Of Studies by Francis Bacon: A critical analysis

 FRANCIS BACON

"Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted ; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider"


Francis Bacon was an English philosopher,statesman, essayist, and scientist.The remarkable essay "Of Studies" was written and published in 1625. He has written 58 essays. Which covers all the aspects of life such as Social, Political, Economical, Religious and Cultural so on. His essays are the manifestation of the well known Shakespearean saying "Brevity is the soul of wit". Of Studies is a typical Baconian essay which exhibits his Latinized vocabulary, Enlightenment and Wisdom, Pithy and Aphoristic expression, Logical coherence, Freshness of thought, Objective precision and Astonishing compactness.

He begins the essay by substantiating his arguments regarding the advantages / purpose of studies (learning) in our life. He puts the essential purpose of studies "Studies serve for delight, for ornament and for ability Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned". He was of the opinion that when we stand alone, reading is sufficient for us to delight and fulfilment. Studies make our language much more beautiful and elegant. The more you study the more it helpful us to take the perfect decisions in our professional as well as personal life. An expert man can execute everything in impeccable manner, remember the best things always comes from those who are learned.

Upcoming words echo the epigram 'Too much of anything is good for nothing'. 
"To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar.". He also warns us that the wisdom earned through reading should be examined. Studies give forth directions to human experience, that perfect the nature of human abilities as they are like natural plants, it should get proper caring like shaping and neatening.  "Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning, by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience".

Bacon provides a battalion of aphorisms (short and witty expression contains big ideas) in the forthcoming sentences. "Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them and wise men use them". he elaborates how different people with different intellectual capacities and interest approach studies. He brings down certain advises oh how studies should be applied. one should not read a book to simply criticize its argument, nor to accept everything blindly but to consider and explore its contents and sort out the grains of truths from the heap of falsehood. ''Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider''

Further, he argues that there are numerous books but all do not deserve equal attention. some books can be read selectively some should be read quickly but some demand close attention accompanied with deep intellectual involvement. "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously [closely]; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention"

"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man and writing an exact man;". Reading configures one's personality while, conversation equips ready and prompted. writing makes one perfect.

our studies imprint to our character. our disposition (nature) is the outcome of our learning and experience. Reading furnishes the mind with ideas and images. Conversation makes it astute and quick while writing serves to define and execute our thoughts, feelings and ideas. Later Bacon demonstrates, how studies determine one's mindset according to the nature of discipline one chooses to read. "Histories make men wise; Poets witty; Mathematics subtle; Natural Philosophy deep; Moral grave; Logic and Rhetoric able to contend" (face real life). Bacon affirms that every deformity of the mind can be cured by the proper selection of books.

the study of history contributes to one's intelligence and wisdom, mathematics develop one's mental ability and subtlety of the mind, the study of science blooms one's intellectual depth, natural philosophy builds up the logical mind and finally, rhetoric to one's reasoning ability.

Bacon displays an analogy between physical exercise and intellectual exercise. former strengthens the body on the other hand mental faculties are nourished by reading various subjects.
If a man's mind lacks the power of concentration he should read mathematics, because every step in this process demand close attention. if one suffers from the lack of differentiation, he should dedicate his times to read the writings of Schoolmen (philosophers). The were addressed here as "Splitters of hairs". 

so, for every mental defect has its proper remedies in studies. He concludes the essay by remarking that every defect of the mind may have a special receipt and assured remedy.

Style of Bacon

Francis Bacon is well known for his style, presentation and amazing structural development in prose. Aphoristic expression and epigrammatic brevity are the most conspicuous characters of Bacon's writing. Aphorism simply means the use of short and direct use of expressions in an engaging manner. His essays are at once acute observations of life and didactic. all his dogmas can be treated as a pearls of wisdom. His sharp and brilliant use of words are brimming with big ideas. his words are just like axioms (proverbs) and the method of framing language is highly catching and effective. his Archaic and refined use of language seemed to be slightly poetic and abounded by analogies. Varieties of imageries and figurative speeches are rampant in his essays.

Other notable essays:
Of Marriage, Of Death, Of Discourse, Of Expense, Of Suspicion, Of Riches, Of Revenge.
 Alexander pope made a notable observation about Bacon, he called him 
"The wisest , the brightest but the meanest of the mankind".

