (OFB XI, 141)

Bacon sees nature as an extremely subtle complexity, which affords all the energy of the natural philosopher to disclose her secrets.

For him, new axioms must be larger and wider than the material from which they are taken. At the same time, “interpretation of nature” must not leap to remote axioms. In terms of his method, he rejects general ideas as simple abstractions from very few sense perceptions. Such abstract words may function as conventions for organizing “new observations”, but only in the sense of means for taxonomical order. Such a sterile procedure is irrelevant for “interpretation of nature”, which is not final or infallible and is based on the insight that confirming hypotheses do not provide strict proofs. Bacon's method is therefore characterized by openness:

Nevertheless, I do not affirm that nothing can be added to what I prescribe; on the contrary, as one who observes the mind not only in its innate capacity but also insofar as it gets to grips with things, it is my conviction that the art of discovering will grow as the number of things discovered will grow. (OFB, XI, 197)

Peter Urbach's commentary exactly underlines Bacon's openness:

He believed that theories should be advanced to explain whatever data were available in a particular domain. These theories should preferably concern the underlying physical, causal mechanisms and ought, in any case, to go beyond the data which generated them. They are then tested by drawing out new predictions, which, if verified in experience, may confirm the theory and may eventually render it certain, at least in the sense that it becomes very difficult to deny. (Urbach 1987, 49)

Bacon was no seventeenth-century Popperian. Rather, on account of his theory of induction, he was:

the first great theorist of experimentalism”: “the function of experiment was both to test theories and to establish facts” (Rees, in OFB XI, xli). Encyclopaedic repetition with an Aristotelian slant is being displaced by original compilation in which deference to authority plays no part whatever. Individual erudition is being dumped in favour of collective research. Conservation of traditional knowledge is being discarded in the interest of a new, functional realization of natural history, which demands that legenda —things worth reading—be supplanted by materials which will form the basis of a thoroughgoing attempt to improve the material conditions of the human race. (Rees, in OFB XI, xlii)

Form is for Bacon a structural constituent of a natural entity or a key to its truth and operation, so that it comes near to natural law, without being reducible to causality. This appears all the more important, since Bacon—who seeks out exclusively causes which are necessary and sufficient for their effects—rejects Aristotle's four causes (his four types of explanation for a complete understanding of a phenomenon) on the grounds that the distribution into material, formal, efficient, and final causes does not work well and that they fail to advance the sciences (especially the final, efficient, and material causes). Consider again the passage quoted in Section 3.3:

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, and from these principles, the truth of which it takes for settled and immovable, proceeds to judgment and to the discovery of middle axioms. And 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 at last. This is the true way, but as yet untried. (Bacon IV [1901], 50: Novum Organum , I, Aphorism XIX).

Since for Bacon the formal necessity of the syllogism does not suffice to set up first principles, his method comprises two basic tasks: (1) the discovery of forms, and (2) the transformation of concrete bodies. The discovery from every case of generation and motion refers to a latent process according to which efficient and material causes lead to forms; but there is also the discovery of latent configurations of bodies at rest and not in motion (Bacon IV [1901], 119–20).

Bacon's new mode of using human understanding implies a parallelism between striving towards human power and constituting human knowledge. Technical know-how leads to successful operations, which converge with the discovery of forms (Pérez-Ramos 1988, 108; Bacon IV [1901], 121). To understand the workings of nature presupposes an arrangement of facts which makes the investigative analysis of cause and effect possible, especially by means of new experiments. At this point the idea of scientia operativa comes in again, since the direction for a true and perfect rule of operation is parallel to the discovery of a true form. Bacon's specific non-Aristotelian Aristotelianism (Pérez-Ramos 1988, 113, 115) is one of the main features of his theory. Other indispensable influences on Bacon, apart from a modified version of Aristotle, are critically assessed Hermeticism, rhetoric (Vickers) and alchemy (Rees).

Two kinds of axioms correspond to the following division of philosophy and the sciences: the investigation of forms or metaphysics ; and the investigation of efficient cause and matter, which leads to the latent process and configuration in physics . Physics itself is split up by Bacon into Mechanics , i.e., the practical, and Magic , i.e., the metaphysical.

Nowadays the view that Bacon “made little first-hand contribution to science” (Hesse 1964, 152) no longer coincides with the opinion that we have to assume an underestimation of the “place of hypothesis and mathematics” in his work (Urban 1987; Sessions 1999, 139; Rees 1986). But there were few doubts in the past that Bacon “encouraged detailed and methodical experimentation” (Hesse 1964, 152); and he did this on account of his new inductive method, which implied the need for negative instances and refuting experiments. Bacon saw that confirming instances could not suffice to analyze the structure of scientific laws, since this task presupposed a hypothetical-deductive system, which, according to Lisa Jardine, is closely connected to “the logical and linguistic backgrounds from which Bacon's New Logic proceeds …” (Sessions 1999, 140; Jardine 1974, 69ff.).

Bacon's interpretation of nature uses “Tables and Arrangements of Instances” concerning the natural phenomena under investigation, which function as a necessary condition for cracking the code of efficient causation. His prerogative instances are not examples or phenomena simply taken from nature but rather imply information with inductive potential which show priority conducive to knowledge or to methodological relevance when inserted into tables. The instances do not represent the order of sensible things, but instead express the order of qualities (natures). These qualities provide the working basis for the order of abstract natures. Bacon's tables have a double function: they are important for natural history , collecting the data on bodies and virtues in nature; and they are also indispensable for induction , which makes use of these data.

Already in Temporis Partus Masculus (1603) Bacon had displayed a “facility of shrewd observation” (Sessions 1999, 60) concerning his ideas on induction. In his Novum Organum the nature of all human science and knowledge was seen by him as proceeding most safely by negation and exclusion, as opposed to affirmation and inclusion. Even in his early tracts it was clear to Bacon that he had to seek a method of discovering the right forms, the most well known of which was heat ( Novum Organum II, Aph. XI–XII) or “the famous trial investigation of the form of heat” (Rees 2000, 66; see Bacon IV [1901], 154–5).

In his “[m]ethod of analysis by exclusion” (Sessions 1999, 141), negation proved to be “one of Bacon's strongest contributions to modern scientific method” (Wright 1951, 152). Most important were his tables of degrees and of exclusion. They were needed for the discovery of causes, especially for supreme causes, which were called forms. The method of induction works in two stages:

• Learned experience from the known to the unknown has to be acquired, and the tables (of presence, absence, degrees) have to be set up before their interpretation can take place according to the principle of exclusion. After the three tables of the first presentation have been judged and analyzed, Bacon declares the First Vintage or the first version of the interpretation of nature to be concluded.
• The second phase of the method concentrates on the process of exclusion. The aim of this procedure is the reduction of the empirical character of experience, so that the analysis converges with an anatomy of things. Here, too, tables of presence and of absence are set up. The research work proper consists of finding the relationship of the two natures of qualities. Here exclusion functions as the process of determination. Bacon's method starts from material determination in order to establish the formal determination of real causes, but does not stop there, because it aims at the progressive generalization of causes. Here, again, the central element of the inductive method is the procedure of exclusion.

Forms, as the final result of the methodical procedure, are:

nothing more than those laws and determinations of absolute actuality which govern and constitute any simple nature, as heat, light, weight, in every kind of matter and subject that is susceptible of them (Bacon IV [1901], 145–6);

They are not identical with natural law, but with definitions of simple natures (elements) or ultimate ingredients of things from which the basic material structure has been built (Gaukroger 2001, 140). Forms are the structures constituted by the elements in nature (microphysics). This evokes a cross-reference to Bacon's atomism, which has been called the “constructivist component” (Pérez-Ramos 1988, 116) of his system, including an alchemical theory about basic kinds of matter. He aims at “understanding the basic structures of things … as a means to transforming nature for human purposes” (Gaukroger 2001, 140; Clericuzio 2000, 78ff.); and thus he “ends” the unfinished Novum Organum with a list of things which still have to be achieved or with a catalogue of phenomena which are important and indispensable for a future natural history.

Historians of science, with their predilection for mathematical physics, used to criticize Bacon's approach, stating that “the Baconian concept of science, as an inductive science, has nothing to do with and even contradicts today's form of science” (Malherbe 1996, 75). In reaching this verdict, however, they overlooked the fact that a natural philosophy based on a theory of matter cannot be assessed on the grounds of a natural philosophy or science based on mechanics as the fundamental discipline. One can account for this chronic mode of misunderstanding as a specimen of the paradigmatic fallacy (Gaukroger 2001, 134ff.; see Rees 1986).

Bacon came to the fundamental insight that facts cannot be collected from nature, but must be constituted by methodical procedures, which have to be put into practice by scientists in order to ascertain the empirical basis for inductive generalizations. His induction, founded on collection, comparison, and exclusion of factual qualities in things and their interior structure, proved to be a revolutionary achievement within natural philosophy, for which no example in classical antiquity existed. His scala intellectus has two contrary movements “upwards and downwards: from axiomata to experimenta and opera and back again” (Pérez-Ramos 1988, 236). Bacon's induction was construed and conceived as an instrument or method of discovery. Above all, his emphasis on negative instances for the procedure of induction itself can claim a high importance with regard to knowledge acquisition and has been acclaimed as an innovation by scholars of our time. Some have detected in Bacon a forerunner of Karl Popper in respect of the method of falsification. Finally, it cannot be denied that Bacon's methodological program of induction includes aspects of deduction and abstraction on the basis of negation and exclusion. Contemporary scholars have praised his inauguration of the theory of induction. This theory has been held in higher esteem since the 1970s than it was for a long period before (see the work of Rees, Gaukroger and Pérez-Ramos 1988, 201–85). Nevertheless, it is doubtful that Bacon's critics, who were associated with the traditions of positivism and analytical philosophy, acquired sufficient knowledge of his writings to produce solid warrants for their criticisms (Cohen 1970, 124–34; Cohen 1985, 58ff.; on the general problem of induction see, e.g., Hempel 1966; Swinburne (ed.) 1974; Lambert and Brittan 1979 [1987]). In comparison to the neglect of Bacon in the twentieth century, a more recent and deeper assessment of his work has arisen in connection with the “Oxford Francis Bacon” project, which was launched in the late 1990s by Graham Rees, who directed it until his death in 2009; it is now under the general editorship of Brian Vickers.

In Bacon's thought we encounter a relation between science and social philosophy, since his ideas concerning a utopian transformation of society presuppose an integration into the social framework of his program concerning natural philosophy and technology as the two forms of the maker's knowledge. From his point of view, which was influenced by Puritan conceptions, early modern society has to make sure that losses caused by the Fall are compensated for, primarily by man's enlargement of knowledge, providing the preconditions for a new form of society which combines scientia nova and the millennium, according to the prophecy of Daniel 12:4 (Hill 1971, 85–130). Science as a social endeavor is seen as a collective project for the improvement of social structures. On the other hand, a strong collective spirit in society may function as a conditio sine qua non for reforming natural philosophy. Bacon's famous argument that it is wise not to confound the Book of Nature with the Book of God comes into focus, since the latter deals with God's will (inscrutable for man) and the former with God's work, the scientific explanation or appreciation of which is a form of Christian divine service. Successful operations in natural philosophy and technology help to improve the human lot in a way which makes the hardships of life after the Fall obsolete. It is important to note that Bacon's idea of a—to a certain extent—Christian society by no means conveys Christian pessimism in the vein of patristic thinkers but rather displays a clear optimism as the result of compounding the problem of truth with the scope of human freedom and sovereignty (Brandt 1979, 21).

With regard to Bacon's Two Books—the Book of God and the Book of Nature—one has to keep in mind that man, when given free access to the Book of Nature, should not content himself with merely reading it. He also has to find out the names by which things are called. If man does so, not only will he be restored to his status a noble and powerful being, but the Book of God will also lose importance, from a traditional point of view, in comparison to the Book of Nature. This is what Blumenberg referred to as the “asymmetry of readability” (Blumenberg 1981, 86–107). But the process of reading is an open-ended activity, so that new knowledge and the expansion of the system of disciplines can no longer be restricted by concepts such as the completeness and eternity of knowledge (Klein 2004a, 73).

According to Bacon, the Book of God refers to his will, the Book of Nature to his works. He never gives a hint in his works that he has concealed any message of unbelief for the sophisticated reader; but he emphasized: (1) that religion and science should be kept separate and, (2) that they were nevertheless complementary to each other. For Bacon, the attack of theologians on human curiosity cannot be founded on a rational basis. His statement that “all knowledge is to be limited by religion, and to be referred to use and action” (Bacon III [1887], 218) does not express a general verdict on theoretical curiosity, but instead provides a normative framework for the tasks of science in a universal sense. Already in the dedicatory letter to James I in his Advancement of Learning , Bacon attacks “the zeal and jealousy of divines” (Bacon III, 264) and in his manuscript Filum Labyrinthi of 1607, he “thought … how great opposition and prejudice natural philosophy had received by superstition, and the immoderate and blind zeal of religion” (Bacon VI [1863], 421). As Calvin had done long before him in the Institutes , Bacon stated that since God created the physical world, it was a legitimate object of man's knowledge, a conviction which he illustrated with the famous example of King Solomon in The Advancement of Learning (Zagorin 1999, 49–50; see also Kocher 1953, 27–8). Bacon praises Solomon's wisdom, which seems to be more like a game than an example of man's God-given thirst for knowledge:

The glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of the king is to find it out; as if, according to the innocent play of children, the Divine Majesty took delight to hide his works, to the end to have them found out; and as if kings could not obtain a greater honour than to be God's playfellows in that game, considering the great commandment of wits and means, whereby nothing needeth to be hidden from them. (Bacon III [1887], 299; Blumenberg, 1973, 196–200)

From this perspective, the punishment of mankind on account of the very first disobedience by Adam and Eve can be seen in a different light from that of theological interpretations. In Bacon's view, this disobedience and its consequences can be remedied in two ways: (1) by religion and moral imperatives, and (2) by advancement in the arts and sciences: “the purpose in advancing arts and sciences is the glory of God and the relief of man's estate” (Wormald 1993, 82).

The two remedies, which are interconnected with the moral dimension, refer to the advancement of learning and religion. All three together (the advancement of learning, religion, and morality) are combined in such a way that they promote each other mutually; consequently, limited outlooks on coping with life and knowledge are ruled out completely in these three fields.

The ethical dimension of Bacon's thought has been underrated by generations of scholars. Time and again a crude utilitarianism has been derived from Book I, Aphorism 1 of the Novum Organum ; this cannot, however, withstand a closer analysis of his thought. Since Bacon's philosophy of science tries to answer the question of how man can overcome the deficiencies of earthly life resulting from the Fall, he enters the realm of ethical reflection. The improvement of mankind's lot by means of philosophy and science does not start from a narrow utilitarian point of view, involving sheer striving for profit and supporting the power or influence of select groups of men, but instead emphasizes the construction of a better world for mankind, which might come into existence through the ascertaining of truths about nature's workings (Bacon III [1887], 242). Thus, the perspective of the universal in Bacon's ethical thought is given predominance. The range of science and technology in their ethical meaning transcends the realm of the application of tools and/or instruments, in so far as the aim is the transformation of whole systems. Since causality and finality can interact on the basis of human will and knowledge, a plurality of worlds becomes feasible (Bacon V [1889], 506–7). Moral philosophy is closely connected to ethical reflections on the relationship between the nature of virtues—habitual or innate?—and their use in life, privately and collectively. Any application of the principles of virtue presupposes for Bacon the education of the mind, so that we learn what is good and what should be attained (Gaukroger 2006, 204–5 and passim):

The main and primitive division of moral knowledge seemeth to be into the Exemplar or Platform of Good, and the Regimen of Culture of the Mind; the one describing the nature of good, the other prescribing rules how to subdue, apply, and accommodate the will of man thereunto (Bacon III [1887], 419).

So, already in his Advancement of Learning Bacon studied the nature of good and distinguished various kinds of good. He insisted on the individual's duty to the public. Private moral self-control and the concomitant obligations are relevant for behavior and action in society. One's ethical persona is connected to morality by reference to acceptable behaviour. Though what we can do may be limited, we have to muster our psychological powers and control our passions when dealing with ourselves and with others. We need to apply self-discipline and rational assessment, as well as restraining our passions, in order to lead an active moral life in society.

Thus, for Bacon, the acquisition of knowledge does not simply coincide with the possibility of exerting power. Scientific knowledge is a condition for the expansion and development of civilization. Therefore, knowledge and charity cannot be kept separate:

I humbly pray … that knowledge being now discharged of that venom which the serpent infused into it, and which makes the mind of man to swell, we may not be wise above measure and sobriety, but cultivate truth in charity…. Lastly, I would address one general admonition to all; that they consider what are the true ends of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure of the mind, or for contention, or for superiority to others, or for profit, or fame, or power, or any of these inferior things; but for the benefit and use of life; and that they perfect and govern it in charity. For it was from the lust of power that the angels fell, from lust of knowledge that man fell; but of charity there can be no excess, neither did angel or man ever come in danger by it (Bacon IV [1901], 20f.: Instauratio Magna , Preface).

Finally, the view that Bacon's Nova Atlantis “concerns a utopian society that is carefully organized for the purposes of scientific research and virtuous living” (Urbach 1988, 10) holds true for his entire life's work. In Nova Atlantis, social, political, and scholarly life are all organized according to the maxim of efficiency; but the House of Solomon is a separate and highly esteemed institution for research, which nevertheless is closely connected to the overall system of Bensalem. In his utopian state, Bacon presents a thoroughgoing collective life in society and science, both of which are based on revealed religion. Religion—Christian in essence—is not dogmatic, but it instills into the people of Bensalem veneration for the wise and morally exemplary members of society, and—which is of the utmost importance—the strictest sense of discipline (Gaukroger 2001, 128–30). Discipline is indispensable for those involved in the religious life as well as for the researchers, since both must proceed methodically. The isomorphic structures of nature and science, on the one hand, society and religion, on the other, prescribe patterns of political procedure, social processes, and religious attitudes, which overcome any craving for individuality. If religion and scientific research are both shown as truthful in Bensalem, then, according to Bacon, the imagination functions as a means of illustrating scientific revelation: “Bacon's purpose is … to show that scientific research properly pursued is not inconsonant with religious propriety and social stability…” (Bierman 1963, 497). The scientists in Bensalem are sacred searchers for truth: ethics, religion, and science merge. Bacon's parabolic strategy, which we should not separate from the power of the idols, enables him to make much of his trick of introducing new ideas like a smuggler: his colored wares are smuggled into the minds of his readers by being visualized in terms of sacred and highly symbolic rituals (Peltonen 1996, 175). Science and religion are separated in Nova Atlantis, but they are also interrelated through the offices of the society of Bensalem. What Bacon obviously wants to make clear to his readers is that the example of Bensalem should free them from any fear that scientific progress will lead to chaos and upheaval. This crucial point has made by Jürgen Mittelstrass, who understands Bacon's Nova Atlantis as a utopia and regards utopias as

blueprints of practical reason, not of theoretical, that is: they set in exactly there, where the early modern idea of progress appears meagre with regards to the contents: within ethics and political theory. (Mittelstrass 1960, 369)

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Acknowledgments

Some of the passages in this entry are borrowed from Klein 2008.

Copyright © 2012 by Jürgen Klein

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Biography Online

Francis Bacon biography

Bacon was born 22 January 1561 near the Strand, London, England. Aged 12, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge where he followed a traditional medieval curriculum with most lessons conducted in Latin. Although he admired Aristotle , he was critical of Aristotle’s approach to philosophy (he called it ‘unhelpful’) and the scholastic tradition which was unquestioning in accepting past assumptions of the classic teachers, such as Aristotle and Plato .

