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 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 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 makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing and 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 head need have much cunning, to seem to know that he does 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 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 the lawyers’ cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

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讀書足以冶情，足以博彩，足以長才。其冶情也，最見于獨處幽居之時;其博彩也，最見于高談闊論之中;其長才也，最見于處世判事之際。練達之士雖能分別處理細事或一一判別枝節，然縱觀統籌、全局策劃，則非好學深思者莫屬。讀書費時過多易惰，文采藻飾太盛則矯，全憑條文斷事乃學究故態。讀書補天然之不足，經驗又補讀書之不足;因為天生才干猶如自然花草，讀書之后方知如何修剪移接，而書中所示，如不以經驗范之，則又大而無當。有手藝者鄙讀書，無知者羨讀書，唯明智之士用讀書，然書并不以用處告人，用書之智不在書中，而在書外，全憑觀察得之。讀書時不可存心詰難作者，不可盡信書上所言，亦不可只為尋章摘句，而應推敲細思。書有可淺嘗者，有可吞食者，少數則須咀嚼消化。換言之，有只須讀其部分者，有只須大體涉獵者，少數則須全讀，讀時須全神貫注、孜孜不倦。書亦可請人代讀，摘要也可請人代作，但只限題材較次或價值不高者，否則書經提煉猶如水經蒸餾，淡而無味矣。

讀書使人充實，討論使人機智，筆記使人準確。因此不常動筆者須記憶特強，不常討論者須天生聰穎，不常讀書者須欺世有術，始能無知而顯有知。讀史使人明智，讀詩使人靈秀，數學使人周密，科學使人深刻，倫理學使人莊重，邏輯修辭使人善辯。凡有所學，皆成性格。人之才智如有滯礙，無不可讀適當之書使之順暢，一如身體百病，皆可借相宜之運動除之。保齡利睪腎，射箭利胸肺，慢步利腸胃，騎馬利頭腦，諸如此類。如智力不集中，可令讀數學，因為演題須全神貫注，稍有分散即須重演;如不能辯異，可令讀經院哲學，因為研究經院哲學者吹毛求疵者也;如不善分析論證，不善以一物闡證另一物，可令讀律師之案卷。頭腦中凡有缺陷，皆有特藥可醫。