读书的乐趣

佚名

人类世世代代的聪明才智，几百年来愉悦人们的故事，都可以轻松实惠地从书中获得。不过，读者必须懂得利用知识，进而获得最大收益。世上最不幸的人就是那些从未体会过阅读佳作所带来的快乐的人。

我对人很感兴趣，对他们个人和发掘他们同样兴趣十足。我所认识的一些卓越的人物只能到作家的想像中寻找，然后又体现在作家的作品之中，最后变成我的想像。我从书中结识了新朋友，扩大了社会知识，也学到了新的语言。

如果说我是对人感兴趣，那么其他人的兴趣则是关注怎样而不是谁的问题。书中的人物可谓丰富多彩，不仅有科幻小说中描写的两万年后的超人，还可以追溯到人类历史的开端。记录的事情也是千奇百怪，从对福尔摩斯侦探故事的巧妙叙述到科学发现和管教孩子的方法 。

读书是一种思维享受，有点像体育运动。善于读书的人需要强烈的求知欲，丰富的知识和敏捷的反应。读书之所以是一种乐趣，并不在于作者告诉你什么，而是因为读书使你积极思考。在作者的引导下，你的想像任意驰骋，甚至超越作者的想像。对比作者的经历，你会得出自己的结论，也许相同，也许相悖，而随着你对作者思想的理解，你也会变得越来越深 刻。

每一部书都独自存在，犹如独户房子。而图书馆的书籍则像城市中的建筑。尽管它们各成一体，但却共同构成一个整体。不仅它们之间相互关联，而且也与其他城市相互联系。相 同或相近的看法在不同的地方出现。文学作品中反映的就是人们生活中经常出现的事情，但在不同时期作者的处理却大相径庭。书籍之间也相互影响，它们传承过去，体现现在，预测将来，相互联系，代代相传，形同各个家族。不管你从何时读起，都会有一种观点与你相符。长远来看，你不仅从书中了解世界，体验别人的生活，你也会认识你自己。

只有你诚心读书，阅读才会成为一种乐趣。假如你读的是别人认为“该”读的书，你很可能觉得索然寡味。假如你放下自己不喜欢的书，另试一本，直到发现自己觉得有意义的书，然后心情轻松地读下去，你肯定会感到心情畅快。假如你因阅读而变得更为高尚、聪明、善良、文雅，读书就不再是一种负担了。

The Pleasure of Reading

Anonymous

All the wisdom of the ages, all the stories that have delighted mankind for centuries, are easily and cheaply available to all of us within the covers of bo oks but we must know how to avail ourselves of this treasure and how to get the most from it. The most unfortunate people in the world are those who have never discovered how satisfying it is to read good books.

I am most interested in people, in them and finding out about them. Some of the most remarkable people I've met existed only in a writer's imagination, then on the pages of his book, and then, again, in my imagination. I've found in boo ks new friends, new societies, new words.

If I am interested in people, others are interested not so much in who as i n how. Who in the books includes everybody from science fiction superman two hun dred centuries in the future all the way back to the first figures in history. H ow covers everything from the ingenious explanations of Sherlock Holmes to the d iscoveries of science and ways of teaching mannner to children.

Reading is pleasure of the mind, which means that it is a little like a sport: your eagerness and knowledge and quickness make you a good reader. Reading is fun, not because the writer is telling you something, but because it makes your mind work. Your own imagination works along with the author's or even goes beyo nd his. Your experience, compared with his, brings you to the same or different conclusions, and your ideas develop as you understand his.

Every book stands by itself, like a one family house, but books in a librar y are like houses in a city. Although they are separate, together they all add u p to something, they are connected with each other and with other cities. The sa me ideas, or related ones, turn up in different places; the human problems that repeat themselves in life repeat themselves in literature, but with different so lutions according to different writings at different times. Books influence each other; they link the past, the present and the future and have their own genera tions, like families. Wherever you start reading you connect yourself with one o f the families of ideas, and in the long run, you not only find out about the wo rld and the people in it; you find out about yourself, too.

Reading can only be fun if you expect it to be. If you concentrate on books somebody tells you you “ought” to read, you probably won't have fun. But if you put down a book you don't like and try another till you find one that means som ething to you, and then relax with it, you will almost certainly have a good tim e — and if you become, as a result of reading, better, wiser, kinder, or more g entle, you won't have suffered during the process.

读书乐

约翰·卢伯克

约翰·卢伯克（1834—1913），英国考古学家，生物学家和政治家。出生于伦敦，曾任下议院议员，提出过数十个议案，包括1871年通过的《银行节假日法》（后来被称为“圣卢伯克日”）。

书对于人类就如同记忆对于个人一样。书籍记载了民族的历史，人类的发现、世代累积的知识和经验；书为我们描述自然界的奇迹和美丽，帮我们渡过难关，在我们伤痛时给予安慰，将疲劳的日子变为快乐短暂的时刻；书知识武装我们的头脑，填满美好而快乐的思想，然后提升自我，超越自我。

读书时，请不要做皇宫里的国王，最好让自己沉醉在山林海滨，探询美丽奇景，而不必受疲惫、麻烦和费用巨大之苦。书籍把珍贵无价的祝福撒在身边的小径，我们心情高尚，想像丰富地穿梭其中，去探寻壮丽迷人的地区。

麦考莱拥有财富和名声、地位和权力，然而他在传记里告诉我们，他一生中最快乐的时光就是与书为伴。在一封写给一个小女孩的迷人信件中，他写道：“如果有人能使我做有史以来最伟大的国王，拥有宫殿、园林、美酒、佳肴、马车、华服和上百名仆从，却以不能读书为条件，我不会做这个国王。我宁愿做个穷人，住在小阁楼却能饱览群书，而不愿变成不爱读书的国王。”

The Delights of Books

John Lubbock

Books are to mankind what memory is to the individual. They contain the hist ory of our race, the discoveries we have made, the accumulated knowledge and exp erience of ages; they picture for us the marvels and beauties of nature; help us in our difficulties, comfort us in sorrow and in suffering, change hours of wea riness into moments of delight, store our minds with ideas, fill them with good and happy thoughts, and lift us out of and above ourselves.

When we read we may not only be kings and live in palaces, but, what is far better, we may transport ourselves to the mountains or the seashore, and visit t he most beautiful parts of the earth, without fatigue, inconvenience, expense. P recious and priceless are the blessing, which the books scatter around our daily paths. We walk, in imagination, with the noblest spirits, through the most subl ime and enchanting regions.

Macaulay had wealth and fame, rank and power, and yet he tells us in his bio graphy that he owed the happiest hours of his life to books. In a charming lette r to a little girl, he says: “If any one would make me the greatest king that e ver lived, with palaces and gardens and fine dinners,and wines and coaches, and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants, on condition that I should not read books, I would not be a king. I would rather be a poor man in garret with plent y of books than a king who did not love reading.”

关于读书

阿诺德·本涅特

阿诺德·本涅特(1867—1931)，本世纪初期英国著名的小说家、散文家。他的文风受法国自然主义的影响较深，行文冷静客观，准确工整；他的文字也简单易懂，与所叙内容非常协调，具有很好的艺术效果。

鲍斯威尔的《约翰逊传》今天出了新版第一卷（奥古斯丁·比勒尔编）。这再次提醒我这本书我还没怎么读过。我在思索,那些一个普通文化人应该读，不读即为罪过的书籍,是否真有人读了或几乎读完了?如果真有这样一个人，那他一定是个非常非常老的人，而且是从婴孩时期就要开始读书,每天要坚持16个小时。

我不记得曾否读完任何一位作家的全部著作，即使简·奥斯汀也不例外。我从未看过《苏珊》和《沃森一家》，其中有一本是绝好的书。莎士比亚、培根、斯宾塞的大部分作品我也不曾读过,乔叟的书几乎没读过；康格里夫、德莱顿、蒲柏、斯威夫特、斯特恩、约翰逊、斯科特、科勒律治、雪莱、拜伦、埃奇沃斯、兰姆、利·亨特、华兹华斯（几乎全部）、丁尼生、史文朋、勃朗特姐妹、乔治·艾略特、N·毛里斯、乔治·梅瑞迪斯、托马斯，哈代、萨维奇·兰道、萨克雷、卡莱尔——事实上每一位古典作家和大多数现代大家的作品我都不曾拜读过，我未读过的名著的名字也可以写一卷书了。只有一位作家——简·奥斯丁,我可称得上熟悉。对济慈和史蒂文生我也稍微了解。英国作家仅此而已。至于外国作家，我只熟悉莫泊桑和龚古儿兄弟。《唐·吉诃德》还未看完。

然而我不能说自己渎职。自20岁起，我就酷爱读书。从那时起,我除了读“正经”书外几乎可以说什么也没读（除了文学批评家的职业所要求的）。我有适度的空闲时间,读书欲望强烈稳定，我选择书籍的品位肯定高出常人；然而多年来,我对那些浩瀚的“人人必读”书目几乎没有什么印象。

On Reading

Arnold Bennett

The appearance today of the first volume of a new edition of Boswell's Johns on, edited by Augustine Birrell, reminds me once again that I have read but litt le of that work. Does there, I wonder, exist a being who has read all, or approx imately all, that the person of average culture is supposed to have read, and th at not to have read is a social sin? If such a being does exist, surely he is an old, a very old man, who has read steadily that which he ought to have read 16 hours a day, from early infancy.

I cannot recall a single author of whom I have read everything — even of Ja ne Austen. I have never seen Susan and The Watsons, one of which I have been tol d is superlatively good. Then there are large tracts of Shakespeare, Bacon, Spen ser, nearly all Chaucer, Congreve, Dryden, Pope, Swift, Sterne, Johnson, Scott, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, Edgeworth, Ferrier, Lamb, Leigh Hunt, Wordsworth (nea rly all), Tennyson, Swinbume, and Brontes, George Eliot, W. Morris, George Mered ith, Thomas Hardy, Savage Landor, Thackeray, Carlyle—in fact every classical au thor and most good modern authors, which I have never even overlooked. A list of the masterpieces I have not read would fill a volume. With only one author can I call myself familiar, Jane Austen. With Keats and Stevenson, I have an acquain tance. So far of English. Of foreign authors I am familiar with Maupassant and the Goncourts. I have yet to finish Don Quixote!

Nevertheless I cannot accuse myself of default. I have been extremely fond o f reading since I was 20, and since I was 20 I have read practically nothing (sa ve professionally, as a literary critic) but what was “right”. My leisure has b een moderate, my desire strong and steady, my taste in selection certainly above the average, and yet in 10 years I seem scarcely to have made an impression upo n the intolerable multitude of volumes which “everyone is supposed to have read ”.

力量无限

托玛斯·德·昆西

托玛斯·德·昆西（1785—1859），19世纪前期英国著名的浪漫主义散文家，其代表作为《一个英国吸鸦片者的陈述》。本文节选自他的文章《知识的文学与力量的文学》。

除此之外，还有一种东西比真理更为神奇——那就是力量，或者说，它和真理有着深刻的感应。比如说，儿童对于社会的影响是什么呢？由于儿童的弱小、孤独、天真、纯朴而引起的种种特殊的赞叹怜爱之情，不仅使人的真性情不断地得到巩固和更新，而且，因为脆弱唤醒了宽容，天真象征着天堂，纯朴远离世俗。所以，这些在上帝面前最宝贵的品质也就永远保存在记忆里，而且它们的理想不断地被重温。高级的文学，也就是力量的文学，同样回答了这个问题。你能从《失乐园》中学到什么知识？什么也学不到。你又能从一本食谱里学到什么呢？从每一段你都能学到过去所不知道的某种新知识。但是，你会因此就把一本微不足道的食谱看得比那部神圣的诗篇还高明吗？我们从弥尔顿那里学来的并不是什么知识，因为即使有一百万条知识，也不过是在尘俗的地面上行走一百万次罢了。但弥尔顿给予我们的是力量——也就是说，运用自己潜在的感应能力，向着无限的领域扩张。在那里，脉搏的每一次跳动，力量的每一次汇集，都意味着上升一步，好似沿着雅各的天梯，从地面一步一步登上那奥秘莫测的苍穹。知识的步伐，从开始到终结，只能在同一水平面上将人往前运载，但却无法使人从原来的地面上提高一步。然而，力量所迈出的第一步就是飞跃，就是向另一种境界的超越——在那里，尘世的一切都会被忘却。

The Power Is Unlimited

Thomas De Quincey

Besides which, there is a rarer thing than truth — namely power, or deep sy mpathy with truth. What is the effect, for instance, upon society, of children? By the pity, by the tenderness, and by the peculiar modes of admiration which co nnect themselves with the helplessness, with the innocence, and with the simplic ity of children, not only are the primal affections strengthened and continually renewed, but the qualities which are dearest in the sight of heaven — the frai lty, for instance, which appeals to forbearance, the simplicity which is most al ien from the worldly — are kept up in perpetual remembrance, and their ideals a re continually refreshed. A purpose of the same nature is answered by the higher literature, viz, the literature of power. What do you learn from Paradise Lost? Nothing at all. What do you learn from a cookery book? Something new, somethin g that you did not know before, in every paragraph. But would you therefore put the wretched cookery book on a higher level of estimation than the divine poem? What you owe to Milton is not any knowledge, of which a million separate items are still but a million of advancing steps on the same earthly level; what you o we is power—that is, exercise and expansion to your own latent capacity of sy mpathy with the infinite, where every pulse and each separate influx is a step u pward, a step

论教育

阿尔弗烈德·诺斯·怀特海

阿尔弗烈德·诺斯·怀特海（1861—1947），英国著名数学家与哲学家，剑桥大学毕业1914—1924年间任伦敦大学实用数学教授。1924—1937年受美国哈佛大学聘请，在该校讲授哲学，嗣后即继续留居美国。怀特海是近代英美知识界影响较广的学者之一。

教育是获得运用知识的艺术。这门艺术非常不易传授。即使是一本具有真正教育价值的教科书，可以断定，也会有书评家说它教起课来不容易使用。教起课来当然不容易使用。教起来不费功夫的书是没有意义的,只配烧掉，因为它根本没有教育价值。教育就如同其他领域，宽阔的樱草路是通往绝境的。这条害人之路就表现在一套书或讲义上面，凭借这些资料,学生往往简单背诵可能会在考试中出现的问题便了事。我想提一下，这样的教育体制是没有任何出路的，否则就必须做到：允许授课的老师亲自去组织和修改考试中的问题,提问自己的学生……

我们再来讨论我上面提出的观点，一定要把理论概念具体地运用到学生的课程之中。这条原则在具体运用中十分困难，因为它关系到教育的中心问题,必须不断地更新知识,使知识保持生命力,防止知识僵化。

