[REBORN FROM THE ASHES][comment][02.01]

AdelineShenUID: 2630498

受到金融危机的影响，美国各著名大学都开始思考高等教育存在的问题。哈佛商学院培养出了世界级的商业精英，这些精英创造的金融衍生品却给全世界带来了灾难。在市场经济、物质主义、拜金主义浪潮的席卷下，高等教育应该做些什么？哈佛大学认为，现在的精英们迫切地需要增强社会责任感，为此，哈佛在他本科生的核心课程里面增加了三门课，分别是：American History, Moral Science, Religion. 关于宗教学作为哈佛的核心课程之一，很多人都有所微词。哈佛是美国人文主义的发源地，而很多人不理解宗教跟人文主义之间的深层联系。美国人文主义之父Emerson做了一个重要的演讲——American Scholar,对宗教在社会意识形态中的地位产生了重大影响，是美国思想史上的一篇重要文献，堪称美国的人文主义宣言。他在演讲中指出：人，自己可以成为上帝对话的对象，不一定要经过教会，不一定要经过神父，每个人自己能够直接与上帝对话。把人从教会的控制中解脱出来。哈佛教授委员会的主席在接受媒体采访时说：一个人，教师或者学生，选择什么宗教信仰是他自己的事情，但是如果他不了解宗教，那么他离开哈佛的校门之后将没有办法面对宗教所产生的社会影响，所以我们无论如何要让他们在学校里掌握宗教对社会的意义这一类的问题意识，因为现在社会中宗教对社会生活的影响变得非常非常复杂，我们需要我们的学生有这方面的意识，有这方面的了解。

    以上是一个哈佛文理学院的教授在给我们讲课的时候的一部分内容，我这两天在整理他的课堂录音，看到这一篇，觉得可以拿出来跟大家分享一下，希望大家能从这篇“宗教的人文主义宣言”中了解当今宗教在美国社会中的地位和作用。文章比较长，我截取了前面的部分，后面有文章来源，大家可以去看完整的，当做阅读文章看看。Enjoy it~! ^_^

   

   关于REBORN FROM THE ASHES组COMMENTS活动的说明&汇总
    https://bbs.gter.net/thread-1042733-1-2.html

   

The American Scholar
             Ralph Waldo Emerson

Commencement speeches are customarily routine, pedantic, mildly inspiring lectures filled with platitudes. " The American Scholar ", - a celebrated commencement address delivered by Ralph Waldo Emerson to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard in 1837 defied such pedestrian description.  Oliver Wendell Holmes called this speech America's " Intellectual Declaration of Independence "  In addition to being a call for literary independence from Europe, and from past traditions, the speech set out Emerson's blueprint for how aware humans should live their lives.   

The American Scholar

An Address Delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at Cambridge, August 31, 1837

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN: I greet you on the recommencement of our literary year. Our anniversary is one of hope, and, perhaps, not enough of labor. We do not meet for games of strength or skill, for the recitation of histories, tragedies, and odes, like the ancient Greeks; for parliaments of love and poesy, like the Troubadours; nor for the advancement of science, like our contemporaries in the British and European capitals. Thus far our holiday has been simply a friendly sign of the survival of the love of letters amongst a people too busy to give to letters any more. As such, it is precious as the sign of an indestructible instinct. Perhaps the time is already come when it ought to be, and will be, something else; when the sluggard intellect of this continent will look from under its iron lids, and fill the postponed expectation of the world with something better than the exertions of mechanical skill. Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close. The millions that around us are rushing into life cannot always be fed on the sere remains of foreign harvests. Events, actions arise, that must be sung, that will sing themselves. Who can doubt that poetry will revive and lead in a new age, as the star in the constellation Harp, which now flames in our zenith, astronomers announce, shall one day be the pole-star for a thousand years?
In this hope I accept the topic which not only usage, but the nature of our association, seem to prescribe to this day—the AMERICAN SCHOLAR. Year by year we come up hither to read one more chapter of his biography. Let us inquire what light new days and events have thrown on his character and his hopes.
It is one of those fables which, out of an unknown antiquity, convey an unlooked-for wisdom, that the gods, in the beginning, divided Man into men, that he might be more helpful to himself; just as the hand was divided into fingers, the better to answer its end.
The old fable covers a doctrine ever new and sublime; that there is One Man,—present to all particular men only partially, or through one faculty; and that you must take the whole society to find the whole man. Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all. Man is priest, and scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier. In the divided or social state these functions are parcelled out to individuals, each of whom aims to do his stint of the joint work, whilst each other performs his. The fable implies that the individual, to possess himself, must sometimes return from his own labor to embrace all the other laborers. But, unfortunately, this original unit, this fountain of power, has been so distributed to multitudes, has been so minutely subdivided and peddled out, that it is spilled into drops and cannot be gathered. The state of society is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking monsters—a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a man.
Man is thus metamorphosed into a thing, into many things. The planter, who is Man sent out into the field to gather food, is seldom cheered by any idea of the true dignity of his ministry. He sees his bushel and his cart, and nothing beyond, and sinks into the farmer, instead of Man on the farm. The tradesman scarcely ever gives an ideal worth to his work, but is ridden by the routine of his craft, and the soul is subject to dollars. The priest becomes a form; the attorney, a statute-book; the mechanic, a machine; the sailor, a rope of a ship.
In this distribution of functions the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state, he is Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking.
In this view of him, as Man Thinking, the theory of his office is contained. Him Nature solicits with all her placid, all her monitory pictures; him the past instructs; him the future invites. Is not, indeed, every man a student, and do not all things exist for the student’s behoof? And, finally, is not the true scholar the only true master? But the old oracle said, “All things have two handles: beware of the wrong one.” In life, too often the scholar errs with mankind and forfeits his privilege. Let us see him in his school, and consider him in reference to the main influences he receives.

