[Illustration: DANCING DERVISE.]
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ON STUDY.
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. The 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 duty; 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; not 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.
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