英语短文摘抄大全

Knowledge and Virtue

Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith.

Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman.

It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University.

I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them.

Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not, and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim.

Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants, the passion and the pride of man.

知识是一回事，美德是另一回事。好意并非良心，优雅并非谦让，广博与公正的观点也并非信仰。哲学，无论多么富有启迪和深奥莫测，都无法驾驭情感，不具备有影响力的动机，不具有导致生动活泼的原理。文科教育并不造就基督教徒抑或天主教徒，而是造就了绅士。造就一个绅士诚为美事。有教养的才智，优雅的情趣，正直、公正而冷静的头脑，高贵而彬彬有礼的举止--这些是与渊博的学识生来固有的品质, 它也是大学教育的目的。对此我提倡之，并将加以阐释和坚持。然而我要说的是，它们仍然不能确保圣洁，或甚至不能保证诚实。它们可以附庸于世故的俗人，附庸于玩世不恭的浪子。唉，当他们用它伪装起来时，就更增加了他们外表上的冷静、快活和魅力。就其本身而言，它们似乎已远非其本来面目，它们似乎一远看的美德，经久久细察方可探知。因此它们受到广泛的责难，指责其虚饰与伪善。我要强调，这绝非是因为其自身有什么过错，而是因为教授们和赞美者们一味地把它们弄得面目全非，并且还要殷勤地献上其本身并不希冀的赞颂。如若用剃刀就可以开采出花岗岩，用丝线即能系泊位船只，那么，也许你才能希望用人的知识和理性这样美妙而优雅的东西去与人类的情感与高傲那样的庞然大物进行抗争。

A Tribute to the Dog

The best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name may become traitors to their faith.

The money that a man has, he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us, may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads.

The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog. A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer.

He will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings, and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.

If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad, but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.

一个人在世上最好的朋友会和他反目，成为他的敌人。他悉心养育的`儿女会不忠不孝。那些和我们最亲近的人，那些我们以幸福和美名信赖的人会背信弃义。一个人拥有的金钱会失去，也许就在他最需要的时候。一个人的名誉会因瞬间的不当之举而丧失贻尽。那些当我们功成名就时跪拜向我们致敬的人也许是第一个在失败的阴云笼罩我们时对我们投石下井。在这个自私的世界里，一个人能有的最无私的，从不抛弃他，从不知恩不报，从不背信弃义的朋友是他的狗。

无论富有或贫穷，无论健康或是患病，一个人的狗总伫立在主人身旁。如果能和主人在一起，它愿意睡在冰冷的地上，任凭寒风凛冽，朔雪飘零。它愿意亲吻没有食物奉送的手;它愿意舔抚艰难人世带来的创痕。它守卫着穷主人安睡如同守卫王子。当所有的朋友离去，它留驻。当财富不翼而飞，当名誉毁之贻尽，它仍然热爱着主人，如日当空，亘古不变。如果在命运驱使下，主人被世人抛弃，众叛亲离，无家可归，忠诚的狗仅仅要求能陪伴主人，守卫他免遭危险，去和他的敌人搏斗。

当最后的时刻来临，死神拥抱着主人，他的驱体掩埋在冰冷的黄土之下，任凭所有的朋友风流云散，就在墓地旁，你可以看见那高尚的狗，它的头伏在两爪之间，双眼神情悲伤，却警觉注视着，忠诚至死。