经典英语美文 （8）人与自然
The intimacy between man and Nature began with the birth of man on the earth, and becomes each century more intelligent and far-reaching. To Nature, therefore, we turn as to the oldest aim most influential teacher of our race; from one point of view once our task-master, now our servant; from another point of view, our constant friend, instructor and inspirer. The very intimacy of this relation robs it of a certain mystery and richness which it would have for all minds if it were the reward of the few instead of being the privilege of the many. To the few it is, in every age, full of wonder and beauty; to the many it is a matterof course.
The heavens shine for all, but they have a changing splendor to those only who see in every midnight sky amajesty of creative energy and resource which no repetition of the spectacle can dim. If the stars shone but once in a thousand years, men would gaze, awe struck and worshipful, on a vision which is not less but more wonderful because it shines nightly above the whole earth. In like manner, and for the same reason, we become indifferent to that delicately beautiful or sublimely impressive sky scenery which the clouds form and reform, compose and dissipate, a thousand times on a summer day. The mystery, the terror, and the music of the sea; the secret and subduing charm of the woods, so full of healing for the spent mind or the restless spirit; the majesty of the hills, holding in their recesses the secrets of light and atmosphere; the infinite variety of landscape, never imitative or repetitious, but always appealing to the imagination with some fresh and unsuspected loveliness; who feels the full power of these marvelous resources for the enrichment of life, or takes from them all the health, delight, and enrichment they have to bestow?
人与自然的亲密关系从地球上人类诞生就开始了，并且每个世纪变得愈发理性和深远。因此，我们求助于自然就好像求助于我们人类最年长最有影响力的老师。从某个观点来看，自然曾是我们的监工，现在却是我们的奴仆。但从另一个观点来看，自然一直是我们的朋友、教导者和启发者。如果自然仅仅是少数人的回馈而不能作为作为大多数人的礼遇，这种亲昵关系就会剥夺去相当一部分它在所有人心中的神秘感和富足感。对于少数人而言，这种关系在每个时代充满奇幻和美妙，对于大多数人也理所当然。
天空照耀着每一个人，但是只在少数人的心中有一种变化多端的壮美，他们每个半夜都能欣赏到天空创造能力和源泉的庄严之美，这种美没有什么光景可以使之暗淡。如果星辰一千年才闪耀一次，人们将怀着敬畏之心去凝视这种美景，而这种景色每晚在全世界的上空照耀，它的美妙不会减损，反而会更胜。同样，一个道理，我们对夏日天空浮云聚散飘忽所形成的一日之间千变万化或柔美或壮阔的景色也变得熟视无睹。海的神秘、恐怖和乐章；丛林的神秘感和魔幻力可治愈疲惫的心灵和烦躁的精神；群山的奇峻把光与气之玄妙藏于幽深处；变幻无穷的风景从不模仿或重复，永远以一种出乎意料的新鲜美丽来冲击人的想象力——谁能感受到这些奇幻事物给我们生活的富足带来的全部力量，或者得到它们赐予我们的健康、快乐和充实?