第四冊第17篇：時間的價值

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"Time" says the proverb "is money". This means that every moment well spent may put some money into our pockets. If our time is usefully employed, it will either turn out some useful and important piece of work which will fetch its price in the market, or it will add to our experience and increase our capacities so as to enable us to earn money when the proper opportunity comes. There can thus be no doubt that time is convertible into money. Let those who think nothing of wasting time, remember this; let them remember that an hour misspent is equivalent to the loss of a bank-note; an that an hour utilized is tantamount to so much silver or gold; and then they will probably think twice before they give their consent to the loss of any part of their time.

俗話說“時間就是金錢。這就是說，一時片刻只要用得有效，都會使你的口袋里增添一些錢。如果我們的時間使用得當， 就能生產有用的和重要的產品，在市場上賣得一定的價錢，或者充實經驗，增長才干，有了適當時機我們就能掙錢。因此毫 無疑間時間可以轉化為金錢。讓那些對浪費時間滿不在乎的人記住這一點。讓他們記住，浪費一小時等于損失一張鈔票，而利用一小時就等于得到若干金銀。這樣，他們想浪費時間時或許會三思而后行。

Moreover, our life is nothing more than our time. To kill time is therefore a form of suicide. We are shocked when we think of death, and we spare no pains, no trouble, and no expense to preserve life. But we are too often indifferent to the loss of an hour or of a day, forgetting that our life is the sum total of the days and of the hours we live. A day of an hour wasted is therefore so much life forfeited. Let us bear this in mind, and waste of time will appear to us in the light of a crime as culpable as suicide itself.

再說，我們的生命無非就是我們活在人世的時間，因此浪費時間也就是一種自殺。我們想到死未免極感不快，因而不惜 一切努力、麻煩和費用以求得保全生命?？墒俏覀儗τ趽p失一個鐘頭或者一天時間往往漠不關心，忘記了生命原來就是我們生 活的每一天、每一小時的總和。因此浪費一天或一個小時就是喪失一天或一小時的生命。讓我們記住這一點，這樣就會把浪 費時聞看作一種罪過，跟自殺一樣應該受到懲罰。

There is a third consideration which will also tend to warn us against loss of time. Our life is a brief span measuring some sixty or seventy years in all, but nearly one half of this has to be spent in sleep; some years have to be spent over our meals; some over dressing and undressing; some in making journeys on land and voyages by sea; some in merry-making, either on our own account or for the sake of others; some in celebrating religious and social festivities; some in watching over the sick-beds of our nearest and dearest relatives. Now if all these years were to be deducted from the tern over which our life extends we shall find about fifteen or twenty years at our disposal for active work. Whoever remembers this can never willingly waste a single moment of his life. "It is astonishing" says Lord Chesterfield "that anyone can squander away in absolute idleness one single moment of that portion of time which is allotted to us in this world. Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it!"

還有第三層考慮，也會提醒我們別浪費時間。人生短暫，總共不過六七十年，可是將近一半時間必須用于睡眠，吃飯時 間總加起來也得幾年工夫，穿衣脫衣又是幾年，水路陸路旅行又是幾年，再加上幾年娛樂時間—不論是為自己還是為別人，幾年宗教節(jié)日和社會節(jié)日的慶?；钊缥覀兊慕H至親病了，待奉湯藥也得幾年工夫。如果從我們的壽數(shù)中減去所有那些歲月，我們將發(fā)現(xiàn)，能讓我們用于有效地工作的時間，大概是十五或二十年的光陰。誰能記住這一點，就不會心甘情愿地浪費他生命的每時每刻。切斯特菲爾德伯爵說過，“對于分配給我們這一生的時間，若有人游手好閑即使浪費一時片刻，也是令人吃驚的。要認識時間的真正價值，要爭分奪秒，充分利用。”

All time is precious; but the time of our childhood and of our youth is more precious than any other portion of our existence. For those are the periods when alone we can acquire knowledge and develop our faculties and capacities. If we allow these morning hours of life to slip away unutilized, we shall never be able to recoup the loss. As we grow older, our power of acquisition gets blunted, so that the art or science which is not acquired in childhood or youth will never be acquired at all. Just as money laid out at interest doubles and trebles itself in time, so the precious hours of childhood and youth, if properly used, will yield us incalculable advantages. "Every moment you lose" says Lord Chesterfield "is so much character and advantage lost; as on the other hand, every moment you now employ usefully is so much time wisely laid out at prodigious interest."

所有的時間都是寶貴的，而童年和青年時期的時間比一生的其他階段更為寶貴，因為只有在那兩個階段我們才能獲得知識并發(fā)展各種才能。如果我們讓生命的早晨滑了過去而未加利用，我們將永遠無法彌補這宗損失。等我們長大了，獲得知識 的能力就變得遲鈍了，因此在童年和青年時期沒有能得到的知識或技能將永遠不能獲得了。正如把錢投資生息，到時候就變成 兩倍三倍，童年和青年時期的寶貴光陰，如果用得得當，將產生無可估量的利益。切斯特菲爾德伯爵又說，“喪失一時片刻就等于喪失了與之相當?shù)拿屠?，從另一方面看，你現(xiàn)在有效地使用的每一時刻正是明智地以這時間作為投資，將來定會獲取巨額的利息。”

A proper employment of time is of great benefit to us from a moral point of view. Idleness is justly said to be the rust of the mind and an idle brain is said to be Satan's workshop. It is mostly when you do not know what to do with yourself that you do something ill or wrong. The mind of the idler preys upon itself. As Watt has said:

從道德的觀點看，恰當?shù)乩脮r間對我們也有很大的好處。懶惰是心靈上的銹，懶人的頭腦是撤旦的作坊，這話說得 理。犯錯誤大多數(shù)是無所事事、百無聊賴所致。欺人只會自尋煩惱。正如瓦茨所說—

In works of labour or of skill，Let me be busy too;

我要勤快地工作，不管干粗活還是細活.

For Satan finds some mischief still

因為撒旦還有些壞事，

For idle hands to do.

專找懶人的手去做。