The Essays

The Essays, first published in 1597, contains essays written in a wide range of styles—from the plain and unadorned—to the epigrammatic and concise. The essays became immediately popular because they presented a contrast to the discursive and ornate prose written by most writers of that time. The civilized tone of the essays added to their charm. These essays reveal Bacon as an inquisitive but also an appreciative man possessing wit and reason enough to interest the readers. The topics covered in the essays relate to both public and private life. Each essay views the topic from a number of different angles, weighing one argument against another. An enlarged second edition appeared in 1612 with 38 essays. Another edition containing 58 essays under the title, Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall, was published in 1625. Translations into French and Italian also appeared during Bacon’s lifetime. Bacon considered his essays as just the recreation of his other studies, but his contemporaries gave him high praise and some even credited him with having invented the essay form. A few annotated editions of the essays also came. The essays have remained in the highest repute and are read with interest. Henry Hallam, a well-known literary historian has stated that Bacon’ s essays “are deeper and more discriminating than any earlier, or almost any later, work in the English language”. Bacon's essays contain many phrases which were used by later writers like Adous Huxley. The 1999 edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations includes more than 90 quotations from Bacon’s essays.