The Duty of Happiness
快乐是责任
“If a man is unhappy, this must be his own fault; for God made all men to be happy.”----Epictetus
“有人要是不快乐，那一定是他自己的过错；因为上天是要让
所有的人快乐。” ——厄匹克特泰
Life is a great gift, and as we reach years of discretion, we most of us naturally ask ourselves what should be the main object of our existence. Even those who do not accept “the greatest good of the greatest number” as an absolute rule, will yet admit that we should all endeavour to contribute as far as we may to the happiness of our fellow-creatures. There are many, however, who seem to doubt whether it is right that we should try to be happy ourselves. Our own happiness ought not, of course, to be our main object, nor indeed will it ever be secured if selfishly sought. We may have many pleasures in life, but must not let them have rule over us, or they will soon hand us over to sorrow; and “into what dangerous and miserable servitude does he fall who suffers pleasures and sorrows (two unfaithful and cruel commanders) to possess him successively?”[Seneca]
生命是一件伟大的礼物，当我们到达明辨事理的岁月，我们大多数人会质问自己，我们生存的目的是什么。“为最大多数人谋取最大好处”如果被当作是我们生存的绝对准则，有些人可能不会接受，但即使这些人也会承认：我们应该尽力为我们人类的幸福快乐做出贡献。可是，有许多人却在怀疑我们是否应该让自己快乐。当然，我们自己的快乐不应该认为是我们的主要目标，而且，如果我们自私自利地去谋取个人的快乐，不一定真的就能得到快乐。在生命之中，我们可能获得许多欢乐，但不能让欢乐支配我们，否则欢乐不久就会把我们移交给忧愁；而“人们一旦任由欢乐和忧愁（两位狡猾和残忍的司令官）轮流做主人，就将会陷入极度危殆和悲惨的奴役之中。”[引文录自塞内加]
I cannot, however, but think that the world would be better and brighter if our teachers would dwell on the Duty of Happiness as well as on the Happiness of Duty; for we ought to be as cheerful as we can, if only because to be happy ourselves, is a most effectual contribution to the happiness of others.
无论如何，我自然而然地想到，如果老师们多加强调“快乐是责任”以及“责任是快乐”的道理，这个世界将会更为美好和亮丽；我们都应该善尽所能地高高兴兴，哪怕就因为我们自己快乐，只是一个最有效促使他人快乐的做法。
Everyone must have felt that a cheerful friend is like a sunny day, which sheds its brightness on all around; and most of us can, as we choose, make of this world either a palace or a prison.
每个人都必定这么感到，一位意气风发的朋友就像一个大晴天，向四处散布出光辉；我们大多数人都能够按照自己的选择，使这个世界成为一座皇宫或是一所监狱。
There is no doubt some selfish satisfaction in yielding to melancholy, and fancying that we are victims of fate; in brooding over grievances, especially if more or less imaginary. To be bright and cheerful often requires an effort; there is a certain art in keeping ourselves happy: and in this respect, as in others, we require to watch over and manage ourselves, almost as if we were somebody else.
毫无疑问，向忧郁屈服、幻想着我们是命运的受害者，可以获得一些自私的快慰；沉浸于悲伤，特别是多少带着想象的悲伤之中，同样不乏自私的快慰。要做到开朗和愉快，时常需要一番努力。保持自己快乐有其秘诀：我们需要把自己几乎当作别人那么监视自己，管理自己；在这方面是这样，其他方面也如此。
Sorrow and joy, indeed, are strangely interwoven. Too often
“We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those
That tell of
saddest thought.” [Shelley]
的确，悲伤和高兴彼此奇特地交织在一起。经常是，
“我们前瞻后顾，
为虚无之事伤感：
我们最诚挚的大笑
竟然充满痛苦；
我们最甜美的歌声
诉说最悲哀的思念。”[引自雪莱]
As a nation we
are prone to melancholy. It has been said of our countrymen that they take even
their pleasures sadly. But this, if it be true at all, will, I hope, prove a
transitory characteristic. “Merry
英国人似乎很容易流于感伤。有人说，英国人就是欢乐时也离不开悲伤。这话如果属实，我希望也只是一种短暂的特征。“欢乐英伦”是一句老话，让我们希望它会再度成为实话吧。真正的悲伤还得在东方寻找。在一首长篇四行诗的开头，奥马.凯亚姆道出最令人伤感的句子[引文取自温费德 的英译]：
“We sojourn here for one short day or two,
And all the gain we get is grief and woe;
And then, leaving life's problems all unsolved
And harassed by regrets, we have to go ;”
“我们只在这里暂停短短的一两天，
而我们所得不过是悲哀和愁苦;
然后,把未解决的人生问题留下
还被遗憾困扰, 我们必得离去;”
or the Devas' song to Prince Siddartha, in Edwin Arnold's beautiful version:
"We are the voices of the wandering wind,
Which moan for rest, and rest can never find.
Lo! as the wind is, so is mortal life―
A moan, a sigh, a sob, a storm, a strife."
在E.阿诺德的优美的译本中, 我们还找到德哇斯赠给悉达多王子的诗歌：
“我们是流浪之风的呼声,
苦求止息，而永不可得。
瞧！短促生命正像那风一般——
一声哀叹，一阵哭闹，一场纷争。”
If indeed this be true, if mortal life be so sad and full of suffering, no wonder that Nirvana ― the cessation of sorrow ― should be welcomed even at the sacrifice of consciousness.
如果这些话的确属实,如果人生真是那么悲哀而又充满痛苦，那就难怪涅磐——息愁——会受到欢迎，纵使涅磐意味着我们要牺牲知觉。
But ought we not to place before ourselves a very different ideal ― a healthier, manlier, and nobler hope?
