Several relatively affordable editions of the prose of Francis Bacon have appeared recently in paperback. Separate editions that include all of the Essays, alphabetically by editor, are as follows:

Anonymous, ed. [Francis Bacon:] Essays. Introduction by John Strachan. Hertfordshire, Eng.: Wordsworth Editions, 1997. [169 pp.; pb; has all the Essays; an index of quotations and foreign phrases plus translations, but no notes.]

Dick, Hugh, ed. Selected Writings of Francis Bacon. New York: Modern Library - Random House, 1955.  [604 pp.; hb; an omnibus volume, with moderate annotation; has all the Essays.]

Hawkins, Michael, ed. [Francis Bacon:] Essays. [Everyman Library.] London: J.M. Dent; Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, 1994. [179 pp.; pb; 1625 edition; good introduction, glossary, bibliography, but no notes.]

Kiernan, Michael, ed. [Sir Francis Bacon:] The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1985. 2nd ed., 2000.

Pitcher, John, ed. [Francis Bacon:] The Essays. [Penguin Classics.] London: Penguin Books, 1985. [287 pp.; pb; lengthy introduction, which Vickers, in his Oxford Authors Series edition, calls "bizarre"; pretty good notes; bibliography; interesting appendices, including a parallel conspectus of the 1597, 1612, and 1625 versions of a couple of the essays.]

Vickers, Brian, ed. Francis Bacon. [Oxford Authors Series.]  Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. [813 pp.; pb; an omnibus edition; has all the Essays, not only from the 1625 edition but some from earlier editions as well; has introduction, extensive notes, bibliography, and index].

Vickers, Brian, ed. [Francis Bacon:] The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral. [Oxford World's Classics.] Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. [216 pp.; pb; good introduction, bibliography, full notes, plus three interesting appendices, two of them with texts from the 1597 and 1612 editions, respectively.]    

        The 1625 edition of the Essays had 58 complete essays, and one "fragment" that was the fifty-ninth:  
 

1. Of Truth	20. Of Counsel	40. Of Fortune
2. Of Death	21. Of Delay	41. Of Usury
3. Of Unity in Religion	22. Of Cunning	42. Of Youth and Age
4. Of Revenge	23. Of Wisdom for a Man's Self	43. Of Beauty
5. Of Adversity	24. Of Innovations	44. Of Deformity
6. Of Simulation and Dissimulation	25. Of Dispatch	45. Of Building
7. Of Parents and Children	26. Of Seeming Wise	46. Of Gardens
8. Of Marriage and Single Life	27. Of Friendship	47. Of Negociating [a frequent spelling in editions of Bacon]
9. Of Envy	28. Of Expense	48. Of Followers and Friends
10. Of Love	29. Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates	49. Of Suitors
11. Of Great Place	30. Of Regiment of Health	50. Of Studies
12. Of Boldness	31. Of Suspicion	51. Of Faction
13. Of Goodness, and Goodness in Nature	32. Of Discourse	52. Of Ceremonies and Respects
14. Of Nobility	33. Of Plantations	53. Of Praise
15. Of Seditions and Troubles	34. Of Riches	54. Of Vain-glory
16. Of Atheism	35. Of Prophecies	55. Of Honor and Reputation
17. Of Superstition	36. Of Ambition	56. Of Judicature
18. Of Travel	37. Of Masques and Triumphs	57. Of Anger
19. Of Empire	38. Of Nature in Men	58. Of Vicissitude of Things
	39. Of Customs and Education	[59. Of Fame, a Fragment]

NAEL6 includes seven essays: nos. 1, 8, 11, 17, 33, 47, and 50 (for 50, both the 1597 and 1625 versions). NAEL7 and NAEL8 include eight essays: 1, 8, 11, 17, 33, 37 [not in NAEL6], 47, and 50 (for 50, both the 1597 and 1625 versions).  

