LEARNING FROM FRANCIS BACON
(FIFTH & FINAL PART)
Parts one to four
were posted from 15th to 18th March.
1.
No
body can be healthful without exercise, neither natural body or politic: and
certainly, to a kingdom or estate, a just and honourable war is the true exercise.
2.For the passions and studies of the mind, avoid envy, anxious
fears, anger fretting inwards, subtle and knotty inquisitions, joys, and exhilarations
in excess, sadness not communicated.
3.
Entertain
hopes, mirth rather than joy, variety of delights, rather than surfeit of them;
wonder and admiration, and therefore novelties; studies that fill the mind with
splendid and illustrious objects; as histories , fables, and contemplations of
nature.
4.
Suspicions amongst thoughts are like bats
among birds, they ever fly by twilight.
5.
A
good continued speech, without a good speech or interlocution, shows slowneaa;
and a good reply, or second speech, without a good settled speech, showeth
shallowness and weakness.
6.
Ambition
is like choler; which is an humour that maketh men active, earnest, full of
alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped; but if it be stopped , and cannot
have his way , it becometh adust, and thereby malign and venomous. (Adust means
gloomy).
7.
A man’s
nature is best perceived in privateness; for there is no affection; in passion,
for that putteth a man out of his precepts; and in a new
case or experiment, for there custom leaveth him.
8.
Men’s
thoughts are much according to their inclination; their discourse and speeches
according to their learning and infused opinions; but their deeds are after as
they have been accustomed.
9.
A
man that is young in years may be old in hours, if he have lost no time. But that
happenth rarely.
10.
Men of age object too much, consult too long,
adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the
full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.
11.
Virtue
is like a rich stone, best plain set : and surely virtue is best in a body that
is comely, though not of delicate features; and that hath rather dignity of
presence, than beauty of aspect.
12.
God Almighty first planted a garden; and,
indeed it is the purest of human pleasures.
13.
There is little friendship in the world, and
least of all between equals, which was wont to be magnified. That that is, is
between superior and inferior, whose fortunes may comprehend the one the other.
14.
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and
for ability. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man; and writing an
exact man; natural philosophy deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to
contend.
15.
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to
believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and
consider.
16.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be
swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested.
17.
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 may be
read by deputy, and extracts made by others.
18.
Histories make men wise; poets witty; the
mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric , able to contend..
19.
Praise is the reflection of virtue, but it is
as the glass to the body, which giveth the reflection.
20.
To seek to extinguish anger utterly is but a
bravery of the stoics.
21.
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall
end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in
certainties.
22.
Age
appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink,
old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
******
To conclude with his famous quotes
:
(1). Knowledge is power.
(2) The naked truth is always better than the best dressed lie.
G.R.Kanwal
19th March 2026
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