本期会与你分享塞涅卡(Licius Annaeus Seneca,另译塞内加,约公元2-65年)论读书的一篇短文,收录于塞涅卡的名著《道德书简》。
《道德书简》是塞涅卡写给卢基里乌斯的124封书信的合集,这篇短文就是其中一封书信,原题为《论阅读中的跑题》(On Discursiveness in Reading),常被译为《论读书》。
塞涅卡认为“杂乱散漫和随意任性 ”的阅读没有什么益处,他提倡一种专注、深度、沉浸式的阅读,或许在今天会给我们特别的提醒。
按照《简明不列颠百科全书》介绍,塞涅卡的头衔很多,是“古罗马雄辩家 、悲剧作家、哲学家 、政治家”。
他是晚期斯多葛主义的三个代表人物之一,也是影响最大的一个(另外两个是爱比克泰德和马可·奥勒留)。他做过尼禄的“首辅大臣”,在尼禄登基不久就写了一篇《论仁慈》作为“君主之鉴”,不过最后也被尼禄逼得自杀。
塞涅卡是少数几位对西方基督教影响颇多的“外邦”思想家。据说曾经保护过使徒保罗的亚该亚总督迦流就是塞涅卡的哥哥,而传说塞涅卡自己也和保罗有过友好的书信往来(不过流传下来的书信都是伪造的)。
早期几位重要的教父哲罗姆、奥古斯丁和波爱修斯都研读过塞涅卡的作品。
塞涅卡的格言和隽语以汇编和文选的形式,在古代晚期和中世纪也曾广泛流行。随着古典文化的复兴,从14世纪中期一直到17世纪中期,塞涅卡成为最受人们推崇、并有着最广泛读者的古代哲学家之一。
伊拉斯谟在刊行希腊文新约的前一年(1515年),第一次出版了塞涅卡的著作全集。加尔文1532年自费出版了他的第一本书,就是塞涅卡《论仁慈》的注释。
在公元一世纪的时候,塞涅卡就反对过度收集图书。在他的名作《论内心平静》中塞涅卡疾言反对当时的炫耀家藏卷轴之风。他如是说:
“他们收集书籍,并非为了学习,而只是为了显摆,就好像许多甚至缺乏一个孩童的语文知识的人对书籍的使用一样——并非作为学习的工具,而是作为餐厅的装饰。”
他进而指责那些卷轴收藏者说,“他们喜欢的是书的装帧和标题。”对他们家里的情形,他说道:“你可以看到,书架上摆满了演说者和历史学家的整套著作,一直摞到了天花板。对于富裕家庭来说,图书馆已成了一种装饰,就像盥洗室一样不可或缺。”
“拥有数都数不清的书籍与藏书室又有什么用呢?他们的拥有者用尽他们一生的时间也很难通读一遍它们的标题。学习者不是受它们的教导,而是因它们的巨大数量而备感重压。专注于少数几位作者的作品,比只是匆匆浏览一下众多作者的作品,情形要好得多。”(塞涅卡《论内心平静》)
塞涅卡规劝读者说:“阅读太多的书籍会分散精力”,会令读者“迷失方向和变得愚钝”。而且他还指出:“如果你想得到那些能够牢固地确立于你的思想之中的观点,那么你就必须把阅读对象局限于有限的几位大思想家,并去精读他们的作品。”塞涅卡的建议直到最近才被广泛推崇……
下面就让我们一起来读一读塞涅卡的《论读书》吧。
塞涅卡论读书
从你告诉我的和我听到的来看,我觉得你是很有前途的。你没有狂奔乱跑,四处易地,也没有不断搬迁,搞得自己心绪不宁。那种烦躁焦虑正是病态心理的表现。按照我的想法,一个人能够独自度过一些时间,是他情绪稳定的最好证明。
Judging by what you write me, and by what I hear, I am forming a good opinion regarding your future. You do not run hither and thither and distract yourself by changing your abode; for such restlessness is the sign of a disordered spirit. The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered maid is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.
