谈读书 培根

读书足以怡情，足以博彩，足以长才。其怡情也，最见于独处幽居之时；其博彩也，最见于高谈阔论之中；其长才也，最见于处世判事之际。练达之士虽能分别处理细事或一一判别枝节，然纵观统筹、全局策划，则舍好学深思者莫属。
　　读书费时过多易惰，文采藻饰太盛则矫，全凭条文断事乃学究故态。读书补天然之不足，经验又补读书之不足，盖天生才干犹如自然花草，读书然后知如何修剪移接；而书中所示，如不以经验范之，则又大而无当。
　　有一技之长鄙读书，无知者慕读书，唯明智之士用读书，然读书并不以用处告人，用书之智不在书中，而在书外，全凭观察得之。读书时不可存心诘难作者，不可尽信书上所言，亦不可只为寻章摘句，而应推敲细思。
　　书有可浅尝者，有可吞食者，少数则须咀嚼消化。换言之，有只须读其部分者，有只须大体涉猎者，少数则须全读，读时须全神贯注，孜孜不倦。书亦可请人代读，取其所作摘要，但只限题材较次或价值不高者，否则书经提炼犹如水经蒸馏，淡而五味矣。
　　读书使人充实，讨论使人机智，笔记使人准确。因此不常做笔记者须记忆特强，不常讨论者须天生聪颖，不常读书者须欺世有术，始能无知而显有知。
　　读史使人明智，读诗使人灵秀，数学使人周密，科学使人深刻，论理学使人庄重，逻辑修辞之学使人善辩：凡有所学，皆成性格。人之才智但有滞碍，无不可读适当之书使之顺畅，一如身体百病，皆可借相宜之运动除之。滚球利睾肾，射箭利胸肺，慢步利肠胃，骑术利头脑，诸如此类。如智力不集中，可令读数学，盖演算须全神贯注，稍有分散即须重演；如不能辨异，可令读经院哲学，盖是辈皆吹毛求疵之人；如不善求同，不善以一物阐证另一物，可令读律师之案卷。如此头脑中凡有缺陷，皆有特药可医。

Of Studies（FrancisBacon）

Studiesserve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief usefor delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is indiscourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition ofbusiness. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge ofparticulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plotsand marshalling of affairs come best from those that arelearned.
　　To spendtoo much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much forornament is affection; to make judgment wholly by their rules isthe humor of a scholar. They perfect nature and are perfected byexperience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, thatneed pruning by study, and studies themselves do give forthdirections too much at large, except they be bounded in byexperience.
　　Crafty mencontemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them, forthey teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them andabove them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confuse;nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk anddiscourse; but to weigh and consider.
　　Some booksare to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewedand digested; that is some books are to be read only in parts;others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be readywholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may beread by deputy and extracts made of them by others; but that wouldbe only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort ofbooks; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters,flashy things.
　　Readingmakes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a greatmemory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and ifhe read little, he had need have much cunning to seem to know thathe doth not.
　　Historiesmake men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; naturalphilosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able tocontend.
　　Abeuntstudia 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 bodymay have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone andreins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for thestomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man’s wit bewandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, ifhis wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If hiswit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him studythe schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores. If he be not apt tobeat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrateanother, let him study the lawyers’ cases. So every defect of themind may have a special receipt.