Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and…

The sentence comes in the middle of “Of Studies”, a short essay by Francis Bacon. He has just explained how to read: not to contradict, nor to believe, nor to find talk, “but to weigh and consider”, for some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few chewed and digested. Then he weighs three activities: reading fills the mind, “conference” (conversation and discussion) makes it quick, and writing makes it precise. Hence the warning that follows: whoever writes little needs a great memory, whoever confers little needs a ready wit, and whoever reads little needs “much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not.”

Bacon, a lawyer and statesman who rose to be Lord Chancellor under James I, was also a champion of experimental science. “Of Studies” opened his first, slim collection of essays in 1597; the text here is the final version of 1625, published the year before his death. It goes on: “Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile”.

Of Studies (Essays), 1625

Checked word for word in the work itself.

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