……

我呼吁那些奋斗在一线的教师要，经受良好的训练。这样，把死板知识灌注到学生们的头脑当中是没问题的。给学生一本书就让他们学,这样就万事大吉了。于是学生就学会解二次方程了。但是教会他去解二次方程的目的又何在呢?按照传统的回答就是：人的头脑就是工具，要想好好利用就必须先塑造它，学习解二次方程就是塑造头脑这个工具的一部分。这种观点也有道理,否则不会经历这么久远。但是这个片面道理却包含着一个根本性的错误，它抑制了天才智慧。我不知道是谁提出头脑是一个工具的。对此我一无所知,也可能是希腊七智中的哪一个或者他们七个商量后共同弄出来的。到底谁是始作俑者先不管，由于受到名流们的推崇，这种说法毫无疑问已经获得了很大权威。但是不管它的权威有多大，不管它能援引的称赞有多强大，我都毫不犹豫地肯定，对教育理论而言,这就是一个最要命、最错误和最危险的观念。头脑从来都不是被动的，它一息不停地活动，非常灵敏，富于接受事物，对刺激感觉敏锐。你不能等你把它塑造后再去使用它。不管你的题材会引起什么兴趣，这种兴趣必须此时此地就召唤起来；不管你如何培养自己的学生，他的能力必须此时此地就运用起来；不管你会对学生的思想产生怎样的影响，这些倾向必须此时此地就展示出来。这就是教育上的规律，一条很难把握的规律。

困难就是这样：一般概念的理解，思维活动的习惯，精神收获的愉悦，即使安排得恰如其分,也不好用语言形式确切地表达。从事教学的一线教师们都懂得，教育是个耐心的过程，要掌握具体的细节,一分一秒也不能中断。学习不会是轻松的,这里没有精美概括的坦途。谚语所说的“只见树木,不见树林”，这正是我这里要强调的困难。教育的问题正是如何使学生通过树木而看见森林。

……

再有，不是每一门学科仅仅提供专门的知识和内容。大众教育也是一门专门的学科。从另一方面讲，培养一种专门爱好也是进行综合教育的一条途径。学问的综合性是毋庸置疑的。教育所传授的就是要建立对思想的力量、思想的美和思想的结构的亲密感觉，此外还要有所专长，作为谋生的手段。

对思维结构的理解也是智慧的一方面，只有靠学习专门知识才能培养起来。这就是那种通观全局、善于把握各类思想之间联系的慧眼。只有学习专业知识,才能充分理解一般思想的形成，它们彼此间的关系以及对于人生的用途等。经受这样的训练,思维势必既能更为抽象，又能更为具体。这是在抽象思想的领会与具体事实的分析的基础上训练出来的。

On Education

Alfred North Whitehead

Education is the acquisition of the art of the utilization of knowledge.This is an art very, difficult to impart.Whenever a text book is written of real ed ucational worth, you may be quite certain that some reviewer will say that it will be difficult to teach from it. Of course it will be difficult to teach from it. If it were easy, the book ought to be burned; for it cannot be educational. I n education, as elsewhere, the broad primrose path leads to a nasty place. This evil path is represented by a book or a set of lectures which will practically e nable the student to learn by heart all the questions likely to be asked at the next external examination. And I may say. in passing that no educational system is possible unless every question, directly asked of a pupil at any examination is either framed or modified by the actual teacher of that pupil in that subject …

We now return to my previous point, that theoretical ideas should always fin d important applications within the pupil’s curriculum. This is not an easy doc trine to apply, but a very hard one. It contains within itself the problem of ke eping knowledge alive, of preventing it from becoming inert, which is the centra l problem of all education.

…

I appeal to you, as practical teachers. With good discipline, it is always p ossible to pump into the minds of a class a certain quantity of inert knowledge. You take a text book and make them learn it. So far, so good. The child then k nows how to solve a quadratic equation. But what is the point of teaching a chil d to solve a quadratic equation? There is a traditional answer to this question. It runs thus: The mind is an instrument, you first sharpen it, and then use it; the acquisition of the power of solving a quadratic equation is part of the pro cess of sharpening the mind. Now there is just enough truth in this answer to ha ve made it live through the ages. But for all its half truth, it embodies a rad ical error which bids fair to stifle the genius of the modern world. I do not kn ow who was first responsible for this analogy of the mind to a dead instrument. For aught I know, it may have been one of the seven wise men of Greece, or a com mittee of the whole lot of them. Whoever was the originator, there can be no dou bt of the authority which it has acquired by the continuous approval bestowed up on it by eminent persons.But whatever its weight of authority, whatever the high approval which it can quote, I have no hesitation in denouncing it as one of the most fatal, erroneous, and dangerous conceptions ever introduced into the theo ry of education. The mind is never passive; it is a perpetual activity, delicate , receptive, responsive to stimulus.You cannot postpone its life until you have sharpened it. Whatever interest attaches to your subject matter must be evoked hele and now; whatever powers you are strengthening in the pupil, must be exe rcised here and now; whatever possibilities of mental life your teaching should impart, must be exhibited here and now.That is the golden rule of education, and a very difficult rule to follow.

The difficulty is just this: the apprehension of general ideas, intellectual habits of mind, and pleasurable interest in mental achievement can be evoked by no form of words, however accurately adjusted. All practical teachers know that education is a patient process of the mastery of details, minute by minute, hou r by hour, day by day.There is no royal roads to learning through an airy path o f brilliant generalizations.There is a proverb about the difficulty of seeing th e wood because of the trees. That difficulty is exatly the point which I am enfo rcing. The problem of education is to make the pupil see the wood by means of th e trees.

…

Again, there is not one course of study which merely gives general culture, and another which gives special knowledge. The subjects pursued for the sake of a general education are special subjects specially studied; and, on the other ha nd, one of the ways of encouraging general mental activity is to foster a specia l devotion. You may not divide the seamless coat of learning. What education has to impart is an intimate sense for the power of ideas, for the beauty of ideas, and for the structure of ideas together with a particular body of knowledge whi ch has peculiar reference to the life of the being possessing it.

The appreciation of the structure of ideas is that side of a cultured mind w hich can only grow under the influence of a special study. I mean that eye for t he whole chess board, for the bearing of one set of ideas on another.Nothing bu t a special study can give any appreciation for the exact formulation of general ideas, for their relations when formulated, for their service in the comprehens ion of life. A mind so disciplined should be both more abstract and more concret e. It has been trained in the comprehension of abstract thought and in the analy sis of facts.

莎士比亚的仙岛

乔治·吉辛

乔治·吉辛（1857—1903），英国小说家与散文作者。出身寒苦，1880年后开始靠教书为生，同时为出版家编校稿件和撰写小说。自此时起一生所著小说不下十六七部，此外尚有散文游记与评论多种。

今天我读了《暴风雨》……在我因生于英国而自豪的理由中，有一个就是我能以我的母语来阅读莎士比亚的著作。我曾设想，如果我对于他是相识不能相见，声音在远处只是依稀可辨，又要经过冥思苦想才能明白他的话语的真正含义，那我一定会饮誉受挫,若有所失了。我一向自以为能读荷马，并且深信自己有欣赏荷马的能力，但是我曾梦想过荷马已把他的全部音乐知识传授于我。对我来说，他的言语如同古希腊当时漫步于海滨的人们一样深沉。我深知，经过岁月的洗涤,最终我能获得的只不过是一点微弱的回声罢了。我深知,这个回声会变得更加脆弱,若不是因为它和青春的记忆相连,闪烁着世界古代全盛时期的容光，愿每块土地都能愉悦它的诗人。因为诗人就是这块土地，体现着她的伟大与芳馨,是人们为之生死的不可言传的遗产。当我合拢书卷的时候，一种爱慕与崇敬的感情深深地支配着我。我的满腔热诚都给予了这位伟人的法术，还是倾倒在被他撒下魅力的仙岛上了呢?我不清楚。在我的意识中我已不能将它们分开。崇高的声音唤起了爱慕与崇敬的情感，莎士比亚与英吉利已经成为一体。

Shakespeare’s Island

George Gissing

To day I have read The Tempest …Among the many reasons which make me glad to have been born in England, one of the first is that I read Shakespeare in my mother tongue. If I try to imagine myself as ono who cannot know him face to fac e, who hears him only speaking from afar, and that in accents which only through the labouring intelligence can touch the living soul, there comes upon me a sen se of chill discouragement, of dreary deprivation. I am wont to think that I can read Homer, and, assuredly, if any man enjoys him, it is I; but can I for a mom ent dream that Homer yields me all his music, that his word is to me as to him w ho walked by the Hellenic shore when Hellas lived? I know that there reaches me across the vast of time no more than a faint and broken echo;I know that it woul d be fainter still, but for its blending with those memories of youth which are as a glimmer of the world's primeval glory. Let every land have joy of its poet; for the poet is the land itself, all its greatness and its sweetness, all that incommunicable heritage for which men live and die. As I close the book, love an d reverence possess me. Whether does my full heart turn to the great Enchanter, or to the Island upon which he has laid his spell? I know not. I cannot think of them apart. In the love and reverence awakened by that voice of voices,Shakespe are and England are but one.

适合的才是最好的

威廉·赫兹里特

词汇的严格意义不在词汇本身，而在词汇的应用。一个单词可能音节嘹亮，字母很多，单就它的学术价值和新奇感来说，可能是令人叹赏的，然而把它放在具体的语境中，也可能毫无意义。不是依靠词汇的华丽和夸张,而是对作者主题的贴切适用,才能表达作者的写作意图。正如在建筑中，不必在意材料的大小和光泽，只要它们用在那里砌合得完整严实,就能牢固地支撑拱门。又或是在建筑物中，木楔和钉子的支撑作用有时竟与大件木料同等重要，它的作用远远胜过那些徒有其表、不切实用的装饰部件。我讨厌那些白占地方的东西，讨厌满载一大堆空纸盒的车招摇过市，也讨厌堆砌那些大而无实际内容的词汇。一个人写文章，只要他不是故意用重重锦绣帐幔、多余伪装完全遮掩自己的写作意图，他总会从熟悉的日常用语中想出一二十种说法，这种语言更接近他所要表达的情感，最后，他就会因为不知道挑选哪一种说法能更好地表达自己而发愁！这样看来，考拜特先生所谓的第一印象就是最好的说法未必可靠。这样出现的字眼也许很好，可是经过一次次推敲，就会发现更好的字眼。这种字眼，也许来源于自然的暗示，但经过对主题清新活泼的观念思维，会自然而然地想到。

Suit Is Best

William Hazlitt

The proper force of words lies not in the words themselves, but in their app lication. A word may be a fine sounding word, of an unusual length, and very imp osing from its learning and novelty, and yet in the connection in which it is in troduced may be quite pointless and irrelevant, It is not pomp or pretension, bu t the adaptation of the expression to the idea, that clenches a writer's meaning : as it is not the size or glossiness of the materials, but their being fitted e ach to its place, that gives strength to the arch; or as the pegs and nails are as necessary to the support of the building as the larger timbers, and more so t han the mere showy, unsubstantial ornaments. I hate anything that occupies more space than it is worth. I hate to see a load of bandboxes go along the street, a nd I hate to see a parcel of big words without anything in them. A person who de ws not deliberately dimples of all his thoughts alike in cumbrous draperies and flimsy disguises may strike out twenty varieties of familiar everyday language, each coming somewhat nearer to the feeling he wants to convey, and at last not h it upon that particular and only one which may be said to be identical with the exact impression in his mind. This would seem to show that Mr. Cobalt is hardly right in saying that the first word that occurs is always the best. It may be a very good one; and yet a better may present itself on reflection or from time to time. It may be suggested naturally, however, and spontaneously, from a fresh a nd lively conception of the subject.

书友

塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯

塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯(1812—1904)，英国传记作家与青少年道德修养书籍作者。他所写的《品格的力量》、《自励》等书都是人们争相传颂的经典。

与什么书为伴,就像与什么人为伴一样,都能体现一个人的品格。有以人为伴的,也有以书为伴的。无论是书友或朋友，我们都应该慎重选择,与佳为伴。

好书犹如知己。不管过去,现在，还是将来,它都始终如一。它是最有耐心、最令人愉快的伴侣。困难之际,它也不离不弃。它总是以友善相待,在我们年轻时，好书能陶冶性情，增长知识；到我们年老时，它又会给我们以宽慰。

好书可以使人结为朋友，就像两个人会因为敬慕同一个人而交为朋友一样。古谚说：“爱屋及乌”，但是，“爱我及书”这句话却有更深的哲理。书是更为牢固和真实的情谊纽带。假如拥有共同喜爱的作家,人们可以借此沟通思想感情。他们可以由此和作者产生共鸣。

哈兹利特曾经说过：“书潜移默化人们的内心，诗歌熏陶人们的气质品性。少小所习，老大不忘，恍如身历其事。书籍价廉物美，不啻我们呼吸的空气。”

好书犹如珍藏人一生思想精华的工具。人生的境界，主要就在于他思想的境界。所以，好书保藏着优美的语言，深邃的思想，倘若能铭记于心，就成为我们忠实的伴侣和永恒的慰藉。菲利普·悉尼爵士说得好：“有高尚思想做伴的人永不孤独。”

当我们面临诱惑的时候，虔诚而公正的信念就像仁慈的天使，保卫我们的灵魂,使她依旧纯洁。这同样孕育着行为的冲动，往往成为善行的先导。

书籍的品质是不朽的，是人类勤奋努力的最为持久的结晶。寺庙会倒坍，神像会朽烂，而书却经久长存。在伟大的思想面前，时间显得微不足道。多少年前曾经感动作者的思想今天依然清新如故。书籍记载了他们的言论和思想，现在看来依旧生动。时间惟一的作用是淘汰垃圾作品，只有真正的作品才能经受时间的检验而经久长存。

书籍引导我们进入主流社会，与历代伟人为伍，使我们如闻其声，如观其行，如见其人,如与他们朝夕相处,同欢喜,共伤悲。我们继承他们的感受，好似觉得在他们所描绘的舞台上跟他们同台献艺了。

伟大杰出的人物在这世间也不会消逝，书籍记载他们的思想,然后传播开来。书是人们至今仍在聆听的思想回声，永远充满着活力。因此，我们永远都在受着历代伟人的影响。多少年前的盖世英才，就如同在他所生活的时代，今天依旧显示着强大的生命力。

Companionship of Books

Samuel Smiles

A man may usually be known by the books he reads as well as by the company h e keeps; for there is a companionship of books as well as of men; and one should always live in the best company, whether it be of books or of men.

A good book may be among the best of friends. It is the same today that it a lways was, and it will never change. It is the most patient and cheerful of comp anions. It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity or distress. It always receives us with the same kindness; amusing and instructing us in youth, and comforting and consoling us in age.

