英文名著背诵精选

英文名著背诵精选 The chess-board is the world: the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. By Thomas Henry Huxley 棋盘宛如世界:一个个棋子仿佛世间的种种现象:游戏规则就是我们所称的自然 。竞争对手藏于暗处，不为我们所见。我们知晓，这位对手向来处事公平， 正义凛然，极富耐心。然而，我们也明白，这位对手从不忽视任何错误，或者因 为我们的无知而做出一丝让步，所以我们也必须为此付出代价。 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. Excerpt from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 这是一个最好的时代，也是一个最坏的时代;这是明智的年代，这是愚昧的年 代;这是信任的纪元，这是怀疑的纪元;这是光明的季节，这是黑暗的季节;这 是希望的春日，这是失望的冬日;我们面前应有尽有，我们面前一无所有;我们 都将直下地狱„„ Equality and Greatness Between persons of equal income there is no social distinction except the distinction of merit. Money is nothing;character,conduct,and capacity are everything.Instead of all the workers being leveled down to low wage standards and all the rich leveled up to fashionbale income standards,everybody under a system of equal incomes would find his or her own natural level.There would be great people and ordinary people and little peolpe,but the great would always be those who had done great things,and never the idiot whose mother had spoiled them and whose father had left a hunred thousand a year;and the little would be persons of small minds and mean characters,and not poor persons who had never had a chance.That is why idiots are always in favour of inequality of income(their only chance of eminence),and the really great in favour of equality. 收入相当的人除了品性迥异以外没有社会差别。金钱不能说明什么;性格，行为， 能力才代一切。在收入平等下，每个人将会找到他或她正常的地位，而不 1 是所有的工人被划到应拿低工资阶层，所有的富人被划到应得高收入的阶层。人 有卓著伟人，平庸之辈和碌碌小人之别，然伟人总是那些有所建树之人，而非从 小深受母亲溺爱，父亲每年留下一大笔钱之人;碌碌小人总是那些心胸狭窄，品 德卑劣之人，而不是那些从未获取机会的穷人。愚蠢之众总是赞成收入不平等(他 们职能凭借这种机会才能为人所知)，而真正伟大之人则主张平等相待，原因就 在于此。 Great Expectations As the night was fast falling,and as the moon,being past the full,would not rise early,we held a little council:a short one,for clearly our course was to lie by at the first lonely tavern we could find.So,they plied their oars once more,and I looked out for anything like a house.Thus we held on,speaking little,for four or five dull miles.It was very cold,and,a fire smoking and flaring,looked collier coming by us,with her gallery- like a comfortable home.The night was as dark by this time as it would be until morning;and what light we had,seemed to come more from the river than the sky,as the oars in their dipping stuck at a few reflected stars. 天黑得很快，偏巧这天又是下弦月，月亮不会很早升起。我们就稍稍商量了一下， 可是也用不着多讨论，因为情况是明摆着的，再划下去我们一遇到冷落的酒店就 得投宿。于是他们又使劲打起浆来，我则用心寻找岸上是否隐隐约约有什么房屋 的模样。这样又赶了四五英里路，一路上好不气闷，大家简直不说一句话。天气 非常冷，一艘煤船从我们近旁驶过，船上厨房里生着火，炊烟缕缕，火光荧荧， 在我们看来简直就是个安乐家了。这时夜已透黑，看来就要这样一直黑到天明， 我们仅有的一点光亮似乎不是来自天空，而是来自河上，一浆又一浆的，搅动着 那寥寥几颗倒映在水里的寒星。 The doer of Deeds It is not the critic who counts,not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arens,whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;who stives valiantly;who errs,and comes short again and again;because there is not effort without error and shortcoming;but who does actually strive to do the deeds;who knows the great enthusiasms,the great devotions;who spends himself in a worthy cause,who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement and who at the worst,if he fails,at least fails whiledaring greatly,so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. 真正令人尊敬的并非那些评论家和那些指出强者是如何跌倒，实干家本该做得更 好的人。 2 荣誉属于那些亲临竞技场，满脸污泥，汗水和鲜血的人。他们不懈努力，他们曾 犯过过错，并一再失败。因为付出即意味着犯错和失败。他们满怀激情地努力做 事，执着不懈，将生命奉献于崇高的事业。他们为经过艰辛努力最终取得的伟大 成就而自豪，如果失败，他们夜败的荣耀。因而，这样的人永远不应与那些不知 道胜利，也从未失败过的冷淡而胆怯的灵魂相提并论。 American dream To Americans, industriousness, thrift and ambition are possitive values. We encourage our children to be competitive, to get ahead, to make money, to acquire possassion. In games and in business alike, the aim is to win the game, the trorphy, the contract. We go in for laboursaving devices, gadgets, speed and shortcuts. We think every young couple should set up a home of their own. And we pity the couple who must share their home with their parent, let alone with other relatives. Actually, of course, not all Americans hold all these values. And those who do may hold other, and at times controdictary values that affect their ways of behaving. In the main, however,the collective expectation of our society is that these are desirable goals, and the individual, whatever his personal inclination, is under considerable pressure to conform. Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life. His characters are not modified by the customs of particular places, unpractised by the rest of the world; by the peculiarities of studies or professions, which can operate but upon small numbers; or by the accidents of transient fashions or temporary opinions: they are the genuine progeny of common humanity, such as the world will always supply, and observation will always find. His persons act and speak by the influnce of those general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated, and the whole system of life is continued in motion. In the writings of other poets a character is too often an individual; in those of Shakespeare it is commonly a species. Except from The Major Works by Sammuel Johnson 莎士比亚的才华高于一切作家，至少高于当今的所有作家。他是一位自然的诗人， 他的作品将人间百态真实地展现在读者眼前。他的人物塑造并不拘泥于只为一部 分人所遵循的某个特定地区的习俗，也不局限于一小部分人所从事的特定的研究 或职业，也不追随短暂的潮流或暂时的思想观点:他们据有人们一贯具备的、普 遍的人性特点。就像世界能永不竭地供应，眼睛能永不停地发现。他笔下人物的 一言一行都受那些能够触动所有人的大众化的情感和能使整个生命体系得以延 续的普遍原则所影响。在其他诗人的作品中，一个人物往往就是一个个体，而莎 翁笔下的人物通常代表着一类人。 3 The most loved place, for me, in this country has in fact been many places. It has changed throughout the years, as I and my circumstances have changed. I haven't really lost any of the best places from the past, though. I may no longer inhabit them, but they inhabit me, portions of memory, presences in the mind...My best place at the moment is very different, although I guess it has some of the attributes of that long-ago place. It is a small cedar cabin on the Otonabee river in southern Ontario. I've lived three summers there, writing, birdwatching, riverwatching. I sometimes feel sorry for the people in speedboats who spend their weekends zinging up and down the river at about a million miles an hour. For all they're able to see, the riverbanks might just as well be green concrete and the river itself flowing with molten plastic. By Margaret Laurence 在这个国家里我最喜欢的地方其实一直有很多。这些年来，由于我们自己和情况 的变迁，我最爱的地方也随着改变。虽然如此，过去我喜爱过的任何一个地方我 并没有真正地失去它们。我或许不再居住在那儿，但它们却存在于我的心里，成 为我记忆中的片段，时常浮现在脑海中„„此刻我最喜爱的地方相当不同，但我 想它仍具有和老早的那个地方(即明湖，Clear Lake)相同的某些特质。这个地 方是安大略省南方奥托拿比河边的一间松木小屋。我在那儿居住了三个夏天:写 作、赏鸟、观河。