2016-03-13 Ellen
记得农历年前，我发了个征集令："人为何要读书"。在我的威逼之下，有几个朋友给我作了认真仔细的答复，内容见《书香3》文末的留言部分（点前句中蓝色字体或回复"书香3"）。和鄙人一样，大家的读书态度有功利和非功利的两种，基本都承认，读书的动机之一是学以致用，有时甚至不得不读些书、以保持自己在圈子里的被认可度。同时，花在读书中的那些时间，也被公认为一天中精神愉悦程度最高的时光。不知书中有无黄金有无颜，而看书确是良辰美景、赏心悦事，尤其是当手中的书无关考试无关论文，却纵横宇宙、字字珠玑。
当年杨绛淡淡的一句“读书不多而想得太多”当真是向天下叨叨之辈泼了一盆巨大的冷水。围观者中，被溅到几滴而顿悟清醒者，似乎也包括我和我的很多朋友。另一位曾简明扼要地指出了读书的"用处"与"妙处"的就是培根。在Essays《散文集》的Of Studies《谈读书》一文中，他概括了读书的功能、心态、方法、以及对治之症。今日再读此文，重又受教。它提醒我，死读书以及死守书斋，非"全"人所为；读书多和词藻美，却无相应的处事能力和可靠的人品，可弃。
在中国，经王佐良的妙笔翻译之后，此文也广为流传。原文及王佐良的译文如下。（依赖中文译文却不能理解王佐良的译文的小朋友，可自行搜索“培根《论读书》三种译文”。）可以接受英文原文和王佐良译文的同学，建议大声反复地朗读英中两种文字，必达“怡情”和“博彩”之效+。
Of Studies --by Francis Bacon
谈读书–王佐良译
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.
读书足以怡情，足以博彩，足以长才。
Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.
其怡情也，最见于独处幽居之时；其博彩也，最见于高谈阔论之中；其长才也，最见于处世判事之际。
For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned.
练达之士虽能分别处理细事或一一判别枝节，然纵观统筹、全局策划，则舍好学深思者莫属。
To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar.
读书费时过多易惰，文采藻饰太盛则矫，全凭条文断事乃学究故态。
They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning, by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.
读书补天然之不足，经验又补读书之不足，盖天生才干犹如自然花草，读书然后知如何修剪移接；而书中所示，如不以经验范之，则又大而无当。
Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise menuse them; for they teach not their own use; butthat is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.
有一技之长鄙读书，无知者慕读书，唯明智之士用读书，然读书并不以用处告人，用书之智不在书中，而在书外，全凭观察得之。
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse;but to weigh and consider.
读书时不可存心诘难作者，不可尽信书上所言，亦不可只为寻章摘句，而应推敲细思。
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to beread, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
书有可浅尝者，有可吞食者，少数则须咀嚼消化。换言之，有只须读其部分者，有只须大体涉猎者，少数则须全读，读时须全神贯注，孜孜不倦。
Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them byothers; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meanersort of books, else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashythings.
书亦可请人代读，取其所作摘要，但只限题材较次或价值不高者，否则书经提炼犹如水经蒸馏，淡而五味矣。
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
读书使人充实，讨论使人机智，笔记使人准确。
And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not.
因此不常做笔记者须记忆特强，不常讨论者须天生聪颖，不常读书者须欺世有术，始能无知而显有知。
Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logicand rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores [Studies passinto and influence manners].
读史使人明智，读诗使人灵秀，数学使人周密，科学使人深刻，论理学使人庄重，逻辑修辞之学使人善辩：凡有所学，皆成性格。
Nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit but may be wroughtout by fit studies; like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises.
人之才智但有滞碍，无不可读适当之书使之顺畅，一如身体百病，皆可借相宜之运动除之。
Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs andbreast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like.
滚球利睾肾，射箭利胸肺，慢步利肠胃，骑术利头脑，诸如此类。
So if a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again.
如智力不集中，可令读数学，盖演算须全神贯注，稍有分散即须重演；
If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the Schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores [splitters of hairs].
如不能辨异，可令读经院哲学，盖是辈皆吹毛求疵之人；
If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers’ cases.So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.
如不善求同，不善以一物阐证另一物，可令读律师之案卷。
培根认为，读书的功能和可期待的效果有三：for delight/怡情, for ornament/博彩, for ability/长才。其中怡情是审美的一面。读书就是为了读书，reading for reading's sake。而怡情和博彩也是需要警惕的两面。沉溺在华美的词藻中而不再往深处或远处走，轻则荒废时光、导致性情固执懒惰，重则误国误民、留下千古恨，（历史上教训颇多）。"长才"大约是既实际也安全的一种读书功能，只是要注意，“用书之智”在“书外”。
我想对于大多数还在校园里的学生来说，因受浮躁和短视的社会风气影响--"craft men condemn studies"，对读书的长远功用，无法全信。可同时你们又知“书到用时方很少”，所以常常彷徨自责。我想，做人有时也可暂且不问诗和远方，就为眼前的苟且，将怡情做为读书、读好书的主要目的，该考试的时候就看考试的书。这样也就慢慢走到了远方。这些看过的好书，就像送给未来的自己的礼物，或助你一臂之力，或给低谷中的你活下去的勇气。
结合当今的形式，读书应当还有其他功能。比如，素质和素养。古希腊愤青兼伟大哲学家苏格拉底说，无知是一切罪恶的根源。这话向来惹人争议，经过这么些年头对社会的观察，我开始局部认同。记得初春的一天，我得半日闲，便逛到西溪湿地玩耍。那时梅花正盛，然而湿地梅树较少。忽地，一帮学生模样的年轻女子冲上去和一株开得正浓的梅花树合影留念。人面桃花相映红，本是极美的事。令人目瞪口呆的是，小姑娘们开始轮番去猛烈摇晃梅树，欲取落梅之景为自己的照片营造唯美气氛。少顷，梅树已半秃。而我，怕挨揍也没敢吱声，变相纵容了恶行。我和她们都有些病态。我想起西谚“上帝欲使人灭亡，必先使其疯狂”，也想起书上说，鲁迅为“治病救人”而立志学医，又为“治病救人”而弃医执笔。书如药，治“无知”病，治精神病，治各种心术不正病。培根就是把读书看成了精神的养生和治病。读不同的书，治不同的精神缺陷：“读史使人明智，读诗使人灵秀，数学使人周密，科学使人深刻，论理学使人庄重，逻辑修辞之学使人善辩：凡有所学，皆成性格。”他的话里包括了人文素养和科学素养。
若同学们读外语难，其实读中文书籍也可触摸到众妙之门。关键是读好书。读四书五经，得仁义礼智信。韩国总统朴槿惠就是个living proof：在身心皆被击垮之后，几于抑郁中淡出世，后静读四书五经，于死地生，成人成仁。读老庄，知天地，知人，知不知，知不及，知万物有道而不致心随风动甚至心智迷乱。读周易，知数，知止，知时。读佛学，见众生，见己贪嗔痴慢疑，见执我相之愚……
话说回来，培根的Essays一书，除了《论读书》，还有大量其他美妙的文章。像《先知》一样，Essays的每篇散文都涉及到一种“小事”，比如:
Of Truth, Of Death, Of Love, Of Travel, Of Ambition，Of Anger...，共59篇。（我没读过几篇……）读纪伯伦的《先知》可调心，而读培根的《散文集》可获些“正知”。“独临灵室转明灯”，俗人读书，不敢求开悟，愿做明白人。
网友评论