Aged 15, Bacon travelled to the continent, spending time in France but also visiting Italy and Spain. He studied civil law and became acquainted with political realities, serving as part of England’s foreign ambassadors. On his travels, he delivered letters for high ranking English officials, including Queen Elizabeth I.

In 1579, the sudden death of his father meant Bacon returned home to London, where he began his practice of law at Gray’s Inn. With little or no inheritance, he was forced to borrow from family members to tide him over. Despite ill health, which dogged him throughout his life, Bacon was ambitious to serve his country, church and thirdly to pursue the truth – in philosophy and science.

In 1581, he was elected to Parliament as a member of Bossiney, Cornwall. He would remain a member of parliament (for different constituencies) for the next four decades. This provided a platform to help Bacon become a noted public figure and leading member of the government.

Bacon’s political views

Bacon was a liberal reformer. He supported the monarch within a parliamentary democracy. He supported reform of feudal laws and spoke in favour of religious tolerance. He was also an influential supporter of union between England and Scotland (which occurred 1707). He advocated the union on the grounds that a constitutional union would bring the nations closer together, promoting peace and economic strength.

His sharp intellect and grasp of issues saw him promoted to different posts, including Attorney General in 1594. He was also a skilful political operator, willing to flatter and beseech people of influence and power to help him gain favour.

However, after opposing Queen Elizabeth’s plan to raise subsidies for the war against Spain, he temporarily fell from favour and he struggled to find a position. His limited financial reserves came back to haunt him and, for a time, he was arrested for debt. However, he later regained the Queens trust and was part of the legal team which investigated charges against the Earl of Essex for a plot of treason against the Queen.

Bacon as Lord Chancellor

The ascension of James I, saw Bacon become one of the kings most trusted civil servants. He managed to mostly stay in favour with both the King and parliament – despite their estrangement over the Kings extravagance. Bacon was appointed Baron Verulam in 1618 and Lord Chancellor (the highest position in the land) in the same year. Bacon was the main mediator between the king and parliament during the tense years. By 1621, he was appointed to the peerage as Viscount St Alban. However, by the end of the year, his meteoric rise to the top of British politics came to an abrupt end as he was arrested for 23 counts of corruption. Bacon had fallen into debt, but also the charges were enthusiastically promoted by Sir Edward Coke, a lifelong enemy of Bacon.

Bacon argued the charges were promoted by political intrigue. Although he had accepted gifts, he claimed this was widely regarded as the custom of the day, and he never let it influence his decision. Writing to the king, he wrote:

“The law of nature teaches me to speak in my own defence: With respect to this charge of bribery I am as innocent as any man born on St. Innocents Day. I never had a bribe or reward in my eye or thought when pronouncing judgment or order… I am ready to make an oblation of myself to the King.”

— 17 April 1621

However, after a Parliamentary investigation, he admitted his guilt – perhaps hoping for a lenient sentence or perhaps feeling Parliament were determined to see his downfall whatever he said.

“My lords, it is my act, my hand, and my heart; I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed.”

Parliament though had little sympathy for Bacon and found him guilty. Bacon was fined £40,000, sent to the Tower of London and barred from holding future office.

After a few days in the Tower, he was released by King James and his fine overturned. But, his public fall could not be undone and Bacon would never return to parliament or public office.

Despite his fall from grace, Bacon responded with a prolific literary output; writing on a range of topics from science and philosophy to legal matters and Britain’s political situation. Bacon’s literary output and originality of thought were more remarkable given the backdrop of Sixteenth Century England. The religious and political tensions of the age had led to a period of limited philosophical inquiry. Bacon was an integral part of the English Renaissance, which saw a revitalisation of literature. Interestingly, Bacon has sometimes been suggested as the real author of the works of William Shakespeare , though this theory is not taken too seriously by scholars.

Scientific inquiry

It is this area of Bacon’s work that has been most influential. Bacon’s primary concern was to re-consider man’s approach to science. He rejected the assumptions of ‘innate knowledge’ and felt the duty of a scientist was to take a sceptical approach to any preconceptions, but only rely on the actual evidence and results of experiments. Bacon emphasised the importance of induction by elimination. Bacon also encouraged scientific progress through collaborative work.

Novum Organum (1620) was one of his most influential works, which expressed a new style of logic. Bacon advocated the use of reduction and empirical understanding. It rejected a more philosophical ‘metaphysical’ approach of the old sciences. Bacon invented the metaphor ‘idol’ to indicate how a man could be wrongly influenced by forces such as over-simplification, hasty generalisations or over-focus on meaningless language differences.

The importance of this scientific method is that it opened up the possibility for challenging all existing scientific orthodoxy. Bacon’s approach was championed by Voltaire , and it became a strong component of the French enlightenment. Modern science does not follow Bacon’s method in all detail, but the spirit of empirical research can be traced to Bacon’s revolutionary new approach.

Thomas Jefferson wrote: “Bacon, Locke and Newton . I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical and Moral sciences”

Bacon was a hero to Robert Hooke and Robert Boyle the founders of the Royal Society.

Bacon was prolific in suggesting reforms to English law. During his lifetime, few were accepted by the English legal system. However, after his death, some see Bacon’s general principles incorporated into modern legal systems, such as the Napoleonic Code and modern common law. The greatest contribution of Bacon was to place emphasis on the facts of the case, rather than a strict statement of legal precedent. Similar to his scientific empiricism, Bacon wanted the law to be more about the evidence and facts of the case, and not get caught up in obtuse legal precedents.

A criticism of Bacon is that he ordered five warrants for torture with regard to suspects accused of treason. Bacon argued torture could be justified, if necessary, to uncover plots of treason; though he did not admit it as useful for providing legal evidence.

Francis Bacon was a Protestant Christian, and his Christian faith was important to his outlook on life. However, his approach was broad-minded, seeing the role of rational scientific analysis. He generally advocated religious tolerance. He has been associated with the Rosicrucians – a mystical movement, which believed in a transformation of divine and human understanding. His work ‘ New Atlantis ’ expresses the ideals of a utopian community founded on spiritual laws and modern scientific rationalism. In this utopian land there is:

“generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendour, piety and public spirit”

Bacon’s novel places a scientific institution, Solomon House, at the centre of the land, and remarks how the scientists seek to work in harmony with the Divine.

“We have certain hymns and services, which we say daily, of Lord and thanks to God for His marvellous works; and some forms of prayer, imploring His aid and blessing for the illumination of our labors, and the turning of them into good and holy uses.”

In 1609 he wrote De Sapientia Veterum (“ The Wisdom of the Ancients ”) which was an account of the hidden wisdom in ancient myths. It was one of his most popular books

“The most ancient times are buried in oblivion and silence: to that silence succeeded the fables of the poets: to those fables the written records which have come down to us.”

– Preface

It suggests Bacon’s sympathy to a more inclusive religious approach beyond the confines of modern Christianity.

Personal life

Aged 36, Bacon courted Elizabeth Hatton, but she broke off their relationship to marry Sir Edward Coke – a lifelong rival of Bacon’s. Aged 45, Bacon married Alice Farnham, who at the time was just 14. The couple split, after disagreements over money. Bacon later disinherited Alice, after he discovered she had an affair with another man.

On 9 April 1926, Bacon died from pneumonia. In an account by John Aubrey, (‘Brief Lives’) Bacon died after catching a chill conducting a scientific experiment – trying to stuff a fowl with snow to see if it preserved life. Writing his last letter to Lord Arundel, Bacon also mentions this incident:

“…As for the experiment itself, it succeeded excellently well; but in the journey between London and Highgate, I was taken with such a fit of casting as I know not whether it were the Stone, or some surfeit or cold, or indeed a touch of them all three.”

Bacon was a revolutionary figure in constitutional law, science and philosophy. He sought to advocate new ways of dealing with the world. His radical approach to fundamental questions of life and the world we live in were influential for promoting a different spirit – the new age of reason and enlightenment. Bacon sought a synthesis between a rational scientific approach, but also with a spiritual understanding of a just society.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Francis Bacon Biography”, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net, 20th December 2016. Last updated 15 February 2018.

Francis Bacon – essays

Francis Bacon – essays at Amazon

Related pages

Who is Francis Bacon?

Mike Pinnington

Photo: Michael Holtz/Photo12

Francis Bacon (1909–92) was a maverick who rejected the preferred artistic style of abstraction of the era, in favour of a distinctive and disturbing realism. Growing up, Bacon had a difficult and ambivalent relationship with his parents – especially his father, who struggled with his son’s emerging homosexuality.

This contributed to a troubled childhood; he ran away from school, and subsequently drifted through the late 1920s and early 30s in London, Berlin and Paris, living off his allowance and occasional jobs, and dodging the rent. When in London, he lived in the epicentre of the bohemian scene; a regular in Soho, he led a hedonistic life.

From the mid-1940s his work met with critical success, establishing his reputation. Today, he is recognised as one of the most important painters of the twentieth century.

Francis Bacon Painting 1978 Oil on canvas 1980 x 1475 mm each © The Estate of Francis Bacon/DACS 2008  Private Collection, London Prudence Cuming Associates Limited

How did Bacon come to be an artist?

Bacon did not become an artist through any traditional route: he didn’t attend art school, for example, or serve a conventional apprenticeship. In early professional life, he worked in interior design, but decided to abandon this and take up painting after seeing an exhibition of Picasso’s at Paul Rosenberg’s Paris gallery in the late 20s. Picasso’s representations of the body as bone-like, biomorphic structures revealed to Bacon the ‘possibilities of painting’. He later acknowledged Picasso as a key influence and reference point.

I’ve had a desire to do forms, as when I originally did three forms at the base of the crucifixion. They were influenced by the Picasso things which were done at the end of the ‘twenties. And I think there’s a whole area there suggested by Picasso, which in a way has been unexplored, of organic form that relates to the human image but is a complete distortion of it. 

What are his key works?

Francis Bacon Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion c.1944 © Tate

When the triptych,  Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion  1944, was first exhibited at the end of the war in 1945, it secured Bacon’s reputation. Chris Stephens, Head of Displays and Lead Curator, Modern British Art at Tate Britain called the work ‘a turning point in the history of British art. It’s one of the masterpieces in the Tate’s collection… It’s a work that was seen immediately as a brutally frank and horrifically pessimistic response to the Second World War. It was first exhibited in April 1945, and though the two were not directly related, the fact that this painting was unveiled the month that the concentration camps were revealed to the world, inevitably led to the way it has been understood as a statement of human brutality and suffering.’  

Bacon suggested he had intended to paint a larger crucifixion beneath which these would appear. Speaking about this work in an interview in 1955, the artist said: ‘I have no religious feelings but at the same time I was [going to] do a crucifixion and put these figures around the base of it. And the only reason I ever used the crucifixion [was] because it was an armature on which I could hang certain sensations.’

Francis Bacon,  Study for a Portrait 1952, oil and sand on canvas, 66.1 x 56.1 cm © Estate of Francis Bacon, all rights reserved, DACS 2016

Study for a Portrait  1952 dates from a crucial point in Bacon’s engagement with portraiture; Bacon painted his first head in isolation in 1948, and his contemporary Lucian Freud, a close friend, sat for Bacon’s first identifiable portrait of an individual in 1951. As is the case with other examples of the artist’s work in which he has employed a cubic, architectural framing device, or space-frame, implicit in this painting is a sense that the central figure has been trapped by the transparent cage that surrounds him. Asked by the critic and curator David Sylvester about the persistence of this technique, Bacon explained that the device was used simply to ‘concentrate the image down’.

Francis Bacon, 1909-1992  Triptych 1967 © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All Rights Reserved. DACS 2016. Gift of the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Foundation, 1972. Courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Photo: Lee Stalsworth

For Bacon, the format of  Triptych  1967 was a tactic, in some ways akin to the cubic cages, to isolate images from each other in order to ‘avoid story-telling’. References to poetry and drama became a central element in Bacon’s work in this period. Formerly titled Triptych Inspired by TS Eliot’s ‘Sweeney Agonistes’ , rather than illustrating the verse drama (first published in 1926), this work can be understood as evoking the experience of reading the themes of violence and life’s futility in Eliot’s poetry.

Francis Bacon Triptych – In Memory of George Dyer 1971 Oil on canvas 1980 x 1475 mm each © The Estate of Francis Bacon/DACS 2008 Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel

What the critics say…

[Bacon is] quite simply the most extraordinary, powerful and compelling of painters … His images short-circuit our appreciative processes. They arrive straight through the nervous system and hijack the soul. Rachel Campbell-Johnston, Art Critic

I think Bacon is on his own, really. I mean, he had a very, very dark view of the world… And that’s probably why I love Bacon paintings, because when I first saw them, they reminded me of sort of spaces I’d imagined in nightmares, which is why he’s great. Damien Hirst, Artist

His life was kind of pretty chaotic and he just did whatever he wanted to do, drank whatever he wanted to drink, slept with whoever he wanted to sleep with; he was a maverick within society… Francis Bacon’s paintings aren’t static, they’ve got total movement… Tracey Emin, Artist

Nobody has found more wicked energy in contemplating the cage than Francis Bacon… Cages provide areas for Bacon to stage his ferocious meditations on human anguish and savagery, but they also assume more distorted forms, shifting like the spaces within a bad dream. Charlie Fox, Writer

Francis Bacon, Study for Nude 1951 Oil on canvas 1980 x 1370 mm  © The Estate of Francis Bacon/DACS 2008  Collection of Samuel and Ronnie Heyman 

Bacon in quotes…

You know in my case all painting – and the older I get, the more it becomes so – is accident. So I foresee it in my mind, I foresee it, and yet I hardly ever carry it out as I foresee it. It transforms itself by the actual paint. I use very large brushes, and in the way I work I don’t in fact know very often what the paint will do, and it does many things which are very much better than I could make it do. Is that an accident? Perhaps one could say it’s not an accident, because it becomes a selective process which part of this accident one chooses to preserve. One is attempting, of course, to keep the vitality of the accident and yet preserve a continuity.

I use the frame to see the image – for no other reason. I know it’s been interpreted as being many other things… I cut down the scale of the canvas by drawing in these rectangles which concentrate the image down. Just to see it better.

I think that the very great artists were not trying to express themselves. They were trying to trap the fact, because after all, artists are obsessed by life and by certain things that obsess them that they want to record. And they’ve tried to find systems and construct the cages in which these things can be caught.

Lost Art: Francis Bacon

Jennifer Mundy

The Gallery of Lost Art  is an immersive, online exhibition that tells the fascinating stories of artworks that have disappeared. Each week, a new story of loss is added

Francis Bacon: Back to Degas

Martin Hammer

Providing the first focused account of Francis Bacon’s artistic dialogue with Edgar Degas, Martin Hammer argues that the French painter was a consistent source of inspiration to Bacon throughout his career, informing his decisions about subject matter, style and medium.

Francis Bacon: Life, Philosophy and Legacy

Biography | Influences | Core Philosophy | Essential Works | Reception | Criticisms | Legacy

Francis Bacon, an influential philosopher and statesman, holds a significant position in the history of humanity. As one of the most prominent figures of the scientific revolution and the father of empiricism, Bacon made enduring contributions to philosophy, science and human understanding.

Bacon’s intellectual legacy stems from his groundbreaking works on scientific methodology and his keen insight into the nature of knowledge. His influential writings, such as Novum Organum, laid the foundation for the scientific method, emphasizing the importance of observation, experimentation and inductive reasoning in the pursuit of truth.

In this article, we explore his life, philosophy and lasting impact. We examine his formative experiences and the historical context and intellectual movements that inspired his revolutionary ideology, the empirical approach to knowledge. As we discuss key principles of his framework, such as rejecting preconceived notions and adopting a systematic approach, we delve into Bacon’s vision for advancing society through practical knowledge and its importance for the betterment of humanity. We also consider the reception of his philosophy, criticisms, and its relevance today.

Lastly, we discuss the value and applicability of Bacon’s philosophy in everyday life.

Early Life, Education and Career

Francis Bacon was born on 1561 in London, England. He came from a prominent family, his father being Sir Nicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Queen Elizabeth I. This privileged background allowed him to receive an excellent education from an early age.

His education began at the age of 12 when he attended the prestigious Trinity College, Cambridge. During this time, he demonstrated exceptional intellectual abilities and a keen interest in various fields of study. He studied a wide range of subjects, including classical literature, languages, rhetoric, and mathematics.

After completing his education at Cambridge, Bacon embarked on a grand tour of Europe, where he had the opportunity to expand his knowledge and engage with leading scholars and thinkers of the time. This exposure to different intellectual traditions and cultures greatly enriched his intellectual development.

Upon returning to England, Bacon embarked on a career in politics and law. In 1582, he enrolled at Gray’s Inn, one of the four prestigious legal societies in London. He displayed exceptional legal acumen and quickly rose through the ranks. Bacon’s political career gained momentum as well. In 1584, he was elected to the House of Commons, where he became known for his eloquence and persuasive arguments. Over the years, he held various positions in the government, serving as a member of parliament, a legal advisor, and eventually becoming the Attorney General and later the Lord Chancellor of England. In 1593, he was appointed as the Queen’s Counsel Extraordinary, marking a significant milestone in his legal career.

Despite his success in politics and law, Bacon’s true passion lay in the pursuit and advancement of knowledge. And throughout his career, he dedicated time and energy to philosophical and scientific endeavors.

His contributions to philosophy and science would leave a lasting impact on the world.

Historical and Intellectual Context

The historical and intellectual context of Bacon’s time played a pivotal role in shaping his philosophical ideas and contributing to his unique perspective. The Renaissance’s celebration of human potential and the revival of classical learning fostered his belief in the importance of individual agency, critical thinking, and the advancement of knowledge for the betterment of society, while the Scientific Revolution’s emphasis on observation, experimentation, and the application of mathematical principles shaped his vision of a new scientific methodology.

The seventeeth century witnessed the flourishing of the Renaissance , a cultural and intellectual movement that celebrated human potential, artistic expression, and the revival of classical knowledge. This era marked a departure from the prevailing medieval worldview, encouraging a renewed interest in empirical observation, critical thinking, and the exploration of new ideas.

Bacon’s lifetime also coincided with the Scientific Revolution , an intellectual movement that gave form to the study of the natural world. Pioneering thinkers like Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Johannes Kepler challenged long-held beliefs and ushered in a new era of empirical methods and scientific inquiry.

He was deeply influenced by a range of philosophers, scientists, and thinkers who laid the foundation for his intellectual framework. The works of Aristotle played a crucial role in shaping Bacon’s early development, however, as he sought to break away from the prevailing scholastic tradition, he criticized Aristotelian syllogistic logic and sought to develop a more empirical approach to knowledge.

The emergence of the empirical tradition , championed by thinkers like William Gilbert and Bernardino Telesio, left a profound impact on Bacon’s ideology. He drew inspiration from their emphasis on sensory experience, observation, and experimentation as the means to acquire knowledge about the natural world and sought to bridge the gap between theoretical speculation and practical application, encouraging a more pragmatic and experiential approach to understanding the workings of the universe.

The groundbreaking discoveries and scientific methodologies of figures like Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler left a mark on Bacon’s thinking. Their empirical investigations and mathematical approach to studying the natural world aligned with his vision for a methodical and systematic approach to knowledge.

Francis Bacon endeavored to create a framework that would facilitate systematic inquiry through empirical observation, and the accumulation and dissemination of knowledge for the betterment of humanity .

Philosophical Framework and Core Principles

Understanding the core principles of Bacon’s philosophy – the Baconian Method, empiricism and inductive reasoning, the idols of the mind and his vision for the advancement of knowledge – we gain insight into his unique perspective and the enduring impact of his ideology on the philosophy of science.