有时候我为那些来此地度周末，却驾着快艇以极速在河上往来 呼啸的人感到难过，因为这些人看见的河岸只不过是绿色的混凝土岸，而河流本 身也仿佛只是条闪亮的流动塑料。 When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, even inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents of themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hunderd years ago, I consider that great when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together. Excerpt from Westminster Abbey by Joseph Addison 当我瞻仰伟人的坟墓，心中所有的嫉妒顿时烟消云散;当我读到伟人的悼文，所 有的非分之想顷刻消失殆尽;当我遇见在墓碑旁悲痛欲绝的父母亲，我的心中也 满怀同情;当我看到那些父母亲自己的坟墓，我不禁感慨:既然我们很快都要追 随逝者的脚步，悲伤又有何用。当我看到国王与那些将他们废黜的人躺在一起， 当我想到那些争斗一生的智者，或是那些通过竞争和争执将世界分裂的圣人们被 后人并排葬在一起，我对人类的那些微不足道的竞争、内讧和争论感到震惊和悲 4 伤。当我看到一些坟墓上的日期，有的死于昨日，而有的死于六百年前，我不禁 想到，有那么一天我们都会在同一个时代同时出现在世人眼前。 "I tell you I must go!" I retorted, roused to something like passion. "Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton?--a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am souless and heartless? You think wrong!--I have as much soul as you,--and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor evern of mortal flesh;--it is my spirit that adresses your spirit; just as if both has passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal,--as we are!" Excerpt from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte “我告诉你我非走不可～”我回驳着，感情很有些冲动。“你难道认为，我会 留下来甘愿做一个对你来说无足轻重的人,你以为我是一架机器——一架没有 感情的机器,能够容忍别人把一口面包从我嘴里抢走，把一滴生命之水从我杯子 里泼掉,难道就因为我一贫如洗、默默无闻、长相平庸、个子瘦小，就没有灵魂 和心肠了,你想错了～我的心灵跟你一样丰富，我的心胸跟你一样充实～要是上 帝赐予我一点姿色和财富，我会使你难以离开我，就像现在我很难离开你一样。 我不是根据习俗、常规，甚至也不是血肉之躯同你说话，而是我的灵魂同你的灵 魂在对话，就仿佛我们两人穿过坟墓，站在上帝脚下，彼此平等，本来就如此～” You must study to be frank with the world:frankness is the child of honesty and courage. Say just what you mean to do, on every occasion. If a friend asks a favor, you should grant it, if it is reasonable; if not, tell him plainly why you cannot. You would wrong him and wrong yourself by equivocation of any kind. Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or keep one. The man who requires you to do so is dearly purchased at a sacrifice. Deal kindly but firmly with all your classmates. You will find it the policy which wears best. Above all, do not appear to others what you are not. If you have any fault to find with any one, tell him, not others, of what you complain. There is no more dangerous experiment than that of undertaking to do one thing before a man's face and another behind his back. We should say and do nothing to the injury of any one. It is not only a matter of principle, but also the path of peace and hornor. By Robert E. Lee 5 在世间必须学会以真诚示人:率真乃是诚实与勇敢之子。无论在何种场合，都应 该道出自己的真实想法。如果朋友对你有所求，对于合情合理之请，应该欣然同 意;不然，应该明明白白地告诉朋友拒绝的理由。任何模棱两可的话语将会让别 人误解，也会使自己蒙受冤屈。 千万不要为了结交朋友或者挽留友情而做错一事。对你有这种要求的人也会付出 沉重的代价。与同学真心相对，绝不背叛。你将发现这是最有效用的准则。总之， 要以真实面目示人。 如果发现某人身有瑕疵，直接告诉他你的意见，而不是诉之他人。人前一套，背 后又是一套，没有什么比这更加危机四伏。任何有损他人的言语或者事情我们都 应该避免。这不仅是一种做人的原则，而且也是通向平和的人际关系、获得他人 尊敬之道。 Letter to a Young Friend Benjamin Franklin My dear friend I know of no Medicine fit to diminish the violent natural inclination you mention; and if I did, I think I should not communicate it to you. Marriage is the proper Remedy. It is the most natural State of man, and therefore the state in which you will find solid Happiness.Your Reason against entering into it at present appears to be not well founded. The Circumstantial Advantages you have in view by Postponing it, are not only uncertain, but they are small in comparison with the Thing itself, the being married and settled. It is the Man and Woman united that makes the complete human Being, Separate she wants his force of Body and Strength of Reason; he her Softness, Sensibility and acute Discernment. Together they are most likely to succeed in the World. A single man has not nearly the value he would have in that State of Union. He is an incomplete Animal.He resembles the odd Half of a Pair of Scissors. If you get a prudent, health wife, your Industry in your Profession, with her good Economy, will be a Fortune sufficient. Your Affectionate Friend 给年轻朋友的一封信 富兰克林 本杰明? 我知道没有药物能够消除你们所提到的那种疯狂的自然倾向;即使我知道,我想 我也不该告诉你.婚姻是适当的药物。它是人类最本能的状态, 因此是一种最幸 6 福的生活状态。你拒绝现在进入婚姻殿堂的理由显的不够充分.你认为推迟婚姻 可能存在好处,不仅不一定实现，而且,那些利益跟婚姻本身以及婚后的安定相比 起来就微不足道了。男人和女人只有联合起来才能组成完整的人.女人缺乏男人 的力量和周密的推理,而男人缺乏女人的温柔、感性和敏锐的洞察力。因此当男 人和女人联合起来。就能够无往不胜。单身和离婚生活的男男女女不可能具有婚 姻生活中的价值，是一种不完善的动物。他简直好比半把剪刀--孤掌难鸣。 如果你拥有一位健康而谨慎的妻子，你的辛勤工作，加上她的勤俭节约，必定会 创造充足的财富。 您真挚的朋友 Life is never just being.It is becoming a relentless, flowing on.Our parents live on through us,and we will live on through our children.The institutions we build endure,and we will endure through them.The beauty we fashion cannot be dimmed by death.Our flesh may perish,our hands will wither,but that which they creat in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come. Don't spend and waste your lives accumulating objects that will only turn to dust and ashes.Pusue not so much the material as the ideal,for ideals alone invest life with meaning and are of enduring worth. Add love to a house and you have a home.Add righteousness to a city and you have a community.Add truth to a pile of red brick and you have a school.Add religion to the hublest of edifices and you have a sanctuary.Add justice to the far-flung round of human endeavor and you have civilization.Put them all together,exalt them above their present imperfections, add to them the vision of humankind redeemed,forever free of need and strife and you have a future lighted with the radiant colors of hope. However mean your life is,meet it and live it ;do not shun it and call it hard names.It is not so bad as you are.It looks poorest when you are richest.The fault-finder will find faults in paradise.Love your life,poor as it is.You may perhaps have some pleasant,thrilling,glorious hourss,even in a poor-house.The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode;the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there,and have as cheering thoughts,as in a palace.The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any.May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving.Most think that they are above being supported by the town;but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means.which should be more disreputable.Cultivate poverty like a garden herb,like sage.Do not trouble yourself much to get new things,whether clothes or 7 friends,Turn the old,return to them.Things do not change;we change.Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. 