The Delight of Books（書之樂趣）
1. Books are to mankind what memory is to the individual. They contain the history of our race, the discoveries we have made, the accumulated knowledge and experience of ages; they picture for us the marvels and beauties of nature, help us in our difficulties, comfort us in sorrow and in suffering, change hours of weariness into moments of delight, store our minds with ideas, fill them with good and happy thoughts, and lift us out of and above ourselves.
1、書籍之于全人類，猶如記憶力之于個人。書籍記錄了我們?nèi)祟惖臍v史，記錄了我們的新發(fā)現(xiàn)，也記錄了我們世世代代積累的知識和經(jīng)驗：書籍為我們描繪了自然界的奇觀和美景;書籍幫助我們擺脫困境，在我們悲哀困苦的時候，給我們以安慰，在我們煩悶的時刻帶來歡樂，給我們的頭腦裝進(jìn)各種觀念，使我們的腦海充滿了美妙高尚的思想，從而使我們超越自我，高于自我。
2. There is an oriental story of two men: one was a king, who every night dreamt he was a beggar; the other was a beggar, who every night dreamt he was a prince and lived in a palace. I am not sure that the king had very much the best of it. Imagination is sometimes more vivid than reality. But, however this may be, when we read we may not only (if we wish it) be kings and live in palaces, but, what is far better, we may transport ourselves to the mountains or the seashore, and visit the most beautiful parts of the earth, without fatigue, inconvenience, or expense.
2、有一個東方的故事，談到了兩個人：其中一個是國王，他每晚夢見自己成為一個乞丐；另一個是乞丐，他每晚夢見自己成了一個王子，住進(jìn)了王宮。我不知道國王是否真正成了乞丐。想象有時比現(xiàn)實更加生動。然而，不管怎么樣，我們讀書時，不僅可以成為國王，住在王宮里，—假如我們想成為國王的話，而且更妙的是，我們可以神馳群山，或暢游海濱，我們也可遍訪世界上最美麗的地方，而無須經(jīng)受任何勞頓，也沒有什么不方便，更無須花費分文。
3. Many of those who have had, as we say, all that this world can give, have yet told us they owed much of their purest happiness to books. Ascham, in "The Schoolmaster", tells a touching story of his last visit to Lady Jane Grey. He found her sitting in an oriel window reading Plato's beautiful account of the death of Socrates. Her father and mother were hunting in the park, the hounds were in full cry and their voices came in through the open window. He expressed his surprise that she had not joined them. But, said she, "I wist that all their pleasure in the park is but a shadow to the pleasure I find in Plato."
3、我們說，許多人擁有這個世界能給予的一切，然而他們卻告訴我們，他們真正的幸福在很大程度上還是得之于書籍。阿斯克姆在《教師》一書中生動地敘述了他最后一次去拜訪簡·格雷小姐的經(jīng)過。他看到她正坐在一個飄窗下，閱讀柏拉圖關(guān)于蘇格拉底之死的有趣描述。她的父母正在獵苑打獵，獵狗正引吭狂吠，狺狺之聲通過開著的窗子傳進(jìn)了屋內(nèi)。他感到奇怪，問她為什么沒有跟父母一起去打獵。她卻回答說：“我覺得他們在獵苑狩獵所得到的樂趣與我讀柏拉圖所得到的樂趣相比乃是微不足道的。”
