Reading Makes a Full Man
Everyday we read a lot actively or passively, and the uncontroversial fact is that reading has already entered into our life and played a crucial role. But on earth what is the major purpose of reading? For a promising prospect and high salary after graduation? For gaining knowledge and widening our horizon? For molding our temperament and enlightening our mind? Or just for relaxing ourselves and releasing ourselves from nervousness? As far as Bacon was concerned, reading makes a full man, which is also my standpoint. Reading provides us the possibility of opening ourselves up to a magical world, which helps us to become perfect. Histories make men wise, poets witty, the mathematics subtle, natural philosophy deep, moral grave, logic and rhetoric able to contend. So if you are considered to be lack of wisdom, history will teach you how to think and heighten your ability of analyzing and solving problems. If you always feel yourself stay in a confused state, philosophy will illuminate the path in front of you. If you hope your life is suffused with romance and passion, read poets please. Shakespeare, Byron and Shelley will put color on your life. Reading is also exerting an invisible and formative influence on our character. Accumulated over a long period, the habit will lead us to a full man. Confronted with an intractable issue, you can resort to books, such as , which inherits the wits of ancient China. Outraged by the obnoxious things, you can turn to books for help. Reading will extricate you out of the anger. At this time, classical novels are the good choices, such as and . In a word, books are the crystals of all intelligence. Reading not only enables us to make a conversation with all the giants, but also lets us to think profoundly by standing on their shoulders. Reading offers us a marvelous word, comfort our soul and improve our capability, and hence all these impacts together will make a full man. Good books are storehouses of human knowledge and wisdom. Anyone who has the key can enter these store houses and help himself. What is the key? Simply the ability to read. He who can read can store his mind with the great thoughts of the great thinkers of the world.
The man who never opens a book has a comparatively empty mind. He, no doubt, learns something from his own experience and from others; but to what mankind has learnt and thought and done his mind is a blank. But he who reads widely and judiciously has a full mind. "Reading maketh a full man".
By "conference" Bacon means discussion, debate. To be a good debator, one must have a quick and ready mind. He must be able to see a point quickly, to think quickly, and to have a quick reply to arguments ready. Taking an active part in a keen debating society gives one valuable practice in this; for
one has to be alert and ready for all that can be said on a given subject. So, "conference maketh a ready man".
By "writing", here, Bacon does not mean writing books or practice in composition. He means making notes in writing of what we learn in our reading. It is not always wise to trust entirely to memory, especially when exact words and figures are important.
We may remember something in a general way; but, unless we have made a note of the details, we may be at a loss in speaking or discussion. Vague statements and mere generalizations will not always serve the purpose. Our knowledge must be accurate and exact. So make written notes of what you read; for this kind of "writing maketh an exact man".
The completion of this quotation will make its meaning clearer: "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And, therefore, if a man writes little, he had needed have a great memory; if he confers little, he had need of a ready wit; and if he read little, he had need of much cunning to seem to know that he knoweth not".
Bacon's words should be taken to heart by young men who want to become public speakers. For a public speaker must have a full mind, readiness of speech, and an accurate and exact knowledge of his subject.
