“Of Studies" , Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was born in London to parents who were members of the
court of Queen Elizabeth I.  He attended Trinity College, entered the practice of law in
his late teens, and became a member of the House of Commons at the age of 23.  His
career flourished under King James I, but later scandals ended his life as a politician.
A philosopher/scientist by nature and one of the most admired thinkers of his day,
Bacon was a founder of the modern empirical tradition based on closely observing the
physical world, conducting controlled experiments, and interpreting the results
rationally to discover the workings of the universe.  Of his many published works, he is
best remembered for his Essays (collected from 1597 until after his death), brief
meditations noted for their wit and insight.



Francis Bacon
  “Of Studies

In his classic essay, “Of Studies,” Francis Bacon explains how and why
study—knowledge—is important.  Along with Michel de Montaigne, who published his
first essays less than twenty years before Francis Bacon published his first collection in
1597.  Bacon is considered the father of the English essay (with Montaigne the father of
the French essay).  Bacon’s essays differ from Montaigne’s in being more compact and
more formal.  Where Montaigne conceived of the essays as an opportunity to explore a
subject through mental association and a casual ramble of the mind, Bacon envisioned
the essay as an opportunity to offer advice.  The title of his essay collection: “Essays or
Counsels: Civil and Moral,” suggests that didactic intent.
  In “Of Studies,” Bacon lays out the value of knowledge in practical terms.
Bacon considers to what use studies might be put.  He is less interested in their
theoretical promise than in their practical utility—a proclivity more English, perhaps,
than French.  Bacon’s writing in “Of Studies” is direct and pointed.  It avoids the
meandering find-your-way free form of Montaigne’s essays.  From his opening sentence
Bacon gets directly to the point: “Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for
ability.”  He then elaborates on how studies are useful in these three ways.  And he
wastes no words in detailing the use of “studies” for a Renaissance gentleman.
  One of the attractions of Bacon’s essay is his skillful use of parallel sentence
structure, as exemplified in the opening sentence and throughout “Of Studies.”  This
stylistic technique lends clarity and order to the writing, as in “crafty men condemn
studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them,” which in its straightforward
assertiveness exhibits confidence and elegance in addition to clarity and emphasis.



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, 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 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. Reading maketh 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 subtle; natural philosophy deep;
moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores.
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 cumini sectores.
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.

Of  Studies

by Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon, the first major English essayist, comments forcefully on the value of reading and learning. Notice Bacon's reliance on parallel structures (in particular, tricolons) throughout this concise, one-paragraph essay. Then compare the essay to Samuel Johnson's treatment of the same theme more than a century later in "On Studies."

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, 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 pruning, by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men condemn 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 maketh 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 subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores [Studies pass into and influence manners]. 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 [splitters of hairs]. 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.

(1625)

Of  Marriage  and  Single  Life

by Francis Bacon

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune, for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men, which both in affection and means have married and endowed the public.

Yet it were great reason that those that have children should have greatest care of future times, unto which they know they must transmit their dearest pledges. Some there are who, though they lead a single life, yet their thoughts do end with themselves, and account future times impertinences. Nay, there are some others that account wife and children but as bills of charges. Nay more, there are some foolish, rich, covetous men, that take a pride in having no children, because they may be thought so much the richer. For perhaps they have heard some talk, "Such an one is a great rich man"; and another except to it, "Yea, but he hath a great charge of children," as if it were an abatement to his riches. But the most ordinary cause of a single life is liberty, especially in certain self-pleasing and humorous minds, which are so sensible of every restraint as they will go near to think their girdles and garters to be bonds and shackles. Unmarried men are best friends, best masters, best servants, but not always best subjects, for they are light to run away, and almost all fugitives are of that condition. A single life doth well with churchmen, for charity will hardly water the ground where it must first fill a pool. It is indifferent for judges and magistrates, for if they be facile and corrupt, you shall have a servant five times worse than a wife. For soldiers, I find the generals commonly in their hortatives put men in mind of their wives and children; and I think the despising of marriage amongst the Turks maketh the vulgar soldier more base. Certainly wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity; and single men, though they may be many times more charitable, because their means are less exhaust, yet on the other side they are more cruel and hard-hearted (good to make severe inquisitors), because their tenderness is not so often called upon. Grave natures, led by custom, and therefore constant, are commonly loving husbands; as was said of Ulysses, "Vetulam suam praetulit immortalitati."* Chaste women are often proud and forward, as presuming upon the merit of their chastity. It is one of the best bonds both of chastity and obedience in the wife if she think her husband wise, which she will never do if she find him jealous. Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses; so as a man may have a quarrel to marry when he will. But yet he was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question, when a man should marry: "A young man not yet, an elder man not at all." It is often seen that bad husbands have very good wives, whether it be that it raiseth the price of their hushand's kindness when it comes, or that the wives take a pride in their patience. But this never fails if the bad husbands were of their own choosing, against their friends' consent, for then they will be sure to make good their own folly.

