弗朗西斯·培根/Francis Bacon
Studies serve for delight,for ornament,and for ability.Their chie f use for delight,is in privateness and retiring;for ornament,is in d iscourse;and for ability,is in the judgment and disposition of busines s.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 jud gment wholly by their rules,is the humor of a scholar.They perfect nat ure,and are perfected by experience:for natural abilities are like nat ural plants,that need pruning by study;and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large,except they be bounded in by experie nce.Crafty men contemn studies,simple men admire them,and wise men us e them;for they teach not their own use;but that is a wisdom without t hem,and above them,won by observation.Read not to contradict and conf ute;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 s wallowed,and some few to be chewed and digested;that is,some books ar e to be read only in parts;others to be read,but not curiously;and so me few to be read wholly,and with diligence and attention.Some books a lso 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 bo oks;else distilled books are like common distilled waters,flashy thing s.
Reading maketh a full man;conference a ready man;and writing an ex act 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 r ead little,he had need have much cunning,to seem to know that he doth not.Histories make men wise;poets witty;the mathematics subtle;natur al philosophy deep;moral grave;logic and rhetoric able to contend.Abe unt studia in morse.Nay there is no stand 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 m athematics;for in demonstrations,if his wit be called away never so li ttle,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 defe ct of the mind may have a special receipt.