【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 rence 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 subtitle。 natural philosophy deep。 moral grave。 logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores. Nay, there is no stand or impediment 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 man39。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 sectors. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers39。 cases. So every defect of the mind, may have a special receipt 論讀書 弗蘭西斯培根 讀書足以怡情，足以博彩，足以長才。其怡情也，最見于獨處幽居之時；其傅彩也，最見于高談闊論之中；其長才也，最見于處世判事之際。練達之士雖能分別處理細事或一一判別枝節(jié)，然縱觀統(tǒng)籌、全局策劃，則舍好學深思者莫屬。讀書費時過多易惰，文采藻飾太盛則矯，全憑條文斷事乃學 究故態(tài)。讀書補天然之不足，經(jīng)驗又補讀書之不足，蓋天生才干猶如自然花草，讀書然后知如何修剪移接；而書中所示，如不以經(jīng)驗范之，則又大而無當。有一技之長者鄙讀書，無知者羨讀書，唯明智之士用讀書，然書并不以用處告人，用書之智不在書中，而在書外，全憑觀察得之。讀書時不可存心詰難作者，不可盡信書上所言，亦不可只為尋章摘句，而應推敲細思。書有可淺嘗者，有可吞食者，少數(shù)則須咀嚼消化。換言之，有只須讀其部分者，有只須大體涉獵者，少數(shù)則須全讀，讀時須全神貫注，孜孜不倦。書亦可請人代讀，取其所作摘要，但只限題材較次或價值不高者， 否則書經(jīng)提煉猶如水經(jīng)蒸餾、淡而無味矣。 讀書使人充實，討論使人機智，筆記使人準確。因此不常作筆記者須記憶特強，不常討論者須天生聰穎，不常讀書者須欺世有術，始能無知而顯有知。讀史使人明智，讀詩使人靈秀，數(shù)學使人周密，科學使人深刻，倫理學使人莊重，邏輯修辭之學使人善辯：凡有所學，皆成性格。人之才智但有滯礙，無不可讀適當之書使之順暢，一如身體百病，皆可借相宜之運動除之。滾球利睪腎，射箭利胸肺，慢步利腸胃，騎術利頭腦，諸如此類。如智力不集中，可令讀數(shù)學，蓋演題須全神貫注，稍有分散即須重演；如不能辨異，可令讀經(jīng)院 哲學，蓋是輩皆吹毛求疵之人；如不善求同，不善以一物闡證另一物，可令讀律師之案卷。如此頭腦中凡有缺陷，皆有特藥可醫(yī)。（王佐良先生譯） 作者介紹 :弗蘭西斯培根（ Francis Bacon ， 1561— 1626）是英國哲學家和科學家。 英語經(jīng)典散文 6 On Motes and Beams By William Somerset Maugham It is curious that our own offenses should seem so much less heinous than the offenses of others. I suppose the reason is that we know all the circumstances that have occasioned them and so manage to excuse in ourselves what we cannot excuse in others. We turn our attention away from our own defects, and when we are forced by untoward events to consider them, find it easy to condone them. For all I know we are right to do this。 they are part of us and we must accept the good and bad in ourselves together. But when we e to judge others, it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them, but by an image that we have formed of ourselves from which we have left our everything that offends our vanity or would discredit us in the eyes of the world. To take a trivial instance: how scornful we are when we catch someone out telling a lie。 but who can say that he has never told not one, but a hundred? There is not much to choose between men. They are all a hotchpotch of greatness and littleness, of virtue and vice, of nobility and baseness. Some have more strength of character, or more opportunity, and so in one direction or another give their instincts freer play, but potentially they are the same. For my part, I do not think I am any better or any worse than most people, but I know that if I set down every action in my life and every thought that has crossed my mind, the world would consider me a monster of depravity. The knowledge that these reveries are mon to all men should inspire one with tolerance to oneself as well as to others. It is well also if they enable us to look upon our felllows, even the most eminent and respectable, with humor, and if they lead us to take ourselves not too seriously. 微塵與棟梁 威廉 薩默塞特 毛姆 (英國 ) 令人好奇的是，與他人的過失相比，我們自己的過失往往不是那么的可憎。我想，原因是我們了解一切導致過失出現(xiàn)的情況，因而，能夠想法原諒自己犯了一些不容許他人犯的過錯。我們不關注自己的缺點，即使身陷困境，不得不正視它們時，我們也會很容易就寬恕自己 。據(jù)我所知，我們這樣做是正確的。缺點是我們自己的一部分，我們必須接納自己的好與壞。 但當我們評判別人時，情況就不一樣了。我們不是通過真正的自我而是用另外一種自我形象來判斷，完全摒除了在任何人眼中，會傷害到自己的虛榮或者體面的事物。舉一個小例子：當覺察到別人說謊時，我們是多么地不屑??！但是有誰可以說自己從未說過謊？可能還不止一百次呢！ 人與人之間沒什么大的區(qū)別。他們皆是偉大與渺小，善良與邪惡，高貴與低賤的混合體。有些人性格比較堅毅，機會也較多，因此在這個或者那個方向上，更能自由地發(fā)揮自己的天資，但是人類潛質(zhì)都 是同樣的。至于我自己，我不認為自己會比多數(shù)人更好或更差，但是我知道，如果我記下我生命中每一個行動和每一個掠過我心頭的想法的話，世人將會把我看成一個邪惡的怪物。每個人都會有這樣的怪念頭，這樣的認識應該能啟發(fā)我們寬容自己，也寬容他人。同時，若因此使我們在看待他人時，即使是對天下最優(yōu)秀最令人尊敬的人，也可以有幽默感的話，而且也不太苛求自己，那也是很有益的。 作者介紹 : 威廉薩姆塞特毛姆生平簡介 英國小說家威廉 薩姆塞特毛姆（ William Somerset Maugham， 18741965）英國著名小 說家，劇作家，散文家。威廉薩默塞特毛姆原是醫(yī)學系學生，后轉(zhuǎn)而致力寫作。他的文章常在譏諷中潛藏對人性的憐憫與同情?！度诵约湘i》是其畢業(yè)生心血巨著，也為他奠定了偉大小說家的不朽的地位。他是一位成功且多產(chǎn)的作家，在長篇小說、短篇小說和戲劇領域里都有建樹。不過毛姆本人對自己的評價卻很謙虛：“我只不過是二流作家中排在前面的一個。”作為奧斯卡王爾德風化案之后的一代英國作家，毛姆在自己的作品中小心避免了與同性戀有關的各種題材，盡管他本人也曾擁有一段長達三十年的同性戀情。 英語經(jīng)典散文 7 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech The spirit of man by William Faulkner I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work a life39。s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it mensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand here where I am standing. Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has fotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can m