The works of the great poets have never yet been read by mankind， for only great poets can read them.  They have only been read as the multitude read the stars， at most astrologically， not astronomically.  Most men have learned to read to serve a paltry convenience， as they have learned to cipher in order to keep accounts and not be cheated in trade； but of reading as a noble intellectual exercise they know little or nothing； yet this only is reading， in a high sense， not that which lulls us as a luxury and suffers the nobler faculties to sleep the while， but what we have to stand on tip-toe to read and devote our most alert and wakeful hours to.

　　I think that having learned our letters we should read the best that is in literature， and not be forever repeating our a-b-abs， and words of one syllable， in the fourth or fifth classes， sitting on the lowest and foremost form all our lives.  Most men are satisfied if they read or hear read， and perchance have been convicted by the wisdom of one good book， the Bible， and for the rest of their lives vegetate and dissipate their faculties in what is called easy reading.  There is a work in several volumes in our Circulating Library entitled "Little Reading，" which I thought referred to a town of that name which I had not been to.  There are those who，like cormorants and ostriches， can digest all sorts of this， even after the fullest dinner of meats and vegetables， for they suffer nothing to be wasted.  If others are the machines to provide this provender， they are the machines to read it.  They read the nine thousandth tale about Zebulon and Sophronia， and how they loved as none had ever loved before， and neither did the course of their true love run smooth ―― at any rate， how it did run and stumble， and get up again and go on！ how some poor unfortunate got up on to a steeple， who had better never have gone up as far as the belfry； and then， having needlessly got him up there， the happy novelist rings the bell for all the world to come together and hear， O dear！ how he did get down again！  For my part， I think that they had better metamorphose all such aspiring heroes of universal noveldom into man weather-cocks， as they used to put heroes among the constellations，and let them swing round there till they are rusty， and not come down at all to bother honest men with their pranks.  The next time the novelist rings the bell I will not stir though the meeting-house burn down.  "The Skip of the Tip-Toe-Hop， a Romance of the Middle Ages， by the celebrated author of `Tittle-Tol-Tan，' to appear in monthly parts； a great rush； don't all come together."  All this they read with saucer eyes， and erect and primitive curiosity， and with unwearied gizzard， whose corrugations even yet need no sharpening， just as some little four-year-old bencher his two-cent gilt-covered edition of Cinderella ―― without any improvement， that I can see， in the pronunciation， or accent， or emphasis， or any more skill in extracting or inserting the moral.  The result is dulness of sight， a stagnation of the vital circulations， and a general deliquium and sloughing off of all the intellectual faculties.  This sort of gingerbread is baked daily and more sedulously than pure wheat or rye-and-Indian in almost every oven， and finds a surer market.

　　The best books are not read even by those who are called good readers.  What does our Concord culture amount to？  There is in this town， with a very few exceptions， no taste for the best or for very good books even in English literature， whose words all can read and spell.  Even the college-bred and so-called liberally educated men here and elsewhere have really little or no acquaintance with the English classics； and as for the recorded wisdom of mankind， the ancient classics and Bibles， which are accessible to all who will know of them， there are the feeblest efforts anywhere made to become acquainted with them.  I know a woodchopper， of middle age， who takes a French paper， not for news as he says， for he is above that，but to "keep himself in practice，" he being a Canadian by birth； and when I ask him what he considers the best thing he can do in this world， he says， beside this， to keep up and add to his English. This is about as much as the college-bred generally do or aspire to do， and they take an English paper for the purpose.  One who has just come from reading perhaps one of the best English books will find how many with whom he can converse about it？  Or suppose he comes from reading a Greek or Latin classic in the original， whose praises are familiar even to the so-called illiterate； he will find nobody at all to speak to， but must keep silence about it.  Indeed，there is hardly the professor in our colleges， who， if he has mastered the difficulties of the language， has proportionally mastered the difficulties of the wit and poetry of a Greek poet， and has any sympathy to impart to the alert and heroic reader； and as for the sacred Scriptures， or Bibles of mankind， who in this town can tell me even their titles？  Most men do not know that any nation but the Hebrews have had a scripture.  A man， any man， will go considerably out of his way to pick up a silver dollar； but here are golden words， which the wisest men of antiquity have uttered， and whose worth the wise of every succeeding age have assured us of； ――and yet we learn to read only as far as Easy Reading， the primers and class-books， and when we leave school， the "Little Reading，" and story-books， which are for boys and beginners； and our reading， our conversation and thinking， are all on a very low level， worthy only of pygmies and manikins.

