英国散文选读资料Word格式.docx

1、 and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business; for expert and execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best form those that are learned.To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them to

2、o much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar.They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning （pruning） by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much

3、 at large, except they be bounded in by experience.Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for grante

4、d; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and att

5、ention.Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things.Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writin

6、g an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not.Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural ph

7、ilosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend.Abeunt studia in morse. Nay there is no stand or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs a

8、nd breast; gentle walking for the stomach ; riding for the head; and the like.So if a mans wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again.If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study th

9、e schoolmen; for they are Cumini sectors.If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers cases.So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.2 Sunday in the CountrySunday in the CountryJoseph AddisonI am always well

10、pleased with a country Sunday, and think, if keeping holy the seventh day were only a human institution, it would be the best method that could have been thought of for the polishing and civilizing of mankind . It is certain the country people would soon degenerate into a kind of savages and barbari

11、ans , were there not such frequent returns of a stated time, in which the whole village meet together with their best faces, and in their cleanliest subjects , to converse with one another upon different subjects , hear their duties explained to them , and join together in adoration of the Supreme B

12、eing . Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week, not only as it refreshes in their minds the notions of religion, but as it puts both the sexes upon appearing in their most agreeable forms, and exerting all such qualities as are apt to give them a figure in the eye of the village . A country fe

13、llow distinguishes himself as much in the churchyard, as a citizen does upon the change, the whole parish-politics being generally discussed in that place either after sermon or before the bell rings . My friend Sir Roger, being a good churchman, has beautified the inside of his church with several

14、texts of his own choosing . He has likewise given a handsome pulpit-cloth, and railed in the communion table at his own expense . He has often told me, that at his coming to his estate he found his parishioners very irregular, and that in order to make them kneel and join in the responses , he gave

15、every one of them a hassock and a common-prayer book ; and at the same time employed an itinerant singing2 master , who goes about the country for that purpose, to instruct them rightly in the tunes of the Psalms ; upon which they now very much value themselves, and indeed outdo most of the country

16、churches that I have ever heard . As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he keeps them in very good order and will suffer nobody to sleep in it beside himself ; for if by chance he has been surprised into a short nap at sermon, upon recovering out of it he stands up and looks about him

17、, and if he sees anybody else nodding, either wakes them himself or sends his servants to them . Several other of the old knight s particularities break out upon these occasions . Sometimes he will be lengthening out a verse in the singing Psalms half a minute after the rest of the congregation have

18、 done with it ; sometimes , when he is pleased with the matter of his devotion, he pronounces Amen three or four times to the same prayer ; and sometimes stands up when everybody else is upon their knees , to count the congregation, or see if any of his tenants are missing . I was yesterday very muc

19、h surprised to hear my old friend, in the midst of the service, calling out to one John Matthews to mind what he was about and not disturb the congregation . This John Matthews it seems is remarkable for being an idle fellow , and at that time was kicking his heels for his diversion . This authority

20、 of the knight, though exerted in that odd manner which accompanies him in all the circumstances of life, has a very good effect upon the parish, who are not polite enough to see anything ridiculous in his behaviour; besides that the general good sense and worthiness of his character make his friend

21、s observe these little singularities as foils that rather set off than blemish his good qualities . As soon as the sermon is finished , nobody presumes to stir till Sir Roger is gone out of the church . The knight walks down from his seat in the chancel between a double row of his tenants , that sta

22、nd bowing to him on each side, and every now and 3then inquires how such a one s wife, or mother , or son, or father do, whom he dose not see at church; which is understood as secret reprimand to the person that is absent . The chaplain has often told me that, upon a catechizing day , when Sir Roger

23、 has been pleased with a boy that answers well , he has ordered a Bible to be given to him next day for his encouragement; and sometimes accompanies it with a flitch of bacon to his mother . Sir Roger has likewise added five pounds a year to the clerk s place, and that he may encourage the young fel

24、lows to make themselves perfect in the church service, has promised upon the death of the present incumbent , who is 4 very old, to bestow it according to merit . The fair understanding between Sir Roger and his chaplain, and their mutual concurrence in doing good, is the more remarkable because the

25、 very next village is famous for the differences and contentions that arise between the parson and the squire, who live in a perpetual state of war . The parson is always preaching at the squire; and the squire, to be revenged on the parson, never comes to church . The squire has made all his tenant

26、s atheists and tithe-stealers ; while the parson instructs them every Sunday in the dignity of his order , and insinuates to them, in almost every sermon, that he is a better man than his patron . In short, matters have come to such an extremity , that the squire has not said his prayers either in p

27、ublic or private this half year; and the parson threatens him, if he does not mend his manners , to pray for him in the face of the whole congregation . Feuds of this nature, though too frequent in the country , are very fatal to the ordinary people, who are so used to be dazzled with riches , that

28、they pay as much deference to the understanding of a man of an estate, as of a man of learning; and are very hardly brought to regard any truth, how important so ever it may be, that is preached to them, when they know there are several men of five hundred a year who do not believe it .3 Letter to L

29、ord ChesterfieldFebruary 7th ,1755My Lord，I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of the Word, that two papers, in which mydictionary is recommended to the publick were written by your Lordship. To be so distinguished, is an honour, which being very little accustomed to favours from the great

30、, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of you address, and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le vainqueur du vainqueur di

31、la terre. That I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it . When I had once addressed your Lordship in publick I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired a

32、nd uncourtly scholar can possess. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so litter.Seven years, my Lord, have now past, since I waited in your oout ward rooms, or was repulsed from your door, through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never ha