Men often discover their affinity to each other by the love they have each f or a book — just as two persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration w hich both have for a third. There is an old proverb,“Love me, love my dog.” Bu t there is more wisdom in this:“Love me, love my book.” The book is a truer an d higher bond of union. Men can think, feel, and sympathize with each other thro ugh their favorite author. They live in him together, and he in them.

“Books,” said Hazlitt, “wind into the heart; the poet's verse slides in t he current of our blood. We read them when young, we remember them when old. We feel that it has happened to ourselves. They are to be had very cheap and good. We breathe but the air of books.”

A good book is often the best urn of a life enshrining the best that life co uld think out; for the world of a man's life is, for the most part, but the worl d of his thoughts. Thus the best books are treasuries of good words, the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, become our constant companions and co mforters. “They are never alone,” said Sir Philip Sidney,“that are accompanie d by noble thoughts.”

The good and true thought may in times of temptation be as an angel of mercy purifying and guarding the soul. It also enshrines the germs of action, for goo d words almost always inspire to good works.

Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most lasting pr oducts of human effort. Temples and statues decay, but books survive. Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first pas sed through their author's minds, ages ago. What was then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the printed page. The only effect of time has been to sift out the bad products; for nothing in literature can long surviv e but what is really good.

Books introduce us into the best society they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived. We hear what they said and did; we see them as if they were really alive; we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, gri eve with them; their experience becomes ours, and we feel as if we were in a mea sure actors with them in the scenes which they describe.

The great and good do not die even in this world. Embalmed in books, their s pirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens. Hence we ever remain under the influence of the great men of old. The imperial intellects of the world are as much alive now as they were ages ag o.

谈读书

弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙

弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙（1882—1941），现代著名意识流小说家。她出生于伦敦，从小博览群书，曾和兄妹们居住在伦敦的布卢姆斯伯里，形成一个影响广泛的文人圈子。她的主要作品有小说《奥兰多》、《去灯塔》、《戴洛威夫人》、《海浪》，散文集《一间自己的屋子》等。

既然书籍有不同的种类，如小说、传记、诗歌等，我们就应该把它们区分开来，并从每种中汲取应当对我们有用的成分。然而，很少有人能从书籍中获得书籍所提供的有用价值。通常我们总是心不在焉,毫无目的地去看书：要求小说情节真实，要求诗歌内容虚构，要求传记阿谀奉承，要求历史能加深自己的偏见。如果我们读书时能抛弃这些偏见，那将是一个令人羡慕的开端。我们无须盲从作者，而应站在作者的立场上，把自己当成作者的创作伙伴。假如一开始你就退缩不前，持保留甚至批判的态度,就会妨碍自己从阅读中得到最大的益处。然而，如果你能尽量敞开思想，那么，从开头几句迂回曲折的话里,可以发现那些几乎难以觉察的迹象和暗示，然后会把你引到一个与众不同的人物的面前去。是自己深入进去,进一步体味作者的用心,很快就会领悟作者正在给你或试图给你某些更为明确的东西。倘若我们首先考虑怎样读小说，那么，一部小说中的32章就是企图创造出像一座建筑物那样既有形式又能控制的东西，不过词句要比砖块难以捉摸，阅读要比看更费时、更复杂。也许理解小说家创作要素的捷径并不是读，而是写作，亲自去尝试写作的艰难。那么，回想一下给你留下鲜明印象的事项——比如，你走过大街拐角碰见两个人说话时的情景,树在摇曳、灯光在晃动，谈话的语气时喜时悲，这一瞬间就是一个完整的画面，一个整体的构思。

About Reading Books

Virginia Woolf

It is simple enough to say that since books have classes fiction, biography , poetry — we should separate them and take from each what is right that each s hould give us. Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. Most common ly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it sh all be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be fla ttering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning. Do not dictate to your author; try to become him.Be his fellow worker and accompli ce. If you hang back, and reserve, and criticize at first, you are preventing yo urself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read. But if you op en your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist, and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. Steep yourself in this, acquaint yourself with this, and soon you will find that your author is giving you, or a ttempting to give you, something far more definite. The thirty two chapters of a novel — if we consider how to read a novel first — are an attempt to make so mething as formed and controlled as a building: but words are more impalpable th an bricks, reading is a longer and more complicated process than seeing. Perhaps the quickest way to understand the elements of what a novelist is doing is not to read, but to write, to make your own experiment with the dangers and difficul ties of words. Recall, then, some event that has left a distinct impression on you — how at the corner of the street, perhaps, you passed two people talking, A tree shook, an electric light danced, the tone of the talk was comic, but also tragic, a whole vision, an entire conception, seemed contained in that moment.

真理是为一切人而设的

罗宾德拉纳德·泰戈尔

罗宾德拉纳德·泰戈尔（1861—1941），享誉世界的印度诗人、小说家、哲学家，1913 年以诗作《吉檀迦利》获诺贝尔文学奖，是第一位获得该荣誉的亚洲人。

有一些很骄傲、明智、实际的人们，他们说，宽厚并不是人类的本性，人们将永远互相争斗，强者将会征服弱者，人类的文明不可能有真实的道德基础。我们不能否认他们所说的强者在人类世界上具有权势这个事实，但是我拒绝把这种说法当作真理的启示而加以接受……

我们应该知道，真理——人类所获得的任何真理——是为一切人而设的。金钱和财产属于个人，属于你们当中的每一个人，但是你们绝对不能利用真理来增长你们个人的财富和权势，因为那样做就等于出卖上帝的恩泽，借以牟利。可是科学也是真理，它适当的职责在于救治病人，并为人类生活提供更多的食物与闲暇。如果它帮助强者去压迫弱者，去掠夺那些在沉睡中的人们，它就是在利用真理去达成不虔敬的目的。那些以这种方式亵渎神圣的人们定会遭到报应和惩罚，因为他们的武器将会被用来对付他们自己。

Truth Is for Everyone

Rabindranath Tagore

There are some people, who are proud and wise and practical, who say that it is not in human nature to be generous, that men will always fight one another, that the strong will conquer the weak, and that there can be no real moral found ation for man's civilization. We cannot deny the facts of their assertion that t he strong have power in the human world, but I refuse to accept this as a revela tion of truth…

We should know that truth, any truth that man acquires, is for everyone. Mon ey and property belong to individuals, to each of you, but you must never exploi t truth for your personal aggrandizement; that would be selling God's blessing f or a profit. However, science is also truth; it has its place in the healing of the sick, and in giving more food and leisure for life. When it helps the strong crush the weak, and rob those who are asleep, it is using truth for impious end s. Those who are thus sacrilegious will suffer and be punished, for their own we apons will be turned against them.

知识与美德

约翰·亨利·纽曼

约翰·亨利·纽曼(1801—1890)，英国诗人、小说家、宗教思想家。主要著作有《为自己的一生辩护》、《说教集》等。本文选自他的另一部重要著作《论大学》。

知识是一回事，美德则是另外一回事。好意不是良心，优雅不是谦让，广博与公正的观点也不是信仰。无论多么富有启迪或高深莫测的哲学，都无法左右感情，都不具备有影响力的动机，都不具有导致生动活泼的原理。文科教育并非为了造就基督教徒或者天主教徒，而是为了造就绅士。造就一个绅士是件美好的事，有教养的才智，优雅的情趣，正直、公正而冷静的头脑，高贵而彬彬有礼的举止——这些是与渊博的学识生来固有的品质，也正是大学教育的目的。我倡导它们，并加以阐释和坚持。不过我要说的是，它们仍然不能确保圣洁，或甚不能保证诚实。它们可以附庸于世故的俗人，附庸于玩世不恭的浪子。唉，当他们用它伪装起来时，就更增加了他们外表上的冷静、快活和魅力。就其本身而言，它们似乎已经面目全非，它们已成为一种只可远观的美德，只有经过长久的观察方可探知真相。因此它们受到广泛的责难，被指责为虚假、伪善。我想强调的是，这绝不是因为它们自身有什么过错，而是因为教授及其崇拜者们一味地把它们弄得面目全非，而且还殷勤地献上其本身并未要求的赞扬。如果说用剃刀能开采花岗岩，用丝线能系住船只，那么你就可以希望能用人的知识和理性这样美妙而优雅的东西去同人类的情感与高傲那样的庞然大物进行抗争。

Knowledge and Virtue

J. H. Newman

Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, ref inement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy , however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Ch ristian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a gentleman, it i s well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, di spassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life — these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a Uni versity; I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, they m ay attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant , alas, and attractive as he shows when decked, out in them. Taken by themselves , they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and on the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from t heir own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in takin g them for what they are not, and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the ve ssel with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instru ments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants, the p assion and the pride of man.

风格

瓦尔特·罗利

瓦尔特·罗利（1861—1922）近代英国文学批评家、作家，曾就读于伦敦大学与剑桥皇家学院，后从事教学与写作，是一位才情超群的文学批评家。本文节选自其名作《Style》。

Style这个在拉丁语中原义为“铁笔”的名词，久已被用来作为驾驭语言这种流动事物的艺术，而这种驾驭是具有日益蓬勃的生机和审慎的矫健性的。显而易见的是，凭借譬喻手段(譬喻仍不失为文学方法的一种概括)，使本来最刻板最简单的工具竟能把它的名字假借给艺术中最精致灵活的艺术。以这为起点，这个名称又被广泛地应用到文学以外的其他艺术，应用到人类全部活动范围。我们使用style一词来谈论建筑、雕刻、绘画、音乐、舞蹈、歌剧、板球，我们使用这个词来叙述人与兽的肢体上的那种自然遒劲的动作这一事实，正是我们对文学功能的一种最崇高的不自觉的礼赞。笔，这种吮蜡濡纸的工具，已经成为人性中所有富于表现力的、所有亲切的事物的象征。不但武力与技艺向它屈服，人类自身也向它屈服。人的声音，它的起伏高低，并辅之以活跃的面部表情与体态姿势上的千变万化，都势所必然地要借助于这同一譬喻：演说家与演员也都渴望得到风格方面的鉴赏。“再真实不过的就是”，正如《悲哀的解剖》的作者所写到的，“Stuylus Virum arguit，我们的风格暴露了我们自己”。其他姿态都可以是变动不定，了无痕迹的，风格却是性格的最终极最经久的表露。演员与演说家不得不在不能历久的材料上来求得短暂的效果；他们的业绩与身俱亡。雕刻家与建筑师所经营的材料虽较为耐久，但却又操持困难，冥顽不灵，不容易承受心灵状态的各种印记。所有的道德、哲理与美学、情态与信念、主义与幻想、热情及表白等等——所有这一切，除文学以外，又有哪一种艺术足以把它们涵摄无遗，而又能避免其突然消亡的危险?又有其他哪一种艺术能够对在习性上如此纷纭，趣味上如此歧异的人们，赋予其以充分发挥的余地?事实上，不论欧几里德与雪莱，埃德蒙·斯宾塞与赫伯特·斯宾塞，大卫王与大卫·休谟，他们都是语言文字这门艺术的追逐者。

……

一切风格都是姿态，心智的姿态与灵魂的姿态。心智是我们所共有的，因为正确理性的规律对于不同的心智并没有什么不同。因此清晰与条理是可以通过施以教诲得到，而表达技巧上的极端无能也可以部分地得到矫正。但是又有谁能对灵魂强行制定规律呢，一个最常见的现象是，人们尽管可以并不喜爱甚至厌恶某一特殊风格，而同时却又对它的纯熟、气势以及这种风格与其内容的贴切一致由衷钦佩。弥尔顿以其文风论，是一位比莎士比亚更为简洁朴实和精确无误的大师，但却未必具有这样可爱的性格。当一个人本身价值非凡时，作为其标志的风格的价值也不会太小。人们常说：“开口吧，我就能认识你”——声音所表示的要比面庞更为深刻。动笔吧，只要你对手中的工具已有几分掌握，你就会把你自己摹写下来，不论你愿意与否。不管你如何没意识到的缺点，不管你如何想隐瞒的优点，在你性格中的不论是卑劣或宽厚，没有一项是不会在文字上表现出来的。你虽早知道有最后审判日的到来，却仍不免要对那职掌记录的天使提供材料。文学中的批评艺术虽然经常受到贬低，而在艺术中处于卑微地位，但却恰恰是判辨与解释这些书面证据的一门艺术。人们常把批评和创造对立起来，这也可能是由于批评所试图进行的那种创造还成效不大，于是世人遂忘记，批评的首要职务并不是去制定条律，也不是去做分类，而是去起死回生。墓穴在它的指挥之下，可把沉睡的人唤醒过来，打开墓门，令其悉数逸出。正是依靠这种艺术的创造力量，才有可能从先人遗留的残缺不全、字迹模糊的故纸堆中按原样再造出当年的活人来。

Style

Walter Raleigh

Style, the Latin name for an iron pen, has come to designate the art that ha ndles, with ever fresh vitality and wary alacrity, the fluid elements of speech. By a figure, obvious enough, which yet might serve for an epitome of literary m ethod, the most rigid and simplest of instruments has lent its name to the subtl est and most flexible of arts. Thence the application of the word has been exten ded to arts other than literature, to the whole range of the activities of man. The fact that we use the word “style" in speaking of architecture and sculpture , painting and music, dancing, play acting, and cricket, that we can apply it t o the spontaneous animal movements of the limbs of man or beast, is the noblest of unconscious tributes to the faculty of letters. The pen, scratching on wax or paper, has become the symbol of all that is expressive, all that is intimate, i n human nature; not only arms and arts, but man himself, has yielded to it. His living voice, with its undulations and inflexions, assisted by the mobile play o f feature and an infinite variety of bodily gesture, is driven to borrow dignity from the same metaphor; the orator and the actor are fain to be judged by style .“It is most true”, says the author of The Anatomy of Melancholy，“stylus viru m arguit, our style bewrays us.” Other gestures shift and change and flit, this is the ultimate and enduring revelation of personality. The actor and the orator are condemned to work evanescent effects on transitory material; the dust that they write on is blown about their graves. The sculptor and the architect deal i n less perishable ware; but the stuff is recalcitrant and stubborn, and will not take the impress of all states of the soul. Morals, philosophy, and aesthetic, mood and conviction, creed and whim, habit, passion, and demonstration — what a rt but the art of literature admits the entrance of all these, and guards them f rom the suddenness of mortality? What other art gives scope to natures and dispo sitions so diverse, and to tastes so contrarious? Euclid and Shelley, Edmund Spe nser and Herbert Spencer, King David and David Hume, are all followers of the ar t of letters.

…

All style is gesture, the gesture of the mind and of the soul. Mind we have in common, inasmuch as the laws of right reason are not different for different minds. Therefore clearness and arrangement can be taught, sheer incompetence in the art of expression can be partly remedied. But who shall impose laws upon the soul? It is thus of common note that one may dislike or even hate a particular style while admiring its facility, its strength, its skilful adaptation to the m atter set forth. Milton, a chaster and mote unerring master of the art than Shak espeare, reveals no such lovable personality. While persons count for much, styl e, the index to persons, can never count for little. “Speak,” it has been said, “that I may know you” — voice gesture is more than feature. Write, and after you have attained to some control over the instrument, you write yourself down whether you will or no. There is no vice, however unconscious, no virtue, howeve r shy, no touch of meanness or of generosity in your character, that will not pa ss on to the paper. You anticipate the Day of Judgment and furnish the recording angel with material. The Art of Criticism in Literature, so often decried and g iven a subordinate place among the arts, is none other than the art of reading a nd interpreting these written evidences. Criticism has been popularly opposed to creation, perhaps because the kind of creation that it attempts is rarely achie ved, and so the world forgets that the main business of Criticism, after all, is not to legislate, nor to classify, but to raise the dead. Graves, at its comman d, have waked their sleepers, oped, and let them forth. It is by the creative po wer of this art that the living man is reconstructed from the litter of blurred and fragmentary paper documents that he has left to posterity.

何谓伟大的艺术

约翰·罗斯金

绘画，或者说一般的艺术本身，尽管它们技巧高妙、困难重重、目标独特，其实也不过是一种高贵而富于表现力的语言，和思想的载体一样，非常宝贵，不过它们自身毫无价值。一个人要想学会通常所说的绘画艺术，也就是忠实地再现任何客观物体的艺术，也不过是学会了表达思想的语言。为了成为受人尊敬的大师，他付出了艰辛的努力，但这种努力跟某个学会用合乎语法、音调悦耳的文字表达情意的人想成为伟大诗人所付出的努力是一样的。这种语言的确比那种语言难学，当它诉诸智力时，也更能使人的感官感到愉悦。然而，它仅仅是语言，画家认为独特的各种优点，也就相当于诗人和演说家语言具有的节奏、旋律、精密和力量，这些只是他们伟大的必要条件，而不是检验他们是否伟大的标准。不管是画家还是作家，他的伟大与否，最终不是看他表现与写作的方式，而是看他表现与写作的内容。

所以，如果我说最伟大的画，就是能向看画人的大脑传达最多伟大思想的画，那么，我这个定义就包括了艺术所能传达的作为比较对象的全部乐趣。相反，如果我说最好的画就是模仿自然模仿得最逼真的画，我是在假定艺术只有模仿自然才能给人愉悦，我批评时就会抛开那些不是模仿的艺术作品，即具有自身色彩美和形式美的作品，以及像拉斐尔在梵蒂冈宫给绘制的壁画那样毫无模仿的一切艺术作品。现在，我想找个很广的艺术定义，囊括目标各异的所有艺术种类。因此，我不说给人愉悦最多的艺术最伟大，因为也许某种艺术目的在于教育，不在于给人以愉悦。我不说教给我们知识最多的艺术最伟大，因为也许某种艺术目的在于给人愉悦，不在于教育。我不说模仿最佳的艺术最伟大，因为也许某种艺术目的在于创造而不在于模仿。但我要说，无论采用何种方式，只要是向观众大脑传达最丰富最伟大的思想的艺术，就是最伟大的艺术；我所说的伟大思想是指它能够为心智较高的人所接受，它能更彻底地占有并在占有过程中锻炼和提高接受它的心智。

如果说这就是伟大艺术的定义，那么，伟大艺术家的定义自然就是这样的：最伟大的艺术家就是其全部作品表现了最丰富最伟大的思想的艺术家。

A Definition of Greatness in Art

John Ruskin

Painting, or art generally, as such, with all its technicalities, difficulti es, and particular ends, is nothing but a noble and expressive language, invalua ble as the vehicle of thought, but by itself nothing. He who has learned what is commonly considered the whole art of painting, that is, the art of representing any natural object faithfully, has as yet only learned the language by which hi s thoughts are to be expressed. He has done just as much towards being that whic h we ought to respect as a great painter, as a man who has learnt how to express himself grammatically and melodiously has towards being a great poet. The langu age is, indeed, more difficult of acquirement in the one case than in the other, and possesses more power of delighting the sense, while it speaks to the intell ect; but it is, nevertheless, nothing more than language, and all those excellen ces which are peculiar to the painter as such, are merely what rhythm, melody, p recision, and force are in the words of the orator and the poet, necessary to th eir greatness, but not the tests of their greatness. It is not by the mode of re presenting and saying, but by what is represented and said, that the respective greatness either of the painter or the writer is to be finally determined.

So that, if I say that the greatest picture is that which conveys to the min d of the spectator the greatest number of the greatest ideas, I have a definitio n which will include as subjects of comparison every pleasure which art is capab le of conveying. If I were to say, on the contrary, that the best picture was th at which most closely imitated nature, I should assume that art could only pleas e by imitating nature; and I should cast out of the pale of criticism those part s of works of art which are not imitative, that is to say, intrinsic beauties of color and form, and those works of art wholly, which, like the Arabesques of Ra ffaelle in the Loggias, are not imitative at all. Now, I want a definition of ar t wide enough to include all its varieties of aim. I do not say, therefore, that the art is greatest which gives most pleasure, because perhaps there is some ar t whose end is to teach, and not to please. I do not say that the art is greates t which teaches us most, because perhaps there is some art whose end is to pleas e, and not to teach. I do not say that the art is greatest which imitates best, because perhaps there is some art whose end is to create and not to imitate. But I say that the art is greatest which conveys to the mind of the spectator, by a ny means whatsoever, the greatest number of the greatest ideas; and I call an id ea great in proportion as it is received by a higher faculty of the mind, and as it mere fully occupies, and in occupying, exercises and exalts, the faculty by which it is received.

If this, then, be the definition of great art, that of a great artist natura lly follows. He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works , the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

小小伟人

奥利弗·哥尔德斯密斯

奥利弗·哥尔德斯密斯（1730—1774），英国剧作家、诗人、散文家。主要作品有小说《威克菲尔德牧师》，喜剧《曲身求爱》，诗歌《荒村》等。其散文风格平易近人，风趣幽默，本篇文章正体现了这种风格。

在翻阅本地报纸的时候，我计算了一下，在不到半年的时间里，这里至少出了25名伟人，17名非常伟大的人，9名非常杰出的人。报上说，这些人都会受到后人的敬仰；他们显赫的名字将为世世代代所惊叹。让我想想——如果半年出46名伟人，那一年下来就有92名。我不知道后来的人怎么可能记住这么多的伟人，也不知道将来人们除了背诵伟人名册之外，还有没有其他的事情要操心。

公司的总裁开始演讲了，他马上被当成伟人记录下来；平庸的学者压缩他的著作出对开本了，很快也成为伟人；诗人用押韵的形式把陈旧的感伤串连起来，一时间也成为伟人。无论受到仰慕的对象多么渺小，身后总会有一群更加渺小的仰慕者跟随。随行的人们一声欢呼，他便大步走向伟大，得意洋洋地回头看看那群追随者，一路领略各式各样古怪、离奇、荒诞和自命不凡的渺小者。

昨天，有位先生请我吃饭，他保证请我吃一块鹿的腰胴肉、一只甲鱼，并且晋见—位伟人。我如约而至。鹿肉味道不错，甲鱼也很好，但是，那个伟人却让人难以忍受。我刚一开口说话，立刻就遭到他的厉声驳斥。为了挽回些面子，我试图接二连三地发起进攻，却又被稀里糊涂地击退。我决定再次从战壕发起冲锋，把谈论的焦点转到中国政府上来。即使在这个问题上，他还是一如既往地断言、斥责、反驳。天啊，我想，这个人竟然装作比我还了解中国！我朝四下里望望，想看看有谁站在我这一边，但是，每只眼睛都敬慕地凝视着这位伟人。因此，我想自己还是安安静静地坐着，在其后的谈话里当个好好先生才是上策。

一个人一旦拥有了一批仰慕者，他就会做出自认为合理其实非常荒唐的事；别人还以为他的言行都是感情的升华或者是大智若愚。假如他违背了常识，就算把茶壶当成烟盒，也会有人辩解说，那是因为他在专心致志地思考大事：要是他们的言谈举止跟常人无异，那他们就跟常人一样算不上伟人了。伟大这个概念涵盖了某种奇特的东西，因为对于跟我们非常相似的事物，我们很少会感到惊讶。

鞑靼人立喇嘛，最先考虑的是把他放在寺庙里的阴暗角落，让他若隐若现地坐在那里，调整手、嘴唇和眼睛的活动；但最重要的是，他必须做到庄严和肃静。然而这只是把他奉为神明的序曲：一批使者被派到民间去，称赞他是非常虔诚、庄严、热爱混沌未开的众生；人们听信了使者的话，就把喇嘛当作偶像顶礼膜拜；他一动不动地接受人们的称颂，于是成为神，从此由下面的僧人用那不朽的勺子喂养。这个国家也可以使用相同的办法制造伟人。偶像只需把自己藏起来，然后派出手下的小使者为他高唱赞歌，不管是政治家还是作家，都会立即被列入伟人名单；如果时兴赞美，如果他对公众谨小慎微地掩盖了自身的渺小，他会一直受到赞美。

我游历过许多国家，也去过无数的城市，但没有诞生过十一二位这种小伟人的城市，我还从来没有见识过。他们都认为自己是世界闻名的，并且互相恭维对方的伟大。如果有两个这样的人相互客套、相互吹捧的时候，是非常有趣的。我曾见到过这样一件事：一位德国医生把一位修道士大肆赞扬了一番，在场的人们都把他当作了世上最有智慧的人；然后，修道士又反过来把医生恭维了一番，跟他平分了这份美誉。于是，这两人在众人的掌声中阔步离去。

过分的赞美不仅仅陪伴着我们伟人的生前，甚至也会不多不少地伴随他进入坟墓。经常会有下面事情发生：他的一个小小的崇拜者因为他这个大人物而取得成功，于是把他的生平和著作编成年表。把这称之为炉火边和安乐椅之间的人生革命，可能是恰当的。我们从这份年表中可以知道，这位伟人是哪年出生的，早年什么时候就表现出了不同寻常的天分和勤奋的迹象，以及他的伯母和母亲所收集的他小时候说过的一些妙语。第二本书会介绍他上大学时的情况，书中告诉我们，他在学业上取得了非常惊人进步，补袜子的技术非常高超，而且有用纸包书保护封面的新发明。紧接着，他又在文学界崭露头角，出版了对开本的书。现在，伟人成熟了，他的作品被所有喜欢收藏珍本的人争相购买，各种学术团体竞相邀请他参加；他跟某位拉丁名字很长的外国人辩论并战胜对手，得到几位严肃的大作家的赞扬；他特别喜欢吃猪肉蘸鸡蛋沙司，他成为一家文学俱乐部的主席并在荣誉到达巅峰时去世。他们是多么幸福啊，因为某个小小的忠实随从，不仅不会抛弃他们，而且准备与每个反对者辩论，当着反对者的面歌颂他们；同时准备在他们生前渲染他们的骄傲，在他们死后美化他们的品行。至于你跟我，朋友，因为没有谦恭的追随者相伴，我们现在不是伟人，将来也不可能成为伟人，而且也不在乎自己是否是个伟人，但是，我们至少可以争取做一个拥有平常心的老实人。

A Little Great Man

Oliver Goldsmith

In reading the newspapers here, I have reckoned up not less than twenty fiv e great men, seventeen very great men, and nine very extraordinary men in less t han the compass of half a year. These, say the gazettes, are the men that poster ity are to gaze at with admiration; these the names that fame will be employed i n holding up for the astonishment of succeeding ages. Let me see — forty six g reat men in half a year, amounts to just ninety two in a year. — I wonder how posterity will be able to remember them all, or whether the people, in future ti mes, will have any other business to mind, but that of getting the catalogue by heart.

Does the mayor of a corporation make a speech? He is instantly set down for a great man. Does a pedant digest his common place book into a folio? he quickly becomes great: Does a poet siring up trite sentiments in rhyme? he also becomes the great man of the hour. How diminutive soever the object of adminition， eac h is followed by a erowd of still more diminutive adminers. The shout begins in his train, onward he marches towards immortality, looks back at the pursuing cro wd with self satisfaction; catching all the oddities, the whimsies, the absurdi ties, and the littlenesses of conscious greatness, by the way.

I was yesterday invited by a gentleman to dinner,who promised that our ente rtainment should consist of an haunch of venison, a turtle, and a great man. I c ame, according to appointment. The venison was fine, the turtle good, but the gr eat man insupportable. The moment I ventured to speak, I was at once contradicte d with a snap. I attempted, by a second and a third assault, to retrieve my lost reputation, but was still beat back with confusion. I was resolved to attack hi m once more from entrenchment, and turned the conversation upon the government o f China: but even here he asserted, snapped, and contradicted as before. Heavens , thought I, this man pretends to know China even better than myself! I looked r ound to see who was on my side, but every eye was fixed in admiration on the gre at man; I therefore, at last thought proper to sit silent, and act the pretty ge ntleman during the ensuing conversation.

When a man has once secured a circle of admirers, he may be as ridiculous he re as he thinks proper; and it all passes for elevation of sentiment, or learned absence. If he transgresses the common forms of breeding, mistakes even a teapo t for a tobacco box, it is said, that his thoughts are fixed on more important objects：to speak and act like the rest of mankind is to be no greater than they . There is something of oddity in the very idea of greatness; for we are seldom astonished at a thing very much resembling ourselves.

When the Tartars make a Lama, their first care is to place him in a dark cor ner of the temple; here he is to sit half concealed from view, to regulate the m otion of his hands, lips, and eyes; but, above ail, he is enjoined gravity and s ilence. This, however, is but the prelude to his apotheosis: a set of emissaries are dispatched among the people to cry up his piety, gravity, and love of raw f lesh; the people take them at their word, approach the Lama, now become an idol, with the most humble prostration: he receives their addresses without motion, c ommences a god, and is ever after fed by his priests with the spoon of immortali ty. The same receipt in this country serves to make a great man. The idol only k eeps close, sends out his little emissaries to be hearty in his praise; and stra ight, whether statesman or author, he is set down in the list of fame, continuin g to be praised while it is fashionable to praise, or while he prudently keeps h is minuteness, concealed from the public.

I have visited many countries, and have been in cities without number, yet n ever did I enter a town which could not produce ten or twelve of those little gr eat men; all fancying themselves known to the rest of the world, and complimenti ng each other upon their extensive reputation. It is amusing enough when two of those domestic prodigies of learning mount the stage of ceremony, and give and t ake praise from each other. I have been present when a German doctor, for having pronounced a panegyric upon a certain monk, was thought the most ingenious man in the world; till the monk soon after divided this reputation by returning the compliment; by which means they both marched off with universal applause.

