The Choice of Books　择书之道

The Choice of Books

择书之道

Sir John Lubbock

约翰·卢布克爵士

作者简介

约翰·卢布克爵士（Sir John Lubbock，1834—1913），英国银行家、政治家、自然主义者。作为政治家，他促进了公共假日（Bank Holiday）法案的颁布，同时对保护国家古迹作出了非凡贡献；作为自然主义者，他在昆虫学和人类学方面颇有研究，并撰写了大量科普读物，如《史前时代》（Prehistoric Times）、《蚂蚁、蜜蜂和黄蜂》（Ants, Bees, and Wasps）、《昆虫的起源和变形》（The Origin and Metamorphoses of Insects）等。

卢布克爵士在1889年出版了《生活的乐趣》（The Pleasures of Life）一书，书中有两篇关于阅读的文章，本文即其中一篇。卢布克爵士旁征博引，借名人名言谈论自己的择书之道。感兴趣的读者可查阅原书附录中卢布克爵士所选的“百本好书”书单。

“All round the room my silent servants wait

My friends in every season, bright and dim,

Angels and Seraphim

Come down and murmur to me, sweet and low,

And spirits of the skies all come and go

Early and Late.”

And yet too often they wait in vain. One reason for this is, I think, that people are overwhelmed by the crowd of books offered to them.

In old days books were rare and dear. Now on the contrary, it may be said with greater truth than ever that

“Words are things, and a small drop of ink,

Falling like dew upon a thought, produces

That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.”

Our ancestors had a difficulty in procuring them. Our difficulty now is what to select. We must be careful what we read, and not, like the sailors of Ulysses, take bags of wind for sacks of treasure—not only lest we should even now fall into the error of the Greeks, and suppose that language and definitions can be instruments of investigation as well as of thought, but lest, as too often happens, we should waste time over trash. There are many books to which one may apply, in the sarcastic sense, the ambiguous remark said to have been made to an unfortunate author, “I will lose no time in reading your book.”

There are, indeed, books are books, and there are books which, as Lamb said, are not books at all. It is wonderful how much innocent happiness we thoughtlessly throw away. An Eastern proverb says that calamities sent by heaven may be avoided, but from those we bring on ourselves there is no escape.

Many, I believe, are deterred from attempting what are called stiff books for fear they should not understand them; but there are few who need complain of the narrowness of their minds, if only they would do their best with them.

In reading, however, it is most important to select subjects in which one is interested. I remember years ago consulting Mr. Darwin as to the selection of a course of study. He asked me what interested me most, and advised me to choose that subject. This, indeed, applies to the work of life generally.

I am sometimes disposed to think that the readers of the next generation will be, not our lawyers and doctors, shopkeepers and manufacturers, but the laborers and mechanics. Does not this seem natural? The former work mainly with their head; when their daily duties are over the brain is often exhausted, and of their leisure time much must be devoted to air and exercise. The laborer and mechanic, on the contrary, besides working often for much shorter hours, have in their work-time taken sufficient bodily exercise, and could therefore give any leisure they might have to reading and study. They have not done so as yet, it is true; but this has been for obvious reasons. Now, however, in the first place, they receive an excellent education in elementary schools, and in the second have more easy access to the best books.

Ruskin has observed that he does not wonder at what men suffer, but he often wonders at what they lose. We suffer much, no doubt, from the faults of others, but we lose much more by our own ignorance.

“If,”says Sir John Herschel, “I were to pray for a taste which should stand me instead under every variety of circumstances, and be a source of happiness and cheerfulness to me through life, and a shield against its ills, however things might go amiss and the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for reading. I speak of it of course only as a worldly advantage, and not in the slightest degree as superseding or derogating from the higher office and surer and stronger panoply of religious principles—but as a taste, and instrument, and a mode of pleasurable gratification. Give a man this taste, and the means of gratifying it, and you can hardly fail of making a happy man, unless, indeed, you put into his hands a most perverse selection of books.”

