James Baquet

    Ming is chatting with his classmate Mark in the common room of their dorm.

    Ming: Hi, Mark. I’ve got a question for you.

    Mark: Shoot!

    Ming: Can you give me a good example of a “Renaissance Man?”

    Mark: Oh, you mean a person who knows a lot of things about a lot of things? How about Francis Bacon?

    Ming: Who?

    Mark: Sir Francis Bacon. He was an English man who lived from 1561 to 1626.

    Ming: The same time as Shakespeare!

    Mark: Funny you should mention that. Some people think that Shakespeare wasn’t educated enough to write the plays that bear his name. So some have suggested that Bacon wrote them.

    Ming: That’s crazy!

    Mark: I agree. Anyway, Bacon was a politician, a public speaker, a lawyer, a philosopher, a writer, and a scientist.

    Ming: A real Renaissance Man! What kinds of things did he write?

    Mark: The one we mostly read today is his “Essays,” or “Counsels Civil and Moral.” A short version was first published in 1597, but by 1625 it had grown to nearly 60 essays.

    Ming: What were they about?

    Mark: All kinds of things! Of course he covered all the big, important ideas, like truth, death, love, and so on.

    Ming: Uh-huh.

    Mark: But he also wrote about everyday things like “Marriage and Single Life” and even gardens.

    Ming: Wow. I could probably learn a lot.

    Mark: That’s true. They’re pretty tough to read, though.

    Ming: Why?

    Mark: Well, first, he wrote in Early Modern English. Some of the words he uses are pretty strange.

    Ming: Okay.

    Mark: Then, as an educated man of his day, he sometimes used Latin phrases that we’re not familiar with today.

    Ming: I see.

    Mark: And, finally, many of the essays are just one long paragraph, with no break, even though they might have over 500 words and change subjects several times.

    Ming: That would be a little hard to read, I guess. But are they worth the effort?

    Mark: Absolutely, and finding an edition with notes could really help.

    Ming: You said that Bacon was also a scientist?

    Mark: Yes! In fact, we owe the “Scientific Method” in use today to the system that he used.

    Ming: You mean, like, making a hypothesis, testing it through experiment or observation, and so on?

    Mark: Right. That’s based on what some still call “The Baconian Method.” In fact, it’s pretty much what killed him.

    Ming: How did that happen?

    Mark: He was experimenting with freezing meats to see if that would preserve them. After stuffing a chicken with snow, he caught pneumonia and died.