讀書與書籍

On Reading and Books

讀書與書籍

Arthur Schopenhauer

亞瑟.叔本華

作者簡介

亞瑟.叔本華（Arthur Schopenhauer，1788—1860），德國著名哲學家，唯意志論哲學的創(chuàng)始人，帶有強烈的悲觀主義傾向。他同時也是涉獵廣泛的美學家，對音樂、繪畫、詩歌和歌劇等皆有研究。

叔本華憑借《意志和表象的世界》（The World as Will and Representation）奠定了自己的哲學體系。他的悲觀主義、形而上學和美學思想不僅影響了存在主義和其他哲學運動，還影響了一大批作家和藝術家，如威廉.理查德.瓦格納（Wilhelm Richard Wagner）、列夫.托爾斯泰（Lev Tolstoy）、馬塞爾.普魯斯特（Marcel Proust）等。叔本華雖不以文采斐然取勝，但其文章思路清晰，文字澄明透徹，易于閱讀。

本文選自2004年英譯版《亞瑟.叔本華作品集》（The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer）。作者以其慣常的獨到思維剖析了讀壞書的害處和讀好書的益處，文章充滿哲理，讀來令人眼明氣暢，對哲人的孤高情操平添幾分神往。

ONE

When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. It is the same as the pupil, in learning to write, following with his pen the lines that have been penciled by the teacher.

Accordingly, in reading, the work of thinking is, for the greater part, done for us. This is why we are consciously relieved when we turn to reading after being occupied with our own thoughts. But, in reading, our head is, however, really only the arena of someone else’s thoughts. And so it happens that the person who reads a great deal—that is to say, almost the whole day, and recreates himself by spending the intervals in thoughtless diversion, gradually loses the ability to think for himself; just as a man who is always riding at last forgets how to walk. Such, however, is the case with many men of learning: they have read themselves stupid. For to read in every spare moment, and to read constantly, is more paralysing to the mind than constant manual work, which, at any rate, allows one to follow one’s own thoughts. Just as a spring, through the continual pressure of a foreign body, at last loses its elasticity, so does the mind if it has another person’s thoughts continually forced upon it. And just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read if one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost. Indeed, it is the same with mental as with bodily food: scarcely the fifth part of what a man takes is assimilated; the remainder passes off in evaporation, respiration, and the like.

From all this it may be concluded that thoughts put down on paper are nothing more than footprints in the sand: one sees the road the man has taken, but in order to know what he saw on the way, one requires his eyes.

...

一

我們讀書時，別人替我們思考——我們僅在重復他的思維過程，就像學生依照老師的筆跡學習寫字一樣。

同樣，閱讀時絕大部分思考都是現(xiàn)成的。這就是為什么即便心里充斥自己的想法，閱讀也能讓我們感到放松。但在閱讀時，我們的頭腦實際上只是別人思想活動的場所。因此，那些幾乎整天讀書的博覽群書之人，通過這種無須費神的消遣得到了放松，卻逐漸失去了自主思考的能力。這就好比經(jīng)常騎馬的人最后會忘記怎么走路。然而，許多學者正是這樣把自己讀成了傻瓜。因為一有空就讀書，或總是讀書，比持續(xù)干體力活更容易使思維僵化。正如彈簧持續(xù)受到外力壓迫，最終會失去彈性；頭腦持續(xù)受到別人的影響，最終也會失去活力。暴飲暴食有害身體健康；攝入過多精神食糧，則會使頭腦不堪重負。因為頭腦就像一塊反復涂寫的黑板，讀過的內容越多，留下的痕跡越少，令人無從深思。而只有通過深思，人們才能消化所讀內容。如果一味地讀書而不作思考，讀過的東西則無法銘記于心，其大部分終將被遺忘殆盡。人類攝入的食物只有五分之一能被身體吸收，其余則被蒸發(fā)、呼吸等活動消耗了。事實上，頭腦與身體吸收營養(yǎng)的方式一樣。

總而言之，寫在紙上的思想，不過是留在沙上的足跡。人們能看見行者走過的路，但要了解他的沿途所見，則要借助他的雙眼。

……

TWO

It is the same in literature as in life. Wherever one goes one immediately comes upon the incorrigible mob of humanity. It exists everywhere in legions; crowding, soiling everything, like flies in summer. Hence the numberless bad books, those rank weeds of literature which extract nourishment from the corn and choke it.

