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 judgement 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, is affectation; to make judgement only 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 pruning by
study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at
large, except they be bounded in by experience. 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.Readingmaketh 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, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make
men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural
philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to
contend: Abeunt studia in
mores(拉丁文). Nay, there is no
stond 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 mathematics; for in demonstrations, 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
sectores(拉丁文). 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. 本博客链接: 《与现代文明对峙的阿米什人――宾州行记》 《结婚是错误!离婚是醒悟!再婚是执迷不悟!》 《舒婷的故事(之一)》 《鲁滨逊飘流记》背后鲜为人知的故事