Literary Works

In the midst of his writings on state and legal affairs, Bacon took the time to pen ten lively and engaging essays on various aspects of everyday life.  First published in 1597 and written in English instead of Latin, they demonstrated Bacon's mastery of the language as he expressed complicated universal concepts in carefully constructed and memorably witty turns of phrases.  Deceptively simple, his essays reflected his interest in every aspect of the human experience.  Pleased with the positive response to the essays, Bacon expanded the original ten and added twenty-nine more for a revised edition in 1612.  By the time the third and final edition was published in 1625, just a year before Bacon's death, it had grown to fifty-eight reflections.  Essayes or Counsells, Civill and Morall, would prove to be Bacon's most widely read and enduring work.

Prior to his advancement in Court under King James I, Bacon was able to devote time and energy to his intellectual pursuits.  In 1609, he published De Sapentia Veterum, a carefully argued exposition of the Greek myths as political allegories.  Presented almost like an expanded essay, Bacon's skill at detecting and cleverly pointing out interesting analogies captivated and intrigued his readers.

Portrait from two 1668 editions of the Essays (G21a & G21b) - click
to see the full-sized image

A third much admired literary work was published in 1626, the year of Bacon's death:  the unfinished New Atlantis is an elaborate description of a utopian society.  At the centre of his imaginary society, Bacon places a scientific institution where researchers conduct experiments based on his inductive principles.  Bacon's imaginary institution captured the imagination of British scientists who would bring Bacon's visionary institution to fruition with the establishment of the Royal Society in the 1640s.

*For the bibliographic citations for the sources which inform the short article above, see Sources Consulted.