ivateness 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 maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an
exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a
good memory, if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and
if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that
he doth not.

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 wits be not apt to distinguish or find
differences, let him study the schoolmen; 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.

--_Lord Bacon_

Preparatory.--Observe the sentence structure employed
throughout this extract, and make a list of the
antithetical words and phrases.

This lesson may be used as an exercise to illustrate the
principle of Infl