A Way of Life

Fellow students: 同学们：
       Every man has a philosophy of life in thought, in word, or in deed, worked out in himself unconsciously. 每个人都有他的生活哲学，无论是在思想，言语还是在行为中，而且这哲学会不自觉地在他身上发挥着作用。In possession of the very best, he may not know of its existence; with the very worst he may pride himself as a paragon. 心怀上佳的哲思，他可能不会知晓它的存在；心存至陋之哲理，他却可能自诩为楷模。As it grows with the growth it cannot be taught to the young in formal lectures.它随着人的成长而增加，非正式的演讲所能授予年轻人。
What have bright eyes, red blood, quick breath and taut muscles to do with philosophy? 明眸，鲜血，急促的呼吸，紧实的肌肉 ,这些与哲学何干？Did not the great Stagirite say that young men were unfit students of it? 难道伟大的斯塔利亚人不曾讲过，年轻人是它不合格的学生？– they will hear as though they heard not, and to no profit. 他们会充耳不闻,了无裨益。
Why then should I trouble you?那我又为何来烦扰你？ Because I have a message that may be helpful. 因为我有一言，或可助你。It is not philosophical, nor is it strictly moral or religious, one or other of which I was told my address should be, and yet in a way it is all three. 它无关哲学，也非完全有关道德或宗教,亦非我的演讲所被要求谈到的某些东西，然而从某种意义上说它三者均是。It is the oldest and the freshest, the simplest and the most useful, so simple indeed is it that some of you may turn away disappointed as was Naaman the Syrian when told to go wash in Jordan and be clean. sortout翻译它最陈旧也最新鲜，最简单也最实用，简单得你们中有人会转身离去，心中失望，就像叙利亚的纳曼被告知沐浴于约旦可得洁净时那样。
You know those composite tools to be bought for 50 cents, with one handle to fit a score of more of instruments. 你知道那些用50分能买到的组装工具，它有一个手柄，用来修理那些大件。The workmanship is usually bad, so bad, as a rule, that you will not find an example in any good carpenter's shop; 做工通常很差，以至于按规矩你在任何好工匠的店铺里都不出一个来。but the boy has one, the chauffeur slips one into his box, and the sailor into his kit, and there is one in the odds-and-ends drawer of the pantry of every well-regulated famil
y. 但是男孩子会备着一个，司机会往他的盒子里塞一个，水手会在他的工具箱里放一个，每一个个井井有条的家庭也会在餐具室的杂物抽屉里存着一个。
It is simply a handy thing about the house, to help over the many little difficulties of the day. 它只是家里的一个顺手的东西，用来搞定日常琐碎的小困难。Of this sort of philosophy I wish to make you a present – a handle to fit your life tools.我希望以这样的哲学赠你一个礼物——一个修理你人生之工具的手柄。 Whether the workmanship is Sheffield or shoddy, this helve will fit anything from a hatchet to a corkscrew. 不管做工是精湛还是极烂，这个手柄都能修好一切，从短柄斧到螺丝锥。
       My message is but a work, a Way, an easy expression of the experience of a plain man whose life has never been worried by any philosopher higher than that of the shepherd in As You Like It. 但是，我的信息是一部作品，一条朝圣之路，一个普通人的经验的简单表述——他的生活从未因为任何比《皆大欢喜》里那个牧羊人高明的哲学家而担忧过。
I wish to point out a path in which the wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot err; 我希望指出
一条道路，即使一个愚笨的旅人也不会走错；not a system to be worked out painfully only to be discarded, not a formal scheme, simply a habit as easy – or as hard! – to adopt as any other habit, good or bad.它不是一个需要苦心经营，却终为人所抛弃的制度，不是一个一个正式的规划，而只是一个习惯，如同其他或好或坏的习惯一样地容易养成——或者一样不容易养成。
A few years ago a Xmas card went the rounds, with the legend,几年前有一种圣诞贺卡十分流行，上面写道，"Life is just one 'denied' thing after another," 生活就是一个接一个的“拒签”which, in more refined language, is the same as saying,用更精炼的语言说，就等于是 "Life is a habit,"“生活是一种习惯” a succession of actions that become more or less automatic. 是一系列或多或少地无意识的行为。This great truth, which lies at the basis of all actions,这一伟大的真理存在于一切生理和心理行为的基础之中 muscular or psychic, is the keystone to the teaching of Aristotle,是亚里士多德的教育之要旨， to whom the formation of habits was the basis of moral excellence.对他来说，习惯的养成乃是道德优越之本。 "In a word, habits of any kind are the result of actions of the same kind; and so what we have to do, is to give a certain character to these particular actions" (Ethics). “”简而言之，任何习惯
都是同一种行为的结果;因而我们要做的，就是赋予这些特定行为某种特性。”(《伦理学》)Lift a seven month-old baby to his feet – see him tumble to his nose. 把一个七个月的婴儿举起来让他双脚站立--他会摔个大头朝地。Do the same at twelve months – he walks. 同样对一个十二个月的孩子--他能走路了。At two years he runs. 两岁他就会跑了。The muscles and the nervous system have acquired the habit. 肌肉和神经系统已经获得了那种习惯。One trial after another, one failure after another, has given him power. 一次接一次的尝试，一个又一个的失败，这些都赋予他力量。Put your finger in a baby's mouth, and he sucks away in blissful anticipation of a response to a mammalian habit millions of years old. 把你的手指放进一个婴儿的嘴里，他会带着愉悦的期待，盼望着得到一个百万年孕育出的母性习惯的回应。And we can deliberately train parts of our body to perform complicated actions with unerring accuracy. 而且我们可以有意地训练我们的部分身体分毫不差地执行复杂的动作。
