Of Custom
He seems to me to have had a right and true apprehension of the power of custom, who first invented the story of a country-woman who, having accustomed herself to play with and carry a young calf in her arms, and daily continuing to do so as it grew up, obtained this by custom, that, when grown to be a great ox, she was still able to bear it. For, in truth, custom is a violent and treacherous choolmistress. She, by little and little, slily and unperceived, slips in the foot of her authority, but having by this gentle and humble beginning, with the benefit of time, fixed and established it, she then unmasks a furious and tyrannic countenance, against which we have no more the corage or the power so much as to lift up our eyes. We see her, at every turn, forcing and violating the rules of nature:
Custom is the best master of all things.
---Pliny
论习惯
我认为,第一个讲述下面这个故事的人，一定对习惯的力量有了正确的认识和理解。故事是这样的:一个村妇有一头牛,在牛很小的时候,她就常常把它抱在怀里,跟它一起玩耍,久而久之,就养成了习惯,当牛长大之后,她依然常常把它搂在怀里。实际上,习惯就像一个粗暴而奸诈的女教师一样:她一点一滴、不露痕迹地树立起自己的威严。开始的时候，她温和而谦恭,但随着时间的推移,等到她扎牢根基之后,便原形毕露,开始变得狂暴而专制。而此时的我们,已没有勇气和力量来反抗,甚至都不敢拾头看她一眼,我们就这样眼睁睁地看着她与自然法则背道而驰。
在任何事情上,习惯都是至高无上的主宰者。
——普林尼
I refer to her Plato's cave in his Republic, and the physicians, who so often submit the reasons of their art to her authority; as the story of that king, who by custom brought his stomach to that pass, as to live by poison, and the maid that Albertus reports to have lived upon spiders. In that new world of the Indies, there were found great nations, and in very differing climates, who were of the same diet, made provision of them, and fed them for their tables; as also, they did grasshoppers, mice, lizards, and bats; and in a time of scarcity of such delicacies, a toad was sold for six crowns, all which they cook, and dish up with several sauces. There were also others found, to whom our diet, and the flesh we eat, were venomous and mortal:
柏拉图在他的《理想国》中,以洞穴来比喻习惯;医生常常屈从于习惯的权威而抛弃医学的理性;有一个故事讲的是一个国王巳习惯于服用毒物;艾伯特曾提及过一个习惯以蜘蛛为食的女孩儿。在新印度有许多民族,尽管风俗不同,但却有一个共同的习惯:以蜘蛛为食,不仅储存,还饲养蜘蛛。此外,蚱蜢、老鼠、蜥蜴和蝙蝠也是他们必不可少的菜肴。当这些食物短缺的时候，他们就会以一只六埃居的高价去购买蟾蜍。他们将这些食物煮熟,然后配以各种调料食用。而我们所吃的肉食在那里的一些民族看来,却含有致命的毒素。
These strange examples will not appear so strange if we consider what we have ordinary experience of, how much custom stupefies our senses. We need not go to what is reported of the people about the cataracts of the Nile; and what philosophers believe of the music of the spheres, that the bodies of those circles being solid and smooth, and coming to touch and rub upon one another, cannot fail of creating a marvellous harnony, the changes and cadences of which cause the revolutions and dances of the stars; but that the hearing sense of all creatures here below, being universally, like that of the Egyptians, deafened, and stupefied with the continual noise, cannot, how great soever, perceive it. Smiths, millers, pewterers, forgemen, and armourers could never be able to live in the perpetual noise of their own trades, did it strike their ears with the same violence that it does ours.
My perfumed doublet gratifies my own scent at first; but after I have worn it three days together, it is only pleasing to the bystanders. This is yet more strange, that custom, notwithstanding long intermissions and intervals, should yet have the power to unite and establish the effect of its impressions upon our senses, as is manifest in such as live near unto steeples and the frequent noise of the bells. I myself lie at home in a tower, where every morning and evening a very great bell rings out the Ave Maria: the noise shakes my very tower, and at first seemed insupportable to me; but I am so used to it, that I hear it without any manner of offence, and often without awaking at it.
如果我们思考一下,我们的生活经验一-习惯,是如何使我们的感觉变得迟钝麻木的,就不会对这些奇闻逸事感到惊异了。我们无需去了解生活在尼罗河大澡布旁边的人们有何感觉,也不必知道哲学家们对天体音乐有何看法。那些坚固、平滑的天体在运行的时候互相轻轻碰撞和摩擦,必定会奏出美妙和谐的旋律,而所有的天体便在这富于变化、悠扬婉转的乐声中婆娑起舞。然而,即使乐声再大,人类麻木的听觉也丝毫察觉不到,就像尼罗河畔的埃及人对巨大的澡布声习以为常一样。如果铁匠、磨坊主、锡匠、铸造工人、枪炮匠也像我们这样,会被巨大的敲击声震聋耳朵的话,他们就失去了谋生的手段了。
为了取悦自己的嗅觉,我曾佩戴过香薰饰物,但三天之后,我已经丝毫闻不到它的香味了,但对于别人,它却香气扑鼻。更令人不可思议的是,即使间隔很长时间,习惯依然能对我们的感官产生影响,居住在钟楼附近、常常听到钟声的人就是最好的例子。我本人就曾在一个钟楼上住过,那里的一口大钟每天早晚要各蔽一次圣母经，巨大的钟声几乎使你有一种地动山摇的感觉。最初,我几乎无法忍受这震耳欲聋的噪音,但渐渐地我竟然习惯了,也不再觉得它刺耳,甚至还可以在它的陪伴下进人梦乡。
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