The Delights of Books       Sir John Lubbock

书海乐无穷                       约翰·卢伯克

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.

书籍之于人类正如记忆之于个人。书籍包含了我们民族的历史、我们已有的发现以及我们世世代代积累的知识与经验。书籍为我们描绘了自然的美景与奇迹，帮助我们渡过难关，抚慰我们的悲伤与苦难。书籍把疲倦时光转换成欢愉时刻，用观念充实我们的头脑，让心灵充满美好愉悦的思绪，让我们走出自我，超越自我。

     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.

       有这样一个东方故事，它讲述了两个人，一个是国王，但却每夜梦到自己是个乞丐；另一个是乞丐，但却每夜梦到自己是个住在宫殿里的王子。我不清楚国王胜过乞丐几分，但想象有时总比现实更真实。然而，当我们阅读时，我们不仅（如果我们想的话）可以是住在宫殿的国王，更棒的是，我们还可以攀登高山或漫步海滩，饱览地球上最美的风光，既不会感到疲惫与不便，也不会有任何花费。

    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, wist that all their pleasure in the park is but a shadow to the pleasure I find in Plato.

许多已经应有尽有的人们却告诉我们说，他们最纯粹的幸福大多来源于书籍。阿斯卡姆在他的著作《教师》中讲述了他最后一次拜访简·格雷女士的感人故事。他看到她坐在凸窗之下，静看柏拉图的那篇讲述苏格拉底之死的精彩文章。她的父母在园中狩猎，窗外传来猎犬狂吠的声音。阿斯卡姆惊讶于格雷女士并没有加入父母的行列，与之相反，格雷女士说道：与她在柏拉图书中寻得的乐趣相比，他们在园中的欢愉不过是泡影罢了。

    Macaulay had wealth and fame, rank and power, and yet he tells us in his biography that he owed the happiest hours of his life to books. In a charming letter to a little girl, he says: “Thank you for your very pretty letter. I am always glad to make my little girl happy, and nothing pleases me so much as to see that she likes books, for when she is as old as I am, she will find that they are better than all the tarts and cakes, toys and plays, and sights in the world. If any one would make me the greatest king that ever lived, with palaces and gardens and fine dinners, and wines and coaches, and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants, on condition that I should not read books. I would not be a king. I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.”

       麦考利男爵一生享尽功名利禄，但他却在他的自传中写道，他一生中最快乐的时光来源于书籍。他给一位小女孩写了一封饶有情趣的信，信中写道：“谢谢你这封可爱的信件。我总是热衷于讨我的小姑娘开心，并且没有什么能比得上看到她如此喜爱书籍使我更高兴。等她到了我这番年纪，她会发觉书籍胜过任何蛋糕和馅饼、玩具和嬉戏，以及世上所有的风景。如果有人能让我变成世上最伟大的国王，深居宫殿花园，享受美味佳肴，坐拥美酒马车，身着精美衣裳，奴仆数不胜数，但代价是我不能读书，那我宁愿不做国王。我宁愿做一个住在书阁的穷人，也不愿做一个不爱读书的国王。”

    Books, indeed, endow us with a whole enchanted palace of thoughts. There is a wider prospect, says Jean Paul Richter, from Parnassus than from a throne. In one way they give us an even more vivid idea than the actual reality, just as reflections are often more beautiful than real nature. “All mirrors,” says George Macdonald. “The commonest room is a room in a poem when I look in the glass.”

       确实如此，书籍赐予了我们一座思想宫殿，令人着迷。正如约翰·保罗·里希特所说，站在帕纳塞斯山上，比坐在王座上的视野更广阔。从某种意义上而言，书籍给予我们的思想，甚至比现实更加栩栩如生。正如倒影往往比真实的自然美景更加美丽。乔治·麦克唐纳曾说：“万物皆有镜像。当我望向镜中时，即使是最寻常的房间也充满诗情画意。”

    Precious and priceless are the blessings which the books scatter around our daily paths. We walk, in imagination, with the sublime and enchanting regions.

       在我们日常小径周围，书籍撒满珍贵无价的祝福。凭借奇思异想，我们走遍崇山峻岭。

    Without stirring from our firesides we may roam to the most remote regions of the earth, or soar into realms where Spenser’s shapes of unearthly beauty flock to meet us, where Milton’s angels peal in our ears the choral hymns of Paradise. Science, art, literature, philosophy, — all that man has thought, all that man has done, — the experience that has been bought with the sufferings of a hundred generations, — all are garnered up for us in the world of books.

       无须起身离开火炉，我们便可漫游天涯海角，或是翱翔于斯宾塞笔下的王国，那里仙女们成群结队来欢迎我们，或是弥尔顿的天堂，在那儿天使们合唱乐园颂歌。科学、艺术、文学、哲学——人类一切所思所为——历经百代磨难换来的经验——这一切全都为我们储藏在书海中。