Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam and Viscount St Albans is, with William Sheakespeare and Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the greatest writers of the English Renaissance. The breadth of Bacons ambition is exemplified in his declaration that "I have taken all knowledge to be my province". In works such as The Advanced Learning (1605) and his Essays (1597,1612,1625), Bacon made a significant contribution to many fields of learning: philosophy, science, history, law and politics. Bacon believed that the Essays would "last as long as books last"and it is for them that he is pirmarily remembred today. Bacons wide-ranging thought and his magnificient style are well represented here. The Essays, Bacons counsels on civil and moral life, remains one of the great classic of english prose.