不论你的生活如何卑贱，你要面对它生活，不要躲避它，更别用恶言咒骂它。它 不像你那样坏。你最富有的时候，倒是看似最穷。爱找缺点的人就是到天堂里也 能找到缺点。你要爱你的生活，尽管它贫穷。甚至在一个济贫院里，你也还有愉 快、高兴、光荣的时候。夕阳反射在济贫院的窗上，像身在富户人家窗上一样光 亮;在那门前，积雪同在早春融化。我只看到，一个从容的人，在哪里也像在皇 宫中一样，生活得心满意足而富有愉快的思想。城镇中的穷人，我看，倒往往是 过着最独立不羁的生活。也许因为他们很伟大，所以受之无愧。大多数人以为他 们是超然的，不靠城镇来支援他们;可是事实上他们是往往利用了不正当的手段 来对付生活，他们是毫不超脱的，毋宁是不体面的。视贫穷如园中之花而像圣人 一样耕植它吧～不要找新的花样，无论是新的朋友或新的衣服，来麻烦你自己。 找旧的，回到那里去。万物不变，是我们在变。你的衣服可以卖掉，但要保留你 的思想。 Build Me a Son General Douglas A. MacArthur Build me a son, Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory. 啊，上帝，请请我造就这样一个儿子，他将坚强足以认识自己的弱点，勇敢得足 以面对恐惧，在遇到正当的挫折时能够昂首而不卑躬屈膝，在胜利时能谦逊而不 趾高气扬。 Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be; a son who will know Thee and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge. 请给我造就这样一个儿子，他不会用愿望代替行动，将牢记你的教诲――认识自 己是认识世界的奠基石。 Lead him I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail. 我祈求，请不要把他引上平静安逸的道路，而要把他置于困难和挑战的考验和激 励之下，让他学会在暴风雨中挺立，让他学会对那些失败者富于怜悯。 ll be clear, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past. 8 请给我造就这样一个儿子，他将心地洁净，目标高尚;他将在征服别人之前先征 服自己，他将拥有未来，但永远不忘记过去。 And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. Then, I, his father, will dare to whisper "I have not lived in vain". 我祈求，除了上述的一切，请赐他足够的幽默感，这样他可以永远庄重，但不至 于盛气凌人;赋他以谦卑的品质，这样他可能永远铭记在心:真正的伟人也要真 诚率直，真正的贤人也要虚怀若谷，真正的强者也要温文尔雅。那么，作为他父 亲的我就将敢于对人低语:“我这一生没有白过。” The pleasant family When in an hour they crowded into a cab to go home， I strolled idly to my club. I was perhaps a little lonely， and it was with a touch of envy that I thought of the pleasant family life of which I had had a glimpse. They seemed devoted to one another. They had little private jokes of their own which， unintelligible to the outsider， amused them enormously. Perhaps Charles Strickland was dull judged by a standard that demanded above all things verbal scintillation; but his intelligence was adequate and that is a passport， not only to reasonable to his surroundings， success， but still more to happiness. Mrs. Strickland was a charming and she loved him. I pictured their lives， troubled by no untoward woman， adventure， honest， decent， and， by reason of those two upstanding， pleasant children， so obviously destined to carry on the normal traditions of their race and station， not without significance. They would grow old insensibly; they would see their son and daughter come to years of reason， marry in due course —— the one a pretty girl， future mother of healthy children; the other a handsome， manly fellow， obviously a soldier; and at last， prosperous in their dignified retirement， beloved by their descendants， after a happy， not unuseful life， in the fullness of their age they would sink into the grave. ——Excerpt from the Moon and Sixpennce by W. Somerset Maugham 一个钟头以后，这一家挤上一辆马车回家去了，我也一个人懒散地往俱乐部踱去。 我也许感到有一点寂寞，回想我刚才瞥见的这种幸福家庭生活，心里不无艳羡之 感。这一家人感情似乎非常融洽。他们说一些外人无从理解的小笑话，笑得要命。 如果纯粹从善于辞令这一角度衡量一个人的智慧，也许查理斯。思特里克兰德算 不得聪明，但是在他自己的那个环境里，他的智慧还是绰绰有余的，这不仅是事 业成功的敲门砖，而且是生活幸福的保障。思特里克兰德太太是一个招人喜爱的 9 女人，她很爱她的丈夫。我想象着这一对夫妻的生活，不受任何灾殃祸变的干扰， 诚实、体面，两个孩子更是规矩可爱，肯定会继承和发扬这一家人的地位和传统。 在不知不觉间，他们俩的年纪越来越老，儿女却逐渐长大成人，到了一定的年龄， 就会结婚成家——一个已经出息成美丽的姑娘，将来还会生育活泼健康的孩子; 另一个则是仪表堂堂的男子汉，显然会成为一名军人。最后这一对夫妻告老引退， 受到子孙敬爱，过着富足、体面的晚年。他们幸福的一生并未虚度，直到年寿已 经很高，才告别了人世。 ——摘自《月亮与六便士》威廉•萨默塞特•毛姆 Imagine that you spent your whole life at a single house.Each day at the same hour you entered an artificially-lit room,undressed and took up the same position in front of a motion picture camera.It photographed one frame of you per day,every day of your life. On your seventy-second birthday,the reel of film was shown.You saw yourself growing and aging over seventy-two years in less than half an hour(27.4minites at sixteen frames per second). Images of this sort ,though terrifying, are helpful in suggesting unfamiliar but useful perspectives of time. They may ,for example ,symbolize the telescoped ,almost momentary charater of the past as seen through the eyes of an anxious or disa-ffected individual. Or they may suggest the remarkable brevity of our lifes in the cosmic scale of time. If the estimated age of the cosmos were shorted to seventy-two years, a human life would take about ten seconds. But look at time the other way. Each day is a minor eternity of over 86000 seconds. During each second, the number of distinct molecular functions going on with the human body is comparable to the mumber of seconds in the estimated age of the cosmos, A few seconds are long enough for a revolutionary idea, a startling communication, a baby's conception, a wounding insult, a sudden death. Depending on how we think of them, our lives can be infinitely long or infinitely short. Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter ofrosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, aquality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a tempera-mental predominance of courage over timidity, of theappetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. 10 Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spring back to dust. Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder,the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young. When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at 80. 青春 塞缪尔?厄尔曼 青春不是年华，而是心境;青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志，恢宏 的想象，炙热的恋情;青春是生命的深泉在涌流。 青春气贯长虹，勇锐盖过怯弱，进取压倒苟安。如此锐气，二十后生而有之，六 旬男子则更多见。年岁有加，并非垂老，理想丢弃，方堕暮年。 岁月悠悠，衰微只及肌肤;热忱抛却，颓废必致灵魂。忧烦，惶恐，丧失自信， 定使心灵扭曲，意气如灰。 无论年届花甲，拟或二八芳龄，心中皆有生命之欢乐，奇迹之诱惑，孩童般天真 久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一台天线，只要你从天上人间接受美好、希望、欢乐、 勇气和力量的信号，你就青春永驻，风华常存。 一旦天线下降，锐气便被冰雪覆盖，玩世不恭、自暴自弃油然而生，即使年方二 十，实已垂垂老矣;然则只要树起天线，捕捉乐观信号，你就有望在八十高龄告 别尘寰时仍觉年轻。 Remember, my son, you have to work. Whether you handle a pick or a pen, a wheel-barrow or a set of books, digging ditches or editing a paper, ringing an auction bell or writing funny things, you must work. If you look around you will see the men who are the most able to live the rest of their days without work are the men who work the hardest. Don't be afraid of killing yourself with overwork. It is beyond your power to do that on the sunny side of thirty. They die sometimes, but it is because they quit 11 work at six in the evening, and do not go home until two in the morning. It’s the interval that kills, my son. The work gives you an appetite for your meals; it lends solidity to your slumbers, it gives you a perfect and grateful appreciation of a holiday. There are young men who do not work, but the world is not proud of them. It does not know their names, even it simply speaks of them as “old So-and-So’s boy”. Nobody likes them; the great, busy world doesn’t know that they are there. So find out what you want to be and do, and take off your coat and make a dust in the world. The busier you are, the less harm you will be apt to get into, the sweeter will be your sleep, the brighter and happier your holidays, and the better satisfied will the world be with you. By Robert Jones Burdette 谨记，我的年轻人，你们必须工作(不管你是使锄头还是用笔，也不管是推手推 车还是编记账簿，也不管你是种地还是编辑报纸，是拍卖师亦或是作家，都必须 有一份工作，并为之努力奋斗(如果仔细观察周围的人，你就会发现，那些工作 最努力的人最有可能安享晚年而无须去工作(不要害怕超负荷的工作会缩短你的 寿命，不足三十岁的年龄，你的承受能力远不止如此(如果说真的有人过早送命， 那完全是因为他们在晚上六点结束工作，却要在外流连到凌晨两点才归家(我的 年轻人，正是晚上六点到凌晨两点的这段时间的生活毁了他们自己(工作会增加 你的食欲，工作会使你安然入睡，工作将会使你心满意足地享受假日( 有的年轻人不工作，但世界并不会因他们自豪。