LESSON 134

HAPPINESS

幸 福

Alexander Pope, 1688-1744, was the shining literary light of the so-called Augustan reign of Queen Anne, the poetry of which was distinguished by the highest degree of polish and elegance. Pope was the son of a retired linen draper, who lived in a pleasant country house near the Windsor Forest. He was so badly deformed that his life was “one long disease;” he was remarkably precocious, and had a most intelligent face, with great, flaming, tender eyes. In disposition Pope was the reverse of admirable. He was extremely sensitive, petulant, and supercilious; fierce and even coarse in his attacks on opponents; boastful of his self-acquired wealth and of his intimacy with the nobility. The great redeeming feature of his character was his tender devotion to his aged parents.

As a poet, however, Pope challenges the highest admiration. At the age of sixteen he commenced his “Pastorals,” and when only twenty-one published his “Essay on Criticism,” pronounced “the finest piece of argumentative and reasoning poetry in the English language.” His reputation was now firmly established, and his literary activity ceased only at his death; although, during the latter portion of his life, he was so weak physically that he was unable to dress himself or even to rise from bed without assistance. Pope’s great admiration was Dryden, whose style he studied and copied. He lacks the latter’s strength, but in elegance and polish he remains unequaled.

Pope’s most remarkable work is “The Rape of the Lock;” his greatest, the translation into English verse of Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey.” His “Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard,” “The Dunciad,” and the “Essay On Man” are also famous productions. He published an edition of “Shakespeare,” which was awaited with great curiosity, and received with equal disappointment. During the three years following its appearance, he united with Swift and Arbuthnot in writing the “Miscellanies,” an extensive satire on the abuses of learning and the extravagances of philosophy. His “Epistles,” addressed to various distinguished men, and covering a period of four years, were copied after those of Horace; they were marked by great clearness, neatness of diction, and good sense, and by Pope’s usual elegance and grace. His “Imitations of Horace” was left unfinished at his death.

The following selection is an extract from the “Essay on Man;”

Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise,
By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies?
Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.
Know all the good that individuals find,
Or God and nature meant to mere mankind.
Reason’s whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words,—health, peace, and competence.
But health consists with temperance alone;
And peace, O virtue! peace is all thy own.
The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain;
But these less taste them as they worse obtain.
Say, in pursuit of profit or delight,
Who risk the most, that take wrong means or right?
Of vice or virtue, whether blest or curst,
Which meets contempt, or which compassion first?
Count all th’ advantage prosperous vice attains,
’T is but what virtue flies from and disdains:
And grant the bad what happiness they would,
One they must want, which is, to pass for good.
Oh, blind to truth, and God’s whole scheme below,
Who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue woe!
Who sees and follows that great scheme the best,
Best knows the blessing, and will most be blest.
But fools the good alone unhappy call,
For ills or accidents that chance to all.
Think we, like some weak prince, the Eternal Cause,
Prone for his favorites to reverse his laws?
Shall burning AEtna, if a sage requires,
Forget to thunder, and recall her fires?
When the loose mountain trembles from on high,
Shall gravitation cease, if you go by?
“But sometimes virtue starves while vice is fed.”
What, then? Is the reward of virtue bread?
That, vice may merit, ’t is the price of toil;
The knave deserves it when he tills the soil,
The knave deserves it when he tempts the main,
Where folly fights for kings or dives for gain.
Honor and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honor lies.
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather or prunella.
A wit’s a feather, and a chief a rod,
An honest man’s the noblest work of God.
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas.
Know then this truth (enough for man to know),
“Virtue alone is happiness below.”
The only point where human bliss stands still,
And tastes the good without the fall to ill;
Where only merit constant pay receives,
Is blest in what it takes and what it gives.

【中文阅读】

啊，大地之子！还在竭力升起，
在层峦叠嶂的群山之间，直抵云霄？
上天还在嘲笑长久眺望的虚妄，
将疯人埋在他们堆起的土堆上。
知晓个体探究到的所有善业，
抑或上帝和大自然只是对人类重要。
理性的全部快乐，感性的所有欢乐，
都存乎于三个词——健康、安宁和能力。
但是健康只适于性情；
安宁，啊，美德的象征！全系于你自身。
运气这个上天的礼物，有善恶之分，
但是这些没有情趣的东西，他们得到只会更糟。
不妨说，追逐利益或者快乐，
谁会冒最大的危险，而不管手段对与错？
不道德或者美德，幸福还是该诅咒，
哪一个遭到轻蔑，哪一个又会先得到同情？
把不道德行为达成的都看作是成功的有利条件，
这不过是美德回避和摒弃的结果；
承认恶行会给他们带来幸福，
他们必然希望，把恶行误认为善举。
啊，对真理的盲从，上帝的整个计划都落了空，
有谁想对不道德道一声祝福，对美德的敌人！
谁看到和相信那伟大的计划是最好的东西，
最好的人知道祝福的价值，最能带来幸福。
但是愚人却道唯有美德令人不快乐，
因为所有人都会偶发疾病或者事故。
想想看，难道像体弱的王子那样，永恒的事业
那么容易让他的追随者改弦易辙？
如果圣人要求，难道埃特纳火山
会忘记隆隆作响，召回她的火光？
当摇晃的高山从高处发抖，
要是你从旁经过，难道这趋势会终止？
“可是有时当不道德事物得到滋养时，美德忍饥挨饿。”
那么，然后呢？美德的报偿是面包？
不道德也许是值得的，这就是辛苦的代价；
当恶棍在土地上耕耘时，他配得上这面包；
当恶棍引诱别人做坏事时，他配得上这辛劳，
愚蠢地为国王去打仗，或者潜入水中打捞战利品。
荣誉和羞耻没有先决条件，
你的角色演得精彩，所有荣誉摆在面前。
值得造就这样的人，缺乏追随的人；
剩下的不过是皮革或者夏枯草。
才智是羽毛，最重要的当是羽毛附着的茎秆，
诚实的人是上帝最高尚的创造。
自我证明的时刻就是经年在价值上
胜过愚蠢的旁观者，和高声赞许。
弄懂这个真理（对人而言懂得这个已足够），
“仅有美德谈不上幸福。”
人类的福祉全系于此，
领略善的真谛，就不会作恶；
唯有始终如一的功德才会得到偿报，
在得到和施与中品味幸福。