Why is Bacon called a practical moralist? |What is the Bacon theory? |How did Francis Bacon influence the Renaissance? |What did Francis Bacon believe?

 A person who differentiates between wrong and right is called as a moralist and incite the people to do the right things only. Bacon is not a true moralist and his morality is a saleable morality. He is a moralist-cum-worldly wise man. Hence, bacon preaches high morality and principals and founded valuable guidelines for human conduct. In some essays Bacon represent himself as a true lover and preacher of high ethical codes and conducts. For example, in his essay “Of Envy”, he says:

“A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others.”

In his essay “Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature” he says:

“But in charity there is no excess; neither can angel or man come in danger by it.”

Again, he represents himself to be a lover of justice in his essay “Of Judicature”:

“The principal duty of a judge is to suppress force and fraud.”

In spite of all the above examples. We daresay that Bacon was a man of “Renaissance”. He had a deep and shrewd insight in human nature. He knew that man is naturally tends more to the evil than to the good one. Bacon was a clear-eyed realist who saw very well the weakness in human nature and drawbacks of human conduct and also knew that man in general is not capable of entertaining and acting according to high or noble set of ‘ideas. Though Bacon’s morality was greater than that of average men, yet it was not of the highest order. A according to him the good and right things are important but when the situation proved too costly his statement also changed. On one hand, he preaches high moral principles and, on the hand, he also expresses certainly a mean and shrewd capacity by compromising upon those morals for the sake of worldly success. For this reason, a spiritual poet William Blake, says about his essays;

“Good advice for Satan’s Kingdom.”

Blake considers any utilitarian advice to be contrary to God’s ways, but Bacon’s indeed, does not bother for that. He considers his world to be more important and striving, and the success in this world is equally important. Bacon talked about the man as he “appears” and not as he “ought to appear”.

In his essay “Of Great Place” Bacon shows a high morality and condemns the people who practice ‘Wrongs’ on their high official level.

“In place there is license to do good and evil; where of the latter is a curse.”

Afterwards he raises the value the power of doing good,

“But power to do good, is true and lawful end of aspiring”.

In spite of all these moral approaches, he also supports the disloyal means to reach a high destination.

“It is good to side a man’s self-whilst he is in the rising and to balance himself when he is placed”.

So, like a moralist, Bacon preaches the good values of great place, and in this way his useful approach comes in front of us with all its power.

In his essay “Of Truth” he appears to be a genuine admirer of truth and seems to install the love of truth in his readers.

“It is heaven upon earth, to have man’s mind move in charity, rest in providence and turn upon the poles of truth.”

He also points out that falsehood is like an alloy made of gold and silver, which makes the metal work better even though it reduces the value of the metal. He says:

 “A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure”

And then by putting this, he has diluted all the effect of those words which he has said in the praise of the truth. One can find the same strange mixture of high ethics and utilitarianism in the essay “Of Revenge”. Bacon criticizes the revenge by saying:

“Revenge is a kind of wild justice.”

And

“One who studieth revenge, keeps his own wounds green.”

He says that there is no place of revenge in any high society and that it is a high quality to forgive one’s enemy. Bacon rather spoils the effects by putting that is some cases, man is justified in taking revenge, if the avenger can save his skin from the eyes of the law. He says:

“But then let a man take heed the revenge be such as there is now law to punish; else a man’s enemy is still forehand”.

In his essay “Of Suitors” Bacon explains his moral preaching that a man should deny to accept a suit, then to accept it by giving a false hope to the suitor and that one should not demand undue reward for his services. Bacon says that who undertake suits and employ crooked methods to win are the worst offenders of society. But he also says that if a patron wants favor the undeserving party, he should bring both the parties to a compromise for this would be less dangerous for him, so, in Bacon’s pint of view morality and ethical codes are less important to worldly considerations.

Bacon’s morality has also been described as cynical kind of wisdom. This impression is confirmed by the substance of even those essays which deal with the strong private relations between men.

Thus, in short, though Bacon’s essays portray morality and high ethical standards, yet he does not appear as an ideal moralist and these are but the “flashes of morality”. He is not a true moralist. He was moralist-cum-worldly wise man.