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Of Studies

Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)

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Studies serve for Delight, for Ornament, and for Ability. Their Chiefs Use for Delight, is in Privateness and Retiring; For Ornament, is in Discourse; And for Ability, is in the Judgement and Disposition of businesse. For Expert Men can Execute, and perhaps Judge of particulars, one by one; But the generall Counsels, and the Plots and Marshalling of Affaires, 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 Scholler. 

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Their/they etc: Studies.

In privateness: When alone.

Retiring: Resting.

Discourse: Speech / lecture delivered at court.

Ability: Intellectual ability.

Judgement: Ability to distinguish between right and wrong.

Disposition: Ordering.

Businesse: Earthly affiars; activities of life.

Here Bacon mentions three uses of studies. Studies serve us in three ways. When we are alone, we read a book or a magazine in order to pass time. This is the delight of reading. Studies also help us by making our speech beautiful and effective, We can take help, say, of rhetorical figures of speech to make our expression handsome. This is the ornamentation of speech. Thirdly, reading gives us knowledge and we all know knowledge is power. A well-read man becomes intellectually powerful which enables him to judge things and execute earthly affairs in a practical and methodical manner.

Particulars: Individual cases (as opposed "general Councels")

Plots: Plans

Marshalling: Direction.

Here, Bacon draws a distinction between practical experts and learned scholars. When weighed in the balance, the learned men emerge as the clear winners. Bacon's expert men are experienced men - those who learn from experience. Expert men can do the following things - they can execute or materialize a plan (but they cannot make a plan) and they can deal with individual items one by one (but they cannot deal with them together). By contrast, learned men can make a plan, give general counsels and, above all, give direction to others. Clearly, learned men are the winners. 

Sloth: Laziness

Affectation: Showiness, meant to impress others.

Humour: Whims. Bacon coins the term from the contemporary physiological theory which sees human body consisting of four fluids – blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. An unequal mixture of them shows unhealthy exaggeration of one particular quality.

If reading gives us delight, over reading makes a man idle.; if reading supplies a man with figures of speech to adorn his speech, over use is symptomatic of pedantry; if reading or knowledge gathered from reading enables one to manage his affairs beautifully, using bookish knowledge in every sphere of life is whims.

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