但是，我们就不应该在我们跟前摆放一个迥然不同的理想—— 一个更为健康，更为勇敢，更为高贵的希望吗？
Life is not to live merely, but to live well. There are some “who live without any design at all, and only pass in the world like straws on a river: they do not go; they are carried,” [Seneca]―but as Homer makes Ulysses say, “How dull it is to pause, to make an end, to rest unburnished; not to shine in use― as though to breathe were life!”
生命不仅仅是为了活着，而且是需要活得好。有些人“活着没有任何计划，活在这个世界只是像河上漂流的草秆：他们并未行进；他们是随波逐流，”[引自塞内加] ——正像荷马让尤利西斯代为说出的话, “停下、结束、休息而无作为，是多么无聊， 虚应故事而一无表现——好像呼吸就是生命!”
Goethe tells us that at thirty he resolved “to work out life no longer by halves, but in all its beauty and totality.”
“Im Ganzen, Guten, Schonen
Resolut zu leben.”
歌德告诉我们，他在三十岁决定“对生命不再妥协，要找出它整个的美和全貌。”
Life indeed must be measured by thought and action, not by time. It certainly may be, and ought to be, bright, interesting, and happy; and, according to the Italian proverb, “if all cannot live on the Piazza, everyone may feel the sun.”
的确，生命不该用时间去计算，而该用思想和行为去度量。生命肯定可以是，而且应该是，亮丽、有趣和快乐的；按照意大利的一句俗话说，“要是大家无法都住在大广场，每个人尽可以感觉到阳光。”
If we do our best; if we do not magnify trifling troubles; if we look resolutely, I do not say at the bright side of things, but at things as they really are; if we avail ourselves of the manifold blessings which surround us; we cannot but feel that life is indeed a glorious inheritance.
如果我们尽最大努力，如果我们不夸大琐细的繁难，如果我们下决心观察事物的真相（我并非意味只看事物光明的一面），如果我们能利用围绕我们四周的各种福恩，我们大家一定会感到生命的确是光辉伟大的传承。
Few of us, however, realise the wonderful privilege of living, or the blessings we inherit; the glories and beauties of the Universe, which is our own if we choose to have it so; the extent to which we can make ourselves what we wish to be; or the power we possess of securing peace, of triumphing over pain and sorrow.
可是，我们之中太少人领悟到生活的神奇特权，或是我们所继承的福祉；太少人了解到，只要我们选择，宇宙的光辉和美丽是属于我们的；太少人觉察到，我们的愿望终归可以实现的最大限度；太少人认识到，我们在寻求平安以及战胜痛苦和悲伤这方面所拥有的伟大力量。
Dante pointed to the neglect of opportunities as a serious fault:
“Man can do violence
To himself and his own blessings, and for this
He, in the second round, must aye deplore,
With unavailing penitence, his crime.
Whoe'er deprives himself of life and light
In reckless lavishment his talent wastes,
And sorrows then when he should dwell in joy.”
但丁指出，忽视机会是一项严重的过失：
“人会冒犯
自身和自己的福祉，为了这
他，在下次，必将以无用的
悔恨，痛惜自己的罪过。
谁浪荡挥霍地剥夺
自己的生命和光彩，
就将在可以欢乐之际哀伤不已。”
Ruskin has expressed this with special allusion to the marvellous beauty of this glorious world, too often taken as a matter of course, and remembered, if at all, almost without gratitude. "Holy men," he complains, "in the recommending of the love of God to us, refer but seldom to those things in which it is most abundantly and immediately shown; though they insist much on His giving of bread, and raiment, and health (which He gives to all inferior creatures): they require us not to thank Him for that glory of His works which He has permitted us alone to perceive; they tell us often to meditate in the closet, but they send us not, like Isaac, into the fields at even; they dwell on the duty of self-denial, but they exhibit not the duty of delight;" and yet, as he justly says elsewhere, “each of us, as we travel the way of life, has the choice, according to our working, of turning all the voices of Nature into one song of rejoicing; or of withering and quenching her sympathy into a fearful withdrawn silence of condemnation.”
这个光辉的世界神奇美丽，我们往往把它视为当然，就是有时记得世界这么神奇美丽，也几乎是不予感激；鲁斯金曾经用特别的典故来表达这一点。他埋怨说，“圣徒们在说明上帝给予我们爱的时候，很少提到最能立刻显示爱的事物；虽然他们不断地谈到他赐给我们食物，衣服和健康（上帝准会把这些赐给所有低下的生命体）；对于上帝创造的辉煌只有我们能够领略的事实，他们没有要求我们感谢上帝；他们时常告诉我们在密室默祷，而没有在傍晚时把我们遣送到野外，像对付以撒那般；他们三番四次总是阐述自我抑制之必要，而没有表达出欢乐是责任；” 可是，他在别处很正确地说出，“我们在人生之道路迈进的时候，每个人都可以按照自己的活动方式有所选择，或是把大自然的一切声音谱写为欢乐的歌声，或是摧残和熄灭大自然的同情，让她做出可怕的和谴责性的规避的沉默。”
Must we not all admit, with Sir Henry Taylor, that "the retrospect of life swarms with lost opportunities"? "Whoever enjoys not life," says Sir T. Browne, "I count him but an apparition, though he wears about him the visible affections of flesh."
泰勒爵士认为，“回顾一生总觉得它充满着我们失去的大好机会。”我们有谁不会跟他同声感慨？布朗爵士说，“不会享受人生的，我认为他只是幽魂，虽然他外表是明显的肉身模样。”
St. Bernard, indeed, goes so far as to maintain that "nothing can work me damage except myself; the harm that I sustain I carry about with me, and never a real sufferer but by my own fault."
