A Compositionist Analysis of Sir Francis Bacon’s Essay “Of Studies”

Abstract

Francis Bacon’s essays are the most read in the world ascribed to the well-versed language and style. This study aims to analyze Francis Bacon’s essay “Of Studies” by applying the theory of composition presented by Samuel Phillips Newman. This research also aims at proving Francis Bacon as a Compositionist. The theory of composition is a practical theory which has been deduced from the works of authentic writers. The instructions which are provided for the application of the theory are two-fold; the first one is to point out the excellence of style, and the second one is to give cautions against the most frequent faults.  The theory entails four fundamental qualities of a good style they are; perspicuity, vivacity, naturalness and euphony. The researchers have analyzed the essay of Francis Bacon, in particular, “Of Studies” by applying the four qualities of a good style. The findings of the study cascade that the essay is bestowed with the elements of extensive knowledge, rich funds of thoughts, witty and weighty expression coupled with skillful language. This research study was qualitative in nature in which the theory of composition was applied. For achieving reliable results,  the textual analysis was taken into consideration for the analysis of the text. The source data for the present work was an essay “Of studies” written by Francis Bacon for which the items and summary points were tabulated.