　　偉大詩人的作品人類還從未讀通過呢，因為只有偉大的詩人才能讀通它們。它們之被群眾閱讀，有如群眾之閱覽繁星，至多是從星象學而不是從天文學的角度閱覽的。許多人學會了閱讀，為的是他們的可憐的便利，好像他們學算術是為了記賬，做起生意來不至于受騙；可是，閱讀作為一種崇高的智力的鍛煉，他們僅僅是淺涉略知，或一無所知；然而就其高級的意義來說，只有這樣才叫閱讀，決不是吸引我們有如奢侈品，讀起來能給我們催眠，使我們的崇高的官能昏昏睡去的那種讀法，我們必須踮起足尖，把我們最靈敏、最清醒的時刻，獻予閱讀才對。

　　我想，我們識字之后，我們就應該讀文學作品中最好的東西，不要永遠在重復a－b一ab和單音字，不要四年級五年級年年留級，不要終身坐在小學最低年級教室前排。許多人能讀就滿足了，或聽到人家閱讀就滿足了，也許只領略到一本好書《圣經》的智慧，于是他們只讀一些輕松的東西，讓他們的官能放蕩或單調地度過余生。在我們的流通圖書館里，有一部好幾卷的作品叫做“小讀物”，我想大約也是我沒有到過的一個市鎮的名字吧。有種人，像貪食的水鴨和鴕烏，能夠消化一切，甚至在大吃了肉類和蔬菜都很豐盛的一頓之后也能消化，因為他們不愿意浪費。如果說別人是供給此種食物的機器，他們就是過屠門而大嚼的閱讀機器。他們讀了九千個關于西布倫和賽福隆尼亞的故事，他們如何相愛，從沒有人這樣地相愛過，而且他們的戀愛經過也不平坦，――總之是，他們如何愛，如何栽跟斗，如何再爬起來，如何再相愛！某個可憐的不幸的人如何爬上了教堂的尖頂，他最好不爬上鐘樓；他既然已經毫無必要地到了尖頂上面了，那歡樂的小說家于是打起鐘來，讓全世界都跑攏來，聽他說，啊喲，天啊！他如何又下來了！照我的看法，他們還不如把這些普遍的小說世界里往上爬的英雄人物一概變形為風信雞人，好像他們時常把英雄放在星座之中一樣，讓那些風信雞旋轉不已，直到它們銹掉為止，卻千萬別讓它們下地來胡鬧，麻煩了好人們。下一回，小說家再敲鐘，哪怕那公共會場燒成了平地，也休想我動彈一下。“《的-篤-咯的騰達》一部中世紀傳奇，寫《鐵特爾-托爾-但恩》的那位著名作家所著；按月連載；連日擁擠不堪，欲購從速。”他們用盤子大的眼睛，堅定不移的原始的好奇，極好的胃納，來讀這些東西，胃的褶皺甚至也無需磨練，正好像那些四歲大的孩子們，成天坐在椅子上，看著售價兩分錢的燙金封面的《灰姑娘》――據我所見，他們讀后，連發音，重音，加強語氣這些方面都沒有進步，不必提他們對題旨的了解與應用題旨的技術了。其結果是目力衰退，一切生機凝滯，普遍頹唐，智力的官能完全像蛻皮一樣蛻掉。這一類的姜汁面包，是幾乎每一天從每一個烤面包的爐子里烤出來，比純粹的面粉做的或黑麥粉和印第安玉米粉做的面包更吸引人，在市場上銷路更廣。

　　即使所謂“好讀者”，也不讀那些最好的書。我們康科德的文化又算得了什么呢？

　　這個城市里，除了極少數例外的人，對于最好的書，甚至英國文學中一些很好的書，大家都覺得沒有味道，雖然大家都能讀英文，都拼得出英文字。甚至于這里那里的大學出身，或所謂受有自由教育的人，對英國的古典作品也知道得極少，甚至全不知道；記錄人類思想的那些古代作品和《圣經》呢，誰要愿意閱讀它們的話，是很容易得到這些書的，然而只有極少數人肯花功夫去接觸它們。我認識一個中年樵夫，訂了一份法文報，他說不是為了讀新聞，他是超乎這一套之上的，他是為了“保持他的學習”，因為他生來是一個加拿大人；我就問他，他認為世上他能做的最好的是什么事，他回答說，除了這件事之外，還要繼續下功夫，把他的英語弄好和提高。一般的大學畢業生所做的或想要做的就不過如此，他們訂一份英文報紙就為這樣的目標。假定一個人剛剛讀完了一部也許是最好的英文書，你想他可以跟多少人談論這部書呢？再假定一個人剛剛讀了希臘文或拉丁文的古典作品，就是文盲也知道頌揚它的；可是他根本找不到一個可談的人。

　　他只能沉默。我們大學里幾乎沒有哪個教授，要是已經掌握了一種艱難的文字，還能以同樣的比例掌握一個希臘詩人的深奧的才智與詩情，并能用同情之心來傳授給那些靈敏的、有英雄氣質的讀者的；至于神圣的經典，人類的圣經，這里有什么人能把它們的名字告訴我呢？大多數人還不知道唯有希伯來這個民族有了一部經典。任何一個人都為了揀一塊銀幣而費盡了心機，可是這里有黃金般的文字，古代最聰明的智者說出來的話，它們的價值是歷代的聰明人向我們保證過的；――然而我們讀的只不過是識字課本，初級讀本和教科書，離開學校之后，只是“小讀物”與孩子們和初學者看的故事書；于是，我們的讀物，我們的談話和我們的思想，水平都極低，只配得上小人國和侏儒。

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