LAYING UP

 The thrifty¹ man lays up money for his old age. The farmer lays up fodder² for his winter feeding. The medical student lays up information for use in his future practise. The intelligent, by due exercise and diet, lay up health, and the wastrel³ lays up trouble and disease by his excesses.

 

All of us lay up something, willy-nilly.

 

It is a good idea to ask one’s self, in considering any act we are about to perform, not only what will be the immediate⁴ pleasure in it, but what sort of product we are laying up for ourselves by it.

 

We are always coming into our inheritance from our past deeds.

 

97

Maeterlinck says, “There is one thing that can never turn into suffering, and that is the good we have done.”

 

This day you may have to decide between doing a thing that will gain you a thousand dollars and a thing that will cost you ten. In making up your mind it is well to take into consideration what happiness dividend⁵ the transaction is going to bring you ten years from now.

 

The world you live in is formed on the laying-up principle. Nature gains her ends as a child learns to walk and talk, by infinite repetitions. She does the same thing over and over. She is eternally learning how.

 

Think how many centuries she practised in fish-flappers, bird-wings, and animal fore-legs until she could make a human arm.

 

Let the scientist tell you of the infinite 98 trials that preceded the formation of an eye, an ear, a human brain.

 

The efficiency of every age depends upon what was laid up for it by the ages gone before. This age of coal and petroleum⁶ rests upon the long cycles of the carboniferous era, when summer after summer giant trees grew and fell, and in the crucible⁷ of earth were changed to coal and oil!

 

Nature never forgets. She never drops a stitch. What she does now is a part of what she has in mind for ten thousand years from now. The plan of the oak is in the acorn⁸.

 

“The books were opened,” says the Apocalypse, describing the Day of Judgment⁹, “and the dead were judged out of the things that were written in the books.” This parable¹⁰ is but a picture of the scientist’s declaration that our EVERY ACT 99 LEAVES ITS RUT IN THE BRAIN, making us prone¹¹ to repeat; what we feel today we more readily feel tomorrow; every functioning of body or mind, in fact, having memory-making as a by-product¹². The whole process looks toward a future man.

 

Creation is cumulative¹³. That is the meaning of evolution.

 

The human race is cumulative. That we learn from reading history.

 

The individual life is cumulative. Every day is for future days. Every sensation and every act of will, everything I do, has a bearing upon the me that shall be ten years from this time—a thousand, a million years hence—who knows?

 

Hence, if any one chooses to believe that, after this long getting-ready, Nature is going to throw me, body and soul, back into the scrap-heap, let him believe it.

 

100

Nature ought to have as much sense as I have. And I certainly would not go to all the pains Nature takes in preparing a human spirit only to fling my product at last into the ditch.

 

1 thrifty   

adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的

参考例句：

• Except for smoking and drinking,he is a thrifty man.除了抽烟、喝酒，他是个生活节俭的人。
• She was a thrifty woman and managed to put aside some money every month.她是个很会持家的妇女，每月都设法存些钱。

2 fodder   

n.草料；炮灰

参考例句：

• Grass mowed and cured for use as fodder.割下来晒干用作饲料的草。
• Guaranteed salt intake, no matter which normal fodder.不管是那一种正常的草料，保证盐的摄取。

3 wastrel   

n.浪费者；废物

参考例句：

• Her father wouldn't let her marry a wastrel.她的父亲不会让她嫁给一个败家子。
• He is a notorious wastrel in our company.他在我们单位是个有名的饭囊，啥活儿都干不好。

4 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

5 dividend   

n.红利，股息；回报，效益

参考例句：

• The company was forced to pass its dividend.该公司被迫到期不分红。
• The first quarter dividend has been increased by nearly 4 per cent.第一季度的股息增长了近 4%。

6 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

7 crucible   

n.坩锅，严酷的考验

参考例句：

• The alliance had been forged in the crucible of war.这个联盟经受了战争的严峻考验。
• Put the required amount of metal into the crucible.把适量的金属放入坩埚。

8 acorn   

n.橡实，橡子

参考例句：

• The oak is implicit in the acorn.橡树孕育于橡子之中。
• The tree grew from a small acorn.橡树从一粒小橡子生长而来。

9 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

10 parable   

n.寓言，比喻

参考例句：

• This is an ancient parable.这是一个古老的寓言。
• The minister preached a sermon on the parable of the lost sheep.牧师讲道时用了亡羊的比喻。

11 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

12 by-product   

n.副产品，附带产生的结果

参考例句：

• Freedom is the by-product of economic surplus.自由是经济盈余的副产品。
• The raw material for the tyre is a by-product of petrol refining.制造轮胎的原材料是提炼汽油时产生的一种副产品。

13 cumulative   

adj.累积的，渐增的

参考例句：

• This drug has a cumulative effect.这种药有渐增的效力。
• The benefits from eating fish are cumulative.吃鱼的好处要长期才能显现。