Essays (Francis Bacon)

Seene and Allowed (1597) was the first published book by the philosopher, statesman and jurist Francis Bacon.

[4][5] Later researches made clear the extent of Bacon's borrowings from the works of Montaigne, Aristotle and other writers, but the Essays have nevertheless remained in the highest repute.

[6][7] The 19th-century literary historian Henry Hallam wrote that "They are deeper and more discriminating than any earlier, or almost any later, work in the English language".

[10] The phrase "hostages to fortune" appears in the essay Of Marriage and Single Life – again the earliest known usage.

[13] The contents pages of Thomas Markby's 1853 edition list the essays and their dates of publication as follows:[14]