Water of Paradise: the Role and Function of Balneology in Bacon's New Atlantis, De Vijs Mortis and Historia Vitae et Mortis
Résumé
Popelard makes it clear that, in New Atlantis, baths fulfil both a medical and a social function. In Francis Bacon’s other works, the medical use of water tends to take pride of place over other concerns. This is the case in De vijs mortis and where cold baths help to regulate the activity of the spirits. Bacon’s writings therefore provide philosophical justification for the taking of waters – a medical cure which was also becoming more and more of a cultural and social practice. On closer inspection, what first looks like a purely medical line of reasoning in Bacon’s works is finally revealed to exemplify how Bacon’s concern with longevity cannot be separated from his lifelong preoccupation with the enhancing of the sensuousness of life.