It is one thing to own a library; it is quite another to use it wisely. I have often been astonished how little care people devote to the selection of what they read. Books, we know, are almost innumerable; our hours for reading are, alas! very few. And yet many people read almost by hazard. They will take any book they chance to find in a room at a friend's house; they will buy a novel at a railway-stall if it has an attractive title; indeed, I believe in some cases even the binding affects their choice. The selection is, no doubt, far from easy. I have often wished someone would recommend a list of a hundred good books. If we had such lists drawn up by a few good guides they would be most useful. I have indeed sometimes heard it said that in reading every one must choose for himself, but this reminds me of the recommendation not to go into the water till you can swim.

In the absence of such lists I have picked out the books most frequently mentioned with approval by those who have referred directly or indirectly to the pleasure of reading, and have ventured to include some which, though less frequently mentioned, are especial favorites of my own. Everyone who looks at the list will wish to suggest other books, as indeed I should myself, but in that case the number would soon run up.

I have abstained, for obvious reasons, from mentioning works by living authors, though from many of them—Tennyson, Ruskin, and others—I have myself derived the keenest enjoyment; and I have omitted works on science, with one or two exceptions, because the subject is so progressive.

I feel that the attempt is over bold, and I must beg for indulgence, while hoping for criticism; indeed one object which I have had in view is to stimulate others more competent far than I am to give us the advantage of their opinions.

Moreover, I must repeat that I suggest these works rather as those which, as far as I have seen, have been most frequently recommended, than as suggestions of my own, though I have slipped in a few of my own special favorites.

In any such selection much weight should, I think, be attached to the general verdict of mankind. There is a “struggle for existence”and a “survival of the fittest”among books, as well as among animals and plants. As Alonzo of Aragon said, “Age is a recommendation in four things—old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old books to read.”Still, this can not be accepted without important qualifications. The most recent books of history and science contain or ought to contain, the most accurate information and the most trustworthy conclusions. Moreover, while the books of other races and times have an interest from their very distance, it must be admitted that many will still more enjoy, and feel more at home with, those of our own century and people.

“屋中随处可见静候召唤的仆从，

一年四季，白昼黑夜，

天使，我忠实的友人

降落凡间，在我耳畔甜蜜呢喃，

天堂的精灵来回往复，

由晨至暮。”

但仆从往往空等。我认为有个理由是，主人迷失在了浩瀚的书海之中。

过去书籍稀有而昂贵，现在的情况恰恰相反。下列话语从未如此真实：

“文字是重要的东西，一小滴墨水，

如露水般滴落于思绪之中，

能使千万人思索。”

我们的祖先获取书籍不容易，我们如今面临的难题则是选书。我们必须精心挑选所读之书，不可像尤利西斯的水手那样，将成袋的空气当作满载的珍宝1 ——我们不仅要以希腊人的失误为前车之鉴，将语言和定义当作调查和思考的工具，更要避免将时间浪费在糟粕上（此事常有发生）。有人曾将一句一语双关的评论赠与某位糟糕的作家：“读你的书，我可不会浪费时间。”2这句颇有讽刺意味的评论也适用于许多书。

确实，有些书称得上是书，但如兰姆3所言，有些书根本不配称为书。想想我们曾不假思索地放弃了多少纯粹的乐趣，真是不可思议。东方谚语有云：“天作孽，犹可违；自作孽，不可活。”

我想，许多人对所谓“艰深晦涩的著作”望而却步，是因为害怕理解不了；但只要愿意全身心投入阅读，没有几个人需要因自己思想狭隘而自怨自艾。

然而，阅读时选择自己感兴趣的主题至关重要。我记得自己多年前曾问达尔文先生该如何选择研究的课题。他问我对什么最感兴趣，建议我就选择那个主题。确实，这种方法也普遍适用于日常生活。

我有时会想，或许下一代的读者不是律师、医生、店主、制造商，而是劳工和技师。这难道不是很自然吗？前者工作主要依靠脑力，劳作一日后大脑往往已疲惫不堪，大部分闲暇时光自然要花在户外活动和体育锻炼上。劳工和技师则恰恰相反。他们不但通常工作时间短得多，而且在工作时间已经充分锻炼了身体，闲暇时光则可用于阅读和研究。没错，他们现在还没有这么做；但这是出于显而易见的原因。不过，如今他们已经具备了两点条件：首先，他们都接受了良好的初级教育；其次，他们比过去更容易获得最优秀的书籍。

