登陆注册
5362600000437

第437章

Yet do I not mean to say that this counsel has discharged me of all difficulty, and that I have not often had enough to do to curb and restrain my passions; they are not always to be governed according to the measure of occasions, and often have their entries very sharp and violent. But still good fruit and profit may thence be reaped; except for those who in well-doing are not satisfied with any benefit, if reputation be wanting; for, in truth, such an effect is not valued but by every one to himself; you are better contented, but not more esteemed, seeing you reformed yourself before you got into the whirl of the dance, or that the provocative matter was in sight. Yet not in this only, but in all other duties of life also, the way of those who aim at honour is very different from that they proceed by, who propose to themselves order and reason. I find some who rashly and furiously rush into the lists and cool in the course. As Plutarch says, that those who, through false shame, are soft and facile to grant whatever is desired of them, are afterwards as facile to break their word and to recant; so he who enters lightly into a quarrel is apt to go as lightly out of it. The same difficulty that keeps me from entering into it, would, when once hot and engaged in quarrel, incite me to maintain it with great obstinacy and resolution. 'Tis the tyranny of custom; when a man is once engaged; he must go through with it, or die. "Undertake coolly," said Bias, "but pursue with ardour." For want of prudence, men fall into want of courage, which is still more intolerable.

Most accommodations of the quarrels of these days of ours are shameful and false; we only seek to save appearances, and in the meantime betray and disavow our true intentions; we salve over the fact. We know very well how we said the thing, and in what sense we spoke it, and the company know it, and our friends whom we have wished to make sensible of our advantage, understand it well enough too: 'tis at the expense of our frankness and of the honour of our courage, that we disown our thoughts, and seek refuge in falsities, to make matters up. We give ourselves the lie, to excuse the lie we have given to another. You are not to consider if your word or action may admit of another interpretation; 'tis your own true and sincere interpretation, your real meaning in what you said or did, that you are thenceforward to maintain, whatever it cost you. Men speak to your virtue and conscience, which are not things to be put under a mask; let us leave these pitiful ways and expedients to the jugglers of the law. The excuses and reparations that I see every day made and given to repair indiscretion, seem to me more scandalous than the indiscretion itself. It were better to affront your adversary a second time than to offend yourself by giving him so unmanly a satisfaction. You have braved him in your heat and anger, and you would flatter and appease him in your cooler and better sense; and by that means lay yourself lower and at his feet, whom before you pretended to overtop. I do not find anything a gentleman can say so vicious in him as unsaying what he has said is infamous, when to unsay it is authoritatively extracted from him; forasmuch as obstinacy is more excusable in a man of honour than pusillanimity. Passions are as easy for me to evade, as they are hard for me to moderate:

"Exscinduntur facilius ammo, quam temperantur."

["They are more easily to be eradicated than governed."]

He who cannot attain the noble Stoical impassibility, let him secure himself in the bosom of this popular stolidity of mine; what they performed by virtue, I inure myself to do by temperament. The middle region harbours storms and tempests; the two extremes, of philosophers and peasants, concur in tranquillity and happiness:

"Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari!

Fortunatus et ille, Deos qui novit agrestes, Panaque, Sylvanumque senem, Nymphasque sorores!"

["Happy is he who could discover the causes of things, and place under his feet all fears and inexorable fate, and the sound of rapacious Acheron: he is blest who knows the country gods, and Pan, and old Sylvanus, and the sister nymphs."--Virgil, Georg., ii. 490.]

The births of all things are weak and tender; and therefore we should have our eyes intent on beginnings; for as when, in its infancy, the danger is not perceived, so when it is grown up, the remedy is as little to be found. I had every day encountered a million of crosses, harder to digest in the progress of ambition, than it has been hard for me to curb the natural propension that inclined me to it:

"Jure perhorrui Lath conspicuum tollere verticem."

["I ever justly feared to raise my head too high."--Horace, Od.,iii. 16, 18.]

All public actions are subject to uncertain and various interpretations; for too many heads judge of them. Some say of this civic employment of mine (and I am willing to say a word or two about it, not that it is worth so much, but to give an account of my manners in such things), that I have behaved myself in it as a man who is too supine and of a languid temperament; and they have some colour for what they say. I endeavoured to keep my mind and my thoughts in repose;

"Cum semper natura, tum etiam aetate jam quietus;"

同类推荐
  • Letters of Cicero

    Letters of Cicero

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Love Eternal

    Love Eternal

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 禅灯世谱

    禅灯世谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 五灯会元续略

    五灯会元续略

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Wolfville

    Wolfville

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 另起一行

    另起一行

    另起一行是一本值得一读的书,这本书不仅励志,而且发人深思。作者通过“晃动”生活,带领一支优秀的专业团队创造了江城地产界一个又一个神话般的传奇。这些生动的传奇般的企划案例,至今仍有借鉴和参考价值,业内初学或有志于广告和产品营销的青年学子,可以从中汲取有益的营养。透过那一串串闪光的经营数字,这本书还原了一个真实的明玲。除此之外,更令我感动的还是作者对事业满怀激情、对员工体贴关怀、对朋友真诚相待的人生境界。相信读完这本书,你可以收获更多关于人生的思考。
  • 无双国仕

