The conviction that great effort has been made and no progress achieved is the chief of the dangers that affront10 the beginner in machine-tending. It is, I will assert positively11, in every case a conviction unjustified by the facts, and usually it is the mere12 result of reaction after fatigue13, encouraged by the instinct for laziness. I do not think it will survive an impartial14 examination; but I know that a man, in order to find an excuse for abandoning further effort, is capable of convincing himself that past effort has yielded no fruit at all. So curious is the human machine. I beg every student of himself to consider this remark with all the intellectual honesty at his disposal. It is a grave warning.
When the machine-tender observes that he is frequently changing his point of view; when he notices that what he regarded as the kernel15 of the difficulty yesterday has sunk to a triviality to-day, being replaced by a fresh phenomenon; when he arises one morning and by means of a new, unexpected glimpse into the recesses16 of the machine perceives that hitherto he has been quite wrong and must begin again; when he wonders how on earth he could have been so blind and so stupid as not to see what now he sees; when the new vision is veiled by new disappointments and narrowed by continual reservations; when he is overwhelmed by the complexity17 of his undertaking—then let him unhearten himself, for he is succeeding. The history of success in any art—and machine-tending is an art—is a history of recommencements, of the dispersal and reforming of doubts, of an ever-increasing conception of the extent of the territory unconquered, and an ever-decreasing conception of the extent of the territory conquered.
It is remarkable18 that, though no enterprise could possibly present more diverse and changeful excitements than the mastering of the brain, the second great danger which threatens its ultimate success is nothing but a mere drying-up of enthusiasm for it! One would have thought that in an affair which concerned him so nearly, in an affair whose results might be in a very strict sense vital to him, in an affair upon which his happiness and misery19 might certainly turn, a man would not weary from sheer tedium20. Nevertheless, it is so. Again and again I have noticed the abandonment, temporary or permanent, of this mighty21 and thrilling enterprise from simple lack of interest. And I imagine that, in practically all cases save those in which an exceptional original force of will renders the enterprise scarcely necessary, the interest in it will languish22 unless it is regularly nourished from without. Now, the interest in it cannot be nourished from without by means of conversation with other brain-tamers. There are certain things which may not be discussed by sanely23 organised people; and this is one. The affair is too intimate, and it is also too moral. Even after only a few minutes' vocalisation on this subject a deadly infection seems to creep into the air—the infection of priggishness. (Or am I mistaken, and do I fancy this horror? No; I cannot believe that I am mistaken.)
Hence the nourishment24 must be obtained by reading; a little reading every day. I suppose there are some thousands of authors who have written with more or less sincerity25 on the management of the human machine. But the two which, for me, stand out easily above all the rest are Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Epictetus. Not much has been discovered since their time. 'The perfecting of life is a power residing in the soul,' wrote Marcus Aurelius in the ninth book of To Himself, over seventeen hundred years ago. Marcus Aurelius is assuredly regarded as the greatest of writers in the human machine school, and not to read him daily is considered by many to be a bad habit. As a confession26 his work stands alone. But as a practical 'Bradshaw' of existence, I would put the discourses27 of Epictetus before M. Aurelius. Epictetus is grosser; he will call you a blockhead as soon as look at you; he is witty28, he is even humorous, and he never wanders far away from the incidents of daily life. He is brimming over with actuality for readers of the year 1908. He was a freed slave. M. Aurelius was an emperor, and he had the morbidity29 from which all emperors must suffer. A finer soul than Epictetus, he is not, in my view, so useful a companion. Not all of us can breathe freely in his atmosphere. Nevertheless, he is of course to be read, and re-read continually. When you have gone through Epictetus—a single page or paragraph per day, well masticated30 and digested, suffices—you can go through M. Aurelius, and then you can return to Epictetus, and so on, morning by morning, or night by night, till your life's end. And they will conserve31 your interest in yourself.
In the matter of concentration, I hesitate to recommend Mrs. Annie Besant's Thought Power, and yet I should be possibly unjust if I did not recommend it, having regard to its immense influence on myself. It is not one of the best books of this astounding32 woman. It is addressed to theosophists, and can only be completely understood in the light of theosophistic doctrines33. (To grasp it all I found myself obliged to study a much larger work dealing34 with theosophy as a whole.) It contains an appreciable35 quantity of what strikes me as feeble sentimentalism, and also a lot of sheer dogma. But it is the least unsatisfactory manual of the brain that I have met with. And if the profane36 reader ignores all that is either Greek or twaddle to him, there will yet remain for his advantage a vast amount of very sound information and advice. All these three books are cheap.
该作者的其它作品
《How to Live on 24 Hours a Day》
该作者的其它作品
《How to Live on 24 Hours a Day》
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1 simplicity | |
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯 | |
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2 cynical | |
adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的,不信世道向善的 | |
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3 briefly | |
adv.简单地,简短地 | |
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4 destined | |
adj.命中注定的;(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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5 futility | |
n.无用 | |
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6 vanquisher | |
征服者,胜利者 | |
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7 pessimism | |
n.悲观者,悲观主义者,厌世者 | |
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8 specious | |
adj.似是而非的;adv.似是而非地 | |
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9 quack | |
n.庸医;江湖医生;冒充内行的人;骗子 | |
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10 affront | |
n./v.侮辱,触怒 | |
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11 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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12 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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13 fatigue | |
n.疲劳,劳累 | |
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14 impartial | |
adj.(in,to)公正的,无偏见的 | |
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15 kernel | |
n.(果实的)核,仁;(问题)的中心,核心 | |
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16 recesses | |
n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 );(工作或业务活动的)中止或暂停期间;学校的课间休息;某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 );将(墙)做成凹形,在(墙)上做壁龛;休息,休会,休庭 | |
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17 complexity | |
n.复杂(性),复杂的事物 | |
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18 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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19 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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20 tedium | |
n.单调;烦闷 | |
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21 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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22 languish | |
vi.变得衰弱无力,失去活力,(植物等)凋萎 | |
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23 sanely | |
ad.神志清楚地 | |
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24 nourishment | |
n.食物,营养品;营养情况 | |
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25 sincerity | |
n.真诚,诚意;真实 | |
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26 confession | |
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
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27 discourses | |
论文( discourse的名词复数 ); 演说; 讲道; 话语 | |
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28 witty | |
adj.机智的,风趣的 | |
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29 morbidity | |
n.病态;不健全;发病;发病率 | |
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30 masticated | |
v.咀嚼( masticate的过去式和过去分词 );粉碎,磨烂 | |
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31 conserve | |
vt.保存,保护,节约,节省,守恒,不灭 | |
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32 astounding | |
adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊,使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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33 doctrines | |
n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 );教义;学说;(政府政策的)正式声明 | |
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34 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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35 appreciable | |
adj.明显的,可见的,可估量的,可觉察的 | |
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36 profane | |
adj.亵神的,亵渎的;vt.亵渎,玷污 | |
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