The same degree of underserved adulation that attends our great man while li ving, often also follows him to tomb. It frequently happens that one of his litt le admirers sits down big with the important subject, and is delivered of the hi story of his life and writings. This may properly be called the revolutions of a life between the fireside and the easy chair. In this we learn, the year in wh ich he was born, at what an early age he gave symptoms of uncommon genius and ap plication, together with some of his smart sayings, collected by his aunt and mo ther, while yet but a boy. The next book introduces him to the University, where we are informed of his amazing progress in learning, his excellent skill in dar ning stockings, and his new invention for papering books to save the covers. He next makes his appearance in the republic of letters, and publishes his folio1. Now the colossus is reared, his works are eagerly bought up by all the purchaser s of scarce books. The learned societies invite him to become a member; he dispu tes against some foreigner with a long Latin name, conquers in the controversy, is complimented by several authors of gravity and importance, is excessively fon d of egg sauce with his pig, becomes president of a literary club, and dies in the meridian of his glory. Happy they, who thus have some little faithful attend ant, who never forsakes them, but prepares to wrangle and to praise against ever y opposer; at once ready to increase their pride while living, and their charact er when dead. For you and I, my friend, who have no humble admirer thus to atten d us, we, who neither are, nor ever will be great men, and who do not much care whether we are great men or no, at least let us strive to be honest men, and to have common sense.

爱之絮语

佚名

设想男人是从火星上来的，女人是从金星上来的。很久以前的一天，火星人用望远镜张望远方时，发现了金星人，这匆匆一瞥把火星人心中沉睡的感情唤醒了。他们对这种感情从未知晓。坠入爱河的火星人很快发明了太空旅行，飞往金星。金星上的女人们张开双臂迎接他们的到来。火星男人与金星女人之间的爱情真是奇妙。他们愉快地共同生活，一起工作，同甘共苦，他们都忘了彼此是来自不同的星球，忘了本应具有的差异。一天早晨，火星人和金星人完全忘却了彼此的不同。也就是从那天起，冲突开始在男人与女人之间发生。

女人抱怨男人最多的地方是男人不会倾听。当女人说话时，男人不是完全不理睬，就是稍听片刻，掂量一下困扰女人的问题，然后自傲地抛给女人一个解决的办法以安慰她就算完事。无论女人抱怨了多少次，说他没有倾听，他就是不懂，依然故伎重演。女人需要同情，可男人以为她需要的是解决办法。

男人最常抱怨女人总试图改造自己。女人爱上男人时，便觉得帮助他成长是自己的责任，并尽力想帮助男人改进做事的方式。女人成立了家庭促进会，而男人就是首要目标。无论男人怎样拒绝她的帮助，女人都一再坚持，伺机帮助他或是告诉他该做什么。女人认为自己是在调教男人，而男人却觉得自己被控制了。男人崇尚权力、个人能力和成功。他们本是以取得成功的能力作为给自己的定义。对他们而言，实现目标举足轻重，因为这能证明他们自身的能力，会让他们有良好的感觉。而男人要想自我感觉不错，就必须独立自主地取得种种成功。

在男人看来，不请自来的建议就是认为他们不知道该做什么，不能凭独自的力量获取胜利。他们对此很恼火，因为个人能力对于他们非常重要。然而，如果男人确实需要帮助，取得帮助也是明智的举措。在这种情况下，他会和一位自己敬重的人谈论自己的困难。男人谈论困难就是请求他人提供意见。被请求的人因此会颇感荣幸，并顺其自然地抒发感想，听对方诉说，然后提供宝贵的建议。男人的这种习惯在一定程度上导致了他们在倾听女人谈论自己的情感和困惑时，本能地提供解决方案.

女人却对这些不重视。她们是在感情和与人相处的好坏以及交流中确定自我的感觉。女人在诉说感情和彼此联系中获得满足。交流对于她们至关重要，分担私人感情比达到目的重要得多，让她们获得满足感的巨大源泉之一就是交谈与联系。男人看重的是目的，女人看重的是关系。她们更在意对善意、友爱和关怀的表达。女人具有敏锐的直觉，能处处为他人的需求和情感着想是她们引以为豪的事。不经邀请而主动向同伴提供帮助，被她们看做是伟大的爱的展示。女人不洞悉男人的天性，就很容易在不知不觉中伤害了挚爱的男人。

爱情神奇而微妙，只有大家都记住男女之间的差异，爱情才会永恒。

Whispering Love

Anonymous

Imagine that men are from Mars and women are from Venus. One day, long ago, the Martians, looking through their telescopes, discovered the Venusians. Just g limpsing the Venusians awakened feelings they had never known. They fell in love and quickly invented space travel and flew to Venus. The Venusians welcomed the Martians with open arms. The love between the Venusians and Martians was magical. They delighted in being together, doing things together and sharing together. Both the Martians and Venusians forgot that they were from different planets, a nd were supposed to be different. And one morning, everything they had learned a bout their differences was erased from their memory. And since that day, men and women have been in conflict.

The most frequently expressed complaint women have about men is that men don 't listen. Either a man completely ignores her when she speaks, or he listens fo r a few beats, assesses what's bothering her, and then he proudly puts on his Mr . Fix it hat, and offers her a solution to make her feel better. No matter how many times she tells him that he's not listening, he doesn't get it, and he keep s doing the same thing. She wants empathy, he thinks she wants solutions.

The most frequently expressed complaint men have about women is that women a re always trying to change them. When a woman loves a man, she feels responsible to assist him in growing and tries to help him improve the way he does things. She forms the Home Improvement Committee, and he becomes her primary focus. No m atter how much he resists her help, she persists, waiting for an opportunity to help him or to tell him what to do. She thinks she's nurturing him, while he fee ls he's being controlled. Martians value power, competency, efficiency, and achi evement. Their sense of self is defined through their ability to achieve results. Achieving goals is very important to a Martian, because it's the way for him to prove his competence and thus feel good about himself. And for him to feel goo d about himself, he must achieve these goals alone, by himself. To offer a man u nsolicited advice is to presume that he doesn't know what to do or that he can't do it on his own.

Men are very touchy about this, because the issue of competence is so very i mportant to them. However, if he truly does need help, then it's a sign of wisdo m to get it. In this case, he'll find someone he respects and then talk about hi s problem. Talking about a problem on Mars is an invitation for advice. Another Martian feels honored by the opportunity. Automatically, he puts on his Mr. Fix it hat, listens for a few beats, and then offers some jewels of advice. This M artian custom is one of the reasons men instinctively offer solutions when a wom an talks about her feelings or about her problems.

Venusians have different values. Their sense of self is defined through thei r feelings and the quality of their relationships and their communication. They experience fulfillment through sharing and relating. Communication is of primary importance. To share their personal feelings is much more important than achiev ing goals or success. Talking and relating to one another is a source of tremend ous fulfillment. Instead of being goal oriented, women are relationship orient ed. They are more concerned with expressing their goodness, their love, their ca ring. Venusians are very intuitive. They pride themselves on being considerate o f the needs and feelings of others. A sign of great love is to offer help and as sistance to another Venusian without even being asked. Without this insight into the nature of men, it's very easy for a woman to unknowingly and unintentionally hurt and offend the man she loves most.

Love is magical, and it can last if we remember our differences.

爱是艰难的

勒内·马利亚·里尔克

勒内·马利亚·里尔克（1875—1926），奥地利诗人。大学攻读哲学、艺术与文学史。里尔克的诗歌尽管充满孤独痛苦情绪和悲观虚无思想，但艺术造诣很高。本篇节选自他的书信集《给一位青年诗人的十封信》。

爱，很好。但爱是艰难的，因为我们去爱别人：这也许是神给予我们的最艰难、最重大的任务，是最后的考验与测试，是最崇高的工作，别的工作都不过是为此而做的准备。所以那些一切都还刚刚开始的青年们还不能去爱，他们必须要学习。必须用他们整个的生命、用一切的力量，用集聚了他们寂寞、痛苦和荣誉感的心去学习爱。在学习时期这个长久而专注的过程中，爱就会永远地铭刻心扉——深深的寂寞中孤独地等待，是为了所爱的人。爱的要义并不是什么倾心、献身、或二人的结合（那会是怎样的一种结合呢？是一种糊涂的、不负责任的、轻率的结合）。它对于个人是一种崇高的动力，是去成熟并实现自身的圆满，去完成一个世界，是为了另一个人而完成一个自己的世界，这是一个艰巨的、不可妥协的目标，用坚定的信念，向远方召唤。青年们应把爱当作他们的课业、他们的工作的意义，并在其中（“昼夜不停地探索、锤炼”）去使用那些给与他们的爱。至于倾心、献身，以及结合，还不是他们所能做的（他们还需长时间地克制、积累），那是最后的终点，也许是我们现在还几乎不能达到的境界。

Love is Difficult

Rainer Maria Rilke

It is also good to love: because love is difficult. For one human being to l ove another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been e ntrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation. That is why young people, who are beginner s in everything, are not yet capable of love: it is something they must learn. With their whole being, with all their forces, gathered around their solitary, an xious, upward beating heart, they must learn to love. But learning time is alw ays a long, secluded time ahead and far on into life, is solitude, a heightened and deepened kind of aloneness for the person who loves. Loving does not at firs t mean merging, surrendering, and uniting with another person (for what would a union be of two people who are unclarified, unfinished, and still incoherent, it is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himsel f, to become world, to become world in himself for the sake of another person; it is a great, demanding claim on him, something that chooses him and calls him t o vast distances. Only in this sense, as the task of working on themselves (“to hearken and to hammer day and night”), may young people use the love that is gi ven to them. Merging and surrendering and every kind of communion is not for the m (who must still, for a long, long time, save and gather themselves); it is the ultimate, is perhaps that for which human lives are as yet barely large enough.

乔治·戈登·拜伦勋爵致

特蕾莎·古奇奥尼伯爵夫人

乔治·戈登·拜伦

乔治·戈登·拜伦（1788—1824），英国浪漫主义诗人，出身贵族，10岁时继承了叔祖男爵爵位和祖传领地。曾入剑桥大学学习，深受启蒙思想影响。他的诗作表现了对上流社会丑恶现象的蔑视。

我最亲爱的特蕾莎：

我在你的花园里把这本书看完了。我的心上人，你当时不在这里，不然我也不可能把它看完。这是你最喜欢的书，作者是我的一个朋友。你不懂这些英文，别人也不懂，这就是为什么我没有用意大利文写信。但你会认出热切地爱着你的人的笔迹，也会猜出在看你的书时，我只能想到爱。我现在和今后的生命都包含在这个字里。这个字在世界各国的语言中都是美丽的，而在你的语言中最美丽——我的爱——我感到我就在这儿，恐怕今后也会在这里——至于为什么，那要由你来决定；你的双手掌握了我的命运；而你，芳龄17的女子，出修道院只有两年。我倒真想如果你留在那儿反而好了——或至少相逢在你没有嫁人之时。

但一切都已为时过晚。我爱你，你也爱我——至少你是这样说的，你

Lord George Gord on Byron to Countess Teresa Guiccioli

George Gordon Byron

Bologna

Aug. 25th, 1819

My Dearest Teresa,

I have read this book in your garden: My love, you were absent, or else I co uld not have read it. It is a favorite book of yours, and the writer was a frien d of mine. You will not understand these English words, and others will not unde rstand them, which is the reason I have not scrawled them in Italian. But you wi ll recognize the handwriting of him who passionately loved you, and you will div ine that, over a book which was yours, he could only think of love. In that word , beautiful in all languages, but most so in yours — Amor Mio — is comprised m y existence here and hereafter. I feel I exist here, and I fear that I shall exi st here after — to what purpose you will decide; my destiny rests with you, and you are a woman, seventeen years of age, and two out of a convent. I wish that you had stayed there, with all my heart — or at least that I had never met you in your married state.

But all this is too late. I love you, and you love me — at least you say so , and act as if you did so, which last is a great consolation in all events. But I more than love you, and cannot ease to love you.

Think of me sometimes when the Alps and the ocean divide us — but they neve r will, unless you wish it.

Byron

贝婷·布伦塔诺致歌德

贝婷·布伦塔诺

贝婷·布伦塔诺（1785—1859），德国女作家，本名伊丽莎白·布伦塔诺，常与贝多芬 和歌德通信。1835年，其《歌德与一个孩子的通信》一书发表。她是当时德国革命文艺运动 “年轻的德国”的热情支持者。

亲爱的歌德：

你了解我的心；你明白我心里只有向往、思念、预感和渴望；你生活在精神的世界里，它们给你神圣的智慧。你一定要滋养给我的心智。我以前不曾懂得向你索求，你都已经给了我。我的才智很浅薄，但我的爱情却很深厚；你一定要使它们得到平衡。爱情往前发展，理智却不曾跟随，这样的爱不能平静。你明白我有多爱你；你友好、温柔、痴情。请告诉我，我的心在何时失去了平衡。我会明白你无声的暗示。

你落在我身上的注视、你印在我唇上的热吻，都向我说明了这一切。对于我这样的人来说，这令人高兴的眼神和热吻使我懂得了更多。我相隔很远，我所给你的注视和热吻，对我来说已逐渐陌生。我一定要回忆在你怀抱里的温柔时光。于是我开始哭泣，但不知什么时候眼泪已流干。是的，在深深的静谧之中，他对我一往情深（我就是这样想的）。难道我就不应该怀着永不动摇的深情，和他遥通心声吗？啊，想一想我的心要对你说些什么吧！我要对你没完没了地耳鬓厮磨。我希望此生惟一的幸福就是你对我的情意连绵不绝。啊，亲爱的朋友，我只需要你的暗示，说你的心里只有我。

爱你至永远的

贝婷

1808年

Bettina Brentano to Goethe

Bettina Brentano

1808

Dear Goethe,

You know my heart; you know that all there is desire, thought, boding and lo nging; you live among spirits, and they give you divine wisdom. You must nourish me; you give all that in advance which I do not understand to ask for. My mind has a small embrace, my love a large one; you must bring them to a balance. Love cannot be quiet till the mind matches its growth; you are matched to my love; y ou are friendly, kind, and indulgent; let me know when my heart is off the balan ce. I understand your silent signs.

A look from your eyes into mine, a kiss from you upon my lips, instructs me in all, what might seem delightful to learn, to one who, like me, had experience from those. I am far from you; mine are become strange to me. I must ever retur n in thought to that hour when you hold me in the soft fold of your arm. Then I begin to weep, but the tears dry again unawares. Yes, he reaches with his love ( thus I think) over to me in this concealed stillness; and should not I, with my eternal undisturbed longing, reach to him in the distance? Ah, conceive what my heart has to say to you; it overflows with soft sighs all whisper to you. Be my only happiness on earth your friendly will to me. O, dear friend, give me but a sign that you are conscious of me.

