Discuss Francis Bacon's dual role as an explorer of knowledge and as a counselor with detailed reference to the essays "Of Studies" and "Of Travaile."

In his essays “Of Study” and “Of Travaile” (that is, of
travel), Sir Francis Bacon plays the dual roles of explorer of knowledge and counselor,
respectively. One essay deals with the knowledge that can be gained from books; the
other essay deals with the knowledge that can be gained by travel – especially from
foreign travel.

The essay “Of Study” opens with a sentence
that splendidly exemplifies Bacon’s taut, crisp, so-called "curt"
style:

Studies
serve for delight, for ornament, and for
ability.

Bacon’s habit of
thinking in threes is well illustrated here, as is his habit of wasting no words and
getting directly to the point. He then begins to develop each of these ideas, showing a
familiarity with how the world really works. Bacon is not a pie-in-the-sky idealist; his
arguments are almost always rooted in observation of the everyday reality, although he
usually calls little personal attention to himself as an observer.
His essay on study is rooted in an ideal of balance: balance between books and the “real
world,” balance between theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge, and balance
between book learning and common sense. He also shows, in another clause based in
threes, that he is familiar with the varieties of human
types:

Crafty
men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them . . .
.

Likewise, he also shows (in
a very famous aphorism) that not all books are of equal value and that since time is not
unlimited, readers must be practical in their choices of reading
matter:

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

Later, he reveals the
comprehensiveness of his knowledge and of his advice:

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready
man; and writing an exact
man.

All in all, Bacon
provides sane, sensible, and highly practical advice about the
nature, uses, and rewards of study.

The same is true of his
essay on foreign travel.  The two essays, in fact, are highly complementary, although
the essay on travel is, if anything, even more practical than the other piece.  In the
essay on travel, Bacon, without ever dwelling on himself, seems to draw on personal
experiences in order to offer sage advice to young
people.

Here as in the other essay, Bacon covers many
bases, offering highly comprehensive advice, as when he provides a long list of valuable
sights (and sites) to see. Travel, for Bacon, is not merely a matter of pleasure or
diversion; it is serious business, from which the young can and should learn and
profit.  In both essays, then, Bacon emphasizes the importance of education, and in both
essays he makes clear that education should produce practical
wisdom.

Finally, in both essays, Bacon shows an impressive
familiarity with a wide range of possible sources of knowledge and different kinds of
learning.  In the essay on travel, this familiarity is displayed by the very long
sentence that begins “The things to be seen and observed are . . . ." In the essay on
study, a similar comprehensiveness is shown in the following sentence in the so-called
“curt” style that Bacon loved:

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Histories make men wise; poets witty; the
mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to
contend.

It is not surprising
that Bacon, with his characteristic emphasis on balance, should write two essays with
complement each other so well.