In a hundred words or fewer, what is your personal opinion after reading Francis Bacon's essay "Of Studies."

For a number of reasons, this is a difficult question to
answer. For one thing, it is unclear what the “opinion” is supposed to be about?  Is it
supposed to be about Bacon’s essay “Of Studies”? Or is it supposed
to be about the topic of “study” in and of itself?  Finally, since you are supposed to
express you own personal opinion, no one attempting to answer this question can do that
for you.

If you are responding to “Of Studies” itself, you
might consider such issues as the following:

• How
  is the essay effectively written? For example, how and why is the opening sentence
  effective?


• How does Bacon implicitly present
  himself in this essay?  Why should you believe him or find him a
  trustworthy advisor?


• What kinds of evidence does he
  present in order to support his arguments? What kinds of sources does he draw
  on?


• How is the essay organized? Does its organization
  have any effect on its success?


• Is the style of the essay
  accessible?  In other words, can you easily understand what the essay is
  saying?


• If you had to paraphrase the essay (that is,
  rewrite it in your own words), what would you write? What features of the essay might
  make the essay difficult to paraphrase?


• What kind of
  studying does Bacon himself seem to have done? What is the evidence for such
  studying?


• What, in Bacon’s opinion, is the ultimate
  purpose of studying?


• What does Bacon mean, exactly, when
  he makes the following concluding
  statement?:

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So every defect of the mind, may have a special
receipt.

If you are
responding to the topic of “studying” in its own right (or in response to Bacon), here
are some issues you might consider:

• How do your
  own views of studying resemble Bacon’s?


• How do your own
  views of studying differ from Bacon’s?


• How would you
  justify any differences between your views and his?


• Are
  Bacon’s ideas still relevant, or are they relics of an earlier
  time?


• How have methods of study changed since Bacon’s
  time?  What resources are available to us that were not available to him? How is
  studying easier today than it was in the seventeenth century?
  


• What, in your opinion, is the ultimate purpose of
  studying?


• Do you think that there are different ways of
  studying and that these different ways can be equally
  effective?


• What are some problems with the ways we study
  today?


• How can present-day studying be
  improved?


• Do you agree or disagree (and why) with the
  following famous statement from the
  essay?:

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Some books are to be tasted, others to be
swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested . . .
.