Yours forever,

Bettina

被爱的人

佚名

如今，“被爱”的人有各种各样的形象。最容易刺激恋情发生的人往往是异国他乡的人 。一个人年老力衰的老爷爷，很可能依然深爱着二十年前的某个午后在街上碰到的一个陌生女孩。一个传教士可能爱上一个堕落的女子。被爱的那个人或许会心怀不忠、油头粉面并且沾染恶习。对这些缺点，爱他的人也会和其他人一样明白，但这些丝毫也不会影响爱情之火的燃烧。一个最普通的人，也会成为美如沼泽的毒百合的炽烈爱慕的对象。一个好人，很可能激起凶暴又品质恶劣的人的爱恋；一个胡言乱语的疯子，很可能让某人的灵魂产生一种温柔而质朴的田园情调。所以，任何爱情的价值或品质，都是由施爱者本人所决定的。

正是基于这个原因，大多数人宁愿选择“爱人”而不是选择“被爱”。几乎每个人都想成为一个施爱者。大概来说，有一点奇怪的是，大多数人难以承受被爱的状态。被爱者有很明确的理由对施爱者既怕又恨，因为施爱者总是想方设法地要把被爱者看得清清楚楚。施爱者总渴望与被爱者尽可能有一些关系，尽管这样做只会给他自己带来痛苦。

The Beloved

Anonymous

Now, the beloved can also be of any description. The mostoutlandish people can be the stimulus for love. A man may be a doddering great grandfather and stil l love only a strange girl he saw in the streets of Cheehaw one afternoon two de cades past. The preacher may love a fallen woman. The beloved may be treacherous , greasy headed and given to evil habits. Yes, and the lover may see this as cl early as anyone else — but that does not affect the evolution of his love one w hit. A most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild, extravaga nt, and beautiful as the poison lilies of the swamp. A good man may be the stimu lus for a love both violent and debased, or a jabbering madman may bring about i n the soul of someone a tender and simple idyll. Therefore, the value and quality of any love is determined solely by the lover himself.

It is for this reason that most of us would rather love than be loved. Almos teveryone wants to be the lover. And the curt truth is that, in a deep secret way, the state of being beloved is intolerable to many. The beloved fears and hat es the lover, and with the best of reasons. For the lover is forever trying to s trip bare his beloved. The lover craves any possible relation with the beloved, even if this experience can cause him only pain.

拿破仑·波拿巴致玛丽·约瑟芬

拿破仑·波拿巴

拿破仑·波拿巴（1769—1821），法国政治家，军事家,法兰西第一帝国和百日王朝的皇帝，曾率军征服了几乎整个欧洲。

亲爱的玛丽：

我收到你的信了，我爱慕的人儿。你的信使我充满欢乐……自离开你以来，我一直愁眉不展、郁郁寡欢。

我惟一的幸福就是伴随着你。我不停地回想着你的吻、你的泪以及那甜蜜的嫉妒。我迷人的约瑟芬的魅力如同一团炽热的火那样在我的心里燃烧着。我何时才能在你身边度过每一分、每一刻，除了爱你以外，什么也不做；除了爱你、向你倾诉我对你的爱并向你证明我爱你时的那种愉快，我什么都不想。我不能相信不久之前爱过你，从那以后我感到自己对你的爱增加了一千倍。自从我们相识以后，我一天比一天更爱慕你。这恰恰证明了拉·布鲁耶尔说的“爱总是突如其来”多么地不合实际啊。啊，但愿我能看到你有一点点的美中不足，但愿你能少几分优雅、少几分姣好、再少几分妩媚吧。但是坚决不要嫉妒，坚决不要泪水。你的泪水可以使我神魂颠倒——它们使我血液沸腾、燃烧。请相信我，我每时每刻都在思念着你，因为你，这思念绵绵不绝，我所有的意愿都顺从你。你要好好休息，愿你早日康复。请回到我身边吧，不管怎么说，在我们谢世之前，我们应当可以这么说：“我们曾拥有过那么多幸福的日子啊!”给你千百万个甜蜜的吻，一并吻你的爱犬。

Napoleon Bonaparte to Marie Josephine

Napoleon Bonaparte

Dear Marie,

I have your letter, my adorable love. It has filled my heart with joy… since I left you I have been sad all the time.

My only happiness is near you. I go over endlessly in my thought your kisses, your tears, your delicious jealousy. The charm of my wonderful Josephine kindl es a living, blazing fire in my heart and senses. When shall I be able to pass e very minute near you, with nothing to do but to love you and nothing to think of but the pleasure of telling you of it and giving you proof of it? I loved you s ome time ago; since then I feel that I love you a thousand times better. Ever si nce I have known you I adore you more every day. That proves how wrong is that s aying of La Bruyere “Love comes all of a sudden.” Ah, let me see some of your f aults; be less beautiful, less graceful, less tender, less good. But never be je alous and never shed tears. Your tears send me out of my mind they set my very blood on fire. Believe me that it is utterly impossible for me to have a single thought that is not yours, a single fancy that is not Submissive to your will. Rest well. Restore your health. Come back to me and then at any rate before we die we ought to be able to say: “We were happy for so very many days!” Millions o f kisses even to your dog.

论爱情

弗朗西斯·培根

弗朗西斯·培根(1561—1626)，英国著名的哲学家和科学家。他在文艺复兴时期的巨人中被尊称为哲学史和科学史上划时代的人物。培根是近代哲学史上首先提出经验论原则的哲学家，对近代科学的建立起了积极的推动作用，对人类哲学史、科学史都作出了重大的历史贡献。为此，罗素尊称培根为“给科学研究程序进行逻辑组织化的先驱”。

舞台上的爱情往往要比生活中的爱情美好得多。因为在舞台上，爱情只是喜剧和悲剧的素材，但在人生中，爱情却常常招来不幸。它有时像那引诱人的魔女，有时又像那复仇的女神。

你应该看到，一切真正伟大的人物（无论是古代、现代，只要是其英名能永铭于人类记忆中的），没有一个人是因爱情而发狂的；完成伟大事业的人中只有罗马的安东尼和克劳底亚是例外。虽然前者本性就荒淫好色，但后者却是足智多谋的人。这说明爱情不仅会占领开明宽广的胸怀，也能闯入壁垒森严的心灵——只要你抵御不严的话。

埃辟克拉斯曾说过一句傻话：“人生不过是一场戏。”似乎人类不应去努力追求高尚的事业，而只应像玩偶般地逢场作戏。虽然做爱情的奴隶与那些只顾吃喝的禽兽是不同的，但毕竟也只是做皮肉色相的奴隶，而上帝赐人以眼睛是有更高尚的用途的。

过度地追求爱情，必然会损害人本身的价值。例如，只有在爱情中，那种浮夸献媚的词令才大行其道。而在其他场合，这样的词令只能招人耻笑。古人有一句名言：“人们总是把最大的奉承留给自己。”——只有对情人的奉承要算例外。因为甚至那些最骄傲的人，也甘愿在情人面前自轻自贱。所以古人说得好：“就是神在爱情中也难保持聪明。”情人的这种弱点不仅在外人眼中是明显的，就是在被追求者的眼中也会很明显——除非她（他）也在追求他（她）。所以，爱情的代价就是如此，如果得不到回爱，就会得到深藏心底的轻蔑，这是永恒的真理。

由此可见，人们应当对这种感情十分警惕。因为它不但会使人丧失其他，而且可以使人迷失自己。甚至更重大的损失，古代诗人早告诉我们，那些海伦的追求者，放弃了财富和智慧。

不知是什么原因，许多军人会更容易堕入情网，也许这正如他们嗜爱饮酒一样，危险的生活更需要欢乐的补偿。

人们心中可能普遍都有一种博爱的倾向，若不是集中于某个专一的对象身上，就必将施之于更广泛的大众，他将成为仁善的人，像有的僧侣那样。

夫妻的爱，可以使人类繁衍；朋友的爱，可以给人以帮助。但那使人荒淫纵欲的爱，只会使人堕落毁灭！

Of Love

Fransics Bacon

The stage is more beholding to love, than the life of man. For as to the stage, love is ever matter of comedies, and now and then of tragedies; but in life it doth much mischief; sometimes like a siren, sometimes like a fury.

You may observe, that amongst all the great and worthy persons (whereof the memory remaineth, either ancient or recent) there is not one, that hath been tra nsported to the mad degree of love: which shows that great spirits, and great bu siness, do keep out this weak passion. You must except, nevertheless, Marcus Ant onius, the half partner of the empire of Rome, and Appius Claudius, the decemvir and lawgiver; whereof the former was indeed a voluptuous man, and inordinate; b ut the latter was an austere and wise man: and therefore it seems (though rarely ) that love can find entrance, not only into an open heart, but also into a hear t well fortified, if watch be not well kept.

It is a poor saying of Epicurus, Satis magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus; a s if man, made for the contemplation of heaven, and all noble objects, should do nothing but kneel before a little idol, and make himself a subject, though not of the mouth (as beasts are), yet of the eye; which was given him for higher pur poses.

It is a strange thing, to note the excess of this passion, and how it braves the nature, and value of things, by this; that the speaking in a perpetual hype rbole, is comely in nothing but in love. Neither is it merely in the phrase; for whereas it hath been well said, that the arch flatterer, with whom all the pet ty flatterers have intelligence, is a man's self; certainly the lover is more. F or there was never proud man thought so absurdly well of himself, as the lover d oth of the person loved; and therefore it was well said. That it is impossible t o love, and to be wise. Neither doth this weakness appear to others only, and no t to the party loved; but to the loved most of all, except the love be reciproqu e. For it is a true rule, that love is ever rewarded, either with the reciproque , or with an inward and secret contempt.

By how much the more, men ought to beware of this passion, which loseth not only other things, but itself! As for the other losses, the poet's relation doth well figure them: that he that preferred Helena, quitted the gifts of Juno and Pallas. For whosoever esteemeth too much of amorous affection, quitteth both ric hes and wisdom.

I know not how, but martial men are given to love: I think, it is but as the y are given to wine; for perils commonly ask to be paid in pleasures.

There is in man's nature, a secret inclination and motion, towards love of o thers, which if it be not spent upon some one or a few, doth naturally spread it self towards many, and maketh men become humane and charitable; as it is seen so metime in friars.

Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love co rrupteth, and embaseth it.

维克多·雨果致阿黛勒·福契

维克多·雨果

维克多·雨果（1802—1885），法国伟大的浪漫主义作家，13岁即开始写作。他的著作影响深远，深刻反映了19世纪法国社会生活和政治斗争中的重大事件。主要作品有《巴黎圣母院》、《悲惨世界》、《笑面人》、《九三年》等。

我亲爱的阿黛勒：

你的几句话就改变了我的心情。是的，你可以随意处置我。明天，如果你那温柔的声音和可爱的嘴唇的温馨都不能使我复苏，我就真的一命呜呼了。今夜，我躺下时的心情与昨夜是多么不同啊！昨天，阿黛勒，因为我相信你不爱我了，死神降临是我求之不得的。

但我还是对自己说，就算她真的不爱我了，就算我已经没有任何地方值得她去爱了，就算没有了她的爱，余生将索然无味，难道因此就要死去吗？我活着难道是为了自己的幸福吗？不！不论她爱不爱我，我的此生都是献给她的。我有什么权利敢要求她的爱？难道我能胜过天使或神灵？我爱她，不错，即使没有回报；我也甘愿为她牺牲一切，甚至放弃被她爱的希望。为了她的一个微笑，为了她的一次顾盼，我愿意为她做任何事。我有别的选择吗？我活着不就是为了爱她吗？就算她对我漠不关心，甚至恨我，那只是我的不幸，如此而已。只要她幸福，又有什么关系呢?是的，如果她不能爱我，我能责备的只有我自己。我的天职就是紧紧跟随她，用我的生命去保护她；甘心做为她做抵御一切危险的屏障；把头颅献给她做垫脚石，我要她永远无忧无虑，不祈求奖励，不希望报偿。如果她能间或发发善心，对她的奴隶投来一丝怜悯的目光，在需要时记得他，那就是他莫大的幸福！唉！只要她肯让我为满足她的小小愿望甚至任性而付出生命；只要她允许我满怀崇敬地亲吻她可爱的足迹；只要她同意在生活历程的艰难时刻依靠我，我便得到了祈望的惟一幸福，因为我乐于为她牺牲一切。她受过我的恩惠吗？我爱她是她的过失吗？难道因为我爱她，她就非爱我不成？不，她可以玩弄我的感情，以怨报德，对我的崇拜不屑一顾。我也根本无权对我的天使有丝毫抱怨。尽管她趾高气扬，我也不应当停止向她倾诉衷肠。即使我每天都为她做出牺牲，临终时我也无法对她偿以还不清的欠债，因为有了她我才活了下来。

我心爱的阿黛勒，这就是我昨夜此刻的心绪，今天还是这样。不同的是今天的想法掺进了幸福的信念——如此洪福，想到它，我幸福地颤抖，几乎不敢相信。

这么说，你真是爱我了，阿黛勒？告诉我吧，我能相信这醉人的福音吗？假如我能一辈子照顾你，又能使你像我一样幸福，并使自己得到像我爱你般的你的爱，难道你不认为我会高兴得发狂吗？啊，你的信给我的幸福恢复了我的平静。一千次地谢谢你，阿黛勒，我最心爱的天使，但愿我能像匍匐在神像前那样匍匐在你的脚下。你给了我多么大的幸福啊！再见，晚安，我将在梦中与你欢聚！

好好睡吧，让你的丈夫接受你答应他的12个吻，还要加上你没有答应的。

永远忠实于你的

维克多·雨果

1820年1月

Victor Hugo to Adele Foucher

Victor Hugo

Jan.1820

My beloved Adele,

A few words from you have again changed the state of my mind. Yes, you can d o anything with me, and tomorrow, I should be dead indeed if the gentle sound of your voice, the tender pressure of your adored lips, does not suffice to recall the life to my body. With what different feeling to yesterday's I shall lay mys elf down tonight! Yesterday, Adele, I not longer believe in your love; the hour of death would have been welcome to me.

