* I The Ways—and Whys—of Reading 一 如何阅读及为何阅读

** Great Books and the Gateway to Them  名著与名著入门

The works in this set are outstanding creations of the human mind,
but they are not of the same order as the works included in */Great Books of the Western World/.*
They consist of short stories, plays, essays, scientific papers, speeches, or letters;
and in some cases they are relatively short selections from much larger works.
In contrast, /Great Books of the Western World/
generally contains whole books or extensive collections of books.

本套书中的作品是人类思想的杰出创造物，
但篇幅却比不上《西方世界名著》中的作品。
本套书由短篇小说，剧本，随笔，科学论文，讲演稿和书信构成，
包括选自长篇巨著中的章节。
而《西方世界名著》则由整本书或多卷著作集构成。

The works in that set not only have a certain magnitude,
but they also occupy a unique place in the formation and development of Western culture.
Each of them represents a primary, original, and fundamental contribution
to our understanding of the universe and of ourselves.
It has been said of them
that they are books which never have to be written again,
that they are inexhaustibly rereadable,
that they are always contemporary,
and that they are at once the most intelligible books (because so lucidly written)
and the most rewarding to understand (because they deal with the most important and profound subjects).
It has also been said of them
that they are the repository and reservoir of the relatively small number of great ideas
which we have forged in our efforts to understand the world and our place in it;
and that they are over everyone’s head all of the time,
which gives them the inexhaustible power to elevate all of us
who will make the effort to lift our minds by reaching up to the ideas they contain.

《西方世界名著》中的作品不仅都有相当篇幅，
而且还都在西方文化的形成和发展史上占有独特地位。
每部作品都对人类理解宇宙和人类自身做出了富于创造性和独创性并具有根本意义的贡献。
它们被称为是空前绝后的著作，是值得一读再读的书，永远不会过时的书，
既是最明白易懂的书（因为它们写得明晰晓畅），
又是最富于教益的书（因为它们论述的是最为重要而深刻的题目）。
人们还说它们是伟大思想的宝库，
伟大的思想是不常见的，伟大的思想形成于人类试图理解世界，理解人类在世界中的地位的过程中。
并说它们包含的思想超越了所有时代的所有人，
由此而具有无穷无尽的力量来提高我们大家，
我们大家会努力攀登它们以使我们的思想升华。

The works included in /Gateway to the Great Books/
have some of the special attributes which distinguish the great books.
Some of the things which have been said of the great books can also be said of them.
The works in this set are, each of them, masterpieces of the imagination or intellect.
Many of them are modern, even recent;
some were written in ages past; but they are all forever contemporary.
In whatever time or place we live, they speak to us of our own condition.
Like the great books, they are readable again and again,
with renewed pleasure and added profit.
And like the great books, they throw light on as well as draw light from the great ideas.
They, too, have the power to lift our minds up to
new levels of enjoyment, new levels of insight, new levels of understanding.
They have that power by virtue of holding out more to understand
than most of us can manage to understand in a first reading.
And if we make the effort to understand more in subsequent readings,
they sustain such effort by the intellectual excitement they afford us—
the excitement and the challenge of coming to closer grips with
the great mysteries of nature and human nature,
the order of the universe and the course of human history.

只有少数著作具有上述性质，
少数真正具有这些性质的著作也就是真正无与伦比的名著。
《入门》中的作品不仅篇幅没有名著大，而且启发力也没有名著大。
尽管如此，这些作品却具有名著的一些特性。
上面对名著说的一些话，也适用于《入门》中的作品。

本套书中的作品，每一篇都是人类想象力和智力的杰作。
其中许多是现代作品，甚至是最近的作品；
有些虽然写于遥远的过去，但却永远不会过时。
无论我们生活在什么时代，也无论我们生活在什么国度，它们都说的是我们当前的情况。
与名著一样，它们值得一读再读，
每次都给人带来新的喜悦和新的收获。
它们即从伟大的思想中汲取了营养，又使伟大的思想更放异彩。
它们也有力量把我们的思想提升到新的欣赏水平，新的悟性水平和新的理解水平。
它们具有这种能力，是因为它们提供了丰富无比的东西，
大多数人初读它们都不可能把它们的意思理解得一览无余。
如果我们努力再阅读它们以理解更多的东西，
它们一定会使我们在智力上受到更多的刺激，
并促使我们进一步了解大自然和人性的奥秘，宇宙的秩序以及人类历史的进程。

Like the great books in these respects,
the selections included in this set are entitled to be regarded as proper companions
to the greatest works of the human mind.
That, however, does not fully describe the function they are intended to perform.
They are more than just companion pieces.
We have another and what seems to us a more important reason
for associating the contents of these volumes
with the contents of /Great Books of the Western World/.

本套书选录的作品，
都堪称是人类思想最伟大的作品的姐妹篇。
然而，这并没有完全描绘出我们想让它们发挥的作用。
它们不仅仅是伟大作品的姐妹篇。
我们把本套书的内容同《西方世界名著》的内容联系在一起，
还有另外一个在我们看来更为重要的原因。

Because this set consists of much shorter works and, on the whole,
of things somewhat easier to read,
we think that the reading of the selections here included
will effectively serve as an introduction to the reading of the great books.
That is why we have called this set a /gateway to the great books/.
Readers who open their minds to all, or even to some, of the works in this set,
have opened the gates for themselves and are on the high road
to the world of ideas and the lifetime of learning which the great books make accessible.

因为同《西方世界名著》中的作品相比，
本套书中的作品要短得多，因而要好读一些，
所以我认为，读本套书选录的作品，会卓有成效地诱使人去读《西方世界名著》中的作品。
正是由于这一原因，我们才把这套书称为名著《入门》的。
读者向本套书的所有作品或某些作品敞开了心扉，
也就为自己打开了大门，走上了了解各种各样的思想及终生学习的道路，
而要了解各种各样的思想，并踏上终生学习之路
就得依靠并只能依靠《西方世界名著》中的作品。

篇幅较短是本套书中的作品比《西方世界名著》中的作品好读的一个原因，但并不是唯一原因。
还有另外一些原因，短篇作品一般说来比较容易被年轻读者所驾驭，
也比较容易被那些尚未充分掌握阅读技巧和尚未充分养成阅读习惯的年长读者所驾驭。
另外，这些短篇作品也比较好理解。
它们涉及的题目往往比较简单，比较常见。

More than half of the contents of this set
consists of stories and plays, essays, speeches, and letters.
Good writing of this kind almost has to be about things and experiences and feelings
which are familiar to every human being;
and when the writing is of a high order of excellence,
as it is in the case of all the selections here included,
it deals with the familiar aspects of life in a way
that is at once lively and illuminating.
Readers are quickly entertained and, to the extent that they are entertained
(which means that their attention is held with delight), they read—and learn.

本套书中的作品，有一半以上是小说，剧本，随笔，讲演稿和书信。
这类作品涉及的几乎全是每个人所熟悉的事情以及经验和感情。
如果它们像本套书所选录的全部这类作品那样，是优秀的作品，
它们就会以既生动鲜明有富于启发意义的方式叙述人们所熟知的生活。
读者立即会陶醉，会愉快地被吸引住，因此而读下去，学下去。

While the political, scientific, and philosophical readings in /Gateway to the Great Books/
must be read with more conscious effort to attend to what they try to teach us,
they nevertheless remain easier
than the basic political, scientific, and philosophical treatises in /Great Books of the Western World/.
In part, this is due to their brevity;
in part, it must be also said that what they try to teach us is more readily grasped.

虽然《入门》中的政治，科学和哲学方面的读物需要人们较为专心地阅读，
但它们仍比《西方世界名著》中的那些基础性的政治，科学和哲学论著浅显易懂。
这一方面是因为它们的篇幅较短小，
另一方面也必须说它们的内容较好理解。

All the works included in this set are comprehensible to any reader
who will give them the measure of attention which they require.
That requirement is easy to fulfill, and can be fulfilled with pleasure,
precisely because all these works have the quality of entertainment.
Entertaining books invite and sustain our attention,
delighting us at the same time that they profit us.
The pleasure and profit that readers derive from this set of books
should—and, the editors think, will— help them
to develop the habits and improve the skills
which should make the great books easier for them to read,
some at the same time, some later.

所有成年人，不论是年轻人还是老人，
只要能适当专下心来，便可以看懂本套书中的每一篇作品。
这里所要求的专心程度很容易达到，而且可以心情愉快地达到，
因此所有这些作品都有娱乐性质。
娱乐性书籍会使我们爱不释手，
在使我们获得教益的同时也得到快乐。
读者从本套书中将会得到快乐和收获，
还会养成阅读习惯，改进阅读技巧，
由此而能比较容易地阅读《西方世界名著》中的作品，
有些作品在阅读本套书的同时就能比较容易读懂，
有些则是在以后。
篇幅较短是本套书中的作品比《西方世界名著》中的作品好读的一个原因，但并不是唯一原因。
还有另外一些原因，短篇作品一般说来比较容易被年轻读者所驾驭，
也比较容易被那些尚未充分掌握阅读技巧和尚未充分养成阅读习惯的年长读者所驾驭。
另外，这些短篇作品也比较好理解。
它们涉及的题目往往比较简单，比较常见。

** Kinds of Reading Matter 不同种类的阅读材料

Different kinds of reading matter call for different kinds of reading.
Readers must, first of all, decide what type of reading matter they have at hand;
and they must then read it accordingly.
Every piece of reading matter that comes before our eyes
is not equally worth reading;
nor do all make equal claims on our attention.
All do not deserve from us the same devotion to the task of considering
what the writer has in mind—
what he is trying to teach us or to make us feel.