的确，圣伯纳甚至坚持，“除了自己之外, 没有什么可以损伤我； 因我而发生的伤害由我担负，如果不是我自己的过错，自己就不会是真正的受害者。”
Some Heathen moralists also have taught very much the same lesson. "The gods," says Marcus Aurelius, "have put all the means in man's power to enable him not to fall into real evils. Now that which does not make a man worse, how can it make his life worse? "
一些非基督教的道德家，也说过大体相同的教言。罗马大帝奥瑞琉斯曾说，“神明们让人掌握有一切方法使自己不至于沦落为真正的邪恶。造化既然无意作弄人，他怎么会糟蹋我等的生命呢？”
Epictetus takes the same line: "If a man is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault; for God has made all men to be happy." "I am," he elsewhere says, "always content with that which happens; for I think that what God chooses is better than what I choose." And again: "Seek not that things should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life. . . . If you wish for anything which belongs to another, you lose that which is your own."
厄匹克特泰的想法相似：“如果人们不快乐，要记住各人的不快乐是各人自己的过失；因为上天是要让全人类快乐的。” 他在另处说，“我总是对事情的发生感到满意；因为上天的选择比我自己的选择好一些。”他还说：“不要寻求事物按照我们的愿望而发生，而是愿望事物就是那么发生的，这样，我们可确保一生平安顺利……。如果你希望拥有他人的任何东西，你就会失去自己的所有。”
Few, however, if any, can I think go as far as St. Bernard. We cannot but suffer from pain, sickness, and anxiety; from the loss, the unkindness, the faults, even the coldness of those we love. How many a day has been damped and darkened by an angry word!
可是我认为，抱持这类想法的人，很少会像圣伯纳发挥得那么淋漓尽致。我们不可能不遭受痛苦、疾病和忧愁，不可能不蒙受损失、不仁、错误，甚至是我们所热爱者的冷酷对待。一句怒言，令我们多少日子变得不欢而且阴沉沉的！
Hegel is said to
have calmly finished his Phaenomenologie
des Geistes at
据说，在1806年10月14日的那天，黑格尔在耶拿平静地完成他的著作《精神现象论》，对于他周遭所发生的剧烈战事，完全不知道。
Matthew Arnold has suggested that we might take a lesson from the heavenly bodies.
M.阿诺德曾经提议，我们尽可从天体撷取教训。
" Unaffrighted by the silence round them,
Undistracted by the sights they see,
These demand not that the things without them
Yield them love, amusement, sympathy.
Bounded by themselves, and unobservant
In what state God's other works may he,
In their own tasks all their powers pouring,
These attain the mighty life you see."
“未为四周的沉默所震慑，
未为它们见到的景象而分心，
它们不要求外在之物
带给它们爱、欢乐、同情。
自己就是边界，不管
上帝的其他创造物的模样，
它们只是尽全力工作，
它们完成你看到的雄伟生命。”
It is true that
"A man is his own star;
Our acts our angels are
For good or ill,"
and that "rather than follow a multitude to do evil," one should “stand like Pompey's pillar, conspicuous by oneself, and single in integrity.” [Sir T. Browne] But to many this would be itself most painful, for the heart is "no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them.” [Bacon]
布朗爵士说得不错，
“每个人就是自己的幸运之星；
我们的行为就是
我们为善做恶的守护神，”
他还说过，“与其跟随众人作恶，”我们“应该像庞培的柱子那么耸立，卓然超群，诚正突兀。” 但是，对于许多人来说，这样的孤立其本身就是最痛苦的，因为我们的心“不是脱离其他土地的孤岛，而是跟那些土地相连接的大洲。”[引自培根]
If we separate ourselves so much from the interests of those around us that we do not sympathise with them in their sufferings, we shut ourselves out from sharing their happiness, and lose far more than we gain. If we avoid sympathy and wrap ourselves round in a cold chain armour of selfishness, we exclude ourselves from many of the greatest and purest joys of life. To render ourselves insensible to pain we must forfeit also the possibility of happiness.
如果我们把自己跟周围之人的兴趣分开，在他们遭受苦难之时不加同情，不去分享他们的快乐，我们所受损失将远远超过所得。如果我们躲避同情，把自己包扎在自私的冰冷的甲胄之中，我们就让自己失去人生的许多最伟大的以及最纯洁的欢乐。让自己对痛苦麻痹，我们也必然丧失快乐的可能性。
Moreover, much of what we call evil is really good in disguise, and we should not “quarrel rashly with adversities not yet understood, nor overlook the mercies often bound up in them.”[Sir T. Browne] Pleasure and pain are, as Plutarch says, the nails which fasten body and soul together. Pain is a warning of danger, a very necessity of existence. But for it, but for the warnings which our feelings give us, the very blessings by which we are surrounded would soon and inevitably prove fatal. Many of those who have not studied the question are under the impression that the more deeply-seated portions of the body must be most sensitive. The very reverse is the case. The skin is a continuous and ever-watchful sentinel, always on guard to give us notice of any approaching danger; while the flesh and inner organs, where pain would be without purpose, are, so long as they are in health, comparatively without sensation.
不仅如此，许多我们称为不幸的事，其实是好事的化身，我们不应该“跟尚未了解的苦难，轻率地争拗，也不该忽视苦难之中时常带来的福恩。”[引自布朗爵士] 正如蒲鲁塔克所说，欢乐和痛苦是把身心连接在一起的钉子。痛苦是预告危险的，是生存的一种不可或缺的必需品。如果没有痛苦，如果不是我们的感觉给予我们这些警告，围绕我们周遭的福祉不久就不可避免地变成致命的根源。许多未研究过这一问题的人，总觉得位于身体比较深处的部分一定是最为敏感。事实正好相反。皮肤是不断维持警戒的哨兵，一直在守卫，警告任何到来的危险；肌肉和内脏就无需要感到痛楚，只要还算健康，就比较没有感觉。
"We talk," says Helps, "of the origin of evil; . . . but what is evil? We mostly speak of sufferings and trials as good, perhaps, in their result; but we hardly admit that they may be good in themselves. Yet they are knowledge ― how else to be acquired, unless by making men as gods, enabling them to understand without experience. All that men go through may be absolutely the best for them ― no such thing as evil, at least in our customary meaning of the word."
赫尔普斯说，“我们谈到不幸的来源；…. 但是，什么是不幸？我们说到痛苦和磨炼是好的，大多是就它们的效果而言；但是我们很少承认它们本身就是美好、就是善。它们就是知识—否则我们无从获取知识，除非让人们变为神，使他们无需体验就能领悟。人们所经历的一切，都绝对是自己最好的 — ‘不幸’或‘邪恶’是不存在的，至少就我们对这个词语的习惯意义而言。”
Indeed, “the vale best discovers the hill,”[Bacon] and "pour sentir les grands biens, il faut qu'il connoisse les petits maux."[Rousseau]
的确，“溪谷最能发现丘陵”[引自培根]，“要享受大恩大福必得体验小灾小难。” [引自卢梭]
But even if we do not seem to get all that we should wish, many will feel, as in Leigh Hunt's beautiful translation of Filicaja's sonnet, that―
但是，我们即使似乎没有获得我们所希求的，许多人的感觉会如同利亨特所翻译斐利卡亚的美丽诗篇一般，——
"So
Makes our necessities its watchful task,
Hearkens to all our prayers, helps all our wants,
And e'en if it denies what seems our right,
Either denies because 'twould have us ask,
Or seems but to deny, and in denying grants."
“我们的高高在上的伟大的神明，
把我们的需要当作他的急务，
聆听我们的诉求，帮助我们所需，
即使未给我们似乎该得之物，
也许为了要我们确定请求，
或是没有给出只是似乎没有给出。”
Those on the other hand who do not accept the idea of continual interferences, will rejoice in the belief that on the whole the laws of the Universe work out for the general happiness.
对于未能接受“不断介入”这概念的人们，他们会高兴地相信，就整体而言，宇宙律是致力于大众的幸福。
And if it does come―
“Grief should be
Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate,
Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free:
Strong to consume small troubles; to commend
Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to
the end.”[Aubrey de Vere]
如果它来到---
“悲哀应该是
像欢乐，崇高、平稳、沉静、
肯定、清涤、提升、解脱：
能消除小烦恼；推荐出
伟大思想、严肃思想、永恒的
思想。”[引自戴维尔]
If, however, we cannot hope that life will be all happiness, we may at least secure a heavy balance on the right side; and even events which look like misfortune, if boldly faced, may often be turned to good. Oftentimes, says Seneca, "calamity turns to our advantage; and great ruins make way for greater glories." Helmholtz dates his start in science to an attack of illness. This led to his acquisition of a microscope, which he was enabled to purchase, owing to his having spent his autumn vacation of 1841 in the hospital, prostrated by typhoid fever; being a pupil, he was nursed without expense, and on his recovery he found himself in possession of the savings of his small resources.
但如果我们不能希望人生完全是快乐，我们至少可以在快乐这一方获取优势；甚至是事态看来不幸，如果我们勇敢面对，也常常会转变为幸运。塞尼加说，往往是“灾难转而对我们有利，大废墟为更大的光辉开路。”亥姆霍兹认定他从事科学研究是从一次害病而开始的。这使得他能够购买一架显微镜，这是由于1841年的秋天他因伤寒病在医院度过；因为是学生，他养病不必花钱，在痊愈时发现在微少的收入之中存下了一笔钱。
“Savonarola,” says Castelar, “would, under different circumstances, undoubtedly have been a good husband, a tender father; a man unknown to history, utterly powerless to print upon the sands of time and upon the human soul the deep trace which he has left; but misfortune came to visit him, to crush his heart, and to impart that marked melancholy which characterises a soul in grief; and the grief that circled his brows with a crown of thorns was also that which wreathed them with the splendour of immortality. His hopes were centred in the woman he loved, his life was set upon the possession of her, and when her family finally rejected him, partly on account of his profession, and partly on account of his person, he believed that it was death that had come upon him, when in truth it was immortality."
卡斯特勒说，“在不同的环境下，萨沃纳洛拉无疑问地会是一个好丈夫，一个慈爱的父亲；在历史上藉藉无名，绝对没有力量在时间的散沙上、以及人们的心灵间打印出他所留下的深深痕迹；但是厄运来造访他，碾碎他的爱心，把那标志出悲伤人的明显忧郁交给他，而那种围绕着他眉宇、看来像一圈荆棘的悲伤，却转而成为他那迸发不朽光辉的花冠。他的希望本来以他热爱的那位女子为中心，他的生命以获得她为依归，而当她的家人半因他的职业、半因他的本身在最后拒绝他的时候，他感到面对的是死亡，但实际到临的是不朽。”
It is, however, impossible to deny the existence of evil, and the reason for it has long exercised the human intellect. The Savage solves it by the supposition of evil Spirits. The Greeks attributed the misfortunes of men in great measure to the antipathies and jealousies of gods and goddesses. Others have imagined two divine principles, opposite and antagonistic ― the one friendly, the other hostile, to men.
