Bacon's essays abound in very appropriate and original, similes. We have one such simile here when Bacon says that books arc, like common distilled waters, flashy things' We get another appropriate simile when Bacon compares the effects of various physi cal exercises on bodily diseases with the effects of different studies on mental defects There is hardly an essay by Bacon in which he does not introduce a Latin expression or a Latin quotation. We have two Latin quotations in this short essay to enhance its scholarly quality We could say, without any exaggeration, that it is one of the finest essays in English prose. It gives us a number of sound maxi and a number of sentences that we can use as quotations when occasion demands Some of the sentences indeed, cling to our memory without any mental effort on our part to memorise them That is one reason why it is one of the best-known essays from the pen of Bacon.