評論
打印
True and False Simplicity
真假純樸
Simplicity is an uprightness of soul that has no reference to self;it is different from sincerity, and it is a still higher virtue.
純樸是無私的靈魂中一種正直的品質；它不同于真誠，并高于真誠。
We see many people who are sincere,without being simple;
許多人真誠，但絕不純樸；
they only wish to pass for what they are,and they are unwilling to appear what they are not;
他們只是想以本來面目示人，并不想虛假；
they are always thinking of themselves,measuring their words, recalling their thoughts,and reviewing their actions,from the fear that they have done too much or too little.
他們總是思量過多，字斟句酌，反省所思，瞻前顧后，唯恐有過之或有不及。
These persons are sincere, but they are not simple;
這些人很真誠，卻不純樸；
they are not at ease with others,and others are not at ease with them;
與人相處時，他們總是難以放松，別人對他們也十分拘謹；
they are not free, ingenuous, natural;
他們不隨意、不率真、不自然；
we prefer people who are less correct, less perfect,and who are less artificial.
我們更喜歡偶爾犯點錯誤、不那么完美、不那么做作的人們。
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.
這是人的天性使然，也是神的旨意所歸；上帝不愿我們如此深陷于自我，如同整日對著鏡子搔首弄姿。
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.
完全集中注意他人而不自省，是某些人的又是一種盲目狀態；這些人全神貫注于眼前事物以及感官感受到的一切；這恰好是純樸的反面。
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,is the opposite extreme.
另一種人是，不管為同類還是為上帝效力，均全然忘我地投入-自以為聰明含蓄，心中充滿自我，只要自滿的情緒受到絲毫干擾便心煩意亂，是另一種極端。
This is false wisdom, which, with all its glory,is but little less absurd than that folly,which pursues only pleasure.
這是虛假的聰明；表面上堂而皇之，實際上與純為追求享樂的愚蠢同樣荒唐。
Simplicity consists in a just medium,in which we are neither too much excited,nor too composed.
純樸是一種適度的中庸。純樸的人既不會興奮過度，也不會過于鎮靜。
The soul is not carried away by outward 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.
靈魂不會受外物牽引以致無力做必要的內省；也不會時刻以自我為中心，以致對自己所謂的美好品質無窮無盡的患得患失。
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.
真正的純樸，是一種靈魂的自由，它直視前方的道路，不會浪費時間仔細權衡或研究自己的腳步，也不會去沉思已經走過的道路。
