名人家書:約翰濟慈致弟弟（湯姆）
I have not sufficient reasoning faculty to settlethe doctrine of thrift——as it is consistent with the dignity of human Society——with the happiness of Cottagers——all I can do is by plump contrasts——Were the fingers made to squeeze a guinea or a white hand？Were the Lips made to hold a pen or a Kiss？And yet in Cities Man is shutout from his fellows if he is poor，the cottagermust be dirty and very wretched if she be notthrifty.——The present state of society demandsthis and this convinces me that the world is veryyoung and in a very ignorant state.——We live ina barbarous age… On our walk in Ireland we hadtoo much opportunity to see the worse than nakedness，the rags，the dirt and misery of thepoor common Irish—A Scotch Cottage，though inthat sometimes the Smoke has no exit but at thedoor，is a palace to an Irish one… We heard onpassing into Belfast through a most wretchedsuburb that most disgusting of all noises…I meanthe sound of the shuttle.What a tremendous difficulty is the improvement of the conditions ofsuch people.I cannot conceive how a mind“withchild” of philanthropy could grasp at possibility——with me it is absolute despair.
我沒有足夠的推理能力去闡述清楚節(jié)儉學(xué)說——由于它與人類社會的高尚品德是一致的——與村民的幸福是一致的——所以我所能做的一切便是借助直接的對比——手指是用來拿錢的還是握白人手的？嘴唇是用來含鉛筆的還是接吻的？然而在城里，一個人如果很窮就會被拒之于他的伙伴之外；一個村民如果不節(jié)儉定會變得齷齪和非常不幸。——社會目前的狀況要求人們節(jié)儉，而這使我相信我們這個世界還很年輕，還處于一種無知的狀態(tài)。——我們?nèi)陨钤谝粋€野蠻的時代。……當(dāng)我們在愛爾蘭隨處走走時，有太多的機會看到比貧窮的普通愛爾蘭人的赤身裸體、衣衫襤褸、骯臟和不幸更為糟糕的景象。一間蘇格蘭人的農(nóng)舍，盡管有時煙霧沒有出口，只有從門里冒出來，對愛爾蘭人來說，卻是一個宮殿。……在穿過一個骯臟破舊的城郊進(jìn)入貝爾法斯特時，我們聽到了一種令人再討厭不過的嘈雜聲音。……我說的是織布梭子的聲音。要想改善這些人的生活狀況是何等困難。我難以想象一個“孕育著”博愛之心的人何以能抓住這種可能性——對于我來說，那簡直使我感到絕望。
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