I. The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of Nature. Every day, the sun; and, after sunset, Night and her stars. Ever the winds blow; ever the grass grows. Every day, men and women, conversing, beholding and beholden. The scholar is he of all men whom this spectacle most engages. He must settle its value in his mind. What is Nature to him? There is never a beginning, there is never an end, to the inexplicable continuity of this web of God, but always circular power returning into itself. Therein it resembles his own spirit, whose beginning, whose ending, he never can find,—so entire, so boundless. Far, too, as her splendors shine, system on system shooting like rays upward, downward, without centre, without circumference,—in the mass and in the particle, Nature hastens to render account of herself to the mind. Classification begins. To the young mind, everything is individual, stands by itself. By and by it finds how to join two things, and see in them one nature; then three, then three thousand; and so tyrannized over by its own unifying instinct, it goes on tying things together, diminishing anomalies, discovering roots running under ground, whereby contrary and remote things cohere, and flower out from one stem. It presently learns that since the dawn of history there has been a constant accumulation and classifying of facts. But what is classification but the perceiving that these objects are not chaotic, and are not foreign, but have a law which is also a law of the human mind? The astronomer discovers that geometry, a pure abstraction of the human mind, is the measure of planetary motion. The chemist finds proportions and intelligible method throughout matter; and science is nothing but the finding of analogy, identity, in the most remote parts. The ambitious soul sits down before each refractory fact; one after another reduces all strange constitutions, all new powers, to their class and their law, and goes on forever to animate the last fibre of organization, the outskirts of nature, by insight.
Thus to him, to this school-boy under the bending dome of day, is suggested that he and it proceed from one root; one is leaf and one is flower; relation, sympathy, stirring in every vein. And what is that Root? Is not that the soul of his soul? A thought too bold, a dream too wild. Yet when this spiritual light shall have revealed the law of more earthly natures, when he has learned to worship the soul, and to see that the natural philosophy that now is, is only the first gropings of its gigantic hand, he shall look forward to an ever-expanding knowledge as to a becoming creator. He shall see that Nature is the opposite of the soul, answering to it part for part. One is seal and one is print. Its beauty is the beauty of his own mind. Its laws are the laws of his own mind. Nature then becomes to him the measure of his attainments. So much of Nature as he is ignorant of, so much of his own mind does he not yet possess. And, in fine, the ancient precept, “Know thyself,” and the modern precept, “Study Nature,” become at last one maxim.