Novum Organum and the Baconian Method

At the heart of Francis Bacon’s philosophical framework lies his seminal work, Novum Organum (1620), which outlines his revolutionary approach to acquiring knowledge, known as the Baconian Method. In the Novum Organum, Bacon criticizes the prevailing methods of his time, which relied heavily on deductive reasoning and syllogistic logic, and proposed a new method that prioritizes empirical observation, experimentation and inductive reasoning instead.

The Baconian Method argued for a systematic and rigorous collection of data from natural phenomena , which would then be analyzed to uncover general laws and principles, aiming to liberate the human mind from preconceived notions and biases and encourage researchers to approach their investigations with an open and skeptical mindset.

Empiricism and Observation

Bacon believed that genuine knowledge could only be derived from the careful observation of the natural world and the systematic accumulation of evidence. He championed the view that sensory experience, rather than speculative reasoning, should serve as the foundation for understanding the complexities of reality.

He rejected the prevailing reliance on deductive reasoning, which drew conclusions based on general principles and abstract theories, advocating instead for inductive reasoning, which involves drawing specific conclusions from concrete observations and experimentation – in the belief that systematically collecting data and carefully analyzing empirical evidence to uncover the patterns that govern the natural world, would lead to a more accurate and practical understanding of reality.

The Idols of the Mind

Bacon recognized that human understanding is susceptible to various forms of bias and distortion, which he referred to as the Idols of the Mind. These idols represent the inherent obstacles to clear and objective thinking .

He classified the Idols of the Mind into four categories:

• Idols of the tribe are errors arising from human nature itself, such as the tendency to impose patterns and explanations where none exist.
• Idols of the cave are personal biases and prejudices that stem from an individual’s unique experience and education.
• Idols of the marketplace result from the limitations of language and communication.
• Idols of the theater represent the influence of false ideologies and philosophical systems.

Recognizing and overcoming these idols, Bacon contended, individuals avoid fallacious thinking and arrive at a more accurate understanding of the world.

The Advancement of Knowledge

Bacon’s philosophical framework was not merely a theoretical endeavor but also had practical implications. He envisioned the pursuit of knowledge as a means to improve the human condition and promote the betterment of society.

He believed that by embracing the Baconian Method, humanity could unlock the secrets of nature, leading to technological progress, medical advancements, and social reforms, and highlighted the importance of collaborative scientific research and the accumulation of knowledge across generations.

He envisioned science as a driving force for progress, promoting the idea that the pursuit of knowledge should be directed towards practical applications that benefit humanity.

Francis Bacon’s Essential Works

Francis Bacon’s essential works — namely, Novum Organum, The Advancement of Learning, and Bacon’s essays — provide a comprehensive understanding of his philosophical framework, his methods of acquiring knowledge and his reflections on various aspects of human existence.

Collectively, these works form the foundation of Bacon’s philosophical framework.

The Advancement of Learning

“The Advancement of Learning,” published in 1605, is an important work that greatly contributes to understanding and contextualizing his ideology. It serves as an exploration of the state of knowledge at the time and offers a comprehensive analysis of various disciplines of academic study.

In this work, Bacon stresses the importance of a broad and interdisciplinary approach to learning, dividing knowledge into three categories: memory, reason, and imagination. Through this categorization, he highlights the interconnectedness of different branches of knowledge and the importance of their integration in the pursuit of understanding. He further argues for the systematic accumulation of knowledge through observation and experimentation, in the hope that progress will be achieved through the collaborative efforts of scholars and scientists.

“The Advancement of Learning” stands as a testament to Bacon’s belief in the power of empirical evidence and the potential for human progress through the rigorous pursuit of knowledge.

Novum Organum

Novum Organum is Francis Bacon’s seminal work and a crucial text for understanding his philosophy . Published in 1620, it presents a radical departure from traditional methods of acquiring knowledge. In this work, he outlines his revolutionary approach, the Baconian Method, which prioritizes empirical observation, experimentation, and inductive reasoning.

Novum Organum lays out the flaws of deductive reasoning and advocates for a systematic and objective study of nature. It also introduces the concept of idols of the mind, which are the various forms of bias and preconceptions that hinder clear thinking. Recognizing and overcoming these idols, Bacon argues, one can arrive at accurate and reliable knowledge.

Bacon’s collection of essays, first published in 1597 and expanded in subsequent editions, provides valuable insights into his philosophical ideas and personal reflections.

In his essays, Bacon demonstrates his keen observational skills and presents his thoughts on various subjects, such as ethics, politics, science and human nature. His writing style is concise, aphoristic, and often thought-provoking. The essays offer glimpses into Bacon’s philosophy, addressing themes such as the pursuit of knowledge, the importance of education, the nature of truth and the challenges of human understanding.

Bacon’s essays provide a more accessible entry point to his philosophical ideas, offering readers an opportunity to engage with his thoughts in a more personal and reflective manner.

Reception and Criticisms

Francis Bacon’s philosophy and ideas were met with a mix of admiration, skepticism and controversy during his time. While some intellectuals praised his novel approach to acquiring knowledge, others criticized his ideas and methodology.

The emphasis on empirical observation and the rejection of traditional methods of reasoning challenged established intellectual traditions. The departure from deductive reasoning and reliance on induction raised concerns among those who adhered to more conventional philosophical frameworks.

Furthermore, Bacon’s association with King James I of England and his involvement in politics led to accusations of corruption and bribery. These controversies tarnished his reputation and led to his fall from political grace.

Despite the criticisms, Bacon’s ideas remained influential, and the primacy of empirical observation and inductive reasoning laid the groundwork for the development of modern science .

Criticisms by Descartes and the Rationalists

René Descartes and other rationalist philosophers of the 17th century were among Bacon’s notable critics. Descartes, in particular, held a contrasting view to Bacon’s empiricism. He advocated for a rationalistic and deductive approach to knowledge, affirming the power of innate ideas and the use of reason to understand the world.

Descartes criticized Bacon’s reliance on sensory experience, arguing that it could be misleading and unreliable, and that true knowledge could be obtained through the clear and distinct ideas of the mind.

Descartes and the rationalists further questioned Bacon’s rejection of a priori reasoning and the limitations they perceived in his method.

Influence on Empiricists and Scientists

Despite the criticisms he faced, Francis Bacon’s impact on the development of empiricism and the scientific method cannot be understated, as his ideas reverberated through subsequent generations of scientists and thinkers alike.

Bacon’s emphasis on empirical observation and inductive reasoning laid the foundation for the scientific method as we know it today. His insistence on systematic experimentation and the collection of data greatly influenced scientists such as Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, and later figures of the Enlightenment. His ideas also resonated with empiricist philosophers who sought to ground knowledge in sensory experience and observation, such as John Locke , George Berkeley , and David Hume , who built upon his work and further developed the empiricist tradition.

Francis Bacon’s legacy extends beyond his own time, as his ideology played a crucial role in shaping the philosophical discourse and scientific tradition that followed, and remains relevant to this day.

Influence on Philosophy

Francis Bacon’s influence on philosophy can be seen in the realms of empiricism, the scientific method, and the Enlightenment, emphasizing the importance of observation, reason, and the pursuit of knowledge for the betterment of humanity.

John Locke and British Empiricism

Bacon’s influence on philosophy can be observed in the development of British empiricism, particularly through the works of John Locke .

Locke expanded upon Bacon’s emphasis on empirical observation and the role of experience in shaping human understanding. He developed the concept of “tabula rasa,” arguing that the mind begins as a blank slate upon which experience writes. Locke’s empiricist philosophy, as articulated in his “Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” owes much to Bacon’s emphasis on observation, induction and the rejection of dogmatic beliefs.

Experimental Science and the Scientific Method

Francis Bacon’s profound impact on experimental science and the scientific method cannot be overstated. His vision of empirical observation, systematic experimentation and inductive reasoning laid the groundwork for modern scientific inquiry.

Bacon’s methodology, as outlined in Novum Organum , underscores the importance of gathering data through controlled experiments and making general conclusions based on specific observations . This approach revolutionized the intellectual landscape, shifting the focus from deductive reasoning to a systematic, evidence-based approach.

Ultimately, Bacon’s advocacy for an empirical approach to knowledge was instrumental in the development of the scientific method. Although he did not explicitly detail a step-by-step methodology, the emphasis he placed on observation, experimentation and the accumulation of data served as foundational principles for the establishment of the scientific method as a standardized approach to investigation.

Enlightenment and Utilitarianism

Francis Bacon’s philosophy had a significant impact on the Enlightenment, an intellectual and cultural movement that swept through Europe in the eighteenth century. His emphasis on reason, empirical observation and the pursuit of knowledge aligned with the Enlightenment ideals of progress, rationality and scientific inquiry. Enlightenment thinkers, such as Voltaire , Denis Diderot , and Immanuel Kant , drew inspiration from his ideas and incorporated them into their own philosophical frameworks.

Furthermore, Bacon’s emphasis on empirical observation and the accumulation of knowledge influenced the emergence of the encyclopedic movement – which sought to compile knowledge from various disciplines into a single, comprehensive resource – and the belief in the power of reason to improve society; which also played a role in the development of utilitarianism.

Utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical theory that seeks to maximize overall happiness and well-being. Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill , key figures in the utilitarian tradition, incorporated Baconian notions into their ethical and social theories, which value practical outcomes for the greater good.

Francis Bacon played a pivotal role in influencing philosophical discourse during his time and beyond. His contributions and ideas left a lasting impact on multiple fronts, reshaping the way knowledge is acquired, advancing scientific inquiry and inspiring new avenues of thought.

During Bacon’s lifetime, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the prevailing intellectual landscape was dominated by scholasticism and Aristotelian philosophy. However, Bacon’s works challenged the traditional modes of acquiring knowledge and called for a radical shift towards empirical observation, experimentation and inductive reasoning .

The rejection of dogmatism and his call for evidence-based reasoning marked a significant departure from the prevailing philosophical and scientific methods of the time in advocating for a systematic approach to scientific inquiry, asserting the importance of collecting data through observation and experimentation.

Francis Bacon’s Baconian Method, although not a strict methodology, outlined the principles for the scientific method , which has since become the cornerstone of scientific practice.

His legacy in the history of humankind is profound and far-reaching – his ideology challenged the prevailing philosophical and scientific beliefs of the time, ushering in a new era of evidence-based reasoning and empirical investigation.

The Value of Insight

Understanding and applying the key principles of Francis Bacon’s philosophy can benefit individuals in everyday life by cultivating a systematic and empirical approach to knowledge, enhancing critical thinking skills and promoting the collaborative pursuit of knowledge for the advancement of society.

His ideology affirms the importance of observation, experimentation and inductive reasoning. Embracing this perspective, individuals develop a methodical mindset that values data, evidence, and informed decision-making. Questioning assumptions and engaging in rigorous analysis promotes the development of critical thinking skills, leading to an objective evaluation of information and well-reasoned judgments. In the belief that knowledge is not just theoretical but has practical applications for the betterment of society, individuals actively seek truth and work towards the improvement of their communities.

Bacon’s philosophy also promotes interdisciplinary collaboration, recognizing that diverse perspectives and expertise are crucial for tackling complex problems and making significant advancements; by collaborating across disciplines, individuals exchange ideas, tap into a broader pool of knowledge and generate innovative solutions.

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Baconian History

“my conceit of his person was never increased toward him, by his place, or honours. but i have and do reverence him for the greatness that was only proper to himself, in that he seemed to me ever, by his work, one of the greatest men and most worthy of admiration that had been in many ages.”, ben jonson: tribute to francis bacon, explorata, or discoveries – 1641, birth, upbringing and education.

Francis Bacon was born at York House, Charing Cross, London, on 22 January 1561. He was baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields on 25 January 1561 as second son of Sir Nicholas and Lady Ann Bacon. His father was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and his mother was one of the most highly educated and accomplished women of her time, second daughter of the great scholar and humanist, Sir Anthony Cooke, and sister of Sir Anthony’s eldest daughter, Mildred, wife of Sir William Cecil, Principal Secretary of State, who later became Lord Burghley (1571) and the Queen’s Lord High Treasurer (1572). Both Sir Nicholas and Sir William, besides holding the highest political offices under Queen Elizabeth, were patrons and active promoters of the arts and sciences. The two families, the Cecils and the Bacons, maintained close contact with each other and often visited each other’s homes.

As a child Francis showed more than unusual promise and attracted the attention of Queen Elizabeth, who liked to call him her “young Lord Keeper”. Together with his brother Anthony, he was given a privileged private education by the best teachers of the time, which took place mainly at York House, the Lord Keeper's London residence—a thriving hub of State business that adjoined York Place, the Queen's Palace of Whitehall, or in the vacations at Sir Nicholas’ country home of Gorhambury, St Albans, with visits to Theobalds House, Sir William Cecil’s nearby country estate, and Gidea Hall, the country home of Sir Anthony Cook, Francis’ learnèd grandfather and principal tutor. 1  Francis also had regular access to Cecil House, the London mansion of his uncle, which operated as a school for young noblemen who included, at one time or another, the Earls of Oxford, Surrey, Rutland, Southampton and Essex, plus Fulke Greville and Sir Philip Sidney.

Because of Sir Nicholas’ high office, Francis was likely to have been present at various Court entertainments, such as the regular Christmas festivities and the Kenilworth Entertainment laid on for the Queen at Kenilworth Castle by her favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

Francis’ “dearest brother”, “comfort” and “second self”, Anthony, two years Francis’ senior, was brought up and educated with Francis. The two brothers became thoroughly learned in the Classics and fluent in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French and Italian. They also learnt Spanish and Dutch, studied mathematical subjects and music, played the lute, and were proficient in the art of fencing and horse riding. In addition to all this they learnt classical mythology and philosophy, and had a thorough grounding in the scriptures. Sir Nicholas was a principal advocate of ‘the advancement of learning’ style of education initiated by Sir Thomas More and promoted by the secret society founded in London by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa in 1510—a society that adopted the name and symbolism of the rose and cross from c.1570 onwards. 2

In April 1573, at the age of twelve, with a “new star” blazing away in the heavens (a supernova in Cassiopeia), Francis entered Trinity College, Cambridge University, accompanied by his brother Anthony. They were placed under the direct charge and tuition of the Master of Trinity, Dr John Whitgift, and lodged in rooms under his roof. (Whitgift afterwards became Archbishop of Canterbury.) Their contemporaries and friends at Cambridge included John Lyly, William Clerke, Edmund Spenser, Philemon Holland and Gabriel Harvey—the latter being their tutor in rhetoric and poetry.

Whilst a student at Cambridge, Francis became thoroughly disillusioned with the Aristotelian system of thought and teaching. As a reaction to this, and inspired with prophetic vision as to what to do to improve matters, his grand idea was born, revealing to him his mission in life. Less than two years later, at Christmas 1575, he and Anthony left Cambridge, carrying with them the embryo of a plan by means of which Francis’ grand idea might be set in motion and gradually achieved. In this project Anthony was a dedicated partner, even though for the next fifteen years their respective paths would separate them physically for most of the time.

On 27 June 1576 Francis, aged fifteen, and Anthony, aged seventeen, were entered as law students at Gray’s Inn, one of the four Inns of Court in London, to follow in their father’s footsteps. Five months later they were admitted, together with all of Sir Nicholas Bacon’s sons, to the Grand Company of Ancients by Order of Pension dated 21 November 1576. However, instead of taking up residence at Gray’s Inn immediately, Francis was sent abroad to further his education. In this, Francis was following the special course of education that had been delineated by Sir Nicholas Bacon “for the advancement of learning and training of statesmen”—a name and course of action that was to be enlarged upon and incorporated by Francis into his Great Instauration. 3

Francis was appointed as an attaché to Sir Amyas Paulet, his French tutor, who had been knighted and commissioned by Queen Elizabeth as the new English Ambassador to the French Court. Also accompanying Francis was Mr Duncombe, a tutor in diplomacy, and Francis’ half-brother Edward Bacon. Both Francis and Edward were granted a licence to travel on the continent for a period of three years, together with their servants, “for their increase in knowledge and experience”. 4

The embassy set out for France on 25 September 1576 and landed at Calais later that day, from whence they travelled on to Paris and the court of Henri III. Edward seems to have parted company with the party shortly after landing, as he intended to visit such places as Padua, Ravenna and Vienna (and in December 1577 he was in Strasburg). 5

The embassy happened to arrive in the middle of the French Wars of Religion when, on one hand, the functions of the French State were in disorder and, on the other hand, the French Renaissance was at its height. This was a time when, despite the corrupt level of French politics, the French court was abuzz with cultural activity and splendour, and the French philosophers, humanists, artists, musicians, scholars and poets (such as the renowned Pléiade 6 of French poets) were at their height of fame. They formed a royal academy (the Palace Academy) patronised by the king of France, Henri III.

During his sojourn abroad, Francis studied the laws, customs, history and culture of France, gained experience in diplomacy, made contact with Henri de Navarre’s Huguenot ministers, and became involved with the philosophers and poets, including the esoteric movement or society founded in Paris by Agrippa that was twin to the Rosicrucian society in England. He also worked for the Queen's intelligence service, decrypting information and inventing cipher systems, including the Biliteral Cipher which later inspired the creation of the Morse Code and the binary code of modern computer technology. As a member of the English embassy, he travelled with the French court to Fontainebleau, Blois, Tours, Poitiers and Chenonceaux, as well as living in Paris where the French court was normally based. Besides the pageantry, grand entertainments, feasting, walking, riding, hunting, philosophical discussions, political intrigues and affairs of one kind or another, Francis had the opportunity to see performances of the Italian Commedia dell’ Arte at Blois in February 1577 and at Paris in the following years. In August-September 1577 Francis made some kind of perilous journey, which may refer to his brief visit to England when he was entrusted by Paulet with “some message or advertisement to the Queen”, for which he was commended (or else he made two separate journeys).

Return to England – Areopagus – Gray’s Inn – Intelligence

Francis was making preparations to travel to Italy when, on the night of 17/18 February 1579, he dreamt that Gorhambury was plastered all over in black mortar. Two weeks later he received news that his father had unexpectedly died on 20 February. Francis set off for England as soon as he could, bearing a despatch from Sir Amyas Paulet to the Queen. The Lord Keeper’s funeral took place on 9 March 1579.

One of the results of this unfortunate death was that Francis was left with very little financial support of his own, as Sir Nicholas had died before he had been able to complete arrangements for a suitable inheritance for Francis. However, one of the things that Francis did inherit was Sir Nicholas' share in the Company of Mineral and Battery Works, a mining company set up to produce brass plates and iron wire, in which Francis already had a deep scientific interest and which influenced the development and language of his philosophical programme.

It is not recorded where Francis Bacon lived during the first few months after Sir Nicholas Bacon’s funeral, but by the beginning of October (the start of the legal year) he would have taken up residence in Gray’s Inn so as to continue his law studies, as pre-arranged by his father and now supervised by Lord Burghley. He was certainly well ensconced there a year later, as recorded by an entry dated 13 May 1580 in the Gray’s Inn Pension Book, which notes that “Mr Francis Bacon in respect of his health is allowed to have the benefit of a special admittance.” This meant that Francis was freed from the obligation of keeping Commons and could choose his diet and take meals in his chambers. In addition he had been admitted to the Grand Company of Ancients, which meant that he (and his brother Anthony) could come and go as he liked, without regard to the Inn’s formal teaching arrangements and without being bound to any vacations (i.e. learning vacations, as distinct from holidays and terms).

However, law was not Francis’ great interest. In later years he informed Dr William Rawley that law was to him but an accessory, not his principal study, even though in law, according to Rawley, “he obtained to great excellency” and “in the science of the grounds and mysteries of law he was exceeded by none”. Francis’ passion in life was philosophical, scientific, poetic, educational and philanthropic, and devoted to the realisation of his grand idea, which was none other than a renovation of all arts and sciences based upon the proper foundations. It was a grand concept—one that he was later to call “The Great Instauration” or “Six Days Work”.

