THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS AND BACON

BY

Muhammad Yousaf Gabriel

Oqasaorg@gmail.com

When we peruse the "Pilgrim's Progress" we find not a hint anywhere which might go in favour of Bacon's Philosophy. Nay, even if we open the book at haphazard, our sight falls on some or the other point which severely condemns this world and its love and its vanities. Persons like the Evangelist have no place in Bacon's philosophy. No Bunyan Pilgrim could be sighted anywhere in the entire Baconian world. The world of Bacon is termed by the pilgrim as the city of destruction, while the entire Baconian mankind moves onto the pilgrimage of the Jehannah of atomic hell. Nowhere in Bacon's writings our sight falls on anything like the following:-

            "Let nothing that is on this side the other world get within you; and above all, look well to your own hearts, and to the lusts thereof, for they are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; set your faces like a flint; your faces like a flint you have all power in heaven and earth on your side".

                                    (Pilgrim's Progress page 85)

And:-

            "Thou must abhor his turning thee out of the way; and thin own consenting thereunto: Because this is to reject the counsel of god for the sake of the counsel of a worldly wiseman. The Lord says, strive to enter in at the strait gate, the gate which I sent thee for strait is the gate which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. From this little wicket gate, and from the way thereto, hath this wicked man turned thee, to the bringing of thee almost to destruction; hate therefore his turning thee out of the way, and abhor thyself for hearkening to him".

                                                (Ibid-page 22) 

            This is the Evangelist talking to the Pilgrim who found himself standing hard by the hill that was very high, and its side towards the way did hang so much over the pilgrim, that he was afraid to venture further lest the hill fall on his head. Also there came the flashes of fire out of the hill that made him afraid that he should be burned. Thither he was sent by the worldly wise man in quest of the house of civility, that the latter would take off his burden.

            The West dreading the fire of poverty was directed by Bacon to seek the services of civility in order to take off them their burden of poverty, and enjoy the feast. This worldly wise man could not be other than the giver of the worldly philosophy of physical comfort. But is not this Baconian world even now caught up under the overhanging hill of economico- industrial system of Baconian progress. And is it not standing even now before the atomic hell which might any moment consume this mankind with surging flames. And read the following surmise of the author of the "Pilgrims Progress":-

            "When christians unto carnal men give ear,

            Out of their way they go, and pay for't dear;

            For master worldly-wise man can but show

            A saint the way to bondage and to woe"-

                                                (Ibid page 20)

            Indeed Mr. Worldly-wise man, namely, Bacon the giver of this new philosophy of wealth, and luxuries, has shown not to one saint but to all the world of saints the way to material bondage, and to atomic woe, and not only the Christian but the entire mankind has to pay for it dear. Just see.

            But may be this mankind will one day in its iron cage make the confession as is made by man in the "Pilgrim's Progress". Just read the answer of man in the cage to the question. "For what did you bring yourself into this condition"? His answer is :-

            "For the lusts, pleasures, and profits of this world' in the enjoyment of which I did then promise myself much delight; but now every one of those things also bite me, and gnaw me like a burning worm".

            And his answer to the question, "But canst thou not now repent and turn?" is:-

            "God hath denied me repentance. His word gives me no encouragement to believe; yea, he hath shut me up in this iron cage; nor can all the men in the world let me out. O Eternity, Eternity! how shall I grapple with the misery that I must meet with in eternity!".

                                                (Ibide- page 34)

            Is this then not exactly the state of this mankind at present? Only it has not yet completely understood its own condition. Or will it be willing to make its confession like the confession of the man quoted above, when in time it has realized the true reality of its own state.

