True and False Simplicity
---弗朗索瓦·费奈隆【法】
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Simplicity is an uprightness （公正，正直，诚实）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 thingking of themselves, measuring their words,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 （对……感到放松）others, and others are not at ease with them; they are not free,ingenuous（坦率的，正直的）,natural;we prefer people who are less correct, less perfect, and who are less artificial（不自然的，娇揉造作的）.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（完全的，十足的）occupied with others, never to look within, is the state of blindness of those who are entirely engrossed（使聚精会神，吸引注意） 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 being 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（自满，沾沾自喜）, is the opposite extreme. This is false wisdom, which, with all its glory, is but little less absurd（荒谬的，荒唐的） than that folly, which pursues only pleasure. tho one is intoxicated with all it sees around it;the other with all that it imagines it has within; but it is delirium（神智不清的） in both. to be absorbed in the contemplation（沉思，深思） 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, it gies us an unnatural strength, it is a sort of frenzy（暴怒的，狂乱的）, we are not conscious of it, we are dying,and we think ourseves in health.
Simplicity consists in a just medium, in which we are neither too much excited, nor too composed（镇静自若）. The soul is not carried away by outward things, so that it cannot make all necessary reflections（深思熟虑）; neither does it make those continual references to self, that a jealous sense of its own excellence multiplies to infinity(无限，无穷).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 contemplatethose that it has already taken, is true simplicity.
纯朴是无私的灵魂中一种正直的品质；它不同于真诚，并高于真诚。许多人真诚，但绝不单纯；他们只是想以本来面目示人；他们时时刻刻在想着自己，说话时斟词酌句，思考时总在反省，行动时再三审视，因为他们总害怕自己做的太多或者太少。这些人很真诚，但他们不单纯；与人相处时，他们总是难以放松，别人对他们也十分拘谨；他们不随意、不率真、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。人们是这么想的，上帝也是这么认为的。上帝不愿我们整日沉迷于自我，就像对着镜子整理自己的容颜。
完全集中注意他人而不自省，是某些人的又是一种盲目状态；这些人全神贯注于眼前事物以及感官感受到的一切；这恰好是纯朴的反面。另一种人是，不管为同类还是为上帝效力，均全然忘我地投入--自以为聪明含蓄，心中充满自我，只要自满的情绪受到丝毫干扰便心烦意乱，是另一种极端。这是虚假的聪明；表面上堂而皇之，实际上与纯为追求享乐的愚蠢同样荒唐。上述两种人前者昏昏然陶醉于眼前看到的，后者陶醉于自认为内心已占有的一切。这两者都是虚妄的。一心中注意内心的冥思默想确比全神贯注于外界事物更有害，因为这样看来聪明，而实则不然，我们不以此为非，不想改正，反引以为荣。我们肯定这种行为，它给我们一种不自然的力量。这是一种疯狂状态，我们却不自觉。我们病入膏肓却还自以为身体强健。
纯朴是一种适度的中庸。纯朴的人既不会兴奋过度，也不会过于镇静。灵魂不会受外物牵引以致对自己所谓的美好品质无穷无尽地患得患失。真正的纯朴，是一种灵魂的自由－－它能够直视道路的前方，不会浪费时间停下来仔细权衡自己脚下的步伐，也不会再去回顾已经走过的道路。
最后由 cute_ariel 于 2008-06-16 09:37:04编辑 |
