Francis Bacon - Delphi Collected Works of Francis Bacon (Illustrated)

The Collected Works of

FRANCIS BACON

(1561-1626)

Contents

Delphi Classics 2017

Version 1

The Collected Works of

FRANCIS BACON

By Delphi Classics, 2017

Complete Works of Francis Bacon

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 097 1

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York Water Gate and the Adelphi from the River by Moonlight by Henry Pether, c. 1850 Francis Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 at York House near the Strand in London. The house no longer stands.

The Italianate York Water Gate the entry to York House, built about 1626, the year of Bacons death

Bacon as a boy

Bacon as a young man. The inscription around his head reads: Si tabula daretur digna animum mallem, If one could but paint his mind

THIRD EDITION

Bacons first book, Essayes initially appeared in 1597, offering 10 essays written in a wide range of styles, from the plain and unadorned to the epigrammatic. These works concern topics drawn from both public and private life, analysing the topics systematically from a number of angles, assessing one argument against another. A much-enlarged second edition appeared in 1612 with 38 essays. A third edition, under the title Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall , was published in 1625 with 58 essays.

Though Bacon considered the Essays but as recreation of my other studies, he received high praise from his contemporaries, some going as far as crediting him for having invented the essay form. Later researches have identified the extent of Bacons borrowings from the works of Montaigne, Aristotle and other writers. Nevertheless, the Essays have retained high repute for establishing a firm foundation of English criticism.

Bacons genius as a phrase-maker appears to great advantage in the later essays. In Of Boldness Bacon writes, If the Hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill, the earliest known appearance of that proverb in print. The phrase hostages to fortune appears in the essay Of Marriage and Single Life again the earliest known usage. Aldous Huxleys book Jesting Pilate took its epigraph, What is Truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer, from Bacons essay Of Truth .

The 1625 title page

1696 title page

Early portrait of Bacon

TO

THE RIGHT HONORABLE

MY VERY GOOD LORD

THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM

HIS GRACE, LORD

HIGH ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND

EXCELLENT LORD:

SALOMON saies; A good Name is as a precious oyntment; And I assure my selfe, such wil your Graces Name bee, with Posteritie. For your Fortune, and Merit both, have been Eminent. And you have planted Things, that are like to last. I doe now publish my Essayes; which, of all my other workes, have beene most Currant: For that, as it seemes, they come home, to Mens Businesse, and Bosomes. I have enlarged them, both in Number, and Weight; So that they are indeed a New Worke. I thought it therefore agreeable, to my Affection, and Obligation to your Grace, to prefix your Name before them, both in English, and in Latine. For I doe conceive, that the Latine Volume of them, (being in the Universall Language) may last, as long as Bookes last. My Instauration, I dedicated to the King: My Historie of Henry the Seventh, (which I have now also translated into Latine) and my Portions of Naturall History, to the Prince: And these I dedicate to your Grace; Being of the best Fruits, that by the good Encrease, which God gives to my Pen and Labours, I could yeeld. God leade your Grace by the Hand. Your Graces most Obliged and faithfull Servant,