II. The next great influence into the spirit of the scholar is the mind of the Past—in whatever form, whether of literature, of art, of institutions, that mind is inscribed. Books are the best type of the influence of the past, and perhaps we shall get at the truth—learn the amount of this influence more conveniently—by considering their value alone.
The theory of books is noble. The scholar of the first age received into him the world around; brooded thereon; gave it the new arrangement of his own mind, and uttered it again. It came into him life; it went out from him truth. It came to him short-lived actions; it went out from him immortal thoughts. It came to him business; it went from him poetry. It was dead fact; now it is quick thought. It can stand and it can go. It now endures, it now flies, it now inspires. Precisely in proportion to the depth of mind from which it issued, so high does it soar, so long does it sing.
Or, I might say, it depends on how far the process had gone of transmuting life into truth. In proportion to the completeness of the distillation, so will the purity and imperishableness of the product be. But none is quite perfect. As no air-pump can by any means make a perfect vacuum, so neither can any artist entirely exclude the conventional, the local, the perishable from his book, or write a book of pure thought that shall be as efficient in all respects to a remote posterity, as to contemporaries, or rather to the second age. Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. The books of an older period will not fit this.
Yet hence arises a grave mischief. The sacredness which attaches to the act of creation—the act of thought—is transferred to the record. The poet chanting was felt to be a divine man: henceforth the chant is divine also. The writer was a just and wise spirit: hence-forward it is settled, the book is perfect; as love of the hero corrupts into worship of his statue. Instantly the book becomes noxious; the guide is a tyrant. The sluggish and perverted mind of the multitude, slow to open to the incursions of Reason, having once so opened, having once received this book, stands upon it and makes an outcry if it is disparaged. Colleges are built on it. Books are written on it by thinkers, not by Man Thinking; by men of talent, that is, who start wrong, who set out from accepted dogmas, not from their own sight of principles. Meek young men grow up in libraries believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries when they wrote these books.
Hence, instead of Man Thinking we have the bookworm. Hence, the book-learned class who value books as such; not as related to Nature and the human constitution, but as making a sort of Third Estate with the world and the soul. Hence, the restorers of readings, the emendators, the bibliomaniacs of all degrees.
Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end, which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book, than to be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system. The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul. This every man is entitled to; this every man contains within him, although, in almost all men, obstructed, and as yet unborn. The soul active sees absolute truth; and utters truth, or creates. In this action it is genius; not the privilege of here and there a favorite, but the sound estate of every man. In its essence it is progressive. The book, the college, the school or art, the institution of any kind, stop with some past utterance of genius. This is good, say they,—let us hold by this. They pin me down. They look backward and not forward. But genius looks forward; the eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead; man hopes; genius creates. Whatever talents may be, if the man create not, the pure efflux of the Deity is not his; cinders and smoke there may be, but not yet flame. There are creative manners, there are creative actions, and creative words; manners, actions, words, that is, indicative of no custom or authority, but springing spontaneous from the mind’s own sense of good and fair.
On the other part, instead of being its own seer, let is receive from another mind its truth, though it were in torrents of light, without periods of solitude, inquest, and self-recovery, and a fatal disservice is done. Genius is always sufficiently the enemy of genius by over-influence. The literature of every nation bears me witness. The English dramatic poets have Shakespearized now for two hundred years.
Undoubtedly there is a right way of reading, so it be sternly subordinated. Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments. Books are for the scholar’s idle times. When we can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men’s transcripts of their readings. But when the intervals of darkness come, as come they must,—when the sun is hid, and the stars withdraw their shining,—we repair to the lamps which were kindled by their ray, to guide our steps to the East again, where the dawn is. We hear, that we may speak. The Arabian proverb says, “A fig-tree, looking on a fig-tree, becometh fruitful.”
It is remarkable, the character of the pleasure we derive from the best books. They impress us with the conviction that one nature wrote and the same reads. We read the verses of one of the great English poets, of Chaucer, of Marvell, of Dryden, with the most modern joy,—with a pleasure, I mean, which is in great part caused by the abstraction of all time from their verses. There is some awe mixed with the joy of our surprise when this poet, who lived in some past world two or three hundred years ago, says that which lies close to my own soul, that which I also had well-nigh thought and said. But for the evidence thence afforded to the philosophical doctrine of the identity of all minds, we should suppose some preëstablished harmony, some foresight of souls that were to be, and some preparation of stores for their future wants, like the fact observed in insects, who lay up food before death for the young grub they shall never see.
I would not be hurried by any love of system, by any exaggeration of instincts, to underrate the Book. We all know that as the human body can be nourished on any food, though it were boiled grass and the broth of shoes, so the human mind can be fed by any knowledge. And great and heroic men have existed who had almost no other information than by the printed page. I only would say, that it needs a strong head to bear that diet. One must be an inventor to read well. As the proverb says, “He that would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry out the wealth of the Indies.” There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion. Every sentence is doubly significant, and the sense of our author is as broad as the world. We then see, what is always true, that, as the seer’s hour of vision is short and rare among heavy days and months, so is its record, perchance, the least part of his volume. The discerning will read, in his Plato or Shakespeare, only that least part,—only the authentic utterances of the oracle; all the rest he rejects, were it never so many times Plato’s and Shakespeare’s.
Of course, there is a portion of reading quite indispensable to a wise man. History and exact science he must learn by laborious reading. Colleges, in like manner, have their indispensable office,—to teach elements. But they can only highly serve us when they aim not to drill, but to create; when they gather from far every ray of various genius to their hospitable halls, and, by the concentrated fires, set the hearts of their youth on flame. Thought and knowledge are natures in which apparatus and pretension avail nothing. Gowns, and pecuniary foundations, though of towns of gold, can never countervail the least sentence or syllable of wit. Forget this, and our American colleges will recede in their public importance, whilst they grow richer every year.



  

文章来源：http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/transcendentalism/emerson/american_scholar.html

AdelineShenUID: 2630498

good words and sentence:

customarily 习惯上，惯常地
defy such pedestrian description
one's stint of joint work
But, unfortunately, this original unit, this fountain of power, has been so distributed to multitudes, has been so minutely subdivided and peddled out, that it is spilled into drops and cannot be gathered.
metamorphose into 变质成为
The soul is subjuect to dollars
The priest becomes a form; the attorney, a statute-book; the mechanic, a machine; the sailor, a rope of a ship.
forfeit one's previlege

dingyi0311UID: 2627919

My comment
This is the second Emerson’s work I have read. The style of his work is that it flows and full of witty comparison and metaphor. The central idea of his work usually embodied in the ultimate part of his work, and only have finished reading his work, can we have a full understanding of it. in this article Emerson tells us that what is need to be a real Man is to create rather than to remember the knowledge from the past or the contemporaries. True Man need to see things forward and not limited to a scale that have set by others’ book. Even the great works of those great writers need to be read with sceptic, they write these books no elder than we now. And their books should be read when we idle. Yet, Emerson admit in the last paragraph that there is a portion of reading quite indispensable to wise men; when it com to history and exact science we must learn by laborious reading.

