Of Parents and Children

Read our detailed notes below on the essay “Of Parents and Children” by Francis Bacon. Our notes cover Of Parents and Children summary and analysis.

Of Parents and Children Summary

All kinds of emotions and feelings of parents for their children, whether it is joy, grief, or fear, are private and personal that they don’t share with others. Having children make it easier for the parents to tolerate the hard labor that will benefit their children and ensures their prosperous future. However, for the parents, it is hard to tolerate the hardships since they think that these hardships or calamities will hinder their children’s well-being. Fretfulness is amplified by having children nevertheless this remunerated by the supposition that their commemorations will be preserved and prolonged through their offspring and this too leads the thought of death at ease.

It is an inherent quality inside every living species to reproduce and extend its species, however, it is only the man who is attributed with the quality of scholarly attainments and memorization. Bacon illustrates one advantage of not having children. As per him, a person who doesn’t have children are inclined to do more deeds. As they have nothing to leave behind them, they want to leave their good deed and benefit the mankind with their deeds.

It is sometimes observed that parents don’t treat their all children with an equal affection; they discriminate between them which is not preferred, especially on the behalf of the mother. Bacon baked this argument with a quotation from Salomon that if a son does something appreciating, he is father’s son but if a son does something shameful, he is mother’s son. In a family comprised of many children, the elder one gets the more respect and attention while the young ones are spoiled by excessive love. However, the middle ones, the most ignored ones are often proved to be the best.

Parents, while giving the pocket allowance to their children, should not be the miser as they will turn to bent and deceitful which is harmful. In addition to this, they will open themselves to over lenience in spending money when they have plenty in future. Parents should exercise their authority but it should be under liberty.

Another fault of parents towards their children is they inspire the spirit of competition among the children which is a cause of future conflicts in the family when they grow up.

It is often observed that the Italian makes no dissimilarity among their own children and their nephews. They care for them as much as they do for their own children. This can be justified since the nephew sometimes endures a great resemblance to his uncle than their own children.

It is the duty of the parents to choose a right profession for their children as soon as possible. However, if a child grows and shows interest in a totally different profession, the parents shouldn’t impose their selection on them. They should allow them to go on their own way.

Younger children are generally fortunate since they get a strong motivation for the hard work by their elder brothers. However, the motivation to hard work declines where the elder brother is disinherited and the young child hopes to get all the beneficiary of wealth from parents.

Of Parents and Children Literary Analysis

Francis Bacon is one of the world most famous essayists whose work is still considered a work of literary genius. He was a scientist and a lawyer and was therefore well-versed in the matters of objective realities and the methods of arguing and persuasion. It was the reason why all of his essays are focused on objective realities and have all the qualities of apt persuasion and arguing. His style was unique with short and witty sentences embedded with cannons of knowledge. At the same time, he did not shy from giving other prominent philosophers and scholars due credit in his essays and used their quotes as evidence in his essays.

Of parents and children is the argumentative essay by Francis bacon. In this essay, he argues about the relationship between parents and children along with the pons and cons of having children.

This essay by Francis bacon is comparatively short and focused on a subject-matter which cannot be extended a lot, however, it is loaded with meaning. Therefore, he has discussed all the aspects of the topic in a very compact yet explanatory style.

Brevity, directness, wit, and to the point arguments are one of the qualities that Bacon’s essay contain. The systematic way of writing makes bacon’s essay to move from one point to another logically. Moreover, the subject matters he discusses in his writing style are all based on the real life and the reader found an epigrammatic wisdom in it. With the use of metaphors, similes referring to various historical stories makes his essay comprehensible and agreeable.

This essay fits into the group of essays in which Bacon creates the relation of a man with his society. The subject of this essay general and of widespread interest. Bacon, in the essay, also advises the reader on the topic of bringing of the children. Bacon could easily deal with the subject nostalgically, however, he preferred to deal it unsystematically with rational and logical arguments.

In this essay, we find the epigrammatic sentences that can be quoted easily. The essay is enriched by the quotation of from Solomon Plutarch. Though the last line of the essay has too much reduction that leads ambiguousness. The unique structure of the sentences in the essay are cast in the “distinguishing Baconian growth of stability and contrast”.