精美英文欣賞:一個人何時變老

    [美文欣賞]

    "I dread to come to the end of the year，said a friend to me recently， "it makes me realize I am growing old.“

    William James， the great psychologist， said that most men are "old fogies at twenty-five"，He was right. Most men at twenty-five are satisfied with their jobs. They have accumulated the little stock of prejudices that they call their "Principles， " and closed their minds to all new ideas； they have ceased to grow.

    The minutea man ceases to grow-no matter what his years-that minute he begins to be old. On the other hand， the really great man never grows old.

    Goethe passed out at eighty-three， and finished his Faust only a few years earlier； Gladstone took up a new language when he was seventy.

    Laplace， the astronomer， was still at work when death caught up with him at seventy-eight. He died crying， "What we know is nothing； what we do not know is immense."

    And there you have the real answer to the question， "When is a man old？"

    Laplace at seventy-eight died young. He was still unsatisfied， still sure that he had a lot to learn.

    As long as a man can keep himself in that attitude of mind， as long as he can look back on every year and say ， "I grew，" he is still young.

    The minute he ceases to grow， the minute he says to himself， "I know all that I need to know，"——that day youth stops. He may be twenty-five or seventy-five， it makes no difference. On that day he begins to be old.

    [參考譯文]

    “我懼怕臨近歲末年尾”，一位朋友最近對我說：“它使我意識到我正在變老。”

    偉大的心理學家威廉。詹姆斯就曾說過，大多數人“25歲時就成了守舊落伍者”。他的話是對的。大多數人25歲時就滿足于他們的工作。他們已經積累了一些他們稱之為“原則”的偏見，對所有新的思想關閉心靈之門；他們已經停止成長。

    一個人一旦停止成長——不管他年齡多大——他就開始衰老。反之，真正的偉人從來不會衰老。

    歌德享年83歲，逝世前幾年才完成《浮士德》；格萊斯頓70歲時又開始學習一門外國語；法國天文學家拉普拉斯78歲死時還在工作著。臨死前，他大聲喊道：“我們所知的太少太少，我們所不知的太多太多。”

    “一個人何時變老？”，從這類事例中對這個問題你已經有了真正的答案。

    拉普拉斯78歲逝世時依然年輕。他依舊不滿足，依舊感到許多東西要學。

    一個人，只要他能夠保持這種心態，只要他在回首過去的一年時能夠說“我在成長”，他就依然年輕。

    他一旦停止成長，他一旦對自己說“我該懂的都懂了”，這個時候他的青春也就完了。他可能在25歲時死去，也可能在75歲時死去，這都沒有區別。就在那一天，他開始變老。