In return, she has laid the whole world under obligation to her for more ethereal but not less real benefits. She has been the cradle of those free political institutions which have developed the self-control and the independence of man as a member of society. Her literature is the richest and most varied in the world. In Europe the Christian religion has been most widely diffused, and it has been the centre from which the message of peace has been sent to the farthest corners of the world.
作為回報，她讓整個世界都對她負有義務，以此獲取更多而非更少的無形的實際利益。她一直是那些發展了作為社會一員的人的自我控制和獨立性的自由政治機構的搖籃。她的文學作品也是世界上最豐富多樣的。同時基督教也在歐洲得到了最為廣泛的傳播，那里已經成為向世界最遠的角落傳播和平信息的中心。
What is true of Europe as a whole is preeminently true of Great Britain. There the circle of European—nay, of universal—civilization and industry has its centre. By her colonies she has diffused the influence of her spirit and the energy of her sons throughout the world, so that her greatest rivals in material and social progress are her own children.
歐洲整體的真實情況也同樣適應于大不列顛，那里是歐洲，不，是世界文明和工業的中心。她通過殖民地將自己的精神以及子女的能量傳播到世界各地，所以她在物質和社會進步方面的競爭中最大的對手就是自己的子女。
This is a proud position for so small a land to hold. But insignificant as the British Isles appear on the map of the world, Britain is in no small degree indebted to climate, physical configuration, and geographical position for the greatness which she has achieved.
對于這么小小的一塊土地來說這是一個值得驕傲的位置，但當不列顛群島出現在世界地圖上，這個位置又變得不那么重要了，英國所取得的偉大成就在很大程度上都要歸功于不列顛群島的氣候、自然條件和地理位置。
"The territory," says Emerson, "has a singular perfection. The climate is warmer by many degrees than it is entitled to be by latitude. Neither hot nor cold, there is no hour in the whole year when one cannot work. The temperature makes no exhaustive demands on human strength, but allows the attainment of the largest stature. In variety of surface it is a miniature of Europe, having plain, forest, marsh, river, seashore. From first to last it is a museum of anomalies. This foggy and rainy country furnishes the world with astronomical observations. Its short rivers do not afford water-power, but the land shakes under the thunder of its mills. There is no goldmine of any importance, but there is more gold in England than in all other countries. It is too far north for the culture of the vine, but the wines of all countries are in its docks; and oranges and pine-apples are as cheap in London as on the Mediterranean."
愛默生曾說，“這片土地的完美是獨有的。這里的氣候比其緯度的正常氣候要溫和些，冷熱均勻，一年四季都適合工作。這里的溫度對人體力量的發揮沒有過分的限制，人們的身高可以長到最大值。從它表面多樣性的特點來看，它是歐洲的縮影，有平原、森林、沼澤、河流、海岸，它一直是一座異象頻生的博物館，它那多霧多雨的特點甚至為世界提供了天文觀測。那里的河流因短小而無法提供充足的水力，但是那里磨坊的轟鳴聲卻能令大地顫搖。那里沒有大型金礦，卻有比其他國家都要多的金子。葡萄的栽培地雖在最北方，但是所有國家的葡萄都會停留在那里的碼頭上，而且倫敦的橘子和菠蘿跟地中海的一樣便宜。”
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