它不知道他们的姓名，甚至简单 地将他们概括为“老令人讨厌者的男孩 ” 。没有人喜欢他们;伟大，繁忙的世 界不知道他们在那里。因此，找出哪些你想成为和做的，脱下你的外衣，把粉尘 抛在世界上。越是繁忙的你越是少受伤害，甜蜜将成为您的睡眠，光明和幸福着 您的假期，更好地满足你的意志世界。 What is immortal TO see the golden sun and the azure sky, the outstretched ocean, to walk upon the green earth , and to be a lord of a thousand creatures to look down giddy precipices or over distant flowery vales, to see the world spread out under one's finger in a map, to bring the stars near, to view the smallest insects in a microscope, to read history and witness the revolutions of empirees and the succession of generations ,to hear the gloryof Sidon and Tyre of Babylon and Susa,as of a fade pegeant,anf ti say all these wereand are now nothing. to think that we exist in such a point of time, and in such a corner of space,to be at once spectators and a part of the moving scene to watch the return of the seasons, of spring and autumn, to hear--- 12 The stock dove plain amid the forest deep, That drowsy rustles to the sighing gale. ---to traverse desert wildness, to listen to thedungeon's gloom,or sit in crowded theatres and see life itself mocked, to feel heat and cold,pleasure and pain right and wrong,truth and falsehood, to study the works of art and refine the sense of beauty to agony, to worship fame and to dream ofimmortality, to have read Shakespeare and Beloit to the same species as Sir isaac Newton to be and to do all this and then in a moment to be nothing to have it all snatched from one like a juggler's ball or a phantasmagoria..... 我们看到金色的太阳，蔚蓝的天空，广阔的海洋;我们漫步在绿油油的大地上， 做万物的主人;我们俯视令人目眩心悸的悬崖峭壁，远眺鲜花盛开的山谷;我们 把地图摊开，任意指点全球;我们把星辰移到眼前观看，还在显微镜下观察极其 微小的生物，我们学历史，亲自目睹帝国的兴亡，时代的交替;我们听人谈论西 顿、推罗、巴比伦和苏撒的勋业，如同听一番往昔的盛会，听了以后，我们说这 些事确实发生过，但现在却是过眼云烟了;我们思考着自己生活的时代，生活的 地区;我们在人生的活动舞台上既当观众，又当演员;我们观察四季更迭，春秋 代序，我们听见了___ 野鸽在浓密的树林中哀诉， 树林随微风的叹息而低语。 ___ 我们横绝大漠;我们倾听了子夜的歌声;我们光顾灯火辉煌的厅堂，走下阴 森森的地牢，或者坐在万头攒动的剧院里观看生活本身受到的摩拟;我们亲身感 受炎热和寒冷，快乐和痛苦，正义和邪恶，真理和谬误;我们钻研艺术作品，把 自己的美感提高到极其敏锐的程度;我们崇拜荣誉，梦想不朽;我们阅读莎士比 亚，或者把自己和牛顿爵士视为同一族类，正当我们面临这一切，从事这一切的 时候，自己却在一刹那之间化为虚无，眼前的一切像是魔术师手中的圆球，像是 一场幻影，一下子全都消失得无影无踪...... The English Character The English seem as silent as the Japanese, yet vainer than the inhabitants of Siam. Upon my arrival I attributed that reserve to modesty, which, I now find, has its origin in pride. Condescend to address them first, and you are sure of their acquaintance; stoop to flattery, and you conciliate their friendship and esteem. They bear hunger, cold, fatigue, and all the miseries of life without shrinking, danger only calls forth their fortitude; they even exult in calamity, but contemp is what they cannot bear. An Englishman fears contempt more than death; he often flies to death 13 as a refuge from its pressure, and dies when he fancies the world has creased to esteem him. by Oliver Goldsmith The Use of History There are two ways of thinking of history. There is, first, history regarded as a way of looking at other things, really the temporal aspect of anything, from the universe to this nib with which I am writing. Everything has its history. There is the history of the universe, if only we knew it,and we know something of it, if we do not know much. Nor is the contrast so great, when you come to think of it, between the universe and this pen-nib. A mere pen-nib has quite a considerable history. There is, to begin with, what has been written with it, and that might be something quite important. After all it was probably only one quill-pen or a couple that wrote Hamlet. Whatever has been written with the pen-nib is part of its history. In addition to that there is the history of its manufacture: this particular nib is a 'Relief' nib, No. 314, made by R. Esterbrook and Co. in England, who supply the Midland Bank with pen-nibs, from whom I got it—a gift, I may say, but behind this nib there is the whole process of manufacture. In fact a pen nib implies of universe, and the history of it implies its history. We may regard this way of looking at it—history as the time-aspect of all things: a pen-nib, the universe, the fiddled before me as I write, as a relative conception of history. There is, secondly, what we mat call a substantive conception of history, what we usually mean by it, history proper as a subject of study in itself. Excerpt from The Use of History by A.L.Rowse the study of words That if your vocabulary is limited your chances of success are limited. That one of the easiest and quickest ways to get ahead is by consciously building up your knowledge of words. 14 The the vocabulary of the average person almost stops growing by the middle twenties.And that from then on it is necessary to have an intelligent plan if progress is to be made.No haphazard hit-or-miss methods will do. The study of words is not merely something that has to do with literature.Words are your tools of thought.You can't even think at all without them.Try it.If you are planning to go downtown thin afternoon you will find that you are saying to yourself,"I think i will go downtown this afternoon."You can't make such a simple decision as this without using words. Without words you could make no decisions and from no judgements whatsoever.A pianist may have the most beautiful tunes in his head,but if he had only five keys on his piano he would never get more than a fraction of these tunes out. The study of words is not only to improve the processes of your mind.It will give you assurance;build your self-confidence;lend color to your personality;increase your popularity.Your words are your personality.Your vocabulary is you.And your words are all that we,your friends,have to know and judge you