Vol. 2 No.

2 March, 2014 ISSN: 2320 - 2645

BACON’S CONTRIBUTION TO ENGLISH PROSE STYLE

Dr. G. Rajasekaran
Emeritus Professor of English (DDE), Annamalai University, Chidaambaram

In the development of modern prose style, there were two traditions, one being the
more ornate and figurative, carried to an excess by John Lyly, and called the Euphuistic
style after his long novel, Euphues and the other more plain and direct style derived from
Sir Thomas Malory and John Bonners. The ornate style has continued as a literary fashion
and in some hands such as that of Charles Lamb achieved great heights. But the plain and
direct style has been the one that has been of much wider and greater significance and has
been used and admired widely, both for literary and other purposes. Bacon's contribution to
this simple and direct style has been admired from his own time to the present day and has
had influence on speech in the houses of parliament, argument in the courts of law, and in
literature as well as in scientific writing. Although it is easy to say that the style is direct
and simple, on analysis we find that there is a great deal of art behind its formulation. It is
art that conceals art. In fact, any student who endeavours to imitate Bacon will find it
extremely hard to do so. This remark does not apply merely to the fact that is somewhat
archaic, but that its very simplicity and denseness is of a quality that is not easy either to
imitate or copy. Modern journalism owes much to Bacon's contribution to English prose
style.
When we discuss style we have to take into account the whole of the writing or of
the particular piece that we are studying. We must consider the style of an essay as a
whole, and of the total volume of essays. We have indicated briefly in the introduction how
Bacon developed his prose style and where he obtained his education to some extent. Now
we may analyse the style in greater detail.

Bacon's Regard for structure

One of the topics that were prescribed for study at the universities in Bacon's time
was rhetoric or the art of using language. The art of rhetoric had been studied and analysed
by the writers of the Classics-namely Greek and Roman masters of prose. It was this form of
rhetoric that was taught in the university, and since it included study of both Greek and
Latin as well as English for translating Greek and Latin texts, the students learned the
rudiments of rhetoric both in theory and practice.
Secondly, at the universities in those times, examinations were oral, and not
written. There were sever sue examinations in which the students had to deliver an
address, or debate a subject that he had studied with another student in the presence of

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the Master and Fellows of his college and the university. Students had therefore to be
proficient-tin the organisation of their addresses and to be well prepared for debate and
argument. The result of this training was that many students and many of the best writers
of that time had a good grounding in rhetoric and in the arrangement of structure of their
compositions.
The main stress laid on the student was of course to present cogent argument. The
main function, of course, was to be able to persuade or convince the listener of the
correctness of his stand. The same training was given in the Inns of Court where again even
the teaching was in the form of debate and argument. A statue or set of Laws was taken up
presented and commented upon by the reader and then argued out in its details by the
other members of the Bar for the benefit of the students. Bacon was a trained lawyer and
had therefore gone through this training at an early date. But he had profited by it more
than others because of the peculiar bent of his mind.
Bacon's interest in science and scientific accuracy also had a great influence in the
formation of his style. In science as in law, it is necessary to divide the material under
various heads and to arrange them in due order of preference. Systematization is of
essence in science also. So Bacon's mind was attuned to the kind of organisation demanded
by law and science. This forms the basic structure of his writing.

1. All his works including his essays show a strong organic unity of structure like a tree with
its various branches. From the main trunk of the basic concept arises the growth and
evolution of a series of related ideas that are structured accordingly one leading to and
sometimes generating the other or explaining the other or explaining and justifying
what had been said earlier.
2. Bacon's division into paragraphs is not like the modern system of paragraphing, where we
set one idea and its relationship in a single paragraph. If Bacon were to do this
many of his essays would consist of a series of single sentence paragraphs. The idea in
his time was to present a group or cluster of ideas that were to be assimilated at the
same time. Hence we find that his paragraphs are long and sometimes contain a whole
series of related ideas which we would break up into separate units.
3. The purpose of the organisation and structuring of the material of the essay is to present
a convincing argument and to persuade the reader of his point of view. Yet the material
is so presented that it is suggestive and of can lead to argument on each point as in the
system of debate referred to earlier.
4. Sometimes Bacon himself tells us how he is mapping out the subject or under what heads
he is going to treat it, so that we know what exactly is to follow. This system prevents
any digression and we know exactly much of the material is to be presented. Today we

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know from our study of style that it is not only necessary to choose what we mean to
say but also to eliminate what we do not wish to include the exclusion of all extraneous
material is the essence of Bacon's structure. There is nothing but the barest truth of
what he desires to present.
5. The logical division into its several aspects and parts and the due and proportionate
presentation of each is the method behind the structure of Bacon's writing. It is also
necessary to preserve perspective not giving unique prominence to anyone portion of
the material. It is here that Bacon is a master in that he does not allow himself any
freedom to roam around the subject but is only interested in presenting the truth
nothing but the truth as he sees it.
In concluding this section we quote from Bacon himself.
Above all things, order and distribution and singling out of parts is the "life of
dispatch; so as the distribution be not too subtle for he that will not divide will never enter
well into business and that divideth too much will never come out of it clearly” (Essay "On
Despatch").

Bacon's Use of Aphorism

Bacon's use of structure also extends to the paragraphs and to individual sentences.
It is however the structure of individual sentences that caught the attention of stylists. His
style has been called aphoristic and is based on his use of aphorism. It is the use of
aphorism that seems to give firmness and yet flexibility to the style. Bacon here makes use
of a pattern which had been known for a long time and was much respected in his time, but
not used as he did as a quality in prose writing. The phorisms to be found for instance in
the Bible in the Book of Proverbs are to be seen in some of the pronouncements of Moses
especially in the laws. The aphorism was also to be seen in the writings of the Greek and
Latin writers of the Classic times who used it with great effect. So it was no new method
that Bacon had invented it was rather one that he knew and had appreciated and it had
appealed to him as suitable to tie together the sayingsand meditations which he wished to
put together.
An aphorism suggests profundity and intellectual authority, which are exactly the
qualities that Bacon wished to endow his essays with for the desired that they should
contain wise advice or counsel for those who read them on all kinds of subjects. The idea
was that the aphorism can be easily memorized and quoted and provided a kind of wisdom
on occasions that could not be achieved in any other manner. Such maxima were prevalent
in medicine and in law but now Bacon tried to enlarge their scope and give them a new
form and lease of life.

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Bacon found that they suited his bent of mind because he was especially interested
in ptorncfing 'inductive' thinking; He felt that just as Machiavelli in The of Prince had been
able to give reasons Iot his statements and end with a moral wise piece of advice so also he
would use the form in his essays to add up to some pieces of advice that would remain in
men's mind. The simplest form of this inductive kind of reasoning is of course found in the
Fables of Aesop which end with a moral.
The precision of the aphorism for reasoning and persuasive power was accepted in
his time. To use it in the form of very short dispersed meditations was Bacon's contribution
and it was at that time something novel in English. That he was conscious of what he was
doing is seen from a passage in the Advancement of Learning when he says: "Regarding the
aphoristic method, it cannot deceive because it truth the writer whether he be superficial
or solid except that should be ridiculous cannot be made but of the pith and heart of
sciences for discourse of illustration is cut off recitals of examples are cut off so there
remained nothing to fill the aphorism but some good quantity of observation and therefore
no men can suffice nor in reason will attempt to write aphorisms but he that is sound and
grounded."
He has seen that it is flexible, relevant to the situation of his time and has its basis
in inductive argument and empirical data. He sees it as a condensation of wisdom and
knowledge and therefore the emblem of truth which he was always aiming at. In an age
which valued precepts and aphorisms Bacon provided exactly what they needed and had
the knowledge and wisdom to do so. It is probably for this reason that his work was so
popular. Examples of aphorisms that are found in the text:
(a) For a lie faces God and shrinks from man ("Of Truth")
(b) This is certain that a man that studied of revenge keeps his own wounds green,
which otherwise heal and do well. ("Of Revenge")
(c) Revenge is a kind of wild justice. ("Of Revenge")
(d) Besides (to say the truth) nakedness is unseemly as well in mind a body. ("Of
Simulation and Dissimulation")
So we find that Bacon used the short pithy style so peculiar to him for a particular
purpose. He desired to impress what he said upon the reader as forcibly and memorably as
possible.

