Bacon's "Of Friendship" line by line explanation

OF FRIENDSHIP

by Francis Bacon

Main Ideas

 

·      He who can spend all his time in solitude is either a wild

beast or a god. There may be some persons who take to solitude

for certain spiritual reasons, although the spiritual reasons advanced

by these persons may not be genuine.

·      Epimenides, Numa, Empedocles, and Apollonius claimed that their solitude enabled them to lead a nobler or a spiritually exalted life. The person who has no true friends is like a man living in a wilderness.

 

Uses of friendship

·      There are several uses of friendship.

The principal use of friendship is that it enables a man to give an outlet to his feelings and emotions. If a man has a friend, he can communicate to him all his sorrows, joys, fears, hopes, etc., and thus obtain relief.

·      Even kings and monarchs have been known to make friends

because of this inner necessity. They had to choose friends from amongst those lower than themselves in rank or status but they did not mind that.

·      Sulla made friends with Pompey even though subsequently Pompey found it possible to adopt a defiant manner towards him. Julius Caesar made friends with Decimus Brutus even though the latter ultimately joined the conspiracy against him. Augustus became so intimate with Agrippa that he was urged  by a close adviser to offer his daughter Julía to Agrippa. Similarly Tiberius Caesar became very intimate with Sejanus, and Septimius Severus with Plautianus. Nor were these rulers and emperors weak minded persons needing friends to maintain their morale. They were all men of great strength of mind. But they found their lives incomplete without friendship.

 

Without friends

·      Persons who have no friends will not know to whom they should confide their secrets. If a man keeps his secrets to himself, he will be living under a severe mental strain.

·      Hardy and Louis XI were among those who kept their secrets to themselves and who, as a consequence, suffered great mental agony. Those who have no friends will eat into their own hearts

With Friends

·      He who has friends will multiply his joy and diminish his grief. A man's joy is greatly increased when he speaks about it to his friend; and, likewise, his grief is halved when he imparts it to a friend.

·      Friendship is useful not only for one's emotional health. It also enables a man to understand things more clearly. 1n the course of a conversation with a friend, a man's ideas take better shape, and a man's mind becomes clearer than before. When he shares thoughts to a friend, a man becomes more sure of himself.The advice that a man receives from his friend is more sound

·      The opinion that a man forms in the basis of his own judgement is like the opinion that a man would form on the basis of the views of a flatterer. Only the counsel obtained from a friend is reliable and therefore useful. Like-wise the admonition of a friend is very useful to maintain the health of the mind.

·      Men who have no friends to whom they can communicate their thoughts often commit gross errors.The good advice of a friend is of great help tó a man in setting his business straight. There is no use taking counsel *by pieces''. In other words, one should not approach different persons for advice in different matters. It is better always to consult the same man in all matters but this man sh0uld be a sincere friend. If a man approaches dfferent persons for advice in different matters, he will receive advice that is partly useful and partly harmful because none of these persons fully understands the mind and the circumstances of the man who has sought their advice. In short, depending upon scattered counsels will mislead a man.

Advantage of friendship

·      There is yet another great advantage of friendship. There aremany things which a man himself cannot do but which can be done on his behalf by his friend. A man may die without being able to achieve the fulfilment of some of his desires. If he has a friend, the friend would make every possible effort to complete the uncompleted tasks of the dead man and to tie up many loose threads left behind by him.

·      One cannot say or do without causing himself a considerable embarrassment. For instance, a man cannot speak of his own merits with sufficient emphasis; and he cannot beg a favour. Where a man  cannot speak in his own person, he can ask his friend to speak on his behalf. Again, a man cannot speak freely and without inhibitions to all his relatives. In such cases also a friend can speak on his behalf.

·      If a man cannot do everything himself, or if he does not have a friend to help him in accomplishing various things, he had better quit this world.

Critical Comments

Here is an essay on one of the most familiar subjects in the world. If love is the most common experience of mankind, friendship comes only secondly.

Friendship enables us to give an outlet to our suppressed

next in the order of importance. He tells us the principal uses of friend feelings.

Friendship is an emotional necessity, and a life without friendship is incomplete. A discussion with a friend often clarifies one's understanding. The advice given by a friend is much more reliable than a man's own judgment. A friend is always a good adviser because he is thoroughly familiar with our circumstances and the working of our minds. Finally, there are many things which a man cannot himself say or do but which can easily be said or done by a friend. All these are sound observations on the subject of friendship.

It may, however, be pointed out that Bacon examines friend ship purely from the point of view of utility. He does not emphasise either the emotional or the moral aspect of friendship, He completely ignores the fact that friendship satisfies a natural urge in a human being and that, even if a friend were not uséful in the worldly sense, he would still be a great consolation in lite and a great source of inspiration. Bacon's approach even to friendship 1s

purely worldly and utilitarian. And that is a serious deficiency in his treatment of the subject.

·      Once we accept this limitation, we must recognise Bacon's excellent treatment of his subject. He illustrates his ideas with abundant historical examples. The essay is fuil of allusions to philosophers and historical personalities--Epimenides, Numa, Empedocles, Sulla, Julius Caesar, Tiberius Caesar, Louis XI, and so on. These illustrations not only make the and reinforce the arguments but also broaden the scope of the essay and enrich it from the literary point of view. Bacon's fondness for quotations is also seen in this essay.

·      The various allusions and the quotations show Bacon's learning and his ready mind. Allusions and quotations seem to be at his fingers' tips. His habit of introducing Latin quotations is also illustrated in this essay.

·      Although this essay is much longer than many of his other essays on popular subjects, it yet offers clear examples of Bacon's condensed style of writing.

the essay illustrating Bacon's habit of exercising the maximum economy of words in expressing his ideas. Here are some of the generalisations that could easily be memorised and quoted when occasion demands

There are a number of geaeralisations in

(1) "For a crowd is not company, and faces are but a

gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no

love.

(2) "...those that want friends to open themselves unto are

cannibals of their own hearts."

 (3) "For there is no man that imparteth his joy to his friends,

e joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his griet to his

friend, but he grieveth the less."

(4).for there is no such flatterer as is a man's self, and there

s no such remedy against fattery of man's self as the iberty ofa

friend."