不同的阅读材料要用不同的方法来阅读。
读者首先要弄清自己手上拿的是哪类阅读材料，然后再以相应的方法阅读。
并不是我们所见的每一篇阅读材料都需要我们以同样专心的程度来阅读。
并非所有的阅读材料都值得我们花费相同的心思来思考，
作者头脑里想的是什么，想要给我们以什么指教，想要使我们产生什么感受。

A telephone book, an airline timetable, or a manual for operating a washing machine
may be useful or even indispensable reading, requiring attention to certain details;
but these certainly do not deserve sustained study or devoted consideration.
Most periodicals that come our way do not deserve more than passing attention.
And what is called “light reading”
is no different from most television programs or motion pictures,
which succeed only if they give us the relaxation that we seek from them.
Whatever use or value these things may have for us,
they are seldom worth reading twice,
and none of them is worth reading over and over again.

电话簿，飞机时刻表，洗衣机的使用说明书也许是有用的，或是不可或缺的，
但它们肯定不值得人们专心致志地一遍又一遍地学习。
大多数杂志也只值得我们翻一翻而已。
所谓“消遣性阅读”同电视节目或电影没有什么不同，
只要能给予我们想要的消遣就行了。
这些读物尽管对我们是有用的或有价值的，
却很少值得再读第二遍，没有一篇值得一读再读。

The great books, and the smaller masterpieces that constitute a gateway to them,
exert a whole series of claims upon us that other kinds of reading seldom make.
They have treasures to yield,
and they will not yield their treasures without our digging.
They will not give something to us unless we give something to them.
Such works command our interest, our humility, and our fidelity.
They have much to teach us—if we want to learn.

《西方世界名著》中的作品以及作为其入门的篇幅较短之名著，则与大多数其他读物不同，
向我们提出了一系列要求。
它们是埋有珍宝的宝藏，
但如果我们不挖掘，是得不到珍宝的。
除非我们有所付出，否则我们从它们那里是不会有所收获的。
我们应对这些作品感兴趣，对它们抱着谦恭虔诚的态度。
只要我们想学习，我们就可以从它们那里学到许多东西。

These are the works which are most worth reading for the first time,
precisely because we will find, on that first reading,
that they deserve to be read over and over again.
It might almost be said that a book which is not worth rereading one or more times
is not really worth reading carefully in the first place.
Like the great books, the works in this set are not idle-hour affairs,
mere time passers like picture magazines.
None of them is a sedative compounded of paper and ink.
Every one of them calls for and deserves active,
as contrasted with merely passive, reading on our part.

这些作品之所以在第一次阅读的时候就是最值得仔细阅读的作品，
恰恰因为我们在第一次阅读的时候就会发现，它们值得一读再读。
几乎可以这样说，一本书如果不值得一读再读，实际上最初那一次也就不值得仔细阅读。
与《西方世界名著》中的作品一样，本套书中的作品不是像画报那样的用来消磨时间的读物。
本套书中的作品没有一篇是由纸张和油墨混合成的镇静剂。
每篇作品都要求我们而且也值得我们去积极地阅读，
而不仅仅是消极地阅读。

Young people—and older ones—who in ages past
had access to only a few books in a lifetime
knew how to read them without being told.
We all know to what good use young Abraham Lincoln, by the light of the log fire,
put the Bible, Euclid, Blackstone, Bunyan, and a few other books.
He, and others like him,
read not only with eyes wide open but also with a mind fully awake—
awake because it was intensely active in an effort to get, by reading,
everything that the writer had to offer.

以往，毕生只能看到几本书的年轻人–以及上了年纪的人–
不用人告诉，就知道怎样读这几本书。
我们大家都知道，亚伯拉罕.林肯在年轻时是怎样借着篝火的亮光如饥似渴地阅读
《圣经》，欧几里得的《几何原理》，布莱克斯通的《英国法释义》，班杨的《天路历程》等书的。
他以及像他那样的人不仅在读书时睁大了眼睛，而且还完全敞开了心扉，
因为他们非常积极主动，想尽力通过阅读得到作者提供的一切。

We need to remind ourselves of this bygone situation
in which a book was a lifelong treasure, to be read again and again.
Deluged as we are with a welter of printed words,
we tend to devaluate all writing,
to look at every book on the shelf as the counterpart of every other,
and to weigh volumes instead of words.
The proliferation of printing, on the one hand a blessing,
has had, on the other,
a tendency to debase (or, in any case, homogenize) our attitude toward reading.

我们需要回想一下这种以往的情形，
人们把书籍看作是终身受用的宝物，一遍又一遍地阅读。
现在我们被淹没在印刷符号的海洋中，往往低估所有作品的价值，
不加区别地看待书架上的每一本书，
以部头的大小而不是以所表达的思想来衡量每本书。
印刷业的蓬勃发展一方面是件好事，
但同时也使我们轻视阅读（或至少是不加区别地看待一切阅读）。

What was true centuries ago is still true:
there are great books and masterpieces of writing
which can entertain us while they enlighten us;
there are merely useful books or printed materials
which we go to only for specific facts or instruction;
there are trivial books which, like the average detective story,
amuse us briefly or help us pass the time,
and then disappear forever from mind and memory;
and there is trash,
like many magazine, paperback, or even hardcover romances
which actually dull our taste for better things.
Of these, only the first constitute the readables
which deserve our effort to keep as wide awake as possible while reading.
We can do that only by reading as actively as possible.

几百年前的情形是什么样，现在依然是什么样：
有些是伟大的杰作，在使我们快乐的同时，又给我们以启迪；
有些是有用的书或印刷材料，读它们只是为了了解某些方面的事实或某样东西的使用方法；
有些是毫无价值的书，例如普通侦探小说，只是给我们以娱乐，把时间消磨掉，
然后便会从我们的头脑和记忆中永远消失；
有些是垃圾，如许多杂志，平装甚或精装爱情小说，
它们实际上反而减少我们对美好事物的兴趣。
在上述这些书中，只有第一种是值得阅读的，
值得我们在阅读时尽力保持清醒的头脑。
只有尽量积极地阅读，才能保持清醒的头脑。

How does one do that?
The answer is easier to give than to apply,
but readers who want to get the most out of the works that are most worth reading
can do what is required,
if they apply their wills to the task.
And the more they are willing to do what is required,
the easier they will find it to do.

怎样才能积极的阅读呢？
这个问题回答起来容易，做起来难。
但任何人只要想从最值得读的书中得到最大的收获，便能够做到这一点。
他越想这样去做，就越容易做到这一点。

What is required of readers who wish to be wakeful and active in the process of reading
is simply the asking of questions.
They must ask questions while they read—
questions which they themselves must try to answer in the course of reading.
The art of reading a book or piece of writing
consists in asking the right questions in the right order.
They are as follows:

(1) What is this piece of writing about?
What is its leading theme or main point?
What is it trying to say?
(2) How does it say what it is trying to say?
How does the writer get his central point across?
How does he tell his story or argue for his conclusion
to produce the effect in us that he is aiming at?
(3) Is it true—factually or poetically—in whole or part?
Has the writer won our assent or sympathy?
And if not, what reasons do we have
for disagreeing with or rejecting his view of things?
(4) What of it?
What meaning does it have for us in the shape of opinions or attitudes
that we are led to form for ourselves as the result of reading this piece?

对于希望在阅读过程中保持清醒头脑和积极态度的人来说，
所需要做的只是不断提出问题。
他应该一边阅读一边提问，
在阅读的过程中尽力自己去回答所提出的问题。
是不是随便提出问题呢？不是的。
阅读一本书或一篇作品的艺术在于按适当的顺序提出适当的问题。
这些问题有如下述：
（1）这片作品写的是什么？其主题或主要论点是什么？它想要说什么？
（2）它是如何说它想要说的话的？
作者是如何表达其中心论点的？
是如何讲故事，如何论证其观点，从而在我们身上产生它想要产生的效果的？
（3）在事实上或在理想上，其中心论点是完全正确还是部分正确？
作者有没有赢得我们的赞同？
如果没有，我们为什么不同意或不肯接受他的观点？
（4）这篇作品对我们具有什么意义？
读完它以后，我们的观点或态度受到了什么影响？

These four questions underlie and motivate all the specific things
that we have to do in order to read well what is worth reading well.
We shall state these more specific recommendations presently;
but first it is necessary to observe the difference
between fiction and nonfiction as objects of our active attention in reading;
and, among nonfiction works,
the difference between writings in the field of history and politics,
writings in the sphere of natural science and mathematics,
and writings in the realm of philosophy.

