No comments about The Philosophy Of Plotinos: His Life, Times And Philosophy.

1 comments about A Poet's Journal: Days of 1945-1951.

1. Having read this in the original Greek, I can say that the translation is true to the original in language and sentiment. Seferis is a nobel-prize winning author whom non-Greek speakers often overlook. This excellent English translation of the poet's personal journal gives not only insight into the writer, but into a turbelent social period in modern Greek history.

No comments about Nietzsche Unpublished Letters.

No comments about Documents Concerning the Life and Character of Emanuel Swedenborg V1.

No comments about Emmery de Lyère et Marnix de Sainte Aldegonde (International Archives of the History of Ideas / Archives internationales d'histoire des idées).

No comments about The Seeker's Guide to Irreverence.

No comments about The Legacy of Benedetto Croce: Contemporary Critical Views (Toronto Italian Studies).

No comments about Sartre's Life, Times and Vision du Monde (Sartre and Existentialism: Philosophy, Politics, Ethics, the Psyche, Literature, and Aesthetics).

1 comments about Francis Bacon: The Temper of a Man.

1. Francis Bacon was a man filled with contradiction. He was consumed by two ambitions: 1) an insatiable thirst for knowledge and, 2) an endless "striving for political favor and position." The latter ambition finally did him in, bringing about his impeachment from Parliament for taking bribes, losing the high position (Lord Chancellor) he had spent his whole life striving for. Five years of life were left to Bacon after his disgrace, time spent in scientific and writing pursuits, but the damage was done.
   
   Ms. Bowen does not write a full and detailed biography here, but rather more a profile or "evocation." She sacrifices the impartial and detached position of the historian clearly in her prologue by declaring her great admiration for Bacon. And although she doesn't hide or ignore his faults, it's difficult to read any page and not feel Bowen's awe and respect for her subject. There is much to admire about Bacon: his broad and deep learning (he seemed to be an "expert" on every subject, from law to botany); his wit (this a verbal exchange between Bacon and his arch-enemy Edward Coke: "Mr. Bacon!" says Coke. "If you have any tooth against me, pluck it out, for it will do you more hurt than all the teeth in your head will do you good." "Mr. Attorney!" (Coke was the Attorney General), retorts Bacon. "I respect you, I fear you not, and the less you speak of your greatness, the more I will think of it." (Ouch!); his books such as NOVUM ORGANUM and THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, still regarded highly today; his life-long wish to found a university in England that would employ the scientific method in its pursuit of knowledge and not the old schoolman methods.
   
   But there is also much to disdain: his bluntness; his naivete with regard to his enemies; his inability to control his spending impulses; his almost outrageous ostentation with his scores of servants, men in waiting, etc. He also had what came to become a most unpopular belief, that the king was above the law.
   
   What makes Bowen's portrait of Bacon worth reading is her marvelous writing style. She is a descendant of the old-school of historical writing (Parkman and Prescott come to mind) that was as much of a literary bent as an historical one. She writes beautiful prose, worthy of her subject and the age in which he lived. Reading her book is a most enjoyable experience.

No comments about Raissa Maritain: Pilgrim, Poet, Exile.