Francis Bacon's about Revenge - Book Report/Review Example

Francis Bacon in his essay on revenge calls it a ‘kind of wild justice’ which he believes law ought to ‘weed out.’ Bacon quotes Solomon from the Bible to reiterate that, in his opinion, wise persons do not dwell on past actions. Bacon’s essay is quite clearly at a stance opposed to the idea of revenge. He asks, for instance, how a person can be blamed for ‘loving himself better than me’. His rational approach continues even in the event of a wrongdoing that is the result of sheer ‘ill-nature’, in which case Bacon again prescribes not paying it heed.

Just as one excuses briars and thorns their scratches, so should the rational man ignore the malice of others instead of seeking revenge.Bacon approaches the issue from a strictly rationalist point of view. He speaks about the legality of crime and revenge. In the very beginning Bacon states what he finds most offensive about the idea of revenge that more than the ‘law offending’ act of crime, revenge ‘putteth the [very] law out of office.’ For Bacon then, a world without laws is the ultimate hell.

So much so that even when describing the few acts of revenge that may perhaps be justified, Bacon again turns to the idea of jurisprudence. According to him, the kind of revenge, that seeks to avenge wrong acts which cannot be penalised by the law, is not as abominable. He follows this up with a warning to his readers saying that even if they were to take this ‘most tolerable sort’ of path, they should watch out for the law. He actually advises acts of revenge that cannot be legally punished as the right recourse in these situations.

Bacon also seems to not have a problem with public acts of revenge, claiming that the public outcry post Caesar’s death was ‘fortunate.’In his essay then, Francis Bacon clearly advocates non-violence and takes an anti-revenge stand. Yet, the essay contains situations under which revenge may actually be justified like when involving a public cause or when the legal system is inadequate to bring the perpetrators to justice.