如果我们想好好地阅读值得好好阅读的作品，
则应该做的全部事情，就是具体回答以上四类问题。
我们马上将较为具体地说明这四类问题。
但首先必须注意，作为我们积极阅读的对象，小说和非小说是有区别的；
还必须注意非小说作品之间的区别，即历史和政治范围内的作品，
自然科学和数学方面的作品以及哲学领域的作品之间的区别。

** The Four Colors 22  四种颜色

In the binding of /Gateway to the Great Books/,
four different colors, based on traditional academic insignia
for the various arts and sciences,
are used to signify four types of subject matter to be found in this set.
Yellow in the binding signifies works of the imagination—
epic and dramatic poetry, novels, and essays.
Blue in the binding signifies
biographies and histories, treatises in politics, economics, and jurisprudence.
Green in the binding signifies
major contributions to the fields of mathematics and the natural sciences.
Red in the binding signifies the great works in philosophy and theology.

《西方世界名著》的封面，依据表示不同学科的传统标志，
用四种颜色代表四种不同的名著。
黄色封面代表想象力丰富的作品，即史诗与戏剧性诗歌，小说以及杂文。
蓝色封面代表传记与史书，政治学，经济学以及法学论著。
绿色封面代表数学和自然科学领域的杰作。
红色封面代表哲学和神学名著。

《西方名著入门》中的作品是以同样方式排列的。
每一卷的书脊上都有一块颜色来表示该卷书中包含有什么样的作品。
中译本第一，二，三和四卷的书籍上有一块黄颜色，包含的是富于想象力的作品。
第一卷和第二卷收录的是小说，主要是短篇小说和小说的节录；
第三卷是剧本。
第四卷收录的是评论文章，评论对象主要是富于想象力的作品和作家。
中译本第五卷和第六卷的书脊上有一块蓝颜色，包含的是有关人与社会的作品，
主要是传记与历史著作，书信与讲演稿，政治文件与政治论著，
以及论述教育，战争与和平，人口增长，货币，税收和贸易等各种相互关联的题目的著作。
中译本第七卷和第八卷的书脊上有一块绿颜色，收录的是科学和数学论文；
其中的科学论文涉及各种自然科学，如天文学，物理学，化学，生物学和心理学，
并包含有论述科学和科学家的论文；
数学论文讨论的主要是数学的性质，方法，应用于研究，
不过也有一些论文讨论的是具体的数学概念与具体应用。
最后，中译本第九卷的书籍上有一块红颜色，收录的是哲学论文，
论述的是理性生活，自然界的各个方面以及思想和生活方式。

/Gateway to the Great Books/ is divided into these four kinds of writing
for good and sufficient reason.
We have but to consider the subject matter of the various courses
that we take in high school and college— no matter what their titles—
to realize that most of those of importance
fall into one or another of these four categories.
Nor is there any mystery about it:
all writing may be thus partitioned
because the resulting parts represent four aspects of ourselves
as we use words to communicate what we know, think, feel, or intend.

我们有十分充足的理由把《西方名著入门》中的作品分为以上四个种类。
只要想一想我们在高中和大学学习的各种课程（不管它们的名称是什么），
我们就会认识到，大多数重要课程都属于这四个种类。
而且分为这四个种类也没有什么不好理解：
所有作品之所以可以这样划分，
是因为由此而划分的四部分代表了我们用语言表达我们所知，所想，所感和所欲的四个方面。

First, we are all storytellers, listeners to stories, and critics of the stories we hear.
Imaginative literature, represented by Volumes 2–5 of this set,
is native to the life of every human being.

首先，我们大家都爱讲故事，爱听故事，爱品评所听到的故事。
因此，本套书中第一至四卷中富于想象力的文学作品，
对于每个人的生活来说都是很自然的。

Second, as free people and citizens,
we have always had the responsibility, now heavier than ever before,
to deal with the social and political problems which are considered in Volumes 6 and 7.
We are called upon to examine ourselves in the light of our past and future.
These are illuminated by the historical and biographical writings
contained in Volumes 6 and 7.

其次，我们作为自由人与公民，
一向负有责任来解决第五和第六卷中所考查的那些社会和政治问题，
而且现在负有的责任比以往任何时候都要大。
我们需要根据人类的过去和未来考察我们自己。
第五和第六卷中的历史著作和传记便提供了这方面的范例。

Third, the most distinctive characteristics of our modern world
are the product of inventions and technology which are, in turn,
the product of scientific discovery and mathematical theory,
the two inseparable subjects dealt with in Volumes 8 and 9.
Some understanding of these fields is essential
if we wish to feel at home in the rapidly changing environment of the twentieth century.

第三，现代世界最为显著的特征都产生与发明与技术，
而发明与技术则产生与科学发现与数学理论，
第七卷和第八卷讨论的便是这两个不可分离的题目。
我们如果想在20世纪急速变化的环境中具有安适感，
就不能不对这两个领域的情况有所了解。

Finally, every man and woman who has ever lived has asked, from childhood and youth on,
What am I?
How should I think?
What is the meaning of life?
How should I live?
These are some of the philosophical questions
which persons of wisdom, in every age,
have considered and tried to answer.
Such considerations appear in Volume 10 of /Gateway to the Great Books/.

最后，曾经活在世上的每个男人和女人，从儿童时代到青年时代以致到老年，都不断地问自己，
我是什么？我为何能思维，生命的意义是什么，我赢如何生活？
这些是各个时代的智者所思考并试图加以回答的一些（尽管不是全部）哲学问题。
《西方名著入门》的第九卷所收录的，便是各个时代的智者对这些问题所做的思考。

To say that these are four different kinds of writing—
writings about four different kinds of subjects—is not enough.
They represent four different kinds of thinking, too.
And they reflect four different aspects of our one human nature.
They are four in one, at once different and the same.
Since these four kinds of writings all spring from the human mind,
and since that is a unity, so in the end all thought is unified.

说这些是四种不同的作品，即关于四种不同题目的作品，这还不够。
它们还代表了四种不同的思想，并反映了相同人性的四个不同方面。
它们是四合为一，既不同又相同。
既然这四种不同作品都产生于人类的头脑，而人类的头脑是个整体，
因而最终所有的思想是统一的。

The mind is not four separate compartments.
No single thought is unrelated to any other.
Our ideas, beliefs, sentiments, and fancies do not exist in isolation,
to be collected artificially and arbitrarily.
Neither is a set of volumes
representing all the major aspects of human thought and feeling an aggregation of snippets.
For all its diversification of content,
/Gateway to the Great Books/ has an underlying unity—
the unity of the human mind itself.

人类的头脑不是四个独立的组成部分。
每一种思想都与其他思想相关联。
我们的思想，信仰，感情以及爱好不是孤立存在的，
不是人为而武断地凑集在一起的。
同样，包含人类所有主要思想和感情的一套书，也不是碎片的堆积。
《西方名著入门》中的作品尽管内容多种多样，但在根本点上却是统一的，
即人类的头脑本身是统一的。

Most of the writers in this set,
though they lived at different times and had special interests and abilities,
are talking to each other across the centuries.
Like the authors of the great books, they are engaged in a continuing conversation.
They are talking to each other through the walls
that seem to separate the physicist from the novelist, the philosopher from the historian;
for all are involved in a common adventure—
the unending exploration of the human condition,
of the mind and imagination, of our earth-home,
and of the illimitable cosmos of which we are, though a small part,
by far the most interesting members.
Those who read and reread all the selections in this whole set—
and that may take a long time—
will in the end gain a vision of this common adventure
and sense the unity which underlies the whole.

本套书的大多数作家虽然生活在不同的时代，且兴趣和能力各异，
但却在相互对话，这种对话已经进行了不知多少个世纪。
同《西方世界名著》的作者一样，本套书的作者也在进行一场持续不断的对话。
它们穿过那堵似乎把自然科学家同小说家隔离开来的墙，
穿过那堵似乎把哲学家同历史学家隔离开来的墙在进行对话，
之所以能做到这一点，是因为他们都在从事一项共同的事业，
即不懈地探索人类，探索人类的思想与想象力，探索人类居住的地球，探索无边无垠的宇宙，
在宇宙中，人类虽然是非常渺小的一个成员，但却是最有意思的一个成员。
读者只要一读再读本套书选录的所有作品（这也许将花费很长一段时间），
最终就会看到这种共同的事业，感觉到把所有作品联结在一起的那种统一性。

But in the beginning, as readers thread their way
among the many different strands here woven together,
they would be well advised
to observe the differences in the four kinds of writing included in this set.
They have to be read differently.
Each of them has to be approached with
a special attitude, a particular frame of mind.
Confusion and bewilderment would result from our addressing
a poet as if he were a mathematician,
a philosopher as if he were a historian,
or a historian as if he were a scientist.
So, too, we would tend to confuse and bewilder ourselves
if we failed to distinguish between fiction and nonfiction,
or between philosophy and science, history and mathematics,
and read them as if they were all the same.

