读书与书籍

On Reading and Books

读书与书籍

Arthur Schopenhauer

亚瑟.叔本华

作者简介

亚瑟.叔本华（Arthur Schopenhauer，1788—1860），德国著名哲学家，唯意志论哲学的创始人，带有强烈的悲观主义倾向。他同时也是涉猎广泛的美学家，对音乐、绘画、诗歌和歌剧等皆有研究。

叔本华凭借《意志和表象的世界》（The World as Will and Representation）奠定了自己的哲学体系。他的悲观主义、形而上学和美学思想不仅影响了存在主义和其他哲学运动，还影响了一大批作家和艺术家，如威廉.理查德.瓦格纳（Wilhelm Richard Wagner）、列夫.托尔斯泰（Lev Tolstoy）、马塞尔.普鲁斯特（Marcel Proust）等。叔本华虽不以文采斐然取胜，但其文章思路清晰，文字澄明透彻，易于阅读。

本文选自2004年英译版《亚瑟.叔本华作品集》（The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer）。作者以其惯常的独到思维剖析了读坏书的害处和读好书的益处，文章充满哲理，读来令人眼明气畅，对哲人的孤高情操平添几分神往。

ONE

When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. It is the same as the pupil, in learning to write, following with his pen the lines that have been penciled by the teacher.

Accordingly, in reading, the work of thinking is, for the greater part, done for us. This is why we are consciously relieved when we turn to reading after being occupied with our own thoughts. But, in reading, our head is, however, really only the arena of someone else’s thoughts. And so it happens that the person who reads a great deal—that is to say, almost the whole day, and recreates himself by spending the intervals in thoughtless diversion, gradually loses the ability to think for himself; just as a man who is always riding at last forgets how to walk. Such, however, is the case with many men of learning: they have read themselves stupid. For to read in every spare moment, and to read constantly, is more paralysing to the mind than constant manual work, which, at any rate, allows one to follow one’s own thoughts. Just as a spring, through the continual pressure of a foreign body, at last loses its elasticity, so does the mind if it has another person’s thoughts continually forced upon it. And just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read if one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost. Indeed, it is the same with mental as with bodily food: scarcely the fifth part of what a man takes is assimilated; the remainder passes off in evaporation, respiration, and the like.

From all this it may be concluded that thoughts put down on paper are nothing more than footprints in the sand: one sees the road the man has taken, but in order to know what he saw on the way, one requires his eyes.

...

一

我们读书时，别人替我们思考——我们仅在重复他的思维过程，就像学生依照老师的笔迹学习写字一样。

同样，阅读时绝大部分思考都是现成的。这就是为什么即便心里充斥自己的想法，阅读也能让我们感到放松。但在阅读时，我们的头脑实际上只是别人思想活动的场所。因此，那些几乎整天读书的博览群书之人，通过这种无须费神的消遣得到了放松，却逐渐失去了自主思考的能力。这就好比经常骑马的人最后会忘记怎么走路。然而，许多学者正是这样把自己读成了傻瓜。因为一有空就读书，或总是读书，比持续干体力活更容易使思维僵化。正如弹簧持续受到外力压迫，最终会失去弹性；头脑持续受到别人的影响，最终也会失去活力。暴饮暴食有害身体健康；摄入过多精神食粮，则会使头脑不堪重负。因为头脑就像一块反复涂写的黑板，读过的内容越多，留下的痕迹越少，令人无从深思。而只有通过深思，人们才能消化所读内容。如果一味地读书而不作思考，读过的东西则无法铭记于心，其大部分终将被遗忘殆尽。人类摄入的食物只有五分之一能被身体吸收，其余则被蒸发、呼吸等活动消耗了。事实上，头脑与身体吸收营养的方式一样。

总而言之，写在纸上的思想，不过是留在沙上的足迹。人们能看见行者走过的路，但要了解他的沿途所见，则要借助他的双眼。

……

TWO

It is the same in literature as in life. Wherever one goes one immediately comes upon the incorrigible mob of humanity. It exists everywhere in legions; crowding, soiling everything, like flies in summer. Hence the numberless bad books, those rank weeds of literature which extract nourishment from the corn and choke it.

