Of Studies Francis Bacon

Osmania Sem 5

Of Studies (excerpt)

Unit 1

INTRODUCTION

'Of Studies' is an essay by Francis Bacon (15611626), an English philosopher, lawyer, statesman, a patron of libraries but remembered chiefly for the worldly wisdom of his essays. Most of the sentences in his essays read like proverbs. 'Of Studies' is from his collection, Essays or Counsels: Civil and Moral published in 1597. This aphoristic essay highlights the importance of studies and the value of learning. Bacon classifies the uses of studies and discusses the effects of reading, writing and conversing. He describes the different kinds of books and how to read them while also pointing out how different kinds of people use studies.

TEXT

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privatenes 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 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 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.

COMPREHENSION

1. What three purposes do 'studies' serve?

2. What does too much time spent in studies indicate? 3. What does the use of study for too much ornament lead to?

4. What are the natural abilities in a person compared to? What do they need?

5. Who condemns studies, who admires them and who uses them?

6. What are the different kinds of reading discussed by Francis Bacon?

CRITICAL THINKING

1. Do you agree or disagree with Bacon's views on studies? Justify your response.

2. Does learning take place only from books? Is knowledge contained only in books?

3. How did people learn before the printing of books? 

4. How was knowledge recorded before the printed book came into existence?

5. What are oral traditions? Do you know of any?

6. What are the different sources of learning in today's world?

7. Bacon uses the words 'full man, 'ready man' and 'exact man. Does it reveal a gender bias? Should we understand these phrases in the context of women too?

8. Imagine if Bacon had written this essay about women. Re-read the paragraph, replacing 'man' with 'woman. Rewrite the passage using gender-sensitive language.