论懒散(下) | 双语散文阅读
周末好！今天我们继续欣赏塞缪尔•约翰逊的哲理小品《论懒散》的下篇。新的一年，希望你能摆脱琐事，勤奋地致力于合理的、有用的事情。
塞缪尔·约翰逊 Samuel Johnson
英国作家、文学评论家和诗人。1728年进入牛津大学学习。因家贫而中途辍学。1737年开始为《绅士杂志》撰写文章。以后自编周刊《漫步者》（1750～1752）。经九年的奋斗，终于编成《英语大辞典》（1755）。约翰逊从此扬名。1764年协助雷诺兹成立文学俱乐部，参加者有鲍斯韦尔、哥尔德斯密斯、伯克等人，对当时的文化发展起了推动作用。一生重要作品有长诗《伦敦》（1738）、《人类欲望的虚幻》（1749）、《阿比西尼亚王子》（1759）等。还编注了《莎士比亚集》（1765）。
On Idleness
This art has for many years been practised by my old friend Sober, with wonderful success. Sober is a man of strong desires and quick imagination, so exactly balanced by the love of ease, that they can seldom stimulate him to any difficult undertaking; they have, however, so much power, that they will not suffer him to lie quite at rest, and though they do not make him sufficiently useful to others, they make him at least weary of himself.
Mr. Sober's chief pleasure is conversation; there is no end of his talk or his attention; to speak or to hear is equally pleasing; for he still fancies that he is teaching or learning something, and is free for the time from his own reproaches.
But there is one time at night when he must go home, that his friends may sleep; and another time in the morning, when all the world agrees to shut out interruption. These are the moments of which poor Sober trembles at the thought. But the misery of these tiresome intervals, he has many means of alleviating. He has persuaded himself that the manual arts are undeservedly overlooked; he has observed in many trades the effects of close thought, and just ratiocination. From speculation he proceeded to practice, and supplied himself with the tools of a carpenter, with which he mended his coal-box very successfully, and which he still continues to employ, as he finds occasion.
He has attempted at other times the crafts of the Shoemaker, Tinman, Plumber, and Potter; in all these arts he has failed, and resolves to qualify himself for them by better information. But his daily amusement is Chemistry. He has a small furnace, which he employs in distillation, and which has long been the solace of his life. He draws oils and waters, and essences and spirits, which he knows to be of no use; sits and counts the drops as they come from his retort, and forgets that, whilst a drop is falling, a moment flies away.
Poor Sober! I have often teased him with reproof, and he has often promised reformation; for no man is so much open to conviction as the Idler, but there is none on whom it operates so little. What will be the effect of this paper I know not; perhaps he will read it and laugh, and light the fire in his furnace; but my hope is that he will quit his trifles, and betake himself to rational and useful diligence.
本文由沈汀和Bob Jones为您朗读，中文版本由王义国翻译。
undeservedly [ˌʌndɪ'zɜ:vɪdlɪ] adv. 不该有地
ratiocination [ˌrætiˌɒsɪˈneɪʃn] n. 推论
tinman ['tɪnmən] n. 锡匠
potter [ˈpɒtə(r)] n. 陶工
solace [ˈsɒləs] n. 安慰，慰藉
essence [ˈesns] n. 香精
betake [bɪˈteɪk] v. 使致力于
听完这篇散文，你有没有在自己身上发现索伯的影子呢？新年了，快改掉懒散的毛病，振奋起来吧！
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