Essays by Sir Francis Bacon (1627)

                Bacon is forced I suppose by his position to write in this concise legal like fashion; he certainly wasn’t writing a novel. It becomes clear that the USA and western law in general is a British construction and Bacon is acknowledged as a one of the fathers. The Essays cover every topic one can imagine it is tedious and time consuming to get thru but very short chapters make it is easy to work thru. 

Most of the world does not live in the rarefied position he held and so not all of the advice applies to us however in our tiny circles of influence the rules remain unchanged. This is one of those reads that you have to sit back and grind out, try to figure out the cadence, and the language gulf. I decided that I was not going to pick and choose but simple go thru them in order.

Essay: Of Youth and Age

                Here’s a little snippet regarding age. “Young men are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for council; and fitter for new projects than for settled business.” This should be written across the front of some companies’ headquarters that I’m familiar with.

Bacon’s life story is possibly more interesting reading than his essays; he was an ambitious man with a rise and fall in career that rivals any intrigue.

I’m reading a simple copy printed in NYC in 1947 the 1^st edition being 1597… a small 350 year offset.