    无双国仕

    大业十一年,征辽战役落幕,隋帝忙着北狩南巡。这是一个黑暗混乱、瓦釜雷鸣的时代,十八路反王,六十四路烟尘。这一年,李渊在太原剿匪,戏精王世充成了杨广头号小弟,山大王翟让聚义瓦岗,屌丝朱粲咸鱼翻身,鹰扬府的梁师都瞎折腾;这是一个风起云涌、豪杰辈出的时代,一批英雄枭雄开始搅动历史:李靖、程咬金、尉迟恭、秦琼、李密、窦建德……而此时,来自漠北的少年方黎却守着自己那一亩三分地,老婆孩子热炕头。 【无双群:153050783】
  • 全民自黑的英国

    全民自黑的英国

    其实是一本全面的英国文化观察笔记!畅销科普巨著《万物简史》作者比尔·布莱森成名作。真正的英国,究竟是什么样子的呢?享誉世界的文化观察大师比尔·布莱森用幽默、犀利的语言为我们展现了全面真实的英国。本书获得了英国本土读者的高度认可——2003年世界读书日,在一场BBC发起的全民调查中,本书被评为“尤其能代表英国的图书”。翻开本书,从英国日常生活的方方面面,读懂一个真实的英国。
  • 逃家皇后

    逃家皇后

    她给了他一世的温暖,他却要将她打入地狱,让她饱受摧残,他是不是很残忍?可是这一切只因他爱她,爱的无可救药,爱的只要她有一丝分心,他便嫉妒,无可救药的嫉妒,哪怕没有对象!她心碎,眼泪想要放肆的流下,却强忍了起来。她声音有些颤抖的说你可以不爱我,但是不要让我知道--你不爱我,这样我可以一直活在我的梦里。
  • 鸽子的眼睛

    鸽子的眼睛

    “嘿!多么有趣的鸽子!”看见本山武夫这次旅行带回来的土产,津上富枝高兴得眯起了眼睛。她本来眼睛就不大,如今这么一来,简直就像闭上了眼睛。富枝搜集各地生产的木偶人和各种民间玩具,她的工艺美术品陈列架上搁满了木偶玩具,这些小玩意儿都是公司里的人去各地旅行时带回来的。“这是信州野泽温泉的玩具车鸽,是用野木瓜的草蔓精制而成的。特别要提一下的是,这车鸽系出自称誉当地的‘鸽子大王’之手,那老头子一生精力都花在制作鸽子上,而且每天制作的数量只能在两只上下,可见是多么珍贵了。”
  • 做“财”女有“钱”途:女人一定要知道的理财知识

    做“财”女有“钱”途:女人一定要知道的理财知识

    本书共分六篇,前五篇分别从管钱、赚钱、省钱、生钱、花钱几个方面为你做"财女"指明了"钱"途;第六篇辑录了世界各地财富女性找到"钱"途的成功事例,为你走向财富之路树立了成功的典范。与传统妇女把钱放在银行里的理财方法相比。当今的“财女”已经不满足于只“吃”利息。关注投资领域,关注时尚潮流,关注自己的生活品质,已成为“财女”们营造美丽人生的三大法宝。不管是炒股票、买基金、做房地产,还是投资书画、古董,她们都没问题。“财女”们相信,只要认准投资目标并聪明理财,就能过上美满幸福的生活。
  • 短线炒股就这几招

    短线炒股就这几招

    在本书中,股票投资实战专家康成福揭示了短线投资的致胜秘诀。内容涉及:短线交易的风险与误区、短线交易的原则和纪律、短线投资者的看盘、盯盘和买卖技巧、短线投资者的资金管理和心态训练。对泛舟在股海中的投资者而言,是一本不可多得的快速淘金指南。
  • 浩气天魔

    浩气天魔

    在林无上15岁的时候,无上接过家族使命:镇压大元朝气运,修炼浩然之气,成为下一任林家家主。而他父亲则因为用自己的气丹压住大元朝气运,替自己的孩子争取了三年的时间,为大元尽了最后一份力死去了。从父亲的安葬中,无上第一次感受到了什么是世态炎凉。卖掉了祖宅,安葬好自己的父亲,无上带着收养的妹妹、老仆林伯在哀牢山脚下搭起简单的三间茅草屋开始在此为父亲守孝三年。通络圆满的他,却无法修炼出气丹,反而需要妹妹用气丹照顾他。本来是读圣贤书、通圣人礼的小小书生林无上,因为家族这一场变故,彻底爆发了,开始志与强,誓要弃文从武。
  • 名人传记丛书:威尔第

    名人传记丛书:威尔第

    名人传记丛书——威尔第——被高校拒绝了的世界歌剧之王:“立足课本,超越课堂”,以提高中小学生的综合素质为目的,让中小学生从课内受益到课外,是一生的良师益友。
  • 职场头三年决定你的一生

    职场头三年决定你的一生

    职场头三年是非常关键的三年,这种影响可以左右甚至决定你的—生。职场头三年,有些道理你匣得,你就可以在职场如鱼得水;如果你不懂,你就会吃亏—辈子。同样的学历,同样的踌躇满志,但三年的职场经历却可以把两人的距离拉。为什么有人可以成为行业的精英,为什么有人却成为团队的“落后分子”?职场头三年,你的心智成长度和心灵成熟度是否得到培养,将影响你未来职场的五年、十年,甚至—辈子。成功的捷径是复制成功人士的智慧,成功的捷径是知道失败者的经验。人生在世,没有明卜样不是需要大家用心经营和规划的,但是在这个过程中,有些人却从来没有用心思考,就这样碌碌无为地忙碌着。你须知道,如果你为了一份工作而工作,那么这将是一个痛苦的始,注定了一个失败的结局;如果你为了一份前途而工作,那么你将会所向披靡,战无不胜。