读书须由经验校正

英文原文

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. 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 experience. 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 confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.

中文译文

读书可以怡情，可以修饰谈吐，也可以增进才干。就怡情而言，它主要用于独处与退居之时；就修饰谈吐而言，用于交谈；就才干而言，用于判断和安排事务。因为有经验的人能够执行事务，也许还能逐一判断具体事情；但总的谋划，以及事务的筹划和统筹，最好出自有学问的人。花太多时间读书是懒惰；过分用它修饰谈吐是矫饰；完全按书中的规则作判断，则是书生的习气。学问完善天性，又由经验来完善：天生的能力好比自然生长的植物，需要学问来修剪；而学问本身给出的指引往往过于宽泛，除非由经验来加以约束。狡黠的人轻视学问，单纯的人仰慕学问，明智的人运用学问；因为学问并不教人如何运用自身，那是一种在学问之外、又高于学问的智慧，要靠观察获得。读书不是为了反对和驳倒，不是为了相信并视为当然，也不是为了寻找谈话的材料，而是为了权衡与思考。