They monopolise the time, money, and attention which really belong to good books and their noble aims; they are written merely with a view to making money or procuring places. They are not only useless, but they do positive harm. Nine-tenths of the whole of our present literature aims solely at taking a few shillings out of the public’s pocket, and to accomplish this, author, publisher, and reviewer have joined forces.

There is a more cunning and worse trick, albeit a profitable one. Litterateurs, hack-writers, and productive authors have succeeded, contrary to good taste and the true culture of the age, in bringing the world elegante into leading-strings, so that they have been taught to read a tempo and all the same thing—namely, the newest books order that they may have material for conversation in their social circles. Bad novels and similar productions from the pen of writers who were once famous, such as Spindler, Bulwer, Eugene Sue, and so on, serve this purpose. But what can be more miserable than the fate of a leading public of this kind, that feels always impelled to read the latest writings of extremely commonplace authors who write for money only, and therefore exist in numbers? And for the sake of this they merely know by name the works of the rare and superior writers, of all ages and countries. Literary newspapers, since they print the daily smatterings of commonplace people, are especially a cunning means for robbing from the aesthetic public the time which should be devoted to the genuine productions of art for the furtherance of culture.

Hence, in regard to our subject, the art of not reading is highly important. This consists in not taking a book into one’s hand merely because it is interesting the great public at the time—such as political or religious pamphlets, novels, poetry, and the like, which make a noise and reach perhaps several editions in their first and last years of existence. Remember rather that the man who writes for fools always finds a large public, and only read for a limited and definite time exclusively the works of great minds, those who surpass other men of all times and countries , and whom the voice of fame points to as such. These alone really educate and instruct.

One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind. In order to read what is good, one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.

二

文学领域和生活中的情况一样。无论走到哪里，人们总能立刻碰上无可救药的乌合之众。这种人为数众多，无处不在。他们像夏日飞蝇一般，聚集成群，污染一切。坏书同样数不胜数。它们像杂草一般，攫取谷物的养分，并将其扼杀。

坏书占据了原本属于好书及其崇高使命的时间、金钱和精力；作者写这些书，只为获取金钱和地位。坏书不仅无益，而且有害。现在的书有九成都只为从公众兜里掏钱。为达此目的，作家、出版商、评论家沆瀣一气。

还有更加阴险恶劣的牟利把戏。文人骚客、雇佣写手和多产作家没有带来良好的品位和真正的当代文化，而是成功地引导了世界的审美风向，让人们养成与出版同步的阅读习惯，读同样的书，即新近出版的作品，以获得社交场合的谈资。斯平德勒[1]、布尔沃[2]、欧仁•苏[3]等名噪一时的作家创作的拙劣小说和类似的作品，用途不过如此。平庸之极的作家为钱写作，所以新作迭出不穷。主流公众受到引导，总认为自己有必要阅读这些新作。还有什么能比这些人的命运更悲惨？正因为这样，他们对古往今来的各国名著了解甚少，只知其名。文学报刊尤其卑劣。它们刊登庸人的日常言论，窃取了具备审美能力的公众读好书的时间。那些好书才是推动文化发展的真正杰作。

因此，在我们谈论的这个话题中，“不读”的艺术尤为重要。“不读”意味着不因某书迎合大众一时的口味就去读它。这类书包括政治或宗教小册子、小说和诗歌等。它们或许风光一时，或许在其在世的前几年和最后几年里再版过几次，然后便销声匿迹。切记，写给傻瓜看的书总是最受欢迎。在特定的时间里，只读伟人的作品。这些人类历史上卓尔不群的伟人，拥有千古流芳的美名。他们的作品才能真正给人教益和指导。

