The American Scholar

论美国学者

Ralph Waldo Emerson

拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生

作者简介

拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生（Ralph Waldo Emerson，1803—1882），美国思想家、文学家、诗人，确立美国文化精神的代表人物。美国总统亚伯拉罕·林肯（Abraham Lincoln）称他为“美国的孔子”和“美国文明之父”。

爱默生最著名的作品为《随笔集》（Essays）。他经常发表演说，1841年将演讲词集结成《随笔集》第一册，三年后结集出版第二册。他的随笔语句简洁生动，充满警句格言，既有抑扬顿挫的慷慨陈词，又能体现温文尔雅的学者风度，为其赢得了“美国的文艺复兴领袖”的美名。

本文节选自爱默生1837年8月31日在剑桥大学演讲的讲稿，宣告美国文学脱离英国文学而独立，被誉为美国思想文化领域的“独立宣言”。文中告诫美国学者切勿盲目追随传统，或遵循刻板教条。无论对阅读还是研究，这一观点均颇具借鉴意义。

The theory of books is noble. The scholar of the first age received into him the world around; brooded thereon; gave it the new arrangement of his own mind, and uttered it again. It came into him, life; it went out from him, truth. It came to him, short-lived actions; it went out from him, immortal thoughts. It came to him, business; it went from him, poetry. It was dead fact; now, it is quick thought. It can stand, and it can go. It now endures, it now flies, it now inspires. Precisely in proportion to the depth of mind from which it issued, so high does it soar, so long does it sing.

Or, I might say, it depends on how far the process had gone, of transmuting life into truth. In proportion to the completeness of the distillation, so will the purity and imperishableness of the product be. But none is quite perfect. As no air-pump can by any means make a perfect vacuum, so neither can any artist entirely exclude the conventional, the local, the perishable from his book, or write a book of pure thought, that shall be as efficient, in all respects, to a remote posterity, as to cotemporaries, or rather to the second age. Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. The books of an older period will not fit this.

Yet hence arises a grave mischief. The sacredness which attaches to the act of creation, the act of thought, is instantly transferred to the record. The poet chanting was felt to be a divine man. Henceforth the chant is divine also. The writer was a just and wise spirit. Henceforward it is settled, the book is perfect; as love of the hero corrupts into worship of his statue. Instantly the book becomes noxious. The guide is a tyrant. The sluggish and perverted mind of the multitude, always slow to open to the incursions of Reason, having once so opened, having once received this book, stands upon it, and makes an outcry if it is disparaged. Colleges are built on it. Books are written on it by thinkers, not by Man Thinking, by men of talent, that is, who start wrong, who set out from accepted dogmas, not from their own sight of principles. Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views, which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given; forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books.

Hence, instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm. Hence the book-learned class, who value books, as such; not as related to nature and the human constitution, but as making a sort of Third Estate with the world and the soul. Hence, the restorers of readings, the emendators, the bibliomaniacs of all degrees.

Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book than to be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system. The one thing in the world of value is the active soul. This every man is entitled to; this every man contains within him, although in almost all men obstructed, and as yet unborn. The soul active sees absolute truth and utters truth, or creates. In this action it is genius; not the privilege of here and there a favorite, but the sound estate of every man. In its essence it is progressive.

The book, the college, the school of art, the institution of any kind, stop with some past utterance of genius. This is good, say they,—let us hold by this. They pin me down. They look backward and not forward. But genius always looks forward. The eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead. Man hopes. Genius creates. Whatever talents may be, if the man create not, the pure efflux of the Deity is not his; —cinders and smoke there may be, but not yet flame. There are creative manners, there are creative actions, and creative words; manners, actions, words, that is, indicative of no custom or authority, but springing spontaneous from the mind's own sense of good and fair.

书的理论是高贵的。古老的学者接纳自己周遭的世界，以此为基础进行思索，将知识在头脑中重新排列，最后得出思考的结果。进入头脑的是生活，输出头脑的是真知。通过他的头脑加工，短暂的行为能化作不朽的思考，纯粹的生意能化作优美的诗歌。曾经已逝的事实，如今化作敏捷的思想。它时而驻足，时而前行。如今，它继续前进、自由翱翔、给人启迪。准确说来，思之愈深，则翔之愈高、传之愈久。

或者说，这完全取决于“将生活化为真知”的程度有多深。蒸馏的程度越高，产物就越纯净、越不易腐。但没有东西会那么完美。就像气泵抽不出绝对的真空，艺术家也无法彻底排除习俗、地域、时效的影响，无法写出思想纯粹的作品。这种作品能从各个方面影响当代人和后代，或者说流传到下一个时代。人们发现，每个时代都必须写下自己的作品，或者说，每一代人都必须写下作品留给后代。更加古老的作品则无法流传。

但这会造成极大的危害。与创造（即思考）相关的圣物立即被记入史册。人们将发出咏叹的诗人视为圣人，那么他的咏叹就成了圣诗；作者公正贤明，那么他的作品就必定完美无瑕——对英雄的热爱蜕化成对其塑像的崇拜。一旦如此，书也就有了毒素，导师变成了暴君。民众心智开启迟缓，容易误入歧途，接受理性的过程缓慢。一旦他们心智开启，接受了某本书，就会坚持书中观点。若此书遭人非议，他们会公开抗议。大学就是以此为基础建立。书不是由“思想者”写成，而是由“思考者”1写就。那些天才开始时就错了——他们不从自身观点出发，而是拘泥于刻板教条。在图书馆长大的温良青年，确信接受西塞罗、洛克、培根的观点是自身责任所在，却忘记了西塞罗、洛克、培根当年写书时，也只不过是图书馆里的青年。

于是，我们有了书呆子，而非“思想者”。于是，我们有了珍视书本的“知识分子阶级”。他们既不关注自然也不关注人性，而是关注世界与灵魂之间的“第三层”。于是，我们有了重振阅读派、修正派和程度不一的藏书狂。

书，善用之，乃万物精华；滥用之，则秕糠不如。那么何为善用？人们千方百计想要达到的目标是什么？书的作用无非是给人启迪。如果一本书的引力会让我偏离自身轨道，不再拥有自己的行星体系，而成为绕其旋转的一颗卫星，那我最好永远不要看见它。世间最可贵的东西莫过于活跃的心智。尽管它与生俱来，藏于每个人心中，但大多数人的心智受到堵塞、尚未开启。心智活跃之人能看见绝对的真理，并能说出真理或进行创造。在这个过程中，心智活跃是一种天赋。它不是上天宠儿的特权，而是人人皆有的资产。它的本质是进步。

曾经的某位天才说过的话，能让书本、大学、艺术院校及各类机构裹足不前。人们说，天才的话说得对，我们要贯彻下去。这些人让我寸步难行。这些人只顾后而不瞻前，但天才总是着眼未来。人的眼睛不在脑后，而在额前。常人只会期盼，天才则会创造。一个人若不能创造，就算再有天赋，也没有丝毫灵性——或许有些烟尘，却难以成为烈焰。世间有许多创造性的方法、行为和语言。这些方法、行为、语言不以习俗或权威为据，而是心灵良知的自然流露。

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书，善用之，乃万物精华；滥用之，则秕糠不如。

Ralph Waldo Emerson 拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生

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1．“思想者”不同于“思考者”。“思考者”是被动思考、靠吸吮他人思想活着的人，而“思想者”要形成自己的思想。