讀點好英文:Youth 年輕人

Youth 年輕人

Aristotle

To begin with the Youthful type of character. Young men have strong passions, and tend to gratify them indiscriminately. They are changeable and fickle in their desires, which are violent while they last, but quickly over: their impulses are keen but not deep-rooted, and are like sick people's attacks of hunger and thirst. They are hot-tempered, and quick-tempered, and apt to give way to their anger; bad temper often gets the better of them, for owing to their love of honour they cannot bear being slighted, and are indignant if they imagine themselves unfairly treated. While they love honour, they love victory still more; for youth is eager for superiority over others, and victory is one form of this. They love both more than they love money, which indeed they love very little, not having yet learnt what it means to be without it—this is the point of Pittancus, remark about Amphiaraus. They look at the good side rather than the bad, not having yet witnessed many instances of wickedness. They trust others readily, because they have not yet often been cheated.

They are sanguine; nature warms their blood as though with excess of wine; and besides that, they have as yet met with few disappointments. Their lives are mainly spent not in memory but in expectation; for expectation refers to the future, memory to the past, and youth has a long future before it and a short past behind it: on the first day of one's life one has nothing at all to remember, and can only look forward.

They are easily cheated, owing to the sanguine disposition just mentioned. Their hot tempers and hopeful dispositions make them more courageous than older men are; the hot temper prevents fear, and the hopeful disposition creates confidence; we cannot feel tear so long as we are feeling angry, and any expectation of good makes us confident.

They are shy, accepting the rules of society in which they have been trained, and not yet believing in any other standard of honour. They have exalted notions, because they have not yet been humbled by life or learnt its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things—and that means having exalted notions. They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning; and whereas reasoning leads us to choose what is useful, moral goodness leads us to choose what is noble.

They are fonder of their friends, intimates, and companions than older men are, because they like spending their days in the company of others, and have not yet come to value either their friends or anything else by their usefulness to themselves. All their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently. They disobey Chilon's precept by overdoing everything, they love too much and hate too much, and the same thing with everything else. They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it; this, in fact, is why they overdo everything... They are ready to pity others, because they think everyone an honest man, or anyhow better than he is: they judge their neighbor by their own harmless natures, and so cannot think he deserves to be treated in that way. They are fond of fun and therefore witty, wit being well-bred insolence.

年輕人

［古希臘］亞里士多德

我們首先來討論一下年輕人的性格特征。年輕人有熾熱的激情，而且想不管不顧地逐個滿足。他們的愿望舉棋不定，有的時候很猛烈，但轉瞬即逝。他們極易沖動，但根基不深，如同病人遭到饑渴的侵襲一樣。他們熱情奔放，又性如烈火，很容易發(fā)火，常常管不住自己的脾氣。由于珍惜榮譽，他們不想讓人輕視，所以如果想到別人不公平的對待，他們就會怒發(fā)沖冠。誠然，他們愛惜榮譽，卻更鐘情于勝利，青年人熱衷于勝人一籌，而勝利就是其中的一種表現形式。他們對榮譽和勝利的愛遠遠勝過了金錢。他們不太在意錢，因為還沒真正明白沒錢會怎么樣——庇塔喀斯談論安菲阿勞斯時就是這么說的。他們傾向于看到事物好的發(fā)展方向，而非壞的趨勢，那是由于他們還沒有目睹過多少不道德的事。他們很樂意相信別人，那是由于他們很少上當受騙。

他們面色紅潤，大自然仿佛用了過度的葡萄酒來溫暖他們的血液。除了這些，他們也沒有經歷過什么沮喪的事。他們不是生活在對往昔的回憶中，而是生活在對未來的盼望中，因為盼望意味著未來，回憶意味著過去，年輕人未來的日子還很長遠，過去的時光只有短暫的一小部分。當人第一天來到這個世界的時候，他根本沒有什么可以回憶的事情，唯一能做的就是寄希望于未來。

他們會輕而易舉地讓人欺騙，那都歸結于我們剛剛所說的精力旺盛的脾性。因為擁有情緒高漲、滿懷希望的氣質，他們會比老年人更勇敢，更有膽量。情緒高漲的內心讓他們遠離恐懼，滿懷希望的氣質讓他們信心百倍；我們感到憤怒的時候，就不會害怕，而任何對美好事物的向往又讓我們充滿自信。

他們是害羞的，順其自然地遵守社會的慣例，但還沒有承認其他形式的榮譽標準。他們有崇高的理想，因為他們還沒有體會生活的艱辛而變得謙虛起來，也沒有理解生活中各種必要的束縛。更為嚴重的是，他們滿懷希望，居然以為自己可以與日月相比——這就是心高氣傲，目空一切。他們一直從事高尚的行為，而不在乎其實效；他們的生活多是遵循道德感，而非理智。盡管理智教導我們做有用的事，道德品質卻指引我們做高尚的事。

與老年人相比，年輕人更喜愛自己的朋友、摯交和伙伴，因為整天呼朋喚友的生活才是他們的鐘愛，而且無論是朋友還是其他東西，他們都不會用對自己的實用性來判定其價值。至于他們所犯的錯誤，是因為他們做事不是過頭就是過猛。他們不遵守奇?zhèn)惙▌t，做什么事都過分強調，要么愛得過多，要么恨得太狠，做其他事情也是一樣。他們認為自己無所不知，而且說起來也信心十足，實際上，這就是他們行事過頭的癥結所在。他們時刻準備去同情別人，因為他們認為所有人都是誠實的，或者比他真實的為人要好，他們用自己善良的本質來判斷左鄰右舍，不能忍受自己會虧待鄰居們。他們喜歡玩鬧，因此非常詼諧機智，而機智是一種文雅的傲慢。

實戰(zhàn)提升

Practising & Exercise

導讀

亞里士多德（Aristotle），世界古代史上最偉大的哲學家、科學家和教育家之一。他是柏拉圖的學生、亞歷山大的老師。公元前335年，他在雅典辦了一所叫呂克昂的學校，被稱為“逍遙學派”。馬克思曾稱亞里士多德是“古希臘哲學家中最博學的人物”。他的思想對人類產生了深遠的影響。

亞里士多德對事物的洞察力、對問題的分析深刻程度非同一般。青春期的少年都是心浮氣躁，生活里滿是叛逆和沒來由的煩惱。亞里士多德從哲學的角度，清晰透徹地分析了年輕人的個性特點，生動具體地描述了年輕人躊躇滿志、血氣方剛的緣由和利弊。

核心單詞

gratify [?ɡr?tifai] v. 使高興，使?jié)M意

fickle [?fikl] adj. 易變的，無常的

superiority [sju(?)pi?ri??riti] n. 優(yōu)越，優(yōu)勢

sanguine [?s??ɡwin] adj. 懷著希望的；樂觀的

insolence [?ins?l?ns] n. 傲慢；無禮

翻譯

To begin with the Youthful type of character.

They are shy, accepting the rules of society in which they have been trained, and not yet believing in any other standard of honour.

All their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently.