Studies serve for delight, for ornament¹, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse²; and for ability, is in the judgment³, and disposition⁴ of business. For expert men can exe-cute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling（整理） of affairs, come best, from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth⁵（懒惰）; 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 proyning, by study; and studies themselves, do give forth⁶ directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty⁷ men contemn⁸ 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（驳斥）; 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 curiously⁹; 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 bothers; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books, else distilled¹⁰ books are like common distilled waters, flashy things.  

 

Reading make 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（狡猾的）, to seem to know, that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty¹¹; the mathematics subtitle¹²; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic¹³ and rhetoric¹⁴ able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores¹⁵. Nay¹⁶, there is no stand or impediment（口吃，妨碍） in the wit, but may be wrought¹⁷ out by fit studies; like as diseases of the body, may have appropriate exercises. Bowling¹⁸ is good for the stone and reins¹⁹; 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 demonstrations²⁰, 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 sectors²¹. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate²² another, let him study  the lawyers' cases. So every defect of the mind, may have a special receipt.

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