            It is highly probable that I too like everyone else might have preferred to assume reticence in this mater, but the consequences of the Baconian philosophy have assumed such frightful clarity that I can find courage to speak, and at least no one now can call my bewailing as the hue and cry set up for nothing; or a storm raised in a tea cup. But it is astonishing to hear a clamourous uproar set up by one man in Eighteenth century against the Baconian philosophy in an age when not a feather anywhere stirred against the philosophy of Baconian atomism, or the exclusively materialistic mode of life. This man was William Blake (1757-1827), a poet who rose against all the pressure of this material world in a divine frenzy of vision and prophecy. "If what Bacon says is right, what Christ says is false", he pronounced. Amidst the irreligious and ungodly world of materialism he yearned after building Jerusalem in England. In a poem that appears to burn with passion he says:-

            "And did those feet in ancient time,

            Walk upon England's mountains green,

            And was the Holy Lamb of God,

            On England's pleasant pastures seen?

            And did the countenance divine

            Shine forth on our clouded hills?

            And was Jerusalem builded here,

            Among these dark satanic mills?

            bring me my bow of burning gold;

            Bring me my arrows of desire:

            Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold:

            Bring me my chariot of fire.

            I will not cease from mental flight,

            Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand;

            Till we built Jerusalem,

            In England's green and pleasant land".

            We do not know whether Blake's cry is still heard over England or not. But what we know for sure is that Blake's country is not only utterly wrapped in smoke of the chimneys of the dark satanic mills, but also, another, far more noxious plague, called the hazard of radiations is spreading. And his countrymen now think not of the Tomb of Jerusalem but they are prepossessed by the thoughts of the tombs of atomic reactors. Alas for Blake.

            Evans in his, "Short History of English Literature", 1948, writes about Bacon:-

            "One can picture him in his study, in a half-light, with music playing softly in an adjoining room, running his fingers through a heap of precious stones, while his mind all the while is contemplating the nature of truth".

            Now this is an exactly realistic and aptly representative sketch of Bacon the man and Bacon the philosopher. But perhaps upon descending into a deeper and keener reality one's sight may show this picture as follows:-

            "Bacon sitting in his study, in the half-light, with a multitude of glistening snakes musically hissing in an adjoining room, and he running his fingers in a heap of radiant scorpions. His mind all the while burning to know how to render them innocuous and useful to mankind".

            Evan's critical judgment of Bacon's work displays a discerning insight and an adorable serenity, read as follows:-          

            "The great prose writer of the early seventeenth century", says Evans, " is Francis Bacon (1561-1626) , and it is not without significance that the middle of his career should coincide with the publication of the Authorized version of the Bible. If the Bible gave religion its great document, Bacon encouraged the methods of scientific investigation, which latter were to challenge Christina thought. Bacon himself is orthodox enough in his religious professions, but the attitude he encouraged came into conflict with faith, and indeed with any mystical view of human experience. Most of Bacon's work is in Latin, and it is ironical that the greatest prose writer of the time should have mistrusted the permanence of English as a language. Bacon is the most complete representative of the Renaissance in England: learned, worldly, ambitious, intriguing, enamoured of all the luxury that wealth in his times can supply, and while knowing so much almost completely ignorant of himself. One can picture him in his study, in the half-light, with music playing softly in an adjoining room, running his fingers through a heap of precious stones, while his mind all the while is contemplating the nature of truth. His history of Henry the seventh gave historical writing in England the first work which had design. His unfinished narrative of the New Atlantis told an adventure story in simple prose, and, in the manner of G.H.Wells, embedded in the middle of it a plea for historical research. The "Advancement of Learning", a portion of his great scientific work, described the condition of knowledge and the way in which it might be improved. None of these can equal in human interest the Essays (1597). The essays added in the editions of 1612 and 1625 are in each instance significant of different periods of Bacon's life. In 1597 with such essays as "of studies", Bacon informs the ambitious young man how he can make his way in the world. In 1621 he has  wider  range of them, and suggests the responsibilities of power. The third volume, with its essay " Of Gardens", hints at the release of retirement. The essays are compact in style, almost gnomic, with a pretty balance in the phrasing, and with images, such as, "Men fear death as children fear to go into the darks which have become part of the common tradition of our speech. In arrangement they are precise and well-ordered, as one would expect from a scientist, and in this they contrast with the happy and informal intimacy of me on Montaigne".

