LESSON 133

VALUE OF THE PRESENT

现在的价值

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882, the celebrated essayist and philosopher, was born in Boston. His father was a Unitarian minister, and the son, after graduating at Harvard University, entered the ministry also, and took charge of a Unitarian congregation in Boston. His peculiar ideas on religious topics soon caused him to retire from the ministry, and he then devoted himself to literature. As a lecturer, Emerson attained a wide reputation, both in this country and in England, and he is considered as one of the most independent and original thinkers of the age. His style is brief and pithy, dazzling by its wit, but sometimes paradoxical. He wrote a few poems, but they are not generally admired, being didactic in style, bare, and obscure. Among his best known publications are his volume “Nature,” and his lectures, “The Mind and Manners of the Nineteenth Century,” “The Superlative in Manners and Literature,” “English Character and Manners,” and “The Conduct of Life.” In 1850 appeared “Representative Men,” embracing sketches of Plato, Swedenborg, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Napoleon, and Goethe.

Such are the days,—the earth is the cup, the sky is the cover, of the immense bounty of nature which is offered us for our daily aliment; but what a force of illusion begins life with us, and attends us to the end! We are coaxed, flattered, and duped, from morn to eve, from birth to death; and where is the old eye that ever saw through the deception? The Hindoos represent Maia, the illusory energy of Vishnu, as one of his principal attributes. As if, in this gale of warring elements, which life is, it was necessary to bind souls to human life as mariners in a tempest lash themselves to the mast and bulwarks of a ship, and Nature employed certain illusions as her ties and straps,—a rattle, a doll, an apple, for a child; skates, a river, a boat, a horse, a gun, for the growing boy;—and I will not begin to name those of the youth and adult, for they are numberless. Seldom and slowly the mask falls, and the pupil is permitted to see that all is one stuff, cooked and painted under many counterfeit appearances. Hume’s doctrine was that the circumstances vary, the amount of happiness does not; that the beggar cracking fleas in the sunshine under a hedge, and the duke rolling by in his chariot, the girl equipped for her first ball, and the orator returning triumphant from the debate, had different means, but the same quantity of pleasant excitement.

This element of illusion lends all its force to hide the values of present time. Who is he that does not always find himself doing something less than his best task? “What are you doing?” “Oh, nothing; I have been doing thus, or I shall do so or so, but now I am only—” Ah! poor dupe, will you never slip out of the web of the master juggler?—never learn that, as soon as the irrecoverable years have woven their blue glory between to-day and us, these passing hours shall glitter and draw us, as the wildest romance and the homes of beauty and poetry? How difficult to deal erect with them! The events they bring, their trade, entertainments, and gossip, their urgent work, all throw dust in the eyes and distract attention. He is a strong man who can look them in the eye, see through this juggle, feel their identity, and keep his own; who can know surely that one will be like another to the end of the world, nor permit love, or death, or politics, or money, war, or pleasure, to draw him from his task.

The world is always equal to itself, and every man in moments of deeper thought is apprised that he is repeating the experiences of the people in the streets of Thebes or Byzantium. An everlasting Now reigns in nature, which hangs the same roses on our bushes which charmed the Roman and the Chaldean in their hanging gardens. “To what end, then,” he asks, “should I study languages, and traverse countries, to learn so simple truths?”

History of ancient art, excavated cities, recovery of books and inscriptions,—yes, the works were beautiful, and the history worth knowing; and academies convene to settle the claims of the old schools. What journeys and measurements,—Niebuhr and Muller and Layard,—to identify the plain of Troy and Nimroud town! And your homage to Dante costs you so much sailing; and to ascertain the discoverers of America needs as much voyaging as the discovery cost. Poor child! that flexible clay of which these old brothers molded their admirable symbols was not Persian, nor Memphian, nor Teutonic, nor local at all, but was common lime and silex and water, and sunlight, the heat of the blood, and the heaving of the lungs; it was that clay which thou heldest but now in thy foolish hands, and threwest away to go and seek in vain in sepulchers, mummy pits, and old bookshops of Asia Minor, Egypt, and England. It was the deep to-day which all men scorn; the rich poverty, which men hate; the populous, all-loving solitude, which men quit for the tattle of towns. He lurks, he hides,—he who is success, reality, joy, and power. One of the illusions is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday. ’T is the old secret of the gods that they come in low disguises. ’T is the vulgar great who come dizened with gold and jewels. Real kings hide away their crowns in their wardrobes, and affect a plain and poor exterior. In the Norse legend of our ancestors, Odin dwells in a fisher’s hut, and patches a boat. In the Hindoo legends, Hari dwells a peasant among peasants. In the Greek legend, Apollo lodges with the shepherds of Admetus; and Jove liked to rusticate among the poor Ethiopians. So, in our history, Jesus is born in a barn, and his twelve peers are fishermen. ’T is the very principle of science that Nature shows herself best in leasts; ’t was the maxim of Aristotle and Lucretius; and, in modern times, of Swedenborg and of Hahnemann. The order of changes in the egg determines the age of fossil strata. So it was the rule of our poets, in the legends of fairy lore, that the fairies largest in power were the least in size.

In the Christian graces, humility stands highest of all, in the form of the Madonna; and in life, this is the secret of the wise. We owe to genius always the same debt, of lifting the curtain from the common, and showing us that divinities are sitting disguised in the seeming gang of gypsies and peddlers. In daily life, what distinguishes the master is the using those materials he has, instead of looking about for what are more renowned, or what others have used well. “A general,” said Bonaparte, “always has troops enough, if he only knows how to employ those he has, and bivouacs with them.” Do not refuse the employment which the hour brings you, for one more ambitious. The highest heaven of wisdom is alike near from every point, and thou must find it, if at all, by methods native to thyself alone.

【中文阅读】

日子就是这样——大地是杯子，天空是杯盖，装的是为我们提供日常膳食的慷慨大自然；但是，我们始于生活的错误观念的影响力非常大，一直伴随我们到离开这个世界！从早到晚，从生到死，我们一直被哄骗，糊弄和欺骗。那双曾看穿骗术的眼睛在哪儿呢？印度教教徒将迈亚（希腊神话中的自然女神——译注）、毗湿奴（印度教大神——译注）虚幻的化身，看作是出自他手的最主要的神之一。好像生活就是敌对的东西相互作用的结果，那么把神性与人类生活结合在一起就像在暴风雨中水手将自己系在船桅杆和舷墙上一样，都是必然的，大自然利用某些错觉作为她的带子和绳索——嘎嘎声，玩偶，苹果给孩子，溜冰鞋，小河，小船，一匹马，一条枪给正在成长的少年；我不想一开始就那些青年和成年人都需要什么，因为这些东西不可胜数。面具偶尔慢慢掉下来，学生征得允许想看看里面到底塞了些什么东西，在许多仿制品的外表随意编造和涂抹。休谟主张虽然环境改变，但幸福的总量不变。烈日当空，在篱笆下面，乞丐噼噼啪啪地拍打着跳蚤，公爵的马车隆隆而过，姑娘盛装去赴她的第一场社交舞会，而演说家带着在辩论中驳倒对手的胜利凯旋而归。这些行为虽然有不同的意义，但是快乐感的数量是相同的。

错误观念的这种特质能导致其运用全部影响力来掩盖现在的价值。那个总是发现自己做的事情没有发挥其最佳状态的人是谁？“你在干吗呢？”“噢，没做什么；我一直忙着，或者我一直忙这忙那的，不过现在我只是——”啊，可怜的傻瓜，你绝不会意外地从玩杂耍的人编的网里滑出来吗？永远不要尝试弄明白其中的门道。一旦在今天和我们之间无可挽救的岁月编织出虚幻的荣耀，那些匆匆而过的时间就会发出灿烂的光芒，令我们流连忘返，就像最狂热的浪漫史与美和诗歌的滥觞？要想正确对待这些事情有多难啊！由他们引起的事件，他们的谋生手段，娱乐和流言蜚语，他们迫切要做的工作，所有这些都会吸引人们的眼球，分散注意力。他是个意志坚定的人，虽然将这些事情看在眼里，但能看穿这种把戏，洞察到本质，泰然处之。谁能确切知道对世界末日而言彼与此一样，不允许爱或死亡，或政治或金钱，或者快乐来分散他对自己使命的专注。

这个世界始终与其本质保持同一性，每个有深邃思想的人都会对自己在重复底比斯或拜占庭帝国街道上的人们的经验。一个永恒的现在主宰着未来，我们的树丛中怒放的是令罗马人和占星术士着迷的同样的玫瑰，尽管他们的玫瑰栽在悬着的花园中。“这一切结束后是什么样子，”他问道，“我学习各种语言，到各个国家旅行，难道就是为了洞察如此简单的真理吗？”

古代艺术史，被挖掘的城市，书籍和铭文的复原——是的，这些艺术品是美丽的，历史值得探究；各学会和研究院开会来解决各个学派的纷争。多么奇妙的旅行——尼布尔、穆勒和莱亚德来鉴定特洛伊平原与尼姆罗德城遗迹！对但丁的崇敬需要你付出太多的舟车劳顿。为了确定美洲的发现者，需要付出尽可能多的旅行和发现成本。可怜的孩子！那些将他们那绝妙的符号刻在柔软的泥板上的老教友不是波斯人，不是孟菲斯人或条顿人，也不是其他地方的人，用他们共有的石灰、蜡和水，还有阳光和热血，以及肺的喘息。你曾举起的泥板，现在落入愚人的手中，结果扔到一边，徒劳地去寻找小亚细亚、埃及和英格兰的墓穴、木乃伊葬坑以及古老书店。这就是所有人都嗤之以鼻深奥的今天；人们憎恶嫌贫爱富的人；人们离开人口众多和飞短流长的城镇，所有人都喜欢独处；他隐姓埋名，他躲藏起来——这就是成功、现实、快乐和有权势的人的生存法则。错觉之一就是，现在这一刻不是关键和有决定意义的一刻。要牢记，在一年当中每一天都是最重要的一天。直到明白每一天都是世界末日，否则没有人能正确理解事物的真正意义。“这就是神都伪装成普通人的古老秘诀。”所谓世俗的大人物都是以黄金和珠宝示人。真正的王者将他们的王冠藏在他们的衣橱里，装成一个寻常之人，外表上破衣烂衫。在我们祖先的北欧传奇故事里，欧丁神住在一位渔夫的小屋里，修理一条破船。在印度传说里，神伪装成农民，终日与农民为伍。在希腊传说里，太阳神阿波罗与阿德墨托斯的牧羊人住在一起；而朱庇特喜欢住在贫穷的埃塞俄比亚人村落。就这样，在我们的历史中，耶稣出生在马厩里，他的十二门徒则是渔夫出身。这恰恰是特殊的科学原理的体现，即大自然哪怕在最细微处也展现出她的本来面目。这也是亚里士多德和卢克莱修的座右铭。近现代的斯威登堡和哈尼曼也极力主张和推崇这个原理。鸡蛋里发生变化的顺序决定了鸡蛋的化石岩层。因此，这也是我们诗人的创作准则，在描写仙女的传奇故事里，仙女最令人着迷之处在于身体尺寸的微小。

就基督教种种道义力量而言，以圣母玛利亚体现出的谦逊居于首位。在世俗生活中，谦虚也是智慧的源泉。我们始终把天才归咎于欠缺同样的东西，撩起那层神秘的面纱露出的是共同的禀赋，呈现给我们的神性则是伪装成貌似真实的成帮结伙的吉卜赛人和不法商贩的表象。在日常生活中，使主人显得与众不同的是，他运用自己拥有的那些所谓“材料”，而不是四下寻找更有名的东西，或者其他人也运用得很好的东西。“一位将军，”波拿巴说，“如果他仅仅知道如何利用那些他现有的，并与他们在一起风餐露宿的话，就始终有足够的军队。” 出于更有抱负的目的，不要拒绝某一时间带给你的有益的活动。智慧最令人愉悦之处同样在于与每一点都是相近的，你必须通过只适合你自己的方法来发现它。