splendidsunUID: 2723757

COMMENT
In this lecture, Emerson empahsized two factors should be always kept in mind are Nature and History. I really appreciate his saying that "To the young mind, everything is individual, stands by itself." In other words, Emerson called for the independent thinking and rely on the nature instead of the arbiters in that field. History, as another important part in people's lives, should be fully focused. The most efficient way to understand history is reading book, which could give a broad view about "yesterday". As the limitation by the knowlege and the technology authors from different times might make some mistakes. Through laborious reading, we could know how the science move forward step by step and draw a blueprint for the future development.

plukaUID: 2721764

NOTEIt is one of those fables which, out of an unknown antiquity, convey an unlooked-for（意外的，料想不到的） wisdom
【The fable implies that the individual, to possess himself, must sometimes return from his own labor to embrace all the other laborers. But, unfortunately, this original unit, this fountain of power, has been so distributed to multitudes, has been so minutely subdivided and peddled out, that it is spilled into drops and cannot be gathered. 】

【In this distribution of functions the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state, he is Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking. 】
 for the student’s behoof（利益好处）
【The astronomer discovers that geometry, a pure abstraction of the human mind, is the measure of planetary motion. The chemist finds proportions and intelligible method throughout matter; and science is nothing but the finding of analogy, identity, in the most remote parts.】
【The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul.】
【man hopes; genius creates.】【 Whatever talents may be, if the man create not, the pure efflux of the Deity is not his; cinders and smoke there may be, but not yet flame.】
【They impress us with the conviction that one nature wrote and the same reads. We read the verses of one of the great English poets, of Chaucer, of Marvell, of Dryden, with the most modern joy,—with a pleasure, I mean, which is in great part caused by the abstraction of all time from their verses. 】


COMMENT
This passage is a little bit vague for me. Perhaps for Emerson's writhing habits or style, I actually found many grammatical confusions: sentences without verb, subject, etc. That burdened me to figure out his meaning. And I dare not to say that I done the deal well. 
Anyhow, there are some pieces that I have managed to grab. The first one, the theory of Man and Man Thinking, looks familiar for me. A ancient Greek philosopher( I forgot his name), put up ideas that there was an ideal world out of this mundane one, and every earthly object was but imperfect imitation to the perfect prototype in the ideal heaven. Did Emerson mean the ideal prototype when saying the only Man? Another piece I drew from the essay is the human instinction to convey shared thoughts and emotions through the time and space. We read works written hundreds years ago, and feel aroused by a similar surge. That's ineffable. Reading Emerson's comparision of human to the insect that stores food for unseen offsprings, I can not help feeling a little bit fatalistic. Is human doomed to prepare his offspring with the most primitive share of minds and soul, to meet some day in the future the sun, the god, the ultimate, and talk to it? That's an enthralling hypothesis that no one can defy its attraction.

qisaimanUID: 2703629

Emerson calls for independence from the Europe and claims that one day the American can be the pole-star. And then he points out his rules on reading and thinking, that is dare to create and critical reading with active soul.
It occurs to me that the importance and mystery of self-knowledge. Perhaps emerson had an adequate experience on it. By studying nature, one can read the oracle of God; by meditation , one can feel the God. But there may be several Gods. Every time when involved with the God, I am confused and skeptic about it.
He can create his own God. So do I.

zhengchangdianUID: 2563082

Comment:
This lecture notes contains too many colloquail languish that it is difficult for me to focus on its main subject without distaction. Hence, I have only learned something tiips from it. To begin with, the whole passage emphasizes that man should keep the habit of thinging independently, rather than becoming the parrot of famous predeccors. Creation just comes from independent thinking. At the same time, it encourages mankind to broaden their sight and read their professions from a higher state. To achieve this goal, it suggests that ought to approach the world more comprehensible and further. And reading, which we once thought to be the most important way of learning, needs to be re-estimated now.

tequilawineUID: 2702008

这篇文章让我疯了
The American Scholar 论美国学者
        ————国外论知识和做学问写的最好的文章
作者 爱默生

1837年8月31日，爱默生在美国大学生联谊会上以《论美国学者》为题发表演讲，抨击美国社会中灵魂从属于金钱的拜金主义和资本主义的劳动分工使人异化为物的现象，强调人的价值；他提出学者的任务是自由而勇敢地从表相中揭示真实，以鼓舞人、提高人和引导人；他号召发扬民族自尊心，反对一味追随外国学说。这一演讲轰动一时，对美国民族文化的兴起产生了巨大影响，被誉为是美国“思想上的独立宣言”。
这是Bantom classic 的版本，也可以算国外论知识和做学问写的最好的文章
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主席先生，先生们：
在开始第二个文学年之际，我谨向你们致意。我们过去的一周年是充满希望的，但也许是努力尚且不够的一年。我们相聚不是为了如古希腊人那样，进行力量和技巧的较量，朗诵过往历史，悲剧或颂词，也不是为了像中世纪行吟诗人那样为爱情和诗歌而聚集，更不是如当代在英国和欧洲的都市里为科学的进步举行聚会。

