English literature and linguistics with ASMA SHEIKH

Q- Of all the prose writers included in your syllabus, whom do you like most? Give solid reasons for your choice.
Though there are many prose writers included in our course i.e. Francis Bacon, Bertrand Russell, Jonathan Swift, Seamus Heaney, and Edward Said. But I like Francis Bacon the most. Francis Bacon is my favorite prose writer because he is the father of English prose.
I like him because he was the first to set up through his personal example a model of English prose, which had hitherto be non existent. Referring to Bacon’s contribution to English prose Hugh Walker observes:
‘He took one of the biggest steps ever taken in the evolution of English prose style, a step, which set that style in the road, which it travelled, though not without divagations, down to the days of Swift and Addison.’
Francis Bacon, (1561-1626) the lawyer, statesman, philosopher, and master of the English tongue, and the most famous as the first essayist in the history of English Literature is remembered in literary terms for the short worldly wisdom of most of his 58 essays. He is also known for his power as a speaker in parliament. He was also a nationalist as he advised us in all his 58 essays to prefer the good of the individual. He was as anti-democratic as Aristotle who liked the country to be ruled by a king or not by men elected democratically from the masses. He was an advocate of war because peace spoils the creative and inventive talent of the people. He was hater of laboring classes because he himself belonged to the highest aristocratic class of England. So when he talks of man in his essays, he means as aristocratic man whom he observes in relation to God, society and himself. That is why French called him “L’ Artisan De La Fortune” (the Maker if Fortune).
Bacon the essayist had stayed long in Paris and was himself master of French language. He read 100 essays written in 1580 by Montaigne (1532-1592) who is the inventor of essays in France. Like Montaigne in France, Bacon is the first and greatest of modern essayist in England. So Bacon’s pioneering work in essay writing is a great contribution to English literature. Bacon’s essays are impersonal, objective, compressed, profound, epigrammatic, authoritative, oracular and argumentative. So Bacon’s essays surpass Montaigne’s essays and no other English writer till today could surpass Bacon’s essays. This signifies Bacon’s contribution to English literature as an essayist.
Bacon as an essayist does not give us an exhausted discussion of the subject which he chooses for a particular essay but goes on recording his thoughts as they come in his mind. Only his essays do not seem to flow from one to the other. None of his 58 essays present any structural unity. Bacon is perfectly true in saying that his essays are dispersed meditation. Even then they make a treasure of practical wisdom and thus the contribution to English literature by Bacon as an essayist.
Bacon shows his utilitarian approach even in his religious essays like: 1- Of Atheism. 2- Of Utility. 3- Of Religion. 4- Of Death. He makes no mention of hopes and fears of the life after death.
Indeed Bacon’s 58 essays constitute a handbook of practical wisdom enclosing in their shortest maxims an astounding treasure of insight and prudence.
Bacon’s as an essayist, is like a skylark that flies high in the sky to sing and please itself while as a man of reflection; he is like a hawk that can be soar aloft but can also descend and fall upon its prey
Bacon introduced a new literary form of essays in English literature by writing all his essays in his typical epigrammatic brevity and terse expressiveness. Bacon possessed a marvelous power of compressing into few words as idea which ordinary writers would express in several sentences. Many of his sentences have an aphoristic quality. They are like proverbs which can readily be quoted when the occasion demands. Only Bacon could have written the sentences remarkable for their brevity
He never uses an unwanted word. No one has produced a greater number of closely- packed and striking formulas, loaded with practical wisdom. Many of them have become current as proverbs. The brevity of most of his essays is a great recommendation to readers having a short leisure time as their disposal. Their compactness of thought and conciseness of expression is a great virtue. They are full of aphorisms and epigrams which lend a great charm to his style.