培根《论读书》译?/p>
of study (
论读书)
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
exe-cute,
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