To help him in his educational and cultural endeavours Francis applied to his uncle Lord Burghley to exert influence with the Queen on his behalf, in recognition of his special abilities and circumstances, so that he might have not only royal approval but also a position whereby he could have sufficient influence and income, without having to practice law, to give him “commandment of more wits” than his own to assist him in his proposed task. In this, Francis was probably thinking of the royal patronage and financial support given to the Palace Academy and the Pléiade in France. In letters he not only confessed that he had “as vast contemplative ends as [he had] moderate civil ends”, for he had “taken all knowledge as his province”, but he also made clear that neither law nor government officialdom was his desired occupation or interest, but “philanthropia” and “the waters of Parnassus” (the Castalian Spring, dedicated to the Muses, that provides poetic inspiration to those who bathe in or drink its waters). The Queen, who was interested in the French academies and fond of grand entertainment, and Burghley, who was a patron of scholars and musicians (but not poets), gave Francis to believe that such a place would be found for him; but, other than moral and verbal encouragement, in this “rare and unaccustomed suit” Francis was to meet with little success.

Besides studying law, developing his grand scheme, taking part in the various activities of Gray’s Inn and being “sometimes a courtier”, 7 Francis also assisted in the compilation and assessment of political intelligence, working with Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen’s Secretary of State, who had set up and headed one of the most efficient intelligence networks then in existence. Part of this work was cryptography and cryptanalysis, which Francis carried out together with Thomas Phelippes, Walsingham’s leading code-breaker.

One of those supplying intelligence was Anthony Bacon who, at the behest of Burghley as well as his own personal desire, travelled Europe (France, Switzerland, Navarre) from 1579 to 1592 gathering intelligence of various kinds, building a network of friends and agents, acting as a diplomat, and sending his brother items of literary and philosophical interest. In the process Anthony became a personal friend of the Protestant theologian Theodore Beza, the Huguenot king Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV of France), and the French essayist Michel de Montaigne. One result of this intelligence work was that, in 1582, Francis Bacon was involved in creating a report or State Paper for the Queen entitled Notes on the Present State of Christendom .

All in all, Francis Bacon was at the heart of and privy to a huge web and data bank of intelligence on all kinds of matters, from politics, economics, law, trade, history, geography, science, literature, poetry, military strength and religious beliefs, right down to social customs, manners, costumes, personal behaviour, travel facilities, environmental details and individual experiences, at home and abroad. Moreover, besides his brother Anthony, his friend Thomas Phelippes and his mentor John Dee, others in the intelligence service whom Francis would have known and worked with included Walsingham’s secretaries, Nicholas Faunt, Francis Milles, William Waad and Robert Beale, and the poets, Edmund Spenser, Thomas Watson, Samuel Daniel, Christopher Marlowe and Anthony Munday, who acted periodically as agents.

Member of Parliament – Barrister – Queen’s Counsel – Great Instauration

In 1581 Francis Bacon began his thirty-six years of Parliamentary service as a Member of Parliament, entering the Commons as a member for Cornwall. On 27 June 1582 he was called to the Bar and admitted Utter Barrister at Gray’s Inn. His involvement in high politics started in 1584, when he wrote his first political memorandum,  A Letter of Advice to Queen Elizabeth , and in March 1584 he visited Scotland. By 1585 he had composed his first “juvenile” work, Temporis Partum Maximum ('The Greatest Birth of Time'), on what was later to become publicly known as ‘The Great Instauration’. On 10 February 1586 he became a Bencher of Gray's Inn. Then, less than two years later, on 23 November 1587 he was appointed a Reader of Gray’s Inn.

From that time (1587) onwards we learn that Francis was regularly associated with other gentlemen of Gray’s Inn in devising and presenting masques and entertainments at Gray’s Inn and the royal Court at Greenwich, and writing speeches and devices to be used in the Queen’s Accession Day Tilts.

Francis’ movements tended to oscillate between Gray’s Inn, the royal Court when he was in attendance on the Queen, and Twickenham Lodge. The latter was situated in Twickenham Park, the Crown property leased by Edward Bacon, with land leading down to the River Thames immediately opposite the Queen’s palace of Richmond. The lodge with its park was a tranquil and beautiful place where Francis could write in peace, together with his friends and “good pens”. Edward seems to have allowed Francis the use of Twickenham Lodge whenever he wanted. It is here that Francis carried out his early experiments related to his Great Instauration project and, with the help of his team of “good pens”, wrote poetry (masques and plays) and intelligence reports. In November 1595, when Edward's lease of Twickenham Park expired, the Queen granted the lease to Francis. Francis had the use of the lodge and its parkland until 1606, when he surrendered the lease. He also made occasional visits in the vacations to Gorhambury, the country mansion built by Sir Nicholas Bacon on the outskirts of St Albans. Although inherited by Anthony Bacon, Gorhambury was, under the terms of Sir Nicholas Bacon's will, Lady Anne Bacon's home and residence for the rest of her life.

In 1591 Francis appears to have almost given up his fruitless “rare and unaccustomed suit” with Burghley and the Queen. At about the same time he struck up a good friendship with Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, whom he had known since their youth. The earl was fast becoming the foremost favourite of the Queen and a popular hero with the people. Francis, completely disillusioned with and thwarted by his uncle Burghley, decided to assist Essex in every way possible, believing him to be “the fittest instrument to do good to the State”, but always with the reservation that his first duty was to the Queen. Essex in turn promised to help Francis. Ultimately this turned out to be a perilous mistake for Francis. Essex’s temperament was so hot-headed and imperious that, rather than helping Francis, he repeatedly made matters worse, with the Queen and Essex clashing like gladiators. Burghley and Robert Cecil came to loathe Essex, resulting in their admitted policy of doing their utmost to block the advancement of any of Essex's friends, including the Bacon brothers.

At some unrecorded moment in time—but which, from various evidence, would seem to have been in 1592—the Queen appointed Francis Bacon as her Counsel Learned, Extraordinary. This was a completely new position, specially created for Francis, which brought him “within the bar” with the judges and Serjeants-at-Law, and gave him a standing with the serjeants. 8 His duties were not clearly defined, but, besides the fundamental duty of conducting court work on behalf of the sovereign, they encompassed a wide spectrum. However, as an ‘extraordinary’ rather than an ‘ordinary’ position, it was an unpaid one and without a pension or a regular means for accumulating fees. It didn’t solve Francis’ financial predicament, but it gave him a special standing and enabled him to enjoy privileged ‘near’ access to the Queen. This was the first such appointment, given by patent from the ruling sovereign, and was the birth of what later became known as the Queen's (or King's) Counsel, or 'QC' for short.

Anthony Bacon – Intelligence Network – Shakespeare Circle

In February 1592 Anthony Bacon returned home from the continent. Anthony, whom Francis called his “dearest brother” and “comfort”, shared Francis’ aspirations. His main love was literary and, like his brother, he was a secret poet, known only as such to his friends, as revealed in their letters to him. All the time he was abroad he had kept in communication with his brother Francis as well as with his uncle Burghley and Sir Francis Walsingham.

Anthony Bacon’s foreign contacts were wide-spread and he enjoyed friendship in many high places, “being a gentleman whose ability the world taketh knowledge of for matters of state, specially foreign”. 9 His contacts and friendship with Henri de Navarre, later Henri IV of France, were later incorporated into the Shakespeare play, Love’s Labour’s Lost , as also was the result of his association and friendship with the King of Spain’s Secretary of State, Antonio Perez, who defected to England and upon whom the Shakespearean character of Don Adriana de Armado is based.

When Anthony returned to England, he first of all joined his brother at Gray’s Inn and started to pour all his energy and financial resources into his brother’s project whilst at the same time continuing his intelligence work. Together the brothers formed a team of secretaries and writers to assist them, dealing with foreign and home intelligence of all kinds, cryptography, translations of correspondence and books in foreign languages and the classics, and the writing of poetry (masques, plays, devices, etc.). Francis also “knit” Anthony’s service to the Earl of Essex, and from that time onwards Anthony developed and ran an intelligence service for Essex rather than for Burghley, so that Essex would have the chance of better intelligence than Burghley with which to inform the Queen and be kept in her high favour. Key assistants in this team included Thomas Phelippes, Anthony Standen, Henry Wotton and Nicholas Faunt, who between them had travelled in and gathered detailed intelligence of all kinds and over many years from France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Transylvania, Poland and Turkey.

Later that year Francis composed a dramatic device (i.e. spectacle or show) called A Conference of Pleasure , for Essex to present at the Queen’s Accession Day Tilt on 17 November 1592.

By now, Francis’ literary and poetic endeavours had become closely entwined not only with members of Gray’s Inn and other Inns of Court but also with Essex and his circle of friends. This ‘Essex group’, which had been linked with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir Philip Sidney until their deaths in the 1580’s, and with the Areopagitae of English poets that used to meet at Leicester House (later Essex House), included: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex; Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton; Ferdinando Stanley, Baron Strange, 5th Earl of Derby; William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby; Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy; Frances Walsingham, Countess of Essex, Essex’s wife, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham and widow of Sir Philip Sidney; Penelope Rich, Essex’s sister, wife of Robert Rich, 3rd Baron Rich, and, after his death in 1586, Mountjoy’s mistress; Elizabeth Vernon, Essex’s cousin and Southampton’s mistress (whom Southampton married in 1598); and Mary Sidney, the Countess of Pembroke, sister of Philip Sidney and mother of “the Two Noble Brethren”, William and Philip, to whom the 1623 Shakespeare First Folio was dedicated. To these should be added Fulke Greville, Francis Bacon and Anthony Bacon.

Associated with this group of aristocrats and friends were other poets, writers and dramatists whom the group patronised, which included Samuel Daniel, Ben Jonson, John Florio, George Wither, Edmund Spenser, Thomas Nashe and John Lyly. Thomas Lodge, George Peele, Robert Greene and Christopher Marlowe were also connected with this group. In effect, the overall group of patrons and poets formed what might be called ‘The Shakespeare Circle', with direct access to acting companies.

Mary Sidney’s husband, Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, whose country estate at Wilton borders on the Wiltshire River Avon, was the patron of his own professional acting company, the Lord Pembroke’s Men, who had in their repertoire several of the earliest Shakespeare plays. Their tour of 1592-4 featured The Taming of a Shrew (an earlier version of the one published in the Shakespeare Folio), Titus Andronicus and 3 Henry VI . Titus Andronicus was also performed by Sussex’s Men and Derby’s Men. The latter company was that of Ferdinando Stanley, Baron Strange, who became the 5th Earl of Derby on his father’s death in 1593. Previous to that the company had been known as the Lord Strange’s Men, who gave what might have been the first performance of 2 Henry VI at The Rose playhouse in 1592. When Ferdinando Stanley died in 1594, most of the members of Derby’s Men joined the newly reconstituted Lord Chamberlain’s Men under the patronage of Sir Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, and the leadership of the Burbages. (See ‘Acting Companies’.)

Royal Disfavour – Birth of ‘Shakespeare’ – Venus and Adonis

Francis Bacon’s new position was severely challenged in the Parliament of January-March 1593. He appeared there as an MP representing Middlesex, and took part in various debates and motions and committee meetings. The challenge, though, came about when he opposed an attempt by the Queen and House of Lords to diminish the House of Commons’ vitally important prerogative of raising taxes and discussing such matters in private. He also thought that the triple subsidy (taxation) to be raised in three years that was being demanded by Burghley on behalf of the Queen and Lords, rather than the two subsidies raised in four years that had at first been proposed by the House of Commons, would be too great for ordinary people to bear; and so, although agreeing that a substantial subsidy was needed to offset the costs of defending the country against the Armada, he recommended that the proposal be moderated somewhat. In the end it was agreed by the Commons that three subsides would be provided, spread over four years. The Queen was furious at Francis’ behaviour, and immediately made him feel her displeasure. He was denied access to her presence and told “that he must nevermore look to her for favour or promotion”.

Very soon after this, in June 1593, ‘William Shakespeare’ as an author’s name was officially launched onto the public scene for the first time with the publication of the highly scholarly, erotic poem Venus and Adonis . Notably, it had been entered into the Stationers’ Register on 18 April 1593, a date close to St George’s Day, 23 April, the legendary birthday of William Shakespeare. This, the “first heir” of Shakespeare’s “invention”, was dedicated to Southampton, as was the second Shakespeare poem, Lucrece , published the next year (1594). A few years later, the writer Joseph Hall and poet John Marston, in an exchange of satires published during 1597-8, stated that the true author of the poems was a jurist, whom they nicknamed “Labeo”, who used a living person, a “swain”, to mask his authorship. They ultimately identified “Labeo” as Francis Bacon.

The royal disfavour precipitated a major crisis for Francis. In an attempt to prove his worth to the Queen, Burghley and others as a barrister and Queen’s Counsel, as well as to earn some money, Francis pleaded his first case in the King’s Bench and Exchequer Chamber in January 1594, and his second and third in February. His first pleading was so successful that Burghley, content with Francis as a lawyer and pressured by his own family who had taken pity on Francis' predicament, undertook to make a report "where it might do him the most good".

The Queen played a game of punishment or reward with Francis, trying to make him her creature in all ways, including the Parliamentary one. In 1594 the position of Attorney-General fell vacant and was kept vacant for a whole year, and several times it was intimated to Francis that the Queen might appoint him to this position and that it was only his conduct in Parliament that stood in the way. Essex, eager to help Francis, urged the Queen to make this appointment; but Francis would not recant and there were other factors afoot. Robert Cecil suggested to Essex that if Sir Edward Coke, the Solicitor-General, were to be appointed as Attorney-General, which he felt the Queen would prefer, then perhaps Francis might be content with the lesser position of Solicitor-General instead. But Essex would not have it; only the higher office would do for the friend of Essex! As Essex saw it, his own reputation was at stake.

Francis was in a difficult situation. He didn't really want the onerous legal position of Attorney-General, but he needed a position that brought him sufficient income as well as standing. Creditors were a continual problem, as his project was costly and he never had enough money.

It was about this time that Fulke Greville began to take an active part on Francis' behalf with the Queen. Whether because of this, or because Francis declared his intention of retiring to Cambridge with a couple of men to spend his life in studies and contemplation, there seemed to be a shift in the Queen's demeanour towards Francis. In May 1594 she appointed Francis as the Deputy Chief Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster. Also, that summer, the Queen conferred on Francis some woodland in Somerset at a nominal rent, from which he could raise some finance. In June 1594 he was appointed to assist the investigation into the 'Walpole Plot' (associated with the Lopez conspiracy); and, on the 18 or 19 July 1594, he set out for the north on some important business of the Queen. However, on this mission he only reached as far as Huntington when he fell ill, writing to tell the Queen of it on 20 July. As we next learn that he was in Cambridge on 27 July to receive his degree of Master of the Arts at a specially convened ceremony, the assumption is that, because of his brief illness, his mission was aborted. In August-September 1594 Francis was back in London, examining prisoners on behalf of the Queen in yet another Catholic conspiracy.

Gray’s Inn Revels – Knights of the Helmet, Comedy of Errors

During 1594 Francis Bacon was one of the two Treasurers of Gray's Inn, which appointment ran until 26 November 1594. As head of the Inn, the Treasurer was responsible for the Gray's Inn revels, and for the end of that year the Inn planned to hold extra-grand Christmas Revels. Because the revels had been intermitted for three or four years, the Inn was determined to redeem this lost time with something out of the ordinary, and they specifically asked Francis to redeem their good name in this respect. The revels were by custom designed, organised, written and performed by the members of the Inn, as part of their education and training for both the court of law and the royal court. These particular revels would have needed to be prepared some time in advance and this could explain why, at some point during the summer of 1594, Francis explained in a letter to Essex that he neither had much hope nor much desire for the position of Solicitor-General—the lack of desire or appetite being because he was so preoccupied with "the waters of Parnassus" which almost entirely quenched his thirst for other things, and the lack of hope because his only real reason for having the office, other than serving the Queen, was so as to be able to pay off his old debts and take on new ones.

The revels were called The Prince of Purpoole and the Honourable Order of the Knights of the Helmet and took place over the Twelve Days of Christmas. The theme of the revels was built around the idea of errors being committed, disorder ensuing, a trial being held of the 'Sorcerer' responsible, who then restores order and transmutes everything to a higher and better level than before. The first Grand Night took place on the evening of Holy Innocent's Day, 28 December 1594. As prearranged, the masque ended abruptly in general confusion and the special guests, the Inner Temple barristers, returned to their Inn, feigning offence. Those who remained were then set to "dancing and revelling with gentlewomen", after which the Shakespeare play, A Comedie of Errors like to Plautus his Menæchmi , was performed by torchlight.

The following day a mock trial was held. The 'Sorcerer' or 'Conjurer' (Francis Bacon) then conjured up a new entertainment called The Honourable Order of the Knights of the Helmet , which was presented on the second Grand Night, 3 January 1595, the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. In this entertainment Francis Bacon presented his philosophical ideals and an Order of knighthood dedicated to carrying them out. The purpose of the Order was to correct the errors of the past and bring order out of chaos. The name of this philosophical Order of knights refers to the divine Spear-shaker, Pallas Athena, the Tenth Muse and Patroness of the Arts and Sciences, whose helmet guards the sacred diadem of the Prince of Purpoole. In addition, the goddess presents helmets to her knight-heroes, hence the Order of the Knights of the Helmet. These helmets were said to bestow invisibility on the wearer as well as being 'will helms' (the derivation of 'William'), meaning 'helmets of strength', a symbolism that has the further cabalistic meaning of righteousness, virtue, clear perception and judgement. All such knights are, metaphorically, spear-shakers or shake-speares, like the Gemini and St George. They are also 'invisible brethren', a term used to describe the Rosicrucian fraternity.

In this entertaining and dramatic way, these Christmas Revels presented Francis Bacon's grand project for the complete reformation of philosophy and regeneration of all arts and sciences, thereby bringing order out of chaos, and knowledge of truth out of ignorance and confused thought. Sadly the last two Grand Nights were cancelled, but there are several indications that on one of those nights it had been intended to perform Love's Labour's Lost.

Royal Entertainments and Reconciliation – Essays

In October 1595 Anthony Bacon moved into Essex House to act, in a voluntary way, as the earl's virtual 'secretary of state'. In November 1595 the Queen formally appointed Coke as Attorney-General and Serjeant Fleming as Solicitor-General. Essex was mortified by this result, feeling it as a matter of pride, and bestowed on Francis a gift of land (assumed to be adjoining Twickenham Park) in recompense for what he felt was his failure to help his friend. Francis was able to raise money on this land to ease his situation, and later he sold it.

For the Queen’s Accession Day celebration on 17 November 1595, Francis wrote The Philautia Device and The Device of the Indian Prince for Essex to perform before Elizabeth, which helped to reconcile her to Essex (who had, thanks to a book published abroad, been under a shadow of suspicion concerning his influence with the Queen upon the matter of succession). As a result the Queen was not only reconciled to both Essex and Francis but she also granted Francis the reversion of the lease of Twickenham Park. A year later (November 1596), Francis was again involved in composing a device for the Accession Day Tournament, this time for Robert Ratcliffe, the fifth Earl of Sussex.

In January 1597 Francis had a book published under his own name of ‘Francis Bacon’ for the first time, this being the first version of his Essays , which he dedicated with affection to his “Loving and beloved Brother”, Anthony, “you that are next myself”. Not only was Anthony Francis' brother, friend, co-writer and partner in Francis' grand scheme, but also Anthony was the main provider of the limited finance available for the brothers to live on and the work to be sponsored.

