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.

Francis Bacon (1561–1626), statesman and philosopher, wrote this line in his essay “Of Studies,” first published in 1597 and later revised for expanded editions (notably 1612 and 1625). The essay belongs to Bacon’s influential Essays, a collection of compact reflections on conduct, learning, and public life shaped by his experience in law and government. In “Of Studies,” Bacon addresses the practical uses and limits of reading and scholarship, arguing that learning should serve judgment and action rather than mere display. The passage comes amid his horticultural metaphors for education: innate gifts require disciplined cultivation, and book-learning must be corrected and constrained by lived experience.

Bacon likens talent to a wild-growing plant: it may be vigorous by nature, but without “pruning” it becomes unruly or unproductive. “Study” disciplines natural ability—shaping judgment, refining expression, and correcting excess. Yet he also warns that studies, taken alone, offer guidance “too much at large”: books can be general, abstract, or overly permissive in their conclusions. Experience provides the necessary boundaries, testing ideas against reality and teaching what circumstances require. The sentence captures Bacon’s characteristic balance between learning and practice: education is essential, but it must be directed by the concrete demands of life, work, and observation.

“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.”