Archetypal Criticism: an easy handout for beginners

Archetypal Criticism

A process of detecting conventional and prototypical patterns in literature. This school of criticism takes its origin from Maud Bodkin's "Archetypal Patterns in Poetry" published in 1934. It reached its zenith in the 1940s and 1950s. Northrop Frye (1912-91), the Canadian Critic is one of the most prominent figures of this mode of criticism. He developed this approach in his study of William Blake in a book entitled "Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake"(1947) and later his well known work "Anatomy of Criticism"(1957).

The term Archetype signifies "narrative designs,character types and images which are found in a variety of works of literature". This becomes the formula of interpreting literature. The foundation of archetypal thought can also be traced out To James.G.Frazer's "The Golden Bough" and the depth of psychology of C.G Jung, who applied the term Archetype to signify 'Primordial images' (existing right from the beginning of the universe) and the 'psychic residue'. Solely Archetype means a basic prototype or original patterns from which copies are made.
The other practitioners were Wilson Knight, Leslie Fiedler, Francis Fergusson, Richard Chase and Philip Wheelwright. But Northrop Frye gave a new direction to Archetypal Criticism.

The contributions of the Swiss Psychotherapist Carl Jung was immense. He theorized the experiences of our ancestors through his much celebrated term "The Collective Unconscious". He remarked that everything gets collected and stored in some unconscious corner of the mind. So, the moment we create something, we unconsciously go and fetch these Archetypes. Human life itself is tuned through certain Archetypal functions like birth, love, Conflict, death and other matters which can be grouped into fixed patterns.
For instance The Hero, The Villain, The Snob,The Damsels in distress and the Wicked stepmother all are frequently used Archetypal figures.

Even more images are conspicuous in  the literary sphere. The image of water occurs most commonly in different Myths. It appears in the form of sea, rivers and springs so on. Water is a source of life. Symbolizes Myths of creation as well as destruction are associated to sea, the largest reservoir of water. While a river is a symbol of death and rebirth, also stands for the eternity. According to Jung water is also symbolizes the unconscious.
Similarly The Sun stands for the creative energy, also remembers the Cosmic Law as it rises and sets according to the set patterns. Additionally, spirituality and wisdom can be attributed to the enlightening energy of the sun and the fleeting nature of life and time as well. While the rising sun represents creation and enlightenment , the setting sun represents death.

Likewise, while Tree stands for regeneration, Desert is for aridity and death. Colours have since time immemorial, constituted certain feelings. Thus, White stands for virtue,purity and innocence, Red is for violence and passion, Green is for growth and fertility, Black is for Evil, death and ignorance. images do not have absolute meanings. They will change according to the context.  Wheelwright used the term 'Plurisignation' to describe how literature acquires multiple meanings.

In the much anthologized essay "The Archetypes of Literature" Frye expresses his dissatisfaction with New Criticism. He was a strident believer of treating a work of literature as a part of larger system. Not as a pure isolated phenomenon. Literature imitates the total dream of a man. For him, no text is an island, it should be read in relation to the other existing elements. The natural world and the human world are brought together by the human imagination.

 
Frye approaches literature from two opposite ends, The inductive (Centripetal) and The deductive (Centrifugal). one can easily trace out growing, emerging patterns of significance and spreading out from the center like the ripples in a pond when a stone is cast upon it.

Frye classifies the world of literature into four categories, he calls them Mythoi.Corresponding to the four seasons. Comedy corresponds to Spring, as the presence of breeze and sunshine make you smile. Romance to Summer, as the hottest temperature evokes our passion. Tragedy to Autumn, as the shortest duration of daylight and fall of leaves disrupt our mind. finally, satire to Winter, as the wind blows with heavy freezing all around.This is how Frye identifies Myth with literature,asserting that an Archetype is basically an element of literary experience.                     

    
 Frye lived in comparatively quieter intellectual climate. he expressed his blatant philosophic nihilism towards Europeans. As a born teacher he clarified all the difficult thoughts and texts to his students. And that prompted his distinguished student, Margaret Atwood to pay her homage through the following words: "He did not lock literature into an ivory tower; instead he emphasized its centrality to the development of a civilized humane society".    

Reference & for further reading 

• Anatomy of Criticism  by  Northrop Frye
• English literary criticism and theory  by  M. S. Nagarajan
• A new approach to literary theory     by R.S Malik and Jagdish Batra
• A companion to literary forms by Padmaja Ashok
• Twentieth Century Literary Criticism: A Reader  edited by  David Lodge.
•  A handbook of critical approaches to literature   by    Wilfred. L.Guerin.

