Francis Bacon: Of Studies
 |
| Pixabay.com |
Of studies is one of Bacon’s most popular essays. Studies are the source of delight in one’s leisure time and solitude. Studies also help to develop one’s ability and to judge and handle one’s affair with ease and success. It is the learned man who can be expected to formulated general plans and policies, and manage the business in it’s over –all aspects.
Reading also fills the minds with new ideas and thoughts and develops the whole personality of a man. Bacon tells us why we should study, how we should study, and what kind of studies we should pursue. Bacon also said that it is a sign of laziness to spend too much time on studies.
‘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.’
Further he says
‘Crafty men condemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them.’
It means that cunning men look down upon studies as useless. Simple men awed and look with wonder at studies. It is the wise man who uses studies in practical life.
Bacon in his essays “of studies” tells us three chief aspects of studies.
‘Studies serve for delight for ornament and for ability.’
In the second paragraph , Bacon tells us why we should study and then abruptly classifies books into three or four categories-those that are to be tasted, those that are to be swallowed , those that may be read “by deputy.”
‘Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested’.
In the paragraph that follows he speaks of the contribution that reading, conference and writing make towards the development of a man.
"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man."
Studies influence a man’s character and mould his personality. Different kinds of books have different effects on the reader. History makes a man wise. Poetry develops man’s imagination ingenuity. Mathematics makes a man’s mind keen and subtle. Logic and rhetoric develops a man’s ability to debate and argue. Natural philosophy enables a man to go deep into a subject and moral philosophy fosters a serious attitude in a man.
This is a wonderful example of the compact and compressed with the neatest economy of words, there is no obscurity. There are a number of sentences that read like maxims and proverbs.
The essays conclude with a description of how different branches of studies mould the mind differently. In short, we have, in this essay also a collection or compendium of ideas. We get several mental jerks in the course of reading this essay because of various transitions of thought.
Related Topics:
Jonathan Swift: As A Misanthropist