Of Studies

Francis Bacon

(1561-1626)

Brief Introduction of Francis Bacon : Francis Bacon, scientist, philosopher, essayist, and
Renaissance’s practical man, is widely known in the realm of English literature ,for naturalizing
of the essay in England and the pioneering of the simplification of English prose, which via
Dryden culminated into the limpid and plain prose of Jonathan Swift. Bacon preferred the
Ciceronian model in favour of the Senecan model of essay writing.

Francis Bacon was an English statesman and a philosopher. A lawyer by profession , he

believed in the power of knowledge. In 1618 he became Lord High Chancellor with the dignity
of Baron Verulum ,and later ,of Viscount St.Albans.He has shown his brilliance in every walk of
life ,but in the last phase of his career he was convicted of bribery and embezzlement . Alexander
Pope has said of him:

“If parts allure thee,see how Bacon shin’d,

The wisest, the brightest and the meanest of mankind.”

Ignoring the faults in his personal life, we take his merits as a philosopher who has imparted the
practical experience of life to literature, and has taken art for the sake of life. While defending
himself in bribery case trial, Bacon is to have said that his faults were not vitia humonis, but vitia
temporis.

He has published three collections of English essays ,respectively in 1597,1612 ,and 1625.In his
writing he was influenced by Montaigne ,a French essayist .His essays are full of practical
wisdom. These are, according to him, “certain brief notes set down rather significantly than
curiously :not vulgar ,but of a kind whereof men shall find much in experience and little in
books.”He is interested in the maximum meaning in minimum words and his canvass of writing
is so wide that he has written essays from love to gardening.

Bacon’s style has the power of compressing a mammoth body of thought in a few words. To
validate his statements, he expands them to such a syllogistic folds which could bring lucidity
and clarity. Interdisciplinary approach of Bacon and his scholarly import of thoughts and
metaphors like that from Botany in comparing human minds with a plant in the statement, “for
natural abilities are like natural plants that need proyning by study.”A fine comparison is visible
in the parallel between the physical and intellectual exercise.His major works are: Novum
Organum , The Advancement of Learning,and The History of the Reign of Henry VII.
Introducing ‘Of Studies’: ‘Of Studies’ is the first essay in a collection of ten essays published
by Francis Bacon in 1597. In the 1612 edition it was revised. It is a typical Baconian essay
illustrating the purpose, the use, the abuse, and the outcome of studies. ‘Of Studies’ is a perfect
show case of Bacon’s mind and art exposing his wisdom, teaching, and didacticism in
epigrammatic and aphoristic (proverbial), curt, sibylline and impersonal style,moved with wit,
observation, knowledge and experience .The essay also reflects Bacon’s lucidity of method .It
proves his view on essays to be ‘counsels civil and moral’ .In the essay the purpose, the use, the
abuse, and the result of studies are categorically explained. The subject- studies is also explained
by Milton and Ruskin. Extracts from Milton’s Areopagitica, and Ruskin’s ‘On Reading’ (from
Seasame and Lilies) are apt to refer by a reader of ‘Of Studies’ for co-relation and comparison of
thoughts.
 Of Studies

(Text)

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 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 humor 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 great 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. Histories make men wise;
poems witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric,
able to contend: Abeunt studia 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 body, may have appropriate exercises.
Bowling is good for the stone and reins, shooting for the lungs and breast, gentle walking for the
stomach, riding for the head; and the like: so 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 wit be not apt to distinguish or find difference, let him study the Schoolmen: for they are
cymini sectores. 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.
 Notes

Vocabulary:

Studies serve for delight…ability: studies serve for personal pleasure, social appeal and
helpfulness in business.

Privateness and retiring: loneliness and seclusion ,when someone is all alone

Disposition of business: in the day-to-day life

Expert men: Experienced persons,skilled men

Plots: Projects, plans,ideas

Marshalling: Properly arranging

Sloth: Laziness

Humour: Whim,eccentric character of a bookish man

Scholar: Learned man

Studies themselves…at large: Studies set forth broad principles which require to be narrowed
down and applied to a particular case

Bounded in: limited and corrected

Crafty men condemn studies: Cunning people think that cunningness and cleverness will do the
work of study and experience

Without them: outside them

Curiously; carefully ,attentively

Contradict: to say the opposite of,to deny

Take for granted: accept anything as it is told without weighing it on logic

Deputy: One acting in place of another

Arguments; subjects

Flashy: tasteless, dull, insipid

Full man: A man having all the information on a particular subject

Ready man: a man having presence of mind

Conference: conversation and discussion

Confer: To talk together,to give grant

Present: ready

That: what

Doth; does

Witty: ingenious, having presence of mind

Rhetoric: The art of eloquence,art of using language effectively so as to influence others

Abeunt studia in mores: Quoted from Ovid’s Heroides, meaning ‘studies affect or influence
character’

Stond: stand, obstruction

Impediment : a barrier, a defect in a person’s speech

Wit: mind

Bowling: playing at bowls

Reins: kidneys

Shooting : archery

Wandering : going astray,being disordered in one’s mind

Never so little; no matter how little

Schoolmen: general name given to the philosophers of the middle ages,who are noted for their
minute and hair splitting distinctions

Cymini sectores: hair splitters, very minute observers

Beat over matters: not quick in passing from one matter to another

Lawyers’ cases : which require finding precedents relative to the case in hand
Receipt: Remedy ,treatment

Questions for comprehension

1. Write a note on the uses and abuses of studies?

2. Write a categorical not as how different types of people consider and accept ‘study’?
3. Explain ‘Abeunt studia in mores’
4. What remedies does Bacon suggest for the ‘various impediments of mind’?
5. Bacon’s expressions are aphoristic .Find out any two such statements from ‘Of Studies’.
6. Write a critical appreciation of ‘Of Studies’.
7. Evaluate Bacon as an essayist .

General References

Walker Hugh. The English Essay and Essayists (1915) .Kessinger Publishing, 2007

Church, R.W. Bacon. Church Press,2007

Max Patrick, J.Francis. Bacon London : Published for the British Council and the National Book
League by Longmans, Green, 1966.

Green, A. Wigfall. Sir Francis Bacon: His Life and Works. Twayne Publishers, 1966

Thompson, E.N.S. The Seventeenth Century English Essay. The University of Michigan 1926

Sessions, William A. “Recent Studies in Francis Bacon.” English Literary Renaissance, vol. 17,
no. 3, 1987, pp. 351–371. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43447228. Accessed 2 Aug. 2020.

Muntersbjorn, Madeline M. “Francis Bacon's Philosophy of Science: Machina

Intellectus and Forma Indita.” Philosophy of Science, vol. 70, no. 5, 2003, pp. 1137–
1148. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/377395. Accessed 2 Aug. 2020.