October 16, 2018 Tuesday
Bedtime Story
The Era of Francis Bacon
Bacon named Machiavelli as his predecessor
in such kind of ideas and thoughts.
Not many of us may be aware of Francis
Bacon and very rightfully since he died almost four centuries ago.
Let me try to place him in our historical
timeline with some meaningful perspective.
Francis Bacon was a British intellectual, a
parliamentarian during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a jurist, a writer and a
scientist who died in 1626, sixteen years before the birth of Isaac Newton,
twenty years before the birth of Leibniz, one hundred and eighty three years
before the birth of Charles Darwin and one hundred and eighty nine years before
the birth of George Boole, the author of ‘The Laws of Thought’.
He lived at the time when William
Shakespeare wrote his plays for performance companies and then later for the
Globe Theatre in London.
It was also a time when some English
merchants met with the intention “to venture in the pretended voyage of to the
East Indies (the which it may please the Lord to prosper), and the sums that
will adventure”, committing 30,133 pounds.
Francis Bacon lived at the time when the
Queen granted a Royal Charter to “George, Earl of Cumberland, and 214 Knights,
Alderman, and Burgesses” under the name, Governor and Company of Merchants of
London trading with the East Indies.
The company struggled in the spice trade
while trading pepper in Java.
Its fortunes would take a sharp turn for
the good when it would land in Surat in 1608 and later in the south Indian town
of Machilipatnam (currently located in the Krisha District of the state of
Andhra Pradesh) on the Coromandel Coast (southern east cost of India) in the
Bay of Bengal.
A few years down the line it would be the
Mughal Emperor Jahangir, son of the great Mughal Emperor Akbar who would give
the company exclusive rights for carrying out commercial activities and
establishment of factories in Surat and other areas.
It is very interesting to read the letter
that Jahangir wrote to King James I (the successor to the British Crown after
the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603):
“Upon which assurance of your royal love I
have given my general command to all kingdoms and ports of my dominions to
receive all the merchants of the English nation as the subjects of my friend; that
in what place soever they chose to live, they have free liberty without any
restraint; and at what port soever they shall arrive, that neither Portugal nor
any other shall dare to molest their quiet; and in what city soever they shall
have residence, I have commanded all my governors and captains to give them
freedom answerable to their own desires; to sell, buy and to transport into
their country at their pleasure.
For confirmation of our love and
friendship, I desire your Majesty to command your merchants to bring in their
ships of all sorts of rarities and rich goods fit for my palace; and that you
be pleased to send me you royal letters by every opportunity, that I may
rejoice in your health and prosperous affairs; that our friendship may be interchanged
and eternal.”
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Advertisements
Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
No comments:
Post a Comment