There was a time in my life when, if I had suddenly been set in the position I now enjoy, conscience would have lain in ambush for me. What! An income sufficient to support three or four working-class families --- a house all to myself --- things beautiful wherever I turn --- and absolutely nothing to do for it all! I should have been hard put to it to defend myself. In those days I was feelingly reminded, hour by hour, with what a struggle the obscure multitudes manage to keep alive. Nobody knows better than I do quam parvo liceat producere vitam. I have hungered in the streets; I have laid my head in the poorest shelter, I know what it is to feel the heart burn with wrath and envy of "the privileged classes." Yes, but all that time I was one of "the privileged" myself, and now I can accept a recognized standing among them without shadow of self-reproach.
在我的一生中曾有过这样一个时期:如果当时的我突然过上现在所享受的这种生活,我就会感到良心不安。什么!一份足以维持三四个工人家庭生活的收入、一所完全属于我自己的房子一一目之所及,一切都那样美好一一而且不必为此付出任何代价!我很难为自己辩护。在那些日子里，我无时无刻不深切地体会到:默默无闻的普通百姓要想在世间生存,要付出多少艰辛啊!没有人能比我更深切地体会到求得温饱有多么不易。我饥肠辘辘地走在街上，睡在最简陋的栖身之处。我知道心中燃烧着对“特权阶层”的愤怒与妒忌,是一种什么样的滋味。是的,我现在也成了“特权者”中的一员,并在他们之中得到了承认,而我竟丝毫没有受到良心的谴责。
It does not mean that my larger sympathies are blunted. By going to certain places, looking upon certain scenes, I could most effectually destroy all the calm that life has brought me. If I hold apart and purposely refuse to look that way, it is because I believe that the world is better, not worse, for having one more inhabitant who lives as becomes a civilized being. Let him whose soul prompts him to assail the iniquity of things cry and spare not; let him who has the vocation go forth and combat. In me it would be to err from nature's guidance. I know, if I know anything, that I am made for the life of tranquillity and meditation. I know that only thus can such virtue as I possess find scope. More than half a century of existence has taught me that most of the wrong and folly which darken earth is due to those who cannot possess their souls in quiet; that most of the good which saves mankind from destruction comes of life that is led in thoughtful stillness. Everyday the world grows noisier; I, for one, will have no part in that increasing clamour, and were it only by my silence, I confer a boon on all.
How well would the revenues of a country be expended, if by mere pensioning, one-fifth of its population could be induced to live as I do!
这并不意味着我的同情心变得迟钝了。当我去到某些地方、看到某些情景时,我可以最彻底地摧毁生活带给我的这种宁静。如果我刻意回避，不去看那种情景,那是因为我相信,这个世界会因为增加了一个过着文明生活的居民而变得更加美好,而不是更加糟糕。让那些天性喜好向不公正的命运挑战的人不遗余力地大声疾呼吧;让那些有能力的人勇往直前,与命运抗争吧。不过,如果我也这样做的话,就背离了自然的引导。至少,我知道自己只适合过一种宁静与默思的生活。我知道,只有这样,我才有机会一展所长。五十多年的生活经历使我懂得了这样一个道理:大多数使大地变得暗淡无光的错事与蠢事,都应归咎于那些心灵无法平静的人;而大部分将人类从毁灭中拯救出来的善行,则都应归功于宁静、沉思的生活。这个世界变得日益喧嚣嘈杂,但身为一个世人,我却不会加人到那种纷乱吵嚷之中去,只要我安于宁静,就是为所有人做出了一份贡献。
如果将国家五分之一的税收用于养老金,那么,五分之一的人口就能够过上像我现在这样的生活了!
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