但在一开始，当读者穿行于这里编织在一起的各种思想时，
他最好还是能注意到本套书中四种作品的区别，
应该用不同的方法阅读这些作品。
阅读每一种作品时应具有不同的态度与心境。
如果我们以数学家的态度阅读诗歌，
以历史学家的态度阅读哲学论著，
以科学家的态度阅读历史书籍，
那我们便会陷入混乱而被弄糊涂。
同样，如果我们不能把小说与非小说，哲学与科学，历史与数学区别开来，
而把它们当作同一种东西阅读，
我们也会陷入混乱而被弄糊涂。

These different kinds of writing require different kinds of reading on our part,
because to read them well—with an active mind—
we must ask different sorts of questions as we read.
Unless we know what to look for (and how to look for it)
in each kind of reading that we do,
we shall demand of fiction knowledge it cannot give us,
ascribe to history values it does not have,
ask science for opinions that lie wholly outside its scope,
and expect philosophy to produce a mode of proof
that is impossible for it to achieve.

这些不同的作品要求我们以不同的方法来阅读，
因为要好好地，以积极的态度度它们，
就必须在阅读时提出不同种类的问题。
如果我们不知道应该从每一类作品中寻觅什么（或如何寻觅），
我们便会要求小说提供它们不能提供的知识，
便会赋予历史以莫须有的价值，
便会要求科学提供完全超出其范围的意见，
便会希望哲学提供它不可能提供的证明。

** Some Rules of Reading 25  一些阅读规则

So basic are the differences among various kinds of writing
that it is almost impossible to formulate rules of reading
which are general enough to apply to every kind of writing in the same way.
But there is one rule which takes account of this very fact;
for it recommends that we pay attention, first of all,
to the character of the writing before us.
Is it fiction or nonfiction?
And if the latter, what sort of expository writing is it—
criticism, history, political theory, social commentary,
mathematics, science, or philosophy?

各种作品之间往往具有根本性的区别，
因而几乎不可能提出普遍适用于每一类作品的阅读规则。
但有一条规则却正好是普遍适用的，
这条规则要求我们应首先注意摆在我们面前的是哪一类作品，
是小说还是非小说？如果是非小说，又是哪一类说明性作品，
是文艺批评，历史，政治理论，社会评论，数学，科学还是哲学？

There is one other rule which applies to every piece of writing,
insofar as it has the excellence that is common to all pieces of writing
that are works of art, whether they are imaginative or expository writing.
A work of art has unity.
Readers must apprehend this unity.
It may be the unity of a story or of a play,
or the unity of a historical narrative,
a scientific theory, a mathematical analysis, a philosophical argument.
But whatever it is, it can be stated simply as a kind of summary
of what the whole work or piece of writing is about.
Readers should make the effort to say
what the whole is about in a few sentences.
When they have done this, they have answered for themselves
the first of the four questions which should be asked
about anything worth reading actively and with a mind fully awake. [1]
Since a work of art is a complex unity, a whole consisting of parts,
readers should also try to say what the major parts of the work are,
and how they are ordered to one another and to the whole.

[1]See p. 5 above for an enumeration of the four questions.

此外还有一条规则适用于每一篇作品，
只要有关的作品具有堪称为艺术品的所有作品（无论是富于想象力的作品还是说明性的作品）
共同具有的一种优点。
艺术品具有统一性。
读者必须领悟这种统一性。
无论是小说，戏剧，还是历史叙述，科学理论，数学分析，哲学论证，都有其统一性。
但不管是哪一种统一性，都可以简单地称之为一种概括，
即有关整部书或整篇作品内容的概括。
读者应尽力用几句话说出整篇作品的内容。
做到了这一点，也就回答了前面所说的那四个问题中的第一个问题，
只要碰到值得以积极的态度和完全清醒的头脑阅读的东西，
就应该提出那四个问题。
由于艺术品是复杂的统一体，是由各个部分组成的整体，
因而读者还应尽力说出各个主要组成部分的内容，
说出它们互相之间以及同整体之间是如何安排的。

The rules to which we now turn apply most readily to nonfiction
(expository writing of all sorts),
though, as we shall presently see,
corresponding rules can be stated for guidance
in the reading of imaginative literature.

下面即将讨论的阅读规则，
最适用于非小说（即所有各类说明性作品），
不过，正如我们马上将看到的，
这些规则也可以说是阅读富于想象力的文学作品的指导原则。

The writer of an expository work
is usually engaged in solving a problem or a set of problems.
Hence the reader, in dealing with such works as wholes,
should try to summarize the problems which the author posed and tried to solve.
What are they? How are they related to one another?
Knowing the author’s problems is necessary
to any understanding of the answers he tries to give
and to the judgment we make of his success or failure in giving them.

说明性作品的作者通常是要解决某一问题或某些问题。
因此，读者在阅读这类作品时，应尽力概括出作者提出并试图解决的问题。
作者提出的是什么问题？
这些问题相互之间具有什么关系？
只有知道了作者提出的问题，才能理解作者试图给出的答案，
才能判断作者给出的答案是否成功。

Examining a piece of writing as a whole
and as an orderly arrangement of parts
is only one approach to it.
It constitutes one way
of reading a book or anything less than a book which has artistic unity.
A second approach involves attention to the language of the author,
with concern not only for his use of words and the manner in which he expresses his meaning,
but also for the verbal formulation of his opinions
and the reasons that he has for holding them.
Here readers should do a number of things,
in successive steps, each a way of trying
to get at the thought of the writer by penetrating through his language to his mind.

把注意力集中在整篇作品上或集中在安排得井井有条的各个组成部分上，
只是接近作品的一种方法，
是阅读一本书或任何具有艺术统一性的作品的一种方法。
另一种方法是把注意力集中在作者使用的语言上，
不仅注意作者使用的词语和表达意思的方式，
而且注意作者是如何使用词语表述自己的看法的，
以及持有这些看法的理由。
在这里，作者应一步步地做许多事情，
所做的每一件事情都是力图通过作者使用的语言抓住作者的思想。

Readers should, first of all, try to come to terms with the author,
that is, try to discover the basic terms
which express the author’s central notions or ideas.
This can be done only by noting the words carefully
and discovering the five or ten (rarely more than twenty)
which constitute the author’s special vocabulary.
Finding such words or phrases will lead readers to the writer’s basic terms.
Thus, for example, a careful reader of Calhoun’s “The Concurrent Majority”
from A Disquisition on Government (Volume 7)
can come to terms with Calhoun
only by discovering what he means by such words or phrases as
“constitution,” “numerical majority,” “concurrent majority,”
“interposition,” “nullification,” and “veto.”

读者首先应尽力在术语上接近作者，
也就是说尽力发现表达作者中心思想的那些基本术语。
要做到这一点，就得仔细注意作者使用的词语，
找出作者使用的5个或10个特殊词汇（很少超过20个）。
找到了这样的词语，也就找到了作者使用的基本术语。
举例来说，细心的读者在阅读卡尔霍恩《协商一致的多数》（选自《论政府》，简本套书第六卷）时，
若要接近卡尔霍恩，就只有弄清他所使用的
“宪法”，“可数的多数”，“协商一致的多数”，
“异议”，“否认原则”，“否决权”等词语的意思。

A term is a word used unambiguously.
It is a word tied down to a special meaning
which does not change within the context of a particular piece of writing.
We come to terms with an author
by noting the one or more meanings
with which he uses the words in his own special vocabulary.
Good writers are usually helpful,
indicating explicitly by verbal qualifications—
such as quotation marks, underlining, or parenthetical explanations—
that a word is now being used in one sense and now in another;
but even the best writers frequently
depend upon the context to provide such qualifications.
This requires the reader to do the work of interpretation
which is involved in coming to terms.

术语是含义明确的词语，
是在某一篇作品中固定一种特殊含义且始终保持不变的词语。
我们只有弄清某一作者赋予一些词语的特殊含义，才能在术语上接近作者。
优秀的作家总是乐于提供帮助，使用引号，下加横线，括弧内的说明文字等
限定方法来明确告诉读者现在是在哪一种意义上使用某一词语；
但即便是最优秀的作家通常也是依靠上下文来限定词语的含义。
这就要求读者在掌握术语含义的过程中去做解释工作。

Language is a difficult and imperfect medium.
For the transmission of thought or knowledge,
there must be communication,
which can occur only when writer and reader have a common understanding
of the words which pass from one to the other.
Terms made by the one and discovered by the other produce communication.

语言是一种难于掌握而又不完善的媒介。
要传播思想或知识，就必须进行交流，
而只有当作者和读者对所使用的词语具有共同的理解时，
才能达到交流的目的。
作者所使用的术语被读者所理解，二者之间便产生了交流。

Coming to terms underlies all the subsequent acts
of interpretation on the part of the reader.
Terms are the building blocks of propositions,
and propositions are put together in arguments.
The next two steps in the process of interpretation
concern the author’s propositions and arguments—
represented on the printed page by sentences and paragraphs,
just as terms are represented there by words and phrases.

在术语上接近作者，是读者随后进行解释工作的基础。
术语是构筑命题的材料，而命题又组成论点。
解释过程中接下来的两步涉及作者的命题与论点。
正像术语在书中是用单词与短语来表示的那样，
命题与论点在书中是用句子和段落来表示的。

Readers should try to find out
what the author is affirming and denying—
what his bedrock assertions are.
To do this, they must spot the crucial sentences in the text,
the sentences in which the author expresses the opinions which are central in his mind.
Most of the sentences in a piece of writing are not crucial.
Only a few set forth the propositions
which the author is undertaking to defend.
Spotting these is not enough.
We must know what they mean.