Courtship – Merchant of Venice – Essex’s Insurgency

Besides his deep brotherly love for Anthony, Francis was enamoured of his cousin, Elizabeth Cecil, one of Burghley's grand-daughters, with whom he had flirted when younger. He continued his friendship with Elizabeth after she was married to Sir William Hatton in 1594, which friendship deepened over the years. When Elizabeth was widowed in 1597 Francis courted her seriously, requesting her hand in marriage. She had been left a very wealthy young woman by her deceased husband, and so marriage with her could bestow a double grace and solve Francis' financial problems. But another disappointment was in store, and once again Sir Edward Coke, now Attorney-General and wealthy, won the day. A romanticised account of this courtship, turned into an allegory, can be seen to underlie the Shakespeare play, The Merchant of Venice , as also the friendship between Francis and Anthony, the difficulties they endured through being forced year after year to raise loans from usurers, and the potential bankruptcy of Anthony on his brother's behalf.

In 1599 trouble between the Queen and Essex flared up dangerously, with Essex consistently acting against the advice of Francis Bacon who, knowing the Queen's wishes, urged Essex not to seek a military position and not to go to Ireland at the head of the English army—both of which Essex nevertheless did. Essex was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on 24 March 1599 and set out for that country at the head of 17,000 troops with orders to put an end to the rebellion led by the Earl of Tyrone.

Just before Essex set out for Ireland, a potentially volatile situation arose, in which the Shakespeare play of Richard II was indirectly involved. A book based on the play had been published by a young doctor of civil law, John Hayward (a friend of both Essex and Francis Bacon), which in its preface likened Essex to Bolingbroke and seemed to exhort Essex to rise up against the Queen and usurp the throne. Hayward was arrested and threatened with torture. Francis was immediately called before the Queen to advise whether it was treasonable, and to explain and sort matters out, which he successfully did. As a result, Hayward, although remaining in prison until James Stuart came to the throne of England, was spared any torture or trial for treason.

Fifteen months later Francis was again involved on the same subject, when Essex was arraigned before the Queen’s Council on a charge of disobeying Her Majesty’s orders in Ireland. Francis, as the Queen’s Counsel, was given the specific role of charging Essex concerning the use of Hayward’s book, a role to which Francis objected, remarking that “it would be said that I gave in evidence mine own tales”.

When all this culminated in February 1601 with Essex’s abortive attempt to raise an armed insurrection against the Queen and her government, which led to his trial for treason and subsequent execution (25 February 1601), the Bacon brothers were devastated. Both of them had been misled for several years by Essex, who had been secretly plotting and preparing his insurrection, and they only learnt the full truth during and after the trial. Moreover, Francis was ordered by the Queen to take part in the trial as her Counsel, to assist the State Prosecutor and protect the Queen's person, which landed him in the unenviable position of spelling out Essex’s guilt. As if these tragic events were not enough, a few months after Essex’s execution Anthony, who had not been well, was reported to have died (27 May 1601). Anthony left many debts, and Francis, who inherited Anthony’s estate (and debts), was only just able to save having to sell Gorhambury.

Once this was all over, the Queen ordered Francis to write the official government account of the trial. After being heavily edited by the Queen and her ministers till it read as an entirely different document to what Francis had first penned, it was published as A Declaration of the Practices and Treasons attempted and committed by Robert late Earle of Essex and his Complices, against her Majestie and her Kingdoms .

King James – Knighthood – King’s Counsel – Marriage

Queen Elizabeth died two years later, on 24 March 1603, and on 25 July 1603 King James VI of Scotland was crowned King James I of England. Anthony Bacon had over the years done some good service for the Scottish king, and so Francis, who pleaded his case as a “concealed poet” who was for the most part one with his brother in “endeavour and duties”, was helped by King James as a result.

First Francis was knighted on 23 July 1603, along with three hundred others at Whitehall, two days before the coronation of King James and his Queen, Anne of Denmark, in Westminster Abbey. Then, a year later, in August 1604, he was confirmed by letters patent as the King’s Counsel Learned Ordinary, with a pension of £40 per annum. He was also appointed as one of the "Commissioners for Suits", who were tasked with examining and refereeing petitions for monopolies (including patents and licenses) of industrial processes, productions and commerce. It was at this time that he started writing the treatises that would form the various parts or “books” of his Great Instauration, including his first version of the first “book”, which was published in October 1605, in English, with the title, Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human .

In 1603 Francis was introduced to Alice Barnham, a wealthy alderman’s daughter, “an handsome maiden,” to whom he took a liking with a view to marriage when she was old enough (she was only eleven years old when they first met). A little over two years later, on 10 May 1606, when she was fourteen and he forty-five, they married in Marylebone Chapel. Bacon wrote two sonnets proclaiming his love for Alice; the first was written during his courtship and the second on his wedding day. At their wedding he was clothed “from top to toe” in purple. She brought with her a dowry of £6000 plus an annual income of £220, which Francis allowed her to keep for herself, whilst he settled on her a further income for life of £500 per annum.

Solicitor-General – Gray’s Inn Treasurer – Virginia Company

On 25 June 1607, the year after his marriage to Alice, Francis was appointed Solicitor-General with a pension of £1000 per annum. This was not a particularly onerous position but one that would leave him enough time to pursue his philosophical and poetic programme, and with funds to pay his “good pens”. In July 1608 the reversion of Clerk of the Star Chamber fell to him at last, which boosted his financial resources even further. On 17 October 1608, he was elected Treasurer of Gray’s Inn, a position he continued to hold for a further nine years (until 26 October 1617). In 1611 he was appointed Judge of the Marshal’s Court and President of the Court of the Verge.

During this early Jacobean period Francis became a founder member of both the Newfoundland Company 10 and the Virginia Company, both of which established colonies in North America. 11 Sitting with him on the Virginia Company council were the Earls of Pembroke, Montgomery and Southampton, amongst others. Francis was partly responsible for drawing up, in 1609 and 1612, the two charters of government for the Virginia Colony, which were the beginnings of constitutionalism in North America and the germ of the later Constitution of the United States of America.

1609 also saw three other important and related events: the death of the magus John Dee, a champion of colonisation and a model for Prospero in the Shakespeare play, The Tempest; the confidential report sent to the Virginia Company council members by William Strachey concerning the shipwreck on the Bermudas of the Company’s flagship, the Sea Adventurer, which provided source material for The Tempest; and the publication of Shake-speares Sonnets with the cryptic dedication page mentioning “The Well-Wishing Adventurer” (a term for a Virginia Company member) and signed with the Masonic “TT”.

On Valentine's Day, 14 February 1613, the marriage of James I's daughter, Princess Elizabeth, to Frederick V, the Elector Palatine, took place in the royal chapel at the Palace of Whitehall. Elaborate celebrations followed, organised by Francis Bacon, which included two masques— The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn , otherwise known as The Marriage of the Rhine and Thames , and The Memorable Masque of the Middle Temple and Lincoln's Inn , otherwise known as The Virginia Masque . Although Francis Beaumont is said to have written The Marriage of the Rhine and Thames , the chief contriver of it was, according to the Lord Chamberlain, Francis Bacon.

Attorney-General – Privy Counsellor – New Method – Masque of Flowers

On 26 October 1613 Francis was appointed as Attorney-General and Chief Advisor to the Crown. As Attorney-General, he became far more fully immersed in the King’s business, with far less time for writing any more. What little time he had for literary matters he mainly devoted to perfecting the writing and presentation of his New Method , the first two books of which were translated into Latin (the international language of his day) and published in 1620 as the Novum Organum .

At the end of 1613 Francis devised, organised and paid for, at enormous cost, a beautiful and elaborate masque, The Masque of Flowers , to celebrate the nuptials of Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, with Frances, Countess of Essex. This was presented at Court on 26 December 1613 by the gentlemen of Gray’s Inn as a unique wedding gift to the couple.

On 9 June 1616 Francis was made a Privy Councillor. That same year he took on a forty-year lease of Canonbury Manor, a fine mansion set in parkland on Islington’s hill, with panoramic views over London and fine oak-panelled rooms decorated with Masonic and Rosicrucian symbolism. This was the year when the “Invisible College” (which eventually gave rise to the Royal Society and other societies, academies and orders, based on Francis’ proposals and inspiration) was reputedly founded. Francis referred to this College in his New Atlantis as “the College of the Six Days’ Work”—Bacon’s whole project or ‘Great Instauration’ being based on his understanding of the biblical Six Days of Creation.

Lord Keeper – Lord Chancellor – Baron Verulam – Viscount St Alban

On 7 March 1617, Francis was appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. Having made this appointment, King James immediately left Francis to act as his temporary regent in England whilst he departed for Scotland for a six-month visit—the first of his reign as King of Great Britain. In the King’s absence, Francis took his place in Chancery with magnificent ceremony and dressed in purple satin, as he was on his wedding day.

Having taken up his new position, Francis worked hard to make up for the delays in Chancery caused by the illness of his predecessor, his old friend Lord Ellesmere, and by the tortuous workings of Chancery generally.

Ten months of hard work later and after Ellesmere’s decease, on 4 January 1618 King James bestowed the honour of Lord High Chancellorship upon Francis Bacon. By this time Francis had moved into York House. This was a home which meant a great deal to Francis and he set about making it into a beautiful mansion, repairing and furnishing it lovingly and lavishly, connecting it by pipe to the City’s main water supply, building an aviary in its gardens, and installing a huge household of servants and retainers dressed in his livery.

On 12 July 1618 his Majesty raised Francis Bacon to the peerage, creating him Baron Verulam of Verulam. Two and a half years later, on 27 January 1621, a week after he had celebrated his 60th birthday with a great banquet at York House, Francis was created Viscount St Alban by the King. Noticeably and uniquely, this title is named after the saint and not the place, St Albans. The investiture took place at Theobalds Palace, Hertfordshire, in a special gathering presided over by the King. Then, on 30 January 1621, Francis Bacon took his seat in the House of Lords as Viscount St Alban, signing himself in letters thereafter as “Francis St Alban”.

The Sacrifice – Last Years – Major Publications

Almost immediately upon receiving the title of Viscount St Alban, at the height of his public glory, a plot which had been hatched against him by those who envied him and his position came to fruition. The result of the plot led to Francis’ impeachment in Parliament (during March-April 1621) on concocted charges of corruption, to which the King, in order to move attention away from the extravagant behaviour of his favourite Buckingham and his own weakness, ordered his Lord Chancellor to offer no defence and to plead guilty. In the notes of his interview with the King, Francis refers to himself as being both as innocent as any babe born upon St. Innocent’s Day and an oblation (sacrificial offering) to his Majesty.

Sentence was given on 3 May 1621. Francis was stripped of his office and banned from holding any further office, place or employment in the State or Commonwealth, or from sitting in Parliament. He was banished from the verge of Court, fined the enormous sum of £40,000 (the equivalent of about £20 million today) and imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Francis' imprisonment at the end of May was, however, brief, and after a few days he was released, although banished from London and commanded to retire to Gorhambury until the King's pleasure should be further known.

On 16 September 1621 King James issued a licence permitting Francis to return to London (but to lodge at Sir John Vaughan’s house, not York House, and only for six weeks), and on 20 September 1621 he assigned the fine of £40,000 to four trustees of Francis’ own choosing, which meant in effect that Francis was freed of its burden. Then, on 12 October 1621, King James signed a warrant for Francis’ pardon. From the historical evidence and the tone of Francis’ letters to Buckingham and the King, this pardoning of Francis would seem to have been because of an agreement Francis had with the King, if he would plead guilty to the charges made against him: but nevertheless the damage was done and as a result Francis Bacon’s good name was and remains to this day tarnished in the eyes of the world.

Francis’ bitter experience was not yet over. Although the King had granted his pardon, the new Lord Keeper, Bishop Williams, delayed putting his seal on it. Eventually it was made known to Francis that the delay was caused by Buckingham, who desired York House for his own purposes. Until Francis surrendered it, he would not be given either his full pardon or his freedom. In mid-March 1622 Francis surrendered York House to Buckingham. Immediately his pardon and freedom arrived, signed, sealed and delivered, and by November his pension and a grant from the petty writs, both of which had been illegally stopped, had been restored to him—but not without him having to borrow money from friends and write to the King as a supplicant in great extremity.

To begin with, sometime at the end of March 1622 Francis moved with his wife and household to a house in Chiswick, but this was only temporary; for by June that year they had taken up residence in Bedford House on the Strand. This now became their London home, whilst Gorhambury (which was in Francis’ ownership, unlike Bedford House which was leased) remained their country abode and family estate.

During his time of banishment from Court and forced retirement at Gorhambury (June 1621–March 1622) Francis was able to spend time on the final planning and organisation of the presentation of his Great Instauration to the world at large, gathering further material for his Natural History (the third part of his Great Instauration) and writing his revised and greatly enlarged final version of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning . This latter work was to represent the first part of the Great Instauration, a portion of the second part (the Novum Organum ) having already been published in 1620. For this he had Ben Jonson to help him, one of his “good pens who forsake me not”. His other remaining “good pens” included George Herbert, Thomas Hobbes, Peter Böener, Dr. William Rawley and Thomas Meautys.

Once back in London the composition and translation into Latin of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning went full steam ahead, although it was not until the autumn of 1623 that it was finally published (as De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum ). The timing of this went hand in hand with the publication of the Shakespeare plays, the printing of which was set in motion early in 1622, probably under the supervision of Ben Jonson, and the publication of which occurred during the last two months of 1623 (as the Folio of William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies ). Francis also busied himself at this time with researching and writing a history of the reign of King Henry VII, as part of his intended collection of histories of the later sovereigns of England, and with making a start on a collection of studies that would comprise his example of a Natural History. Both The History of the Reign of King Henry VII and the first of six essays on natural history ( Historia Ventorum , ‘The History of Winds’) were published in 1622.

Failing to sell Gorhambury, Bedford House had to be given up, as being too expensive to run. This left Gorhambury as their only family home, so that, when in London, Lady Bacon had to rely on staying with family or friends whilst Francis retired to his “cell”, his chambers at Gray’s Inn, where he could carry on with his writings.

Sir Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam of Verulam, Viscount St Alban, eventually died of pneumonia on Easter Day, 9th April 1626, at the Earl of Arundel's house in Highgate. His body was interred in the vault beneath the chancel of St Michael's Church, Gorhambury, St Albans, over which a statue of him in his Lord Chancellor's robes was later erected by Thomas Meautys, his private secretary. Soon after Bacon's death, and seemingly as pre-arranged, Meautys published Francis Bacon's natural history, Sylva Sylvarum , and utopia, New Atlantis , together as “twins”.

Within a few weeks of the death of Lord St Alban (Francis Bacon), a remarkable set of tributes—“tokens of love and memorials of sorrow”—were published in commemoration of him. These tributes, known as the Manes Verulamiani , are in the form of thirty-two Latin poems or elegies plus a preface written by Francis’ private chaplain, Dr William Rawley. The elegies refer to Francis Bacon as having been not only a great philosopher but also a concealed poet and playwright, “the very nerve of genius, the marrow of persuasion, the golden stream of eloquence, the precious gem of concealed literature,” who “immortalised the Muses” and renewed Philosophy “walking humbly in the socks of Comedy” and rising “in the loftier buskin of Tragedy”. He is likened to Apollo, “the brilliant Light-Bearer,” “Daystar of the Muses,” and “leader of our choir”, and to Pallas Athena, the Tenth Muse, “a Muse more rare than the nine Muses.”

© Peter Dawkins, FBRT (latest revision 04/04/2023)

See essay francis bacon' life   for a fuller account., 1. the two families, the cecils and the bacons, maintained close contact with each other and often visited each other’s homes, both in london and in the country. 2. michael maier is alleged to have stated, in a manuscript residing at the university of leiden (or leipzig), that the rosicrucian fraternity of his time was formed c.1570 by followers of heinrich cornelius agrippa von nettesheim, who had founded a secret society in london in 1510 similar to the one in paris, with secret signs of recognition; and that this society gave rise to the brethren of the gold and rosy cross in 1570 and founded corresponding chapters of their society throughout europe. see bricaud, joanny: 'historique du movement rosicrucien,' le voile d'isis, vol. 91, july 1927, pp. 559-574. see also hereward tilton: the quest for the phoenix: spiritual alchemy and rosicrucianism in the work of count michael maier (1569-1622). 3. sir nicholas’ scheme, which he had partly derived from the earlier example of sir thomas more, was the establishment of a special academy in london for the education of the wealthier of the crown wards, to train them for royal service. this involved not only special instruction in french, latin and greek, and in both common and civil law, but also in the necessary courtly arts of music and dancing. in addition practical experience would be obtained by accompanying ambassadors on overseas missions. sir nicholas saw to it that the ‘special academy’ took form in the inns of court, and especially gray’s inn, of which he was an ancient. 4. according to letters patent dated 30th june 1576 held at the record office. 5. edward bacon spent about two years in continental europe. having travelled over to france in the embassy of amias paulet, together with his half-brother, francis bacon, he briefly visited paris and then went on to ravenna and padua in italy. he also spent some time in vienna and remained for a long time at geneva, where he lived in theodore béza’s house and met johannes sturmius and lambert danaeus (who dedicated a book to edward). 6. pleiad was the name given in greek literature to seven tragic poets who flourished during the reign of ptolemy philadelphus (285-247). the name is derived from the pleiades, the cluster of seven bright stars in the constellation of taurus. in france, during the reign of henri iii (1574-89), another group of seven poets, led by pierre de ronsard, took the name of pléiade . their avowed purpose was to improve the french language and literature by imitation of the classics. they were not just poets but also philosophers, humanists, artists and scholars. 7. mentioned in a letter from nicholas faunt to anthony bacon, 6 may 1583 (lambeth palace library ms 647, folio 150, part. 72.) 8. previous to this “extraordinary” appointment, the counsel in ordinary for the crown had been composed of the royal sergeants and the attorney and solicitor general, and only these together with the serjeants had previously been allowed to sit and act within the bar (the precincts of the court room reserved for the judge), while all other lawyers (i.e. utter or outer barristers) sat outside the bar and just in front of the general public. 9. francis bacon, apology in certain imputations concerning the late earl of essex (1604). 10. also known as the london and bristol company. 11. in 1910 newfoundland issued a postage stamp commemorating the ‘tercentenary’ (1610-1910) of the establishment of the first colony. the stamp displays a portrait of “lord bacon” and describes him as "the guiding spirit in colonization scheme.".

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Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon was a British philosopher, scientist, and a lawyer. Having written a number of highly influential works on religion, law, state, science and politics, he was one of the early pioneers of the scientific methodology who created “empiricism” and motivated the scientific revolution.

Bacon’s Early Years

Francis Bacon was born in 1561 to Nicolas Bacon and Anne Cooke Bacon. His father was a popular politician and a Lord Keeper of the Seal. His mother, Anne Bacon, was his father’s second wife. Bacon’s mother was a sister-in-law to Lord Burghley.

Bacon was homeschooled in his younger years. The younger of Nicholas Bacon and Anne Cook’s two sons, Francis Bacon entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1573, when he was 11 years of age. He finished his course of study at the school in 1575. In 1576, he went to Gray’s Inn to study law. However, he found the curriculum at the school to be too old-fashioned.

Bacon’s Educational Years

One year after joining with Gray’s Inn, Bacon dropped out of school to work at the learning institution. He also traveled to France as a part of the British ambassador’s suite. Two years later, he was forced to return to England when his father died. Bacon was 18 years old when his father passed away in 1576, leaving him broke. He turned to his uncle for help in finding a well-paying job as a governor, but his uncle let him down.

Still a teen, Bacon was struggling to find a means of earning a living. After working for a while, he returned to Gray’s Inn to finish his education. By 1582, he was given the position of an outer barrister. While his political career was successful, Bacon had other philosophical and political ambitions. He joined politics but he suffered a major setback because of his objections to raise the military budget, a stand that displeased Queen Elizabeth.

