July 19, 2015 The Delights of Books 讀書樂
by 王瓊玉
2015-07-19 21:52:26, 回應(0), 人氣(1053)
2015-07-19 21:52:26, 回應(0), 人氣(1053)July 19, 2015
A Treasury of English Famous Essays
英美散文菁華
陳榮吉 編譯
3. The Delights of Books 讀書樂
Sir John Lubbock, 1834 – 1913, English archaeologist, biologist, and politician.
Books
are to mankind what memory is to the individual. They contain the history of
our race, the discoveries we have made, the accumulated knowledge and
experience of ages; they picture for us the marvels and beauties of nature;
help us in our difficulties, comfort us in sorrow and in suffering, change
hours of weariness into moments of delight, store our minds with ideas, fill them
with good and happy thoughts, and lift us out of and above ourselves.
When
we read we may not only be kings and live in palaces, but, what is far better,
we may transport ourselves to the mountains or the seashore, and visit the most
beautiful parts of the earth, without fatigue, inconvenience, expense. Precious
and priceless are the blessings, which the books scatter around our daily
paths. We walk, in imagination, with the noblest spirits, through the most
sublime and enchanting regions.
Macaulay had wealth and fame, rank and power, and yet he tells us in his biography that he owed the happiest hours of his life to books. In a charming letter to a little girl, he says: “If any one would make me the greatest king that ever lived, with palaces and gardens and fine dinners, and wines and coaches, and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants, on condition that I should not read books, I would not be a king. I would rather be a poor man in garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.”