And yet I still said to myself, if it is true that she does not love me, if nothing in me could deserve the blessing of her love, without which there is no longer any charm in life, is that a reason for dying? Do I exist for my own pers onal happiness? No， my whole existence is devoted to her, even in spite of her. And by what right should I have dared to aspire to her love? Am I then, more th an an angel or a deity? I love her, true, even I; I am ready to sacrifice everyt hing gladly for her sake everything, even the hope of being loved by her; there is no devotedness of which I am not capable for her, for one of her smiles, for one of her looks. But could I do otherwise? Is she not the sole aim of my life? That she may show indifference to me, even hate me, will be my misfortune, that is all. What does it matter, so that it does not injure her happiness? Yes, if she cannot love me I ought to blame myself only. My duty is to keep close to her steps, to surround her existence with mine, to serve her as a barrier against all dangers; to offer her my head as a stepping stone, to place myself unceasing ly between her and all sorrows, without claiming reward, without expecting recom pense. Only too happy if she deigns some times to cast a pitying look upon her s lave, and to remember him in the hour of danger! Alas! If she only allow me to g ive my life to anticipate her every desire, all her caprices; if she but permit me to kiss with respect her adored footprints; if she but consent to lean upon me at times amidst the difficulties of life, then I shall have obtained the only happiness to which I have the presumption to aspire. Because I am ready to sacri fice all for her, does she owe me gratitude? Is it her fault that I love her? Mu st she, on that account, believe herself constrained to love me? No! She may spo rt with my devotions, repay my services with hate, and repulse my idolatry with scorn, without my having for a moment the right to complain of that angel; nor o ught I to cease for an instant to lavish upon her all that which she would disda in. And should every one of my days have been marked by some sacrifice for her, I should still, at the day of my death have discharged nothing of the infinite d ebt that my existence owes to her.

Such, my beloved Adele, were the thoughts and resolutions of my mind at this time yesterday. Today they are still the same. Only there is mingled with them the certainty of happiness—such great happiness that I cannot think of it witho ut trembling, and scarcely dare to believe in it.

Then it is true that you love me, Adele? Tell me, can I trust in this enchan ting idea? Don't you think that I shall end by becoming insane with joy if ever I can pass the whole of my life at your feet, sure of making you as happy as I s hall be myself, sure of being adored by you as you are adored by me? Oh! Your le tter has restored peace to me with happiness. A thousand thanks, Adele, my well beloved angel. Would that I could prostrate myself before you as before a divini ty. How happy you make me! Adieu, adieu, I shall pass a very happy night dreamin g of you.

Sleep well, and allow your husband to take the twelve kisses which you promi sed him besides all those yet unpromises.

Yours affectionately,

V.H.

“我爱你”

佚名

“我爱你”总是有许多不同的含义，而这也正好让我们了解到爱情那种令人费解的本性。第一次永远是一个惊喜、一次冒犯和一次攻击性行动，而一旦说过“我爱你”这句话，它就只能被不断地重复下去。如果不是这样的话，那简直是无法想像的。因为当一个人不再说“我爱你”时，这本身就预示着一场危机的出现（“你为什么有好几个月没有那样说了？”）。从另一方面来看，“我爱你”也可以是一种威胁（“不要把它强加给我，你会失去我的”），或者是感情上的要挟（“我已经说过了，现在你应该做同样的表示”），或者是一种警告（“正因为我爱你，所以才甘愿忍受这些”），或者用来表达歉意（“我不是有意当着所有人的面那样说你的”）。它也能是一种工具——比高嗓门更有效——用来打断一次无聊或心痛的谈话。它也可以是哭泣、请求和口头屈服（“注意听我讲！”），或者是一个借口（“正是因为我爱你……”）。它也可以是一种伪装（“我爱你，”他低语着，并且不安地看着那扇敞开的门）。它也可能是一种攻击（“你怎么能这么对我？”），甚至意味着一种终结（“那就这样吧。很遗憾，再见”）。如果一个简单的短语有如此多的含义，那么使它如此无常多变的一定是人的感情。

“I Love You”

Anonymous

“I love you” does not always have the same meaning, and this, too, should t ell us something about the elusive nature of love. The first time it is always a surprise, an invasion, an aggressive act, but once said, “I love you” can only be repeated. It is unthinkable that it should not be said again, and again, and again. When one has not said it for a while, this may itself precipitate a cris is. (“Now why haven't you said that in all of these months! ”) On the other hand , “I love you” can also serve as a threat (“Don't push me on this; you might l ose me”), emotional blackmail (“I've said it, now you have to respond in kind”) , a warning (“It's only because I love you that I'm willing to put up with this ”), an apology (“I could not possibly have meant what I, have said to you, to y ou of all people”). It can be an instrument — more effective than the loudest n oise — to interrupt a dull or painful conversation. It can be a cry, a plea, a verbal flag (“Pay attention to me! ”) or it can be an excuse (“It's only becaus e I love you…”). It can be a disguise (“I love you, ” he whispered, looking aw kwardly askance at the open door). It can be an attack (“How can you do this to me? ”) or even an end (“So that's that. With regrets, good bye”). If this sing le phrase has so many meanings, how varied and variable must be the emotion.

约翰·济慈致范妮·布洛恩约翰·济慈

你的时候，我也能感受到你的气息和一股飘逸的温情悄然袭来。我能发现我的全部意念、我最不幸的日日夜夜非但不能丝毫削弱我对美人儿的爱，反而使我对这种爱日益痴迷，因此一想到你不在这儿就使我苦不堪言……过去，我从来没有明白过我对你萌生的爱究竟是怎么回事，我不相信会有这种爱，很怕去想它，怕它使我燃烧起来。但如果你把全部的爱都给予我，就算会有些火焰，但在欢乐的浸润中，还是能够忍受的……除了你怡然自得的眼睛、甜蜜的嘴唇和轻盈的步子，我什么也不要看。我愿能看见你生活在适合你的秉性和爱好的愉快氛围中，让我们的爱充满欢乐，不会产生烦恼和忧虑。

永远爱你的

约翰·济慈

1819年7月24日

John Keats to Fanny Brawne John Keats

Jul. 24th, 1819

My Sweet Girl,

Your letter gave me more delight than anything in the world but yourself could do; indeed, I am almost astonished that any absent one should have that luxur ious power over my senses which I feel. Even when I am not thinking of you I rec eive your influence and I feel a tenderer nature stealing over me. All my though ts, my unhappiest days and nights, have, I find, not cured me of my love of beau ty, but made it so intense that I am miserable that you are not with me... I never knew before what such a love as you have made me feel was; I did no believe in it; my fancy was afraid of it, lest it should burn me up. But if you will fully love me, though there may be some fire, 'twill not be more than we can bear wh en moistened and bedewed with pleasure…I would never see anything but pleasure in your eyes, love on your lips, and happiness in your steps. I would wish to see you among those amusements suitable to your inclinations and spirits; so that our loves might be a delight in the midst of pleasures agreeable enough, rather than resources from vexations and cares.

Yours for ever,

John Keats

成功是一种选择

佚名

我们每天都应该让自己做好准备，迎接可以预见的挫折和挑战。如果我们相信生活不可能是完美的，我们就能避免因一时的冲动而放弃追求。但即使你拥有坚强的意志，能够挺过生活和工作中的困难，有时你也会遭遇逆境，它将会在背后给你狠狠一击。

不管是出现经济损失，或是失去同辈及亲人的尊敬，或是遭受生命重创，这些重大挫折都会使你对自己产生自我怀疑，并且怀疑情况是否能够好转。

我们每个人都可能遭遇困境，而且它时常发生。有些大灾难不是即刻发生就是呆在角落等待时机。忽视逆境其实就是在欺骗自己。

但是你必须认识到历史上有许多事例都讲述了克服重重困难之后才获得成功的人。那些困难之大，足以粉碎他们的意志，让他们流落尘世。摩西有口吃，但他后来却成为传递上帝福音的使者。阿伯拉罕·林肯战胜了童年的困难、绝望、丧失两个儿子的痛苦以及内战中接踵而来的嘲笑，最终成为美国历史上无可置疑的最伟大的总统。海伦·凯勒早年双目失明，又是个哑巴，但是她还是对世界产生了巨大影响，而富兰克林·罗斯福则患有小儿麻痹症。

类似的例子不胜枚举。这些人不仅大胆地面对困难，而且从中学到了克服困难的宝贵经验，然后勇往直前。

Success Is a Choice

Anonymous

All of us ought to be able to brace ourselves for the predictable challenges and setbacks that crop up everyday. If we expect that life won't be perfect, we 'll be able to avoid that impulse to quit. But even if you are strong enough to persist the obstacle course of life and work, sometimes you will encounter an ad verse event that will completely knock you on your back.

Whether it's a financial loss, the loss of respect of your peers or loved on es, or some other traumatic event in your life these major setbacks leave you do ubting yourself and wondering if things can ever change for the better again.

Adversity happens to all of ns, and it happens all the time. Some form of ma jor adversity is either going to be there or it's lying in wait just around the corner. To ignore adversity is to succumb to the ultimate self delusion.

But you must recognize that history is full of examples of men and women who achieved greatness despite facing hurdles so steep that easily could have crash ed their spirit and left them lying in the dust. Moses was a stutterer, yet he was called on to be the voice of God. Abraham Lincoln overcomes a difficult child hood, depression, the death of two sons, and constant ridicule during the Civil War to become arguably our greatest president ever. Helen Keller made an impact on the world despite being deaf, dumb, and blind from an early age. Franklin Roo sevelt had polio.

There are endless examples. These were people who not only looked adversity in the face but learned valuable lessons about overcoming difficult circumstance s and were able to move ahead.

个性的表露

阿诺德·本涅特

一件认识起来很奇异也很受益的事是，一个人常常不清楚别人对他的印象是什么。是好呢,是坏呢，还是不好不坏，这些倒是能够十分准确地猜测出来——有些人甚至没有必要让你去猜测，他们差不多就讲给你听了——但是我想要说的不是这个。我想要说的远不止这个。我想要说的是，一个人头脑中对自己的印象和他本人在他朋友们头脑中的印象，往往很不一致。你曾经想到这样的事吗?——世上有那么一个诡异的人，到处跑来跑去，上街访友，又说又笑，口出怨言，大发议论，他的朋友都对他很熟悉，对他早已知根知底，对他的看法早有定论——但除了偶尔且谨慎的只言片语外，平时却很少对你透露。而那个人就是你自己。比如，你走进一家客厅去喝茶，你敢说你便能认得这个人就是你自己吗?我看不一定。很可能，你也会像客厅里的客人那样，当你难以忍受其他客人的骚扰时心里就盘算说：“这是哪个家伙，真是怪异。但愿他少讨人嫌。”你的第一个反应就是略带敌意。甚至就连你突然在一面镜子前面遇到了你自己，穿的衣服也正是你心里记得很清楚的那天的服装，怎么样，你还是会因为认出了你是你这件事而感到吃惊。还有当你有时到镜子前去整理头发时，尽管是在最清醒的大清早时刻，你不是也好像瞥见一个完全陌生的人吗？而且这陌生人还让你颇为好奇呢。如果说连形式颜色动作这类外观准确的细节都是这样，那么对于像心智和道德这种不易把握的复杂效果又将怎样呢？

有人真心实意地去努力留下一个好印象。但结果怎样呢，不过是被他的朋友们在内心深处认为他是一个刻意给人留下好印象的人。如果一切只凭着单独会一次面或见几次面，——这个人倒很能迫使另一个人接受他本人希望造成的某种印象。但是如果接受印象的人有足够的时间来自由支配，那么印象的给予者就干脆束手静坐了，因为他的所有招数都丝毫改变不了或影响不了他最终所造成的印象。真正的印象是在结尾，是无意而不是刻意造成的。同时，它也是无意而不是刻意接受的。它的形成要靠双方，而且是事先就已经确定的，最终的欺骗是不可能的……

Expressing One’s Individuality

Arnold Bennet

A most curious and useful thing to realize is that one never knows the impre ssion one is creating on other people. One may often guess pretty accurately whe ther it is good, bad, or indifferent — some people render it unnecessary for one to guess, they practically inform one — but that is not what I mean. I mean much more than that. I mean that one has one's self no mental picture correspondi ng to the mental picture which one's personality leaves in the minds of one's fr iends. Has it ever struck you that there is a mysterious individual going around , walking the streets, calling at houses for tea, chatting, laughing, grumbling, arguing, and that all your friends know him and have long since added him up an d come to a definite conclusion about him — without saying more than a chance, cautious word to you; and that that person is you? Supposing that you came into a drawing room where you were having tea, do you think you would recognize your self as an individuality? I think not. You would be apt to say to yourself as guests do when disturbed in drawing rooms by other guests: “Who's this chap? See ms rather queer. I hope he won't be a bore.” And your first telling would be sli ghtly hostile. Why, even when you meet yourself in an unsuspected mirror in the very clothes that you have put on that very day and that you know by heart, you are almost always shocked by the realization that you are you. And now and then, when you have gone to the glass to arrange your hair in the full sobriety of ea rly morning, have you not looked on an absolute stranger, and has not that stran ger piqued your curiosity? And if it is thus with precise external details of form, colour, and movement, what may it not be with the vague complex effect of the mental and moral individuality?

A man honestly tries to make a good impression. What is the result? The resu lt merely is that his friends, in the privacy of their minds, set him down as a man who tries to make a good impression. If much depends on the result of a sing le interview, or a couple of interviews, a man may conceivably force another to accept an impression of himself which he would like to convey. But if the receiv er of the impression is to have time at his disposal, then the giver of the impr ession may just as well sit down and put his hands in his pockets, for nothing t hat he can do will modify or influence in any way the impression that he willul timately give. The real impress is, in the end, given unconsciously, not conscio usly; and further, it is received unconsciously, not consciously. It depends par tly on both persons. And it is immutably fixed beforehand. There can be no final deception…

滚球

佚名

在我4岁时，我从大西洋城里一个货场的货车上摔了下来，头先着地，于是我失去了视力。现在我32岁了，我能模糊地记起阳光的灿烂，红色的鲜艳。能恢复视力当然是件奇妙的事情，但一场灾难也可以对人产生奇妙的作用。有一天，我突然想到，如果我没有成为盲人，我可能不会像现在这样热爱生活。现在，我相信生活，但我不能肯定，如果自己的视力正常，会不会像现在这样深深地相信生活。我并不是说我宁愿失去视力，我的意思是由于视力的丧失使我更加珍惜自己其他方面的能力。

我相信，生活要求人们不断地调整自己去适应现实。人越能及时地调整自己，他的个人世界便越有意义。调整是件很困难的事。我一度感到茫然、恐惧，但我是幸运的。我的父母和老师在我身上发现了某种东西——你可以称它为“活下去的潜力”——虽然我自己并没有发现。他们激起我与失明搏斗的勇气。

我不得不学会的最艰难的一课就是相信我自己，这一点是最基本的。如果做不到这点，我可能会精神崩溃，剩下的时光只能坐在前门廊的摇椅中度过。相信自己并不仅仅指支持我独自走下陌生楼梯的那种自信。那只是自信的一部分。我指的是一些更大的事情：那就是坚信自己虽然有缺陷，却是一个真正的有进取心的人；坚信在芸芸众生错综复杂的格局当中，一定有一个特殊的位置供我立足。

我花了很多年的时间才树立起这一信念，并把它不断地强化。这必须从最简单的事情做起。有一次，一个人送给我一个室内玩的棒球，我想他在嘲笑我，感觉受到了伤害。“我不能玩这个东西。”我说，“你自己拿去吧。”他竭力劝我说：“你可以在地上滚。”他的话深深地印在我的脑海里。“在地上滚!”滚动的球可以使我听见它朝哪个方向滚动。我马上联想到一个我曾认为不可能做到的事情：打棒球。在费城的奥弗布鲁克盲人学校，我成功地发明了一种很受欢迎的棒球游戏，我们称它为地面球。

我给自己的一生树立了一系列目标，然后一次一个、竭尽全力地去实现它们。我必须知道自己的局限。如果一开始就知道某个目标根本不可能实现却硬要去做，那不会带来任何益处，因为它只会带来失败的苦果。我有时也会失败，但一般说来我总会取得进步。

A Ball to Roll Around

Anonymous

I lost my sight when I was four years old by falling off a box car in a frei ght yard in Atlantic City and landing on my head. Now I am thirty two. I can va guely remember the brightness of sunshine and what color red is. It would be won derful to see again, but a calamity can do strange things to people. It occurred to me the other day that I might not have come to love life as I do if I hadn't been blind. I believe in life now. I am not so sure that I would have believed in it so deeply, otherwise. I don't mean that I would prefer to go without my eyes. I simply mean that the loss of them made me appreciate the more what I had left.

