It was not always thus. Though there have been previous ages as lustful8 for wealth and ostentation9 as our own, there have also been ages when money-getting and millionaire-envying were not the sole preoccupations of the average man. And such an age will undoubtedly10 succeed to ours. Few things would surprise me less, in social life, than the upspringing of some anti-luxury movement, the formation of some league or guild11 among the middling classes (where alone intellect is to be found in quantity), the members of which would bind12 themselves to stand aloof13 from all the great, silly, banal14, ugly, and tedious luxe-activities of the time and not to spend more than a certain sum per annum on eating, drinking, covering their bodies, and being moved about like parcels from one spot of the earth's surface to another. Such a movement would, and will, help towards the formation of an opinion which would condemn15 lavish16 expenditure17 on personal satisfactions as bad form. However, the shareholders18 of grand hotels, restaurants, and race-courses of all sorts, together with popular singers and barristers, etc., need feel no immediate19 alarm. The movement is not yet.
As touching20 the effect of money on the efficient ordering of the human machine, there is happily no necessity to inform those who have begun to interest themselves in the conduct of their own brains that money counts for very little in that paramount21 affair. Nothing that really helps towards perfection costs more than is within the means of every person who reads these pages. The expenses connected with daily meditation22, with the building-up of mental habits, with the practice of self-control and of cheerfulness, with the enthronement of reason over the rabble23 of primeval instincts—these expenses are really, you know, trifling24. And whether you get that well-deserved rise of a pound a week or whether you don't, you may anyhow go ahead with the machine; it isn't a motor-car, though I started by comparing it to one. And even when, having to a certain extent mastered, through sensible management of the machine, the art of achieving a daily content and dignity, you come to the embroidery25 of life—even the best embroidery of life is not absolutely ruinous. Meat may go up in price—it has done—but books won't. Admission to picture galleries and concerts and so forth26 will remain quite low. The views from Richmond Hill or Hindhead, or along Pall27 Mall at sunset, the smell of the earth, the taste of fruit and of kisses—these things are unaffected by the machinations of trusts and the hysteria of stock exchanges. Travel, which after books is the finest of all embroideries28 (and which is not to be valued by the mile but by the quality), is decidedly cheaper than ever it was. All that is required is ingenuity29 in one's expenditure. And much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity.
And all the while as you read this you are saying, with your impatient sneer30: 'It's all very well; it's all very fine talking, but ...' In brief, you are not convinced. You cannot deracinate that wide-rooted dogma within your soul that more money means more joy. I regret it. But let me put one question, and let me ask you to answer it honestly. Your financial means are greater now than they used to be. Are you happier or less discontented than you used to be? Taking your existence day by day, hour by hour, judging it by the mysterious feel (in the chest) of responsibilities, worries, positive joys and satisfactions, are you genuinely happier than you used to be?
I do not wish to be misunderstood. The financial question cannot be ignored. If it is true that money does not bring happiness, it is no less true that the lack of money induces a state of affairs in which efficient living becomes doubly difficult. These two propositions, superficially perhaps self-contradictory, are not really so. A modest income suffices for the fullest realisation of the Ego31 in terms of content and dignity; but you must live within it. You cannot righteously ignore money. A man, for instance, who cultivates himself and instructs a family of daughters in everything except the ability to earn their own livelihood32, and then has the impudence33 to die suddenly without leaving a penny—that man is a scoundrel. Ninety—or should I say ninety-nine?—per cent. of all those anxieties which render proper living almost impossible are caused by the habit of walking on the edge of one's income as one might walk on the edge of a precipice34. The majority of Englishmen have some financial worry or other continually, everlastingly35 at the back of their minds. The sacrifice necessary to abolish this condition of things is more apparent than real. All spending is a matter of habit.
Speaking generally, a man can contrive36, out of an extremely modest income, to have all that he needs—unless he needs the esteem37 of snobs38. Habit may, and habit usually does, make it just as difficult to keep a family on two thousand a year as on two hundred. I suppose that for the majority of men the suspension of income for a single month would mean either bankruptcy39, the usurer, or acute inconvenience. Impossible, under such circumstances, to be in full and independent possession of one's immortal40 soul! Hence I should be inclined to say that the first preliminary to a proper control of the machine is the habit of spending decidedly less than one earns or receives. The veriest automaton41 of a clerk ought to have the wherewithal of a whole year as a shield against the caprices of his employer. It would be as reasonable to expect the inhabitants of an unfortified city in the midst of a plain occupied by a hostile army to apply themselves successfully to the study of logarithms or metaphysics, as to expect a man without a year's income in his safe to apply himself successfully to the true art of living.
And the whole secret of relative freedom from financial anxiety lies not in income, but in expenditure. I am ashamed to utter this antique platitude42. But, like most aphorisms43 of unassailable wisdom, it is completely ignored. You say, of course, that it is not easy to leave a margin44 between your expenditure and your present income. I know it. I fraternally shake your hand. Still it is, in most cases, far easier to lessen45 one's expenditure than to increase one's income without increasing one's expenditure. The alternative is before you. However you decide, be assured that the foundation of philosophy is a margin, and that the margin can always be had.
点击收听单词发音
1 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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2 poseur | |
n.装模作样的人 | |
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3 tyrant | |
n.暴君,专制的君主,残暴的人 | |
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4 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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5 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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6 obstinacy | |
n.顽固;(病痛等)难治 | |
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7 privately | |
adv.以私人的身份,悄悄地,私下地 | |
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8 lustful | |
a.贪婪的;渴望的 | |
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9 ostentation | |
n.夸耀,卖弄 | |
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10 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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11 guild | |
n.行会,同业公会,协会 | |
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12 bind | |
vt.捆,包扎;装订;约束;使凝固;vi.变硬 | |
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13 aloof | |
adj.远离的;冷淡的,漠不关心的 | |
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14 banal | |
adj.陈腐的,平庸的 | |
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15 condemn | |
vt.谴责,指责;宣判(罪犯),判刑 | |
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16 lavish | |
adj.无节制的;浪费的;vt.慷慨地给予,挥霍 | |
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17 expenditure | |
n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出;使用,消耗 | |
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18 shareholders | |
n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 ) | |
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19 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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20 touching | |
adj.动人的,使人感伤的 | |
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21 paramount | |
a.最重要的,最高权力的 | |
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22 meditation | |
n.熟虑,(尤指宗教的)默想,沉思,(pl.)冥想录 | |
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23 rabble | |
n.乌合之众,暴民;下等人 | |
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24 trifling | |
adj.微不足道的;没什么价值的 | |
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25 embroidery | |
n.绣花,刺绣;绣制品 | |
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26 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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27 pall | |
v.覆盖,使平淡无味;n.柩衣,棺罩;棺材;帷幕 | |
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28 embroideries | |
刺绣( embroidery的名词复数 ); 刺绣品; 刺绣法 | |
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29 ingenuity | |
n.别出心裁;善于发明创造 | |
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30 sneer | |
v.轻蔑;嘲笑;n.嘲笑,讥讽的言语 | |
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31 ego | |
n.自我,自己,自尊 | |
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32 livelihood | |
n.生计,谋生之道 | |
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33 impudence | |
n.厚颜无耻;冒失;无礼 | |
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34 precipice | |
n.悬崖,危急的处境 | |
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35 everlastingly | |
永久地,持久地 | |
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36 contrive | |
vt.谋划,策划;设法做到;设计,想出 | |
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37 esteem | |
n.尊敬,尊重;vt.尊重,敬重;把…看作 | |
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38 snobs | |
(谄上傲下的)势利小人( snob的名词复数 ); 自高自大者,自命不凡者 | |
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39 bankruptcy | |
n.破产;无偿付能力 | |
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40 immortal | |
adj.不朽的;永生的,不死的;神的 | |
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41 automaton | |
n.自动机器,机器人 | |
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42 platitude | |
n.老生常谈,陈词滥调 | |
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43 aphorisms | |
格言,警句( aphorism的名词复数 ) | |
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44 margin | |
n.页边空白;差额;余地,余裕;边,边缘 | |
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45 lessen | |
vt.减少,减轻;缩小 | |
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