The Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral

Paperback

Published June 30, 2005 by BARNES & NOBLE BOOKS.

ISBN:
9780760770184
OCLC Number:
62324113

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2 stars (1 review)

26 editions

Grave & Orderly

2 stars

These essays by Francis Bacon came across to me, more so, as preliminary sermons than essays. I have no issue with reading puritanical, fundamentalist doctrine but what I struggled with throughout these musings was the lack of any kind of wit or introspection that might allude to a paradox in the writer's ideas. I found the text more didactic than dry, but the range of topics were quite interesting, and so I approached each one with a fresh hope. If there was amusement to be found, for me, it was the two essays on buildings and gardens. With these, Francis begins objectively, only to follow on with what he himself would need in a garden or building, and then moves onto what you should do with his garden or building as if instructing a client, and all this seemed as if he was suddenly swept away by personal whim and …