I love Montaigne essays and can read and reread them. You come close to an interesting and sympathetic man who is thinking things through. Bacon writes well - indeed he writes very well. His style is aphoristic and lapidary. He marshalls his points well and by and large shapes each essay with a careful exposition. However I rather feel it is hollow. Bacon does not seem to be a man of original thought. He is gathering what ere was thought and presenting it elegantly. There is a slight element of worldly cynicism but no evidence of huge commitment or feeling.

Had to read it for school.

It was difficult for me to see these essays as anything but a series of numbing platitudes with some occasional negative stereotypes thrown in with full solemnity as though they were the truth also.
"Judges ought above all to remember the conclusion of the Roman Twelve Tables "Salus populi suprema lax." p. 214
from Of religion: "Concerning the means of procuring unity men must beware, that in the procuring, or uniting, of religious unity, they do not dissolve and deface the laws of charity, and of human society. There be two swords amongst Christians, the spiritual and the temporal, and both have their due office and place in the maintenance of religion. But we may not take up the third sword, which is Mohomet's sword, or like unto it; that is to propagate religion by wars or by sanguinary persecutions to force consciences... " p. 19

Üçte birini filan okuyup bıraktım. Bana kattığı hiçbir şey olmadı. Montaigne'in denemeleri ile bunu kıyaslamak bile anlamsız. Rahmetli dedem kuru bir üslupla bana nasihatlarda bulunuyor gibi bir şey. Ne ilginç bir alıntı, ne hoş bir anekdot... Hiçbir şey yok. Hz Muhammet'in "(Hira) dağı bana gelmezse ben ona giderim" lafına dair Bacon'ın yaptığı istihza dışında aklımda da hiçbir şey kalmadı.

I liked the second unit of essays, because very similar to Montaigne. "New Atlantis" is very interesting, but also rather boring (it's a feature of more utopian literature)

Started this one a while back so was mostly a matter of polishing off the last 50 pages or so but here we are with Bacon and I’m pleased. Sacrilegious it may be, but I find he scans better on the page than Montaigne. Probably due to translation but FB is very attentive to his sentences which are precise and aphoristic.

nice

Loses two stars because of that dreadful bloody essay about gardens.