(1625)

Of Youth and Age

by Francis Bacon

A man that is young in years may be old in hours, if he have lost no time. But that happeneth rarely. Generally, youth is like the first cogitations, not so wise as the second. For there is a youth in thoughts, as well as in ages. And yet the invention of young men is more lively than that of old; and imaginations stream into their minds better, and as it were more divinely. Natures that have much heat and great and violent desires and perturbations, are not ripe for action till they have passed the meridian of their years; as it was with Julius Caesar, and Septimius Severus. Of the latter of whom it is said,Juventutem egit erroribus, imo furoribus, plenum¹. And yet he was the ablest emperor, almost, of all the list. But reposed natures may do well in youth. As it is seen in Augustus Caesar, Cosmus Duke of Florence, Gaston de Foix, and others. On the other side, heat and vivacity in age is an excellent composition for business. Young men are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and fitter for new projects than for settled business.

For the experience of age, in things that fall within the compass of it, directeth them; but in new things, abuseth them. The errors of young men are the ruin of business; but the errors of aged men amount but to this, that more might have been done, or sooner.

Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold; stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and that which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them; like an unready horse, that will neither stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success. Certainly it is good to compound employments of both; for that will be good for the present, because the virtues of either age may correct the defects of both; and good for succession, that young men may be learners, while men in age are actors; and, lastly, good for extern accidents, because authority followeth old men, and favour and popularity youth. But for the moral part, perhaps youth will have the pre-eminence, as age hath for the politic. A certain rabbin, upon the text, Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, inferreth that young men are admitted nearer to God than old, because vision is a clearer revelation than a dream. And certainly, the more a man drinketh of the world, the more it intoxicateth; and age doth profit rather in the powers of understanding, than in the virtues of the will and affections. There be some have an over-early ripeness in their years, which fadeth betimes. These are, first, such as have brittle wits, the edge whereof is soon turned; such as was Hermogenes the rhetorician, whose books are exceeding subtle; who afterwards waxed stupid. A second sort is of those that have some natural dispositions which have better grace in youth than in age; such as is a fluent and luxuriant speech; which becomes youth well, but not age: so Tully saith of Hortensius, Idem manebat, neque idem decebat². The third is of such as take too high a strain at the first, and are magnanimous more than tract of years can uphold. As was Scipio Africanus, of whom Livy saith in effect, Ultima primis cedebant³.

* Introduction to the Oxford World's Classics edition of The Essays Or Counsels, Civil and Moral (1999).

¹ He passed a youth full of errors, yea of madnesses.
² He continued the same, when the same was not becoming.
³ His last actions were not equal to his first.

More Classic Essays by Francis Bacon

·         Of  Discourse
"The honourablest part of talk is to give the occasion; and again to moderate and pass to somewhat else, for then a man leads the dance."

·         Of  Marriage  and  Single  Life
"He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune."

·         Of  Revenge
"A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well."

·         Of  Studies
"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man."

·         Of  Travel
"When a traveller returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath travelled altogether behind him."

·         Of  Truth
"A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure."