英語美文：論讀書
以下是小編整理的情感類英語美文欣賞：論讀書， 希望使你的心靈有所觸動。
STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and forability. Their chief use for delight, is in privatenessand retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and forability, is in the judgment, and disposition ofbusiness. For expert men can exe-cute, and perhapsjudge of particulars, one by one; but the generalcounsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs,come best, from those that are learned. To spendtoo much time in studies is sloth; to use them toomuch for ornament, is affectation; to makejudgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of ascholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are likenatural plants, that need proyning, by study; and studies themselves, do give forth directionstoo much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies,simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that isa wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict andconfute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh andconsider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewedand digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but notcuriously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books alsomay be read by deputy, and extracts made of them bothers; but that would be only in the lessimportant arguments, and the meaner sort of books, else distilled books are like commondistilled waters, flashy things.
Reading make a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, ifa man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have apresent wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know, that hedoth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtitle; natural philosophydeep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores. Nay, there isno stand or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies; like as diseases ofthe body, may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shootingfor the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So ifa man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit becalled away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or finddifferences, let him study the Schoolmen; for they are cymini sectors. If he be not apt to beatover matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study thelawyers' cases. So every defect of the mind, may have a special receipt
讀書足以怡情，足以博彩，足以長才。其怡情也，最見於獨處幽居之時;其傅彩也，最見於高談闊論之中;其長才也，最見於處世判事之際。練達之士雖能分別處理細事或一一判別枝節，然縱觀統籌、全局策劃，則舍好學深思者莫屬。讀書費時過多易惰，文采藻飾太盛則矯，全憑條文斷事乃學究故態。讀書補天然之不足，經驗又補讀書之不足，蓋天生才幹猶如自然花草，讀書然後知如何修剪移接;而書中所示，如不以經驗範之，則又大而無當。有一技之長者鄙讀書，無知者羨讀書，唯明智之士用讀書，然書並不以用處告人，用書之智不在書中，而在書外，全憑觀察得之。讀書時不可存心詰難作者，不可盡信書上所言，亦不可只爲尋章摘句，而應推敲細思。書有可淺嘗者，有可吞食者，少數則須咀嚼消化。換言之，有隻須讀其部分者，有隻須大體涉獵者，少數則須全讀，讀時須全神貫注，孜孜不倦。書亦可請人代讀，取其所作摘要，但只限題材較次或價值不高者，否則書經提煉猶如水經蒸餾、淡而無味矣。
讀書使人充實，討論使人機智，筆記使人準確。因此不常作筆記者須記憶特強，不常討論者須天生聰穎，不常讀書者須欺世有術，始能無知而顯有知。讀史使人明智，讀詩使人靈秀，數學使人周密，科學使人深刻，倫理學使人莊重，邏輯修辭之學使人善辯：凡有所學，皆成性格。人之才智但有滯礙，無不可讀適當之書使之順暢，一如身體百病，皆可借相宜之運動除之。滾球利睾腎，射箭利胸肺，慢步利腸胃，騎術利頭腦，諸如此類。如智力不集中，可令讀數學，蓋演題須全神貫注，稍有分散即須重演;如不能辨異，可令讀經院哲學，蓋是輩皆吹毛求疵之人;如不善求同，不善以一物闡證另一物，可令讀律師之案卷。如此頭腦中凡有缺陷，皆有特藥可醫。(王佐良先生譯)