by.You have no other medium for telling us your thoughts-for convincing us,persuading us,giving us orders. Did you deal with fortune fairly Most people complain of fortune, few of nature; and the kinder they think the latter has been to them, the more they murmur at what they call the injustice of the former. Why have not I the riches, the rank, the power, of such and such, is the common expostulation with fortune; but why have not I the merit, the talents, the wit, or the beauty, of such and such others, is a reproach rarely or never made to nature. The truth is, that nature, seldom profuse, and seldom niggardly, has distributed her gifts more equally than she is generally supposed to have done. Education and situation make the great difference. Culture improves, and occasions elicit, natural talents I make no doubt but that there are potentially, if I may use that pedantic word, many Bacons, Lockes, Newtons, Caesars, Cromwells, and Mariboroughs at the ploughtail behind counters, and, perhaps, even among the nobility; but the soil must be cultivated, and the season favourable, for the fruit to have all its spirit and flavour. 15 If sometimes our common parent has been a little partial, and not kept the scales quite even; if one preponderates too much, we throw into the lighter a due counterpoise of vanity, which never fails to set all right. Hence it happens, that hardly any one man would, without reverse, and in every particular, change with any other. Though all are thus satisfied with the dispensations of nature, how few listen to her voice! How to follow her as a guide! In vain she points out to us the plain and direct way to truth, vanity, fancy, affection, and fashion assume her shape and wind us through fairy-ground to folly and error. 很多人抱怨命运，却很少有人抱怨自然;人们越是认为自然对他们仁爱有加，便 越是嘀咕命运对他们的所谓不公。 人们常常对命运发出诘难:我为何没有财富、地位、权力以及诸如此类的东西; 但人们却很少或从不这样责怪过自然:我为何没有长处、天赋、机智或美丽以及 诸如此类的东西。 事实是，自然总是将天赋公平地分配给人们，比人们通常认为的还要不偏不倚， 很少过分地慷慨!也很少吝啬。人与人之间的巨大差异是由于教育和环境使然。 文化修养改良了天赋，机遇环境诱发了天赋。我们并不怀疑在农田耕作，在柜台 后营业，甚至在豪门贵族中间有很多潜在的培根们、洛克们、牛顿们、凯撒们、 克伦威尔们和马尔伯勒们，如果允许我用“潜在的”这个学究味浓重的词的话; 但是要使果实具有它全部的品质和风味，还必须有耕耘过的泥土，必须有适宜的 季节。 倘若大自然有时候有那么一点偏心，没有将天平摆正;倘若有一头过重，我们就 会在轻的一头投上一枚大小适当的虚荣的砝码，它每次都会将天平重新调平，从 不出差错。因此就出现了这种情况:几乎没有人会毫无保留地和另一个人里里外 外全部对换一下。 虽然对于自然的分配，人人都感到满意;然而肯听听她的忠告的人却是如此之少! 能将她当作向导而跟随其后的人又是如此之少!她徒然地为我们指出一条通向真 理的笔直的坦途;而虚荣、幻想、矫情、时髦却俨然以她的面貌出现，暗中将我 们引向虚幻的歧途，走向愚笨和谬误。 Excerpt: from Upon Affectation By Lord Chesterfield(切斯特菲尔德勋爵) The Lesson of a Tree I should not take either the biggest or the most picturesque tree to illustrate it. Here is one of my favorites now before me, a fine yellow 16 poplar, quite straight, perhaps 90 feet high, and four thick at the butt. How strong, vital, enduring! how dumbly eloquent! What suggestions of imperturbability and being, as against the human trait of mere seeming. Then the qualities, almost emotional, palpably artistic, heroic, of a tree; so innocent and harmless, yet so savage. It is, yet says nothing. How it rebukes by its tough and equable serenity all weathers, this gusty-temper’d little whiffet, man, that runs indoors at a mite of rain or snow. Science (or rather half-way science) scoffs at reminiscence of dryad and hamadryad, and of trees speaking. But, if they don’t, they do as well as most speaking, writing, poetry, sermons—or rather they do a great deal better. I should say indeed that those old dryad-reminiscences are quite as true as any, and profounder than most reminiscences we get. (“Cut this out,” as the quack mediciners say, and keep by you.) Go and sit in a grove or woods, with one or more of those voiceless companions, and read the foregoing, and think. One lesson from affiliating a tree—perhaps the greatest moral lesson anyhow from earth, rocks, animals, is that same lesson of inherency, of what is, without the least regard to what the looker on (the critic) supposes or says, or whether he likes or dislikes. What worse—what more general malady pervades each and all of us, our literature, education, attitude toward each other, (even toward ourselves,) than a morbid trouble about seems, (generally temporarily seems too,) and no trouble at all, or hardly any, about the sane, slow-growing, perennial, real parts of character, books, friendship, marriage—humanity’s invisible foundations and hold-together? by Walter Whitman The Joys of Writing The fortunate people in the world—the only reallyfortunate people in the world, in my mind, are those whose work is also their pleasure. The class is not a large one, not nearly so large as it is often represented to be; and authors are perhaps one of the most important elements in its composition.They enjoy in this respect at least a real harmony of life. To my mind, to be able to make your work your pleasure is the one class distinction in the world worth striving for; and I do not wonder that others are inclined to envy those happy human beings who find their livelihood in the gay effusions of their fancy, to whom every hour of labour is an hour of enjoyment, to whom repose—however necessary—is a tiresome interlude. And even a holiday is almost deprivation. Whether a man writes well or ill, has much to say or little, if he cares aboutwriting 17 at all, he will appreciate the pleasures of composition. To sit at one's table on a sunny morning, with four clear hours of uninterruptible security, plenty of nice white paper, and a Squeezer pen—that is true happiness. The complete absorption of the mind upon an agreeable occupation—what more is there than that to desire? What does it matter what happens outside,The House of Commons may do what it likes, and so may the House of Lords. The heathen may rage furiously in every part of the globe. The bottom may be knocked clean out of the American market. Consols may fall and suffragettes may rise. Nevermind, for four hours, at any rate, we will withdraw ourselves from a common, ill-governed, and disorderly world, and with the key of fancy unlock that cupboard where all the good things of the infinite are put away. by Winston Churchill Three Passions Three passions, simple but overwhelming strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course ,over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy----ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness-----that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what---at last---I have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I can’t, and I too suffer. 