Francis Bacon || A Critical Examination of His Temperament, Character, and Personality

Francis Bacon’s Intellect and Weak Moral Character

The contrast between Bacon's great intellect and his mediocre character is one of the commonplaces of history. This client and friend of Essex who directed the legal proceedings against him, this Lord Chancellor of James I who was forced to acknowledge himself guilty of the corruption and abuse of his office, was described by Pope as "the wisest, the most intelligent, the most vile of men." While it may be admitted that the circumstances were difficult for him to make excuses for, it is impossible to deny that he subordinated friendship and righteousness to his career. However, this base desire, the desire to serve mankind by the search for truth, was redeemed and encouraged by the other. Very early, while at Cambridge, Bacon realized the sterility of the academic sciences which led to verbal controversy but never to reality. He then conceived a mission with which the whole process of his practical life became almost meaningless. "I found in my nature", he wrote, "a peculiar disposition to contemplate truth". He made it his aim to acquire knowledge which would increase the empire of man on earth.

Francis Bacon as a Multi-Dimensional Personality

One observer says that "Bacon was intellectually excellent", but morally weak. His brilliant talents make it difficult for him to offer a critical assessment that would encompass all the diverse aspects of his personality; as a lawyer, politician, scientist, philosopher, historian, and essayist, he was also an investor in politics. While the ambiguous phrase, 'be kind to hidden poets', a phrase on which Bacon's Shakespearean doctrine has been emphasized, raises the suspicion that he acquired more knowledge than is shown in the two or three Masques he wrote.

Admiration for Francis Bacon’s Intellectual Greatness

"It is impossible to feel too much admiration for Bacon's personal character. He exhibited almost all the undesirable traits of the Renaissance politician—greed, ostentation, heartlessness, and public morality. But it is equally impossible not to admire his broad and bright mind, which gave him a profound epistle to his life in which he wrote about his own. Of his kefir he says proudly: "I confess that I have as wide intellectual ends as I have moderate civic ends, for I have made all knowledge my province."

Bacon’s Reserved Nature and Literary Style

Bacon was reserved by temperament, by the need for high office, and by intelligence. And he is very difficult to get to know. He never makes himself intimate except by an occasional letter, but he is not, by any means, inaccessible. It is his style that is characterized by his taste, his biblical education, his sensual alertness, and above all by a mind constantly "thinking, searching, "to wander, to new ideas and thoughts." To read him is to be animated by a desire to know, and it is well known that Sir Thomas Browne was induced to follow him in the investigation of vulgar errors, because the method and result of the follower were so different from those of his master.

Dr. E.A. Baker’s View on Bacon’s Character

Dr. E.A. Baker presents the matter in such a way that Bacon's character has been the subject of violent controversy. Macaulay has shown him to be a high example of a brilliant intellect united to a base and vulgar moral nature. His treatment of Essex reveals the coldness of his feelings. His service to the age when progress was in full swing seems to us a pity, but it shows that there was no more fundamental kind of selfishness than his desire to be great in practical matters as well as in the world of thought, and to use his genius for the common good. As a judge it has never been proved that he was influenced by bribery. However, of a sloth not in keeping with his modern views For reason, he made a habit of accepting gifts from suitors. His one pure desire was the acquisition of knowledge. A commanding intellect and a rich imagination were qualified by a strange incapacity for sentiment or moral seriousness, and he has left these mysteries in the conduct of his life."

The Tragedy and Complexity of Bacon’s Life

The tragedy of Francis Bacon's life, the contrast between his high ideals and his shortcomings in friendship and honor, the controversy over his character, may have for a time diverted the minds of men from his greatness; for a more modest nature as an English scholar would have given his critics less of a handle; but when a sense of anxiety and trouble remains in the minds of those who are troubled by it, it is a shame to think that so great a master of the splendor of words, so eloquent and eloquent a prophet of the new world in which "many shall go hither and thither, and knowledge shall increase," he has proved himself so tender to the time-servant. The very complexity of his character holds his appeal, and mankind's "wisest, brightest, greatest psychological problem" will continue to attract the attention of historians and philosophers.

George Saintsbury’s Opinion on Bacon

George Saintbury thus writes of Bacon's character: "There is no doubt that, though personally good-natured, he had all the vices of the Renaissance statesman, except perhaps venality and revenge. He was too deeply attached to the idea of the brave, bold, and cunning man, sympathizing with the right of man, nor can it be said that he expressed many high feelings, except scientific zeal and patriotism."