目前为止，我们聚会的节日还仅仅是一个良好的象征，它象征着我们由于忙碌而无心于文字的人民中对文学之爱的延续。就此而言，这个象征弥足珍贵，有如不能被损毁的人类本能。也许这样的时代已经到来，我们的聚会就要也应该是另番模样。在这样的时代里，这个大陆的沉睡的心智睁开惺松睡眼，它给这世界带来久已期盼的贡献，这贡献远胜于机械性的技巧的发明。我们依赖于人的日子，我们心智向其他大陆智慧学习的学徒期，这一切就要结束了。成百万簇拥着我们涌向生活的同胞，他们不可能永远的满足于食用异国智慧收获的陈粮。全新的事件和行动正在发生，这一切需要被歌唱，它们也要歌唱自己。有谁会怀疑，诗歌将会获得新生，并将引领一个新时代？就如天文学家所预言，在我们的天穹之顶的天琴大星将会成为恒亘千年的新北极星?
就是抱有这样的期望，我接受这个讲演题目－－不仅是在用词上，而是由于时代和我们组织的性质所决定的－－美国学者。时光流转，我们又翻开它传记的新篇章。让我们来探询，新的时代和事件，在它特质上和对它的期望里又添了什么光色。

有这样一个久远不可考的传说－－它有着我们意想不到的智慧。起初，众神将一个人分为众人，使他可以更好的自助，如同要分出手指以便更好的使用手一样。
这古老的传说蕴涵着一个长新而高尚的信念。这就是：有这么一个大写的人，你可以在某些个体的人或通过一种能力看到部分的他，但只有观照整个社会才能找到他的全部。这个大写的人不是农夫，不是一个教授或者工程师，他是他们的总和。这个人是传教士，他是学者，他是政治家，他是生产者也是战士。这些功能在分工的社会形态里被一一分予不同的个体。每一个体从事着整体中他那一部分的工作，人们都各司其职。这传说即指：个体人为了体验那大写的人，定要经常地从他的事工里脱离去体味整体的其它部分。但是很不幸，这个初始的整体，这个力量的源泉，已被分散给大众，它被条分缕析，那源泉被分而为涓滴再也无法汇集了。这种社会状态，有如肢体与躯干分离，一个完整的手指，一段脖子，一只胃，一个臂肘如鬼魅般到处踆巡，却不能看到一个完整的人。

这大写的人被变形为物，变形为众多的物。种植者是他走入田野采集食物，但他不因高贵的事业而受颂扬。这种植者看到的，除了他的筐子和他的推车再无旁物，他没入田地，大写的人消失了。那买卖人从未意识到他工作的真正价值，他埋头于那行当的点滴中把灵魂交给金钱。传道士成为形式，律师变做僵死法典，机工退化成机器，水手仅仅是一节船上的缆绳。

由于这样的分工，学者成了被分派出的片断知识。他应该的状态是：大写的人在思考。在目前退化的状态下，他——分工社会的牺牲品，只是思想者，甚或等而下之，成为他人思想的学舌鹦鹉。

把学者当做大写的思考着的人，他的责任所在明确无误。自然用她的平和，她的蕴意深厚的景致启发诱导他;过往的历史教育他;未来邀请他。难道人人可为学子？难道周围一切皆有益于学？难道每一个学者都是货真价实的大师？但请记得那古老的智慧：”所有事物皆有两面，警惕那谬误的”。在生活里，学者误导人群误用他的尊崇，这屡见不鲜。让我们看看在学园里的他，让我们就他所受影响来考查一番。

1。从时间和重要性出发，自然对头脑的影响是首位的。每一天，太阳和日落，夜晚和星辰，长风吹拂，绿草生长。每一天，男人女人，他们交谈着，互相关注着，互惠着。

学者深深地融入这些场景。它们的价值深植于他的头脑。自然对他意味着什么？这既无起始也无终结，不可尽解，连续不断的上帝创造的网链，那循环的永续动力又回复于自身。这情形如同学者的精神本身，它的起始和终结都杳不可考，这么完整，又这么无羁绊。它无近拂远，自然的光华照耀着一个又一个体系，放射出灿烂光芒，这光芒向上，向下，没有中心也没有边界——庞然大物或细小微粒皆如是，自然加速的向人的头脑展示着自身。
概念分类开始了。对于年青的心智，事物是个体的，它们互不相关。渐渐地，头脑发现可以把两个事物互相联系起来并发现他们的共性，之后又发现第三个以至第三千个事物的共性，头脑受着它本身同一化本能的驱使把事物连接起来，它淡化了它们的特异性，它发现了事物于地下潜行的共同根源。出于此，互不协调相距遥远的事物得以连接，花朵在同一枝干上绽放。这心智很快得知，自从历史拉开帷幕，对于事实的积累和分类就从未停止。但是，如果不是源于对事物规律性和可知性的信念，如果不是主宰着客体的规律同时也主宰着心智，分类就无从谈起了。天文学家发现几何这一人脑抽象的产物，可以测量行星的运行。化学家在物质中发现比例关系和可测量性。科学就是在相距遥远的事物中发现同一性和特性。满怀信心的学者坐下来面对各种繁复因素，以其洞察力，一一分析各种奇异的结构和新的作用，把它们归类，并归于各种规律，他模拟着组织的最细微的结构摸索着靠近自然的边界。

