悠游度過一天的24小時：第十章 生活中沒有乏味的東西

CHAPTER X Nothing In Life Is Humdrum

第十章 生活中沒有乏味的東西

Art is a great thing. But it is not the greatest. The most important of all perceptions is the continual perception of cause and effect—in other words, the perception of the continuous development of the universe—in still other words, the perception of the course of evolution. When one has thoroughly got imbued into one's head the leading truth that nothing happens without a cause, one grows not only large-minded, but large-hearted.

藝術是偉大的，但不是最偉大的。一切感知最重要之處在于不斷體察因果聯(lián)系，即感受宇宙的不斷發(fā)展，亦即人類世界演變的過程。一個人若能完全領會萬事皆有因這個偉大真理，其思想會更加開通，心胸會更加寬廣。

It is hard to have one's watch stolen, but one reflects that the thief of the watch became a thief from causes of heredity and environment which are as interesting as they are scientifically comprehensible; and one buys another watch, if not with joy, at any rate with a philosophy that makes bitterness impossible. One loses, in the study of cause and effect, that absurd air which so many people have of being always shocked and pained by the curiousness of life. Such people live amid human nature as if human nature were a foreign country full of awful foreign customs. But, having reached maturity, one ought surely to be ashamed of being a stranger in a strange land!

手表被偷固然令人懊喪，但一細想，偷手表的人之所以那樣一定有其遺傳和環(huán)境上的原因，這種解釋不僅有趣，而且合理科學；自己又買一只表，即便不是如何開心，至少也是不會憤恨的達觀態(tài)度。很多人生活中遇到意外時，總會遭受打擊和傷害，但只要分析事情的前因后果，就不會陷入那樣的處境。對這些人而言，人性仿佛是充滿可怕習俗的奇邦異國，他們就生活在這樣的人性里。然而，隨著思想的成熟，他們一定會為這種不合群的做法感到羞恥。

The study of cause and effect, while it lessens the painfulness of life, adds to life's picturesqueness. The man to whom evolution is but a name looks at the sea as a grandiose, monotonous spectacle, which he can witness in August for three shillings third-class return. The man who is imbued with the idea of development, of continuous cause and effect, perceives in the sea an element which in the day-before-yesterday of geology was vapour, which yesterday was boiling, and which tomorrow will inevitably ice.

探尋因果可減輕生命之痛苦，使生活變得多姿多彩?？床坏绞挛镅葑兊娜诉b望大海時，只看到恢宏卻單調(diào)的景象，這景象八月里坐上往返僅3先令的三等艙就能看到。然而如果一個人深刻知曉發(fā)展的道理以及連續(xù)的因果關系的道理，那他看到海洋時，就會從地質(zhì)學角度觀察海里的某一物質(zhì)前天是水汽、昨天在沸騰、而明天必然會結冰。

He perceives that a liquid is merely something on its way to be solid, and he is penetrated by a sense of the tremendous, changeful picturesqueness of life. Nothing will afford a more durable satisfaction than the constantly cultivated appreciation of this. It is the end of all science.

他認識到液體不過是氣體形成固體的中間過程，充溢他內(nèi)心的是人生的無限豐富和變幻多姿，這種在不斷提高修養(yǎng)的基礎上獲得的認識能給人帶來最持久的滿足感。這就是一切科學的目的。

Cause and effect are to be found everywhere. Rents went up in Shepherd's Bush1. It was painful and shocking that rents should go up in Shepherd's Bush. But to a certain point we are all scientific students of cause and effect, and there was not a clerk lunching at a Lyons Restaurant who did not scientifically put two and two together and see in the (once) Two-penny Tube the cause of an excessive demand for wigwams in Shepherd's Bush, and in the excessive demand for wigwams the cause of the increase in the price of wigwams.

隨處可見因和果。謝菲爾德灌木區(qū)那一帶的租金竟然上漲了。這真是令人頭痛和震驚的事。但在某種程度上我們都是探究因果關系的理科學生，在里昂餐館用午餐的職員無一不懂得推敲，從而知道正是由于這里的地鐵票只需兩便士（曾經(jīng)如此），才使得謝菲爾德灌木區(qū)棚屋供不應求，也正是因為房屋的需求量加大，房價才上漲了。

Simple! you say, disdainfully. Everything—the whole complex movement of the universe—is as simple as that—when you can sufficiently put two and two together. And, my dear sir, perhaps you happen to be an estate agent's clerk, and you hate the arts, and you want to foster your immortal soul, and you can't be interested in your business because it's so humdrum.

