Page 19 - FEN1(2)C01 LITERATURES IN ENGLISH PAPER I: From Chaucer to the Present

Francis Bacon - Of Studies.

Summary: (“Of Studies”):
Studies, to Bacon, are a multi-edged sword. They can be used
for good or ill. He begins on a positive note: “Studies serve for
delight, for ornament, and for ability." He notes that the best
advice can originate only from those who are well read. Bacon
suggests that studies, books, and reading have potentially
damaging liabilities: “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." No sooner does he grant these disadvantages, then
he lists their advantages using an agricultural metaphor: “They
perfect nature, and are perfected by experience; for natural
abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study."
Bacon now returns to their potential misuse: “Crafty men
contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use
them; for they teach not their own use." Bacon is fond of
mentioning the general use of studies in an aphoristic manner:
“Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take
for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and
consider." He mentions other uses that have since become
oral commonplaces in English: “Some books are to be tasted,
others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested." Bacon has numerous other pithy uses for studies:
“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and
writing an exact man." Bacon also warns the uninitiated about
the dangers of a lack of studies: “So if a man’s wit be
wandering, let him study the mathematics." Clearly, for Bacon
studies ought to be an essential part of every man’s scope—
even if that scope entailed a minor danger of misuse.