于是，对于他，对于这个站在天穹下的男孩，他和那天穹都同源而生，一个是叶，一个是花;相互关连和情感的联系在每一叶脉中涌动。那根系又是什么？那灵魂不就是他的灵魂？一个大胆的信念，一个离奇的梦境。但是，一旦在这灵光照耀下世间的规律得以进一步显现，一旦他开始膜拜这灵魂并且认识到今天所知的自然律只是他对那巨手的最初的触摸。他将追寻那不断扩大的知识领域，这过程伴随着他，使他成为一个创造者。他会看到，自然是是人类灵魂的另一面，他们一一相映。一个是印章，一个是印纹。自然之美有如他思想之美，它的规律就是他心智的规律。这样，自然的度量就是他成就的度量。这广大的自然他尚不知晓，这深邃的心智有待他获得。

最后，那古西腊的箴言——了解自己，和当代的智慧——研究自然，合而成为同一个信念！
2。下一个对学者心灵影响最大的是往昔的思想——无论是什么形式，文学，艺术或是制度，只要为头脑所触及。书籍是这一影响的最好形式，也许我们应该评价他们的价值本身——为更便当的了解这种影响——直接探讨它的本质。

书籍的领域是高贵的。古代的学者接触他周围的世界，并开始思考;他们对这一切重新加以安排，而后述说出来。进入他头脑的，生活;从那里产生的，真知。进入他头脑的，瞬间的事件;从中产生的，不朽的思想。进入他头脑的，日常活动;从中产生的，诗歌。曾经是僵死的事实，一变而为活跃的思想。这思想可能静止也可以前行。它有了持久的生命，它开始飞翔，它开始感招。这些活动与思想的深度成正比，思想的深度决定了它飞翔的高度与它可能的放歌年限。

或许，我也可以这样说，思想的持久与影响力依赖于把生活事实转化为真知这一思进程的深度和广度。和蒸馏程度成正比的是那产品纯度和耐久性。但是，不存在绝对的完美。如同不存在可以产生绝对真空的真空泵，也不存在这样的艺术家，他可以在他的书中完全摈弃常规，突破所有局限，并成为不朽。他也不可能完成这样的书，其中全为纯粹的思想，并全面的有益于后世就如同有益于当时，这种影响，哪怕对于下一代也难以做到。人们发现，每一个时代都要书写自己的书，甚或是，前一个时代为下一个著述。古旧的著作不能满足这样的需求。

这样形成了一个危险的误区。附骊于创造行为——思想的行动——的神圣性，延伸包容了对这行动的记录。那朗诵诗歌的诗人被视为圣者，他的诗歌也成为神圣。这作者有端正和智慧的心灵，那么，确定无疑的，他的书也必完美无缺，这就如同对英雄本人的热爱退化成对他的偶像的膜拜。一旦如此，这书就变成有害，向导就成为暴君。大众那迂缓难测的心智，缓慢地接受理性，一旦掌握，一旦接受这书本，就会久居其上，对任何异议咆哮不已。学院建立在已知理性之上。一本本详论它的书由思想者——不是那在思考的大写的人——有才能的人写出。他们的开端错了，他们从接受教条起始，而不是从他们自身对原则的观瞻出发。温良的年轻人在图书馆里成长，确信他们的义务就是接受西塞罗，洛克，或培根的观点，这些年轻人忘记了，西塞罗，洛克，或培根在写他们的书时，也是坐在图书馆里的青年。

于是，替代思考着的大写的人，我们拥有了蛀书虫。于是，那饱览群书的阶级形成，他们重视书籍，但那并不与自然或人类的社会制度发生关联，书籍成为存在于自然和人类社会之外的第三种不动产。于是，产生了各种层次的修订者，校注者，读书狂。

