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John Ruskin

约翰·罗斯金

作者简介

约翰.罗斯金（John Ruskin，1819—1900），英国著名学者、作家，也是多产的艺术家和艺术评论家。他是艺术、建筑、意大利文艺复兴史方面的专家，在英国被誉为“美的使者”。

罗斯金因《现代画家》（Modern Painters）一书成名，后著有《建筑学的七盏灯》（The Seven Lamps of Architecture）和《威尼斯之石》（The Stones of Venice）等艺术评论佳作。他的作品语言优美，语调铿锵，对列夫.托尔斯泰（Lev Tolstoy）、奥斯卡.王尔德（Oscar Wilde）和马塞尔.普鲁斯特（Marcel Proust）等人有较大影响，普鲁斯特甚至为翻译罗斯金的作品而下决心学习英文。

本文选自1864年出版的罗斯金演讲文集《芝麻与百合》（Sesame and Lilies）。罗斯金认为读书、生活、艺术、男人、女人、家庭是这个世界的基本色彩，是打开“国王宝藏”的芝麻，是“王后花园”中的百合。本文论述了著书、读书之精妙所在，对“暂时之书”与“永久之书”的定义更是发人深省。且让我们跟随作者，拾起一颗芝麻，撷取一朵百合吧。

For all books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time. Mark this distinction—it is not one of quality only. It is not merely the bad book that does not last, and the good one that does. It is a distinction of species. There are good books for the hour, and good ones for all time; bad books for the hour, and bad ones for all time. I must define the two kinds before I go farther.

The good book of the hour, then,—I do not speak of the bad ones—is simply the useful or pleasant talk of some person whom you cannot otherwise converse with, printed for you. Very useful often, telling you what you need to know; very pleasant often, as a sensible friend’s present talk would be. These bright accounts of travels; good-humoured and witty discussions of question; lively or pathetic story-telling in the form of novel; firm fact-telling, by the real agents concerned in the events of passing history;—all these books of the hour, multiplying among us as education becomes more general, are a peculiar characteristic and possession of the present age: We ought to be entirely thankful for them, and entirely ashamed of ourselves if we make no good use of them. But we make the worst possible use, if we allow them to usurp the place of true books: for, strictly speaking, they are not books at all, but merely letters or newspapers in good print.

所有的书可分为两类：应时之作和经久之书。请注意，它们的区别不仅在于品质。并非说坏书不能经久，好书就可长存。两者纯粹是类型不同。应时之作和经久之书中皆有精华和糟粕。在深入分析之前，我必须对这两种书下个定义。

应时之作中的精品——糟粕我在此不提——就像一次有益或有趣的谈话。你无法与说话者当面交流，但谈话内容已为你印刷成书。这类书往往颇为实用，向你传授必要的知识；往往妙趣横生，就像通情达理的友人的谈话。那些精彩生动的旅途见闻、风趣幽默的话题讨论、小说形式呈现的悲喜故事、亲历者对往事的真相揭露，都是应时之作。随着教育的普及，这类书日益普遍，甚至成为当代特色。对于这些书，我们应当表示感谢；如果没能善加利用，还应深感惭愧。但如果让它们篡夺了真书的地位，那就大错特错了。因为严格来说，它们根本算不上是书，只是印刷精美的信件或报纸而已。

Our friend’s letter may be delightful, or necessary, today: whether worth keeping or not, is to be considered. The newspaper may be entirely proper at breakfast time, but assuredly it is not reading for all day. So, though bound up in a volume, the long letter which gives you so pleasant an account of the inns, and roads, and weather last year at such a place, or which tells you that amusing story, or gives you the real circumstances of such and such events, however valuable for occasional reference, may not be, in the real sense of the word, a “book” at all, nor, in the real sense, to be “read.”

A book is essentially not a talked thing, but a written thing; and written, not with the view of mere communication, but of permanence. The book of talk is printed only because its author cannot speak to thousands of people at once; if he could, he would—the volume is mere multiplication of his voice. You cannot talk to your friend in India; if you could, you would; you write instead: that is mere conveyance of voice. But a book is written, not to multiply the voice merely, not to carry it merely, but to perpetuate it. The author has something to say which he perceives to be true and useful, or helpfully beautiful. So far as he knows, no one has yet said it; so far as he knows, no one else can say it. He is bound to say it, clearly and melodiously if he may; clearly at all events. In the sum of his life he finds this to be the thing, or group of things, manifest to him;—this, the piece of true knowledge, or sight which his share of sunshine and earth has permitted him to seize. He would fain set it down for ever; engrave it on rock, if he could; saying, “This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved, and hated, like another; my life was as the vapour, and is not; but this I saw and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory.” That is his “writing”; it is, in his small human way, and with whatever degree of true inspiration is in him, his inscription, or scripture. That is a “Book.”

