This essay is absolutely related to the society of that time: a society that was changing, that wanted to left behind all those dark Middle Ages and that wanted to make a good use of their thinking and understanding. It might be said that Bacon was a philosopher that changed his society… but he was not the only one: Occam, Bacon, Locke, Hume, all these empiricists and many more people, like painters, writers, etc. help and drove this revolution brought in part by the Renaissance, made this possible. That is way, the role that science plays in this text is so important. It is clear that we are before an empiricist’s essay when we notice that everything is related to experience; for instance: line 3 “those that are learned”, “expert men” (= men of experience); line 8: “they (= studies) perfect nature, and they are perfected by experience”; line 13: “…, won by observation” (= wise men acquire skills to use studies through observation and meditation); line 26: there is an identification between natural philosophy and science, which means that we learn by observation.

This essay (“Of Studies”, 1625) is the remake of the former version, which had been written by him in 1597. In the former version (1597), the style was solemn and aphoristic, whereas in the latter (1625), we can still find some aphoristic elements, but it also provides more connectives and transitions, which gives it a smoother style.

His style is always high: he talks as he was always right, without stopping to think that he may also be wrong. The way he writes is curt and distinct, but smooth, because it never gets you tired and the sen

Some topics in this essay:
Society England, Locke Hume, St Albans, Elizabeth Bacon, Middle Ages, Francis Bacon, FRANCIS BACON, William Cecil, line 27, = read, “of studies” 1625, = read entirely, read entirely, former version, �from line, line 15, observation nature, “of studies”, studies” 1625, bacon philosopher,