Bacon and Politics

Bacon’s political career falls.

In 1621, Bacon was accused of graft. It is believed that Bacon was set up by his political enemies, and was used as a scapegoat by his opponents. He was charged for accepting bribes and he pleaded guilty to the charges. He was fined 40,000 pounds and sentenced. Fortunately, his fine was lifted and his sentence was reduced. Four days after imprisonment, he walked to freedom at the expense of his reputation as well as his long-standing place in Parliament.

Life after Politics

Bacon retired from politics after the collapse of his political career. He was now able to focus on philosophy. Since childhood, Bacon was determined to transform the face of philosophy. He created a new outline for sciences with the focus on empirical scientific methodologies – methodologies that largely depend on touchable proof.

Unlike many philosophers, his approach placed a lot of emphasis on interaction and experimentation. His new scientific approach entailed collecting data, analyzing it carefully, and carrying out experiments to observe the truths of nature in an organized manner.

Bacon’s Greatest Achievements

Francis Bacon is known as the father of contemporary science. He initiated a huge reformation of each and every process of knowledge. As an inventor of empiricism, he made a set of inductive and empirical methods for setting off scientific inquiry, commonly known now as the Baconian method.

Bacon’s call for a plotted process of addressing issues with an empiricist naturalistic way had a big impact on theoretical and rhetorical framework for science. Also, he served as a philosophical inspiration behind the development of the Industrial Age.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Francis Bacon

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Francis Bacon by David Simpson LAST REVIEWED: 17 October 2022 LAST MODIFIED: 10 March 2015 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396577-0255

Francis Bacon (b. 1561–d. 1626) is one of a select company of philosophers whose works have attracted the critical attention and close scrutiny of major thinkers and leading scholars of every later era. Always a polarizing figure, Bacon’s status and reputation have repeated the same basic pattern (spectacular rise, sharp fall) as his political career. Venerated by one generation only to be disparaged or even demonized in the next, he has been hailed as a founding father of the Enlightenment and as the prophet and architect of the modern industrial state yet has also been blamed, rightly or wrongly, for everything from the rise of consumerism and the triumph of corporate capitalism to the destruction of nature and the rape of the earth. He has received glowing tributes from Ben Jonson, George Herbert, Abraham Cowley, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Denis Diderot, Voltaire, Giambattista Vico, Armand Jean du Plesis Richelieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Darwin, and Friedrich Nietzsche. On the other hand, his critics have included Baruch Spinoza, Joseph de Maistre, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Max Horkheimer, Martin Heidegger, and Herbert Marcuse. Alexander Pope’s blunt assessment—“the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind” (“Essay on Man,” IV)—seems harsh, but it is not atypical. The following article reveals both the bright and dark sides of Bacon’s reputation and legacy and also shows the remarkable range of his genius. The primary emphasis of the article is on Bacon as a philosopher and as a leading figure in the scientific revolution. But it also covers his lasting contributions to the fields of history, literature, law, politics, and government. The sheer scope and variety of Bacon’s interests and achievements have posed a challenge not only to his biographers, but to his bibliographers as well. The difficulty for the bibliographer is, of course, to select the best, most relevant, most useful, and most interesting resources from the immense volume of material currently available either in print or electronic form. Consequently, the main effort here has been to identify both the most important of the old and the most promising of the new—that is, to pay tribute to classic and standard works but also to give proper recognition to provocative or unusual ones; to highlight pioneering or seminal studies but also to give due regard to the most-innovative modern scholarship. Of Bacon, who at a young age famously proclaimed “all knowledge as his province,” and who by the end of his career had indeed achieved a kind of universal expertise, it can truly be said that he was a “Renaissance man” in every sense and that there is virtually no aspect of Renaissance learning or culture that isn’t touched on in his writings. Macaulay, who was merciless in his estimate of Bacon’s moral character, nevertheless aptly summarized his special genius and intellectual distinction: “The art which Bacon taught was the art of inventing arts. The knowledge in which Bacon excelled all men was a knowledge of the mutual relations of all departments of knowledge” (see Macaulay 1848 , cited under Biographies , p. 418).

Students and general readers seeking convenient, concise synopses of Bacon’s career and major writings or accessible, reliable introductions to or summaries of his thought will find the resources listed here of particular interest. Francis Bacon (1561–1626) and Klein 2012 , both online encyclopedia articles, probably offer the quickest and handiest overviews of Bacon’s life and works and provide a good starting point for deeper and more-detailed investigation. Although published over fifty years ago and a bit too admiringly pro-Bacon (the Lord Chancellor is credited not only with fulfilling Aristotle’s ideal of magnanimity but also with possessing the four cardinal and three theological virtues), Anderson 1962 , based on a series of lectures, still qualifies as a useful and dependable guide to Bacon’s life and work. Even more glowing in its estimation of Bacon is Eiseley 1973 and its characterization of the Lord Chancellor as a champion and visionary of modern science and patron of a better world. Though his prose often assumes a decidedly purple hue, Loren Eiseley’s text nevertheless provides an eloquent celebration and exposition of Bacon’s thought and worldview. Peltonen 1996 and Vickers 1968 provide helpful background information and expert commentary on a wide range of pertinent topics. Fattori 2012 is a broad study by a respected Italian scholar.

Anderson, Fulton H. Francis Bacon: His Career and His Thought . Arensberg Lectures. Los Angeles: University of Southern California Press, 1962.

A combination biography and critical commentary on Bacon’s career and major works. Though dated in some respects, still a convenient, reliable, one-volume introduction to Bacon’s life and writings. Republished as recently as 1978 (Westport, CT: Greenwood).

Eiseley, Loren. The Man Who Saw through Time . Scribner Library. New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1973.

A unique and unconventional contribution to Bacon studies—part biography, part commentary, part lyrical tribute and appreciation—by the noted anthropologist, speculative philosopher, poet, and science writer.

Fattori, Marta. Études sur Francis Bacon . Épiméthée. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2012.

An eclectic and wide-ranging study organized around three main topics or themes: (1) Bacon’s reclassification of types of learning on the basis of his account of human mental faculties—especially, memory, imagination, and “wit” ( ingenium ); (2) problems and semantic issues relating to Bacon’s technical vocabulary and use of philosophical terms; and (3) the contemporaneous cultural forces aiding or resisting Bacon’s reputation and the reception of his thought. A French translation of a work originally published in Italian.

Klein, Jürgen. “ Francis Bacon .” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Edited by Edward N. Zalta. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, 2012.

Handy and academically solid online overview and guide to the life and writings.

Peltonen, Markku, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Bacon . Cambridge Companions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

A collection of articles by leading scholars covering most of the major topics in Bacon studies—from speculative philosophy and religion to political philosophy and philosophy of science. With a general introduction and an extensive bibliography.

Simpson, David. “ Francis Bacon (1561–1626) .” In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Edited by James Fieser and Bradley Dowden. Martin: University of Tennessee at Martin.

A brief overview of Bacon’s life and career, with a critical commentary and assessment of his major writings.

Vickers, Brian, ed. Essential Articles for the Study of Francis Bacon . Essential Articles. Hamden, CT: Archon, 1968.

Although arguably less “essential” than when originally published, this collection of classic articles, on topics ranging from jurisprudence and philosophy of science to historiography and prose style, remains a solid and valuable resource.

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Bacon, Francis

Born : 22 January 1561 Strand, London, UK

Died : 9 April 1626 Highgate, UK

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The general aim of Francis Bacon’s philosophy was the reformation of human knowledge, with the intent to put it into practice and use it for the benefit of humankind. He criticized Aristotelian-Scholastic philosophy on the grounds that its method was unable to bring about progress. Bacon’s method of induction was the antidote to the idleness of previous philosophies, and it had a twofold function. First, it was supposed to eradicate the errors and idols from human mind, so that this could become like a polished mirror in which the nature could reflect itself, leading to the cultivation of virtues and elimination of vices. Second, it was supposed to discover the inner structure of matter and its activity. This was done by gradual abstraction and, most important, with the help of experiments. Bacon’s emphasis on experience and the use of experiments as the right tools to be employed in the study of nature was an idea that influenced future generations of philosophers, and it is considered a building stone in the establishment of the societies of knowledge founded in the second half of the seventeenth century. Bacon contended that his method of induction should be employed beyond the study of nature into other disciplines, such as ethics. This enterprise, he believed, would bring about not only knowledge, but also welfare and happiness.

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Francis Bacon: Prophet of Science

Primary literature.

Bacon, Francis. 1859–1874. The Works of Francis Bacon , Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and Lord High Chancellor of England (14 vols.). Collected and edited by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis and Douglas Denon Heath (London: Longman & Co. Facsimile reprint:1961–1963). Stuttgart-Bad Cannsttat: Friedrich Frommann Verlag-Günther Holzboog.

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Francis Bacon

Irish-British Painter

Summary of Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon produced some of the most iconic images of wounded and traumatized humanity in post-war art. Borrowing inspiration from Surrealism , film, photography, and the Old Masters , he forged a distinctive style that made him one of the most widely recognized exponents of figurative art in the 1940s and 1950s. Bacon concentrated his energies on portraiture, often depicting habitues of the bars and clubs of London's Soho neighborhood. His subjects were always portrayed as violently distorted, almost slabs of raw meat, that are isolated souls imprisoned and tormented by existential dilemmas. One of the most successful British painters of the 20 th century, Bacon's reputation was elevated further during the "art world's" widespread return to painting in the 1980s, and after his death he became regarded by some as one of the world's most important painters.

Accomplishments

• Bacon's canvases communicate powerful emotions - whole tableaux seem to scream, not just the people depicted on them. This ability to create such powerful statements were foundational for Bacon's unique achievement in painting.
• Surrealism, and in particular biomorphism , shaped the style of Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944), the work that launched Bacon's reputation when it was exhibited in London in the final weeks of World War II. The work established many of the themes that would occupy the rest of his career, namely humanity's capacity for self-destruction and its fate in an age of global war.
• Bacon established his mature style in the late 1940s when he evolved his earlier Surrealism into an approach that borrowed from depictions of motion in film and photography, in particular the studies of figures in action produced by the early photographer Eadweard Muybridge . From these Bacon not only pioneered new ways to suggest movement in painting, but to bring painting and photography into a more coherent union.
• Although Bacon's success rested on his striking approach to figuration, his attitudes toward painting were profoundly traditional. The Old Masters were an important source of inspiration for him, particularly Diego Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X (c.1650) which Bacon used as the basis for his own famous series of "screaming popes." At a time when many lost faith in painting, Bacon maintained his belief in the importance of the medium, saying of his own working that his own pictures "deserve either the National Gallery or the dustbin, with nothing in between."

Important Art by Francis Bacon

Crucifixion

Crucifixion is the work that first launched Bacon into the public eye, long before the much greater successes of the post-war years. The painting may have been inspired by Rembrandt's Slaughtered Ox (c.1638), but also by Picasso's Surrealist style perhaps sensing this latter connection, Herbert Read, in his book Art Now , illustrated Bacon's Crucifixion adjacent to a Picasso Bather ). The translucent whiteness painted over the bodily frame in Crucifixion adds a ghostly touch to an already unsettling composition, introducing Bacon's obsession with pain and fear. Exhibited at a time when the horrors of the First World War were still remembered, Crucifixion spoke of how brutality had changed the world forever. At the time of writing the picture is owned by Damien Hirst, an artist who has acknowledged a large debt to Bacon.

Murderme Collection, London

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion

Three Studies launched Bacon's reputation in the mid 1940s and shows the importance of biomorphic Surrealism in forging his early style. Bacon may have originally intended to incorporate the figures in a crucifixion, but his reference to the base of such a composition suggests that he imagined them as part of a predella, the scenes at the bottom of a traditional altarpiece. The twisted bodies are all the more frightening for their vaguely familiar human-like forms, which appear to stretch out toward the viewer in pain and supplication. The perspective lines in the background create a shallow space, alluding to captivity and torture. The figures are based upon the Furies, goddesses of revenge from Greek mythology that play an important role in the Oresteia , a three-part tragedy by Aeschylus. Bacon may have been drawn to the play's themes of guilt and obsession. The piece profoundly influenced images of the body in post-war British art.

Oil on board - Collection of the Tate, United Kingdom

The layered images of this enigmatic painting blend into each other, giving it a dreamlike (or nightmarish) quality. From the top, the outstretched wings of a bird skeleton seem to be perched upon a hanging carcass, the latter motif influenced, like Bacon's Crucifixion from 1933, by Rembrandt. In the foreground, a well-dressed man under an umbrella sits in a circular enclosure which might be decorated with more bones and another carcass. The strange, collage-like composition of this work reveals Bacon's method. "The one like a butcher's shop, it came to me as an accident," he once said of the picture. "I was attempting to make a bird alighting on a field. And it may have been bound up in some way with the three forms that had gone before, but suddenly the lines that I'd drawn suggested something totally different, and out of this suggestion rose the picture. I had no intention to do this picture; I never thought of it in that way. It was like one continuous accident mounting on top of another."

Oil and pastel on linen - The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X

Although the figure in this picture derives from a 1650 portrait of Pope Innocent X by Diego Velázquez, Bacon avoided viewing the original painting, preferring to work from reproductions. Once again, he deploys a cage-like frame that surrounds the pope, but also introduces vertical brushing across the surface of the painting, an element he described as a curtain, relating the figure to a precious object requiring a protected space. However, the linear strokes are destructive to the image, and seem more like the bars of a jail cell. The lines almost seem to vibrate, and complementary shades of purple and yellow add to the tension of the composition. About his famous scream, Bacon says, "I didn't do it in the way that I wanted to.... I wanted to make the mouth, with its beauty of its color and everything, look like one of the sunsets or something of Monet." Bacon's own connections to earlier masterpieces are picked up by the reviewer Mary Abbe who wrote: "[F]or all their nastiness and brutality, there is something undeniably beautiful, even serene in these paintings.. Bacon .. achieved a kind of lyricism that makes even his most horrific subjects compatible with the drawing rooms in which many of them hung. Backgrounds of boudoir pink, persimmon, lilac and aqua combine with the calligraphic grace of his fleshy figures in images of stylized elegance."

Oil on canvas - Des Moines Art Center, Iowa

Two Figures

Due to its homosexual overtones, the inaugural exhibition of Two Figures caused an uproar. Drawn from studies of anatomical drawings and Eadweard Muybridge's motion photography, Two Figures is as much an exploration of the body in action as it is a representation of the physical act of love. The two figures entwined in bed are covered by Bacon's "curtain" of striated lines, which both obstructs the view and enhances the movement of the figures. Instead of evoking the romance of a nighttime rendezvous, the dark colors of the painting allude to a more sinister encounter. Moreover, it is widely believed that Bacon was a masochist (potentially as a result of his father's early cruelty) and he often painted the abuse that he was exposed to in his aggressive relationships.

Oil on canvas - Private Collection

Portrait of George Dyer Crouching

Bacon was in his 60s when he met the young George Dyer. Their relationship, although romantic, always had the sense of a father-son dynamic. Dyer was constantly in need of attention and reassurance, and the naked embryonic form kneeling precariously on a ledge expresses his vulnerability. The circular sofa, however, surrounds him in a protective embrace. Uncharacteristically, the coloring is light and subdued, although the red and green highlights hint at an inner struggle. Dyer suffered from a lifelong addiction to drugs and alcohol, which is alluded to by the painted figure looking downward into a central abyss.

Biography of Francis Bacon

Born in Dublin, Francis Bacon was named after his famous ancestor, the English philosopher and scientist. His father, Edward, served in the army and later took a job in the War Office during World War I. In an interview with critic David Sylvester, Bacon attributed the connotations of violence in his paintings to the turbulent circumstances of his early life. A British regiment was stationed near his childhood home, and he remembered constantly hearing soldiers practicing maneuvers. Naturally, his father's position in the War Office alerted him to the threat of violence at an early age. Returning to Dublin after the war, he came of age amidst the early campaigns of the Irish nationalist movement.

Young Francis had little formal education due to his severe asthma and the family's frequent traveling for Edward's post. Bacon's mother, Christina, lived the life of a socialite, and with his father away at work, Francis was often left to his own devices. Although he had four siblings, Bacon had a close relationship with his nanny, Jessie Lightfoot, who later came to live with him for many years in London (the elderly lady may have been very important help to the self-destructive Bacon).

Family relations became more abusive as Bacon dealt with his emerging homosexuality - the young artist was harshly disciplined by his father (his father had him whipped by stable boys, who were also involved in Bacon's first sexual experiences). He was finally expelled from the house in 1926 after his father caught him trying on his mother's clothing. Surviving on a small allowance, Bacon lived the life of a vagrant, traveling around London, Berlin, and Paris. Despite his father's hopes, the change of scenery only freed Bacon to further explore his sexual identity; his time in Berlin proved particularly important in this regard and was later remembered by him as one of emotional awakening.

Early Training

Bacon moved into a London apartment in the late 1920s and became involved with interior and furniture design. One of his patrons, the artist Roy de Maistre, became a mentor to Bacon and encouraged him to take up oil painting. Bacon modeled his early work after Picasso and the Surrealists , whose work he had seen on a trip to Paris. In 1933, Bacon exhibited Crucifixion , a skeletal black and white composition that already radiated the overtones of pain and fear that would become typical of his later work. The painting was simultaneously published in Herbert Read's book Art Now , and was quickly purchased by Sir Michael Sadler . Encouraged by his success, Bacon organized an exhibition of his own art the following year, but it received little attention. His paintings were also surveyed for inclusion in the International Surrealist Exhibition, organized by Herbert Read, but were rejected for not being surrealist enough. Discouraged, Bacon returned to a drifter's lifestyle. He destroyed the majority of his work from before 1943, and only fifteen pieces from this early period have survived.

Due to his asthma, Bacon was unable to join the armed forces during WWII. He was accepted as a member of the Air Raid Precaution sector, which involved non-military search and rescue, only to be discharged when he fell ill from the dust and rubble. "If I hadn't been asthmatic, I might never have gone onto painting at all," he admitted. After the war, he took up painting with a renewed passion, regarding Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944) as the true beginning of his work. The long necks, snapping mouths and contorted bodies featured in the painting express horror and suffering, a forceful commentary on the aftermath of the war. Bacon modeled the figures after photos of animals in motion, showing an early interest in the movement of the body that became a strong theme in his later painting. During its exhibition at Lefevre Gallery critics were mostly shocked by the blatant imagery, but the numerous reviews put Bacon into the spotlight.

Mature Period

His breakout success at the 1944 exhibition gained him further opportunities to show with Lefevre. Graham Sutherland , a friend and fellow exhibitor, also recommended him to the director of Hanover Gallery, where Bacon had his first solo exhibition in 1949. For this show Bacon painted a series entitled Heads , significant for being the first series to introduce two important motifs: the first was the scream, derived from a film still drawn from Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin in which an injured schoolteacher is shown screaming (probably in pain); the second is Diego Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X (c.1650), a painting Bacon only knew through reproductions (and which he would always maintain never to have seen in the original). The Heads series also made greater use of enclosing devices that suggest a pervasive sense of claustrophobia and anxiety, in this instance a shallow cage-like outline which Bacon had also employed in Three Studies from 1944.

In 1952 Bacon began one of his most powerful relationships, with the ex -WWII fighter pilot Peter Lacy. Lacy was attractive, well-bred, and highly self-destructive. The two had a powerful and violent relationship - on one drunken occasion Lacy threw Bacon through a window and the artist suffered a large number of (minor) injuries. Through various escapades and foreign rendevous (with both men enjoying a variety of sexual partners in between their time together) their relationship deteriorated by 1958. A number of his relationships, and especially the many close years with Lucian Freud are discussed in Sebastian Smee's book "The Art of Rivalry".

