OF
YOUTH AND AGE
by Francis Bacon
(Summary & Analysis)
Francis
Bacon was the essayist of ‘the age of Shakespeare’. The main characteristics of
this age are:
· interest
in past,
· sensuousness,
· love
for nature,
· the
spirit of patriotism,
· foreign
travels and fashion,
· political
peace and social contentment.
Bacon
was born in London in 1561. He had education at Cambridge. He also studied in
France. Bacon was known as the father of English essays. It is said about him,
that bacon was the wisest, the brightest and the meanest of the mankind.
In
the essay ‘of youth and age’ Bacon compares virtues and vices of both the ages,
but like a good lawyer he balances both the arguments, before drawing any
conclusion. About youth, he says, that youth makes mistakes, indulges him in
foolish thoughts but youth is the time for inventions, experiments, adventures
and for imaginations. He says, that a violent youth is not ripe for any action,
because a youth is a youth in years as well as in experience. Youth is fit to
invent, to create, to venture and to execute things than to judge. It is the
tendency of youth to attempt too much, to ignore the intervening steps, to
stick to imperfect rules or principles, to use extreme remedies at first and to
indulge in reckless innovations.
According
to the essayist ‘age’ is over cautious, over critical and fond of raising all
manners of objections. He says that man of age contends himself with the
partial success. According to him, both the ages should work together, because
the virtues of either age may correct the defects of both the ages. In
business, for the sake of profit, the youth should execute the orders of the
age. In external relations with people, the authority of the age and the
popularity of the youth count. Team work of youth and age is also needed for
the moral freshness of youth and the political wisdom of age. Youth sometimes
fails to come up to our expectations, though at first seems very promising.
Youth has been gifted with some natural disposition like fluency in speech
which lack in age.
In
this essay Bacon balances the advantages and the disadvantages of both youth
and age. Being a Latinist, his style is aphoristic one. His sentences carry so
much meaning in them that sometimes it becomes so difficult for them to carry
it.
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