Watch that musician playing a difficult piece. 看那音乐家演奏一首有难度的作品。Batteries, commutators, multipliers, switches, wires innumerable control these nimble fingers, 数不清的电池，整流器，扩音器，开关，电线控制着这些敏捷的手指，the machinery of which may
be set in motion as automatically as in a pianola, 这动作就像一架自动钢琴般似地机械，the player all the time chatting as if he had nothing to do in controlling the apparatus 演奏者一直在聊天，好像他完全没在弹钢琴。– habit again, the gradual acquisition of power by long practice and at the expense of many mistakes.——又是习惯，以长期练习达致的、以很多错误为代价的逐渐的能力习得。 The same great law reaches through mental and moral states.这同一伟大的法则贯穿精神的和道德的形态。 "Character," which partakes of both, in Plutarch's words, is "long-standing habit."“性格，”与两者皆有关联，用普鲁塔克的话说，是“长期存在的习惯”。 Now the way of life that I preach is a habit to be acquired gradually by long and steady repetition. 我所宣扬的生活之道是一种习惯，获得它需要长期稳定的重复。It is the practice of living for the day only, and for the day's work, Life in day-tight compartments. 它是“日密舱”的实践，只为今日而活，只为今日之事。"Ah," I hear you say, "that is an easy matter, simple as Elisha's advice!" “啊，”我听见你说，“那很好办，就像伊莱莎的建议一样简单。”Not as I shall urge it, in words which fail to express the depth of my feelings as to its value. 它不简单，如我竭力主张的那样，我表述它的话语并不能表达我对它的价值的感情之深。I started life in the best of all environments – in a parsonage, one of nin
e children. 我在最好的环境中开始了生命旅程——一个牧师之家，九子之一。A man who has filled Chairs in four universities, has written a successful book, and has been asked to lecture at Yale, is supposed popularly to have brains of special quality. 一个在四所大学任教，写过一本成功的书，曾应邀在耶鲁大学演讲的人，大家会认为他资质过人。A few of my intimate friends really know the truth about me, as I know it! 我的几个密友才知道有关我的真相，就像我自己也明白的那样！Mine, in good faith I say it, are of the most mediocre character. 我的资质，真心实意地说，是非常平庸的。But what about those professorships, etc.?那么那些教授职称等等，又是怎么回事？Just habit, a way of life, an outcome of the day's work, the vital importance of which I wish to impress upon you with all the force at my command.只是习惯，一种生活之道，专注于今日之事的结果，我会竭我所能让你能铭记它们的重要性。
        …
Begin the day with Christ and His prayer – you need no other. 以基督和祷告为一日之始——你别无所需。Creedless, with it you have religion; creed-stuffed, it will leaven any theol
ogical dough in which you stick. 不为教条束缚，它能让你体会个中真意；教条缠身，它会发酵你陷入的任何神学问题。As the soul is dyed by the thoughts, let no day pass without contact with the best literature of the world. 因思想浸染灵魂，不可一日不读世界文学之佳作。Learn to know your Bible, though not perhaps as your fathers did. 学会理解你的圣经，虽然也许不像你的父辈那样。In forming character and in shaping conduct, its touch has still its ancient power. 在性格塑造和行为养成方面，它的方法依然有其古老的力量。Of the kindred of Ram and sons of Elihu, you should know its beauties and its strength. 在亚兰的亲属和以利户的儿孙之中， 你应当领会到它的美与力量。Fifteen or twenty minutes day by day will give you the fellowship with the great minds of the race, and little by little as the years pass you extend your friendship with the immortal dead. 每天拿出15或20分钟，能让你与伟人并肩，随州岁月流逝，你将与不朽先哲情谊日增。They will give you faith in your own day. 他们会在你的日子里给予你信念。Listen while they speak to you of the fathers. 听他们对你，先人之子讲的。But each age has its own spirit and ideas, just as it has its own manners and pleasures. 但是每个时代自有其精神与观念，正如它自有其风格与乐趣。You are right to believe that yours is the best University as its best period. 你认为你的时代是最
好的时期的最好的大学，这无可非议。Why should you look back to be shocked at the frowsiness and dullness of the students of the seventies or even of the nineties? 你为何要回首往昔，震惊于70年代甚至是90年代的学生的邋遢与迟钝？And cast no thought forward, lest you reach a period where you and yours will present to your successors the same dowdiness of clothes and times. 不要去想以后，以免想到你和你的时代在后人面前显露出同样的服装与时代上的寒酸与落后。But while change is the law, certain great ideas flow fresh through the ages, and control us effectually as in the days of Pericles. 然而尽管天道无常，唯变为恒，某些伟大思想却历久弥新，全然控制着我们，如在伯利克里时代。Mankind, it has been said, is always advancing, man is always the same. 有种说法是，人类永远在进步，人却一成不变。The love, hope, fear and faith that make humanity, and the elemental passions of the human heart, remain unchanged, and the secret of inspiration in any literature is the capacity to touch the cord that vibrates in a sympathy that knows nor time nor place.造就人性的爱，希望，畏惧与信念，和人心中基本的激情，是不曾改变的，一切文学灵感之秘密，就在于它能够拨动那不因时代和地域改变的共鸣之弦。