Reading　论读书——塞内加

Reading

论读书

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

鲁齐乌斯·安奈乌斯·塞内加

作者简介

鲁齐乌斯·安奈乌斯·塞内加（Lucius Annaeus Seneca，约前4—65），古罗马政治家、哲学家、悲剧作家、雄辩家，宣扬新斯多葛伦理学，主张无条件屈从神意和不可避免的命运。他曾任罗马帝国会计官和元老院元老以及古罗马暴君尼禄（Nero）的家庭教师和顾问。

塞内加一生漫游各地，勤于思考。他几经仕途的大起大落，因此深通世事，能于平常小事中挖掘出深邃的思想。塞内加著作颇丰，著有11部戏剧、14部问答体作品、一部书信集等，西方人耳熟能详的“塞内加说”犹如中国人常说的“子曰诗云”。塞内加的思想对后世产生了不可磨灭的影响。

本文选自塞内加的代表作《道德书简》（Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium）。该书为世人公认的必读书。书中信件多以自身或他人经历开头，接着从哲理的角度进行严肃的反思和深入的分析。本文通过生动的比喻，阐述了“阅读不可散漫，亦不可随性”的重要性，显示了作者独特的智慧。

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.

我认为，能放下手中的事静心独处一段时间，正是一个人意志力强的最佳证明。

你提及自己爱浏览不同作家的多种书籍。请注意，阅读不可散漫，亦不可随性。如果想靠阅读获取永久铭记的知识，就该多花时间研读被公认为才华横溢的作家的作品，从他们那里不断汲取营养。想要无处不在，只会无处扎根。一生在国外游荡的旅人，会在许多地方受到殷勤的接待，却得不到真正的友谊。那些蜻蜓点水地涉猎各家作品、却不专心研读任何名家的读者，下场同样如此。即吃即呕不利于身体对食物的吸收，对健康无甚裨益；不断改换治疗方法，最不利于疾病治愈；不断测试各种膏药疗效，不利于伤口愈合；不断移栽植物，不利于其茁壮成长。即使再有益的东西，走马观花也无法让人获益。书籍过多只会阻挡前路。如果你无法读完所有的藏书，拥有能读完的书便已足够。

如果你说：“但我想在不同的时候读不同的书”，我的回答是：一道接一道地品尝菜肴，无非是挑食的表现。吃下花样繁多、种类各异的食物，不是滋补身体，而是损害健康。因此，专注地阅读某些名家的著作吧。如果你觉得已经读厌某位作家的作品，还可以重温读过的其他作家的著作。

每天都学点新知识，有助于你直面贫困、死亡和其他不幸。每天，在过眼众多不同的思想后，选取一种在当日彻底消化。我本人就是这样做的：从读过的书里的众多思想中选取一种，将其牢牢掌握。我今天的思想就来自伊壁鸠鲁1（是的，我走向了敌对阵营。不过，我这样做的目的是侦察敌情，而非叛逃！）。伊壁鸠鲁说：“安贫乐道是一种值得推崇的状态。”不过，既然是乐，就谈不上穷。穷人不是拥有得太少，而是想要得太多。如果一个人总在觊觎别人的财富，总是计算尚未到手之物，而从不在意已拥有的东西，那么，他保险柜里有多少珍宝，谷仓里有多少粮食，牧场里有多少牲畜，有多少资金在放外贷，又有什么意义呢？你问，一个人要有多少财产才合适呢？标准之一是必要，标准之二是够用。

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1．伊壁鸠鲁（Epicurus，前341—前270），古希腊著名哲学家，快乐主义伦理学的代表人物，于公元前307年建立了自己的学派。伊壁鸠鲁学派由有着共同兴趣和人生观的人组成，伊壁鸠鲁则是团体中备受敬爱的导师，这个团体经常在他买下的一座花园里活动，因此被称为“花园派”。