HOWTOGROWOLD罗素.doc

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1、-!HOW TO GROW OLDBy Bertrand Russell罗素（1872-1970），是一个活了99岁的哲学家。然而，他最大的魅力却不是哲学，而是文学。曾经获得诺贝尔文学奖文学中最高奖项的他，用自己的朴实优美的语言为你讲述怎样才能度过一个成功的晚年。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 to c

2、hoose 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. Of

3、remoter ancestors I 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 descenda

4、nts. 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 to womans higher education. She was one of the founders of Girton College, and worked hard at opening the medical profession to women.

5、 She used to relate how she met in Italy an elderly gentleman who was looking very sad. She inquired the cause of his melancholy and he said that he had just parted from his two grandchildren. “Good gracious”, she exclaimed, “I have seventy-two grandchildren, and if I were sad each time I parted fro

6、m one of them, I should have a dismal existence!” “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 sc

7、ience. I do not believe that she ever had time 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 nu

8、mber of years you have already lived, still less of the probable brevity of you future.3. 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 that it

9、is good for health, though in actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.4. Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One of these is undue absorption in the past. It does not do to live in memories, in regrets for the good old days, or in sadness about fr

10、iends who are dead. Ones thoughts must be directed to the future and to things about which there is something to be done. This is not always easy: ones own past is gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that ones emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and ones mind keener

11、. If this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably not be true.5. The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigor from its vitality. When your children are grown up they want to live their own lives, and if you continue to be as interest

12、ed in them as you were when they were young, you are likely to become a burden to them, unless they are unusually callous. I do not mean that one should be without interest in them, but ones interest should be contemplative and, if possible, philanthropic, but not unduly emotional. Animals become in

13、different to their young as soon 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 have strong impersonal interests involving appropriate activities. It is in this sphere that

14、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 education. But

15、 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 allowance or kni

16、tting 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 thought tha

17、t 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 make your int

18、erests 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 past rocks and

19、 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 from the fea

20、r 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 that what was po

21、ssible has been done.大聪明和小聪明都是罗素的特色。读懂了罗素，您就读懂了英语；读懂了罗素，您就会发现原来英语是那么的优美！如何变老 看题目，似乎我要讨论的是如何变老的问题，其实不然。我要谈的恰恰是如何避免变老。活到我现在的年龄，这个问题也显得日渐重要起来。我的第一条建议是慎重选择祖先。虽然我的父母寿命都不算很长，但只要参看一下我的其他长辈就会发现我在这一方面还是比较成功的。我的外祖父的确是英年早逝，去世时只有六十七岁，但其他三位祖辈人无一没有超越八十岁的年龄。向上追溯，再远的长辈中未有长寿的，我只发现一位，而致使那位老人去世的疾病在当今时代是少之又少，名叫“砍头”。我的一

22、位曾祖母曾与历史学家吉本相识，她活到了九十二岁，而且直到生命的最后一天仍然在子孙中保留着家长的威严。我的外祖母一生育有九个子女，另有一个幼年夭折，流产也有多次。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进步上。她是剑桥大学格腾女子学院的创始人之一，一直致力于在医药行业为女性开辟一片天地。她过去常向我们讲过一件在意大利遇到的事情。当时她看到一位神情忧伤的老先生，就上前询问原因。老先生说他刚刚送走了他的两个孙子。“哎呀，”她说，“我有七十二个孙子孙女，要是他们每次离开我都伤心，那我的生活该是多么凄惨！”“您真是一位不寻常的母亲！”老人用意大利语说。作为七十二人当中的一员，我十分欣赏她的

23、秘诀。八十岁以后，外祖母难以入眠，就养成了午夜到凌晨三点阅读科普读物的习惯。我相信这么一来她就无暇顾及自己已入岁暮了。在我看来，这正是外祖母永葆“青春”的秘诀。如果你尚有活力投入到你那些广泛而浓厚的兴趣和活动中，你就没有理由担忧你对的年龄，那只不过是统计数字罢了，更没有理由担忧你的未来短暂。在健康方面我没有什么可以借鉴的经验，因为我没有多少得病的经历。我想吃就吃，想喝就喝，想睡就睡。我从来没有刻意做过任何有益健康的事情，不过事实上我喜欢做的事情大都有益身心。心理方面，当谨防两种危险。其一是过度沉浸于过去。生活在无尽的追忆中，生活在对美好的往昔的怅然若失中，或生活在对已逝友人的哀思中，都毫无用处

24、。人们应该寄思于未来，致力于尚有可为之事。这并不总是件容易的事。往昔的分量会逐渐增加。人们很容易认为过去的情感比现在更动人，过去的头脑也比现在更敏锐。倘若事实如此，就应该忘记；如果忘记了，事实或不再真实了。还要谨防另一种危险：对年轻人过分依恋，奢望能从他们的青春中汲取活力。子女成年后都希望有自己的生活，如果你对他们还保留着与他们成年之前一样的关爱，否则你将会成为他们的一种负担，除非你的子女对此异常冷漠。我并不是说不该对他们继续关爱他们，但这种关爱应当存于心底，或力所能及提供些物质帮助，但不能过度用情。在动物世界中，幼崽能够自理后，父母对它们的态度就会变得冷漠；但人类婴幼期较长，这种情感很难淡化

25、。如果我们能对人之外事情产生浓厚的兴趣，并进行适当的活动，老年时光将十分美好。正是在这方面，丰富的阅历可以找到用武之地；也正是通过这种方式，阅历所凝结出的智慧能够得到运用，而不显得盛气凌人。告诉成年的子女不要犯错是没有任何用处的，因为其一他们不会听从；其二，错误本身就是教育的一个重要组成部分。但如果你是一个对其它事物提不起兴趣的人，你会发现一旦停止对子女，以及他们子女的关心，生活就会变得空虚。这样的话你需要使自己意识到即使你可以为他们提供一些物质帮助，例如给他们些钱或者替他们织件毛衣，你也不能奢求他们喜欢你的陪伴。有些老年人由于惧怕死亡而抑郁不已。年轻人有此感觉则有情可原。那些担心会战死疆场的

26、年轻人，一想到死亡将骗走人生最美好的馈赠即感到痛苦，的确在情理之中。然老年人已饱尝人间冷暖，完成自身使命，若仍惧怕死亡，不免有些可耻。克服恐惧的最好方法至少依我看就是尽量培养自己的兴趣爱好，使其更为广泛，摆脱个人情感的羁绊，直到自身周围的墙壁消失，自己的生命融入整个人类的生命。人生应当像一条河始于涓涓细流，夹于狭岸，激荡岩石之间，化为瀑布，飞泻而下。而后河域渐宽，两岸远去，水流趋缓，最终毫不迟疑地汇入大海，安详地结束自己的生命。人到老年若能如此看待生命，便不会因惧怕死亡而痛苦了，毕竟自己钟爱之事仍将继续。生命力渐衰，疲惫感日增，安息的念头渐感亲切。我愿在工作中释然而去，我知道将有人继续我未竟的

27、事业；毕生力所能及之事已尽力而为，我心足矣。1 生当如河：始于潺涓，囿于狭岸，湍流激石，化瀑飞泻；河面豁然，堤岸渐远，水流若止，终无断流，汇入大海，安然而逝。人至暮年，视生如此，所爱依然，死也何惧。精力渐衰，疲惫日增，欣然欲眠。愿别于劳，未竟之事，后继有人；春蚕丝尽，吾心足矣。2 人之一生兮，当若河流：发于清泉兮，涓涓而流；囿于狭岸兮，湍流激石；化为银河兮，一泻千里；河面豁然兮，堤岸渐去；水流悠然兮，若动若止；断然归海兮，安然而逝。人生暮年兮，如此感念，忘乎生死兮，所钟依然；力尽精疲兮，欣然欲眠。愿别于案兮，所遗无断；蜡炬泪干兮，此生无憾。 欢迎批评，我将不断改进。 愈读愈叹作者之大，愈鄙自己之小。 HOW TO GROW OLD如何变老老年人须知怎样安度晚年老年人生活艺术（懂得如何在最恰当的时候做最恰当的事，这不正是一种艺术吗）