Of
Marriage and Single Life | Francis Bacon | Summary
In this essay Bacon speaks about the
differences that mark a married man from a single one and the advantages and
disadvantages of a married or single life. A man who is married and has wife
and children is unable to risk his money for noble purposes. They are obstacles
to any endeavour either good or bad. The best works which are the best for the
public have often come from unmarried men. These are the men who have “married”
the public, that is, devoted their lives entirely to a public cause. Men who
have children care a great deal about the future and make various important
pledges and promises regarding the future. However, there are also some single
men who think only about themselves and they too account for the future. Some
people consider wives and children as items of expense. Some foolish and greedy
men take pride in having no children. They believe that they will remain richer
if they do not have any children because they might have heard people say that
so and so is a great, rich man but he has the burden of children suggesting
that children are a hindrance on the growth of fortunes. However, most men
choose to remain single for the sake of liberty that a single life allows.
These people think of marriage as imprisonment.
Bacon enlists the positive and negative
qualities of a single man. Unmarried men make the best friends, the best
masters, and the best servants. But they do not make the best citizens as they
have so great a sense of freedom that they tend to run away from
responsibilities. The single life is better suited for a clergyman because he
can be more charitable as he does not have any needs to satisfy. For judges and
magistrates, the situation is indifferent because if they are corrupt it makes
them servants who are worse than wives. For soldier it is often an emotional
support to think of wives and children before going into battle. That is why
Bacon says that the dislike of marriage among the Turks makes the vulgar
soldiers even more so. Single men are often more charitable because they have
less expenses. But at the same time, they also tend to be cruel and hard
hearted as they do not have a wife or children to invoke the tenderness within
them.
A grave man with traditional beliefs is
often a loving husband. Women are often proud of their chastity and a wife will
always remain chaste and obedient if she thinks that her husband is wise and
not jealous. For a young man a wife serves the purpose of a mistress, in the
middle age she is a companion and to the old man she is a nurse. Therefore, a
man can reasonably decide when he would like to get married. Bacon here quotes
a philosopher and mathematician who answered the question of when a man should
marry and said – “a young man not yet, an elder man not at all”.
Bacon observes that bad husbands often
have good wives. He says that this may be because it makes the husband’s
kindness more valuable or because the wife takes pride in her patience in
dealing with him. Bacon however says that given the chance these bad husbands
would make sure to correct their own mistake.
Francis
Bacon – “Of Plantations”
In
this essay on colonies Bacon rather skirts over the issue of what should be
done about the natives, instead just writing that he prefers starting with a
clean slate (i.e., where there are no people) and that you should be nice to
natives but also be on your guard, and maybe send some of them to the metropolis
so that they are suitably impressed and report favorably on it when they come
back. Otherwise, the essay is mostly concerned with practicalities, such as
what one should plant or what animals should be brought, and it’s full of
commonplaces such as that you should not establish your plantation in a wet
place for health reasons. Interestingly enough, Bacon advises to start with
planting not corn but less labor-intensive crops such as beans “because they
serve for meat as well as bread”. Despite the fact that he uses the word “meat”
in the sense “main dish”, I almost thought he recognized its high content of
vegetable protein, except that in the next sentence he claims rice is “meat”
too. And even though “of rice likewise cometh a great increase”, I am not sure
it’s as easy to produce as Bacon seems to believe. The land should be held in
common, with some small plots set aside for private gardening, and the colony
should be ruled by one governor with a wide range of powers and with a help
from some kind of a council. Overall, Bacon’s views go in the direction: do not
be greedy, do not expect a quick return (that’s why he advises the colony to be
financed by noblemen, not merchants), send their qualified workforce rather
than criminals and do not forsake the colonists when they are in difficulties
because “it is the sin fullest thing in the world”.
Published in 1625 as part of a collection of 58
essays, “Of Plantations” is part of Francis Bacon’s Essays. Originally published in English, the collection
was later translated into Latin as well. Though the essay as a genre was very much a new form of literature in
Bacon’s time, they gained popularity because they covered a wide range of
topics that were relatable to the reader through straightforward language and
observations. Bacon published his Essays three different times (1597, ten essays; 1612,
thirty-eight essays; and 1625, fifty-eight essays), each edition containing
revised versions of the previously published essays as well as new ones. It was not until the last edition was published in 1625 that
“Of Plantations” was included.
Bacon’s Essays were praised by his contemporaries for both
their style and content. He wrote about things that were important not only
to his life, but to people in general. His Essays were simply titled and discussed ideas that
everyday men could relate to. (This applies to “Of Plantations” in that there
was an ever-increasing interest in Bacon’s time of colonizing America and
establishing plantations.)
“Of Plantations” was significant during the
time period in which it was published because it illustrates the interest in
English colonization in America. One of the main reasons for the English
settlements in the New World, particularly the first in Jamestown (beginning in
1607), was to profit off of the land. However, only several years after they arrived,
both famine and drought had taken its toll on the settlers. Without sufficient knowledge about how to plant and cultivate
and only livestock to eat, many of them starved to death. They needed to learn how to survive by utilizing the land,
therefore creating plantations. But plantations were not just about food. They were about the settlers’ interest in and need to
establish a strong foundation of community. Overall, this essay exemplifies what the colonists
were striving for, which was a successful start in the New World.
