Surely the Essays must be numbered among the few books that deserve to be chewed and digested.
《论说文集》当然属于少数值得细嚼慢咽的书。
Rarely shall you find so much meat, so admirably dressed and flavored, in so small a dish.
你很少能发现在这么小的盘子里盛有那么多的肉，并且烹调得如此鲜美、精致。
Bacon abhors padding, and disdains to waste a word; he offers us infinite riches in a little phrase; each of these essays gives in a page or two the distilled subtlety of a master mind on a major issue of life.
培根最不喜矫饰与铺张，他的作品简介紧凑；他在一个小的段落里已经给我们提供了无限的丰富性；《论说文集中的每一篇论文的篇幅虽然都只有一两页，但却精准地表达了这位思想大师的真知灼见。
没有用“be”动词的句子是非常紧实的。
It is difficult to say whether the matter or the manner more excels; for here is language as supreme in prose as Shakespeare's is in verse.
很难去评价到底是他的写得内容更为高超还是形式更为高超；因为这里他的散文语言如此高超，堪与莎士比亚的韵文媲美。
写作三大“m”：
matter/manner/method
莎士比亚的verse写的特别好，现在我们用的英语当中将近2000多个词是莎士比亚造出来的。
It is a style like sturdy Tacitus', compact yet polished; and indeed some of its conciseness is due to the skillful adaptation of Latin idiom and phrase.
这种写作的文风特别想古罗马的作家塔西拓，压的非常紧实，但是打磨的非常好；而他的简洁在一定程度上得益于对拉丁成语的熟练运用。
But its wealth of metaphor is characteristically Elizabethan, and reflects the exuberance of the Renaissance; no man in English literature is so fertile in pregnant and pithy comparisons.
但其中丰富的隐喻却是伊丽莎白时期的典型特点，并且反映了文艺复兴的繁荣景象；英国文学史上还没有第二个人能如此成功地运用这么多简洁而富有深意的比喻。
pregnant创作能力非常多
pithy产出精炼
Their lavish array is the one defect of Bacon's style: the endless metaphors and allegories and allusions fall like whips upon our nerves and tire us out at last.
很多伊丽莎白时期的作家非常铺张的摆设是培根写作风格中的一个小小瑕疵：无休止的暗喻、寓言及暗语，反复捶打着我们的神经，最终令我们不堪忍受。
The Essays are like rich and heavy food, which cannot be digested in large quantities at once; but taken four or five at a time they are the finest intellectual nourishment in English.
《论说文集》就像营养丰富但难以消化的食物，一次吃太多会难以消化；但我们若能分四五次来享用的话，，那它就是我们学习英文的最好滋补品。
董桥的文章也是不能一口气看太多，适合作睡前小点心。
语言点
abhor: vt. 痛恨，憎恶
padding: n. 冗余；冗词
disdain: vt. 鄙视
distill: vt. 蒸馏；提纯
metaphor: n. 比喻
exuberance: n. 丰富
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