29
Wise Men and Otherwise
智者和愚人
HAVE you ever been playing in your yard when a strange boy who had been watching from the other side of the fence asked to be let into the game, saying he would show you how to play? You didn't want him around, and you didn't want him in, but somehow or other he got in and was soon bossing everybody else.
Well, there was a man named Philip who lived north of Greece, and he had been watching Sparta and Athens-not playing but fighting-and he wanted to get into the game. Philip was king of a little country called Macedonia, but he thought he would like to be king of Greece also, and it seemed to him a good time, when Sparta and Athens were down and out after the Peloponnesian War, to step in and make himself king of that country. Philip was a great fighter, but he didn't want to fight Greece unless he had to. He wanted to be made king peaceably, and he wanted Greece to do it willingly. He thought up a scheme to bring this about, and this was his scheme.
He knew, as you do, how the Greeks hated the Persians, whom they had driven out of their country over a hundred years before. Although the Persian Wars had taken place so long ago, the Greeks had never forgotten the bravery of their forefathers and the tales of their victories over the Persians. These stories had been told them over and over by their parents and grandparents, and they loved to read and reread them in Herodotus's history of the world.
So Philip said to the Greeks, "Your ancestors drove the Persians out of Greece, to be sure, but the Persians went back to their country, and you didn't go after them and punish them as you should have done. You didn't try to get even with them. Why don't you go over to Persia and conquer it now, and make the Persians pay for what they did to you?"
Then he slyly added, "Let me help you. I'll lead you against them."
No one seemed to see through Philip's scheme-nobody except one man. This man was an Athenian named Demosthenes.
Demosthenes, when he was a boy, had decided that he would someday be a great speaker or orator,just as you might say you are going to be a doctor, or an aviator, or a teacher when you grow up.
Demosthenes had picked the one profession which by nature he was worst fitted for. In the first place, he had such a very soft, weak voice that one could hardly hear him. Besides, this, he stammered very badly and could not recite even a short poem without hesitating and stumbling so that people laughed at him. It seemed absurd, therefore, that he should aim to be a great speaker.
But Demosthenes practiced and practiced and practiced by himself. He went down on the seashore and put pebbles in his mouth to make it more difficult to speak clearly. Then he spoke to the roaring waves, making believe that he was addressing an angry crowd, who were trying to drown the sound of his voice, so that he would have to speak very loud indeed.
At last, by keeping constantly at it, Demosthenes did become a very great speaker. He spoke so wonderfully that he could make his audience laugh or make them cry whenever he wanted to, and he could persuade them to do almost anything he wished.
Now, Demosthenes was the man who saw through Philip's scheme for conquering Persia. He knew that Philip's real aim was to become king of Greece. So he made twelve speeches against him. These speeches were known as Philippics, as they were against Philip. So famous were they that even today we call a speech that bitterly attacks anyone a Philippic.
The Greeks who heard Demosthenes were red-hot against Philip while they listened to him. But as soon as they got away from the sound of Demosthenes's words, the same Greeks became lukewarm and did nothing to stop Philip.
At last, in spite of everything that Demosthenes had said, Philip had his way and became king over all Greece.
Before, however, he could start out, as he had promised, to conquer Persia, he was killed by one of his own men, so that he was unable to carry out his plan.
Philip had a son named Alexander. Alexander was only twenty years old, but when his father died he became king of Macedonia and also of Greece.
When Alexander was a mere child, he saw some men trying without success to tame a young and very wild horse that shied and reared in the air so that no one was able to ride it. Alexander asked to be allowed to try to ride the animal. Alexander's father made fun of his son for wanting to attempt what those older than he had been unable to do, but at last gave his consent.
Now, Alexander had noticed what the others, although much older, had not noticed. The horse seemed to be afraid of its own shadow, for young colts are easily frightened by anything dark and moving, as some children are afraid of the dark at night.
Alexander turned the horse around facing the sun, so that its shadow would be behind, out of sight. He then mounted the animal and, to the amazement of all, rode off without any further trouble.
His father was delighted at his son's cleverness and gave him the horse as a reward. Alexander named the horse Bucephalus and became so fond of him that when the horse died Alexander built a monument to him and named several cities after him.
