励志美文精华:自由人的信仰(罗素)
编者按:
人的生命存在就在于死亡来袭之前,珍惜那些使他短暂的生命变得高贵的思想,鄙弃对命运的恐惧,对自建的圣坛顶礼膜拜,不受机缘的摆布,摆脱主宰他外部生活的粗暴统治而取得心灵的自由,敢于骄傲地向那些不可抗拒的压力挑战
A Freeman’s Worship
The life of Man, viewed outwardly, is but a small thing in comparison with the forces of Nature. The slave is doomed to worship Time and Fate and Death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour. But, great as they are, to think of them greatly, to feel their passionless splendour, is greater still. And such thought makes us free men; we no longer bow before the inevitable in Oriental subjection, but we absorb it, and make it a part of ourselves. To abandon the struggle for private happiness, to expel all eagerness of temporary desire, to burn with passion for eternal things–this is emancipation, and this is the free man’s worship. And this liberation is effected by a contemplation of Fate; for Fate itself is subdued by the mind which leaves nothing to be purged by the purifying fire of Time.
United with his fellow-men by the strongest of all ties, the tie of a common doom, the free man finds that a new vision is with him always, shedding over every daily task the light of love. The life of Man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring affection, to strengthen failing courage, to instil faith in hours of despair. Let us not weigh in grudging scales their merits and demerits, but let us think only of their need–of the sorrows, the difficulties, perhaps the blindnesses, that make the misery of their lives; let us remember that they are fellow-sufferers in the same darkness, actors in the same tragedy as ourselves. And so, when their day is over, when their good and their evil have become eternal by the immortality of the past, be it ours to feel that, where they suffered, where they failed, no deed of ours was the cause; but wherever a spark of the divine fire kindled in their hearts, we were ready with encouragement, with sympathy, with brave words in which high courage glowed.
Brief and powerless is Man’s life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way; for Man, condemned to-day to lose his dearest, to-morrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere yet the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day; disdaining the coward terrors of the slave of Fate, to worship at the shrine that his own hands have built; undismayed by the empire of chance, to preserve a mind free from the wanton tyranny that rules his outward life; proudly defiant of the irresistible forces that tolerate, for a moment, his knowledge and his condemnation, to sustain alone, a weary but unyielding Atlas, the world that his own ideals have fashioned despite the trampling march of unconscious power.
自由人的信仰
罗素
从外表看来，人的生命与自然的力量相比是微不足道的。奴隶注定要崇拜时间、命运和死亡。因为他内心没有比这些更伟大的思想，因为他所思所想的一切都无它们所吞噬。但是它们虽然伟大，我们若能尊敬它们，体认它们无情的壮丽，就比它们更伟大。这些思想使我们成为自由人。我们不再东方式地听天由命，屈服在无法逃避的威力前。我们承受它们，使它们成为我们生活的一部分，放弃为私人利益的奋斗，不对片刻的欲望孜孜以求。充满激情地追求永恒的事物–这就是解放；这就是自由人的信仰。这种解放是对命运深思熟虑后产生的，而被时间精炼之火净化得毫无杂质的意识决定着命运本身。
自由人以一切联系中最强的一种联系与他的同类团结起来，这种联系就是共同的命运，他保持着一种新的视野，让爱之光洒满一切日常事务，人的生命是黑暗中的长途跋涉，被隐形的敌人所包围。为困倦和痛苦所折磨，朝向一个难以到达而且不能久留的目标前进，在前进途中，我们的同伴一个一个地从我们眼前消失，被全能的死亡悄悄下令携走了。我们帮助他们的时间非常短暂，而正是这短暂的时间决定了他们悲喜祸福，愿我们能把阳光洒向他们的旅途，以同情的抚慰减轻他们的哀伤，以源源不断的爱心使他们感受纯洁的欢乐，在他们勇气消退时使他们振作，在他们绝望时给他们信心。我们不要用分分计较的天平去衡量他们的优点和缺点，而应考虑他们的需要，考虑那些使他们受苦的忧伤、痛苦或盲目无知。我们应该记住，他们和我们一样在黑暗中受苦受难，在同一个悲剧里扮演角色，因此，当他们的年寿已尽，当时间把他们的善与恶化为不朽的过去而成为永恒时，愿我们能感到，我们从来不是使他们受苦受挫折的原因；愿我们能感到，当他们的心中闪烁着圣火时，我们曾同情他们，安慰他们，并曾用豪言壮语鼓舞他们。
人的生命是短暂而脆弱的，不可避免的死亡虽然缓慢，但一定会降临在每一个人身上，阴森而无情，这个全能的物质世界毫不容情地滚滚前行无视善恶，任意摧毁，对与人来说，注定今天要失去最亲爱的亲人朋友，明天自己也要通过黑暗的死亡之门，人的生命存在就在于死亡来袭之前，珍惜那些使他短暂的生命变得高贵的思想，鄙弃对命运的恐惧，对自建的圣坛顶礼膜拜，不受机缘的摆布，摆脱主宰他外部生活的粗暴统治而取得心灵的自由，敢于骄傲地向那些不可抗拒的压力挑战—-这些压力对其认识和判断力不过是暂时的—-他就像疲惫而不屈的擎天巨神，独自支撑着他自己的理想世界，对这种无意识力量的肆意践踏毫不理会。
1.devour vt. 吞食,耗尽,吞没,贪婪的享用
The child devours fairy tales.
这孩子专注地听着童话故事。
2.bow before the inevitable 听天由命
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