无论如何，我们无法否认邪恶的存在，其理由一直以来就在激使人们运用智慧。野蛮人的解决办法是假定有邪魔恶怪。古希腊人大抵把人类的不幸，归诸于神祗们的排斥和妒嫉。其他人想象出两大至高原则，相反和敌对—— 一个对人友善，一个对人仇视。
Freedom of action, however, seems to involve the existence of evil. If any power of selection be left us, much must depend on the choice we make. In the very nature of things, two and two cannot make five. Epictetus imagines Jupiter addressing man as follows: "If it had been possible to make your body and your property free from liability to injury, I would have done so. As this could not be, I have given you a small portion of myself."
但是，行为自由似乎跟不幸底存在有关。如果人们持有选择权，许多情况就得看我们所作的选择而定。根据事物的性质，二加二不可能等于五。厄匹克特泰所想象罗马主神朱庇特对人的训话如下：“如果有可能让你的人身和财产不受到侵害，我会那么做。因为办不到，我把自己的一小部份给了你。”
This divine gift it is for us to use wisely. It is, in fact, our most valuable treasure. “The soul is a much better thing than all the others which you possess. Can you then show me in what way you have taken care of it? For it is not likely that you, who are so wise a man, inconsiderately and carelessly allow the most valuable thing that you possess to be neglected and to perish.” [Epictetus]
这一来自天神的礼物是要我们明智地使用它。事实上，它是我们的最为宝贵的财物。“心灵比你拥有的其他东西要好得多。那么，你能告诉我你已经用什么方式照顾你的心灵呢？你是聪明人，你不大可能轻率而粗心地让你拥有的最为宝贵的东西受到忽视而腐朽的。”[引自厄匹克特泰]
Moreover, even if evil cannot be altogether avoided, it is no doubt true that not only whether the life we lead be good and useful, or evil and useless, but also whether it be happy or unhappy, is very much in our own power, and depends greatly on ourselves. “Time alone relieves the foolish from sorrow, but reason the wise,” [Ibid.] and no one was ever yet made utterly miserable excepting by himself. We are, if not the masters, at any rate almost the creators of ourselves.
进一步说，即使不幸或邪恶不能够完全避免，我们所过的生活是美好而且有所作为、或是不幸而一无作用，甚至是生活快乐或者不快乐，主要是操在我们的权力范围之内，而且大部份要依靠我们自己。“只有时间能把愚蠢人从忧愁中释放出来，但是理智可使明智人得到解脱，”[同上] 除了自己之外，没有人能使自己极度悲苦。如果我们不是自己的主人，无论如何就几乎是自己的创造者。
With most of us it is not so much great sorrows, disease, or death, but rather the little "daily dyings" which cloud over the sunshine of life. Many of our troubles are insignificant in themselves, and might easily be avoided!
对于大部份的人而言，让我们晴朗生活布满密云的不是重大的悲伤、疾病或死亡，而是细微的“每天的轻视生趣”。我们的许多麻烦其本身并不重要，而且很容易可以避免掉。
How happy home might generally be made but for foolish quarrels, or misunderstandings, as they are well named! It is our own fault if we are querulous or ill-humoured; nor need we, though this is less easy, allow ourselves to be made unhappy by the querulousness or ill-humours of others.
要不是无聊的争吵或是误会（这几个字还用得适当吧!），快乐家庭就一般可以实现。我们好争吵或者脾气坏是我们自己的过错；我们也无须因为别人好争吵或者脾气坏而让自己变得不快乐，虽然这么做不容易。
Much of what we suffer we have brought on ourselves, if not by actual fault, at least by ignorance or thoughtlessness. Too often we think only of the happiness of the moment, and sacrifice that of the life. Troubles comparatively seldom come to us, it is we who go to them. Many of us fritter our life away. La Bruyere says that "most men spend much of their lives in making the rest miserable;" or, as Goethe puts it :
" Careworn man has, in all ages,
Sown vanity to reap despair."
我们的痛苦有许多是自己招惹来的，其原因如果不是出于实际的错误，至少是由于无知或粗心。我们时常只想到一时的快乐，而牺牲了一生的快乐。各种麻烦相对地不会自动到来，而是我们去找它们。拉布鲁耶尔说，“大多数人把他们的大部分生命花费在搞到大家痛苦；”或是像歌德所说的：
“被忧虑折磨的人，一直以来，
都在种植虚荣而所得是失望。”
Not only do we
suffer much in the anticipation of evil, as "Noah lived many years under
the affliction of a flood, and
“诺亚多年来生活在洪水为患的痛苦之中，耶路撒冷被围困之前耶利米已是悲恸万分”；我们也一样，不但为期待不幸而受苦，而且为了恐惧莫须有的灾祸从而时常困扰自己不已。我们应该尽力克制自己，平静地等待结果。我们常常听到人们因为过劳而身心崩溃，但十中有九是出于忧虑或担心而真正受苦。
"Nos maux moraux," says Rousseau, "sont tous dans l'opinion, hors un seul, qui est le crime; et celui-la depend de nous: nos maux physiques nous detruisent, ou se detruisent. Le temps, ou la mort, son t nos remedes."
卢梭说，“除了涉及犯罪之外，道义上的对错完全言人人殊；而是否犯罪端赖自己。祸难或是毁灭我们，或是自行毁灭。时间，或死亡，是我们的救助。”
"Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven." [Shakespeare]
“救助时常就存在于我们自身，
我们却说来自上天。” [引自莎士比亚]
This, however, applies to the grown up. With children of course it is different. It is customary, but I think it is a mistake, to speak of happy childhood. Children, however, are often over-anxious and acutely sensitive. Man ought to be man and master of his fate; but children are at the mercy of those around them. Mr. Rarey, the great horse-tamer, has told us that he has known an angry word raise the pulse of a horse ten beats in a minute. Think then how it must affect a child!
但是，上面的话只适用于成人。对于小孩子却又不同。一般都说那是指快乐的童年，我认为不对。孩子们通常是非常热切而又极度敏感的。人就该像一个人，做自己命运的主人翁，但是孩子们却会受到他们周围之人的影响。杰出的驯马师瑞利先生曾经告诉我们，他知道有一句怒言让一匹马每分钟的脉搏增加10下。试想那样的话会怎样肯定影响一个孩子！
It is small blame to the young if they are over-anxious; but it is a danger to be striven against. “The terrors of the storm are chiefly felt in the parlour or the cabin.” [Emerson]
年轻人过分担心是无可厚非的；力求矫正他们不无危险。“对于暴风雨的恐惧主要是在起居室或是船舱之中感觉到的。”[引自爱默生]
To save ourselves from imaginary, or at any rate problematical, evils, we often incur real suffering. "The man," said Epicurus, "who is not content with little is content with nothing." How often do we “labour for that which satisfies not.” [Seneca] More than we use is more than we need, and only a burden to the bearer. We most of us give ourselves an immense amount of useless trouble; encumber ourselves, as it were, on the journey of life with a dead weight of unnecessary baggage; and as "a man makes his train longer, he makes his wings shorter." [Bacon] In that delightful fairy tale, Alice through the Looking-Glass, the "White Knight" is described as having loaded himself on starting for a journey with a variety of odds and ends, including a mousetrap, in case he was troubled by mice at night, and a beehive in case he came across a swarm of bees.
为了挽救想象之中、或者无论如何只是构成问题的不幸，我们常常惹来真正的痛苦。伊壁鸠鲁说，“不能满足于少量的人，不会对任何东西感到满足。我们常常“为了不能满足自己的东西而费尽心力。”[引自塞内加] 超过我们所用的就是超过我们的需要，因而对于拥有人就是负担。我们大部份人总给与自己大量的无谓的麻烦；这好比是在人生的旅途上带着没有需要的沉重的行李，为自己增加负累；“人们要是把尾巴拉长了，就会把翅膀弄短。”[引自培根] 在《（艾丽丝进入）镜中世界》那个可爱的童话中，“白衣骑士”被描写为在开始旅途时肩负着形形色色的各种东西，包括夜间如有需要可以对付鼠患的捕鼠器，以及万一遇到群集的蜜蜂时可派用场的蜂房。
Hearne, in his Journey to the Mouth of the Coppermine River, tells us that a few days after starting on his expedition he met a party of Indians, who annexed a great deal of his property, and all Hearne says is, "The weight of our baggage being so much lightened, our next day's journey was much pleasanter." I ought, however, to add that the Indians broke up the philosophical instruments, which, no doubt, were rather an encumbrance.
在他所著的《铜矿河口之旅》中，赫恩告诉我们说，在他开始远征的几天之后，他遇到一伙印第安人，他们吞并了他许多财物，赫恩对这件事所说的全部的话只是，我们的行李减轻了不少，我们次日的旅程愉快得多了。” 但是，我应该补充说，印第安人把实验仪器打破了，无疑是一种阻碍。
When troubles do come, Marcus Aurelius wisely tells us to "remember on every occasion which leads thee to vexation to apply this principle, that this is not a misfortune, but that to bear it nobly is good fortune." Our own anger indeed does us more harm than the thing which makes us angry; and we suffer much more from the anger and vexation which we allow acts to rouse in us, than we do from the acts themselves at which we are angry and vexed. How much most people, for instance, allow themselves to be distracted and disturbed by quarrels and family disputes. Yet in nine cases out of ten one ought not to suffer from being found fault with. If the condemnation is just, it should be welcome as a warning; if it is undeserved, why should we allow it to distress us?
每当困难来临而让我们苦恼之际，奥瑞琉斯明智地告诉我们，“要记住善用这条原则：困难不是恶运，而勇敢地对付它却是好运。” 我们的愤怒，比之引起我们愤怒的事情，确实造成更多的伤害；有一些行为会激使人们恼怒，我们若容许这类行为激使我们恼怒，让我们受害更多的就是那些恼怒。例如，多少人为了口角和家庭争吵而让自己困扰不已。十之八九，我们不应因为受到挑剔而痛苦。如果挑剔有道理，我们应该把它视为警告加以欢迎；要是不值得重视，为什么要让它使我们苦恼？
Moreover, if misfortunes happen we do but make them worse by grieving over them.
而且，不幸发生时要是我们为之伤感，不幸只会更加难以忍受。
“I must die,” again says Epictetus. “But must I then die sorrowing? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Can I be prevented from going with cheerfulness and contentment? But I will put you in prison. Man, what are you saying? You may put my body in prison, but my mind not even Zeus himself can overpower."
厄匹克特泰又说，“我迟早会死，但是，我必得悲伤地死去吗？我一定会被拴上锁链的。我也必定要哀怨吗？我一定会被放逐的。在放逐时谁能阻止我不让我欢欣和满足呢？但是，我肯定送你进监狱。朋友，你在说什么啊？你可以把我的肉身关在监狱里，但就是宙斯主神也制服不了我的心灵。”
If, indeed, we cannot be happy, the fault is generally in ourselves. Socrates lived under the Thirty Tyrants. Epictetus was a poor slave, and yet how much we owe him!
