Nonfiction · 1625
The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
Fifty-eight short essays on subjects from truth and death to gardens, usury and fame, each building an argument in a few compact pages of aphorism and observation — the book that brought the word “essay,” borrowed from Montaigne, into English prose.
Francis Bacon published a first, ten-essay version in 1597 and enlarged it twice more: to thirty-eight essays in 1612, and, in the final version presented here, to fifty-eight in 1625, a year before his death, each revision pushing the style further toward the plain, pointed sentences the book is remembered for.
This Bibliomancer edition presents the 1625 text complete — Bacon’s dedication to the Duke of Buckingham, all fifty-eight essays, and the source edition’s own glossary of archaic words.
Contents
- Excellent Lord
- 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 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 Respects
- Of Praise
- Of Vain-glory
- Of Honor and Reputation
- Of Judicature
- Of Anger
- Of Vicissitude of Things
- Of Fame
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
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About the author
1561–1626 · Renaissance
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) was born in London, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and Gray's Inn, and rose through Elizabethan and Jacobean government to become Solicitor General, Attorney General and, in 1618, Lord Chancellor. In 1621 he was convicted of accepting bribes from litigants, fined, briefly imprisoned and barred from office; he spent his remaining years writing. His works include the Essays (1597, enlarged 1612 and 1625), The Advancement of Learning (1605) and Novum Organum (1620), which set out the inductive method underlying his reputation as a founder of modern science.
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