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Self-Reliance
Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is a time in every man\'s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn cane to him, but through his toil that bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. ept the place that the divine Providence has found for you; the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men has always done so and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the Eternal was stirring at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being.
Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stockpany in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
Who so would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind.
What I must do, is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world\'s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Out upon your guarded lips! Sew them up with packthread, do. Else, if you would be a man, speak what you think today in words as hard as cannon balls, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today. Ah, then, exclaim the aged ladies, you shall be sure to be misunderstood. Misunderstood! It is a right fool\'s word. Is it so bad then to be misunderstood Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that every took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
I hope in these days we heard the last about conformity and consistency. Let the words be gazetted and ridiculous henceforward. Instead of the gong for dinner, let us hear a whistle from the Spartan life. Let us bow and apologize nevermore. A great man ising to eat at my house. I do not wish to please him: I wish that he should wish to please me. I will stand here for humanity, and though I would make it kind, I would make it true. Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom, and trade, and office, the fact which is the upshot of all history, that there is a great responsible Thinker and Actor moving wherever moves a man; that a true man belongs to no other time or place, but is the center of things. Where he is, there is nature... Every true man is a cause, a country, and an age; requires infinite spaces and numbers and time to fully aplish his though; --and prosperity seem to follow his steps as a procession. A man Caesar is born, and for ages after, we have a Roman Empire. Christ is born, and millions of minds so grow and cleave to his genius, that he is confounded with virtue and the possible of man. An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man; as, the Reformation, of Luther; Quakerism, of Fox; Methodism, of Wesley; Abolition, of Clarkson. Scipio, Milton called, \"the height of Rome;\" and all history resolves itself very easily into the biograph of a few stout and earnest persons.
解析：
這篇文章寫於美國獨立戰爭之後的第二次大覺醒，也是即大覺醒後第二次的宗教覆興。這一次的大覺醒推動了很多的改革運動，例如婦女權利，公共教育，還有廢除奴隸制度的改革。而Emerson的這篇文章主要討論的是人們本身的想法和社會的關系。所有人都在追逐潮流，不想被社會遺忘，但是在這之中人們抹去了他們自己的獨特性，慢慢地淹沒在人海。所以Emerson總結道，“It is easy in the world to live after the world\'s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. ”追逐潮流和保持自我都是非常簡單的事情，但是要想同時做到這兩者則非常難。而這也是他想讓人們去思考的事情，怎麽才能找到兩者的平衡。還有一點就是，Emerson他非常註重個人。所以裏面有很多都是關於每個人的獨特性還有思維的忠告。例如不要去考慮別人的眼光，做好你自己，做你想做的事。還有這一句，“you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it”。感覺他文中所提及的事情在現在的社會也是成立的，並且處處可見。從有人會對他人指指點點，很多人也活在他人的觀點之下，這一切就如Emerson寫道。當然這裏也不得不提及他的那句名言：“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind. ”這句好再次證明了Emerson對於人們思想的觀點。他認為人們獨特的想法是這個社會的根基，人們有了想法才會去執行，這樣才會建立一個更好的社會。所以他才說：“there is a great responsible Thinker and Actor moving wherever moves a man”
本站無廣告，永久域名（fanyan.cc）
Self-Reliance
Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is a time in every man\'s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn cane to him, but through his toil that bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. ept the place that the divine Providence has found for you; the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men has always done so and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the Eternal was stirring at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being.
Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stockpany in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
Who so would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind.
What I must do, is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world\'s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Out upon your guarded lips! Sew them up with packthread, do. Else, if you would be a man, speak what you think today in words as hard as cannon balls, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today. Ah, then, exclaim the aged ladies, you shall be sure to be misunderstood. Misunderstood! It is a right fool\'s word. Is it so bad then to be misunderstood Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that every took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
I hope in these days we heard the last about conformity and consistency. Let the words be gazetted and ridiculous henceforward. Instead of the gong for dinner, let us hear a whistle from the Spartan life. Let us bow and apologize nevermore. A great man ising to eat at my house. I do not wish to please him: I wish that he should wish to please me. I will stand here for humanity, and though I would make it kind, I would make it true. Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom, and trade, and office, the fact which is the upshot of all history, that there is a great responsible Thinker and Actor moving wherever moves a man; that a true man belongs to no other time or place, but is the center of things. Where he is, there is nature... Every true man is a cause, a country, and an age; requires infinite spaces and numbers and time to fully aplish his though; --and prosperity seem to follow his steps as a procession. A man Caesar is born, and for ages after, we have a Roman Empire. Christ is born, and millions of minds so grow and cleave to his genius, that he is confounded with virtue and the possible of man. An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man; as, the Reformation, of Luther; Quakerism, of Fox; Methodism, of Wesley; Abolition, of Clarkson. Scipio, Milton called, \"the height of Rome;\" and all history resolves itself very easily into the biograph of a few stout and earnest persons.
解析：
這篇文章寫於美國獨立戰爭之後的第二次大覺醒，也是即大覺醒後第二次的宗教覆興。這一次的大覺醒推動了很多的改革運動，例如婦女權利，公共教育，還有廢除奴隸制度的改革。而Emerson的這篇文章主要討論的是人們本身的想法和社會的關系。所有人都在追逐潮流，不想被社會遺忘，但是在這之中人們抹去了他們自己的獨特性，慢慢地淹沒在人海。所以Emerson總結道，“It is easy in the world to live after the world\'s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. ”追逐潮流和保持自我都是非常簡單的事情，但是要想同時做到這兩者則非常難。而這也是他想讓人們去思考的事情，怎麽才能找到兩者的平衡。還有一點就是，Emerson他非常註重個人。所以裏面有很多都是關於每個人的獨特性還有思維的忠告。例如不要去考慮別人的眼光，做好你自己，做你想做的事。還有這一句，“you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it”。感覺他文中所提及的事情在現在的社會也是成立的，並且處處可見。從有人會對他人指指點點，很多人也活在他人的觀點之下，這一切就如Emerson寫道。當然這裏也不得不提及他的那句名言：“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind. ”這句好再次證明了Emerson對於人們思想的觀點。他認為人們獨特的想法是這個社會的根基，人們有了想法才會去執行，這樣才會建立一個更好的社會。所以他才說：“there is a great responsible Thinker and Actor moving wherever moves a man”
本站無廣告，永久域名（fanyan.cc）