True and False Simplicity

作者弗朗索瓦.费奈隆（1651--1715），法国著名神学家和作家，曾任主教。

True and False Simplicity

Simplicity is an uprightness of soul that has no reference to self; it is different from  sincerity, and it is a still higher virtue. We  see many people who are sincere, without  being simple; they only wish to pass for  what they are, and they are unwilling to appear what  they are not; they are  always thinking of  themselves, measuring  their words, and recalling their thoughts,  and reviewing their actions, from the fear  that they have done too much or too little.  These persons are  sincere, but they are  not  simple; they are  not at ease with  others,  and others are not at ease  with them; they are not free, ingenuous,  natural; we prefer people who are less  correct, less perfect, and who are less  artificial. This is the decision of man, and it is the judgment of God, who would not have us so occupied with ourselves, and thus, as it were, always arranging our features in a mirror.

To be wholly occupied with others, never to look within, is the state of blindness of  those who are entirely engrossed by what is present and addressed to their sense; this  is the very reverse of simplicity. To be  absorbed in self and in whatever engages  us, whether we are laboring for our fellow  beings or for God – to be wise in our own  eyes reserved, and full of ourselves,  troubled at the least thing that disturbs our self-complacency, is the opposite  extreme. This is false wisdom, which, with all its glory, is but little less absurd than that folly, with pursues only pleasure. The one  is intoxicated with all it sees around it; the  other with all that it imagines it has within; but it is delirium in both. To be absorbed in the contemplation of our own minds is  really worse than to be engrossed by  outward things, because it appears like  wisdom and yet is not, we do not think of  curing it,  we pride ourselves upon it, we  approve of it, it gives us an unnatural  strength, it is a sort of frenzy, we are not  conscious of it, we are dying, and we think ourselves in health.

Simplicity consists in a just medium, in  which we are neither too much excited, nor too composed. The soul is not carried away by ourward things, so that it cannot make  all necessary reflections; neither does it  make those continual references to self,  that a jealous sense of its own excellence multiplies to infinity. That freedom of the  soul, which looks straight onward in its  path, losing no time to reason upon its  steps, to study them, or to contemplate  those that it has already taken, is true  simplicity.

参考译文，

真正的淳朴与虚假的淳朴

淳朴是无私的灵魂中一种正直的品质，它与真诚不同，是一种更高层次的品德，我们看到，许多人真诚，但并不单纯；他们只希望他们是假扮的样子，不愿意以本来面目示人；他们总是在想着自己，说话时真字酌句，思考时，一再反省，行动时再三审视，因为他们总是担心做得过多或者过少。这些人是真诚的，但他们并不淳朴，与人相处之时，他们总是难以放松，同样，别人对他们也十分拘谨；他们不随意、不率直、不自然，我们更喜欢偶尔犯点错误、不那么完美、不那么做作的人们。人类是如此判断的，上帝也如此认为。上帝不愿让我们如此沉湎于自我，而正如整日对着镜子整理自己的容颜。

另外一种人处于盲目状态，他们完全专注于他人而从不自省。他们所有的注意力都集中于眼前的事物以及感觉到的一切；这与淳朴恰恰相反。无论在为人类还是为上帝效力，假如我们总是全神贯注于自己，我们就走向了另外一个极端，自以为聪明含蓄，非常自我；自命不凡，稍受打击就觉得心烦意乱。这不是真正的智慧；尽管看上去值得夸耀，其实与那些仅仅追求享乐的傻念头同样荒谬。一些人沉迷于其所见到的事物而乐不可支，另一些人则沉迷于自己的幻想而欣喜若狂，但是这两者都是虚幻不实的。沉迷于自己的幻想之中，比专注于外界事物更为糟糕，因为这种情况虽然很不明智，可是看起来却很英明，以至于人们非但不会想法去改正，反而会引以为荣。人们赞同这种行为，它带给我们一种怪异的力量，那是一种癫狂，我们却感知不到----我们已经命在旦夕，却还以为自己十分健康。

淳朴在于中位。我们既不会对其过度兴奋，也不会过于镇静。灵魂不会受外物迷惑，以至于无力做必要的内省，也不会时刻以自我为中心，以至于对自己的所谓美好品质无穷无尽地患得患失。真正的淳朴，是一种灵魂的自由----它直视道路的前方，不会浪费时间仔细权衡自己脚下的步伐，也不会再去沉思已经走过的道路。