Of Studies
   – Francis
Bacon (1625)

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 humor 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 condemn 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 maketh a full
man; conference a ready man; and writing an 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 had need have much cunning, to
seem to know that he doth 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 [Studies pass into and influence
manners]. 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 [splitters of hairs]. 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.