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Abstract Proposed as part of education of youth in the late 1590s, the idea of “framing and seasoning of youth to moral virtues” was gradually developed by Francis Bacon in his later works. Drawing on thinking resources of ancient Greek and Roman humanism, as well as the tradition of faculty psychology, Bacon transformed the issue of moral education of youth into an interaction process of multiple psychological faculties, including reason, imagination, will, affection, and appetite etc., taking the collective education of Jesuits on the Continent as the ideal model of youth education. He specifically provided detailed analysis of the psychological and behavioral features of youth, and different means of “framing and seasoning youth to moral virtues”. The main points of this paper are as follows: (1) the starting point of Bacon’s thought concerning youth education is the factor of age in affecting human nature, rather than an abstract theory of human nature itself, and in contrast with the classical image of youth featuring moral corruption driven by appetite, his youth psychology provide more positive evaluation of youth’s morality, which indeed can be counted as his unique contribution to the youth education in the western intellectual tradition; (2) following the perspective of “culture and cure of mind”, Bacon’s idea of “framing and seasoning youth to moral virtues” is more positivist, which [太口语化了]is closely related to his empiricism and materialistic epistemology, and which distinguishes him from educators whose doctrines of moral education of youth were prescriptive; (3) by placing emphasis on the superiority of school education, Bacon showed his keen awareness of the main trend in European educational history compared to other educational thinkers who still favored home education (represented by John Locke). Such thoughts on the moral education of youth were ahead of his time. To sum up, in integrating various psychological aspects in the process of moral education, Bacon continuously attached great importance to the roles of moral judgment and moral habit in the cultivation of virtues. He even laid down certain precepts and rules to obey for shaping the customs and habits of youth. All of these make his thought on the moral education of youth outstanding, and to a certain degree contribute to the development of modern moral educational ideas in the western world. The systematic examination of Bacon’s thought on moral education of youth in this paper will not only bring a new recognition of the characteristic and contribution of his ideas, but also a deeper understanding of the issue of youth education in the history of western education. Besides, it may serve as a reference for grasping the psychological features of the Chinese youth and for adopting adequate measures of moral education in contemporary China.
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