Life, I believe, asks a continuous series of adjustments to reality. The more readily a person is able to make these adjustments, the more meaningful his ow nprivate world becomes. The adjustment is never easy. I was bewildered and afra id. But I was lucky. My parents and my teachers saw something in me — a potenti al to live, you might call it — which I didn't see, and they made me want to fight it out with blindness.

The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself. That was basic. If I hadn't been able to do that, I would have collapsed and become a chair rock er on the front porch for the rest of my life. When I say belief in myself I am not talking about simply the kind of self confidence that helps me down an unfa miliar staircase alone. That is part of it. But I mean something bigger than that: an assurance that I am, despite imperfections, a real, positive person; that somewhere in the sweeping, intricate pattern of people there is a special place where I can make myself fit.

It took me years to discover and strengthen this assurance. It had to start with the most elementary things. Once a man gave me an indoor baseball. I though t he was mocking me and I was hurt. “I can't use this.” I said. “Take it with you, ” he urged me, “and roll it around. ” The words stuck in my head. “Roll it around! ” By rolling the ball I could hear where it went. This gave me an idea ho w to achieve a goal I had thought impossible: playing baseball. At Philadelphia' s Overbrook School for the Blind I invented a successful variation of baseball. We called it ground ball.

All my life I have set ahead of me a series of goals and then tried to reach them, one at a time. I had to learn my limitations. It was no good to try for s omething I knew at the start was wildly out of reach because that only invited t he bitterness of failure. I would fail sometimes anyway but on the average I mad e progress.

健全的人生

佚名

从前，有个圆圈丢失了一块楔子。它想保持完整，所以它到处寻找那块楔子。但因为它是不完整的，所以它只能慢慢地往前滚。在路上，它对花儿表示羡慕；它与虫子谈天说地；它还欣赏到阳光之美。圆圈找到了许多不同的楔子，但没有一件适合它。所以，它将它们全都扔在路边，继续寻觅。终于有一天，它找到了一个完美的楔子。圆圈是如此高兴，因为现在它可以说是完美无缺了。它装好配件，并开始滚动起来。它已成为一个完美的圆圈，所以它滚动得非常快，以至于没有时间观赏花儿，也无暇与虫子交谈。当圆圈意识到因为它滚得如此之快，以至于失去了原有的世界时，它停了下来，将找到的配件扔在路边，又开始慢慢地往前滚动。

我想，这个故事告诉人们，从某种奇怪的意义上来说，当我们失去了一些东西时，反而会更加完整。一个拥有一切的人在某些方面其实是个穷人，因为他永远也体会不到什么是渴望、期待及如何用美好梦想滋养自己的灵魂。他也永远不可能有这样的体验——一个爱他的人送给他某种他梦寐以求的或者从未拥有过的东西意味着什么。

人生的完整性在于知道如何面对缺陷，如何勇敢地摒弃不现实的幻想而又不以此为憾。人生的完整性还在于学会勇敢地面对人生悲剧而继续活下去，能够在失去某人后依然能表现出完整的个人风范。

人生并不是上帝为了谴责我们的缺陷而给我们设下的陷阱。人生也不是一场拼字游戏的比赛——不管你拼出了多少单词，一旦出现失误，你便前功尽弃。人生更像是一个棒球赛季，即使最好的球队也可能丢掉三分之一的比赛，而最差的球队也有辉煌的胜利。我们的目标就是多赢球，少输球。当我们接受“不完整性”是人类本性的一部分时，当我们不断地进行人生滚动并能欣赏其价值时，我们就会获得其他人仅能渴望的完整人生。我相信这就是上帝对我们的要求：不求“完美”，也不求“永不犯错”，而是追求人生的“完整”。

如果我们有足够的勇敢地去爱，有足够的坚强去宽容，有足够的大度地去为别人的快乐而高兴，有足够的睿智去理解充满于我们身边的爱，那么我们就能取得别的生物所不能取得的满足感。

The Wholeness of Life

Anonymous

Once a circle missed a wedge. The circle wanted to be whole, so it went arou nd looking for its missing piece. But because it was incomplete and therefore co uld roll only very slowly, it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So it left them all by the side of the road and kept on searching. The n one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly. It was so happy. Now it c ould be whole, with nothing missing. It incorporated the missing piece into itse lf and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice flowers or talk to the worms. When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.

The lesson of the story, I suggested, was that in some strange sense we are more whole when we are missing something. The man who has everything is in some ways a poor man. He will never know what it feels like to yearn, to hope, to nou rish his soul with the dream of something better. He will never know the experie nce of having someone who loves him give him something he has always wanted or n ever had.

There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitat ions, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholeness about the man or woman who ha s learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive, s he can lose someone and still feel like a complete person.

Life is not a trap set for us by Cod so that he can condemn us for failing. Life is not a spelling bee, where no matter how many words you've gotten right, you're disqualified if you make one mistake. Life is more like a baseball season , where even the best team loses one third of its games and even the worst team has its days of brilliance. Our goal is to win more games than we lose. When we accept that imperfection is part of being human, and when we can continue rollin g through life and appreciate it, we will have achieved a wholeness that others can only aspire to. That, I believe, is what God asks of us—not “Be perfect”, not “Don't even make a mistake”, but “Be whole”.

If we are brave enough to love, strong enough to forgive, generous enough to rejoice in another's happiness, and wise enough to know there is enough love to go around for us all, then we can achieve a fulfillment that no other living cr eature will ever know.

面貌

弗朗西斯·帕金森·凯丝

这篇文章是女作家凯丝为了在新书广告上刊登相片而引发的一段感想。文中先由林肯的名言谈起容貌对人的影响，进而反观自己脸上烙印的“时间轨迹”，终而肯定人生的经历远比刻意妆点修饰的外表重要。

“忠于自身。”

——莎士比亚

我很喜欢一个故事。那是有关林肯内阁推荐职务的。他的一位顾问极力向他推荐一位候选人，但是林肯拒绝接受这个建议。因此，林肯被要求给出原因来。

“我不喜欢那人的面貌长相。”林肯简明扼要地回答到。

“可是那个可怜的人不应对他的长相负责。”推荐人坚持道。

“每个人一旦过了40岁就应该对自己的长相负责。”林肯答复完就转到其他事情的讨论上了。

最近在出版商的游说之下，我拍了一些照片。他提醒我，我已经很久没给他新照片了，我不能总使用一样的姿势呀。我不喜欢拍相的过程，当我看到最近一次痛苦经历的结果后，就不喜欢这些照片了。我把新照片和25年前的一张照片比较之后，想到我要以现在的面貌面对公众时，我的女性虚荣心开始遭受剧痛。我的第一个直觉就是“修饰”一下这些照片，虽然我从不修饰自己的脸或头发，因为我一直认为女人这么做，除了骗自己之外谁也骗不了。当我深思过这些照片之后，我明白这其中蕴含着一个更重要的原则。

四分之一世纪的生活在女人脸上除了留下了一些皱纹及不受欢迎的皱痕之外，还有更多的东西。在这段漫长的时间里，她已经饱尝痛苦与欢乐、开心与伤心以及生生死死。她生存与斗争，失败和成功。她失去又重获信心。作为结果，她应该比年轻时更英明、高雅、有耐心、有度量。她的幽默感应该成熟起来了，见解也应该更为拓展，同情心应该加深了。而所有的这一切都会表现出来。如果她试图擦除这些岁月的痕迹，同时也冒了摧毁经验与性格印痕的危险。

我知道自己比25年前更有经验，也希望我比以前更有个性。所以我按照原样公布了我的照片。

Face and Fortune

Frances Parkinson Keyes

“To thine own self be true. ”

——Shakespeare

There is a story about a proposed appointment in Lincoln's cabinet that I ha ve always liked very much. One of his advisers urgently recommended a candidate and Lincoln declined to follow the suggestion. So he was asked to give his reaso ns.

“I don't like the man's face. ” Lincoln explained briefly.

“But the poor man is not responsible for his face. ” his advocate insisted.

“Every man over forty is responsible for his face. ” Lincoln replied, and tu rned to the discussion of other matters.

Recently, at the instigation of my publisher, I had some photographs taken. It was a long time, he reminded me, since I had supplied him with a new one; I c ould not go on using the same pose indefinitely. I do not enjoy the process of b eing photographed, and when I saw the results of this latest ordeal, I enjoyed t hese still less. I compared the new photograph with one that had been taken twenty five years ago, and my feminine vanity suffered an acute pang at the thought of being presented to the public as I am today. My first instinct was to have t he prints “touched up, ” though I have never “touched up” my own face or my own hair because I have always maintained that women who did this deceived no one e xcept themselves. As I thoughtfully considered the photographs, I knew that a st ill more important principle was involved.

A quarter century of living should put a great deal into a woman's face besi des a few wrinkles and some unwelcome folds around the chin. In that length of t ime she has become intimately acquainted with pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, life and death. She has struggled and survived, failed and succeeded. She has l ost and regained faith. And, as a result, she should be wiser, gentler, more pat ient and more tolerant than she was when she was young. Her sense of humor shoul d have mellowed, her outlook should have widened, her sympathies should have dee pened. And all this should show. If she tries to erase the imprint of age, she r uns the risk of destroying, at the same time, the imprint of experience and char acter.

I know I am more experienced than I was a quarter century ago and I hope I h ave more character. I released the pictures as they were.

人人想当别人

塞缪尔·麦考德·克罗瑟斯

塞缪尔·麦考德·克罗瑟斯(1867—1931)，美国优秀散文作家，生于伊利诺州，曾先后就读于普林斯顿大学、联合神学院与哈佛大学等学校，以学识渊博与善于讲道著称于世。

人生许多微小不快的背后原因，都因为这种人人想当别人的自然欲望，它使社会不能圆满合理地组织起来，不能让每个人都各司其职，各就其位。想当别人的欲望常常引导我们去做一些严格意义上来说并不属于自己范围的事。我们的才干本领常常超出我们自己行业与职务的狭小范围。每个人都觉得自己才过其位，大才小用。因而无时无刻不在做着那种神学家们所谓的“额外余功”。

一个态度认真的女佣人不会满足于只干几件被吩咐的差事。她身上有着剩余精力没有用完。她的志向是做一名改革家庭方面的专家。于是她来到那家虚有其名的主人的书桌面前，在那上面进行一番彻底改革。按照她的整洁观点，所有文件都重新被做了归置。当那位可怜的主人回来后，发现为他熟悉的杂乱已经变成可恶的整齐时，他简直成了—个反动分子。

一位秉性严肃的市街铁道公司经理绝不会只从运送乘客方面，和使乘客觉得便宜、舒适这一简单责任中获得满足感。他要发挥在一个道德促进会上一位宣讲人的职能。于是，当一位可怜的乘客正在皮带环的下面被弄得摇晃蹒跚站立不稳时，他却要为这位乘客读份东西，请求他发扬基督徒的美德，不要推挤。

一个人走进理发店，目的只是刮刮胡子而已。但却遇到一位雄心壮志的理发师。这位志向高超的理发师绝不满足于仅对人类的幸福做微小的贡献。他坚持认为，他这位顾客还需要洗发、修指、按摩、在滚热毛巾下发汗，在电风扇下冷却，等等，并在进行所有这些的同时，他的皮鞋还必须被重新上油擦拭。

当你看到有些人在接受种种他们并不需要的服务时所表现的这种忍耐，你不觉得奇怪吗?其实也不过是为了不伤害情愿多干点活的手艺人的感情罢了。你看，卧车中一些乘客站起身来让人家为他刷衣服时，有着一副多么耐心的神情啊，他们十有八九并不想让人去刷。他们宁愿衣服上留着灰尘也不愿被迫忍受这种事。但是他们明白不能让别人感到失望。这乃是一项整个旅行中的隆重仪式，是正式献礼之前不可缺少的。

人人想当别人，这种情形也是艺术家与文人学士出现越轨现象的一个重要原因。我们的画家、剧作家、音乐家、诗人以及小说作者也就像上面说的女佣人，铁路经理与列车员一样，犯着人们所通有的毛病。他们总是希望“以最多的方式对最多的人们做最多的工作”。他们厌倦了自己所熟悉的东西，而喜欢尝试种种新的结合。于是他们经常把不同的事物拉扯在一起。一种艺术的实践者总是尽量用另外一种艺术制造出某种效果。

于是有的音乐家想当画家，像使用画笔一样来使用小提琴。他要让我们看见他为我们描绘的落日彩霞。而画家则想当音乐家，想把交响乐画出来，并很苦恼那些缺乏修养的人听不出他画中的音乐，因为那些色彩明明在互相咆哮着。另一位画家则想当建筑师，希望他构制出的图画能产生砖石砌成的感觉。结果他的作品倒很像一所砖房，但可惜在一般正常人看来却不像一张图画。再如一位散文作家厌倦了写散文，而想当诗人。于是他在每一行开头用了大写字母以后，却继续照着他的散文写法不误。

再比如看戏剧。你带着你那简单的莎土比亚式的观念走进剧院，以为来到这里就是看戏。但是你的剧作家却想成为病理学家。于是你发现自己身陷诊所，四周阴森难耐。你本来是到这里来消遣，找个地方舒散舒散，但你这位不入流的人士却走入这个专门为你准备的场所，因此你不得不熬到终场。至于你有你自己的苦衷这点并不成为充分的理由使你豁免。

又如你拿起一部小说来看，以为这肯定是一则故事。谁料到你的小说家却别有