Sir Francis Bacon's essay "Of Truth" discusses the nature and value of truth. He acknowledges that some find it difficult or laborious to discover truth, or imposing once found, but argues that the real problem is mankind's "natural though corrupt love of the lie itself." Ultimately, Bacon asserts that the pursuit, knowledge, and belief of truth is "the sovereign good of human nature," likening the discovery of truth to gaining clear vision from a mountaintop, above falsehoods and errors.

1. Sir Francis Bacon

2. Basic Facts about Sir Francis Bacon
oNationality - English
oLifespan - 1561-1626
oBirth - 22nd of January, 1561
oSpouse - Alice Burnham
oDeath - 9th of April,1626
oParents - Sir Nicholas Bacon,
Lady Anne Cooke
oEducation - Trinity College, Cambridge
Gray’s Inn, London
Religion - Protestant
Character of Bacon - Intelligent, ambitious, arrogant, cold and calculating

3. Life and Political Career

4. Sir Francis Bacon was born in London in 1561 to a prominent and well
connected family. His parents are Sir Nicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper
of The Seal, and Lady Anne Cooke, daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, a
knight and one time tutor of the royal family. In 1573,just the age of
twelve, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1576 He began reading
Law at Gray’s Inn. A year later , he interrupted his studies in order to
take position in France as an assistant to the ambassador .
Unfortunately in 1579 his father died leaving him without support.
Without support, he returned to England and resumed to study Law.
He complete his Law Degree in 1582 and in 1588, he was named
Lecturer in legal studies at Gray’s Inn. In the meantime, he was elected
to the Parliament in 1584 as a member for Melcombe in Dorsetshire.
He remained in the Parliament as a representative in various
constituencies for the next 36 years.

5. Political Timeline of Sir Francis Bacon

6. •1584 he took up his seat in the House of Commons for Melcombe, in
Dorset
•1586 he took his seat in Parliament for Taunton
•1588 he become lecturer in Gray’s Inn
•1592 he entered the service of Robert Devereux the Queen’s favorite
Earl of Essex
•1593 he openly criticizes the new tax levy and offended Queen
Elizabeth I in the process
•1594 he wrote ‘Gesta Gragorum ‘
•1596 Queen Elizabeth relented and appointed him as a member of
her Extraordinary Counsel
•1597 he wrote the ‘ The Colours of Good and Evil’, first published his
Essays
•1601 He become of the Prosecutors of the Earl of the Essex, even
though he had originally been one of his supporters
•1603 Queen Elizabeth I dies on March 24th 1603 of blood poisoning
James I of England, James VI of Scotland , is proclaimed King
•1603 He is Knighted by King James the First

7. •1604 He was appointed as King’s Counsel
•1605 He wrote ‘The Advancement of Learning’
•1607 He was appointed as Solicitor General
•1608 He was appointed as Clerk of the notorious Star Chamber
•1613 He was appointed Attorney General
•1616 He was made member of the Privy Council
•1617 He was appointed as the Lord Keeper of the Royal Seal
•1617 He married Alice Burnham on 10th of May 1617
•1618 He was appointed as Lord Chancellor
•1620 He wrote ‘ Novum Organum’
•1621 Bestowed the titles of Lord Verulam of Verulam and then created
Viscount St Albans

8. • 1621 He was arrested and charged with bribery. After
pleading guilty,
• he was heavily fined and sentenced into prison term in the
Tower of London. He was a disgrace and fallen man.
• 1622 He wrote ‘Historia Naturalis et Experimentalis ‘
• 1625 He wrote ‘Slyva Slyvanum’ including New
Atlantis,republished his Essays
• 1626 He dies of pneumonia

9. Writings

10. Literary works
Despite the fanatical claims of a few admirers, it is a virtual certainty that
Bacon did not write the works traditionally attributed to William
Shakespeare. Even so, the Lord Chancellor’s high place in the history of
English literature as well as his influential role in the development of
English prose style remain well-establish and secure. Indeed even if Bacon
had produced nothing else but his masterful Essays , he would still rate
among the top echelon of 17th century English authors.
Bacon’s style though elegant, is by no means as simple as it seems or as
it is often described. In fact it is actually a fairly complex affair that
achieves its air of ease and clarity more through its balanced cadences,
natural metaphors, and carefully arranged symmetries .