“簡單！”你不屑地說。如果你充分了解怎樣根據(jù)事實進行推理判斷，那么整個宇宙的復雜運動就那樣簡單。親愛的先生，也許你恰好是房地產(chǎn)經(jīng)紀公司的職員，討厭藝術，也想培育不朽的靈魂，可你對自己的工作毫無興趣，因為工作無聊極了。

Nothing is humdrum.

沒有一件事是無聊的。

The tremendous, changeful picturesqueness of life is marvelously shown in an estate agent's office. What! There was a block of traffic in Oxford Street; to avoid the block people actually began to travel under the cellars and drains, and the result was a rise of rents in Shepherd's Bush! And you say that isn't picturesque! Suppose you were to study, in this spirit, the property question in London for an hour and a half every other evening. Would it not give zest to your business, and transform your whole life?

在房地產(chǎn)公司的辦公室里，生活可以神奇地顯示出瞬息萬變的奇異風采！什么！牛津大街交通擁堵，為避免擁堵，人們只得開始改乘地鐵，結果導致謝菲爾德灌木區(qū)房屋的租金上漲！你說那并不新奇！但試想一下，如果你以這樣的精神隔天花一個半小時研究倫敦的房地產(chǎn)問題，豈不會使你工作起來更有激情以至改變你的整個人生嗎？

You would arrive at more difficult problems. And you would be able to tell us why, as the natural result of cause and effect, the longest straight street in London is about a yard and a half in length, while the longest absolutely straight street in Paris extends for miles. I think you will admit that in an estate agent's clerk I have not chosen an example that specially favours my theories.

你會碰到更難的問題。你會給我們講為什么，按因果邏輯自然得出結論，在倫敦筆直的馬路最長不超過一碼半，而在巴黎最長的直街綿延幾公里。我想你會承認我并沒有特地從某家房地產(chǎn)職員那里挑選事例來支持我的說法。

You are a bank clerk, and you have not read that breathless romance (disguised as a scientific study), Walter Bagehot's2 Lombard Street ? Ah, my dear sir, if you had begun with that, and followed it up for ninety minutes every other evening, how enthralling your business would be to you, and how much more clearly you would understand human nature.

你是銀行職員，未曾讀過那個引人入勝的浪漫故事（雖然表面上屬科普類）——沃爾特.白芝霍特的《倫巴弟街》，是吧？哦，親愛的先生，如果你以這本書作為開始，并且堅持隔天晚上讀90分鐘，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)你的工作對你是多么有吸引力，并且你將更清楚地了解人性的奧妙。

You are "penned in town," but you love excursions to the country and the observation of wild life—certainly a heart-enlarging diversion. Why don't you walk out of your house door, in your slippers, to the nearest gas lamp of a night with a butterfly net, and observe the wild life of common and rare moths that is beating about it, and co-ordinate the knowledge thus obtained and build a superstructure on it, and at last get to know something about something?

你被“禁錮在城市里”，但你喜歡去郊野遠足，觀察野生生物，這肯定是有利于擴大胸懷的趣好。那你晚上何不趿著拖鞋走出家門，拿著捕蝶網(wǎng)到離家最近的煤氣燈那兒，觀察平常而又罕見的飛蛾四下撞來撞去，綜合你所有的知識，力求獲得更高層面的解悟，直至更深入地了解一些事情？

You need not be devoted to the arts, not to literature, in order to live fully.

要擁有充實的人生，不一定要致力于藝術和文學。

The whole f ield of daily habit and scene is waiting to satisfy that curiosity which means life, and the satisfaction of which means an understanding heart.

每天的習性和生活氛圍都在迎合我們的好奇心和滿足感；好奇心意味著生活，滿足好奇心就意味著擁有一顆善于感悟的心。

I promised to deal with your case, O man who hates art and literature, and I have dealt with it. I now come to the case of the person, happily very common, who does "like reading."

我答應談及像你這種不喜歡藝術和文學的情況，這方面我已經(jīng)談過了?，F(xiàn)在我來談談那些確實“熱愛讀書”的人，幸好這類人很多。

(1)謝菲爾德灌木區(qū)，位于英國倫敦西部哈默爾史密斯—富勒姆自治市。

(2)沃爾特?白芝霍特（1826—1877），英國經(jīng)濟學家、社會學家。