THE ESSAYSCIVIL AND MORAL

An excerpt from Francis Bacon's The Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral: With Editing Notes and IntroductionFrancis was a fragile boy who struggled with chronic illness almost from birth; several biographers credit Francis' gravitas even as a young man to this condition. It was most likely brought on by his extreme interest in studies that were typically assigned to children much older than him even as a young child. If illness was the cause his early readiness for wit—which he demonstrated even before enrolling in college—would hardly have managed to maintain its perennial spontaneity in the face of serious illness.