罗斯金4评论道，他并不为人们遭受的苦难感到惊讶，却常常惊讶于人们失去的东西。毫无疑问，我们因为别人的过错受了不少苦，而我们因为自己的无知失去的东西要多得多。

约翰·赫歇尔爵士5说过：“如果我要祈求拥有这样一种爱好——无论当下情况如何，无论世事多么坎坷，它都能给我带来欢乐，帮我抵御苦难——我希望这种爱好是阅读。当然，我说的是俗世的益处，我无意用其取代或贬损更高的权威和不容置疑的宗教信条。阅读是一种爱好、一件工具、一种愉悦满足的方式。如果让一个人拥有这种爱好和书籍，除非你提供的书过于邪恶堕落，否则他很难不感到幸福。”

拥有书房是一回事，善用书房则是另一回事。人们选择自己要读的书时如此漫不经心，这常常令我震惊。我们知道，书籍数不胜数，而我们的阅读时间却少之又少。然而，许多人读书几乎是在碰运气。他们会在朋友家里随手拿起一本书，会在火车站的书摊上买一本名字抓人眼球的小说。是的，我相信有些情况下，连书籍装帧都会影响他们的选择。选书无疑并不简单。我常常希望有人为我推荐一张“百本好书”书单。如果有一些优秀的导师开列这类书单，那必定对读者大有裨益。我有时也听人说，每个人都应该自己选书。但这让我想起了一句建议——学会游泳前，千万别下水。

既然没有这种书单，我就自己写一份。我关注那些直接或间接提及阅读乐趣的人，挑选出他们最常提及和夸赞的书；我还大胆囊括了一些他们较少提及，但特别对我胃口的书。每个看见这份书单的人都会想推荐其他书——我就是这样——但如此一来，书目中书的数量便会激增。

虽然不少在世的作者——如丁尼生6、罗斯金等人——曾带给我许多乐趣，但出于显而易见的原因，我在书单里没有提及他们的作品。我也略过了科学著作，仅有一两本例外，因为科学的发展实在迅速。

我觉得自己的尝试实在鲁莽，希望得到读者的宽容和指正。实际上，我写这份书单的目的是抛砖引玉，激励那些才能远胜于我的人发表见解。

此外，我必须重申，书单里的大部分作品都曾受到众人推荐，并非出于我的个人喜好。不过我还是添了几本自己特别喜欢的书。

我想，作任何抉择时，考虑人类普遍的判断标准都是很重要的。“物竞天择，适者生存”法则适用于动植物，也适用于书。正如阿拉贡的阿隆索所说：“在四件事上，光阴留痕最值得称道——老柴最好烧，陈酒最耐品，旧友最可靠，老书最宜读。”但这种说法也须加以限定。最新出版的历史和科学书籍，理应包含最准确的信息、最可信的结论。必须承认的是，尽管关于其他种族、其他时代的作品会因距离而产生美感，但关于吾国吾民的书籍却更能带来阅读享受，让人读来更加舒服自在。

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1．此典出自荷马史诗《奥德赛》。奥德修斯（即罗马神话中的尤利西斯）一行人逃到风神岛，风神送给他们一个口袋，可以把所有逆风都装进去，以使他们一帆风顺地回家。船快行驶到家时，众水手以为口袋里面装的是金银财宝，便趁奥德修斯睡觉时打开口袋，结果被风吹回了风神岛。

2．原文一语双关，既可理解为“我会抓紧时间去读你的书”，也可理解为“我不会浪费时间去读你的书”。此处明显取后者之意。

3．查尔斯·兰姆（Charles Lamb，1775—1834），英国著名散文家，以散文集《伊利亚随笔》和《伊利亚续笔》闻名于世。

4．约翰·罗斯金（John Ruskin，1819—1900），英国政论家、艺术批评家。他推崇中世纪艺术，强调审美教育。

5．约翰·赫歇尔爵士（Sir John Herschel，1792—1871），英国数学家、天文学家。他曾为土星的7颗卫星和天王星的4颗卫星命名。

6．阿尔弗雷德·丁尼生（Alfred Tennyson，1809—1892），英国维多利亚时代桂冠诗人。他的诗歌辞藻华丽，音韵铿锵，追求音乐性。他的代表作有《悼念》《国王叙事诗》等。