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Theodore Parker

西奥多.帕克

作者简介

西奥多.帕克（Theodore Parker，1810—1860），美国牧师、社会活动家、废奴主义者，美国莱克星顿战役中领导民兵的约翰.帕克（John Parker）之孙。

帕克的著作并不多，但留下的名言脍炙人口。林肯《葛底斯堡演说》中“民有、民治、民享的政府”（government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people）的警句，即为帕克于1850年原创。帕克的另一名句“道德之途前路漫漫，但终将归于正义”（The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.）常被黑人民权领袖马丁.路德.金（Martin Luther King Jr.）在演说中引用，也绣在了奥巴马总统白宫办公室的地毯上。

本文选自1880年出版的《大千世界人与事的教诲》（Lessons from the World of Matter and the World of Man）。作为著名牧师，帕克的讲道吸引了大量听众。他的此篇文字也仿佛一次讲道，将阅读的乐趣娓娓道来。文中将书中思想之美比作奇异的花，将伟大作品喻为思想的航船，事例生动，说理透彻。

The pleasures of the intellect not creative, but only recipient, have never been fully appreciated. What a joy is there in a good book, writ by some great master of thought, who breaks into beauty, as in summer the meadow into grass and dandelions and violets, with geraniums, and manifold sweetness. As an amusement, that of reading is worth all the rest. What pleasure in science, in literature, in poetry, for any man who will but open his eye and his heart to take it in. What delight an audience of men who never speak, take in some great orator, who looks into their faces, and speaks into their hearts, and then rains a meteoric shower of stars, falling from his heaven of genius before their eyes; or, far better still, with a whole day of sunlight warms his audience, so that every manly and womanly excellence in them buds and blossoms with fragrance, one day to bear most luscious fruit before God, fruit for mortality, fruit for eternity not less.

才智的快乐不在于创造，而在于接纳。人们从未完全接受这一观点。伟大思想家的优秀名作充满乐趣，绽放出美感，就像夏日牧场上长出青草、蒲公英、紫罗兰、天竺葵，散发各种芳香。作为一种消遣，阅读能与其他任何娱乐相媲美。任何愿意睁开双眼、敞开心扉的读者，都能从科学、文学、诗歌中获得乐趣。有些作者从不说话，却胜于雄辩；他们洞察读者的表情，向读者的内心说话，在他们眼前洒下来自智慧殿堂的流星雨。抑或，作者会铺洒整日的阳光，温暖读者的心田，让每位男女读者心中的优秀品质都发芽开花，散发芳香，有朝一日在上帝面前结出最丰美的果实、易朽的果实、永恒的果实。这些读者也是非常愉快的。

I once knew a hard-working man, a farmer and mechanic, who in the winter-nights rose a great while before day, and out of the darkness coaxed him at least two hours of hard study, and then when the morning peeped over the eastern hills, he yoked his oxen and went forth to his daily work, or in his shop he laboured all day long; and when the night came, he read aloud some simple book to his family; but when they were snugly laid away in their sleep, the great-minded mechanic took to his hard study anew; and so, year out and year in, he went on, neither rich nor much honoured, hardly entreated by daily work, and yet he probably had a happiness in his heart and mind which the whole county might have been proud to share.

I fear we do not know what a power of immediate pleasure and permanent profit is to be had in a good book. The books which help you the most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is by easy reading; every man that tries it finds it so. But a great book that comes from a great thinker—it is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth, with beauty too. It sails the ocean, driven by the winds of heaven, breaking the level sea of life into beauty where it goes, leaving behind it a train of sparkling loveliness, widening as the ship goes on. And what treasures it brings to every land, scattering the seeds of truth, justice, love, and piety, to bless the world in ages yet to come.

我认识一个勤劳的人，他既是农夫，也是技工。冬天，当天还没亮，窗外还是漆黑一片时，他就早早起床刻苦读书，至少看上两个小时。直到清晨的阳光悄悄爬上东边的山坡，他才赶着牛群开始日复一日的耕种，或者到他的小店里忙上一天。夜幕降临后，他为家人朗读简单的书籍。家人安然睡去后，这位意志力强大的技工继续埋头苦读。就这样，年复一年，他并未致富或受人崇敬，日常工作也未见起色，但他心中或许充满了幸福，这种幸福是全县人都乐于分享的。

好书能立即令人快乐，并带来长远的益处。我担心人们不了解书的力量会如此强大。最发人深省的书最能对人有所助益。轻松的阅读最难让人获取知识，每个尝试过的人都知道这点。但伟大思想家的伟大作品犹如思想的航船，满载真与美。这艘船在天堂之风的推动下，在人生之海中破浪前行，将所到之处化为美好，留下一道道美丽的波纹，闪闪发光。随着船的行进，波纹越荡越宽。它给予每一片土地财富，播撒真理、公正、爱与虔诚的种子，在未来的日子里保佑这个世界。

伟大思想家的伟大作品犹如思想的航船，满载真与美。这艘船在天堂之风的推动下，在人生之海中破浪前行，将所到之处化为美好，留下一道道美丽的波纹，闪闪发光。

Theodore Parker 西奥多•帕克