书能善读时，是最好的，如果滥用，就是最有害的。什么是善用？什么是阅读的目的？什么是各种手段都要施加影响的终点？它就是启迪心智，除此无他。如果我的思想为书本吸引被完全束缚，无法循着自我的轨道运行，成为他人思想的卫星而不是自我的星系，我宁愿一本书也不读。活跃的心灵是这世上最可宝贵的。每个人都有拥有它的权利，它也就在每个人的心间。尽管，对于大多数人，这一心灵被禁锢了，或者尚未诞生。生动活跃的心智洞察绝对的真实，并述说它或者从事创造。在这一过程中，它是天才的，但它不是零星分散于秉赋特异者中的特权;它是属于每个人的财富。正是由于这种本质，它也是进步的。书本，学院和艺术学校，各种其他机构，请停止重复往日天才的教诲。这教诲是好的，让我们遵循它们，这些社会实体如是说。他们束缚我，他们只向后看而不会前瞻。但是，天才是前瞻性的：人的双眼长在前额不是后脑。普通人期盼着，天才却创造。无论是何才能，不去创造，他就不属于神的精淬之流－－可能有余灰和烟，但没有火焰。有创新的方式，有创新的行动，有创新的文字，这方式，行动和文字不指说着习惯和权威，它们跃然产生于头脑中有益于社会和公平的观念之中。

另一方面，取代自我预见，这心灵接受其他思想以发现自己的真实，尽管它身处光的洪流之中，没有独处，审视，和自我恢复，心灵会受到致命的伤害。天才的过度影响是下一个天才的敌人。任何国度的文学创作都是我论点的证明。英语诗剧就已经莎士比亚化达两百年了。

无疑，正确的阅读方法是存在的，尽管这方法被刻意贬低。思考着的大写人绝不能受限于他的工具。书籍是学者闲暇时的伴侣。当他可以直接获读上帝时，把这宝贵的时光用于流览他人的复述就是浪费。但当黑暗的间隙出现，一定会有这样的时光——太阳躲藏，星辰收敛了光芒——我们去找那点亮的灯烛，让它们指引通向东方的道路，那通向黎明之路。我们倾听，有如我们述说。有这样的阿拉伯格言，”一棵无花果树，看着另一棵，结出果实”。我们从阅读优秀书籍中获得的乐趣确实非比寻常。这些书籍让我们深信，一个自然写作，另一个自然阅读。我们带着现代的兴趣阅读伟大英语诗歌作者——乔叟，(Marvell，Dryden)——的作品，我是说，这乐趣源于他们诗歌中超越时代的精粹。在我们阅读的乐趣里也包涵着敬畏和惊叹，这位生活于一百或两百年前的诗人，创造出如此靠近我心灵的诗篇，几如我所思所写。仅为支持哲学有关人脑同一性的信念，我们就应有某些已确立的和谐，一些对心智属性的洞察，和某种为未来需求所做的准备－－就如我们观察到的，昆虫在死前为它从未谋面的后代储蓄食物的行为。

我不会贬低书籍的作用，尽管有对独立体系的喜爱或夸大直觉的驱使。我们都知道，如同身体可以得到食物的滋养，这食物可能是煮烂的植物也可能是废料杂碎，人脑也可以吸收各种知识。伟大的英雄人物曾经存在过，他们几乎全部的知识，都是从书本里得到的。我仅需指出的是，要有足够强大的头脑来消化这知识。一个发明者才会善读书籍。就如成语所言：”那带回印第人财宝的，一定也要把财宝带出去。”即有创造性的写作也有创造性的阅读。当大脑沉浸于劳作和发明时，无论我们在阅读什么，它都会放射出照亮事物多层蕴意的光芒。这时候，每句话都显示出双倍的重要，我们作者的感官有如世界般宽阔。我们这时明白了这样的真实，那预言者在岁月重压下的洞察是短暂而罕见的，对它的记录也必如是，也许就是卷册中的几页。洞察的双眼在柏拉图和莎士比亚的著述中只读那样的几页——那仅有的真正神谕——其他的就可拒之门外，如同柏拉图和莎士比亚的隽言也寥寥无几。

理所当然，有一种阅读对于聪慧的人是不可或缺的。他必须通过勤奋的阅读才能获得历史和精确科学的知识。学院以相似的方式有它们不可替代的功能－－教授基本知识。但是，只有它们训练的目的是为创造不是为训练本身时，才会对我们有大助益，学院聚集起各种天才的全部光芒于大庭广众，集聚起烈火锻炼青年学子之心。思想和知识是这样的自然体，机构和权利于此无立足之地。以华服与金钱为基础，可能价值连城，却不能替代智慧的一句话或是它的一个音节。忘记这一点，我们美国的学院也许会逐年富有，但他们对公众的重要性却会衰减。

tequilawineUID: 2702008

commencement
[com'mence·ment || -mənt]

n.
开始, 毕业典礼

pedantic
[pe·dan·tic || pɪ'dæntɪk]

adj.
卖弄学问的; 学究式的, 迂腐的

address
[ad·dress || ə'dres]

n.
演讲; 地址; 致辞

v.
演说; 向...致辞; 写姓名地址

recitation
[rec·i·ta·tion || ‚resɪ'teɪʃn]

n.
朗诵; 叙述; 背诵

ode
[əʊd]

n.
颂诗, 赋

indestructible
[in·de·struct·i·ble || ‚ɪndɪ'strʌktəbl]

adj.
不能破坏的; 不可毁灭的

thus far
迄今

sluggard
[slug·gard || 'slʌgə(r)d]