Bacon's Use of Image, Metaphor and Analogy

1. Strange though it may seem, many have pointed out that Bacon's pose is poetic
among them the most poetic of poets Shelley in his Defence of Poetry. This may be
attributed to Bacon's use of imagery, metaphor and analogy and other rhetorical

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devices in his prose. When Bacon decides to use such devices he does so with great
attention and care having studied their value and effect. As we have pointed out
his first purpose was persuasion and argument and Bacon knew very well that
unadorned statements would not be. So easily acceptable as these rhetorical
devices. So he uses them sparingly but with powerful effect.
2. The purpose of these devices was to make the words signify actuality or to call up a
picture before the eyes of the imagination of the reader. This has a more
immediate effect than a purely intellectual approach. Image, metaphor and
analogy all perform this function well either in prose or in poetry. The work of the
image is obviously to create an image in the imagination. The metaphor speaks of a
concrete situation in terms of the abstract and an analogy gives a simple parallel
which makes for simpler understanding. Bacon himself says in the Advancement of
Learning, there is no proceeding in invention of knowledge but by similitude. "So
Bacon himself sought out similarities between natural phenomena and human
situations which he could use with telling effect.
3. In the very first essay, "Of Truth", Bacon opens with an image: "What is truth? said
jesting Pilate: and would not stay for an answer." Immediately he is able, by this
image, to call up the picture of the trial of Jesus Christ, and the incident of Pilate
not taking seriously the statement of Jesus that he had come to bring truth into the
world. He further uses this image to point out that there are a type of people who
will not take anything particularly truth seriously.
In the essay "Of Revenge", he uses as a closing image, that of witches. In
Elizabethan times, witches were feared because they could cause evil to come upon their
enemies and often if some evil did befall people in a rural community, they ascribed it to
the evil work of the witch and hunted her and either drowned her or burnt her. It is this
image that he draws upon when he says in his closing sentence: "Nay rather, vindictive
persons live the life of witches; who, as they are mischievous, so end them unfortunate." In
other words vindictive persons will come to no good end just as witches will come to harm.
In his own time this would have been a very powerful image to present and unforgettable in
its impact on the reader. Thus we may note that Bacon does use images very skilfully and
powerfully in his essays to affect his purposes.
1. Bacon's use of metaphor is effective though it is not so obvious. Examine this
sentence from "Of Simulation and Dissimulation": "For if a man has that penetration
of judgment as he can discern what things are to be laid open, and what to be
secreted and what to be showed at half lights and to whom and when to him a
habit of dissimulation is a hindrance and poorness." Bacon is using several words in
a metaphorical sense in this passage: a) "Penetration of judgment" the word

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penetration is used metaphorically, meaning keen or deep judgement; Things are to

be laid open" is again a metaphorical phrase, which does not refer to material
things but to thoughts, and these are to be said open. ‘As though they are being
exposed for sale in the market: c) "what is to be showed at half-lights" again if a
merchant has some inferior goods, he does not 10W them to the customer in bright
light when the defects can be seen, but in half-light so that hindrance and
poorness" is again a metaphorical statement because an attitude cannot be,
technically speaking, a hindrance which is an obstacle or a poorness which is a lack
of some object. Thus, we see that even in a single sentence, Bacon can use
metaphorical language with powerful effect to make matters much more clear and
actual to the reader.
2. An analogy is like a simile and is of course also a device that can make things clear
and picturesque. In the essay "Of Simulation and Dissimulation" we have the
sentence "Where a man cannot choose or vary in particulars there it is good to take
the safest and wariest way in general, like the going softly, by one that cannot
we’ll see”. Here we have an example of the simplest form of analogy. A man who
has no alternatives must be very careful to see that nothing goes wrong with his
plan. Another kind of analogy is found in the same essay when Bacon says:
"Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body." We can be naked in body but that
is used as an analogy for being too open in mind or as he says naked in mind as
well. So we find that the prose of Bacon does contain many examples of this kind of
rhetorical device in almost all his essays which makes his prose imaginative and
poetic. It certainly adds depth and richness to his prose and clarity to what he
wishes to express. He is able to bring home what he means to express much more
powerfully because of the use of these methods. Moreover they seem to come
naturally to his mind and do not look forced or unnatural. That is why Shelley thinks
of him as a poet-because his mind works imaginatively like a poet's mind. But unlike
the normal poet, Bacon uses his poetic gift for argumentative purpose and to drive
home his aphoristic philosophy of life.

Bacon's Use of Allusions and References

1. In almost every one of Bacon's essays we find some allusions or other, either to the
Bible, or to the classics or to Nature. During the Renaissance and for long after,
these were the sources or terms of reference of the poets and prose writers of
Europe. Since these were commonly known to all educated people, the references
had some meaning and carried with them some emotional and intellectual content
or reverberation. All writing took an added richness when such allusions were

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included. It was also a way of relating the new to the old of relating something
unknown to what was already known. Bacon also makes use of these terms of
reference and uses them most effectively.
2. In almost all the essays that we have for study we have at least one reference to
the Bible. The most famous one is the reference to jesting Pilate in the essay "Of
Truth." But besides that, he has several references to the famous King, Solomon,
who was considered the wisest of the Jewish kings, and to whom are attributed the
Proverbs or Aphorisms in the Bible. In the essay "Of Revenge," Solomon is quoted
saying that, "It is the glory of a man to pass by an offence". In the essay "Of Riches",
he is again quoted saying, "Where there is much there are many to consume it and
what hath the owner but the sight of it with his eyes and "He that maketh haste to
be rich shall not be innocent”. Bacon also quotes the Bible in "Of Atheism" as
saying. "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God". There is little doubt that
Bacon knew his Bible and used it with great effect once the official English version,
the version authorized by 20r King James I came to be used in all Church of England
churches, there is no doubt that most people were familiar with the Bible.
3. As higher education in England was in Latin and Greek, every educated university
man had some knowledge of the Classics and Greek and Roman history. This was
one of the effects of the Renaissance that the classics brought new learning into
Europe. It is no wonder then that as a child of the Renaissance, Bacon should use
the classics for reference to a very great extent. Bacon refers freely to Epicures
and Plato to Democritus among the Greeks, Cicero and Seneca among the Roman
philosophers. In fact some of his inspiration came from Seneca who had tried to
provide something similar for his time. Similarly he refers to the Roman Emperors,
Augustus Caesar, Tiberius, Vespasian and others. His knowledge of these is
extensive because all his education and training must have made him conversant
with writings of the great men of Greece and Rome.
4. Besides these references he also alludes to modern writers in Europe, such as
Montaigne, from whom he took the idea of calling his work essays. His education
and training must have made him conversant with writings of the great men of
Greece and Rome.
5. Finally we have references to Nature a tree and its branches, the hills and the sea,
precious stones and pearls and he talks about the waves and weathers of time. His
appreciation of the beauty and order of the created universe is best seen in his
essay "Of Atheism", where he declares: "I had rather believe all the fables in the
legend (referring to The Golden Legend, a Latin work of the 13th Century
miraculous lives and incidents of the saints and other natural phenomena), and the

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Talmad and the Alcoran (sacred books of the Jews and the Muslims) than that this
universal frame is without a mind and therefore, God never wrought miracles to
convince Atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. The belief in the natural
world as against miracles is the attitude of a truly scientific mind."
6. This extraordinary rich frame of reference makes his essays rich and varied and
gives us some indication of the knowledge and interests of Bacon. As it has already
been suggested his knowledge was almost universal, embracing history and
philosophy, geography and science, astronomy and mathematics. His knowledge
was enlopaedic and therefore we have to find some place to respect a man who
brings such a weight of information and yet does not impose it upon us, except in
stray allusions and references.

Conclusion
It is no wonder then that Bacon’s matter and Bacon’s method of presentation have
become a classic. While it is true that the style represents the man that we can form some
impression of his personality from the way he presents his material. We have also to
appreciate the way in which he cultivated this style for the purpose that he had in mind
and the readership of his time. Certain styles as we know are appreciated at certain
periods for example the classic and the romantic but Bacon's style does not belong to such
periodic classification. It cannot be called a renaissance manifestation. Though it was a
product of the Renaissance it has transcended his time and has become a model for all
times. Such an achievement did not go without recognition either in his own time or later.
"The power of words in Bacon's hands is directly demonstrated by his dominance of 17th
century thought the almost hypnotic way in which his view of the world and the function of
learning within it helped to mould English life, to an extent which no writer had achieved
before and few since". This achievement was in a great measure due to his formulation of a
style to present imaginative eloquence not merely in speech (as in his recorded speeches in
Parliament) but in his writing. He was able to present abstract ideas endowed with a kind
of life and actuality. It was miraculous because they did not lose their precision and yet
were full of emotive meaning. He was called the 'the eloquences that was born in this isle,
a flexanious and golden-tongued orator responsible for the final refinement of English
prose. His masculine and clear expression of his material, showed that it was not necessary
for words to be affected or dominant but that meaning could be made the prime interest
without losing the grandeur and dignity of literature.
Ben Jonson, himself a master of English prose and the second of the dramatists of
the Renaissance in England said of Bacon: "No man ever spoke more neatly, more precisely,
more weightily or suffered less emptiness and less idleness in what he uttered". He draws