18 This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me. Unbearable无法忍受的;hither and thither到处;wayward人性的;anguish 痛苦，苦恼;verge边缘;ecstasy入迷;unfathomable莫测高深的;abyss深 渊;miniature缩影，缩图;prefigure预示，设想;reverberate反响;oppressor 压迫者;mockery嘲笑;alleviate减轻; The Americans Americans are a peculiar people. They work like mad, then give away much of what they earn. They play until they are exhausted, and call this a vacation. They live to think of themselves as tough-minded business men, yet they are push-overs for any hard luck story. They have the biggest of nearly everything including government, motor cars and debts, yet they are afraid of bigness. They are always trying to chip away at big government, big business, big unions, big influence. They like to think of themselves as little people, average men, and they would like to cut everything down to their own size. Yet they boast of their tall buildings, high mountains, long rivers, big state, the best country, the best world, the best heaven. They also have the most traffic deaths, the most waste, the most racketeering. When they meet, they are always telling each other, "Take it easy," then they rush off like crazy in opposite directions. They play games as if they were fighting a war, and fight wars as if playing a game. They marry more, go broke more often, and make more money than any other people. They love children, animals, gadgets, mother, work, excitement, noise, nature, television shows, comedy, installment buying, fast motion, spectator sports, the underdog, the flag, Christmas, jazz, shapely women and muscular men, classical recordings, crowds, comics, cigarettes, warm houses in winter and cool ones in summer, thick beefsteaks, coffee, ice cream, informal dress, plenty of running water, do-it-yourself, and a working week trimmed to forty hours or less. They crowd their highways with cars while complaining about the traffic, flock to movies and television while griping about the quality and the commercials, go to church but don't care much for sermons, and drink too much in the hope of relaxing , only to find themselves stimulated to even bigger dreams. There is of course, no typical American. But if you added them all together and then divided by 226 000 000 they would look something like what this chapter has tried to portray. 19 excerpt:from Why We Behave Like Americans By Bradford Smith 美国人是一个与众不同的民族。他们拼命地工作，然后花掉了大量辛苦赚来的钱。 他们玩得筋疲力尽，并称之为度假。他们向来把自己想成硬心肠的商人，可是任 何不幸的故事都会使他们受骗。几乎所有最大的东西他们都有 :政府，汽车和 债务，可他们害怕庞大。所以他们总是要想办法除去大的政府，大的买卖，大的 团体，大的影响力。他们愿意把自己看成是小人物，平平常常的人，喜欢一切都 是平等的。他们吹嘘自己的高楼大厦，高山，大河，吹嘘自己是大国，是最好的 国家，是最好的世界，最好的天堂。 同时，他们的车祸最多，浪费最多，骗子 也最多。 美国人一见面就对彼此说:“放轻松点，”然后就向相反的方向狂奔。他们做游 戏象打仗一样，打起仗来象做游戏。跟任何人相比，他们结婚次数更多，离婚的 频率更高，赚的钱更多。他们爱孩子，爱动物，爱小玩艺，爱母亲，爱工作，爱 激动，爱吵吵嚷嚷，爱大自然，爱看电视节目，爱看喜剧，买东西喜欢分期付款， 喜欢快节奏，爱买票看体育比赛，同情弱者，热爱国旗，爱过圣诞节，听爵士乐， 爱看身材好的女子和肌肉发达的男人，爱收藏经典唱片，爱凑热闹，看连环画， 抽烟，喜欢房子冬暖夏凉，爱吃切得厚厚的牛排，爱喝咖啡，吃冰淇淋，穿着随 便，喜欢自来水一直淌着，一切自己动手，一周工作时间限制在40小时以内。 当然没有典型的美国人。但是如果你把他们加在一起，然后用226 000 000来除， 他们的样子就象这一章要描述的。 节选自布拉德福德所著《为什么我们的举止象美国人》 The contrasting English and American patterns have some remarkable implications, particularly if we assume that man, like other animals, has a built-in need to shut himself off from others from time to time. An English student in one of my seminars typified what happens when hidden patterns clash. He was quite obviously experiencing strain in his relationships with Americans. Nothing seemed to go right and it was quite clear from his remarks that we did not know how to behave. An analysis of his complaints showed that a major source of irritation was that no American seemed to be able to pick up the subtle clues that there were times when he didn’t want his thoughts intruded on. As he started it, “I’m walking around the apartment and it seems that whenever I want to be alone my roommate starts talking to me. Pretty soon he’s asking ‘What’s the matter?’ and wants to know if I’m angry. By then I am angry and say something.” It took some time but finally we were able to identify most of the contrasting features of the American and Britain problems that were in conflict in this case. When the American wants to be alone he goes into 20 a room and shuts the door---he depends on architectural features for screening. For an American to refuse to talk to someone else present in the same room, to give them the “silent treatment,” is the ultimate form of rejection and a sure sign of great displeasure. The English, on the other hand, lacking rooms of their own since childhood, never developed the practice of using space as a refuge from others. They have in effect internalized a set of barriers, which they erect and which others are supposed to recognize. Therefore, the more the Englishman shuts himself off when he is with an American the more likely the American is to break in to assure himself that all is well. Tension lasts until the two get to know each other. The important point is that the spatial and architectural needs of each are not the same at all. Advice to Youth Being told I would be expected to talk here, I inquired what sort of talk I ought to make. They said it should be something suitable to youth-something didactic, instructive, or something in the nature of good advice. Very well. I have a few things in my mind which I have often longed to say for the instruction of the young; for it is in one’s tender early years that such things will best take root and be most enduring and most valuable. First, then. I will say to you my young friends—and I say it beseechingly, urgingly— Always obey your parents, when they are present. This is the best policy in the long run, because if you don’t, they will make you. Most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humoring that superstition than you can by acting on your own better judgment. Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any, also to strangers, and sometimes to others. If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. That will be sufficient. If you shall find that he had not intended any offense, come out frankly and confess yourself in the wrong when you struck him; acknowledge it like a man and say you didn’t mean to. Yes, always avoid violence; in this age of charity and kindliness, the time has gone by for such things. Leave dynamite to the low and unrefined. Go to bed early, get up early- this is wise. Some authorities say get up with the sun; some say get up with one thing, others with another. But a lark is really the best thing to get up with. It gives you a splendid reputation with everybody to know that you get up with the lark; and if 21 you get the right kind of lark, and work at him right, you can easily train him to get up at half past nine, every time—it’s no trick at all. by Mark Twain Companionship of books A man may usually be known by the books he reads as well as by the company he 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 always was, and it will never change. It is the most patient and cheerful of companions. 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 for a book -------just as two persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration which both have for a third. There is an old proverb: “love me, love my dog.”But there is more wisdom in this: “love me, love my book.” The book is a truer and higher bond of union. Men can think, feel, and sympathize with each other through 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 the 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 could think out; for the world of a man’s life is, for the most part, but the world of his thoughts. Thus the best books are treasuries of good words, the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, become our constant companions and comforters. “They are never alone,”said Sir Philip Sidney, “that are accompanied 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 good words almost always inspire to good works. 22 Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most lasting products 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 passed 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 survive 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, grieve with them; their experience becomes ours, and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the scenes which they describe. The great and good do not die ever in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits 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 ago. Most of us, however, take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future. When we are in buoyant health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista. So we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life. „ I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would tech him the joys of sound. Now and them I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see. Recently I was visited by a very good friends who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, and I asked her what she had observed.. "Nothing in particular, " she replied. I might have been incredulous had I not been accustomed to such reposes, for long ago I became convinced that the seeing see little. How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I who cannot see find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the 23 rough, shaggy bark of a pine. In the spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud the first sign of awakening Nature after her winter's sleep. I feel the delightful, velvety texture of a flower, and discover its remarkable convolutions; and something of the miracle of Nature is revealed to me. Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song. I am delighted to have the cool waters of a brook rush thought my open finger. To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug. To me the page ant of seasons is a thrilling and unending drama, the action of which streams through my finger tips. Excerpt from Story of My Life Helen Keller The English humour Fun seems to be the possession of the English race.Fun is JohnBulll's idea of humour，and there is no intellectualjudgment in fun.Everybody cause it is practical.More than that，it unites understands it be- allclasses and sweetens even political life.To studythe elemental form of English humour，you must look to the school-boy.It begins with the practical joke，and unless there is something of his natureabout it， it is never humour to an Englishman.Inan English household，fun is going all the time.The entire house resounds witn it.The father comes home and the whole family contribute to theamusement;puns，humorous uses of words， little things that are meaningless nonsense，if you like，fly round， and every one enjoys them thoroughly for just what they are.The Scotch are devoid ofthis trait，and the Americans seem to be，too. If I had the power to give humour to the na-tions I would not give them drollery，for that isimpractical;I would not give them wit，for that isaristocratic，and many minds cannot grasp it;but Iwould be contented to deal out fun，which has nointellectual element，no subtlety，belongs to oldand young，educated and uneducated alike，and isthe natural form of the humour of the Englishman. Let me tell you why the Englishman speaksonly one language.He believes with the strongest conviction that his own tongue is the one that allpeople ought to speak and will come in time tospeak，so what is the use of learning any other,Hebelieves，too，that he is appointed by Providenceto be a governor of all the rest of the human race.From our Scottish standpoint we can never see anEnglishman without thinking that there is oozing from every pore of his body the conviction that he belongs to a governing race.It has not been his de-sire that large portions of the world should be un-der his care，but as they have been thrust uponhim in the proceedings 24 of a wise Providence，hemust discharge his duty.This theory hasn't en-deared him to others of his kind，but that isn't amatter that concerns him.He doesn't learn anyother language because he knows that he couldspeak it only so imperfectly that other people would laugh at him，and it would never do that aperson of his importance in the scheme of the uni-verse should be made the object of ridicule. excerpt: from SCOTTISH HUMOUR By John Watson Of Study (Francis Bacon) Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgement and disposition of business. For ecpert and execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best form those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgement wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfectec by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. 