11. The New Atlantis
New Atlantis is a novel by Sir Francis Bacon, published in
Latin (as Nova Atlantis) in 1624 and in English in 1627.
In this work, Bacon portrayed a vision of the future of
human discovery and knowledge, expressing his
aspirations and ideals for humankind. The novel
depicts the creation of a utopian land where
"generosity and enlightenment, dignity and
splendour, piety and public spirit" are the commonly
held qualities of the inhabitants of "Bensalem". The
plan and organization of his ideal college, "Salomon's
House" (or Solomon's House) envisioned the modern
research university in both applied and pure sciences.

12. Essays
By Francis Bacon

13. • 1. Of Truth
• 21. Of Delays
• 2. Of Death
• 3. Of Unity in Religion • 22. Of Cunning
• 4. Of Revenge • 23. Of Wisdom for a Man's Self
• 5. Of Adversity • 24. Of Innovations
• 6. Of Simulation and Dissimulation • 25. Of Dispatch
• 7. Of Parents and Children
• 26. Of Seeming Wise
• 8. Of Marriage and Single Life
• 9. Of Envy • 27. Of Friendship
• 10. Of Love • 28. Of Expense
• 11. Of Great Place • 29. Of the True Greatness of
• 12. Of Boldness Kingdoms and Estates
• 13. Of Goodness and Goodness of • 30. Of Regiment of Health
Nature
• 14. Of Nobility • 31. Of Suspicion
• 15. Of Seditions • 32. Of Discourse
• 16. Of Atheism • 33. Of Plantations
• 17. Of Superstition • 34. Of Riches
• 18. Of Travel
• 35. Of Prophecies
• 19. Of Empire
• 20. Of Counsel • 36. Of Ambition

14. • 37. Of Masques and Triumphs • 53. Of Praise
• 38. Of Nature in Men • 54. Of Vain-glory
• 39. Of Custom and Education • 55. Of Honor and Reputation
• 40. Of Fortune • 56. Of Judicature
• 41. Of Usury • 57. Of Anger
• 42. Of Youth and Age • 58. Of Vicissitude of Things
• 43. Of Beauty • 59. Of Fame
• 44. Of Deformity • 60. A Glossary of Archaic Words and
• 45. Of Building Phrases
• 46. Of Gardens
• 47. Of Negotiating
• 48. 0f Followers and Friends
• 49. Of Suitors
• 50. Of Studies
• 51. Of Faction
• 52. Of Ceremonies, and Respects

15. Of Truth

16. 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?

17. One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum doemonum, because it filleth
the imagination; and yet, it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that
passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth
the hurt; such as we spake of before. But, howsoever these things are thus in
men's depraved judgments, and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge
itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of
it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of
truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. The first
creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last, was
the light of reason; and his sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of his
Spirit. First he breathed light, upon the face of the matter or chaos; then he
breathed light, into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light, into
the face of his chosen. The poet, that beautified the sect, that was otherwise
inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure, to stand upon the
shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure, to stand in the window of
a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is
comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be
commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the
errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below; so always that
this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling, or pride. Certainly, it is heaven
upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn
upon the poles of truth.

18. To pass from theological, and philosophical truth, to the truth of civil
business; it will be acknowledged, even by those that practise it
not, that clear, and round dealing, is the honor of man's nature; and
that mixture of falsehoods, is like alloy in coin of gold and
silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth
it. For these winding, and crooked courses, are the goings of the
serpent; which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet.
There is no vice, that doth so cover a man with shame, as to be
found false and perfidious. And therefore Montaigne saith
prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the word of the lie
should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge? Saith he, If it
be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that
he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a lie faces
God, and shrinks from man. Surely the wickedness of
falsehood, and breach of faith, cannot possibly be so highly
expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal, to call the judgments
of God upon the generations of men; it being foretold, that when
Christ cometh, he shall not find faith upon the earth.

19. Analysis

20. sources
http://www.iep.utm.edu/bacon/
http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/sir-francis-
bacon.htm
http://freehelpstoenglishliterature.blogspot.co
m/2007/10/of-truth-bacon.html
http://www.enotes.com/new-atlantis-62806-
criticism/new-atlantis/introduction