Francis Bacon S Essays

DIVThe Elizabethan sage offers wise, witty observations on truth, adversity, love, ambition, fame, and many other topics. Short but thought-provoking, these essays constitute an excellent combination of style and substance. /div

Originally printed in 1906 as a limited edition of two hundred and fifty copies, this book contains the essays of Francis Bacon, drawn from the edition of 1625. Bacon covers a variety of topics in his essays, including cunning, atheism, love and goodness. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Bacon's work or seventeenth-century philosophy.

Bacon's Essays (1597, 1612, 1625) brought him great fame in world literature. These 58 essays are meditations and maxims containing much wisdom and nimbleness of wit. It is a practical book filled with recipes for living a good (moral) life and achieving success—a self-help book. The richness of the Essays lie in their relevancy, even in the 21st century. In Essay 34 — Of Riches, he says: “There's no real use for great riches, unless it is in the distribution.” What appears on the surface to be a simple remark, it contains a profound truth: we can only become wealthy if we think of others. This was true during Bacon's times as well as our time; to wit: the legacies of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Concerning income inequality he wrote: “The matter of seditions is of two kinds: much poverty, and much discontentment,” adding “And if this poverty and broken estate in the better sort, is joined with a want and necessity in the middle class, the danger is imminent and great. For the rebellions of the belly are the worst.” Bacon saw the great concentration of wealth in a few individuals as a danger to the nation: “Above all things, good policy is to be used, that the treasure and moneys, in a nation, be not gathered into few hands. For otherwise a state may have a great stock, and yet starve. And money is like muck, not good except it be spread.” The accumulation of 95% of the wealth of the United States to the top 1% of individuals is causing the starvation of 45 million Americans.