The Delights of Books

John Lubbock

 1. Books are to mankind what memory is to the individual. They contain the history of our race, the discoveries we have made, the accumulated knowledge and experience of ages; they picture for us the marvels and beauties of nature; help us in our difficulties, comfort us in sorrow and in suffering, change hours of weariness into moments of delight, store our minds with ideas, fill them with good and happy thoughts, and lift us out of and above ourselves.

 2. There is an oriental story of two men: one was a king, who every night dreamt he was a beggar; the other was a beggar, who every night dreamt he was a prince and lived in a palace. I am not sure that the king had very much the best of it. Imagination is sometimes more vivid than reality. But, however this may be, when we read we may not only (if we wish it) be kings and live in palaces, but, what is far better, we may transport ourselves to the mountains or the seashore, and visit the most beautiful parts of the earth, without fatigue, inconvenience, or expense.

 3. Many of those who have had, as we say, all that this world can give, have yet told us they owed much of their purest happiness to books. Ascham, in The Schoolmaster, tells a touching story of his last visit to Lady Jane Grey.He found her sitting in an oriel window reading Plato’s beautiful account of the death of Socrates. Her father and mother were hunting in the park, the hounds were in full cry and their voices came in through the open window. He expressed his surprise that she had not joined them. But, she said, “I wish that all their pleasure in the park is but a shadow to the pleasure I find in Plato.”

 4. Macaulay had wealth and fame, rank and power, and yet he tells us in his biography that he owed the happiest hours of his life to books. In a charming letter to a little girl, he says: “Thank you for your very pretty letter. I am always glad to make my little girl happy, and nothing pleases me so much as to see that she likes books, for when she is as old as I am, she will find that they are better than all the tarts and cakes, toys and plays, and sights in the world. If any one would make me the greatest king that ever lived, with palaces and gardens and fine dinners, and wines and coaches, and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants, on condition that I should not read books, I would not be a king. I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.”

 5. Books, indeed, endow us with a whole enchanted palace of thoughts. There is a wider prospect, says Jean Paul Richter, from Parnassus than from a throne. In one way they give us an even more vivid idea than the actual reality, just as reflections are often more beautiful than real nature. “All mirrors,” says George MacDonald. “The commonest room is a room in a poem when I look in the glass.”

 6. Precious and priceless are the blessings which the books scatter around our daily paths. We walk, in imagination, with the sublime and enchanting regions.

 7. Without stirring from our firesides we may roam to the most remote regions of the earth, or soar into realms where Spenser’s shapes of unearthly beauty flock to meet us, where Milton’s angels peal in our ears the choral hymns of Paradise. Science, art, literature, philosophy, — all that man has thought, all that man has done, — the experience that has been bought with the sufferings of a hundred generations, — all are garnered up for us in the world of books.

【译文】

读书的乐趣

约翰•拉伯克

1. 书籍之于全人类正如记忆之于个人。 书中记录了人类的历史、已有的发现、世世代代积累下来的知识与经验；书籍为我们展示大自然的神奇与美丽；艰难时扶持我们，伤痛难过时安抚我们，疲惫厌倦时娱乐我们，用思想充实我们的心智，愉悦我们的心绪，并鼓舞着我们战胜自我、超越自我。

2. 有个东方故事讲述了两个人：一个是国王，每夜梦到自己是乞丐；另一个是乞丐，每夜梦到自己是王子，生活在皇宫。 我不甚清楚国王做这样的梦到底能获得多少愉悦。 幻想往往比现实更鲜活。 然而，无论是否如此，每每沉浸在阅读中，我们不仅能（如果希望）成为国王，生活在皇宫里，更妙的是我们还能遍访山川海岸，尽享大地之最美，而不觉疲倦，没有不便，更不用破费。 

3. 那些如我们所言已经得到了这个世界能够给予他们的一切的人当中，有许多却告诉我们他们最纯粹的快乐有相当大的部分是从书本当中获得的。 阿斯克姆在《教师》一书中讲述了他最后一次拜访简•格雷女士的动人故事。 他见她正坐在飘窗下，阅读柏拉图写的苏格拉底之死的精彩文字。 此时她父母在园子里打猎，猎犬狂吠的声音从开着的窗户传进来。 作者感到很惊讶，她竟不加入其中。 但她说：“我希望他们在园子里打猎的快乐，与我在柏拉图文字里获得的愉悦相比，只不过是影子而已。”

4. 麦考利既有财富与名望，又有地位与权力，然而他在自传中告诉我们，他人生最幸福的时光是在书籍中获得的。 在给一位小女孩的一封有意思的信中，他写道：“感谢你非常可爱的来信。 能使我的小女孩快乐总是让我很开心，没有什么能比她喜欢阅读更让我开心的了，因为当她到了我这个年纪，她就会发现书籍要胜过所有的馅饼和蛋糕、玩具和游戏，乃至于这世上所有的美景。 就算有人可以让我成为最伟大的国王，住皇宫、游花园、赏佳肴、品美酒、坐马车、穿华服，成群的仆人前呼后拥，但如果我不能读书的话，我是不会当这样的国王的。 我宁守清贫住藏书阁，也不愿做一个不爱读书的国王。”

5. 书籍的确赐予我们一座令人神往的思想宫殿。 吉恩•保罗•里克特说，从诗坛上看到的世界比从皇位上看到的更广阔。 某种意义上说，书籍展现给我们的比现实甚至还生动，正如映像常比客观自然更美丽。 “凡事皆镜像，”乔治•麦克唐纳说。 “从镜子里面看，再普通的房子我也觉得充满诗情画意。”

6. 书籍在人类的日常生活道路上洒满珍贵无价的恩惠。 凭借想象的翅膀，我们越崇山，览胜景。 

7. 无须起身离开火炉，我们就可漫游天涯海角，或是飞到斯宾塞笔下的王国，那里我们受到成群结队非凡美丽的仙女们的欢迎，或是飞到弥尔顿的天堂，那里我们欣赏天使们合唱天堂颂歌。 科学、艺术、文学、哲学——人类一切所思所为——百代历经磨难换来的经验——这一切全都为我们聚藏在书海中。