HOWTOGROWOLD羅素

1、-!HOW TO GROW OLDBy Bertrand Russell羅素( 1872-1970 )，是一個活了 99歲的哲學家。然而，他最大的魅力卻不是哲學， 而是文學。曾經(jīng)獲得諾貝爾文學獎文學中最高獎項的他，用自己的樸實優(yōu)美的語言為你講述怎樣才能度過一個成功的 晚年。1. In spite of the title, this article will really be on how not to grow old, which, at my time of life, is a much more important subject. My first advice would be

2、 to choose your ancestors carefully. Although both my parents died young, I have done well in this respect as regards my other ancestors. My maternal grandfather, it is true, was cut off in the flower of his youth at the age of sixty-seven, but my other three grandparents all lived to be over eighty

3、. Of remoter ancestorsI can only discover one who did not live to a great age, and he died of a disease which is now rare, namely, having his head cut off.2. A great grandmother of mine, who was a friend of Gibbon, lived to the age of ninety-two, and to her last day remained a terror to all her desc

4、endants. My maternal grandmother, after having nine children who survived, one who died in infancy, and many miscarriages, as soon as she became a widow, devoted herself towoman' s higher education. She was one of the founders of GirtonCollege, and worked hard at opening the medical profession t

5、o women. She used to relate how she met in Italy an elderly gentleman who was looking very sad. She inquired the cause of hismelancholy and he said that he had just parted from his two seventy-two grandchildren, and if I were sad each time I parted from one of them, I should have a di smal existence

6、! ” “ Madre snaturale, ” he replied. But speaking as one of the seventy-two, I prefer her recipe. After the age of eighty she found she had some difficulty in getting to sleep, so she habitually spent the hours from midnight to 3 a.m. in reading popular science. I do not believe that she ever had ti

7、me to notice that she was growing old. This, I think, is proper recipe for remaining young. If you have wide and keen interests and activities in which you can still be effective, you will have no reason to think about the merely statistical fact of the number of years you have already lived, still

8、less of the probable brevity of you future.grandchildren.Good gracious ” , she exclaimed,I have3. As regards health I have nothing useful to say since I have little experience of illness. I eat and drink whatever I like, and sleep when I cannot keep awake. I never do anything whatever on the ground

9、that it is good for health, though in actual fact the things Ilike doing are mostly wholesome.4. Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against inold age. One of these is undue absorption in the past. It does notdo to live in memories, in regrets for the good old days, or insadness abou

10、t friends who are dead. One' s thoughts must bedirected to the future and to things about which there is somethingto be done. This is not always easy: one' s own past is graduallyincreasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that one' s emotionsused to be more vivid than they are, an

11、d one' s mind keener. If thisis true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably notbe true.5. The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope ofsucking vigor from its vitality. When your children are grown up theywant to live their own lives, and if you contin

12、ue to be as interestedin them as you were when they were young, you are likely tobecome a burden to them, unless they are unusually callous. I donot mean that one should be without interest in them, but oneinterest should be contemplative and, if possible, philanthropic, butnot unduly emotional. Ani

13、mals become indifferent to their young assoon as their young can look after themselves, but human beings,owing to the length of infancy, find this difficult.6. I think that a successful old age is easiest for those who havestrong impersonal interests involving appropriate activities. It is in this s

14、phere that long experience is really fruitful, and it is in this sphere that the wisdom born of experience can be exercised without being oppressive. It is no use telling grown-up children not to make mistakes, both because they will not believe you, and because mistakes are an essential part of edu

15、cation. But if you are one of those who are incapable of impersonal interests, you may find that your life will be empty unless you concern yourself with you children and grandchildren. In that case you must realize that while you can still render them material services, such as making them an allow

16、ance or knitting them jumpers, you must not expect that they will enjoy your company.7. Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death. In the young there is a justification for this feeling. Young men who have reason to fear that they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter in the

17、thought that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer. But in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows, and has achieved whatever work it was in him to do, the fear of death is somewhat abject and ignoble. The best way to overcome it -so at least it seems to me -is to

18、make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately p

19、ast rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer

20、 from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue. And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest will not be unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do and content in the thought tha