读者应尽力弄清作者肯定什么，否定什么，
也就是说弄清他的基本主张是什么。
要做到这一点，就得找出关键性的句子，
找出作者表达中心思想的句子。
一篇作品中的大多数句子都是无足轻重的。
只有少数几个句子陈述的是作者所主张的命题。
找到这些句子还不够，还必须理解它们的意思。

There are two simple ways
in which we can test our understanding of the crucial sentences in an author’s work.
First, can we say precisely in our own words what the author is saying in his;
that is, can we extract the author’s meaning from his words
by translating it into another form of speech?
Second, can we think of examples that clearly illustrate the author’s meaning
or apply it to concrete experiences?

有两个简单的方法可用来检验我们是否理解作品中的关键性句子。
首先，看看我们是否能够用自己的话复述作者的话，
也就是说，看看我们是否能够用另一种方式表述作者的意思。
其次，看看我们是否能够想出能明确说明作者意思的例子，
或是否能够把作者的意思应用于具体经验。

The third step of interpretative reading
requires us to look for and find the key paragraphs
which express the writer’s basic arguments
in support of the opinions that he wishes to persuade us to accept.
An argument is a sequence of propositions,
having a beginning in principles and an end in conclusions.
It may be simple, or it may be complex, having simpler arguments as parts.
Sometimes the writer will put his whole argument down
in one place in the form of a summary paragraph;
but more frequently the reader must piece together the parts of the argument
by connecting sentences, or parts of paragraphs,
which are on different pages.

解释性阅读的第三部要求我们找到表达作者基本论点的段落，
作者正是用这些基本论点来说服我们接受他的观点的。
论点是由一系列命题组成的，先提出原则，最后得出结论。
论点可以是简单的，也可以是复杂的，
复杂的论点由简单的论点所组成。
有时作者在一个地方用一段提纲挈qie领的话表述自己的整个论点。
但更常见的情况是，读者必须把这一页或那一页上的句子或段落串起来，
已得到作者的完整论点。

The first of the suggested approaches to reading a book or piece of writing is analytical:
it dissects a whole work into its parts and relates the parts.
The second is interpretative:
it attempts to construe what a writer means from what he says.
There is a third approach, which should follow and complement the other two.
It is critical.

上面提出了阅读一本书或一篇作品的方法，
首先是分解，即先把整部作品分解为各个组成部分，
然后再把各个部分联系起来。
其次是解释，即尽力根据作者使用的词语来解释作者的意思。
还应迈出第三步来补充前两步。
这就是进行批评。

Here the task is to judge a piece of writing
in terms of the truth and falsity of its basic propositions,
both its principles and its conclusions,
in terms of the cogency or soundness of its arguments,
and in terms of the adequacy or completeness of its analysis.
It is at this stage or in this phase of reading
that readers must decide whether they agree or disagree with the writer,
or determine the extent of this agreement or disagreement.
In doing this, they should be governed by a number of rules or maxims.

这里的任务是对一篇作品做出判断，
判断其命题（即包含其原则也包含其结论）是正确还是错误，
判断其论点是否有说服力，是否稳妥，
判断其分析是否充分，是否全面。
正是在阅读的这一阶段，读者要决定是否同意作者的观点，
要决定在什么程度上同意或者不同意作者的观点。
在这样做时，读者应遵循一些规则或准则。

The first is that readers should neither agree nor disagree with an author
until they are sure that they understand what the author is saying.
To agree with what you do not understand is inane;
to disagree in the absence of understanding is impertinent.
Many readers start to disagree with what they are reading almost at once—
before they have performed the tasks of analysis and interpretation
which should always precede that of criticism.
In effect, they are saying to an author:
“I don’t know what you are talking about, but I think you are wrong.”
It would be just as silly for them to say “right” as it is for them to say “wrong.”
In either case, they are expressing prejudices
rather than undertaking genuine criticism,
which must be based on understanding.

第一条规则是，读者在确实理解了作者的意思以前，
既不应同意也不应不同意作者的观点。
同意你所不理解的观点是毫无意义的；
在缺乏理解的情况下表示不同意，是鲁莽。
许多读者动辄便否定作者的观点，
既未进行分解工作，也未进行解释工作，
而这两项工作一般是应该走在批评工作的前面的。
他们实际上对作者说的是：
“我不知道你在说什么，但我认为你错了。”
他们无论说“对”还是说“错”都是愚蠢的。
在两种情况下，他们都是在表达偏见，而不是在进行真正的批评，
真正的批评必须建立在理解的基础之上。

This rule calls for patience and humility on the reader’s part.
If we are reading anything worth reading—
anything which has the power to instruct us and elevate our minds—
we should be loath to judge it too soon,
for it would be rash to presume
that we have so quickly attained an adequate understanding of it.
If we suspect that we have fallen short in our understanding,
we should always blame ourselves rather than the author.
Not only is that the proper attitude if the author is worth reading at all;
but, in addition, such an attitude may keep our mind on the task of interpretation.
There is always time for criticism after that is well done.

这条规则要求读者要有耐心，采取谦恭的态度。
如果是在读值得读的东西，在读富有启发性而又能使人的思想高尚的东西，
就不应急于做出判断，
因为假定人们会如此迅速地充分理解作品，那是轻率的。
读者若感到对作品理解得不够，
他永远应该责怪自己而不应该责怪作者。
如果作品是值得阅读的，则这不仅是正确的态度，
而且这种态度还有助于读者积极地从事解释工作，
做好了解释工作，有的是时间对作品进行批评。

A second maxim by which we should be guided can be stated thus:
there is no point in winning an argument if we know,
or even suspect, that we are wrong.
This is an important rule of intellectual behavior in face-to-face discussions—one,
unfortunately, which is frequently violated.
It is even more important in the very special one-way conversation
that a good reader carries on with an author.
The author is not there to defend himself.
Disagreement with an author demands the utmost in intellectual decency
on the part of the reader.

应该遵守的第二条规则可以这样来表述：
如果我们知道甚或感觉到我们是错的，
那么在辩论中赢得胜利就是毫无意义的。
这在面对面的辩论中，是智力行为应该遵守的一条重要规则，
但遗憾的是，人们却常常违反这条规则。
这条规则在正直的读者与作者之间进行的非常特殊的单向对话中甚至更为重要。
作者在那里并不是要为自己辩护。
读者若不同意作者的观点，
则必须在智力上尽力做到光明磊落。

A third closely related maxim recommends to readers
that they should not undertake criticism
unless they are as willing to agree as to disagree—
unless they are prepared to agree intelligently as well as to disagree intelligently.
In either case, critical readers should be able to give reasons
for the position that they take.

第三条规则与上面两条规则紧密相关，
建议读者只有在既乐于不同意又乐于同意的时候，
也就是说只有在既准备理智地不同意又准备理智地同意的时候，
才进行批评。
无论在哪一种情况下，
批评者都应该能够说明自己所采取的立场。

The reasons for disagreement can be roughly grouped under four headings.
We may disagree
(1) because we think that the author is uninformed on some essential point
that is relevant to his conclusions; or
(2) because we think that he is uninformed about some equally essential consideration,
which would alter the course of his argument if he were aware of it; or
(3) because we think that he has committed some fallacy or error in reasoning; or
(4) because we think that his analysis,
however sound in its bases and its reasoning, is incomplete.

In every one of these instances,
we are under an obligation to be able to prove the charge that we are making.
Authors and their works are finite and fallible, every last one;
but a writer of eminence is ordinarily more competent in his field than the reader,
upon whom, therefore, the heavy burden of proof is imposed.

不同意的理由可以大致归为以下四类：
（1）我们认为作者不了解与其结论有关的某一主要之点；
（2）我们认为作者不了解某一同样重要的方面，作者如果了解事情的这一方面就会改变其论证方法；
（3）我们认为作者在推理过程中犯了某种错误；
（4）我们认为作者的分析尽管在根本点上和在推理方面很正确，但却不够全面。

在上述每一种情况下，我们都有义务为我们所做的指控提出证明。
人及其作品是有限的，也是有缺陷的，
每一个人和每一部作品都是如此；
但杰出的作家在其所擅长的领域通常则要强于读者，
因而放在读者肩上的为自己的指控提供证明的担子是很重的。

The foregoing rules, as already pointed out,
apply primarily to expository writing
rather than to imaginative literature—
fiction in the form of novels, short stories, or plays.
Nevertheless, they do suggest analogous recommendations
for the reader to follow in reading fiction.
As terms, propositions, and arguments are the elements
involved in the interpretative approach to expository writing,
so the cast of characters, their actions and passions,
their thought and speech, the sequence of events,
and the plot together with its subplots
are the things with which readers must concern themselves
in interpreting a work of fiction.
As factual truth and logical cogency
are central considerations in the criticism of expository writing,
so a narrative’s verisimilitude or credibility (its poetic truth)
and its unity, clarity, and coherence (its artistic beauty)
are important objects of criticism in the case of fiction.

