Of Studies

Of Studies
Bacon Essays 1625Version
Studies serve for pastimes, for ornaments, and for abilities. Their chief use for pastime is in privateness1 and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability; is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men2 can execute, and perhaps judge of particular, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshaling 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 humor3 of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience; for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and study themselves do give forth direction too much at large, except they be bounded by experience.

Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, wise men use them, for they teach not their own use; but that4 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 curiously5; 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 water6, flashy things.

Reading maketh a full man, conference7 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 wit8; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that9 he doth not.

Histories make men wise; poet, witty10; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy11, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to content. Abeunt studia in mores.12 (Studies culminate in manners) Nay, there is no stond (difficulty) 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 reins13, shooting for the lungs and breast, gentle walking for the stomach, riding for the head, and the like. If his wit be not fit to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen, for they are cumini sectores14. If he be not apt to to beat over matters15 and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyer’s cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt16.


1. Private life 2. Men of experience. 3. Mannerism
4. I.e., the knowledge of how to use them. “without”: outside.
5. Attentively.
6. Infusions of herbs, etc., used as home remedies- without real value.
7. Conversations, meetings. 8. Lively intelligence. 9. That which 10. Clever
11. Science. “Moral”: i.e., moral philosophy.
12. “Studies culminate in manners” (Ovid, Heroides). “Stond”: difficulty.
13. Gallbladder and kidneys.
14. “Dividers of cuminseed,” i.e., hairsplitters. “Schoolmen”: Scholastic philosophers
15. Discuss a subject thoroughly
16. Cure, prescription.