Bonus translaiton exercise 7 -- Of Studies (Translate any one paragraph of it)

By Francis Bacon

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 judgement and disposition of business.

To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgement wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by the experience, for natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study; and studies themselves give forth directions too much at large, except they are bounded in by experience.

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 read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man writes little, he needs to have a great memory; if he confers little, he needs to have a present wit, and if he reads little, he needs to have much cunning, to seem to know that he dose not. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathmatics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend; ... So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.