Dispersed Meditation in Francis Bacon

The essays of Francis Bacon show the example of Dispersed Meditation. It is the style, where, though the discussing matter is same, the ideas that are coming one by one are not well organized or ideas don't come consecutively. This is why the question of dispersed meditation has been raised. Of course, Bacon does not stay away from the subject that he places before himself. There is nothing irrelevant or unrelated to the theme. He does not allow his mind or fancy to loiter and roam. But we can't describe his essays as well-knit compositions because there are no light connections between the various ideas and the ideas do not seem to flow from one another. We can't claim that an essay by Bacon has a structural unity. Ideas have been put together in his essays almost at random.



In "Of Studies", we find various ideas regarding study. The author gives us ideas about the uses and abuses of reading books, ways of reading and so on. But we don't find any connection between the ideas. He jumps from one topic to another topic very abruptly, although the main topic, study, remains unchanged. None of the multitudes of ideas are fully developed, but then one may argue that an essay by its very nature implies a mere attempt and not a complete treatment of a subject. This is true but there should surely be some kind of smooth flow of ideas from one to another. There sentences have a tendency to stand by themselves, having no or little link with preceding or succeeding sentences.



The very first sentence of this essay reads like a string of aphorism or maxim. In the very first sentence of this essay, Bacon tells about the three chief uses of studies; the use of studies for delight, for ornament and for ability. He also gives excellent advices so as to why and how one should read. Then he speaks of those who spend too much time in studies are temperamentally lazy. Here her says, "To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar." Actually in there sentences, Bacon tries to show the user and causes of studies, but next he jumps to another idea about studies without any logical connection between the preceding and the succeeding sentences. Here he starts talking about the interrelationship between studies and practical experiences. Studies help a man to overcome deficiencies that he has by nature, and studies give shape of natural talents. Here he says, "They perfect nature and are perfected by experiences for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning by study". This is an example of dispersed meditation.



Next he jumps to another track. That is the right attitude towards reading. Here he says that one should read a book so that one can think carefully about what it says and then judge its value, saying, "Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them".



Next he jumps to the modes of study and their uses, saying, "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man". In the previous sentence where he was talking about what we should take from study, now he says what study gives us.



Next he discusses about various branches of studies and their curing ability. In this part, he says that History makes a man wise, Poetry makes a man imaginative, Mathematics makes a man's mind keen and subtle of so do other branches of studies. Actually every branch of knowledge has its curing ability. Studies cure mental just as the appropriate physical exercise cure effects of the body.



Dispersed ideas are also found in the essay, "Of Truth". Here also we see that the central idea is about Truth, although he gives various ideas regarding truth and truthfulness in dispersed way. Although we find various ideas like the people who do not care for truth, reasons why truth is disliked, poetic untruth, nature of truth and truth in civil business, we don't find any connection or interrelationship among there topics.



At first Bacon tells the readers about the people who don't care for truth. Certain people find great pleasures in changing their opinions frequently because they desire ultimate freedom to act and think, which would not be possible if they had to believe in a fixed principle. Here Bacon says, " Certainly there be that delight in giddiness and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as acting". And he gives the idea that standers of truth in religions, philosophical and moral spheres keep changing from time to time. Then he proceeds, very abruptly, to examine the tendency of human beings to feel more pleased by lies than by truth, and finds it difficult to explain as to why people should tell lies for the sake of lies. He says, "that man should love lies" for "lies sake"



Then he jumps to the fact that the harm that is done by lies that sinks into the minds of people and settles down there.



Next he speaks about the values of truth, which can be realized by those who have experienced and understood it. The essay concludes with a warning that the wickedness of falsehood and breach of faith with receive their due punishment in the Judgement Day. Actually, Bacon doesn't offer a particular thesis on the subject of Truth but merely records his thoughts as them come.



In summing up it can be same that Bacon's essays are the full of dispersed meditation. The ideas that come one after another don't have much harmony between them. Actually his writings are full of aphorism for which the sentences of his essays seem not related with one another. And all these things are seen in various essays of Bacon.