关于你提到的那种阅读方法,即对许多不同作家和各种各样的书籍的阅读,必须注意不能有杂乱散漫和随意任性的成分。如果你想从阅读中获得值得你永远铭记在心的知识,你就应该花更多的时间去研读那些无疑是富有天才的作家们的作品,不断从他们那里取得养料。
Be careful, however, lest this reading of many authors and books of every sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady. You must linger among a limited number of master thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind.
每个地方都去,等于哪里也不去,一生都在国外旅游的人,结果是在许多地方能够受到殷勤的招待,但得不到真正的友谊。对于任何一个大作家的作品都没有深刻的了解,而是从一个作家跳到另一个作家,走马观花式地阅读所有作家的著作,这样的人就像那种旅游者。
Everywhere means nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends. And the same thing must hold true of men who seek intimate acquaintance with no single author, but visit them all in a hasty and hurried manner.
刚吃即呕的食物不为身体所吸收,也就对健康无所裨益。不断改变治疗方法最不利于治愈疾病。伤口要是当作试验各种膏药疗效的对象,那是不会愈合的。经常移栽的植株决不会长得茁壮。没有一个东西会如此有用,竟至所到之处无不因之受益。有许多书籍甚至只是有害无益。
Food does no good and is not assimilated into the body if it leaves the stomach as soon as it is eaten; nothing hinders a cure so much as frequent change of medicine; no wound will heal when one salve is tried after another; a plant which is often moved can never grow strong. There is nothing so efficacious that it can be helpful while it is being shifted about. And in reading of many books is distraction.
因此,如果你不能阅读你所有的藏书,拥有你能够阅读的部分也就够了。如果你说:“但我想在不同时间里读些不同的书。”那我将这样回答你:一个接一个地品尝菜的味道,正是胃口不好的表现;食物名目繁多,种类殊异,不是滋补身体,而是戕害健康。所以,还是一直研读成熟作家们的作品吧,如果产生了转换的念头,就立即回到已经熟悉了的作家们那里去。
Accordingly, since you cannot read all the books which you may possess, it is enough to possess only as many books as you can read. “But,” you reply, “I wish to dip first into one book and then into another.” I tell you that it is the sign of an overnice appetite to toy with many dishes; for when they are manifold and varied, they cloy but do not nourish. So you should always read standard authors; and when you crave a change, fall back upon those whom you read before.
每天也要学得一些帮你面对贫困或者死亡,以及其他不幸的知识。浏览许多不同思想之后,要选取其中一个,认真思考并当天予以彻底消化。我就是这样做的。在我一直阅读着的那些思想著作中,我牢牢地抓住其中一个。
Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well; and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day. This is my own custom; from the many things which I have read, I claim some one part for myself.
我今天的想法就是从伊擘鸠鲁那里得到的(是的,我实际上是投靠敌对的阵营了——但目的是为了侦察敌情,而不是叛逃)。伊璧鸠鲁说:“欢乐的贫穷是一种光荣。”但既然是欢乐,就根本不是贫穷。贫穷的人不是所有太少,而是总在追求更多的财富。
The thought for today is one which I discovered in Epicurus; for I am wont to cross over even into the enemy’s camp, not as a deserter, but as a scout. He says: “Contented poverty is an honourable estate.” Indeed, if it be contented, it is not poverty at all. It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
一个人如果老是觊觎他人之物,时刻计算着的是他尚未到手的东西,而不是他已经有了的一切,那么,他保险柜里或谷仓里有多少积蓄,他有多少牲畜可以放牧,有多少资本可以生息,又说明什么问题呢?你问一个人财产的恰当界限是什么吗?第一是必要,第二是足够。
What does it matter how much a man has laid up in his safe, or in his warehouse, how large are his flocks and how fat his dividends, if he covets his neighbour’s property, and reckons, not his past gains, but his hopes of gains to come? Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough.
[以上中文译本摘自塞涅卡《面包中的幸福人生》,陕西师范大学出版社,2003;英文译本转载自https://www.stoics.com/seneca_epistles_book_1.html]
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