友人来信或许当日读来饶有趣味，或许当时有用，但是否有保存价值则须另说。报纸适于早餐时浏览，但显然无须整天读报。因此，描述某间旅社、某条道路以及这些地方去年天气的有趣信件，或是叙述某件趣事或描摹某个场景的长信，哪怕辑录成册，即使偶尔可供参考，但都称不上真正“值得读的书”。

书在本质上并非谈话，而是著述。著述不仅是为了沟通，还为经久流传。将谈话编印成书，只因作者无法同时向千万人讲述。如果能够做到，根本无须出书。书无非是作者声音的延伸。你无法与身处印度的友人聊天，如果能够做到，根本无须写信。信无非是个人声音的传递。但著述成书，不仅是为延伸或传递声音，还是为了使其不朽。作者想表达自认为真实、实用、美而有益的东西。据他所知，这些东西除了自己之外，无人曾写，无人可写。他注定要说，而且尽可能娓娓道来，逐事详述。他认定，某些东西是自己一生的证明——这便是真正的知识，或在世间领略的奇观。他渴望将其写下，以求永恒；如有可能，将刻于岩石之上——“这是我的精华。至于其他，我的饮食起居、喜恶爱憎与他人无异。我的生活曾如虚幻雾气，现在则全然不同。对于这些，我看见了，知晓了。如果我有东西值得后世忆起，便是这个。”此即他的“著述”。这是他卑微人生的结晶，是他的墓志铭，是他的圣典。这便是“书”。

Perhaps you think no books were ever so written?

But, again, I ask you, do you at all believe in honesty, or at all in kindness, or do you think there is never any honesty or benevolence in wise people? None of us, I hope, are so unhappy as to think that. Well, whatever bit of a wise man’s work is honestly or benevolently done, that bit is his book, or his piece of art. It is mixed always with evil fragments—ill-done, redundant, affected work. But if you read rightly, you will easily discover the true bits, and those are the book.

Now books of this kind have been written in all ages by their greatest men;—by great leaders, great statesmen, and great thinkers. These are all at your choice; and Life is short. You have heard as much before;—yet have you measured and mapped out this short life and its possibilities? Do you know, if you read this, that you cannot read that—that what you lose today you cannot gain tomorrow? Will you go and gossip with your housemaid, or your stable-boy, when you may talk with queens and kings; or flatter yourselves that it is with any worthy consciousness of your own claims to respect, that you jostle with the common crowd for entrée here, and audience there, when all the while this eternal court is open to you, with its society, wide as the world, multitudinous as its days, the chosen, and the mighty, of every place and time? Into that you may enter always; in that you may take fellowship and rank according to your wish; from that, once entered into it, you can never be outcast but by your own fault; by your aristocracy of companionship there, your own inherent aristocracy will be assuredly tested, and the motives with which you strive to take high place in the society of the living, measured, as to all the truth and sincerity that are in them, by the place you desire to take in this company of the Dead.

或许你认为，没有书是如此写成的。

那么，我要再问你，你相信真诚与善意吗？你难道认为智者不具备这两种品质吗？我希望，没有哪个不幸的人会这么想。只要智者以真诚与善意行事，必然体现在著作或艺术品中。其中可能混有糟粕，例如差劲、冗长、造作的作品。但只要你阅读方式正确，就能轻易取其精华——这些才是书。

每个时代都有伟人——伟大的领袖、政治家、思想家——写下这类书。你的选择众多，但人生苦短。这番话你从前或许听过多次。但你是否为自己短暂的一生作过读书规划？你可知道，如果读了这本书，就可能与那本无缘——今日之所失，明日不复得。难道你宁愿与女仆、马夫闲聊，也不愿与国王、皇后交谈？当永恒的殿堂向你敞开，眼前天地无垠、空间无限，历代伟人齐聚一堂，你还会不顾尊严地自吹自擂，还会与庸碌众人同路而行？你可以随时进入书中，随心选择并肩前行的伴侣。一旦置身书海，无人会将你驱逐，除非你自己不慎退出。你内在的贵族气质，必将接受书中贵族的考验。你在现实社会中提升地位、追寻真理的阅读动机，也将接受书中逝者的考验。