haps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. 2. 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, 10 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 experience. 3. Crafty* men contemn studies, simple* men admire* them, 1 and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use-but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observa tion. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. 4. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to LITERARY ANALYSIS.-Note the expression, "the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs"-an expression having that over-arching quality which we think of as specifically Shakespearian. 8-10. To spend... scholar. What kind of sentence grammatically? How many members (independent propositions)? What grammatical element (word, phrase, or clause) is the subject of each? 13. except. What conjunction should we now use? 15-36. Crafty men... contend. Macaulay, in his essay on Lord Bacon, quotes this passage, and adds: "It will hardly be disputed that this is a passage to be chewed and digested.' We do not believe that Thucydides himself has anywhere compressed so much thought into so small a space." 18-20. Read not... consider. What is the figure of speech in this sentence? (See Def. 18.) With what is "(read) to weigh and consider" contrasted? 21, 22. tasted. . . swallowed . . . chewed . . . digested. Are these expressions literal or metaphorical? Explain, from the latter part of the sentence, what is meant by "tasted;" by "swallowed;" by "chewed and digested." 20 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 25 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. 5. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he 30 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. 6. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhet-35 oric, able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores [manners are influenced by studies]. 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 reins; shooting, for the lungs and breast; gentle 40 walking, for the stomach; riding, for the head; and the like. 23. curiously, with scrupulous care. 32. present, ready. (In place of the expression "not 34, witty, bright, quick-witted. of. worked out, got rid 40. reins, kidneys, inward parts. What is the figure LITERARY ANALYSIS.—29-33. Reading maketh... not. of speech here? (See Def. 18.) This is a fine example of antithesis in the form sometimes called parison, or isocolon, in which arrangement the parts of the sentence follow in a series of corresponding elements. Thus, in this sentence, the first three propositions (members) are alike, word corresponding with word, and then follow three more members (complex propositions) in which clause (dependent proposition) corresponds with clause, and principal proposition with principal proposition. Point out the corresponding and the contrasting parts. 34-36. Histories... contend. This sentence presents an example of the same figure as in the previous sentence. Point out the corresponding parts. 38. like as diseases, etc. What is the figure of speech in this sentence? (See Def. 19.) Should we now use "like?" 35 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 differences, let him study the schoolmen, for they are cy-45 mini sectores [hair-splitters']. 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. II. OF FRIENDSHIP. 1. It had been hard for him that spake it to have put more truth and untruth together in few words than in that speech, "Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god." For it is most true that a natural and secret hatred and aversation towards society in any man hath somewhat of the sav- 5 age beast; but it is most untrue that it should have any character at all of the divine nature, except it proceed, not out of a pleasure in solitude, but out of a love and desire to sequester a man's self for a higher conversation, such as is found to have been falsely and feignedly in some of the heathen- -as Epimeni- 10 1 7. except, unless. 8, 9. to sequester... conversation: that is, to seclude himself for the sake of following a higher course of life. The word "conversation" formerly signified habit of life, and in this meaning it is often employed in the Bible: thus in Psa. xxxvii. 14; Phil. i. 27; 1 Peter iii. 1, 16. 10. Epimenides, a poet and prophet of Candia or Crete. After his death he was revered as a god by the Athenians on account of the many useful counsels he had given. Cymini sectores is literally splitters of cummin, one of the smallest of seeds. des the Candian, Numa the Roman, Empedocles the Sicilian, and Apollonius of Tyana,-and truly and really in divers of the ancient hermits and holy fathers of the Church. 2. But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth; for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a 15 gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love. The Latin adage meeteth with it a little, Magna civitas, magna solitudo [a great city is a great solitude],-because in a great town friends are scattered, so that there is not that fellowship, for the most part, which is in less neighborhoods. But we 20 may go further, and affirm most truly that it is a mere * and miserable solitude to want true friends, without which the world is but a wilderness; and even in this sense also of solitude, whosoever in the frame of his nature and affections is unfit for friendship, he taketh it of the beast, and not from humanity. 25 3. A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and discharge of the fulness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. We know diseases of stoppings and suffocations are the most dangerous in the body; and it is not much otherwise in the mind. You may take sarza to open the 30 liver, steel to open the spleen, flowers of sulphur for the lungs, castoreum for the brain; but no receipt openeth the heart but a true friend, to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or confession. 4. It is a strange thing to observe how high a rate great kings and monarchs do set upon this fruit of friendship whereof we speak-so great as they purchase it many times at the hazard of II. Nu'ma, second king of Rome (B.C. | 12. Apollo'nius, a Pythagorean philoso715-672). He encouraged the belief that he received help in his pher who flourished during the reigns of Vespasian and Domitian. Egeria.-Emped ́oelēs, a Sicilian 17. meeteth with it: that is, corresponds It is recorded that he wished 21. mere, absolute. it to be believed that he was 25. humanity, human nature. a god; and, that his death | 30. sarza, sarsaparilla, might be unknown, he threw 32. castoreum, a substance found in thẹ himself into the crater of Mount Etna. body of the beaver (castor). 38. so great as = so great that. 35 * their own safety and greatness. For princes, in regard of the distance of their fortune from that of their subjects and ser- 4o vants, cannot gather this fruit except (to make themselves capable thereof) they raise some persons to be, as it were, companions and almost equals to themselves, which many times sorteth to inconvenience. The modern languages give unto such persons the name of favorites, or privadoes, as if it were matter of s grace or conversation; but the Roman name attaineth the true use and cause thereof, naming them participes curarum [sharers in cares], for it is that which tieth the knot. And we see plainly that this hath been done, not by weak and passionate princes only, but by the wisest and most politic that ever reigned; who 50 have oftentimes joined to themselves some of their servants, whom both themselves have called friends, and allowed others likewise to call them in the same manner, using the word which is received between private men. 5. L. Sylla, when he commanded Rome, raised Pompey (after 55 surnamed the Great) to that height that Pompey vaunted himself for Sylla's overmatch.* For when he had carried the consulship for a friend of his, against the pursuit of Sylla, and that Sylla did a little resent thereat and began to speak great, Pompey turned upon him again, and in effect bade him be quiet, 60 "for that more men adored the sun rising than the sun setting." With Julius Cæsar, Decimus Brutus had obtained that interest as he set him down in his testament for heir in remainder after his nephew. And this was the man that had power with him to draw him forth to his death; for when Cæsar would have dis-65 charged the Senate, in regard of some ill presages, and specially a dream of Calpurnia, this man lifted him gently by the arm out of his chair, telling him he hoped he would not dismiss the Senate till his wife had dreamt a better dream. And it seemeth his 43, 44. sorteth to inconvenience: that is, leads to inconvenience. 45. privadoes (Spanish), secret friends. 49. passionate, swayed by the feelings, sentimental. 55. Sylla (more correctly Sulla) was appointed Roman dictator B.C. 81. (See Plutarch's Lives, under 58. pursuit, candidacy. that. 67. Calpurnia, the last wife of Julius Cæsar. (See Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar, act ii. scene 1.) |