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Essay: the importance of Reading by Francis Bacon, one of the literary works,in the field of literature.

2006-10-03 19:18:42 · 4 answers · asked by VAN 1 in Arts & Humanities Books & Authors

4 answers

I suspect you are thinking of Bacon's little essay "Of Studies," which has the famous quotation, "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."

The same essay has a number of wise comments about reading. Another often quoted one is, "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man."

Actually, my favorite of his sentences about reading is not quoted as often, but should be: "Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider."

Here's the whole essay. It's hardly more than one long paragraph. Read these two famous sayings in context. Enjoy!

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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 proyning, 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 subtile; 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 cymini sectores. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study 197 the lawyers' cases. So every defect of the mind, may have a special receipt.

2006-10-06 20:36:58 · answer #1 · answered by bfrank 5 · 0 0

Since Dark Girl either lacks the drive, money or intelligence to get more than 2 years education beyond secondary school, she is jealous of those who do. She would have everyone stop with a 2-yr technical degree. In her view we don't need anyone with advanced degrees, Masters or Doctorates, because they have no common sense and get all the good jobs for doing nothing. She is 95% wrong, because only a small number of people with degrees were "eternal students" and become incompetent bosses. You get more education so you can put those letters after your name and add the areas you are certified to know about. It is true that there are many educated fools who are hired on the basis of their education to be the boss and don't know as much as the 20 yr employee they supervise. There is too much emphasis placed on book learning, having degrees and certificates, by employers. Which is why employees should continue to study while working. My sister-in-law has done accounting her whole life and has found ways to save or make her company millions. She trains her supervisors, but she can't be promoted to their level, despite being more able than they, because she doesn't have the papers from a school saying she is qualified. That is why a person should get more education after the age of 21 and the easiest and best way is to go to school every year until you reach your goal, then get a job. Be Dark Girl's supervisor and have her teach you how to do the job, while she hates your guts for being educated and refuses to become more educated herself.

2016-03-27 04:12:45 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

i dont see it either

Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) =Student Essay

Humanism and the Scientific Revolution: Bacon's Rejection of Aristotle - Stephen Varvis
The Clue to the Labyrinth: Francis Bacon and the Decryption of Nature - Peter Pesic
The Bell & The Buzzer: On the Meaning of Science - Peter Pesic
Francis Bacon's Essays

(Remember that these essays are searchable for key words)
To the Duke of Buckingham
Of Truth
Of Death
Of Unity in Religions
Of Revenge
Of Adversity
Of Simulation and Dissimulation
Of Parents and Children
Of Marriage and Single Life
Of Envy
Of Love
Of Great Place
Of Boldness
Of Goodness
Of Nobility
Of Seditions and Troubles
Of Atheism
Of Superstition
Of Travel
Of Empire
Of Counsel
Of Delays
Of Cunning
Of Wisdom for a Man's Self
Of Innovations
Of Dispatch
Of Seeming Wise
Of Friendship
Of Expense
Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates
Of Regiment of Health
Of Suspicion
Of Discourse
Of Plantations
Of Riches
Of Prophecies
Of Ambition
Of Masques and Triumphs
Of Nature in Men
Of Custom and Education
Of Fortune
Of Usury
Of Youth and Age
Of Beauty
Of Deformity
Of Building
Of Gardens
Of Negotiating
Of Followers and Friends
Of Suitors
Of Studies
Of Faction
Of Ceremonies and Respect
Of Praise
Of Vain-Glory
Of Honor and Reputation
Of Judicature
Of Anger
Of Vicissitude of Things
Of Fame



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page last modified: thu jan 12 01:37:48 2006

"Pruning by study": Self-cultivation in Bacon's Essays - John J. Miller
Design Argument in Scientific Discourse: Historical-Theological
Perspective from the Seventeenth Century - John C. Hutchison
Bacon, Shakspere, and the Rosicrucians - Manly P. Hall
Francis Bacon's Theory of Communication and Media - Eric McLuhan
In Defense of Bacon - Alan Soble
Describing Machiavel: How Bacon Adapted Machiavelli - David Hurley
Magi Imaginationis: Imagining Alchemists and Magicians in
New Atlantis, The Tempest, and The Alchemist - David Hurley
"Janus of Imagination": Francis Bacon's Theory of Imagination
and the Wisdom of the Ancients - David Hurley
The Utopian Tradition: New Atlantis - Pierre Passerau
Francis Bacon's God - Stephen A. McKnight
Bacon and the Rose Cross - James Phinney Baxter
Bacon's Shadow - Terence Kealey
A Fictitious Bacon (response to Kealey) - Pete Langman
Navigating Bacon's New Atlantis - Pete Langman [.pdf]
No Place and New Worlds: The Early Modern Utopia - Chloë Houston [.pdf]
Francis Bacon and the True Ends of Skepticism - Barbara Friedberg
Bacon, Brought Home. (philosophy of Francis Bacon about natural world) - Stephen Jay Gould
Francis Bacon's Theory of Communication and Media - Eric McLuhan
Francis Bacon's "Verulamium" - Harvey Wheeler
Francis Bacon's Case of the Post-Nati: (1608) - Harvey Wheeler
Francis Bacon & Secret Societies - Michael Taylor
Essays on the Nothumberland Manuscripts - Martin Pares

2006-10-03 19:30:03 · answer #3 · answered by LIL' DEVIL 2 · 0 1

maybe someone else wrote it.

2006-10-03 19:31:10 · answer #4 · answered by el.tuco 5 · 0 1

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