《四季随笔》节选 - 春 16

《四季随笔》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中对隐士赖克罗夫特醉心于书籍、自然景色与回忆过去生活的描述，其实是吉辛的自述，作者以此来抒发自己的情感，因而本书是一部富有自传色彩的小品文集。

吉辛穷困的一生，对文学名著的爱好与追求，以及对大自然恬静生活的向往，在书中均有充分的反映。本书分为春、夏、秋、冬四个部分，文笔优美，行文流畅，是英国文学中小品文的珍品之一。

以下是由网友分享的《四季随笔》节选 - 春 16的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

I am no friend of the people. As a force, by which the tenor of the time is conditioned, they inspire me with distrust, with fear; as a visible multitude, they make me shrink aloof, and often move me to abhorrence. For the greater part of my life, the people signified to me the London crowd, and no phrase of temperate meaning would utter my thoughts of them under that aspect. The people as country-folk are little known to me; such glimpses as I have had of them do not invite to nearer acquaintance. Every instinct of my being is anti-democratic, and I dread to think of what our England may become when Demos rules irresistibly.

我不是人民的朋友。作为一种决定时代进程的力量，他们使我感到怀疑和恐惧；作为一个随处可见的群体，他们让我畏而远之，甚至时常感到憎恶。在我的大半生中，人民指的就是伦敦人民，我对他们的感想无法用任何温和的词汇来表达。而作为乡下人的人民对我来说是不熟悉的，我曾瞥见过他们，但这没有引起我和他们进一步熟识的愿望。我身体里的每一种本能都是敌视民主的，我根本不敢想象如果人民当家作主,无人可挡，我们的英格兰将会变成什么样子。

Right or wrong, this is my temper. But he who should argue from it that I am intolerant of all persons belonging to a lower social rank than my own would go far astray. Nothing is more rooted in my mind than the vast distinction between the individual and the class. Take a man by himself, and there is generally some reason to be found in him, some disposition for good; mass him with his fellows in the social organism, and ten to one he becomes a blatant creature, without a thought of his own, ready for any evil to which contagion prompts him. It is because nations tend to stupidity and baseness that mankind moves so slowly; it is because individuals have a capacity for better things that it moves at all.

不管对错，这就是我的真实想法。但是如果谁以此推论，说我对所有社会地位比我低的人都无法容忍，他就大错特错了。我心中最根深蒂固的思想，莫过于个体和阶级有天渊之别。一个人作为个体来说，通常还可以发现他多少有些理智，有些向善的性情；而如果把他和同伴们一起放入社会组织中，他有九成可能变成一个喧哗之徒，没有自己的思想，一旦受到某种思想的蛊惑，便会无恶不作。正因为国民容易做愚蠢和卑鄙的事情，人类的进步才如此缓慢；正因为人人有做善事的能力，人类才可以向前发展。

In my youth, looking at this man and that, I marvelled that humanity had made so little progress. Now, looking at men in the multitude, I marvel that they have advanced so far.

年轻时的我，看到这个人那个人，曾感叹人类几乎没有什么进步。现在，看到群体中的这些人，我惊叹人类竟然能取得这么大的进步。

Foolishly arrogant as I was, I used to judge the worth of a person by his intellectual power and attainment. I could see no good where there was no logic, no charm where there was no learning. Now I think that one has to distinguish between two forms of intelligence, that of the brain, and that of the heart, and I have come to regard the second as by far the more important. I guard myself against saying that intelligence does not matter; the fool is ever as noxious as he is wearisome. But assuredly the best people I have known were saved from folly not by the intellect but by the heart.

曾经的我愚蠢傲慢，判断一个人的价值常以他的智力和成就作为衡量标准。在我看来，没有逻辑便没什么值得赞扬的，没有学识便没什么吸引力。而现在我认为要区分两种不同的智慧，一种是头脑的，一种是心灵的。现在的我将后者看得更加重要。我并不是说头脑的智慧无关紧要，一个愚蠢的人不仅可憎也让人厌倦。但可以确定的是，我所认识的最优秀的人，都是心灵而不是头脑拯救了他们。他们来到我面前，显得极其无知，有很深的偏见，甚至会作出最荒诞不经的错误推理；但是他们的脸上闪耀着最极致的美德、善良、和蔼、谦逊和慷慨。在拥有这些品质的同时，他们也知道如何运用它们。他们具有心灵的智慧。

They come before me, and I see them greatly ignorant, strongly prejudiced, capable of the absurdest mis-reasoning; yet their faces shine with the supreme virtues, kindness, sweetness, modesty, generosity. Possessing these qualities, they at the same time understand how to use them; they have the intelligence of the heart. This poor woman who labours for me in my house is even such a one. From the first I thought her an unusually good servant; after three years of acquaintance, I find her one of the few women I have known who merit the term of excellent. She can read and write—that is all. More instruction would, I am sure, have harmed her, for it would have confused her natural motives, without supplying any clear ray of mental guidance. She is fulfilling the offices for which she was born, and that with a grace of contentment, a joy of conscientiousness, which puts her high among civilized beings. Her delight is in order and in peace; what greater praise can be given to any of the children of men?

为我打理家务的贫穷女人正是这样的一个人。起初我只觉得她是个难得的好仆人，经过三年的相处，我发现她是我认识的女人中少数几个可以用“卓越”来形容的。她能读能写—这就足够了。再多的教育，我敢说一定对她有害，因为那将会迷惑她的自然本性，而又不能提供任何清晰的心智指导。她尽力做好她天生注定要做的这份工作，同时，她还满足感恩，勤勉乐天，这让她在文明人中站在了比较高的地位。她喜欢一切井井有条，喜欢和平安静。对于人类之子，我们还能给予比这更高的褒扬吗？

The other day she told me a story of the days gone by. Her mother, at the age of twelve, went into domestic service; but on what conditions, think you? The girl's father, an honest labouring man, PAID the person whose house she entered one shilling a week for her instruction in the duties she wished to undertake. What a grinning stare would come to the face of any labourer nowadays, who should be asked to do the like! I no longer wonder that my housekeeper so little resembles the average of her kind.

那天，她给我讲述了一件家族旧事。她的母亲在十二岁时开始从事家政服务，但是你能想到以什么条件吗？这个女孩的父亲，一个淳朴的农民，为了让她在服务工作中得到教导，向雇主的家庭每周付一个先令的费用。现在如果让任何一个劳动者做同样的事，那他的脸上会现出怎样的目瞪口呆和裂口冷笑的表情啊！我也终于恍然大悟，明白为什么我的管家如此卓尔不群了。