Bacon's essays reflect the experience and wide reading of a Renaissance man - philosopher, historian, judge, politician, adviser to the Prince - above all, astute observer of human nature. With uncompromising candour, he exposes man as he is, not as he ought to be, examining such givens of Renaissance power as negotiating for position, expediting a personal suit, speaking effectively, and the role of dissimulation in social and political situations. He scrutinizes judicial prerogatives and probes the causes and dangers of atheism and superstition. Even such topics as boldness or love or deformity have a practical bent. In Bacon's own phrase, these essays 'come home to Mens Businesse and Bosomes.' It is especially through their matchless style that they come home-with imaginative vigour, concrete language, and the colloquial force of individual sentences. An introduction places the essays in their original context, examines their evolution over Bacon's lifetime, and elucidates their form and prose style; a commentary examines his sources and relates essays to his other writings; a glossary and index are also included.

This edition of Francis Bacon's (1561-1626) The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall, a re-issue of the first critical edition since the nineteenth century, uses modern editorial standards to establish an authoritative, unmodernized text. The textual apparatus includes a comprehensive, chronological record of the substantive readings of all these manuscripts and editions, so that for the first time the evolution of Bacon's texts may be studied conveniently in detail. An introduction places the essays in their original context, examines their evolution over Bacon's lifetime, and elucidates their form and prose style; a commentary examines his sources and relates essays to his other writings; a glossary and index are also included.

Michael Kiernan has outclassed all previous editions; indeed, no work by Bacon has ever had such care lavished on it ... This edition provides the reader with more than he could ever have expected ... Professor Kiernan is to be congratulated for producing an edition which sets new standards in Bacon scholarship