Write a short essay on bacon's prose style.

Francis bacon  is considered the father of modern English prose. his prose especially the essays are distinctive and  become a classic not for their subject matter but for their unique style. "Of studies " exhibits all the characteristic of his prose style  and they are :arresting beginning,  aphoristic style,  analytical presentation, use of figures of speech and latin quotations.

the first characteristic noticed in bacon's essays is his arresting opening.  "Of studies " opens " studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability " which catches the interest of the readers at the very moment.  it also hits the main purpose of the essay with utmost clarity.

the most celebrated aspect of bacon's prose style is the aphoristic style.  his sentences are brief in character and universal in content.  there is a force in the sentence and they reveal insights and truths. " Of studies " also contains bacon's aphoristic sentence which are read like proverbs.  the following sentence in " Of studies " is an example of bacon's aphorism :

         "Reading marketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man."

bacon presents his ideas analytically.  first he makes a statement and then analyses it in the following sentence. in the opening sentence of " Of studies " bacon writes how studies serve a man and then he explains it : "their chief use for delight,  is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse ; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. "

bacon's prose is enriched with brilliant figures of speech drawn from familiar objects of nature or from the fact of every day life.the following two similes from  "Of studies "  are apt, vivid and suggestive :

               "......  natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning by study."

              "...... distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things."

bacon was a learned man. his scholarship is seen in his use of latin quotations. in "Of studies"  he uses two latin quotations.one is taken from ovid, " abeunt studia in mores" and the other is " cymini sectores" referring to the scholars of middle age.

so, bacon's prose style is not personal and subjective rather objective and didactic.it is terse, epigrammatic, rhetorical and full of learned quotations.in the shortest possible words he explores maximum ideas.