Power and Knowledge

In the Beginning

The year is 1575. The place is Trinity College, Cambridge, England Young student Francis Bacon is poised to announce the love of his life: the denouncement of the ” Aristotelian Way “. The ancient philosophers, Bacon believed, were mere impostors, trading in drama as a means to explain all the unknowable things of the world. Their ways always led to a Divine end point yet, he somehow knew in his heart that there was so much more to know. His world tantalized his mind, and offered a multitude of things to ponder over. He envisioned light, and truth, realization beyond the earth, stretching outward to space and the stars above, This he did with a facility never seen in his native England. As a thirteen year old boy, his startling intellect was noticed by Queen Elizabeth, and she promptly anointed him as, ” the young Lord Keeper “.

One year later, Francis traveled to France. Here he would remain for three years, participating in discussions with Etienne Jodelle, and Joachim du Bellay, both, poets extraordinaire.. From a group of essentially seven very young men, thoughts were exchanged regarding the importance of language in allowing the arts to become useful currency in the trading of ideas. This was Francis Bacon’s epiphany in the making. He returned to England, determined to improve a language devoid of the mechanics of best expression. Through his later essays , and especially, his ” Temporis Partus Maximus ” ( the Greatest Birth of Time, his own system), he imprinted unmistakably, his mark upon the chronicles of human development. Inductive psychology grew from his work, and years later, men give pause in honor of his contributions.

Bacon’s father advised him that, ‘if you want to make everything subject to you, then subject yourself to reason “. Obviously, Francis did this with the passion of a thousand men. From his mother, it is said he received the fundamental basis for his education. Lady Anne, and her husband, Sir Nicholas Bacon, both combined to produce one of the most profound intellects this world has ever seen. Such a story should end here, but it does not. Francis, now a man, possessed sufficient human frailties to allow himself ordinary failures in his life. He, too, was corruptible, and paid a heavy price in the end days of his life. However, Francis bacon had carved a pathway out of the darkness, and into the light of a new day. That is how he shall be remembered.