的确，如果我们不能快乐，其过失一般都在我们自己。苏格拉底在三十暴君之下生活。厄匹克特泰是个可怜的奴隶，可是我们受到他的恩惠真多啊！
"How is it possible," he says, "that a man who has nothing, who is naked, houseless, without a hearth, squalid, without a slave, without a city, can pass a life that flows easily? See, God has sent you a man to show you that it is possible. Look at me, who am without a city, without a house, without possessions, without a slave; I sleep on the ground; I have no wife, no children, no praetorium, but only the earth and heavens, and one poor cloak. And what do I want? Am I not without sorrow? Am I not without fear? Am I not free? When did any of you see me failing in the object of my desire? or ever falling into that which I would avoid? Did I ever blame God or man? Did I ever accuse any man? Did any of you ever see me with a sorrowful countenance? And how do I meet with those whom you are afraid of and admire? Do not I treat them like slaves? Who, when he sees me, does not think that he sees his king and master?"
他说，“一个身无长物、光膀子、没有恒产、没有家、肮脏、没有人伺候、到处流浪的人，怎么还能自由自在的过日子呢？瞧，上主替你派遣了一个人来，跟你证明那是可以的。请看我，我没有可以隶属的城市，没有家屋，没有财物，没有帮手；我睡在地上；我没有妻、没有孩子、没有职位，只是头顶天脚立地，只有一件可怜的长衫。我需要什么呢？我不是没有忧虑吗？我不是没有恐惧吗？我不是自由吗？你们有谁看到我面对所需之物而嗒然若失呢？或是见到我陷入可以躲开的陷阱呢？我曾经把过失推诿给上主或他人吗？我曾经指摘过谁吗？你们谁看到我愁眉苦脸吗？你们所惧怕和羡慕的人，我是怎么对待他们的呢？我不是把他们当作奴隶对待吗？谁看到我不以为自己遇到国君和主人呢？”
Think how much we have to be thankful for. Few of us appreciate the number of our everyday blessings; we look on them as trifles, and yet "trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle," as Michelangelo said. We forget them because they are always with us; and yet for each of us, as Mr. Pater well observes, "these simple gifts, and others equally trivial, bread and wine, fruit and milk, might regain that poetic and, as it were, moral significance which surely belongs to all the means of our daily life, could we but break through the veil of our familiarity with things by no means vulgar in themselves."
想一想，我们该感谢的事情有多少啊。我们很少会欣赏每天到来的大量的福恩；我们只把它们看作微不足道的小东西，然而米开郎基罗却说，“微小的东西构成完美，完美却不是微小的东西。”我们忘记它们，因为它们总是跟我们在一起；裴特先生说得好，“对于我们每一个人来说，这些简单的礼品，还有其它同样微小的东西，像面包和酒，水果和牛奶，它们固然是我们每天生活的必要工具，但“熟悉”为我们在那些本身并不粗鄙的事物上盖上一层薄纱，只要我们能穿透让我们对事物“熟视无睹”的面纱，那些事物就可能恢复诗一般的、以及道理上的重大意义。”
"Let not," says Isaak Walton, "the blessings we receive daily from God make us not to value or not praise Him because they be common; let us not forget to praise Him for the innocent mirth and pleasure we have met with since we met together. What would a blind man give to see the pleasant rivers and meadows and flowers and fountains; and this and many other like blessings we enjoy daily."
沃尔顿说，“我们每天从上主所接受的福祉，不要因为它们是普普通通，就让我们不重视或不赞美上主；大家相聚以来，见面时总有纯真的欣喜和欢乐，让我们不要忘记赞美上主。要是盲人能看见可爱的河流、草地、花卉和喷泉，他们愿意付出多少；我们每天都在享受这些和许多其它类似的福祉。”
Contentment, we have been told by Epicurus, consists not in great wealth, but in few wants. In this fortunate country, however, we may have many wants, and yet, if they are only reasonable, we may gratify them all.
伊壁鸠鲁告诉我们，满足并不在于巨大财富，而是得自寡欲。但是，在这个幸运的国家，我们可以有很多欲求，只要是合理的，我们都能一一予以满足。
Nature indeed provides without stint the main requisites of human happiness. "To watch the corn grow, or the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over ploughshare or spade; to read, to think, to love, to pray," these, says Ruskin, "are the things that make men happy."
对于人的幸福的主要必需品，大自然的确是毫不吝啬地供应。鲁斯金说，“观看玉米生长，或是花朵结出果实；犁田或锄地时用力吸气；阅读、思索、爱他人、祈祷，” 这些“都是令人快乐的事。”
"I have fallen into the hands of thieves," says Jeremy Taylor; "what then? They have left me the sun and moon, fire and water, a loving wife and many friends to pity me, and some to relieve me, and I can still discourse; and, unless I list, they have not taken away my merry countenance and my cheerful spirit and a good conscience. . . . And he that has so many causes of joy, and so great, is very much in love with sorrow and peevishness who loses all these pleasures, and chooses to sit down on his little handful of thorns."