21、t what was possible has been done.大聰明和小聰明都是羅素的特色。 讀懂了羅素，您就讀懂了英語； 讀懂了羅素，您就會發(fā)現(xiàn)原來英語是那么的優(yōu)美！如何變老看題目，似乎我要討論的是如何變老的問題，其實不然。我要談的恰恰是如何避免變老。 活到我現(xiàn)在的年齡， 這個問題也顯得日漸重 要起來。我的第一條建議是慎重選擇祖先。 雖然我的父母壽命都不算 很長，但只要參看一下我的其他長輩就會發(fā)現(xiàn)我在這一方面還是比較 成功的。我的外祖父的確是英年早逝，去世時只有六十七歲，但其他 三位祖輩人無一沒有超越八十歲的年齡。 向上追溯， 再遠的長輩中未 有長壽的，我只發(fā)現(xiàn)一位， 而致使那位老人去

22、世的疾病在當今時代是 少之又少，名叫 “砍頭 ”。我的一位曾祖母曾與歷史學家吉本相識，她 活到了九十二歲， 而且直到生命的最后一天仍然在子孫中保留著家長 的威嚴。我的外祖母一生育有九個子女，另有一個幼年夭折，流產(chǎn)也 有多次。外祖父去世后， 外祖母把全部精力都投入到了女子高等教育 的進步上。 她是劍橋大學格騰女子學院的創(chuàng)始人之一， 一直致力于在 醫(yī)藥行業(yè)為女性開辟一片天地。 她過去常向我們講過一件在意大利遇 到的事情。當時她看到一位神情憂傷的老先生，就上前詢問原因。老 先生說他剛剛送走了他的兩個孫子。 “哎呀， ”她說，“我有七十二個孫 子孫女，要是他們每次離開我都傷心， 那我的生活該是多么凄慘

23、！ ”您“ 真是一位不尋常的母親！ ”老人用意大利語說。作為七十二人當中的 一員，我十分欣賞她的秘訣。八十歲以后，外祖母難以入眠，就養(yǎng)成 了午夜到凌晨三點閱讀科普讀物的習慣。 我相信這么一來她就無暇顧 及自己已入歲暮了。在我看來，這正是外祖母永葆 “青春 ”的秘訣。如 果你尚有活力投入到你那些廣泛而濃厚的興趣和活動中， 你就沒有理 由擔憂你對的年齡， 那只不過是統(tǒng)計數(shù)字罷了， 更沒有理由擔憂你的 未來短暫。在健康方面我沒有什么可以借鑒的經(jīng)驗，因為我沒有多少得病的 經(jīng)歷。我想吃就吃，想喝就喝，想睡就睡。我從來沒有刻意做過任何 有益健康的事情，不過事實上我喜歡做的事情大都有益身心。心理方面，當謹防

24、兩種危險。其一是過度沉浸于過去。生活在無 盡的追憶中， 生活在對美好的往昔的悵然若失中， 或生活在對已逝友 人的哀思中，都毫無用處。人們應(yīng)該寄思于未來，致力于尚有可為之 事。這并不總是件容易的事。往昔的分量會逐漸增加。人們很容易認 為過去的情感比現(xiàn)在更動人， 過去的頭腦也比現(xiàn)在更敏銳。 倘若事實 如此，就應(yīng)該忘記；如果忘記了，事實或不再真實了。還要謹防另一種危險：對年輕人過分依戀，奢望能從他們的青春 中汲取活力。 子女成年后都希望有自己的生活， 如果你對他們還保留 著與他們成年之前一樣的關(guān)愛， 否則你將會成為他們的一種負擔， 除 非你的子女對此異常冷漠。 我并不是說不該對他們繼續(xù)關(guān)愛他們， 但 這種關(guān)愛應(yīng)當存于心底， 或力所能及提供些物質(zhì)幫助， 但不能過度用 情。在動物世界中，幼崽能夠自理后，父母對它們的態(tài)度就會變得冷 漠；但人類嬰幼期較長，這種情感很難淡化。如果我們能對人之外事情產(chǎn)生濃厚的興趣，并進行適當?shù)幕顒樱?老年時光將十分美好。 正是在這方面，豐富的閱歷可以找到用武之地； 也正是通過這種方式， 閱歷所凝結(jié)出的智慧能夠得到運用， 而不顯得 盛氣凌人。 告訴成年的子女不要犯錯是沒有任何用處的， 因為其一他 們不會聽從；其二，錯誤本身就是教育的一個重要組成部分。但如果 你是一個對其它事物提不起興趣的人， 你會發(fā)現(xiàn)一旦停止