可爱的图片选自Unsplash，摄影师Ben White
开始读《晨读夜诵·英语名篇诵读精华大全集》这本书（华东理工大学出版社）。边读，边和朋友们分享~
亮点、重点、疑难语句，加粗标示。算半个精读：）
Books are to mankind what memory is to the individual. They contain the history of our race, the discovery 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.
There is an oriental story of two men:one was a king, who every night dreamt he was a beggar; the other was a beggar,who every night dreamt he was a prince and lived in a palace. I am not sure that the king had very much the best of it. Imagination is sometimes more vivid than reality.But, however this may be, when we read we may not only (if we wish it) be kings and live in palaces, but, what is far better, we may transport ourselves to the mountains or seashores, and visit the most beautiful parts of the earth,without fatigue, inconvenience, or expense.
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, "Thank you for your very pretty letter. I am always glad to make my little girl happy, and nothing pleases me so much as to see that she likes books, for when she is as old as I am, she will find that they are better than all the tarts and cakes, toys and plays, and sights in the world. If any one would make me the greatest king that ever lived, with palaces and gardens and fine dinners, and wines and coaches（四轮马车-“龙辇华盖”）, 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 a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading."
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.
Without stirring from our firesides （足不出户）we may roam to the most remote regions of the earth, or soar into realms where Spenser's shapes of unearthly beauty flock to meet us, where Milton's angels peal in our ears the choral hymns of paradise. Science, art, literature,philosophy - all that man has thought, that man has done - the experience that has been bought with sufferings of hundred generations - all are garnered up for us in the world of books.
John Lubbock爵士，1934-1913
总觉得那个时代的人很神奇，同样是人脑，同样是一生，那时的人好像一不小心就能专亦能博，跨界跨得几乎毫不相干，有的还是大家。
John Lubbock也是，英国政治家、银行家、科学家及博学家。1870 年成为议员后，陆续提出许多改革法案，除了政治上的成就，他对科学的贡献主要在昆虫学和人类学，1900 年受封为男爵。
搞金融的同学，大概知道英国的银行节——5月和8月最后一周的周一。这个节，正是John Lubbock从政期间即建议设立的。
有趣的是，他这个提议的初衷，是他发现银行职员忙到没时间看书。1871年，英国政府通过银行节法令，当第一银行节到来时，大多数银行职员并没有在家看书，而是收拾行囊，外出度假去了。（爵士有点意外，不过出门亲眼看世界也很好啊）
还有一个有意思的小事，很像现在学区房的轶事卖点，或是劝导小孩子善交好朋友的故事。
据说，Lubbock小时候住在一个小村子，村里搬来一家富翁，这个富翁不用为养家糊口而工作，可以做自己喜欢的事情，比如观察自然，后来写出了《物种起源》（呃……）Lubbock经常去他家串门，耳濡目染，就跟着爱上科学了。即便后来子承父业，成为银行家，Lubbock也没放弃对自然科学的浓厚兴趣，还专门出版过昆虫学、考古学的书。银行家、政治家、慈善家、社会学家，人类学家，科学家……总之，博学家。（好希望我女儿也有这样的邻居/朋友~）
博学如斯，他在《人生的乐趣》还列了他的一份百书单，包括我们的《论语》和《诗经》，尽管他坦言自己并不喜欢。（或者没看明白？）书单，感兴趣可自行搜索。
另外，还有一本传记Life of Sir John Lubbock.
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