They monopolise the time, money, and attention which really belong to good books and their noble aims; they are written merely with a view to making money or procuring places. They are not only useless, but they do positive harm. Nine-tenths of the whole of our present literature aims solely at taking a few shillings out of the public’s pocket, and to accomplish this, author, publisher, and reviewer have joined forces.

There is a more cunning and worse trick, albeit a profitable one. Litterateurs, hack-writers, and productive authors have succeeded, contrary to good taste and the true culture of the age, in bringing the world elegante into leading-strings, so that they have been taught to read a tempo and all the same thing—namely, the newest books order that they may have material for conversation in their social circles. Bad novels and similar productions from the pen of writers who were once famous, such as Spindler, Bulwer, Eugene Sue, and so on, serve this purpose. But what can be more miserable than the fate of a leading public of this kind, that feels always impelled to read the latest writings of extremely commonplace authors who write for money only, and therefore exist in numbers? And for the sake of this they merely know by name the works of the rare and superior writers, of all ages and countries. Literary newspapers, since they print the daily smatterings of commonplace people, are especially a cunning means for robbing from the aesthetic public the time which should be devoted to the genuine productions of art for the furtherance of culture.

Hence, in regard to our subject, the art of not reading is highly important. This consists in not taking a book into one’s hand merely because it is interesting the great public at the time—such as political or religious pamphlets, novels, poetry, and the like, which make a noise and reach perhaps several editions in their first and last years of existence. Remember rather that the man who writes for fools always finds a large public, and only read for a limited and definite time exclusively the works of great minds, those who surpass other men of all times and countries , and whom the voice of fame points to as such. These alone really educate and instruct.

One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind. In order to read what is good, one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.

二

文學領域和生活中的情況一樣。無論走到哪里，人們總能立刻碰上無可救藥的烏合之眾。這種人為數(shù)眾多，無處不在。他們像夏日飛蠅一般，聚集成群，污染一切。壞書同樣數(shù)不勝數(shù)。它們像雜草一般，攫取谷物的養(yǎng)分，并將其扼殺。

壞書占據(jù)了原本屬于好書及其崇高使命的時間、金錢和精力；作者寫這些書，只為獲取金錢和地位。壞書不僅無益，而且有害?，F(xiàn)在的書有九成都只為從公眾兜里掏錢。為達此目的，作家、出版商、評論家沆瀣一氣。

還有更加陰險惡劣的牟利把戲。文人騷客、雇傭寫手和多產(chǎn)作家沒有帶來良好的品位和真正的當代文化，而是成功地引導了世界的審美風向，讓人們養(yǎng)成與出版同步的閱讀習慣，讀同樣的書，即新近出版的作品，以獲得社交場合的談資。斯平德勒[1]、布爾沃[2]、歐仁?蘇[3]等名噪一時的作家創(chuàng)作的拙劣小說和類似的作品，用途不過如此。平庸之極的作家為錢寫作，所以新作迭出不窮。主流公眾受到引導，總認為自己有必要閱讀這些新作。還有什么能比這些人的命運更悲慘？正因為這樣，他們對古往今來的各國名著了解甚少，只知其名。文學報刊尤其卑劣。它們刊登庸人的日常言論，竊取了具備審美能力的公眾讀好書的時間。那些好書才是推動文化發(fā)展的真正杰作。

因此，在我們談論的這個話題中，“不讀”的藝術尤為重要。“不讀”意味著不因某書迎合大眾一時的口味就去讀它。這類書包括政治或宗教小冊子、小說和詩歌等。它們或許風光一時，或許在其在世的前幾年和最后幾年里再版過幾次，然后便銷聲匿跡。切記，寫給傻瓜看的書總是最受歡迎。在特定的時間里，只讀偉人的作品。這些人類歷史上卓爾不群的偉人，擁有千古流芳的美名。他們的作品才能真正給人教益和指導。