Bacon’s Political Ambition and Opportunism

In the pursuit of his ambitions, Bacon showed a complete lack of mistrust. He broke off his friendship with the king's favorite, Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, and allied himself with the new rising star, George Villiers, after the Duke of Buckingham. Bacon's foresight proved correct. Somerset fell from royal favour, while Villiers rose like a rocket, materially assisted in the early stages of his upward course by Bacon, Bacon's reference to royal favourites in his essay on Ambition being thought to refer to James's partiality for them. With characteristic service he defends the practice of keeping favourites thus: "It is a weakness in some princes to be a favourite; but it is the best remedy against ambitious nobles."

Bacon’s Role in the Fall of Essex

It is of course impossible to praise or defend Bacon's role in the punishment of Essex, but it is worth remembering that he often warned the earl that "I like few things better than your kingdom, as the service of the Queen, her silence and satisfaction, her honour, her favour, the good of my country and my country".

Bacon’s Reflections on Adversity and Misfortune

What he wrote after his downfall, in his essay On Adversity, shows the effect that his misfortune had on him: "The virtue of prosperity," he writes, "is patience, which is a more heroic virtue in morals. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; which is the great achievement. The blessing and the clear revelation of the grace of God." Indeed, no reader can read this essay without being quite impressed by Bacon's response to his misfortune. 

The Charges of Bribery Against Bacon

On the whole, Bacon's own account of the incident is considered accurate, for he admitted (in his letters and in his life) that he had received gifts from suits involved in pending litigation. Yet he affirms that his intention was never influenced by bribery. And in several cases his judgment seems to have been given against the party who had bribed him. He did not defend himself against the charge of bribery, but at the same time he described himself as "the fairest Chancellor in the five changes since the time of Sir Nicholas Bacon," on the plea that his intentions had always been pure and had never been influenced by gifts received.

Bacon’s Ideals of Justice and Integrity

In this connection we should remind ourselves of what the same man of nineteen had written in his Treatise of Judicature, which expresses very high sentiments on the necessity of impartial justice. The whole article may be read as a self-condemnation. The following sentences are particularly noteworthy: "Above all, integrity is one wrong sentence that injures their (judges') share and proper virtue more than many wrong examples. By them they corrupt the stream, others corrupt the fountain. The place of justice is a sacred place; and therefore not only the bench and the precepts are intended, but also the share of the judges there. It is preserved without scandal and corruption."

Macaulay’s Analysis of Bacon’s Philosophical Temperament

Macaulay says: “In Bacon’s temperament—we speak of Bacon the philosopher, not Bacon the lawyer and politician—there was a singular union of boldness and prudence. The true philosophical temperament, we think, may be described in four words: much hope, a little faith, an extraordinary passion to believe in anything, anything that can be done. The conviction that anything extraordinary has been done. In these points the constitution of Bacon’s mind was absolutely perfect.”

Bacon’s Vast Intellectual Vision and Scientific Method

“Closely connected with this peculiarity of Bacon’s temperament was a wonderful feature of his understanding. With the utmost subtlety of observation, he possessed a breadth of understanding hitherto reserved for no other man.” The Essays contain numerous proofs that there is no characteristic of a garden, a characteristic of a beautiful house. Or a courtier, whose mind is capable of acquiring knowledge in the whole world, though he may never have surpassed it, yet his mind had thousands of vast numbers of things of his own which no mathematician, astronomer, physician, botanist, anthropologist could go to learn more. The specific science or art which Bacon taught was the art of inventing, in which Bacon taught all men the mutual relations of all branches of knowledge.

Bacon’s Freedom from Controversial Spirit

"He had no hand in that controversial temper which he so often condemned in his predecessors. He never got into any controversy: nay, we cannot at present recall, in all his philosophical works, a single piece of a controversial character; the difference between his school and other schools of thought was so fundamental that any kind of combat was hardly possible in his mind. He was neither formed by nature nor disciplined by Babism for dialectical combat."

Bacon’s Religious Views and Desire for Unity

In religion Bacon desired unity and advocated tolerance: "The ancient and true bonds of union are one faith, one baptism, and one ceremony, not one policy".

Bacon’s Moral and Pragmatic Philosophy

He makes morality the handmaiden of theology. He gives no gospel of duty for duty's sake and condemns all idealist systems, praising Machiavelli more for openly and unambiguously declaring and stating what men do and what they should not do. In opposition to Aristotle he prefers the active to the intellectual life. He is also a pragmatist in the sense that he judges the rightness of an action by its effects: the effects, however, must be considered in relation to the good of the state, not of the individual.

Bacon’s Political Ideas and View of the State

Bacon's political ideas are influenced by the Greek concept of the state, especially by the ideas of Aristotle, whom he claims to despise. He shares with Aristotle the view that states are naturally antagonistic to each other, that war is a necessity, and his statement on foreign trade is as economically contradictory as Aristotle's dictum on usury. In Bacon we recall the modern democratic note that he had no faith in democracy and, like the Greeks, despised workers.