評論
打印
生之享受包括許多東西：我們本身的享受、家庭生活的享受，樹木、花朵、云霞、溪流、瀑布，以及大自然的形形色色，都足以稱為享受；此外又有詩歌、藝術、沉思、友情、談天、讀書等的享受，后者的這些都是心靈交流的不同表現。
THE enjoyment of life covers many things: the enjoyment of ourselves, of home life,of trees, flowers, clouds, winding rivers and falling cataracts and the myriad thingsin Nature, and then the enjoyment of poetry, art, contemplation, friendship,conversation, and reading, which are all some form or other of the communion of spirits.There are obvious things like the enjoyment of food, a gay parly or family reunion,an outing on a beautiful spring day; and less obvious things like the enjoyment ofpoetry, art and contemplation. I have found it impossible to call these two classesof enjoyment material and spiritual, first because I do not believe in thisdistinction, and secondly because I am puzzled whenever I proceed to make this classification. How can I say, when I see a gay picnic party of men and women andold people and children, what part of their pleasures is material and what part spiritual? I see a child romping about on the grass plot, another child making daisychains, their mother holding a piece of sandwich, the uncle of the family biting ajuicy, red apple, the father sprawling on the ground looking at the sailing clouds,and the grandfather holding a pipe in his mouth. Probably somebody is playing agramophone, and from the distance there come the sound of music and the distant roar of the waves. Which of these pleasures is material and which spiritual? Is it so easyto draw a distinction between the enjoyment of a sandwich and the enjoyment of the surrounding landscape, which we call poetry? Is it possible to regard the enjoyment of music which we call art, as decidedly a higher type of pleasure than the smoking of a pipe, which we call material? This classification between material and spiritual pleasures is therefore contusing, unintelligible and untrue for me. It proceeds, I suspect, from a false philosophy, sharply dividing the spirit from the flesh, and not supported by a closer direct scrutiny of our real pleasures.