Now, Alexander was a wonderful boy, but he had such a wonderful teacher named Aristotle that some people think part, at least, of his greatness was due to the teacher.
Aristotle was probably the greatest teacher who ever lived. If there were more great teachers like Aristotle, it seems likely there would have been more great pupils like Alexander.
Aristotle wrote books about all sorts of things-books about the stars called astronomy, books about animals called zoology, and books on other subjects that you probably have never even heard of, such as psychology and politics.
For hundreds of years these books that Aristotle wrote were the schoolbooks that boys and girls studied, and for many years they were the only schoolbooks. Nowadays, schoolbooks usually change every few years after they are written. See how remarkable it was that Aristotle's schoolbooks should have been used for so long a time.
Aristotle had been taught by a man named Plato, who was also a great teacher and philosopher. Plato had been a pupil of Socrates, so that Aristotle was a kind of grand-pupil of Socrates. You have heard of the Wise Men of the East. These were the three Wise Men of Greece.
Some day you may read what they wrote or said over two thousand years ago.
你和小伙伴在自家院子里玩,有個陌生男孩一直在圍欄外看你們玩,他突然開口請求加入你們,還說他會教你們怎么玩。你不想他在旁觀看,也不想他加入進(jìn)來,但是,不知怎么的,他還是加入進(jìn)來了,而且很快就成了你們這群人的頭兒。你有過這樣的經(jīng)歷嗎?
有個名叫腓力的人住在希臘的北邊,他一直在觀察著斯巴達(dá)和雅典--不是在 玩耍而是在打仗--他想加入這個游戲。腓力是個名叫馬其頓的小國的國王,但是他覺得自己也想成為希臘國王。斯巴達(dá)和雅典在伯羅奔尼撒戰(zhàn)爭后一蹶不振,在他看來,這似乎正是他乘虛而入、成為希臘國王的大好時機(jī)。腓力能征善戰(zhàn),但是除非不得已,否則他不想和希臘開戰(zhàn)。他想以和平的方式當(dāng)上希臘國王,也希望希臘人愿意擁戴他。他想出了個計謀來實(shí)現(xiàn)他的想法,他的計謀是這樣的:
你從前面的故事知道,希臘人如何痛恨波斯人吧,一百多年以前,他們把波斯人趕出了希臘,腓力也清楚這一點(diǎn)。盡管波斯戰(zhàn)爭已經(jīng)過去很久了,但是希臘人從未忘記自己祖先的英雄事跡和他們戰(zhàn)勝波斯人的故事。他們的父母、祖父母一遍又一遍地給他們講這些故事,他們也喜歡把希羅多德寫的這些歷史故事讀了又讀。
于是,腓力對希臘人說:"誠然,你們的祖先將波斯人趕出了希臘,但是波斯人回到了他們的國家,你們本應(yīng)當(dāng)追上去狠狠懲罰他們一下,而你們卻放過他們,沒有想去擺平他們。你們何不現(xiàn)在就去波斯,征服它,讓波斯人為他們的罪過付出代價呢?"