In 1953, Hanover held an exhibition of Bacon's paintings that included Two Figures , a depiction of two men embracing in bed, an image that created a huge scandal. The composition was based upon photographs taken by the Victorian photographer Eadweard Muybridge . He said "The thing is, unless you look at those Muybridge figures with a magnifying glass, it's very difficult to see whether they're wrestling or having sex." In fact, Bacon often preferred to work from photographs, relying on his friend John Deakin to take pictures of his subjects, but he was fascinated by Muybridge's attempts to capture and record bodies in motion. Bacon kept a collection of Muybridge's books in his studio as a constant source of reference, and even suggested that his intensive study of these sequential photographs triggered his own interest in working in series.

Bacon's tendency to derive inspiration from personal experiences also attracted him to portraiture. He often painted close friends ( Lucian Freud , Isabel Rawsthorne , Michel Leiris ), and the results convey a striking emotional and psychological intensity. One of Bacon's most famous subjects was his friend and lover George Dyer , who he met in 1964. During the course of their relationship, Bacon executed numerous portraits of Dyer that juxtaposed a strong musculature with a feeling of vulnerability, as in Portrait of George Dyer Crouching (1966), suggesting an affectionate yet protective attitude toward the younger man. Dyer suffered from alcoholism and episodes of depression, ultimately committing suicide on the night before Bacon's first retrospective in France in 1971.

Late Years and Death

After the Paris exhibition Bacon moved increasingly toward self-portraiture, claiming, "people around me have been dying like flies and there is nothing else to paint but myself." Continuing to work steadily, he also completed a number of paintings in tribute to Dyer's memory. Many of these took the form of large format triptychs, including the well-regarded "Black triptych" series that recounted the details of Dyer's passing. In 1973, Bacon became the first contemporary English artist to have a major exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His work was exhibited internationally throughout the later years of his life, including retrospectives at the Hirshhorn and the Tate Gallery. In the mid 1970s, Bacon met John Edwards , who replaced both Dyer and Deakin as Bacon's constant companion and photographer. In his last years, Bacon retreated from his formerly boisterous social life, focusing on his work and the platonic relationship with Edwards. He died of a heart attack in Madrid at the age of 81.

The Legacy of Francis Bacon

Bacon's unique interpretations and the intensely personal nature of his work make it difficult to visually trace his influence in contemporary art. Nevertheless, his paintings have inspired some of the most standout artists of this generation, including Julian Schnabel and Damien Hirst .

John Edwards, who inherited the estate, played an important role in promoting Bacon's work until his death in 2003. He was responsible for the donation of Bacon's studio to the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in Dublin, and this was turned into a permanent exhibition and research archive.

Influences and Connections

Useful Resources on Francis Bacon

• Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma Our Pick By Michael Peppiatt
• Francis Bacon Our Pick By John Russell
• The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon By Daniel Farson
• The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art Our Pick By Sebastian Smee
• Interviews with Francis Bacon: The Brutality of Fact Our Pick By David Sylvester
• Francis Bacon: In Coversation with Michel Archimbaud By Michel Archimbaud
• Francis Bacon Edited by Matthew Gale and Chris Stephens
• Francis Bacon: Commitment And Conflict By Wieland Schmied
• The Estate of Francis Bacon
• Sacred Monster Our Pick By Jerry Saltz / New York Magazine / May 17, 2009
• Francis Bacon: behind the myth By Rebecca Daniels / The Telegraph / August 16, 2008
• The Dualist: Francis Bacon By David Cohen / Art in America / January 1, 1997
• Francis Bacon and the Brutality of Fact Our Pick Trailer for Michael Blackwood's professional documentary of the artist
• Francis Bacon documentary by David Hinton Our Pick
• How Christopher Nolan Was Inspired by Francis Bacon Tate productions: film director Christopher Nolan reveals how paintings by artist Francis Bacon inspired the Joker's smeared make-up in 'The Dark Knight'.
• Audio clips of Francis Bacon from the BBC Archive
• "Love Is the Devil" is a 1998 biopic that focuses on Bacon's relationship with George Dyer Directed by John Maybury, the movie is based on "The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon" by Daniel Farson
• Album Cover Prosanctus Inferi, a death metal band, uses a detail of Francis Bacon work Head I for the cover of their 2010 album, "Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitation."

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Francis Bacon

A short biography of francis bacon.

Francis Bacon was born on 22 nd of January, 1561 in London. Bacon worked as attorney general and Lord Chancellor of England resigning after he was found guilty of bribery. This unfortunate twist in his life brought him together with his true passions i.e. Humanism and natural philosophy. Francis Bacon was an English man who was inclined towards the age of Renaissance and arts. He negated the old fashioned traditions of teachings and believed in the newness of the age. His inspirations revolved around the Aristotelian ideas of philosophical quest. Bacon negated the Aristotelianism and idealized the new teachings of renaissance humanism. He observed the world through the lens of empiricism.

He believed that one needs to experience the reality of existence in order to completely understand life. This is known to be Francis Bacon’s method of understanding science and humanity. Francis Bacon was given the title “Father of Scientific method” . In the literary world Bacon is remembered as an all-rounder.  He was a lawyer, statesman and a philosopher. Francis Bacon is remembered as a source of wisdom in the literary world.

Bacon teaches a certain principles of science in order to understand life and the world we live in we have to experience the life by living it. He stated this as the empirical scientific method. According to him this scientific method will shed light upon the important characteristics of the nature that would “eventually disclose and bring into sight all that is most hidden and secret in the universe.”

Francis Bacon’s Writing Style

Francis Bacon being an all-rounder wrote in a way that was suitable for every profession. He understood the multidimensional society very well.

Bacon often wrote for the court during his career as a statesman and counsel. In the ear 1584 Francis Bacon wrote his first political memorandum, a letter of advice to Queen Elizabeth. He even wrote a speech for entertainment purpose in the year 1592 to celebrate the anniversary of queen’s coronation. The year 1597 was the year when Bacon’s first publication, a collection of essays about politics came into the literary world. The collection was later extended and republished in 1612 and 1625.

He wrote in prose style that fitted every profession. Bacon’s take on different aspects of life such as Love, Truth and religion is evident in the literary world. The way Bacon adapted to the society around him is marvelous and a very evident feature of his writing style. Bacon stands out in the literary world due to his unique approach towards thinking.

In England three types of thought triumphed in the late 16th century: the Aristotelian teachings and Scholasticism, intellectual and aesthetic humanism, and occultism. Aristotle is considered as the epitome of knowledge and wisdom. He contributed his genius in different spheres of life and the world. In England Aristotle remained the master of philosophical teachings, despite the criticism of Aristotle’s theory of logics.

Bacon grew up studying Aristotle’s philosophical teachings. The desire of finding answers led him to understand life closely with a different prism. Opposing the Aristotelian teachings Bacon came up with his philosophical approach of trying to understand life closely by experiencing different situations. Bacon simplifies the philosophical approach for a man to understand properly. His writing is direct and to the point. His style of writing prose is easily understandable for example, in “Of Studies,” he writes “Crafty men condemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them.” This phrase by Francis Bacon doesn’t require of any analysis in order to understand the meaning. His writings are self-explanatory and that proves his genius in the literary world. Bacon writes in a systematic way, without wasting his words on unnecessary information. His writings showcase how he moves logically from on subject to another.

He is considered as one of the most important Empiricists in the philosophical as well as literary world. He takes up his ideas after experiencing from life and observing it closely. For example in his essay “Of Love,” he showcases the reality of this emotion that is not just a fantasy but comprises of both good and bad attributes. He puts forth a clear vision regarding different subjects of life. Bacon’s take on life is unique and interesting as his essays are an amalgamation of both Greek and Latin phrases. A person who is decently educated would be able to understand his essays as well as the homey imagery took out from everyday life. He deliberately writes in this manner so that he reaches out to the masses equally. Be it highly educated or moderately educated. Bacon was attracted by the beauty of the nature. He merged the beauty and knowledge of nature in a manner which allows the reader to have a multidimensional vision of his teachings.

Another very important phenomenon of Bacon’s life was the teachings of occultism that is the quest of mystical parallels between man and the cosmos. It allows an individual to understand the magical elements possessed in the world by relating it to the reality. Bacon himself is known to be an occultist. His teachings revolve around the “natural magic” that the nature possesses. He provokes his readers to be vigilant on their surroundings and observe the nature closely. One should open the inner eye to feel the magical attributes of the world. Bacon believed that the human mind is fit enough to possess the worldly knowledge and must strive to decipher the knowledge by keeping an observing eye open. Even though Bacon’s literary works covered quite an extensive range of topics, all of his writings have one thing in common i.e. Bacon’s desire to make an impact through his teachings and research. He wanted to change the system of old fashion education. He believed that tradition can breathe in the air of modernity; a little acceptance is all that is required.

Bacon states “true directions concerning the interpretation of nature,” in other words he is trying to make his reader understand that the method of acquiring true knowledge is by observing and understanding the nature. Bacon researched and gathered knowledge keeping in mind the next generations. He modified the old fashion knowledge into an accessible mode of knowledge.

In the first book of Novum Organum Bacon debates the reasons of human flaw in the quest of knowledge. Earlier Aristotle discussed logical fallacies, usually found in human rationality, but Bacon was unique in observing the methods of reasoning. He invented the metaphor of “idol” to state such causes of human flaw.

Bacon played an important role as a linguist in the literary world. Language is the means of understanding the world around us. Language, like other human accomplishments, partakes of human limitations. This aspect of Bacon’s thought has been almost as persuasive as his account of natural knowledge, inspiring a long tradition of cynical rationalism, from the Enlightenment.

Bacon lived in a time when new worlds were being discovered on Earth. He negated the perception that everything is either revealed by religion or Aristotle. He challenged the grand narrative of religion and researched himself to find answers. Bacon protected the study of nature against those who measured it as either improper or perilous. He argued for a supportive and systematic method against individualism and instinct. Today Bacon is known among great philosophers as an emblem of the notion that is widely held to be misunderstood, that science is inductive.

Works Of Francis Bacon

• Of Adversity
• Of Ambition
• Of Discourse
• Of Followers and Friends
• Of Friendship
• Of Great Place
• Of Marriage and Single Life
• Of Nobility
• Of Parents and Children
• Of Simulation and Dissimulation
• Of Superstition
• Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature

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51 Francis Bacon: Essays

Introduction.

by Mary Larivee and Rithvik Saravanan

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), the English philosopher, was instrumental in the development of the Scientific Revolution in the late 18th century even though he had passed away centuries before.  The “Scientific Revolution” was an important movement that emphasized Europe’s shift toward modernized science in fields such as mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, and chemistry (Grant). It was an extension of the Renaissance period, which then led to the Enlightenment which brought advances across all areas of human endeavor. Francis Bacon, in particular, is remembered today primarily for the “scientific method” as a way of establishing what is true from what is false perception (a method that still lies at the heart of modern science). Bacon’s primary focus in his writings revolved around the practice of inductive reasoning, which he believed to be a complement to practical observation (Grant). Most people before this period followed the Aristotelian methodology for scientific arguments. This idea maintained that “if sufficiently clever men discussed a subject long enough, the truth would eventually be discovered” (“History – Francis Bacon.”). However irrational this sounds, the Scientific Revolution helped replace this outdated system of thinking with Bacon’s scientific method. Bacon argued that any proper argument required “evidence from the real world” (“History – Francis Bacon.”). His revolutionary ideas about empirical information helped propel him toward political and societal importance and fame.

Literary Context

Francis Bacon had a passion for metaphors, analogies, and vivid imagery. He was a rhetorical writer and his essays highlight his wisdom and incisive mind. His first book was released in 1597 followed by later editions with added essays that were released in 1612 and 1625. Each essay that Bacon wrote reveals his knowledge of Latin and draws on ancient Roman wisdom through axioms and proverbs. Additionally, Bacon uses wit as a way of getting his point across to his audience and this indeed causes the reader to reflect on his or her own beliefs and values. A key aspect of Bacon’s literature is its “terseness and epigrammatic force” (De). By managing to pack all of his thoughts and ideas into quick, brief statements, Bacon deepens the reach and impact of his work. His writing deviated from the typical Ciceronian style of the time, which was characterized by “melodious language, clarity, and forcefulness of presentation” (“Ciceronian.”). His statements are meaningful particularly because they are straight and to the point. The brevity of his ideas also facilitates the communication of his arguments, which is significant because, at the time, a solid, meaningful education was hard to come by. As such, Bacon’s work helped spread the notions that would eventually bear fruit with the discoveries of the Scientific Revolution.

Historical Context

Francis Bacon’s Essays cover a wide variety of topics and styles, ranging from individual to societal issues and from commonplace to existential. Another important aspect of the appeal of Bacon’s essays are that they weigh the argument at hand with multiple points of view. Bacon’s essays were received at the time with great praise, adoration, and reverence (Potter). He was noted for borrowing ideas from the works of historical writers such as Aristotle (Harmon), and, as such, he represents a continuation of this philosophical school of thought. Another important impact of the Scientific Revolution and Bacon’s literature is that it allowed common people of the era to question old, traditional beliefs. They began to consider everything with reason, which led to a greater sense of self as well as moral and ethical standards. By having the opportunity to judge for themselves, the people were able to advance society a step closer to a form of democracy.

Francis Bacon Essays is a collection of eight of the famous philosopher’s many essays. Each dissertation contains words of wisdom that have proven to be enlightening for many generations that followed. From “Truth” to “Of Superstition” and “Marriage and Single Life”, Bacon covers a wide range of intriguing topics in order to challenge the human mind to think deeply; as he himself writes: “Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider” (Bacon). The philosopher not only provides a framework for the genre of the modern essay but also provides his readers a code to live by.

Works Cited

“Ciceronian.” Dictionary.com , n.d., www.dictionary.com/browse/ciceronian. 23 Oct. 2020.

De, Ardhendu. “Rhetorical Devices as Used by Francis Bacon in His Essays.” A.D.’s English Literature: Notes and Guide , 07 Apr. 2011, ardhendude.blogspot.com/2011/04/rhetorical-devices-used-by-francis.html. Accessed 23 Oct. 2020.

Grant, Edward. The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional, and Intellectual Contexts . Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Harmon, William. The Oxford Book of American Light Verse. Oxford University Press, 1979.

“History – Francis Bacon.” History , British Broadcasting Corporation, 2014, www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/bacon_francis.shtml. Accessed 24 Oct. 2020.

Potter, Vincent G. Readings in Epistemology: from Aquinas, Bacon, Galileo, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant. Fordham University Press, 1993.

Discussion Questions

• Why do you think Francis Bacon chose to enlighten and inspire his readers as opposed to other writers of his time who focused more on classic folklore tales?
• Why do you think Francis Bacon choose the topics that he did? Who or what do you think had a major influence on his writings?
• What are the goals and intentions behind Bacon’s use of rhetorical questioning?
• What are some common themes and ideas from Francis Bacon’s Essays that can be applied to general situations and contemporary society?
• From the ideas presented in this reading, how do you think Francis Bacon’s work affected government policies throughout history, including modern day governmental standards?

Further Resources

• Detailed biography of Franics Bacon’s life
• Analytical article of Francis Bacon’s impact on the Scientific Revolution
• List of Francis Bacon’s most significant accomplishments
• Compilation of Francis Bacon’s literature
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Francis Bacon
• Discussion video of Francis Bacon’s “Of Studies”

Reading: From Essayes

I. of truth..

What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that delight in giddiness; and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursive wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labour which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men’s thoughts, that doth bring lies in favour, but a natural though corrupt love of the lie itself. One of the later schools of the Grecians examineth the matter, and is at a stand to think what should be in it, that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure, as with poet; nor for advantage, as with the mer chant, but for the lie’s sake. But I cannot tell: this same truth is a naked and open daylight, that doth not show the masks, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candlelights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day, but it will not rise to the price of a diamond or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men’s minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves? One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy “vinum dæmonum,”; because it filleth the imagination, and yet it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt, such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus in men’s depraved judgments and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth, that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense: the last was the light of reason; and his Sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First, he breathed light upon the face of the matter, or chaos; then he breathed light into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his chosen. The poet that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well: “It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth, (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene,) and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests in the vale below:” so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man’s mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.

To pass from theological and philosophical truth, to the truth of civil business; it will be acknowledged even by those that practise it not, that clean and round dealing is the honour of man’s nature, and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. For these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent; which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious; and therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge, saith he, “If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much as to say, that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man.” Surely the wickedness of falsehood and breach of faith cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men: it being foretold, that when “Christ cometh,” he shall not “find faith upon the earth.”

VIII. OF MARRIAGE AND SINGLE LIFE.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men; which, both in affection and means, have married and endowed the public. Yet it were great reason that those that have children should have greatest care of future times, unto which they know they must transmit their dearest pledges. Some there are, who, though they lead a single life, yet their thoughts do end with themselves, and account future times impertinences; nay, there are some other that account wife and children but as bills of charges; nay more, there are some foolish rich covetous men, that take a pride in having no children, because they may be thought so much the richer; for, perhaps, they have heard some talk, “Such an one’s a great rich man” and another except to it. “Yea, but he hath a great charge of children;” as if it were an abatement to his riches: but the most ordinary cause of a single life is liberty, especially in certain self-pleasing and humorous minds, which are so sensible of every restraint, as they will go near to think heir girdles and garters to be bonds and shackles. Unmarried men are best friends, best masters, best servants; but not always best subjects; for they are light to run away; and almost all fugitives are of that condition. A single life doth well with churchmen, for charity will hardly water the ground where it must first fill a pool. It is indifferent for judges and magistrates; for if they be facile and corrupt, you shall have a servant five times worse than a wife. For soldiers, I find the generals commonly, in their hortatives, put men in mind of their wives and children; and I think the despising of marriage among the Turks maketh the vulgar soldier more base. Certainly wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity; and single men, though they may be many times more charitable, because their means are less exhaust, yet, on the other side, they are more cruel and hardhearted, (good to make severe inquisitors,) because their tenderness is not so oft called upon. Grave natures, led by custom, and therefore constant, are commonly loving husbands, as was said of Ulysses, “vetulam suam prætulit immortalitati.” Chaste women are often proud and froward, as presuming upon the merit of their chastity. It is one of the best bonds, both of chastity and obedience, in the wife, if she think her husband wise; which she will never do if she find him jealous. Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men’s nurses; so as a man may have a quarrel to marry when he will: but yet he was reputed one of the wise men, that made answer to the question when a man should marry:—”A young man not yet, an elder man not at all.” It is often seen, that bad husbands have very good wives; whether it be that it raiseth the price of their husband’s kindness when it comes, or that the wives take a pride in their patience; but this never fails, if the bad husbands were of their own choosing, against their friends consent, for then they will be sure to make good their own folly.

