As industry is habitual activity in some useful pursuit, so, not only inactivity, but also all efforts without the design of usefulness, are of the nature of idleness.
not only...but also...:不但……而且……
He sleeps long and late, he wakes to stupidity, with indolent eyes sleepily rolling over neglected work.
roll over:翻滚;转存
忙碌的人生
Extreme Busyness
罗伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森 / Robert Louis Stevenson
Extreme busyness, whether at school or college, kirk or market, is a symptom of deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity. There is a sort of dead-alive, hackneyed people about, who are scarcely conscious of living except in the exercise of some conventional occupation. Bring these fellows into the country, or set them abroad ship, and you will see how they pine for their desk or their study. They have no curiosity; they cannot give themselves over to random provocations; they do not take pleasure in the exercise of their faculties for its own sake; and unless Necessity lays about them with a stick, they will even stand still.
It is no good speaking to such folk: they cannot be idle, their nature is not generous enough; and they pass those hours in a sort of coma, which are not dedicated to furious moiling in the gold-mill. When they do not require to go to the office, when they are not hungry and have no mind to drink, the whole breathing world is a blank to them. If they have to wait an hour or so for a train, they fall into a stupid trance with their eyes open. To see them, you would suppose there was nothing to look at and no one to speak with; you would imagine they were paralyzed or alienated; and yet very possibly they are hard workers in their own way, and have good eyesight for a flaw in a deed or a turn of the market.
They have been to school and college, but all the time they had their eye on the medal; they have gone about in the world and mixed with clever people, but all the time they were thinking of their own affairs. As if a man' s soul were not too small to begin with, they have dwarfed and narrowed theirs by a life of all work and no play; until here they are at forty, with a listless attention, a mind vacant of all material of amusement, and not one thought to rub against another, while they wait for the train. Before he was breeched, he might have clambered on the boxes, when he was twenty, he would have stared at the girls; but now the pipe is smoked out, the snuff-box empty, and my gentleman sits bolt upright upon a bench, with lamentable eyes. This does not appeal to me as being Success in Life.
无论在中学还是在大学,在教会还是在市场,忙忙碌碌都是欠缺生命力的一个标志。闲散的本领意味着广泛的兴趣与对个性的强烈意识。这些无精打采、陈腐之人,除了一些常规的工作外,几乎没有生存的意识。如果把他们带到乡村,或是让他们乘船到国外去,你们就会看到他们是多么渴望办公桌和书房了;他们全无好奇心,也不会任由自己宣泄怒气;他们不会在展现自己本领的活动上开心或是独自陶醉;除非紧急情况,例如用棒子打他,他们才会前行。
与这些朋友根本无法交谈:他们不会放松,天生不懂豪放;他们只会昏沉地度过那些时间,他们不会倾注全力在碾金厂里。当他们不想工作时,当他们不感到饥饿、不打算饮酒时,这个生机勃勃的世界对他们来说就是空白的。如果他们必须要等一个小时的火车,他们就会睁着眼睛陷入恍惚之中。看到他们,你就会猜到没有什么可看的,也没有人可以交流;你能够想象得到他们已经麻痹或是与世隔绝了。然而,他们很可能以自己的方式成为勤奋的工作者,而且眼光锐利,可以看出一张契约上的瑕疵或是市场行情的变化。
他们在中学和大学都读过书,但是他们的目光始终盯着奖章;他们外出活动,与聪明之人交往,但是他们始终惦记着自己的事情。好像一个人嫌自己的灵魂太大,他们一生中只有工作,没有娱乐,致使灵魂萎缩并缩小了;他们直到40岁时,注意力分散,头脑中缺乏所有有关娱乐的东西,对于其他想法全然不知,他们等候火车时就是这个样子。他没穿裤子的时候,也许可以在箱子上爬来爬去,20岁时,可以盯着女孩看;但是烟抽完了,鼻烟壶空了,我的这位阁下,在长椅上正襟危坐,目光哀伤。我认为,这不是成功的人生。
appetite ['鎝itait] n. 食欲;嗜好
A good appetite is a good sauce.
好胃口就是好的调味料。
curiosity ['kjuris] n. 好奇心;求知欲
We burned with curiosity over what was in the box.
我们急切地想知道箱子里是什么东西。
furious ['fju:ris] adj. 狂怒的;激烈的;热烈兴奋的;喧闹的
Facing such furious competitions,they can't win at all.
面对那样激烈的竞争,他们根本不可能赢。
dwarf [dw:f] v. 变矮小;使矮小
Our little dinghy was dwarfed by the big yacht.
我们的小船跟大游艇一比,显得很小。
无论在中学还是在大学,在教会还是在市场,忙忙碌碌都是欠缺生命力的一个标志。
当他们不想工作时,当他们不感到饥饿、不打算饮酒时,这个生机勃勃的世界对他们来说都是空白的。
他们很可能以自己的方式成为勤奋的工作者,而且眼光锐利,可以看出一张契约上的瑕疵或是市场行情的变化。
There is a sort of dead-alive, hackneyed people about, who are scarcely conscious of living except in the exercise of some conventional occupation..
a sort of:一种;有点儿;所谓的
You will see how they pine for their desk or their study.
pine for:渴望
远见的力量
The Power of the Vision
芭芭拉·伯杰 / Barbara Berger
How Are We Supposed to Live?
How then do enlightened men and women actually live?
Ask yourself.
Meditate on this question.
Find concrete answers.
Find solutions that you know in your heart will work.
This is what I envision:
First of all, life on Planet Earth, humanity as we know it, is evolving. This means we are capable of evolving, becoming better, higher, more loving.
We must"do unto others"... There is no other way, no other viable solution for ourselves or for the Planet.
And this"doing unto others" includes right thinking, too. In the next stage of our evolution our thoughts will be visible. (For those who are sensitive, they already are. ) Thus... doing unto others includes envisioning and seeking for others the very same Good that we envision and seek for ourselves. Yes, the Good of One is the Good of All.
This also means seeing the Divine in everyone, including people we dislike and our so-called"enemies". We may condemn the way other people behave. In other words, we may dislike the outer man or woman and denounce his or her behavior, but we must recognize and salute, at all times, the Divinity within each and every person we meet on our way. We must wish them well and envision the Highest Good for them too, or again as Frederick Bailes put it: constantly entertain "an intense desire for the well-being of others."
With this in mind, we will always make the right choices, for ourselves and the Planet.
Make That Shift Right Now.