1）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.

读书可愉悦身心，可矜世取宠，可博闻强识。深居简出时便可愉悦身心，高谈阔论时便可矜世取宠；判世处事时便可博闻强识。行家里手可以处理、判断细枝末节之事，惟有饱学之士有高屋建瓴、运筹帷幄之才。

2）To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affection; 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.

读书费时过多有懒惰之嫌；文藻使用过盛有装腔作势之嫌；照本宣科至极有学究之嫌。读书可弥补秉性之不足，而经验可弥补读书之不足。因天赋犹如天然草木，需藉读书修枝剪叶，而纸上学问未免空谈，除非由经验加以约束。

3）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 confuse; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.

狡黠之徒对读书嗤之以鼻，世俗凡人对读书心折首肯，有识之士对读书驾轻就熟。读书的智慧不在其内，而在其外，只可通过观察获得。读书不可吹毛求疵；不可轻信盲从；不可断章取义；而要衡情度理。

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 be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be ready 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.

有些书可浅尝辄止，有些书可囫囵吞枣，有些书可细嚼慢咽。意即，有些书可只看只言片语；有些书可不求甚解；只有少量书需全神贯注、一丝不苟。有些书可找人代读，也可看别人的摘要，但这仅限于无足轻重的书。否则，精简过的书，一如蒸馏水，索然无味。

5）Reading makes 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.

读书使人学富五车；讨论使人机智敏锐；写作使人思维缜密。因此，若是写的少，就要过目不忘；若是论的少，就要足智多谋；若是读的少，就要瞒天过海。

6）Histories make men wise; poets 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 differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they are symini 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.

历史使人聪慧睿智；诗歌使人诙谐幽默；数学使人明察秋毫；自然哲学使人高深莫测；伦理学使人庄重沉稳；逻辑修辞使人能言善辩。凡有所学，皆成性格。不仅如此，心智障碍皆可用适当之书加以疏通，正如身体的疾病皆可由恰当之锻炼加以消除。打保龄球益肾化石；射击清肺理气；散步调理肠胃；骑马益于头脑。若精力涣散，当读数学。因数学演算需全神贯注，一旦心猿意马，就要重头来过。若不善辨别，当读经院哲学。因研究之人皆为吹毛求疵之辈。若不能提纲挈领，不会举一反三，则读律师案卷。因此心智之缺陷，都有其灵丹妙药。