“我陷入贼人的魔掌内，” J. 泰勒说，“那又怎样呢？他们给我留下了太阳和月亮，火和水，一个贤妻和怜悯我的众多朋友，还有一些人救助我，而且我还能谈话；除非我愿意，他们没有把我欢欣的外貌、愉快的精神和善良的意识夺走。….一个具有如此之多、况且又如此重要的原因从而感到欢乐的人，自然是非常爱怜那些悲伤和乖戾的人，他们丧失了这些乐趣，选择在自己的一小撮荆棘丛坐下。”
“When a man has such things to think on, and sees the sun, the moon, and stars, and enjoys earth and sea, he is not solitary or even helpless.” [Epictetus]
“人有这些东西可以思索，而且看得见太阳、月亮和星星，欣赏土地和海洋，他不是孤单的，甚至也不是一筹莫展的。”[引自厄匹克特泰]
“
路德说，“整个世界的确可以说就是天堂乐土。” 还有什么更多的东西我们可以替自己要求的呢？“各种各类的美，” 革瑞格先生在《生命之谜》中说，“都在我们的家庭之内应有尽有；迷惑每一个感觉的美，满足每一种口味的美；最高贵和最可爱的模样，最艳丽和最精致的彩色，最甜美和最微妙的气味，最令人舒畅也最让人激动的和谐：日间阳光的灿烂；天上月色的幽雅；湖、山、原始森林、无垠海洋；在这一半地球上的“静寂积雪的顶峰”，在另一半地球的炎热的密茂的奇观；日落的安详；暴风雨的庄严；我们生存之境地的每一事物都赋有无穷的丰沛；我们所能想象和欲求的东西，随时都在我们周遭；我们的知觉和意识对这一切从来就是非常敏感的。上天供给我们感官享受的东西真是丰盈大量；所提供以餍足我们复杂性格的其他欲求也一样。年轻人诗篇的开头散发出的狂喜，思想世界又那么丰赡令人惊讶，哪一个曾经对这对那着迷过的人没有承认过，“理智”所获得的丰厚陪嫁至少跟情欲所得一样的多。曾经真正尝试和探测过人间之爱的初恋和热恋的人们，没有不为了一种“超出了解”的福祉而感谢上天。如果我们把想象指向一位创造者，他忙碌完全是为了他喜爱的孩子们设计欢乐，我们就无法想出有任何福祉的什么元素，竟然不存在这个世界。” （全文完）
译者说明：本文取自 The Pleasures of Life 首篇，英文原著于1887年初版，风行一时，从译者手头现有的1891年版本可以看到，该著每年都曾多次重印及增补，可以相信本文是比较可靠的文本。作者卢伯克爵士（Sir John Lubbock, 1834-1913）在19世纪末的英国也是名重一时的，他早年是从男爵[后来敕封为 1st Baron Avebury “首任诶布利男爵”] 、又身为国会议员、皇家学会会员、民法博士、法学博士，原书上他还有三个头衔：伦敦商会主席、伦敦工人学院校长，以及伦敦郡议会主席；综合20世纪两本参考书的简介，他的身份可以简单地称为作家、博物学家、银行家和政治家。
专名注释
Arnold, Edwin E.阿诺德（1832-1904），英国诗人和报人。
Arnold, Matthew M.阿诺德（1822-1888），英国诗人和评论家。
Bacon 培根（1561-1626），英国哲学家、散文家和实验科学创始人。
Browne, Sir T. 布朗爵士（1605-1682），英国医师及作家）。
Dante 但丁（1265-1321），意大利诗人，是《神曲》的作者。
Emerson 爱默生（1803-1882），美国思想家、散文作家和诗人。
Epictetus 厄匹克特泰（55?-135?），古罗马奴隶出身的哲学家。
Epicurus 伊壁鸠鲁（342?-272B.C.），古希腊享乐主义倡导者。
Goethe 歌德（1749-1832），德国诗人、戏剧家、小说家和哲学家。
Hegel 黑格尔（1770-1831），德国古典唯心主义哲学家。
Helmholtz 亥姆霍兹（1821-1894），德国物理学家。
Homer 荷马（古希腊公元前十世纪的史诗诗人，是《奥德赛》和《伊利亚特》的作者）。
Jupiter 朱庇特（罗马神话中统治诸神主宰一切的主神，相当于希腊神话中的宙斯）。
La Bruyere ，拉布鲁耶尔（1645-1696），法国作家。
Leigh Hunter利亨特（1784-1859），英国著作家。
Luther 路德（1483-1546），德国人，欧洲宗教改革运动家。
Marcus Aurelius 马可.奥瑞琉斯（121-180），罗马皇帝和斯多葛派哲学家。
Michelangelo 米开郎基罗（1475-1564），意大利雕塑家、画家、建筑师和诗人。
Noah 诺亚（基督教《圣经》故事人物，洪水灭世后人类的新始祖）。
Omar Khayyam 奥马.凯亚姆（1048?-1122?），波斯诗人。
Pater, Walter Horatio 裴特（1839-94），英国批评家和作家。
Plutarch 蒲鲁塔克（46？-120？），古罗马传记作家。
Rousseau 卢梭（1712-1778），法国思想家和文学家。
Ruskin 鲁斯金（1819-1900），英国作家和艺术评论家。
Savonarola 萨沃纳罗拉（1452-1498），意大利宗教和政治改革家。
Seneca 塞内加（c4B.C.- 65A.D.），古罗马哲学家、政治家和剧作家。
Shakespeare 莎士比亚（1564-1616），英国剧作家和诗人。
Shelley 雪莱（1792-1822），英国浪漫派诗人。
Siddartha, Prince 悉达多王子（印度公元前6世纪佛教创始人释迦牟尼的本名及尊称）。
Socrates 苏格拉底（469?-399B.C.），古希腊哲学家。
Taylor, Jeremy J.泰勒（1613-67），英国圣公会高级教士和神学家。,
Ulysses 尤利西斯（古罗马史诗《奥德赛》中的英雄Odysseus 的拉丁文名）。
Walton, Isaak 沃尔顿（1593-1683），英国作家。
Zeus 宙斯（希腊神话中的主神）。