Of Studies
naky
www.diecastingpartsupplier.com
2014-10-30 22:09:48
Francis Bacon
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for
ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.For expert men can execute, and
perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from
those that are learned.
To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by
their rules, is the humour of a scholar.
They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by
study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.
Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a
wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and
consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books
are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and
attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less
important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things.
Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing and exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had
need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he head need have much
cunning, to seem to know that he does not.
Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able
to contend. Abeunt studia in mores.
Nay there is no stond or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have
appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the
stomach; riding for the head; and the like.
So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so
little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they
are cymini sectores. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him
study the lawyers' cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for
ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.For expert men can execute, and
perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from
those that are learned.
To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by
their rules, is the humour of a scholar.
They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by
study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.
Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a
wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and
consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books
are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and
attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less
important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things.
Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing and exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had
need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he head need have much
cunning, to seem to know that he does not.
Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able
to contend. Abeunt studia in mores.
Nay there is no stond or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have
appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the
stomach; riding for the head; and the like.
So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so
little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they
are cymini sectores. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him
study the lawyers' cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.