瓦爾登湖:經濟篇5
We might try our lives by a thousand simple tests; as, for instance, that the same sun which ripens my beans illumines at once a system of earths like ours. If I had remembered this it would have prevented some mistakes. This was not the light in which I hoed them. The stars are the apexes of what wonderful triangles!
What distant and different beings in the various mansions of the universe are contemplating the same one at the same moment! Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another? Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant? We should live in all the ages of the world in an hour;ay, in all the worlds of the ages. History, Poetry, Mythology! ―― I know of no reading of another's experience so startling and informing as this would be.
The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?
You may say the wisest thing you can, old man ―― you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind ―― I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that. One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels.
I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow elsewhere. Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our strength. The incessant anxiety and strain of some is a well-nigh incurable form of disease. We are made to exaggerate the importance of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us! or, what if we had been taken sick? How vigilant we are! determined not to live by faith if we can avoid it; all the day long on the alert, at night we unwillingly say our prayers and commit ourselves to uncertainties. So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change. This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant. Confucius said, "To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge." When one man has reduced a fact of the imagination to be a fact to his understanding, I foresee that all men at length establish their lives on that basis.
我們可以用一千種簡單的方法來測定我們的生命;舉例以明之,這是同一個太陽,它使我種的豆子成熟,同時竟然照耀了像我們的地球之類的整個太陽系。如果我記住了這一點,那就能預防若干的錯誤??墒俏忆z草時并沒有這樣去想。星星是何等神奇的三角形的尖頂!字宙各處,有多少遠遠隔開的不同的物種在同時思考著同一事實??!正如我們的各種體制一樣,大自然和人生也是變化多端的。誰能預知別人的生命有著什么遠景?難道還有比一瞬之間通過彼此的眼睛來觀察更偉大的奇跡嗎?我們本應該在一小時之內就經歷了這人世的所有時代;是的,甚至經歷了所有時代中所有的世界。歷史、詩歌、神話!――我不知道讀別人的經驗還有什么能像讀這些這樣地驚人而又詳盡的。
凡我的鄰人說是好的,有一大部分在我靈魂中卻認為是壞的,至于我,如果要有所仟悔,我悔恨的反而是我的善良品行。是什么魔鬼攫住了我,使我品行這樣善良的呢?
老年人啊,你說了那些最聰明的話,你已經活了七十年了,而且活得很光榮,我卻聽到一個不可抗拒的聲音,要求我不聽你的話。新的世代拋棄前一代的業績,好像它們是些擱淺的船。
我想,我們可以泰然相信,比我們實際上相信的,更加多的事物。我們對自己的關懷能放棄多少,便可以忠實地給別人多少的關懷。大自然既能適應我們的長處,也能適應我們的弱點。有些人無窮無盡的憂患焦慮,成了一種幾乎醫治不好的疾病。我們又生就的愛夸耀我們所做工作的重要性;然而卻有多少工作我們沒有做!要是我們病倒了,怎么辦呢?我們多么謹慎!決心不依照信仰而生活,我們盡可能避免它,從早到晚警戒著,到夜晚違心地析禱著,然后把自己交托給未定的運數。我們被迫生活得這樣周到和認真,崇奉自己的生活,而否定變革的可能。我們說,只能這樣子生活呵;可是從圓心可以畫出多少條半徑來,而生活方式就有這樣的多。一切變革,都是值得思考的奇跡,每一剎那發生的事都可以是奇跡??追蛴柙f:“知之為知之,不知為不知,是知也。”
當一個人把他想象的事實提煉為他的理論之時,我預見到,一切人最后都要在這樣的基礎上建筑起他們的生活來。
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