介绍:
Walden [ˈwɔldən] (Issue 200)
16. The Pond in Winter(8)
[13] What I have observed of the pond is no less true in ethics. It is the law of average. Such a rule of the two diameters not only guides us toward the sun in the system and the heart in man, but draws lines through the length and breadth of the aggregate of a man's particular daily behaviors and waves of life into his coves and inlets, and where they intersect will be the height or depth of his character. Perhaps we need only to know how his shores trend and his adjacent[əˈdʒeɪsnt] country or circumstances, to infer his depth and concealed bottom. If he is surrounded by mountainous circumstances, an Achillean shore, whose peaks overshadow and are reflected in his bosom[ˈbʊzəm], they suggest a corresponding depth in him. But a low and smooth shore proves him shallow on that side. In our bodies, a bold projecting brow falls off to and indicates a corresponding depth of thought. Also there is a bar across the entrance of our every cove, or particular inclination; each is our harbor for a season, in which we are detained and partially land-locked. These inclinations are not whimsical[ˈwɪmzɪkl] usually, but their form, size, and direction are determined by the promontories[ˈprɒməntərɪs] of the shore, the ancient axes of elevation. When this bar is gradually increased by storms, tides, or currents, or there is a subsidence[səb'saɪdns] of the waters, so that it reaches to the surface, that which was at first but an inclination in the shore in which a thought was harbored becomes an individual lake, cut off from the ocean, wherein the thought secures its own conditions - changes, perhaps, from salt to fresh, becomes a sweet sea, dead sea, or a marsh. At the advent[ˈædvent] of each individual into this life, may we not suppose that such a bar has risen to the surface somewhere? It is true, we are such poor navigators that our thoughts, for the most part, stand off and on upon a harborless coast, are conversant only with the bights[baɪts] of the bays of poesy[ˈpəʊɪzɪ], or steer for the public ports of entry, and go into the dry docks of science, where they merely refit for this world, and no natural currents concur[kənˈkɜː] to individualize them.
我对湖的观察未尝不可以用于人间伦理。它是一条普遍适用的法则。这关于两个直径的规则不仅引导我们向太阳/在星系，也朝向人心/在身体里，只要在一个人特别的日常行为和生活波浪涌入他的水湾和入水口长宽的汇集处划一条线，他们的相交处就是他性格的高度或深度。也许我们仅需要了解他岸的走势和他毗连的地形或环境，就能推断他的纵深和掩藏的心底。假如他是被群山的环境包围，一个阿喀kā琉斯式的岸，峰巅高耸倒映在他的胸膛，他们就提示着他本身一个相应的深度。但是一个低矮光滑的岸就证明他肤浅的那一面。在我们的身体上，一个大胆突出的额头的滑向/标志着一个相应深刻的思想。同时这里也有一道坝/横穿我们每一个水湾的入口，或称之为特别的倾向；每一个都是我们一个季节的港湾，在那里我们被扣留或部分地被土地封住。这些倾向通常都不会反复无常，但他们的形状、大小和指向是被那远古海拔的轴心，岸的隆起决定的。当这一堤坝被风暴、潮汐或急流逐渐地累加，或者说这里有了一个水的沉降，于是它可以抵达表面，起初它不过是在岸里的一种倾向，在那里一个停泊bó变成了一眼个性湖，割离了大洋，在那里思想保证了自己的条件——变化，也许，从咸水变淡，变成了一个甜海，死了的海，或一片沼泽。在每一个体这种生命的时刻降临，我们是否可以设想这样的一条堤坝就已经在某处的表面冉冉[rǎn rǎn]升起？这是真的，我们都是如此可怜的摆渡人以至于我们的思想，最多的部分都远离了我们站在，一个无港口的海岸，仅仅熟悉那韵文弯弯的曲线，或导向了公共码头的入口，进了科学干巴巴的船坞，在那里只是为这世界做了些改装，没有自然的激流来为使他们变得独特，助一臂之力。
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