(A short history of English literature, by B.Ifor. Evans, page 199-200)

            Evans has carried his point to the conflict appearing between the attitude which Bacon encouraged and faith or any mystical view of human experience. He has recognized Bacon as the most complete representative of the Renaissance of England, and has clearly discerned him as learned, worldly, ambitious, intriguing, enamoured of all the luxury that wealth in his times could supply.And has known him as one who inspite of so much knowledge was almost completely ignorant of him. And he has pictured him as one sitting in his study, in the half-light, with music playing softly in an adjoining room running his fingers through a heap of precious stones, his mind engaged in the contemplation of the nature truth all the while", indeed, but in this house of trial, no such felicity is allowed, not at least with any permanence.

            This picture of Bacon by Evans is admirably well-drawn and is discerning. Its prototype, however was drawn about three hundred and twenty-eight years before Evans during the life of Bacon by Ben Jonson which could be reproduced as follows:-

            "England's high chancellor, the destined heir, in his soft cradle, to his father's chair, who’s even thread the fates spin round and full out of their choicest and their choicest and their whitest wool".

            The two pictures, however display a difference at the same time. Evans has added certain well discernible delineating shades to the picture, which identify certain outstanding characteristic features that have come to light during the period of three hundred and twenty-eight years after Ben Jonson had first drawn the picture of his illustrious model.

            No doubt, the picture of Evans is not that simple and vague sketch drawn by Ben Jonson. There are delineations and shades which conspicuously portray Bacon's greed of worldly wealth, and his ignorance of him, and the attitude of conflict between his philosophy and faith which his views had encouraged. All this is admirable, but it is not enough. Evan's book was published in 1948 that is only three years after the tragic happening of Hiroshima in which Bacon the originator of that system which had resulted in that tragedy appeared with unmistakable identity. No allusion to that effect meets our eye in Evan's picture of Bacon. Evans, however, in this tendency does not stand alone and is not blamable any the more, for all the entire world today has assumed the same attitude of reticence about the possible causes of all these horrific hazards that are incident on science-guided, material progress of Baconian culture.

            It is pity that men of this age have come to regard this Baconian culture of scientific investigation and material progress as natural, genuine and correct. If they want to affect reform, or they want to correct the faults, or they think of contending with the hazards incident on this culture, or they decide to remove the impending dangers, they think of it only from the existing frame of reference of this very culture, and in the light of their existing view of its correctness. They cannot even think of casting aside this Baconian system and having a look at the facts from a different frame of reference. Their helplessness in this matter however may be seen in this universal set up of Economico-industrial system. They want to stay in this existing Baconian set up, and staying within it they want to remove the apparent inconsistencies, and fill the occurring breaches. Some may think, that because the factor of religion and morality was absent in this existing system, the insertion of religion and morality in it might remedy the malady. While their diagnosis is incorrect, their remedy surely is impracticable. Most people today are desirous of finding a compromise between this worldly system and faith. No doubt it is a blessed thought, but why no compromise is being affected despite the wish of the entire human population. No compromise is being achieved between this Baconian culture and faith, because it is basically not possible. It is impossible to diffuse these two different elements. Sodium and Chlorine could be compounded to form the table salt, but Baconian system of progress and faith could in no way be compounded. They could at the most be combined into a mixture of heterogeneous element with gradual increase of the material element and decrease of the religious element till eventually the  religious element has completely been dissolved and the material element has taken its place. If Ronald Knox be still in this house of trial, I have regrettably to inform him that no compromise between this Baconian culture and faith is possible. Either of these contestants has the possibility to exist alone, and no man on earth cold achieve the miracle of blending the Baconian culture and faith together. For forty years I have fought the battle royal and have expended my thought, and have strained my eyes, for decades at a stretch in my endeavour to find any possibility of a compromise between these implacable adversaries, but have fond none. What a joy it would have been for me, if I had discovered anywhere the least probability, and then I had been acclaimed a hero of this age.  That unique honour I missed. But no honour equals that of uttering the truth, howsoever bitter, howsoever distasteful.