Frances Bacon's essay "Of Love" details questions and
answers regarding the very complicated concept of love. The essay begins by comparing
love to the stage. According to Bacon, love mirrors the stage because it is filled with
comedy, tragedy, mischief, and fury. Like the plays produced on the stage, love is
multidimensional.
Bacon goes on to state that love makes
people act in very different ways. People, consumed by love, will find themselves filled
with "great spirits" and "weak passion(s)."
Perhaps the
most thought provoking statement that Bacon makes in the essay is "That it is impossible
to love, and to be wise." This could force one to think that to be in love makes them
stupid.
Bacon goes on to present the different aspects of
love.
There
is in man’s nature, a secret inclination and motion, towards love of others, which if it
be not spent upon some one or a few, doth naturally spread itself towards many, and
maketh men become humane and charitable; as it is seen sometime in friars. Nuptial love
maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth, and embaseth
it.
Here, Bacon readily
admits that love possesses a power which no man can control. Regardless of the will to
give love, love will, itself, spread out among those around him.
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