Reading　論讀書——塞內(nèi)加

Reading

論讀書

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

魯齊烏斯·安奈烏斯·塞內(nèi)加

作者簡介

魯齊烏斯·安奈烏斯·塞內(nèi)加（Lucius Annaeus Seneca，約前4—65），古羅馬政治家、哲學(xué)家、悲劇作家、雄辯家，宣揚新斯多葛倫理學(xué)，主張無條件屈從神意和不可避免的命運。他曾任羅馬帝國會計官和元老院元老以及古羅馬暴君尼祿（Nero）的家庭教師和顧問。

塞內(nèi)加一生漫游各地，勤于思考。他幾經(jīng)仕途的大起大落，因此深通世事，能于平常小事中挖掘出深邃的思想。塞內(nèi)加著作頗豐，著有11部戲劇、14部問答體作品、一部書信集等，西方人耳熟能詳?shù)?ldquo;塞內(nèi)加說”猶如中國人常說的“子曰詩云”。塞內(nèi)加的思想對后世產(chǎn)生了不可磨滅的影響。

本文選自塞內(nèi)加的代表作《道德書簡》（Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium）。該書為世人公認的必讀書。書中信件多以自身或他人經(jīng)歷開頭，接著從哲理的角度進行嚴肅的反思和深入的分析。本文通過生動的比喻，闡述了“閱讀不可散漫，亦不可隨性”的重要性，顯示了作者獨特的智慧。

Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.

Be careful, however, that there is no element of discursiveness and desultoriness about this reading you refer to, this reading of many different authors and books of every description. You should be extending your stay among writers whose genius is unquestionable, deriving constant nourishment from them if you wish to gain anything from your reading that will find a lasting place in your mind. To be everywhere is to be nowhere. People who spend their whole life traveling abroad end up having plenty of places where they can find hospitality but no real friendships. The same must needs be the case with people who never set about acquiring an intimate acquaintanceship with any one great writer, but skip from one to another, paying flying visits to them all. Food that is vomited up as soon as it is eaten is not assimilated into the body and does not do one any good; nothing hinders a cure so much as frequent changes of treatment; a wound will not heal over if it is being made the subject of experiments with different ointments; a plant which is frequently moved never grows strong. Nothing is so useful that it can be of any service in the mere passing. A multitude of books only gets in one's way. So if you are unable to read all the books in your possession, you have enough when you have all the books you are able to read.

And if you say, “But I feel like opening different books at different times”, my answer will be this: tasting one dish after another is the sign of a fussy stomach, and where the foods are dissimilar and diverse in range they lead to contamination of the system, not nutrition. So always read well-tried authors, and if at any moment you find yourself wanting a change from a particular author, go back to ones you have read before.

Each day, too, acquire something which will help you to face poverty, or death, and other ills as well. After running over a lot of different thoughts, pick out one to be digested thoroughly that day. This is what I do myself; out of the many bits I have been reading I lay hold of one. My thought for today is something which I found in Epicurus (Yes, I actually make a practice of going over to the enemy's camp—by way of reconnaissance, not as a deserter!). “A cheerful poverty,”he says, “is an honorable state”. But if it is cheerful it is not poverty at all. It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more. What difference does it make how much there is laid away in a man's safe or in his barns, how many head of stock he grazes or how much capital he puts out at interest, if he is always after what is another's and only counts what he has yet to get, never what he has already. You ask what is the proper limit to a person's wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough.

我認為，能放下手中的事靜心獨處一段時間，正是一個人意志力強的最佳證明。

你提及自己愛瀏覽不同作家的多種書籍。請注意，閱讀不可散漫，亦不可隨性。如果想靠閱讀獲取永久銘記的知識，就該多花時間研讀被公認為才華橫溢的作家的作品，從他們那里不斷汲取營養(yǎng)。想要無處不在，只會無處扎根。一生在國外游蕩的旅人，會在許多地方受到殷勤的接待，卻得不到真正的友誼。那些蜻蜓點水地涉獵各家作品、卻不專心研讀任何名家的讀者，下場同樣如此。即吃即嘔不利于身體對食物的吸收，對健康無甚裨益；不斷改換治療方法，最不利于疾病治愈；不斷測試各種膏藥療效，不利于傷口愈合；不斷移栽植物，不利于其茁壯成長。即使再有益的東西，走馬觀花也無法讓人獲益。書籍過多只會阻擋前路。如果你無法讀完所有的藏書，擁有能讀完的書便已足夠。

如果你說：“但我想在不同的時候讀不同的書”，我的回答是：一道接一道地品嘗菜肴，無非是挑食的表現(xiàn)。吃下花樣繁多、種類各異的食物，不是滋補身體，而是損害健康。因此，專注地閱讀某些名家的著作吧。如果你覺得已經(jīng)讀厭某位作家的作品，還可以重溫讀過的其他作家的著作。

每天都學(xué)點新知識，有助于你直面貧困、死亡和其他不幸。每天，在過眼眾多不同的思想后，選取一種在當日徹底消化。我本人就是這樣做的：從讀過的書里的眾多思想中選取一種，將其牢牢掌握。我今天的思想就來自伊壁鳩魯1（是的，我走向了敵對陣營。不過，我這樣做的目的是偵察敵情，而非叛逃！）。伊壁鳩魯說：“安貧樂道是一種值得推崇的狀態(tài)。”不過，既然是樂，就談不上窮。窮人不是擁有得太少，而是想要得太多。如果一個人總在覬覦別人的財富，總是計算尚未到手之物，而從不在意已擁有的東西，那么，他保險柜里有多少珍寶，谷倉里有多少糧食，牧場里有多少牲畜，有多少資金在放外貸，又有什么意義呢？你問，一個人要有多少財產(chǎn)才合適呢？標準之一是必要，標準之二是夠用。

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1．伊壁鳩魯（Epicurus，前341—前270），古希臘著名哲學(xué)家，快樂主義倫理學(xué)的代表人物，于公元前307年建立了自己的學(xué)派。伊壁鳩魯學(xué)派由有著共同興趣和人生觀的人組成，伊壁鳩魯則是團體中備受敬愛的導(dǎo)師，這個團體經(jīng)常在他買下的一座花園里活動，因此被稱為“花園派”。