one
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; to make judgement 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 proyning by study; What is shown in the book, if not regulated by experience, is too large to be proper.
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 wise 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 subtitle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in abeunt.
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. Shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. If the mind is not concentrated, you can read math, cover the problem with concentration, and repeat it if you are slightly scattered. If you cannot distinguish, let us study the philosophy of the school, for we are all faultfinders; 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.
The second
There are three uses for reading: one for comfort and relaxation, two for increasing interest and adding ya, and three for long intelligence.
For delight and relaxation, for ornament and refinement, is in eloquence; and for ability and intelligence, in reasoning. Experience is the best way to deal with and make decisions, but a well-read person is the best one to look at the whole situation and make decisions. Those that spend too much time in studies, are apt to be idle; those that make hasty remarks, and affectation; and those that judge by their dogmas, are pedants and fanatics. Natural abilities can be improved by reading, and learning perfected by practice; For natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by learning; and studies give directions too much at large, and must be bounded in by experience.
Practical men despise them, simple men admire them, but wise men use them, not because they hide their uses, but because their uses are a wisdom beyond and higher than books, and can only be obtained by observation.
Read not to carp, nor to believe and take for granted words and phrases, but to weigh and examine, and to judge. 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 chapters, others to be skimped through, and a few to be read through and understood. Some books may be read by deputy, and only take the place of extracts made by the reader; But this will be of use only to minor and inconsequential books, for condensed condensed matter is like distilled water, tasteless.
Reading maketh a full man; conference a keen man; and writing an exact man; And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a photographic memory; if he confer little, he had need have a gift for cunning and cunning, to shew his ignorance to his insight.
Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; physics deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. As the old man said: Studies by nature; Nay, every obstacle of the mind may be opened by proper reading.