接著,他又狡猾地補(bǔ)充說:"讓我來幫助你們吧。我會率領(lǐng)你們攻打他們。"
似乎沒有人看穿腓力的詭計--除了一個人,也就僅僅一個人。他是一個名叫狄摩西尼的雅典人。
狄摩西尼,當(dāng)他還是個孩子的時候,就決心總有一天要成為一名偉大的演說家或雄辯家,就像你也許說過的,長大了要當(dāng)醫(yī)生啦,或當(dāng)飛行員啦,或當(dāng)教師啦那樣。
狄摩西尼選擇了一項自己天生最不適合的職業(yè)。首先,他的嗓音又弱又柔,人們很難聽清他說什么。除此以外,他口吃得很厲害,連朗誦一首短詩,他也支支吾吾、結(jié)結(jié)巴巴的,總是引來別人的嘲笑聲。因此,他立志做一名偉大的演說家似乎是太荒唐了。
但是狄摩西尼獨(dú)自一人練習(xí),練習(xí)再練習(xí)。他到海邊去,把鵝卵石放在嘴里,這樣要把話說清楚就更難了。然后,他對著咆哮的海浪說話,假裝自己正對著一群憤怒的民眾發(fā)表演說,為了不讓人群的喧嘩淹沒自己的聲音,他就不得不用特別大的聲音說話。
最后,通過堅持不懈的練習(xí),狄摩西尼真的成了一名非常偉大的演說家。他的演講非常精彩,可以隨時打動聽眾的心,要他們笑,他們就笑,要他們哭,他們就哭,要他們做什么,就可以說服他們?nèi)プ鍪裁础?br />
此時,只有狄摩西尼看出腓力征服波斯的提議是個陰謀,他知道腓力真正的目的是想做希臘的國王。因此,他發(fā)表了十二場演說來反對腓力。這些演說被稱為"反腓力辭",因為它們都是抨擊腓力的。這些演說非常著名,直到今天我們還把痛斥他人的演說叫做"反腓力辭"。
希臘人在聽狄摩西尼演講時都怒火中燒,激烈反對腓力。但是,聽完狄摩西尼的演講,這些希臘人一轉(zhuǎn)身就變得毫無斗志了,沒有做任何事去阻止腓力。
最后,盡管狄摩西尼把要說的話都說了,腓力的陰謀還是得逞了,成了統(tǒng)治全希臘的國王。
不過,他還沒有來得及按自己承諾的那樣去征服波斯,就被自己身邊的一個人殺了,這樣,他就沒能將自己的計劃付諸實(shí)施。
腓力有個兒子叫亞歷山大。亞歷山大當(dāng)時只有20歲,但是他父親死后,他就成了馬其頓的國王,同時也是希臘的國王。
亞歷山大還是個小孩子的時候,他看到幾個人試圖馴服一匹性子非常野的小馬,卻沒有成功,因為馬一見到人接近就驚得不斷后退,兩只前蹄騰空而起,沒有人能夠騎上去。亞歷山大請求父親讓自己也試試,看能不能馴服這匹馬。亞歷山大的父親覺得兒子的請求很可笑,那些年紀(jì)比他大的人都做不到,一個小孩子卻要試試,但是最終他還是同意了。
亞歷山大注意到了其他人沒有注意到的一個細(xì)節(jié),盡管這些人比他年長得多。這匹馬似乎很害怕自己的影子,因為凡是黑暗而又移動的東西都很容易使小馬駒感到害怕,如同小孩子晚上怕黑一樣。
亞歷山大把馬駒掉了個頭,讓它正對著太陽,這樣它的影子就在后面,它看不見了。然后,他騎上馬,輕而易舉地馳騁起來,令所有人都驚訝得目瞪口呆。
他的父親因為兒子的聰明而高興不已,就把這匹小馬駒送給他作為獎勵。亞歷山大給它取名叫布塞弗勒斯,他非常喜愛這匹馬,在馬死后,亞歷山大還專門為它建了一座紀(jì)念碑,還以馬的名字命名了幾個城市。
亞歷山大是個了不起的孩子,不過,他有一個杰出的老師名叫亞里士多德,有些人甚至認(rèn)為亞歷山大之所以偉大至少有部分原因是他有這樣一個老師。
亞里士多德可能是從古至今最偉大的老師了。如果能有更多像亞里士多德一樣偉大的老師,大概會有更多像亞歷山大一樣了不起的學(xué)生。
亞里士多德寫了關(guān)于各類事物的書--關(guān)于星球的書叫天文學(xué),關(guān)于動物的書叫動物學(xué),還有你可能從未聽說過的其他學(xué)科的書,比如心理學(xué)和政治學(xué)。
千百年來,亞里士多德寫的這些書都是男孩、女孩們學(xué)習(xí)的教科書,而且很多年里這些書也是唯一的教科書。如今,學(xué)校的教科書通常每隔幾年就要重新編寫一次。你看,亞里士多德的教科書竟然用了那么長的時間,這是多么了不起?。?br />
亞里士多德曾經(jīng)受教于一個名叫柏拉圖的人,他也是位杰出的老師和哲學(xué)家。柏拉圖曾是蘇格拉底的學(xué)生,因此亞里士多德也算得上是蘇格拉底的"徒孫"。你們聽說過《圣經(jīng)》中的"東方三博士",而這是希臘的"三位智者":
也許將來有一天,你們可能會讀到他們兩千多年以前寫的書或說過的話。
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