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.