坏书读来不嫌少，好书读来不嫌多。坏书是头脑的毒药，会摧毁心智。人生苦短，时间、精力有限。因此，多读好书须以不读坏书为前提。

THREE

It would be a good thing to buy books if one could also buy the time to read them; but one usually confuses the purchase of books with the acquisition of their contents. To desire that a man should retain everything he has ever read, is the same as wishing him to retain in his stomach all that he has ever eaten. He has been bodily nourished on what he has eaten, and mentally on what he has read, and through them become what he is. As the body assimilates what is homogeneous to it, so will a man retain what interests him: in other words, what coincides with his system of thought or suits his ends. Every one has aims, but very few have anything approaching a system of thought. This is why such people do not take an objective interest in anything, and why they learn nothing from what they read: they remember nothing about it.

Repetitio est mater studiorum. Any kind of important book should immediately be read twice, partly because one grasps the matter in its entirety the second time, and only really understands the beginning when the end is known; and partly because in reading it the second time one’s temper and mood are different, so that one gets another impression; it may be that one sees the matter in another light.

Works are the quintessence of a mind, and are therefore always of by far greater value than conversation, even if it be the conversation of the greatest mind. In every essential a man’s works surpass his conversation and leave it far behind. Even the writings of an ordinary man may be instructive, worth reading, and entertaining, for the simple reason that they are the quintessence of that man’s mind—that is to say, the writings are the result and fruit of his whole thought and study; while we should be dissatisfied with his conversation. Accordingly, it is possible to read books written by people whose conversation would give us no satisfaction; so that the mind will only by degrees attain high culture by finding entertainment almost entirely in books, and not in men.

There is nothing that so greatly recreates the mind as the works of the old classic writers. Directly one has been taken up, even if it is only for half an hour, one feels as quickly refreshed, relieved, purified, elevated, and strengthened as if one had refreshed oneself at a mountain stream. Is this due to the perfections of the old languages, or to the greatness of the minds whose works have remained unharmed and untouched for centuries? Perhaps to both combined.

三

如果能买到读书的时间，那么买书是件好事；但人们往往将买书与获取书中知识混为一谈。想记住读过的所有书，就像想用胃装下吃过的所有东西一样。人靠进食获取身体所需的养分，靠阅读获取头脑所需的养料。二者使人之为人。正如身体只能吸收可以消化的食物，人只能记住自己感兴趣的内容，即与自己思想体系相符、与自身目标吻合的内容。人人皆有目标，但很少人拥有思想体系。这些人对凡事皆无兴致，从读过的书里学不到东西。因为他们记不住读过的内容。

重复乃学习之母。任何重要作品都应在读过一遍之后立即重读。一是重读时可把握整体脉络；知晓末尾才能真正理解开篇。二是重读时心境不同，因此会有不同的感悟，或许能从另一个角度领会作品的精髓。

著作是思想的结晶，故其价值远甚于谈话，即便是伟人的谈话。从任何角度来看，一个人的著作都远比他所说的话更有价值。即便是普通人的作品，也可能有益、有趣、值得一读。原因很简单——这是他的思想结晶。也就是说，尽管某人的谈话可能令人失望，但他的著作却是他毕生思考、研究的成果。因此，言谈乏味之人的作品或许也值得一读。所以，心智的逐步提升几乎完全归功于在书中寻找乐趣，而非与人交谈。

没有什么能比古老的经典著作更令人放松。拿起一本来，即使只读半小时，人们也会感到振作、放松、纯净、崇高和强健，仿佛刚在山泉中沐浴过一般。这是因为古代语言尽善尽美，还是因为卓越的作者使作品历久弥新？或许二者兼而有之。

人靠进食获取身体所需的养分，靠阅读获取头脑所需的养料。二者使人之为人。

Arthur Schopenhauer 亚瑟•叔本华

[1] 卡尔.斯平德勒（Karl Spindler，1796—1855），德国历史小说作家。

[2] 爱德华.布尔沃－利顿（Edward Bulwer-Lytton，1803—1873），英国维多利亚时期小说家。

[3] 欧仁.苏（Eugene Sue，1804—1857），法国小说家、剧作家。