In the opinion of high walker, "Bacon wrote more than two styles. These two are represented in his earlier essays. In the early essays the sentences are all short, crisp. The earlier essays are dispersed meditations. This style is called aphoristic style. aphoristic style: In this style the sentences are short and crisp. Each sentence can be spun out into a thesis, "some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and some digested". This quoted sentence is an example of triplex. The use of triplex is a remarkable quality of bacon's prose style.
Terseness of expression and epigrammatic brevity are the main characteristics of his style. He is informal yet logical and methodical. There is pithiness, there is poignancy there is beauty in finish. Bacon's essays are extremely condensed. The thought is profound yet clear. He can be as pithy as a proverb and as profound as a prophecy.
figurative style:When Bacon gains popularity he gains confidence. He decorated his style with figure of speech. His metaphor and similes have pictorial qualities. They are graphic. "Virtue is like precious odors …….."
Bacon is supreme in non poetic imagination. His rich imagination enlivens every page of bacon's writings. His essays generally abound in lofty sentiments and noble thoughts.
Bacon is one of the most consummate rhetoricians in English language. His sentences are flooded with quotation and axiomatic sayings. Sometimes his wit is a mere play upon his words.
Bacon's contribution to the development of English prose is matchless. His prose style has its own defects and merits. Balance is in favour of merits. He set up new methods of prose writings which was at once simple easy graceful rhetorical musical and condensed. He remains unrivalled in the combination of picturesque with weight. His maxim has become household words. In the word of Hugh walker, "the essay of bacon to be read slowly and thoughtfully not because the style is obscure but because they are extremely condensed and the thought is profound." Before Bacon the style was cumbrous, bacon gave it shortness, lucidity and flexibility. As an essayist the supremacy of bacon remain unchallenged.