如前所述，上述规则主要适用于说明性作品，
而不是富于想象力的文学作品（即小说，戏剧等）。
然而，它们也向阅读文学作品的读者提出了与其类似的建议。
既然解释“说明性作品”是必须注意的要素是术语，命题和论点，
解释文学作品时必须注意的要素便是物，他们的行为与感情，他们的思想与言论，
事情发生的先后顺序以及主要情节与次要情节。
既然批评“说明性作品”时必须考虑的主要因素是事实的准确性和逻辑的正确性，
在文学作品方面批评的主要对象便是叙述是否真实可信
（也就是说，叙述得是否既具有想象力又符合实际），
叙述是否统一，清晰，连贯（也就是说，叙述得是否具有艺术性，是否优美动人）。

It is possible to offer a few other recommendations
that are especially appropriate to imaginative literature,
and applicable to the varied assortment of stories and plays in Volumes 2, 3, and 4.

还可以提出另外几条建议，
这几条建议特别适用于富于想象力的文学作品，
适用于本套书第一，二，和三卷收录的各种小说和戏剧。

In every piece of fiction to be found there,
the subject matter of the writer is men and women.
But this subject matter is approached in a way that is quite different from
that employed by the historian, the psychologist, or the moral philosopher,
all of whom are concerned with human character and conduct, too.
The imaginative writer approaches this subject matter indirectly and, in a sense, subjectively.

在那几卷收录的每一篇文学作品中，
作者涉及的题材都是男人和女人。
但他们处理这种题材的方式却完全不同于历史学家，心理学家或道德哲学家处理这种题材的方式，
虽然他们关注的也是人的性格与行为。
富于想象力的作家是间接地而且在某种意义上说是主观地处理这种题材的。

Writers of fiction see men and women partially,
in terms of their own limited temperaments,
their own overriding passions,
and also in terms of the willingness of the characters,
as it were, to subject themselves to the particular pattern or frame that the author has in mind.
Dickens, in The Pickwick Papers,
and Mark Twain, in The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg,
are placed side by side in Volume 2.
But in other ways they are far apart.
To sense the distance separating them,
readers need only ask this simple question
after they have read these two stories:
Which seems to like mankind more?
Readers will then become aware that these two storytellers
hold different views of mankind—
each has a personal, partial view with its own partial truth.

他在某种程度上是根据自己的特殊脾性，
自己一时占压倒地位的感情来观察男人和女人的，
而且在某种程度上还要看被观察的男人和女人是否符合他头脑中的形象。
狄更斯的《匹克威克外传》和马克.吐温的《败坏了赫德莱堡的人》都收录在第一卷中，并且紧挨在一起。
但在其他方面，他们却相去甚远，
要感觉到它们之间的距离，读者只需在读了这两篇故事之后提出这样一个简单的问题：
哪一篇作品的描述更 *接近于* 人类？
读者在回答这一问题时会意识到，这两个小说家对人类持有不同观点，
是他们各自偏爱的观点，各有各的真实性。

To read fiction with pleasure,
readers must abandon themselves for the moment
to the writer’s partial vision.
As we read more and more imaginative literature,
we will begin, almost unconsciously,
to obtain new insights from each of the authors.

要愉快地阅读文学作品，
作者就必须暂时沉湎于作者所偏爱的观点。
阅读的文学作品越来越多，
几乎就会不知不觉地从每一部作品中获得新的见识。

Finally, it may be helpful to point out a few differences
between imaginative and expository literature,
from the point of view of what is involved in reading them carefully and well.

最后，应该从仔细认真阅读的观点，
指出文学作品与说明性作品的几个区别。

A story must be apprehended as a whole,
whereas an expository treatise can be read in parts.
One cannot read enough of a story, short of the whole, “to get the idea”;
but one can read a portion of a scientific or philosophical work
and yet learn something of what the author is driving at.

故事一定要整个地来理解，
而说明性论文则可以一部分一部分地来读。
就文学作品来说，未读完整部作品，便无法领会作者的意思；
但就科学论著或哲学论著来说，
则只要读完一部分，就可以在某种程度上了解作者的观点。

An expository work may require us
to read other works by the same or different authors in order to understand it fully,
but a story requires the reading of nothing outside itself.
It stands entirely by itself.
It presents a whole world—for us to experience and enjoy.

要充分理解某一篇说明性作品，
也许要求我们去阅读同一位作者或不同作者的其他作品，
但文学作品却没有这种要求。
每一部文学作品本身都是完全独立的，都提供了一个完整的世界，
供我们去体验和欣赏。

The ultimate unity of an expository work,
especially in the fields of political theory, natural science, mathematics, and philosophy,
lies in a problem or a set of related problems to be solved.
The unity of a narrative lies in its plot.

说明性作品的最后统一，
特别是政治理论，自然科学，数学和哲学等领域的说明性作品的最后统一，
在于所要解决的某一问题或某些相互关联的问题。
而叙说性作品的统一，则在于其情节。

There is a fundamental difference
in the use of language by imaginative and expository writers.
In exposition, the aim of a good writer is to avoid ambiguity
by a literal or precise use of words.
Imaginative writers often seek to utilize ambiguity,
and they do this by recourse to metaphor and simile and other figures of speech.
The use of language moves in one direction
when its ultimate aim is to accord with fact,
and in another when its ultimate aim is to give wings to fancy.

着眼于发挥想象力的作家和着眼于说理的作家在使用语言方面具有根本性的区别。
在说理时，优秀作家的目的是使用精确的词语来避免意思的模糊。
而着眼于发挥想象力的作家则常常借助于隐喻，明喻以及其他修辞手段，力求利用意思的含糊不清。
最终的目的在要与事实相吻合时，所使用的语言是一种样子，
最终的目的在要充分发挥想象力时，所使用的语言又是另一种样子。

And, lastly, the difference between imaginative literature and expository writing
calls for different types of criticism on the reader’s part.
Aristotle pointed out that
“the standard of correctness is not the same in poetry and politics,”
which we can generalize by saying
that the soundness of a fictional narrative is not to be judged in the same way
as the soundness of a scientific or philosophical exposition.
In the latter, the standard is objective truth;
in the former, internal plausibility.
To be true in its own way, fiction need not portray the world as it actually is.
Its truth is not that of simple factual realism or representation.
Its truth depends upon an internal necessity and probability.
Characters and action must fit together to make the narrative a likely story.
However fanciful the story may be,
it has the ring of truth if it is believable as we read it—
if we can feel at home in the world that the imaginative writer has created for us.

最后，文学作品与说明性作品之间的区别，要求读者进行不同种类的批评。
亚里士多德指出：“在诗歌和政治方面，正确的标准是不一样的”，
推而广之便是，
我们不应该用判断科学或哲学阐述正确与否的方式来判断文学叙述的正确与否。
就科学或哲学阐述来说，正确的标准是客观真实性；
就文学叙述来说，标准则是内在的似真性。
真实的文学作品无需如实地描绘世界。
其真实性并不是简单的写实主义或对事实的简单描述。
其真实性取决于内在的必要性和可能性。
人物与情节相互配合，便会使叙述读起来像一个故事。
但不管故事多么富有想象力，若要使人相信它的话，
也就是说，若要使人在作家创造的世界中感到舒适的话，
故事就必须具有表面上的真实性。

The differences that we have pointed out between imaginative and expository writing
should not be allowed to obscure the fact that there are mixed works—
works which somehow participate in the qualities of both types.
One example of this will suffice.
Historical narratives are, in a way,
mixtures of poetic and scientific or philosophical writing.
They offer us knowledge or information about the past,
gained by methodical investigation or research,
but that knowledge or information comes to us in the form of a story,
with a sequence of events, a cast of characters, and a plot.
Hence histories must be read in both ways.
They must be judged by the standard of objective truth—truth of fact—
and also by the standard of internal plausibility—truth of fiction.

上面我们指出了文学作品与说明性作品之间的区别，
但这不应掩盖这样一个事实，即还有一些混合型的作品，
所谓混合型的作品就是兼具上述两种作品性质的作品。
在这方面只举一个例子就够了。
历史叙述在某种程度上是文学作品与科学或哲学作品的混合物。
它们通过有条理的考察或研究向我们提供有关过去的知识或信息，
但这种知识或信息是以故事的形式呈现在我们面前的，
具有一系列的事件，众多的人物和相互纠缠的情节。
因此，应该用两种方式阅读历史著作。
一方面应该用客观真实性（即事实是否真实）的标准评价它们，
另一方面应该用内在的似真性（即想象是否真实）的标准评价它们。

** Some Further Suggestions to the Reader  对读者的另一些建议

One way of putting into practice the rules of reading outlined in the preceding pages
is to read with a pencil in hand—
to mark the pages being read, without scruples about damaging the volume.
Marking a book is not an act of mutilation, but one of love.
Of course, no one should mark a book that one does not own.
But the books that we buy, we are at liberty to mark or write in as we read.

实施上述规则的一种方法，是在阅读时手里拿一支铅笔，
用来一边读一边作记号，
而不必顾忌这样做是否会损坏所读的书。
在书上作记号不是损坏书的行为，而是热爱书的行为。
当然，不应该在他人的书上作记号。
但如果书是自己买的，
就可以一边读一边自由地在书上作记号或写写划划。

Buying a book is only a prelude to owning it.
To own a book involves more than
paying for it and putting it on the shelf in one’s home.
Full ownership comes only to those
who have made the books they have bought part of themselves—
by absorbing and digesting them.
The well-marked pages of a much-handled volume
constitute one of the surest indications that this has taken place.