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attention to the utter absence of self-regard in the style of Bacon. It is not self-
consciousness at all. It is the objective style par excellence. Ben Jonson places Bacon at
the very top of all the stylists ancient or modern. He adds: "He seemed to me ever by his
work one of the greatest men and the most worthy of admiration."
Sprat says: "He was a man of strong, clear and powerful imagination; his genius was
searching and inimitable; and of this I need give no other proof than his style itself". "The
course of it vigorous and majestically the wit bold and familiar the comparisons fetched out
of the way and yet the easiest". This is an excellent judgement of a contemporary who saw
the art of Bacon's controlled imagination and images, being closely related to human
experience.
Sir yoshua Reynolds in a later age remarked regarding Bacon's Essays that, "their
excellence and their value consisted in being the observations of a strong mind operating
upon life and in consequence you find there, what you seldom find in other books". Bacon
would have appreciated this comment and thought that he fulfilled what he had set out to
do. In fact from time to time, great literary figures have appreciated both the matter and
manner of Bacon.
During the Romantic Age, De Quincey and Hazlitt have appreciated Bacon's style,
and at a later time in the Victorian Age, Macaulay and Ruskin. Some quotations from these
may be pertinent. De Quincey affirms the validity and Truthfulness of Bacon's imagery.
The reason is that being always in quest of absolute truth; he contemplates all
subjects not through the rhetorical fancy, which is most excited by more seeming
resemblances, and such as can only sustain themselves under a single phase, but through
the philosophical fancy or that which rests upon real analogies". Hazlitt's comments are
even more to point and more valuable in that they afford a wider scope: "He united powers
of imagination and understanding in a greater degree than almost any other writer. He was
one of the strongest instances of those men who by rare privilege of their nature are at
once poets and philosophers and see equally into both worlds".
Commenting upon Bacon's style, Hazlitt says, "His writings have the gravity of prose
with the fervour and vividness of poetry. His sayings have effect of axioms and at once
striking and self-evident. His style is equally sharp and sweet flowing and pithy, condensed
and expansive, expressing volumes in a sentence, of amplifying a single thought into pages
of rich, glowing and delightful eloquence." Lord Macaulay makes this statement in his
review of Bacon: "He had a wonderful talent for packing wit close and rendering it
portable". By wit he meant the power of perceiving analogies between things which appear
to have nothing in common in wit he never had an equal. "No imagination was ever at once
so strong and so thoroughly subjugated. It never stirred but at a signal from good sense". It

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stopped at the first check from good sense. John Ruskin was fond of the quotation "God's
first creature", which was light these being 'the words of the wisest of Englishmen. '
The final quotation is from Sir Tobie Matthews, a contemporary of Sir Francis Bacon:
"A man so rare in knowledge of so many several kinds, endowed with the faculty
and felicity of expressing it all in so elegant, significant, so abundant and yet choice and
ravishing words of metaphors, and allusions as perhaps the world has not seen since it was a
world. I know that this may seem a great hyperbole and strange kind of excess in speech;
but the best means of putting me to shame will be for you to place any other man of yours,
by this of mine. '(Note: There are many editions of Bacon's Essays as a whole or in
selections made by foreign and Indian Scholars, which may be used by the student. Since
Bacon's Essays are for detailed study, it may be advisable to obtain a copy of these. It will
be a useful addition to any personal library).

Reference Books
1. Hanford, J.H. : A Bacon Handbook
2. John Bailey : Bacon's Essays
3. Craig, H : Studies in Bacon
4. Kane, G. : Middle English Literature
5. Edmund Blunden : Bacon: A Critical Enquiry
6. Walker, H. : The English Essay and Essayists
7. F.H. Anderson : The Philosophy of Francis Bacon.
8. C.D. Broad : The Philosophy of Francis Bacon.
9. Brian Vickers : Francis Bacon and Renaissance Prose.

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