Paragraphs and Sentences in the Various Editions
   

NAEL7 ; NAEL8	Hugh Dick edition	Michael Hawkins ed.	John Pitcher ed.	Michael Kiernan ed.	Brian Vickers ed.
#1 Of Truth	#1 Of Truth	#1 Of Truth	#1 Of Truth	#1 Of Truth	#1 Of Truth
Par. 1, Sents. 1-16	Par. 1, Sents. 1-16	Par. 1, Sents. 1-16	Par. 1, Sents. 1-16	Par. 1, Sents.1-16	Par. 1, Sents. 1-8
Par. 2, Sents. 1-5	Par. 2, Sents. 1-7	Par. 2, Sents. 1-6	Par. 2, Sents. 1-7	Par. 2, Sents. 1-6	Par. 2, Sents. 1-4
					Par. 3, Sents. 1-4
					Par. 4, Sents. 1-6
#8 Of Marriage & The Single Life	#8 Of Marriage & The Single Life	#8 Of Marriage & The Single Life	#8 Of Marriage & The Single Life	#8 Of Marriage & The Single Life	#8 Of Marriage & The Single Life
Par. 1, Sents. 1-20	Par. 1, Sents. 1-21	Par. 1, Sents. 1-21	Par. 1, Sents. 1-21	Par. 1, Sents. 1-21	Par. 1, Sents. 1-8
					Par. 2, Sents. 1-13
#11 Of Great Place	#11 Of Great Place	#11 Of Great Place	#11 Of Great Place	#11 Of Great Place	#11 Of Great Place
Par. 1, Sents. 1-14	Par. 1, Sents. 1-48	Par. 1, Sents. 1-47	Par. 1, Sents. 1-48	Par. 1, Sents. 1-45	Par. 1, Sents. 1-7
Par. 2, Sents. 1-21					Par. 2, Sents. 1-4
Par. 3, Sents. 1-8					Par. 3, Sents. 1-6
					Par. 4, Sents. 1-9
					Par. 5, Sents. 1-17
					Par. 6, Sents. 1-4
#17 Of Superstition	#17 Of Superstition	#17 Of Superstition	#17 Of Superstition	#17 Of Superstition	#17 Of Superstition
Par. 1, Sents. 1-10	Par. 1, Sents. 1-13	Par. 1, Sents. 1-12	Par. 1, Sents. 1-12	Par. 1, Sents. 1-11	Par. 1, Sents. 1-9
Par. 2, Sents. 1-4					Par. 2, Sents. 1-4
#33 Of Plantations	#33 Of Plantations	#33 Of Plantations	#33 Of Plantations	#33 Of Plantations	#33 Of Plantations
Par. 1, Sents. 1-9	Par. 1, Sents. 1-37	Par. 1, Sents. 1-37	Par. 1, Sents. 1-38	Par. 1, Sents. 1-38	Par. 1, Sents. 1-7
Par. 2, Sents. 1-16					Par. 2, Sents. 1-2
Par. 3, Sents. 1-5					Par. 3, Sents. 1-8
Par. 4, Sents. 1-7					Par. 4, Sents. 1-9
					Par. 5, Sents. 1-4
					Par. 6, Sents. 1-4
					Par. 7, Sents. 1-3
#37 Of Masques & Triumphs	#37 Of Masques & Triumphs	#37 Of Masques & Triumphs	#37 Of Masques & Triumphs	#37 Of Masques & Triumphs	#37 Of Masques & Triumphs
Par. 1, Sents. 1-16	Par. 1, Sents. 1-21	Par. 1, Sents. 1-21	Par. 1, Sents. 1-21	Par. 1, Sents. 1-20	Par. 1, Sents. 1-2
Par. 2, Sents. 1-2	Par. 2, Sents. 1-2	Par. 2, Sents. 1-2	Par. 2, Sents. 1-2	par. 2, Sents. 1-2	Par. 2, Sents. 1-7
					Par. 3, Sents. 1-6
					Par. 4, Sents. 1-6
					Par. 5, Sents. 1-2
#47 Of Negotiating	#47 Of Negociating	#47 Of Negociating	#47 Of Negotiating	#47 Of Negotiating	#47 Of Negotiating
Par. 1, Sents. 1-14	Par. 1, Sents. 1-14	Par. 1, Sents. 1-14	Par. 1, Sents. 1-14	Par. 1, Sents. 1-14	Par. 1, Sents. 1-14
#50 Of Studies (1625)	#50 Of Studies (1625)	#50 Of Studies (1625)	#50 Of Studies (1625)	#50 Of Studies (1625)	#50 Of Studies (1625)
Par. 1, Sents. 1-19	Par. 1, Sents. 1-19	Par. 1, Sents. 1-16	Par. 1, Sents. 1-19	Par. 1, Sents. 1-17	Par. 1, Sents. 1-6
					Par. 2, Sents. 1-3
					Par. 3, Sents. 1-10

1. How does Bacon use an "opening hook" in the first sentence of nos. 1, 8, and 11? Why is such a hook effective, or thematic?

2. In contrast to the preceding question, how does Bacon get right to the point in no. 47?

3. Why might the conjunction for and the connective (technically, conjunctive adverb) therefore be so prevalent in the essays?

4. Where does Bacon use the as . . . so correlative conjunctions to create analogies in his essays? How does he use such analogies; that is, why are they so important, how are they effective, in dealing with some of the subjects that Bacon is expounding?

5. For what reasons, both to express content and as a reflection of thought process or method, might Bacon repeatedly use the preposition -- not the conjunction -- for at the beginning of a sentence or clause (e.g., "For soldiers, I find . . . " in "Of Marriage and the Single Life"; "For beasts and birds, take chiefly . . . " in "Of Plantations")?

6. Modern composition handbooks advise the use of transition words, repetitition of key words, and parallelism to create paragraph coherence.  Where are instances of all of these to be found in Bacon's essays?

7. How do the styles of nos. 1 and 11 contrast? How is form following function, style relating to content, in each instance?

8. How might differences in paragraphing and indication of sentence boundaries be justified in one essay in two or more of the editions anatomized in the table of paragraphs and sentences above?