Iniquum petas ut aequum feras is a good rule, where a man hath strength of favor: but other-wise, a man were better rise in his suit; for he, that would have ventured at first to have lost the suitor, will not in the conclusion lose both the suitor, and his own former favor. Nothing is thought so easy a request to a great person, as his letter; and yet, if it be not in a good cause, it is so much out of his reputation. There are no worse instruments, than these general contrivers of suits;for they are but a kind of poison, and infection, to public proceedings.
Of Studies Of Studies STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in dis-course; 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 mar-shalling 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 ex-perience. Crafty men contemn studies, ****** men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom with-out 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 dis-course; 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 impor-tant arguments, and the meaner sort of books, else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; confer-ence 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; poets witty;the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep;moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend.