壞書讀來不嫌少，好書讀來不嫌多。壞書是頭腦的毒藥，會摧毀心智。人生苦短，時間、精力有限。因此，多讀好書須以不讀壞書為前提。

THREE

It would be a good thing to buy books if one could also buy the time to read them; but one usually confuses the purchase of books with the acquisition of their contents. To desire that a man should retain everything he has ever read, is the same as wishing him to retain in his stomach all that he has ever eaten. He has been bodily nourished on what he has eaten, and mentally on what he has read, and through them become what he is. As the body assimilates what is homogeneous to it, so will a man retain what interests him: in other words, what coincides with his system of thought or suits his ends. Every one has aims, but very few have anything approaching a system of thought. This is why such people do not take an objective interest in anything, and why they learn nothing from what they read: they remember nothing about it.

Repetitio est mater studiorum. Any kind of important book should immediately be read twice, partly because one grasps the matter in its entirety the second time, and only really understands the beginning when the end is known; and partly because in reading it the second time one’s temper and mood are different, so that one gets another impression; it may be that one sees the matter in another light.

Works are the quintessence of a mind, and are therefore always of by far greater value than conversation, even if it be the conversation of the greatest mind. In every essential a man’s works surpass his conversation and leave it far behind. Even the writings of an ordinary man may be instructive, worth reading, and entertaining, for the simple reason that they are the quintessence of that man’s mind—that is to say, the writings are the result and fruit of his whole thought and study; while we should be dissatisfied with his conversation. Accordingly, it is possible to read books written by people whose conversation would give us no satisfaction; so that the mind will only by degrees attain high culture by finding entertainment almost entirely in books, and not in men.

There is nothing that so greatly recreates the mind as the works of the old classic writers. Directly one has been taken up, even if it is only for half an hour, one feels as quickly refreshed, relieved, purified, elevated, and strengthened as if one had refreshed oneself at a mountain stream. Is this due to the perfections of the old languages, or to the greatness of the minds whose works have remained unharmed and untouched for centuries? Perhaps to both combined.

三

如果能買到讀書的時間，那么買書是件好事；但人們往往將買書與獲取書中知識混為一談。想記住讀過的所有書，就像想用胃裝下吃過的所有東西一樣。人靠進食獲取身體所需的養(yǎng)分，靠閱讀獲取頭腦所需的養(yǎng)料。二者使人之為人。正如身體只能吸收可以消化的食物，人只能記住自己感興趣的內容，即與自己思想體系相符、與自身目標吻合的內容。人人皆有目標，但很少人擁有思想體系。這些人對凡事皆無興致，從讀過的書里學不到東西。因為他們記不住讀過的內容。

重復乃學習之母。任何重要作品都應在讀過一遍之后立即重讀。一是重讀時可把握整體脈絡；知曉末尾才能真正理解開篇。二是重讀時心境不同，因此會有不同的感悟，或許能從另一個角度領會作品的精髓。

著作是思想的結晶，故其價值遠甚于談話，即便是偉人的談話。從任何角度來看，一個人的著作都遠比他所說的話更有價值。即便是普通人的作品，也可能有益、有趣、值得一讀。原因很簡單——這是他的思想結晶。也就是說，盡管某人的談話可能令人失望，但他的著作卻是他畢生思考、研究的成果。因此，言談乏味之人的作品或許也值得一讀。所以，心智的逐步提升幾乎完全歸功于在書中尋找樂趣，而非與人交談。

沒有什么能比古老的經(jīng)典著作更令人放松。拿起一本來，即使只讀半小時，人們也會感到振作、放松、純凈、崇高和強健，仿佛剛在山泉中沐浴過一般。這是因為古代語言盡善盡美，還是因為卓越的作者使作品歷久彌新？或許二者兼而有之。

人靠進食獲取身體所需的養(yǎng)分，靠閱讀獲取頭腦所需的養(yǎng)料。二者使人之為人。

Arthur Schopenhauer 亞瑟?叔本華

[1] 卡爾.斯平德勒（Karl Spindler，1796—1855），德國歷史小說作家。

[2] 愛德華.布爾沃－利頓（Edward Bulwer-Lytton，1803—1873），英國維多利亞時期小說家。

[3] 歐仁.蘇（Eugene Sue，1804—1857），法國小說家、劇作家。