购买一本书只是拥有一本书的开端。
拥有一本书不仅仅是用钱购买它，把它放在家里的书架上。
人们只有通过吸收和消化，把所购买的书变成了自己的一部分，
才能完全拥有所购买的书。
一本书被翻得很旧，记号很多，
是它已被人完全拥有的最可靠标记之一。

Too many persons make the mistake
of substituting economic possession or physical proprietorship for intellectual ownership.
They substitute a sense of power over the physical book
for a genuine grasp of its contents.
Having a fine library does not prove
that its legal owner has a mind enriched by books.
It proves only that he was rich enough to buy them.
If someone has a handsome collection of volumes—unread, untouched—
we know that this person regards books as part of the home furnishings.
But if the books, many or few, are dog-eared and dilapidated,
shaken and loosened by continual use,
marked and scribbled in from cover to cover,
then we know that the owner has come into the full ownership of the books.

许多人都错误地用经济上的占有或物质上的所有权代替智力上的占有，这样的人太多了。
他们用占有书本代替真正掌握书的内容。
拥有藏书丰富的藏书室，并不证明其合法所有者的头脑已被藏书所丰富，
而只是证明他很富有，买得起这些书。
如果一个人在书架上摆满了书，书没有翻过，也没有碰过，
那就可以知道这个人把书籍看作是家庭陈设的一部分。
但如果这个人的许多书或一些书显得很破旧，书页有被折过角的痕迹，
由于经常翻阅而变得松垮，从头至尾涂涂划划地有许多记号，
那就可以知道，这个人已开始完全拥有他的书籍。

Why is marking a book so important a part of reading it?
It helps to keep you awake while reading—
not merely conscious, but mentally alert.
And since reading, if it is an active process, involves thinking,
and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written,
writing in the book enables readers to express their thoughts while reading.
Marking a book thus turns the reader into a writer, engaged, as it were,
in a conversation with the author.

为什么在书上作记号是阅读过程极为重要的组成部分呢？
在书上作记号有助于使你读书时保持头脑清醒，
不仅神志保持清醒，而且头脑保持警觉。
此外，读书如果是一积极的过程，就得进行思维，
而思维是要用语言来表达的，无论是口头的，还是书面的，
所以，在书上写写划划使读者可以在读书时表达思想。
由此可见，在书上作记号可以把读者转变为作家，就像是在与作者对话。

There are many ways of marking a book intelligently and fruitfully.
As one discovers the terms, propositions, and arguments in an expository work,
one can mark them by underlining or by asterisks, vertical lines, or arrows in the margin.
Key words or phrases can be circled;
the successive steps of an argument can be numbered in the margin.
Imaginative works can be similarly treated:
underlining or marginal notations can be used to mark significant developments
in character, crucial turns in plot, or revelations of insight by the author himself.
In addition, one should not hesitate to use the margin, or the top or bottom of the page,
to record questions that the text arouses in one’s mind,
or to jot down one’s own comments about the significance of what is being read.

有许多在书上作记号的好办法。
在说明性作品中发现术语，命题和论点时，
可以用划线，在页边加星号，划竖线或画箭号等方法作记号。
关键的词语或短语可以用圆圈圈起来；
对于某一论点的步步展开，可以在页边空白处编上号码。
文学作品也可以照此办理：
可以用加线或在页边作记号的方法标出人物性格的重要发展，情节的决定性转变或作者的真知灼见。
另外，还应毫不犹豫地利用页边空白处或书页上的顶部和底部，
记下阅读过程中在头脑中产生的问题，或记下自己的心得。

The margins of a book, or the space between its lines,
may not afford enough room to record the thoughts of intensive readers.
In that case, they should read with a scratch pad in hand.
The sheets of paper on which the notations have been made
can then be inserted into the book at appropriate places.

页边空白处或行与行之间的空隙，也许不足以记下细心读者的思想。
在这种情况下，读书时就应该预备一个便笺簿，
从而可以把作满记号的纸条插入书中的适当地方。

The person who marks a book
cannot read it as quickly as one who reads it passively
or merely flips its pages inattentively.
Far from being an objection to marking books,
this fact constitutes one of the strongest recommendations for doing it.
It is a widely prevalent fallacy
that speed of reading is a measure of intelligence.
There is no right speed for intelligent reading.
Some things should be read quickly and effortlessly,
some should be read slowly and even laboriously.
The sign of intelligence in reading is the ability
to read different things differently according to their worth.
With regard to the great books, or with regard to the selections in this set,
the point is not to see how many of them you can get through,
but rather to see how many can get through you—
how many you can make your own.

在书上作记号的人不会像消极地读书或心不在焉地只是翻书页的人读得那么快。
读得慢非但不是反对作记号的理由，
反而是建议人们做记号的最强有力的理由之一。
一种普遍的错误观点是：衡量速度是衡量智力高低的尺度。
实际上并不存在能衡量出智力高低的阅读速度。
有些东西应该很快地，不费力地阅读，
有些东西应该慢慢地，甚或吃力地阅读。
在读书方面，智力高的表现是能够根据书的价值以不同方法阅读不同的书。
对于《西方世界名著》中的作品来说，或对于本套书选录的作品来说，
重要的不是看你能读完多少部作品，而是看你能消化多少部作品，
也就是看你能真正掌握多少部作品。

Most things worth reading carefully
are likely to present some difficulties to the reader on a first reading.
These difficulties tend to slow us up.
But we should never allow them to stop us in our tracks.
Readers who bog down completely
because they cannot fully understand some statement or reference in the course
of their reading fail to recognize
that no one can be expected to achieve complete understanding
of a significant work on the first go at it.
A first reading is bound to be a relatively superficial one,
as compared with the reading in greater and greater depth
that can be done when one rereads the same work later.

大多数值得认真阅读的东西，读者在第一次阅读时都会遇到某些困难。
这些困难会使我们放慢阅读速度。
但我们决不应该听凭它们阻止我们阅读下去。
一些读者只因为在阅读过程中不能充分理解某些说法或提法，便完全停顿下来，
他们未认识到，谁都不可能在第一次阅读一部重要作品时就完全理解它。
想对于以后一读再读同一部作品所能达到的愈来愈深的理解程度而言，
第一次阅读肯定是一次较为肤浅的阅读。

Readers who realize this should adopt the following rule
in reading worthwhile materials for the first time.
The rule is simply to read the work through
without stopping to puzzle out the things
one does not fully understand on that first reading.
Failure to clear all the hurdles should not lead one to give up the race.
The things which may be stumbling blocks on the first reading
can be surmounted on later readings,
but only if they are not allowed to become insuperable obstacles
that prevent the first reading from being completed.

读者认识到这一点，就应该在第一次阅读某一篇好作品时遵循以下规则。
这条规则很简单，就是通读完这篇作品，
而不要停下来苦思冥想第一次阅读时不完全理解的事情。
未能跨过所有的栏架就不应该退出比赛。
第一次阅读中可能是障碍的东西，在以后的阅读中是可以被克服的，
条件只不过是不要让它们成为不可逾越的障碍，妨碍完成第一次阅读。

Readers should pay attention to what they can understand,
and not be stopped by what they do not immediately grasp.
Go right on reading past the point where you have difficulties in understanding,
and you will soon come again to paragraphs and pages that you readily understand.
Read the work through,
undeterred by paragraphs, arguments, names, references, and allusions that escape you.
If you let yourself get tripped up by any of these stumbling blocks,
if you get stalled by them, you are lost.
In most cases, it is not possible to puzzle the thing out by sticking to it.
You will have a much better chance of understanding it on a second reading,
but that requires you to have read the work through at least once.

第一次阅读某一部作品的人，应该把注意力放在他所理解的东西上，
而不应被他没有马上理解的东西卡住。
他应径直读下去，跨过不好理解的地方，
这样很快又会看到好理解的段落和篇页。
她应把整部作品读完，而不要被暂时不理解的段落，论点，名称，说法和提法所阻止住。
如果他听凭这些障碍把他绊倒，听凭这些障碍阻止他前进，那他就输了。
在大多数情况下，他停下来苦思冥想也许并不能解决问题。
他在第二次阅读时很可能豁然开朗，
但这要求他至少要读 *完* 一遍作品。

Reading it through the first time, however superficially,
breaks the crust of the book or work in hand.
It enables readers to get the feel or general sense of what they are reading,
and some grasp,however incomplete, of what it is all about.
It is necessary to get some grasp of the whole
before we can see the parts in their true perspective—or,
sometimes, in any perspective at all.

读完第一遍，不管是多么肤浅的一遍，都会把手上拿的书或作品的外壳打破。
读者由此可以感觉到正在读的是什么，并且可以在某种程度上理解，不管是多么的不全面，所读的书说的是什么。
他首先必须对整体有某种了解，才能正确地理解各个组成部分，
而有时只有对整体有所了解，才谈得上理解各个组成部分。

Most of us were taught in school
to pay attention to the things we did not understand.
We were told to go to a dictionary when we met with an unfamiliar word.
We were told to go to an encyclopedia or some other reference work
when we were confronted with allusions or statements we did not understand.
We were told to consult footnotes, scholarly commentaries,
or other secondary sources in order to get help.
Unfortunately, we never received worse advice.

