Can you please discuss and explain Sir Francis Bacon's essay "On Truth"?

A helpful discussion of Sir Francis Bacon’s essay “Of
Truth” might begin by simply paraphrasing the argument of the essay.  Essentially, Bacon
argues as follows:

• Although there are few
  philosophical skeptics left, many human beings still seem to prefer the freedom to adopt
  their own views over the hard work of pursuing truth, since they consider truth
  constricting.


• Human beings seem to have a natural
  disposition to want to lie.


• To many people, simple truth
  never seems as attractive as appealing falsehoods.


• People
  seem to take pleasure in lying.


• The worst lies are those
  that take deep root in people’s minds.


• The pursuit of
  truth is, or should be, “the sovereign good of human nature.” After
  all,

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The first creature of God . . . was the light of
the sense; the last was the light of
reason.

• To possess
  truth is like standing on a tall hill and observing the follies and errors of mankind
  below.


• Yet we should pity those who lack truth rather
  than being proud of our superiority to them. Love of our fellow creatures is the true
  companion of truth.


• Truthfulness should especially be
  valued in daily conduct; no sin is more shameful than
  lying.


• Those who lie to others show their fear of other
  humans but their misguided bravery and foolish defiance in dealing with
  God.

Bacon’s essay is a typical reflection of
Renaissance thought in a number of ways, including the
following:

• It draws both on Christian scriptures
  and on classical literature and classical philosophy to make its points. Since one of
  the main purposes of the Renaissance was to reconcile Christian truth with truths also
  apparent in the classics, Bacon is here writing as a typical “Renaissance
  man.”


• Bacon clearly assumes that "truth" should be
  identified with the "truths" of Christianity.


• It
  emphasizes that reason is one of the earliest and most important of all the gifts God
  gave to man, and it implies that reason should be used properly – that is, as a means of
  discovering truth.


• It assumes, as most Renaissance
  Christians did, that humans are corrupt by nature (ultimately as a result of the
  original sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden).
  


• However, it also assumes that humans have a moral and
  spiritual obligation to struggle against that corruption in order to pursue truth and
  thus discover and love God.


• It emphasizes another of the
  key Christian virtues: charity, or love of other creatures as creatures made and loved
  by God.


• It doesn’t merely discuss truth in the abstract,
  as a simple philosophical concept, but also discusses the importance of truth-telling
  and truthful behavior in daily life.  In other words, a main purpose of the essay is an
  ethical purpose, so that truth is linked with practical
  goodness.


• It ends by implying that the ultimate judge of
  human conduct is and will be God, and that humans should always think of God first in
  forming their thoughts and behavior.