The Essays E-Book

Francis Bacon

• Herausgeber: Francis Bacon
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban,was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution.

Leseprobe

The Essays

Francis Bacon

Table of Contents

Of Truth

Of Death

Of Unity in Religion

Of Revenge

Of Adversity

Of Simulation and Dissimulation

Of Parents and Children

Of Marriage and Single Life

Of Envy

Of Love

Of Great Place

Of Boldness

Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature

Of Nobility

Of Seditions and Troubles

Of Atheism

Of Superstition

Of Travel

Of Empire

Of Counsel

Of Delays

Of Cunning

Of Wisdom for a Man’s Self

Of Innovations

Of Dispatch

Of Seeming Wise

Of Friendship

Of Expense

Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates

Of Regiment of Health

Of Suspicion

Of Discourse

Of Plantations

Of Riches

Of Prophecies

Of Ambition

Of Masques and Triumphs

Of Nature in Men

Of Custom and Education

Of Fortune

Of Usury

Of Youth and Age

Of Beauty

Of Deformity

Of Building

Of Gardens

Of Negotiating

Of Followers and Friends

Of Suitors

Of Studies

Of Faction

Of Ceremonies and Respect

Of Praise

Of Vain–Glory

Of Honor and Reputation

Of Judicature

Of Anger

Of Vicissitude of Things

Of Fame

A Glossary of Archaic Words and Phrases

Of Truth

What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them, as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labor, which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men’s thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural though corrupt love, of the lie itself. One of the later school of the Grecians, examineth the matter, and is at a stand, to think what should be in it, that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie’s sake. But I cannot tell; this same truth, is a naked, and open day-light, that doth not show the masks, and mummeries, and triumphs, of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond, or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men’s minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds, of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?