This book contain collection of 7 Books
1. The Great Instauration
2. The Advancement of Learning
3. The New Organon
4. Preparative toward a Natural and Experimental History
5. The Essays
6. The New Atlantis
7. Valerius Terminus: of the Interpretation of Nature
About the Author
Francis Bacon
English philosopher, statesman, and essayist, best known as an advocate and defender of the scientific revolution. His philosophical works lay out a complex methodology for scientific inquiry which is often called the Baconian method
Philosopher and statesman, was the youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, by his second wife, a daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, whose sister married William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the great minister of Queen Elizabeth. He was born at York House in the Strand on Jan. 22, 1561, and in his 13th year was sent with his elder brother Anthony to Trinity College, Cambridge. Here he first met the Queen, who was impressed by his precocious intellect, and was accustomed to call him “the young Lord Keeper.” Here also he became dissatisfied with the Aristotelian philosophy as being unfruitful and leading only to resultless disputation. In 1576 he entered Gray’s Inn, and in the same year joined the embassy of Sir Amyas Paulet to France, where he remained until 1579. The death of his father in that year, before he had completed an intended provision for him, gave an adverse turn to his fortunes, and rendered it necessary that he should decide upon a profession. He accordingly returned to Gray’s Inn, and, after an unsuccessful attempt to induce Burghley to give him a post at court, and thus enable him to devote himself to a life of learning, he gave himself seriously to the study of law, and was called to the Bar in 1582. He did not, however, desert philosophy, and published a Latin tract, Temporis Partus Maximus (the Greatest Birth of Time), the first rough draft of his own system.
Two years later, in 1584, he entered the House of Commons as member for Melcombe, sitting subsequently for Taunton [1586], Liverpool [1589], Middlesex [1593], and Southampton [1597]. In the Parliament of 1586 he took a prominent part in urging the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. About this time he seems again to have approached his powerful uncle, the result of which may possibly be traced in his rapid progress at the Bar, and in his receiving, in 1589, the reversion to the Clerkship of the Star Chamber, a valuable appointment, into the enjoyment of which, however, he did not enter until 1608.
About 1591 he formed a friendship with the Earl of Essex, from whom he received many tokens of kindness ill requited. In 1593 the offices of Attorney-general, and subsequently of Solicitor-general became vacant, and Essex used his influence on Bacon’s behalf, but unsuccessfully, the former being given to Coke, the famous lawyer. These disappointments may have been owing to a speech made by Bacon on a question of subsidies. To console him for them Essex presented him with a property at Twickenham, which he subsequently sold for £1800, equivalent to a much larger sum now.
Singular, though of course futile, attempts, supported sometimes with much ingenuity, have been made to claim for Bacon the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays, and have indeed been extended so as to include those of Marlowe, and even the Essays of Montaigne.
