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A Way of Life
Fellow students: 同学们：
Every man has a philosophy of life in thought, in word, or in deed, worked
out in himself unconsciously. 每个人都有他的生活哲学，无论是在思想，言语还是在行为中，而且这哲学会不自觉地在他身上发挥着作用。In possession of the very best, he may not know of its existence; with the very worst he may pride himself as a paragon. 心怀上佳的哲思，他可能不会知晓它的存在；心存至陋之哲理，他却可能自诩为楷模。As it grows with the growth it cannot be taught to the young in formal lectures.它随着人的成长而增加，非正式的演讲所能授
予年轻人。
What have bright eyes, red blood, quick breath and taut muscles to do with philosophy? 明眸，鲜血，急促的呼吸，紧实的肌肉,这些与哲学何干？Did not the great Stagirite say that young men were unfit students of it? 难道伟大的斯塔利亚人不曾讲过，年轻人是它不合格的学生？– they will hear as though they heard not, and to no profit. 他们会充耳不闻,了无裨益。
Why then should I trouble you?那我又为何来烦扰你？Because I have a message that may be helpful. 因为我有一言，或可助你。It is not philosophical, nor is it strictly moral or religious, one or other of which I was told my address should be, and yet in a way it is all three. 它无关哲学，也非完全有关道德或宗教,亦非我的演讲所被要求谈到的某些东西，然而从某种意义上说它三者均是。It is the oldest and the freshest, the simplest and the most useful, so simple indeed is it that some of you may turn away disappointed as was Naaman the Syrian when told to go wash in Jordan and be clean. 它最陈旧也最新鲜，最简单也最实用，简单得你们中有人会转身离去，心中失望，就像叙利亚的纳曼被告知沐浴于约旦可得洁净时那样。
You know those composite tools to be bought for 50 cents, with one handle to fit a score of more of instruments. 你知道那些用50分能买到的组装工具，它有一个手柄，用来修理那些大件。The workmanship is usually bad, so bad, as a rule, that you will not find an example in any good carpenter's shop; 做工通常很差，以至于按规矩你在任何好工匠的店铺里都找不出一个来。but the boy has one, the chauffeur slips one into his box, and the sailor into his kit, and there is one in the odds-and-ends drawer of the pantry of every well-regulated family. 但是男孩子会备着一个，司机会往他的盒子里塞一个，水手会在他的工具箱里放一个，每一个个井井有条的家庭也会在餐具室的杂物抽屉里存着一个。
It is simply a handy thing about the house, to help over the many little difficulties of the day. 它只是家里的一个顺手的东西，用来搞定日常琐碎的小困难。Of this sort of philosophy I wish to make you a present – a handle to fit your life tools.我希望以这样的哲学赠你一个礼物——一个修理你人生之工
具的手柄。Whether the workmanship is Sheffield or shoddy, this helve will fit anything from a hatchet to a corkscrew. 不管做工是精湛还是极烂，这个手柄都能修好一切，从短柄斧到螺丝锥。
My message is but a work, a Way, an easy expression of the experience of a
plain man whose life has never been worried by any philosopher higher than that of the shepherd in As You Like It. 但是，我的信息是一部作品，一条朝圣之路，一个普通人的经验的简单表述——他的生活从未因为任何比《皆大欢喜》里那个牧羊人高明的哲学家而担忧过。
I wish to point out a path in which the wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot err; 我希望指出一条道路，即使一个愚笨的旅人也不会走错；not a system to be worked out painfully only to be discarded, not a formal scheme, simply a habit as easy – or as hard! – to adopt as any other habit, good or bad.它不是一个需要苦心经营，却终为人所抛弃的制度，不是一个一个正式的规划，而只是一个习惯，如同其他或好或坏的习惯一样地容易养成——或者一样不容易养成。
A few years ago a Xmas card went the rounds, with the legend,几年前有一种圣诞贺卡十分流行，上面写道，"Life is just one 'denied' thing after another," 生活就是一个接一个的“拒签”which, in more refined language, is the same as saying,用更精炼的语言说，就等于是"Life is a habit,"“生活是一种习惯”a succession of actions that become more or less automatic. 是一系列或多或少地无意识的行为。This great truth, which lies at the basis of all actions,这一伟大的真理存在于一切生理和心理行为的基础之中muscular or psychic, is the keystone to the teaching of Aristotle,是亚里士多德的教育之要旨，to whom the formation of habits was the basis of moral excellence.对他来说，习惯的养成乃是道德优越之本。"In a word, habits of any kind are the result of actions of the same kind; and so what we have to do, is to give a certain character to these particular actions" (Ethics). “”简而言之，任何习惯都是同一种行为的结果;因而我们要做的，就是赋予这些特定行为某种特性。”(《伦理学》)Lift a seven month-old baby to his feet –see him tumble to his nose. 把一个七个月的婴儿举起来让他双脚站立--他会摔个大头朝地。Do the same at twelve months –he walks. 同样对一个十二个月的孩子--他能走路了。At two years he runs. 两岁他就会跑了。The muscles and the nervous system have acquired the habit. 肌肉和神经系统已经获得了那种习惯。One trial after another, one failure after another, has given him power. 一次接一次的尝试，一个又一个的失败，这些都赋予他力量。Put your finger in a baby's mouth, and he sucks away in blissful anticipation of a response to a mammalian habit millions of years old. 把你的手指放进一个婴儿的嘴里，他会带着愉悦的期待，盼望着得到一个百万年孕育出的母性习惯的回应。And we can deliberately train parts of our body to perform complicated actions with unerring accuracy. 而且我们可以有意地训练我们的部分身体分毫不差地执行复杂的动作。
Watch that musician playing a difficult piece. 看那音乐家演奏一首有难度的作品。Batteries, commutators, multipliers, switches, wires innumerable control these nimble fingers, 数不清的电池，整流器，扩音器，开关，电线控制着这些敏捷的手指，the machinery of which may be set in motion as automatically as in a pianola, 这动作就像一架自动钢琴般似地机械，the player all the time chatting as if he had nothing to do in controlling the apparatus 演奏者一直在聊天，好像他完全没在弹钢琴。– habit again, the gradual acquisition of power by long practice and at the expense of many mistakes.——又是习惯，以长期练习达致的、以很多错误为代价的逐渐的能力习得。The same great law reaches