XI. OF GREAT PLACE.

Men in great place are thrice servants; servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business; so as they have no freedom, neither in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their times. It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man’s self. The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains; and it is sometimes base, and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall, or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing: “Cum non sis qui fueris, non esse cur velis vivere.” Nay, retire men cannot when they would, neither will they when it were reason; but are impatient of privateness even in age and sickness, which require the shadow: like old townsmen, that will be still sitting at their street door, though thereby they offer age to scorn. Certainly great persons had need to borrow other men’s opinions to think themselves happy; for if they judge by their own feeling, they cannot find it: but if they think with themselves what other men think of them, and that other men would fain be as they are, then they are happy as it were by report, when, perhaps, they find the contrary within; for they are the first that find their own griefs, though they be the last that find their own faults. Certainly men in great fortunes are strangers to themselves, and while they are in the puzzle of business they have no time to tend their health either of body or mind: “Illi mors gravis incubat, qui notus nimis omnibus, ignotus moritur sibi.” In place there is license to do good and evil; whereof the latter is a curse: for in evil the best condition is not to will; the second not to can. But power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring; for good thoughts (though God accept them,) yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act; and that cannot be without power and place, as the vantage and commanding ground. Merit and good works is the end of man’s motion; and conscience of the same is the accomplishment of man’s rest; for if a man can be partaker of God’s theatre, he shall likewise be partaker of God’s rest: “Et conversus Deus, ut aspiceret opera, quaæ fecerunt manus suæ, vidit quod omnia essent bona nimis;” and then the sabbath. In the discharge of the place set before thee the best examples; for imitation is a globe of precepts; and after a time set before thine own example; and examine thyself strictly whether thou didst not best at first. Neglect not also the examples of those that have carried themselves ill in the same place; not to set off thyself by taxing their memory, but to direct thyself what to avoid. Reform, therefore, without bravery or scandal of former times and persons; but yet set it down to thyself, as well to create good precedents as to follow them. Reduce things to the first institution, and observe wherein and how they have degenerated; but yet ask counsel of both times; of the ancienter time what is best; and of the latter time what is fittest. Seek to make thy course regular, that men may know be forehand what they may expect; but be not too positive and peremptory; and express thyself well when thou digressest from thy lure. Preserve the right of thy place, but stir not questions of jurisdiction; and rather assume thy right in silence, and “de facto,” than voice it with claims and challenges. Preserve likewise the rights of inferior places; and think it more honour to direct in chief than to be busy in all. Embrace and invite helps and advices touching the execution of thy place; and do not drive away such as bring thee information as meddlers, but accept of them in good part. The vices of authority are chiefly four; delays, corruption, roughness, and facility. For delays give easy access: keep times appointed; go through with that which is in hand, and interlace not business but of necessity. For corruption, do not only bind thine own hands or thy servant’s hands from taking, but bind the hands of suitors also from offering; for integrity used doth the one; but integrity professed, and with a manifest detestation of bribery, doth the other; and avoid not only the fault, but the suspicion. Whosoever is found variable, and changeth manifestly without manifest cause, giveth suspicion of corruption; therefore, always when thou changest thine opinion or course, profess it plainly, and declare it, together with the reasons that move thee to change, and do not think to steal it. A servant or a favourite, if he be inward, and no other apparent cause of esteem, is commonly thought but a by-way to close corruption. For roughness, it is a needless cause of discontent; severity breedeth fear, but roughness breedeth hate. Even reproofs from authority ought to be grave, and not taunting. As for facility, it is worse than bribery; for bribes come but now and then; but if importunity or idle respects lead a man, he shall never be without; as Solomon saith, “To respect persons is not good, for such a man will transgress for a piece of bread.” It is most true that was anciently spoken, “A place showeth the man; and it showeth some to the better and some to the worse;” “omnium consensu capax imperii, nisi imperasset,” saith Tacitus of Galba; but of Vespasian he saith, “solus imperantium, Vespasianus mutatus in melius;” though the one was meant of sufficiency, the other of manners and affection. It is an assured sign of a worthy and generous spirit, whom honour amends; for honour is, or should be, the place of virtue; and as in nature things move violently to their place and calmly in their place, so virtue in ambition is violent, in authority settled and calm. All rising to great place is by a winding stair; and if there be factions, it is good to side a man’s self whilst he is in the rising, and to balance himself when he is placed. Use the memory of thy predecessor fairly and tenderly; for if thou dost not, it is a debt will sure be paid when thou art gone. If thou have colleagues, respect them; and rather call them when they looked not for it, than exclude them when they have reason to look to be called. Be not too sensible or too remembering of thy place in conversation and private answers to suitors; but let it rather be said, “When he sits in place he is another man.”

XVII. OF SUPERSTITION.

It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such an opinion as is unworthy of him; for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely; and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Plutarch saith well to that purpose: “Surely,” saith he, “I had rather a great deal men should say there was no such man at all as Plutarch, than that they should say that there was one Plutarch, that would eat his children as soon as they were born:” as the poets speak of Saturn: and, as the contumely is greater towards God, so the danger is greater towards men. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men: therefore atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no further, and we see the times inclined to atheism (as the time of Augustus Cæsar) were civil times: but superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new “primum mobile,” that ravisheth all the spheres of government. The master of superstition is the people, and in all superstition wise men follow fools; and arguments are fitted to practice, in a reversed order. It was gravely said, by some of the prelates in the council of Trent, where the doctrine of the schoolmen bare great sway, that the schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics and epicycles, and such engines of orbs to save phenomena, though they knew there were no such things; and, in like manner, that the schoolmen had framed a number of subtle and intricate axioms and theorems, to save the practice of the church. The causes of superstition are, pleasing and sensual rites and ceremonies; excess of outward and pharisaical holiness; over great reverence of traditions, which cannot but load the church; the stratagems of prelates for their own ambition and lucre; the favouring too much of good intentions, which openeth the gate to conceits and novelties; the taking an aim at divine matters by human, which cannot but breed mixture of imaginations; and, lastly, barbarous times, especially joined with calamities and disasters. Superstition, without a veil, is a deformed thing: for as it addeth deformity to an ape to be so like a man, so the similitude of superstition to religion makes it the more deformed: and, as wholesome meat corrupteth to little worms, so good forms and  orders corrupt into a number of petty observances. There is a superstition in avoiding superstition, when men think to do best if they go furthest from the superstition formerly received; therefore care would be had that (as it fareth in ill purgings) the good be not taken away with the bad, which commonly is done when the people is the reformer.

XXXIII. OF PLANTATIONS.

Plantations are amongst ancient, primitive, and heroical works. When the world was young, it begat more children; but now it is old, it begets fewer; for I may justly account new plantations to be the children of former kingdoms. I like a plantation in a pure soil; that is, where people are not displanted to the end to plant in others; for else it is rather an extirpation than a plantation. Planting of countries is like planting of woods; for you must make account to lose almost twenty years profit, and expect your recompense in the end: for the principal thing that hath been the destruction of most plantations, hath been the base and hasty drawing of profit in the first years. It is true, speedy profit is not to be neglected, as far as may stand with the good of the plantation, but no further. It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people and wicked condemned men, to be the people with whom you plant; and not only so, but it spoileth the plantation; for they will ever live like rogues, and not fall to work, but be lazy, and do mischief, and spend victuals, and be quickly weary, and then certify over to their country to the discredit of the plantation. The people wherewith you plant ought to be gardeners, ploughmen, labourers, smiths, carpenters, joiners, fishermen, fowlers, with some few apothecaries, surgeons, cooks, and bakers. In a country of plantation, first look about what kind of victual the country yields of itself to hand; as chestnuts, walnuts, pineapples, olives, dates, plums, cherries, wild honey, and the like, and make use of them. Then consider what victual, or esculent things there are which grow speedily and within the year: as parsnips, carrots, turnips, onions, radish, artichokes of Jerusalem, maize, and the like: for wheat, barley, and oats, they ask too much labour; but with pease and beans you may begin, both because they ask less labour, and because they serve for meat as well as for bread; and of rice likewise cometh a great increase, and it is a kind of meat. Above all, there ought to be brought store biscuit, oatmeal, flour, meal, and the like, in the beginning, till bread may be had. For beasts, or birds, take chiefly such as are least subject to diseases, and multiply fastest; as swine, goats, cocks, hens, turkeys, geese, house-doves, and the like. The victual in plantations ought to be expended almost as in a besieged town; that is, with certain allowance: and let the main part of the ground employed to gardens or corn, be to a common stock; and to be laid in, and stored up, and then delivered out in proportion; besides some spots of ground that any particular person will manure for his own private use. Consider, likewise, what commodities the soil where the plantation is doth naturally yield, that they may some way help to defray the charge of the plantation; so it be not, as was said, to the untimely prejudice of the main business, as it hath fared with tobacco in Virginia. Wood commonly aboundeth but too much: and therefore timber is fit to be one. If there be iron ore, and streams whereupon to set the mills, iron is a brave commodity where wood aboundeth. Making of bay-salt, if the climate be proper for it, would be put in experience: growing silk likewise, if any be, is a likely commodity: pitch and tar, where store of firs and pines are, will not fail; so drugs and sweet woods, where they are, cannot but yield great profit; soap-ashes likewise, and other things that may be thought of; but moil not too much under ground, for the hope of mines is very uncertain and useth to make the planters lazy in other things. For government, let it be in the hands of one, assisted with some counsel; and let them have commission to exercise martial laws, with some limitation; and, above all, let men make that profit of being in the wilderness, as they have God always, and his service before their eyes; let not the government of the plantation depend upon too many counsellors and undertakers in the country that planteth, but upon a temperate number; and let those be rather noblemen and gentle men, than merchants; for they look ever to the present gain: let there be freedoms from custom, till the plantation be of strength; and not only freedom from custom, but freedom to carry their commodities where they may make their best of them, except there be some special cause of caution. Cram not in people, by sending too fast, company after company; but rather hearken how they waste, and send supplies proportionably; but so as the number may live well in the plantation, and not by surcharge be in penury. It hath been a great endangering to the health of some plantations, that they have built along the sea and rivers in marish and unwholesome grounds: therefore, though you begin there, to avoid carriage and other like discommodities, yet build still rather upwards from the stream, than along. It concerneth likewise the health of the plantation that they have good store of salt with them, that they may use it in their victuals when it shall be necessary. If you plant where savages are, do not only entertain them with trifles and gingles, but use them justly and graciously, with sufficient guard nevertheless; and do not win their favour by helping them to invade their enemies, but for their defence it is not amiss: and send oft of them over to the country that plants, that they may see a better condition than their own, and commend it when they return. When the plantation grows to strength, then  it is time to plant with women as well as with men; that the plantation may spread into generations, and not be ever pieced from without. It is the sinfullest thing in the world to forsake or destitute a plantation once in forwardness; for, besides the dishonour, it is the guiltiness of blood of many commiserable persons.

XLVII. OF NEGOTIATING.

It is generally better to deal by speech than by letter; and by the mediation of a third than by a man’s self. Letters are good when a man would draw an answer by letter back again; or when it may serve for a man’s justification afterwards to produce his own letter; or where it may be danger to be interrupted, or heard by pieces. To deal in person is good, when a man’s face breedeth regard, as commonly with inferiors; or in tender cases, where a man’s eye upon the countenance of him with whom he speaketh, may give him a direction how far to go; and generally, where a man will reserve to himself liberty either to disavow or to expound. In choice of instruments, it is better to choose men of a plainer sort, that are like to do that that is committed to them, and to report back again faithfully the success, than those that are cunning to contrive out of ether men’s business somewhat to grace themselves, and will help the matter in report, for satisfaction sake. Use also such persons as affect the business wherein they are employed, for that quickeneth much; and such as are fit for the matter, as bold men for expostulation, fair-spoken men for persuasion, crafty men for inquiry and observation, froward and absurd men for business that doth not well bear out itself. Use also such as have been lucky and prevailed before in things wherein you have employed them; for that breeds confidence, and they will strive to maintain their prescription. It is better to sound a person with whom one deals afar off, than to fall upon the point at first; except you mean to surprise him by some short question. It is better dealing with men in appetite, than with those that are where they would be. If a man deal with another upon conditions, the start of first performance is all; which a man can reasonably demand, except either the nature of the thing be such, which must go before: or else a man can persuade the other party, that he shall still need him in some other thing; or else that he be counted the honester man. All practice is to discover, or to work. Men discover themselves in trust, in passion, at unawares; and of necessity, when they would have somewhat done, and cannot find an apt pretext, if you would work any man, you must either know his nature and fashions, and so lead him; or his ends, and so persuade him; or his weakness and disadvantages, and so awe him; or these that have interest in him, and so govern him. In dealing with cunning persons, we must ever consider their ends, to interpret their speeches; and it is good to say little to them, and that which they least look for. In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.

XXXVII. OF MASQUES AND TRIUMPHS.

These things are but toys to come amongst such serious observations; but yet, since princes will have such things, it is better they should be graced with elegancy, than daubed with cost. Dancing to song, is a thing of great state and pleasure. I understand it that the song be inquire, placed aloft, and accompanied by some broken music; and the ditty fitted to the device. Acting in song, especially in dialogues, hath an extreme good grace; I say acting, not dancing, (for that is a mean and vulgar thing;) and the voices of the dialogue would be strong and manly, (a base and a tenor, no treble,) and the ditty high and tragical, not nice or dainty. Several quires placed one over against another, and taking the voice by catches anthem-wise, give great pleasure. Turning dances into figure is a childish curiosity; and generally let it be noted, that those things which  I here set down are such as do naturally take the sense, and not respect petty wonderments. It is true, the alterations of scenes, so it be quietly and without noise, are things of great beauty and pleasure; for they feed and relieve the eye before it be full of the same object. Let the scenes abound with light, especially coloured and varied; and let the masquers, or any other that are to come down from the scene, have some motions upon the scene it self before their coining down; for it draws the eye strangely, and makes it with great pleasure to desire to see that it cannot perfectly discern. Let the songs be loud and cheerful, and not chirpings or pulings: let the music likewise be sharp and loud, and well placed. The colours that show best by candle-light, are white, carnation, and a kind of sea-water green and ouches, or spangs, as they are of no great cost, so they are of most glory. As for rich embroidery, it is lost and not discerned. Let the suits of the masquers be graceful, and such as become the person when the vizards are off; not after examples of known attires; Turks, soldiers, mariners, and the like. Let anti-masques not be long; they have been commonly of fools, satyrs, baboons, wild men antics, beasts, spirits, witches, Ethiopes, pigmies turquets, nymphs, rustics, Cupids, statues moving and the like. As for angels, it is not comical enough to put them in anti-masques; and any thing that is hideous, as devils, giants, is, on the other side as unfit; but chiefly, let the music of them be recreative, and with some strange changes. Some sweet odours suddenly coming forth, without any drops falling, are, in such a company as there is steam and heat, things of great pleasure and refreshment. Double masques, one of men another of ladies, addeth state and variety; but all is nothing except the room be kept clean and neat.

For jousts, and tourneys, and barriers, the glories of them are chiefly in the chariots, wherein the challengers make their entry; especially if they be drawn with strange beasts; as lions, bears camels, and the like; or in the devices of their entrance, or in bravery of their liveries, or in the goodly furniture of their horses and armour. But enough of these toys.

L. OF STUDIES.

Studies serve for delight, for ornament and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business; for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one: but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar: they perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend “Abeunt studia in mores;” nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises; bowling is good for the stone and reins, shooting for the lungs and breast, gentle walking for the stomach, riding for the head, and the like; so, if a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again; if his wit be no apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen, for they are “Cymini sectores;” if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call upon one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyer’s cases: so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

Source Text:

Bacon, Francis. Bacon’s Essays and Wisdom of the Ancients . Little, Brown, and Company, 1884, is licensed under no known copyright.

An Open Companion to Early British Literature Copyright © 2019 by Allegra Villarreal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Francis Bacon by Michael Peppiatt — portrait of an elusive and enigmatic genius

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Stephen Smith

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Great artists have a lot in common with criminals. They exist outside the norms of polite society, where large sums of money change hands in opaque circumstances, and there’s the delirious prospect of getting away with it — of pulling off a stroke that makes them untouchable. Crime is a gamy ingredient in the story of Francis Bacon, the Irish-born British figurative painter who was best known for his writhing portraits and screaming popes.

Like a mafia don, Bacon never wrote anything down. Or hardly anything. We have the notebooks of Leonardo and the letters of Van Gogh, but the most celebrated trove in the Bacon archive to date may be the so-called “Robertson Collection”, named for an electrician, Mac Robertson, who discovered a haul of items in a skip outside Bacon’s studio in 1980 . Among other items, it included cheque-book stubs of payments to Annabel’s club and Wheeler’s restaurant — upmarket haunts popular with London’s posh and raffish crowd.

Bacon’s former amanuensis, the tireless art writer Michael Peppiatt, has stepped forward to reassemble his fragmentary literary estate, all brought together in the book Francis Bacon: A Self-Portrait in Words . The letters, interviews and studio notes of this elusive Mr Big of the art racket will be pored over for leads, clues to the meaning of his often violent and bloody canvases. Bacon, who died in 1992, applied himself with a fierce work ethic, but chucked out ones that displeased him and simply forgot about others.

The art historian Martin Harrison, researching the painter’s catalogue raisonné, had to fossick for “lost Bacons” among lock-ups and attics. But there’s no doubt about the art market’s interest. For a time, Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud”, a 1969 triptych of his fellow artist and sometime friend that fetched $142.4mn in 2013, was the most expensive artwork sold at auction.

We may have crime to thank for introducing Bacon to his lover and muse, George Dyer. In a meet-cute undreamt of in the realm of romcoms and dating apps, Dyer was a burglar who broke into Bacon’s studio, or so the story goes. The artist is supposed to have offered him a simple choice: go to bed with me or I go to the police. It wasn’t the first surprise that poor Dyer would have encountered that day. Letting himself into Bacon’s famously dishevelled premises in Reece Mews, South Kensington, with its “compost” of rags, spilled paint and torn newspapers, he could have been forgiven for thinking another thief had beaten him to it.

Peppiatt has unearthed no billets-doux from the painter to his boyfriend. But he found thank-you notes to friends who helped him after a jealous Dyer had planted cannabis at the studio and turned the tables on Bacon by calling the police.

In these bread-and-butter letters, the old rogue is kind, even courtly, in keeping with his upper-class origins. He might not have bequeathed us a great store of words but the ones we have are moreishly quotable: “Morality is a luxury that has come on me with age”; “The other day someone called me ‘the greatest living painter’. That’s very flattering, of course. But there’s not much competition, is there?”

Discussing his work appeared to bore him and he claimed to be indifferent to what posterity would make of it. In conversation with the photographer Peter Beard, published in 1975, Bacon said: “The most interesting things that are kept are things like diaries and police records.”

The only diaries that Bacon scribbled in were free ones given away to punters at casinos, and he abandoned those well before January 31 each year. But if we’re talking about police records, Francis Bacon reads a lot like one. It’s an elegant and luxuriously illustrated book, but carries a whiff of the cells all the same. Bacon’s short, sometimes repetitive, often evasive remarks could almost be the transcript of an interview under caution: you half expect him to reply “No comment” to his more dogged questioners.

It’s taken a gumshoe of rare indefatigability to dig out the evidence gathered by Peppiatt

Elsewhere, expressing his reservations about abstract art and pop art, he says, “There is nothing between the police record and real art which . . . can unlock and deepen the channels of intuition and sensation.” Bacon’s references to police files made me think of the line from The Waste Land , “He do the police in different voices” (TS Eliot’s original title for his masterpiece) which is thought to refer to the innovation of multiple points of view in the poem.

Bacon, who was very influenced by Eliot, was similarly concerned with perspective. One thing that’s abundantly clear from his otherwise sketchy paperwork is that he was searching for a new way of looking at the human form — the human condition — at a time when photography seemed to have had the last word on portraiture (and his figurative art was out of style). He returns again and again to the challenge of surprising himself, and — very much as an afterthought — the spectator. He hopes to bypass a conventional response to art by delivering a jolt to the nervous system instead.

Many biographical sleuths have tried to get the cuffs on Bacon. But he is the art world’s answer to the Keyser Söze character in the film The Usual Suspects , a master of deception and invention able to spin an entire story about himself from the notices on the walls of a police interview room. Bacon went one better: he left us scrambling to make up our own stories about him by leaving behind as few words as possible. It’s taken a gumshoe of rare indefatigability to dig out the evidence gathered in these pages.

Despite that, I seem to hear the artist’s ghostly laughter as I close the book — and a haunting cry that sounds like “You’ll never take me alive, critic!” Bacon remains tantalisingly out of reach, between the police record and real art.

Francis Bacon: A Self-Portrait in Words by Michael Peppiatt Thames & Hudson £40, 480 pages

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