NTA NET Guidance: specifically prepared based on previous questions.

Patrick White (1912-1990)

Australian Poet, Novelist, Essayist and Playwright, was born in England. The first Australian writer to achieve The Nobel Prize for literature in 1973. 

 

Notable Novels

• Happy Valley (1939)
• The Living and The Dead (1941)
• The Aunt's Story (1948)
• The Tree of Man (1955)
• Voss (1957)
• Riders in The Chariot (1961)
• The Solid Mandala (1966)
• The Eye of The Storm (1973)
• A Fringe of Leaves (1976)
• The Twyborn Affair (1979)

David Marr was his biographer. 

His most recognized Novel was Voss. It tells the story of a doomed attempt of Johann Voss to cross the Australian continent. Narrating the mystic and spiritual communion that ties him to Laura Trevelyan, who at home in Sydney suffers with him and released from fever at the moment of his death.   

The Novel is based on the life of a nineteenth century German(Prussian) explorer and Naturalist Ludwid Leichhardt, who faded away on the occasion of his expedition into the Australian outback.

 

The Eye of The Storm and A Fringe of Leaves created a powerful and bold female characters.

The Eye of The Storm unfolds the life of Elizabeth Hunter, the powerful matriarch, who maintains her boldness until her last breath.

 

"Dorothy was breathless with resentment for what she herself could no more than half-remember, had perhaps only half discovered - on the banks of the Seine? in dreams? as part of that greatest of all obsessions, childhood? and how could Elizabeth Hunter have got possession of anything so secret? Only Mother was capable of slicing in half what amounted to psyche, then expecting the rightful owner to share".  - The Eye of the Storm, Chapter Eight

 

  

While  A Fringe of Leaves revolves around the journey of Mrs.Ellen Roxburg with her much older husband Austin. It captures the real life of Aboriginal people in Australia

 

"... she fell back upon the dust, amongst intimations of the nightmare which threatened to re-shape itself around her. Her trembling only gradually subsided as she lay fingering the ring threaded into her fringe of leaves..."  P.223

 

The Twyborn Affair in some respect echoes Virginia Woolf''s Orlando. with its gender switching protagonist. The author portrays the transition of a soul through the different identities Eudoxia, Eddie, and Eadith, two of them are incognito as female.

 

Patrick White dedicated the novel Happy Valley to the Artist Roy De Maistre. 

 

The Living and The Dead represents the life after second world war.features mother Catherine, son Elyot and daughter Eden. they were leading a desperate life under a single roof. A claustrophobic ambiance permeates in the novel.

 

The Aunt's Story recounts the experiences of Theodora Goodman, a lonely middle aged woman. who travels to France after the death of her mother and then to America where she experiences a mental breakdown and an epiphanic revelation.

 

White himself expressed a personal fondness for it. he says : "It is the one i have most affection for.

and I always find it irritating that only 6 Australians seem to have liked it."

 

"The sun was still a manageable ball above the ringing hills as Lou went outside. She walked through this stiff landscape, carrying her cold and awkward hands. She thought about the cardboard aunt, Aunt Theodora Goodman, who was both a kindness and a darkness. Lou touched the sundial, on which the time had remained frozen. She was afraid, and sad, because there was some great intolerable pressure from which it is not possible to escape. Lou looked back over her shoulder, and ran."   -   The Aunt's Story.

 

One of the great opening lines : "But old Mrs.Goodman did die at last"

  

‘Lou’ was Theodora’s soulmate.

 

 The Tree of Man captures the domestic life featuring the lives of the Parker family and their changing fortunes over many decades. It is steeped in Australian folklore and cultural myth, and is recognized as the author's attempt to infuse the peculiar and unique way of life in the remote Australian bush with some sense of the cultural traditions and ideologies. 

 

White wrote, in an attempt to explain the novel, "I felt the life was, on the surface, so dreary, ugly, monotonous, there must be a poetry hidden in it to give it a purpose, and so I set out to discover that secret core, and The Tree of Man emerged."

 

The title comes from A.E Housman's Poetry Cycle A Shropshire Lad. 

 

The novel is one of three by White included in "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die". The others are Voss and The Living and The Dead.

 

 

Reference & for further reading

•  The Oxford companion to Australian literature        by   W. Wilde
• A Companion to Australian Literature Since 1900    Editors: Rebecca McNeer,Nicholas Birns
• Encyclopedia Britanica