英語名篇誦讀菁華 1-06 Flattery on Women 恭維女人

下面的這段文字是瘋狂宅男拜讀完切斯特菲爾德寫給兒子菲利普．斯擔(dān)赫普的書信，從中摘錄下來的。從這段描寫女人對(duì)于外表的感觀文字，我不禁對(duì)這個(gè)老男人豐富的人生閱歷、深厚的文字功底和敏銳的洞察力佩服得五體投地。

Women have, in general, but one object, which is their beauty; upon which scarce any flattery is too gross for them to follow. Nature has hardly formed ?a woman ugly enough to be insensible to flattery upon her person; if her face ?is so shocking that she must, in some degree, be conscious of it, her face is so shocking that she must, in some degree, be conscious of it, her figure and air, she trusts, make ample amends for it. If they are both bad, she comforts herself that she has graces, a certain manner, a je ne sais ?quoi till more engaging than beauty. This truth is evident from the studied and elaborate dress of the ugloest woman jin the world. An undoubted, uncontested, conscious?beauty is of all women, the least sensible of flattery upon that head; she knows it is her due, and is therefore obliged to nobody for giving it her. She may possibly not doubt of herself, yet she suspects that men may distrust. ?Do not mistske me, and think that I mean to recommend to you abject and criminal flattery: no; flatter nobody's vices or crimes: on the contrary, abhor and discourage them. But there is no living in the world without a complaisant indulgence for people's weaknesses, and innocent, though ridiculous vanities. If a man has a mind to be thought woser, and a woman handsomer, ?than they reallu are, their error is acomfortble on to themselves, and ?an innocent one with regard to other people; and I would rather make them my friends by indulging them in it, than my wnemies by endeavoring (and that to no purpose) to undeceive them.