我们大多数人在学校读书时都受到过这样的教导，
要把注意力集中在自己不懂的东西上。
我们被告知，在遇到生词时，要查字典。
在遇到不理解的提法或说法时，
要去查阅百科全书或其他参考书。
我们被告知，要查看脚注，注解或其他辅助型材料，以求得帮助。
遗憾的是，我们得到的这些劝告都是最糟糕的劝告。

The tremendous pleasure that comes from reading Shakespeare
was spoiled for generations of high school students
who were forced to go through Julius Caesar or Macbeth scene by scene,
to look up all the words new to them in a glossary,
and to study all the scholarly footnotes.
As a result, they never read a play of Shakespeare’s.
By the time they got to the end of it,
they had forgotten the beginning and lost sight of the whole.
Instead of being forced to take this pedantic approach,
they should have been encouraged to read the play through at one sitting
and discuss what they got out of that first quick reading.
Only then, if at all, would they have been ready to study the play carefully,
and closely, because they would have understood enough of it to be able to learn more.

一代又一代的高中生在阅读莎士比亚的作品时本应得到的那种巨大享受都被破坏了，
因为他们不得不一幕一幕地仔细阅读《朱利安.凯撒》或《麦克佩斯》，
不得不在词汇表中查寻所有生词，
不得不细读所有脚注。
结果，他们从未完整地读过莎士比亚的戏剧。
读到结尾时，已忘了开头，已看不到整体。
不应强迫他们采用这种学究式的阅读方法，
而应鼓励他们坐下来一口气读完一个剧本，
然后便讨论这种快速的初读给他们留下的印象。
只有在此时，才可以说他们为认真仔细地阅读剧本做好了准备，
因为只有在这时，他们对剧本有了足够了解，才能有能力学习更多的东西。

What is true of reading a play by Shakespeare applies with equal force
to all the works included in this set,
both the fiction and the nonfiction.
What first readers of these works will understand by reading each of them through—
even if it is only 50 percent or less—
will help them to make the additional effort later
to go back to the difficult places which they wisely passed over on the first reading.
Even if they do not go back,
understanding 50 percent of something really worth reading
is much better than not understanding it at all,
which will certainly be the case if they allow themselves to be stopped
by the first difficult passage they come to.

阅读莎士比亚剧本所应采用的方法，同样适用于本套书中的所有作品，
无论是文学作品还是非文学作品。
读者第一次从头到尾读完每一篇作品所理解的东西（即便不到50%），
会帮助他再次阅读时理解他第一次阅读时聪明地跳过去的那些不好懂的地方。
即使他不在读第二遍了，
理解了50%真正值得读的东西，也要比一无所获强得多，
而如果他听凭被所遇到第一个难懂的段落卡住，他就肯定会一无所获。

There are some technical books—usually written by professors for professors,
and in the jargon of the trade—
which are not only difficult for first readers,
but impossible for the nonprofessional to understand by any means.
Such books are difficult because they are written in a way
that is not intended for the person of ordinary background and training.
In contrast, the great books, and to a lesser extent the masterpieces included in this set,
are difficult for a quite different reason.

有些专业书籍是教授写给教授看的，使用有关专业的行话写成的，
不仅第一次阅读的人很难看懂，而且非专业人员无论如何是无法理解的。
这样的书籍之所以难懂，是因为它们不是写给普通人看的。
与此相对照，《西方世界名著》中的那些伟大作品，
以及在较小程度上，本套书收录的那些杰作，之所以难懂，则是由于完全不同的原因。

It is not because the author has not tried to be clear to the ordinary reader.
It is not because the author is not a good writer.
The difficulty, where it exists,
lies in the subject matters being treated
and in the ideas being conveyed.
Precisely because the authors of /Great Books of the Western World/
and the writers represented in /Gateway to the Great Books/
have a mastery of these difficult subject matters or ideas,
do they have the power to deal with them as simply and clearly as possible.
Hence they make such material as easy as it can be made for the reader.

不是因为作者没有尽力使一般读者理解自己。
也不是因为作者不是优秀作家。
假如理解有困难的话，则困难是在作者所处理的题材上和作者所表达的思想上。
恰恰因为《西方世界名著》的作者和本套书的作者掌握了这些不好处理的题材或思想，
他们才有能力尽可能简单，尽可能清晰地处理它们。
因此，他们所做的，实际上是使这些题材尽可能容易地被读者所接受。

No major subject of human interest, nor any basic idea,
need be a closed book to the ordinary person.
On every one of them, there exist great books or masterpieces of writing
which afford enlightenment to anyone who will make the effort to read them.
However difficult the subject matter being treated or the idea being expounded,
these writings help ordinary and inexpert readers to make some headway in understanding
if they will only follow the rule of cracking a tough nut
by applying pressure at the softest spot.
That, in other words, is the rule of paying maximum attention to what you do understand,
and not being deterred by what you fail to understand,
on the first reading of these works.

人类感兴趣的不论哪个重大题材，不论哪一种基本思想，
不会是普通人所无法理解的。
无论是哪一重大题材，也无论是哪一种基本思想，都有伟大的或优秀的作品论述它们，
只要人们努力去读它们，就会受到启发。
不管所处理的题材或所阐述的思想多么不好理解，
没有经验的普通读者只要遵循避实就虚的原则，
这些作品就会帮助他们在理解这些题材或思想方面取得某些进展。
所谓避实就虚的原则，就是在第一次阅读这些作品时，
尽量把注意力集中在你所理解的的内容上，
而不要受阻于你所不理解的内容。

** A Word About What Follows有关本导言随后几部分的简要说明

The succeeding sections of this introductory essay
will attempt to acquaint the reader with the four types of subject matter
which are represented in /Gateway to the Great Books/.
Section II will discuss the works of the imagination that are included in Volumes 2–5;
Section III, the writings about man and society that are included in Volumes 6 and 7;
Section IV, the works in natural science and in mathematics that are included in Volumes 8 and 9; and
Section V, the philosophical writings that are included in Volume 10.

本导言接下来的几部分，将力图使读者对本套书中出现的题材有所了解。
第二部分将讨论富于想象力的作品，这些作品收录在第1至4卷中；
第三部分讨论有关人与社会的著作，这些著作收录在第5和第6卷中；
第四部分讨论自然科学和数学方面的著作，这些著作收录在第7和第8卷中；
第五部分讨论哲学著作，这些著作收录在第9卷中。

Each of these sections will try to provide a general framework
in which the writings indicated above can be read.
Illustrative materials from /Great Books of the Western World/,
as well as references to particular selections in /Gateway to the Great Books/,
will be utilized to bring readers face to face
with the ideas and themes appropriate to each kind of writing,
and to fill them in on the basic background in each field.
In addition, reference will be made from time to time to the /Syntopicon/,
the index to the great ideas,
which comprises Volumes 1 and 2 in /Great Books of the Western World/.
The quotations from the /Syntopicon/ are drawn from the introductions
which open its chapters, 102 in all, one on each of the great ideas.[2]

[2]The reader who wishes to become acquainted with the 102 great ideas
will find them listed on the rear end papers of the volumes of the Syntopicon in /Great Books of the Western World/.
The list of authors included in that set appears in the front endpapers of those volumes.

上述各部分将试图提供整体框架，
以帮助读者阅读有关的作品。
将利用《西方世界名著》和《西方名著入门》中的有关说明性材料，
使读者直接接触每一类作品的思想和主题，
了解各领域的基本背景。
此外，还将时常提及《同题文集》，其标题是《伟大的思想》，
由《西方世界名著》的第2和第3卷构成。
该文集计有102篇论文，每一篇论文讨论一种伟大的思想。
摘自该文集的话语，均出自该文集每一篇论文的引言。

A word should be said about the style of the references that will appear in parentheses in the pages to follow.

还应说明一下后面书页中括弧内注明资料来源的文字。

Where the reference is to a passage in /Great Books of the Western World/,
it is indicated by the letters GBWW, followed by the number of the volume in that set.
Where references are made to authors or works included in this set,
they will be accompanied simply by a parenthetical citation of the number of the appropriate volume in /Gateway to the Great Books/.
And where reference is made to the Syntopicon, the reference will be to either Volume 1 or Volume 2 in GBWW.

摘自《西方世界名著》中的段落，用字母GBWW（以下译文均用《西方世界名著》字样。–译者）表示，
接下来的是出现所引文字的卷数和页数。
有时页数后面还带有字母，例如129a或321b-c。
这些字母表示引文在书页上所处的位置。
在《西方世界名著》的各单栏卷中，“a”和“b”分别指上半页和下半页；
在各双栏卷中，“a”和“b”分别指左栏的上半页和下半页，“c”和“d”分别指右栏的上半页和下半页。

摘自本套书的话语，只在后面用括弧标出有关的卷数。

摘自《同题文集》的话语，将注明是摘自《西方世界名著》的第2卷还是地3卷，并注明有关的页数。