n.
偷懒者, 游手好闲的人, 懒鬼

draw to a close
v.
渐近结束

sere
[sɪr /sɪə]

adj.
干枯的; 枯萎的

zenith
[ze·nith || 'zɪːnɪθ /'zen-]

n.
顶点, 天顶, 顶峰

biography
[bi'og·ra·phy || -fɪ]

n.
传记

fable
[fa·ble || 'feɪbl]

n.
寓言; 谎言; 神话

doctrine
[doc·trine || 'dɒktrɪn]

n.
教条; 学说

sublime  [sə'blaim]                           

adj. 高尚的，壮观的，卓越的

vt. 提高，变高尚，升华

n. 顶峰，高尚

multitude
[mul·ti·tude || 'mʌltɪtjuːd]

n.
多数, 群众

subdivide
[,sub·di'vide || ‚sʌbdɪ'vaɪd]

v.
把...再分, 把...细分; 把分成几块出售; 再分, 细分

scarcely ever
几乎从不

solicit
[so·lic·it || sə'lɪsɪt]

v.
请求; 乞求; 恳求; 征求

refractory
[re'frac·to·ry || rɪ'fræktrɪ]

adj.
执拗的; 难治的; 有抵抗力的; 耐火的

grope
[grəʊp]

v.
触摸; 探索, 探求; 暗中摸; 摸索; 抚摸...的身体

inscribe
[in·scribe || ɪn'skraɪb]

v.
刻; 题写; 雕; 印

tyrant
[ty·rant || 'taɪərənt]

n.
暴君; 暴君似的人; 专制君主; 专横的人

dogma
[dog·ma || 'dɒgmə]

n.
教条

seer
[se·er || 'sɪːə(r)]

n.
观看者; 占卜者; 预言家,

laborious
[la·bo·ri·ous || lə'bɔːrɪəs]

adj.
费力的, 吃力的; 牵强的; 勤勉的; 生硬的

in like manner
adv.
同样地

countervail
[coun·ter·vail || 'kaʊntəveɪl]

v.
补偿; 抵销; 对抗; 抵消

1 In this hope I accept the topic which not onlyusage, but the nature of our association, seem to prescribe to this day—the AMERICAN SCHOLAR.
2 But, unfortunately, this original unit, this fountain of power, has been so distributed to multitudes,has been so minutely subdivided and peddled out, thatit is spilled into drops and cannot be gathered.
3 The state of society is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking monsters—a goodfinger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a man.
4 The tradesman scarcely ever gives an ideal worth to his work, but is ridden by the routine of his craft, and the soul issubject to dollars.
5 But the old oracle said, “Allthings have two handles: beware of the wrong one.” Inlife, too often the scholar errs with mankind and forfeits his privilege.
6 Every day, the sun; and, after sunset, Night and her stars. Everthe winds blow; ever the grass grows. Every day, men and women, conversing,beholding and beholden.
7 As no air-pump can by any means make a perfect vacuum, so neither can any artistentirely exclude the conventional, the local, the perishable from his book, or write a book of pure thought that shall beas efficient in all respects to a remote posterity, as tocontemporaries, or rather to the second age。
8 They pin me down. They look backward and notforward. But genius looks forward; the eyesof man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead; man hopes; genius creates.
9 Books are for the scholar‘s idle times. When we can read Goddirectly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men’s transcripts oftheir readings.

Comment:
This verse prose is really a zenith for me, exhausted my long timeto digest it. However I can not naysay that its spectacular sentences, fluentand natural style impressed me deeply. Let alone the abstruse theme in essay, Iincline to learn more about its humorous and compelling illustration of hisstandpoint.

Anyway since it is just a piece of the oriental passage, then wecan grasp some ideas not totally confining to the headline, which means it hasnothing to do with the morality and religion.

As we were minutely subdivided and peddled out, that it is spilledinto drops and cannot be gathered, the truly thinker hardly exist nowadays. Butwe still have to exert to make it come true. That means we need to follow thetwo points that shall be figured out before we accept our destiny.

Spectaculor spectacular

prettywraithUID: 197049

Comments (2010-02-01):
It is famous address in American history, and I try to finish the whole passage. But I fail. After reading thousands words, I have lost in the Emerson's speeches. At last, I have to find the Chinese version of this address to read. Even if read in Chinese, this address also is hard to understand for me. Fortunately, I can catch the main ideas of Emerson's speeches. Certainly, the translating version is so brilliant that I almost lost descriptive words. And I found there is still a huge gap between my Chinese level and English level.

The American Scholar plays a important role in the academic or intellectual development, and it is still meaningful for the current world. Especially, in my eyes, most of scholars in China should read this address. Emerson stated three aspects of how to be one qualified scholar and how to set up the independent American literary, culture and academia. The first aspect is "The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of Nature" ; the second is "The next great influence into the spirit of the scholar is the mind of the Past"; the third is " Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential". Emerson's address is filled with humanistic care, and he cares more for human nature and creativity.