25 Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little， he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in morse. Nay there is no stand or impendiment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers'cases. So every defectof the mind may have a special receipt. The tragedy of old age What is it like to be old in the United States? What will our own lives be like when we are old? Americans find it difficult to think about old age until they are propelled into the midst of it by their own aging and that of relatives and friends. Aging is the neglected stepchild of the human life cycle. Though we have begun to examine the socially taboo subjects of dying and death, we have leaped over that long period of time preceding death known as old age. In truth, it is easier to manage the problems of death than the problem of living as an old person. Death is a dramatic, one-time crisis while old age is a day-by-day and year-by-year confrontation with powerful external forces, a bittersweet coming to terms with one's own personality and one's life. Old age is neither inherently miserable nor inherently sublime-like every stage of life it has problems, joys, fears and potentials. The process of aging and eventual death must ultimately be accepted as the natural progression of the life cycle, the old completing their prescribed life spans and making way for the young. Much that is unique in old age in fact derives from the reality of aging and the imminence of death. The old must clarify and find use for what they have attained in a lifetime of learning and adapting they must conserve strength and resources where necessary 26 and adjust creatively to those changes and losses that occur as part of the aging experience. The elderly have the potential for qualities of human reflection and observation which can only come from having lived an entire life span. There is a lifetime accumulation of personality and experience which is available to be used and enjoyed. But what are an individual’s chances for a “good ” old age in America, with satisfying final years and a dignified death ?Unfortunately , none too good. For many elderly Americans old age is a tragedy, a period of quiet despair, deprivation , desolation and muted rage. This can be a consequence of the kind of life a person has led in younger years and the problems in his or her relationships with others. There are also inevitable personal and physical losses to be sustained, some of which can become overwhelming and unbearable. All of this is the individual factor, the existential element. But old age is frequently a tragedy even when the early years have been fulfilling and people seemingly have everything going for them. Herein lies what I consider to be the genuine tragedy of old age in America—we have shaped a society which is extremely harsh to live in when one is old. The tragedy of old age is not the fact that each of us must grow old and die but that the process of doing so has been made unnecessarily and at times excruciatingly painful, humiliating, debilitating and isolating through insensitivity, ignorance and poverty. The potentials for satisfactions and even triumphs in late life are real and vastly under explored. For the most part the elderly struggle to exist in an inhospitable world. The Art of Living The art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go. For life is a paradox: it enjoins us to cling to its many gifts even while it ordains their eventual relinquishment. The rabbis of old put it this way:" A man comes to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open." Surely we ought to hold fast to life, for it is wondrous, and full of a beauty that breaks through every pore of God' s own earth. We know that this is so, but all too often we recognize this truth only in our backward glance when we remember what was and then suddenly realize that it is no more. We remember a beauty that faded, a love that waned. But we remember with far greater pain that we did not see that beauty when it flowered, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered. 27 A recent experience re-taught me this truth. I was hospitalized following a severe heart attack and had been in intensive care for several days. It was not a pleasant place. One morning, I had to have some additional tests. The required machines were located in a building at the opposite end of the hospital, so I had to be wheeled across the courtyard on a gurney. As we emerged from our unit, the sunlight hit me. That's all there was to my experience. Just the light of the sun. And yet how beautiful it was -- how warming, how sparking, how brilliant! I looked to see whether anyone else relished the sun's golden glow, but everyone was hurrying to and fro, most with eyes fixed on the ground. Then I remembered how often I, too, had been indifferent to the grandeur of each day, too preoccupied with petty and sometimes even mean concerns to respond from that experience is really as commonplace as was the experience itself: life's gifts are precious -- but we are too heedless of them. Here then is the first pole of life' s paradoxical demands on us : Never too busy for the wonder and the awe of life. Be reverent before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Seize each golden minute. Hold fast to life...but not so fast that you cannot let go. This is the second side of life' s coin, the opposite pole of its paradox: we must accept our losses, and learn how to let go. This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that the world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of our passionate being can, nay, will, be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surely this truth dawns upon us. At every stage of life we sustain losses -- and grow in the process. We begin our independent lives only when we emerge from the womb and lose its protective shelter. We enter a progression of schools, then we leave our mothers and fathers and our childhood homes. We get married and have children and then have to let them go. We confront the death of our parents and our spouses. We face the gradual or not so gradual waning of our strength. And ultimately, as the parable of the open and closed hand suggests, we must confront the inevitability of our own demise, losing ourselves as it were, all that we were or dreamed to be. 28 29