How I envy those who become prudent without thwackings of experience! Such men seem to be not uncommon. I don't mean cold-blooded calculators of profit and loss in life's possibilities; nor yet the plodding dull, who never have imagination enough to quit the beaten track of security; but bright-witted and large-hearted fellows who seem always to be led by common sense, who go steadily from stage to stage of life, doing the right, the prudent things, guilty of no vagaries, winning respect by natural progress, seldom needing aid themselves, often helpful to others, and through all, good-tempered, deliberate, happy. How I envy them!
我多么羡慕那些还没有遭受过沉重打击就已经变得审慎的人啊!这样的人似乎少之甚少。我所指的并不是那些冷血地对生命中可能发生的得与失锱铢必较的人,也不是那些缺乏想像力、无法放弃旧有的安全之路的愚钝之人; 而是指那些明智聪颍、心胸开阔的人。他们似乎总能遵循常识的引导,步履稳健地从人生的一个阶段走向另一个阶段;他们处事正确而明智,从来不会反复 无常,总是以自然而然的进步贏得他人的尊重;他们很少需要别人的帮助,却常常助人为乐,并始终保持着宽容、谨慎、愉悦的态度。我真是太羡慕他们了!
For of myself it might be said that whatever folly is possible to a moneyless man, that folly I have at one time or another committed. Within my nature there seemed to be no faculty of rational self-guidance. Boy and man, I blundered into every ditch and bog which lay within sight of my way. Never did silly mortal reap such harvest of experience; never had any one so many bruises to show for it. Thwack, thwack! No sooner had I recovered from one sound drubbing than I put myself in the way of another. "Unpractical" I was called by those who spoke mildly; "idiot" --- I am sure --- by many a ruder tongue. And idiot I see myself, whenever I glance back over the long, devious
road. Something, obviously, I lacked from the beginning, some balancing principle granted to most men in one or another degree. I had brains, but they were no help to me in the common circumstances of life. But for the good fortune which plucked me out of my mazes and set me in paradise, I should no doubt have blundered on to the end. The last thwack of experience would have laid me low just when I was becoming really a prudent man.
而我自己——也许可以说，凡是一个一文不名的人有可能做的蠢事,我在不同的时期都曾做过。我的本性似乎缺乏理性的自我引导的能力。无论是在童年时还是在成年后,每一个设在我面前道路上的沟壑与沼泽,我都会跌跌撞撞地闯进去。从没有哪个愚蠢的人曾遭遇过如此多的惨痛经历,也没有哪个人因此而伤痕累累。打击,打击!刚刚从一次重创中复原,我便又使自已遭受另一次打击。那些措辞温和的人说我“不切实际”;而我确信，许多讲话耿直的人一定会说我是“白痴”。每当我回想已经走过的漫长而曲折的人生之路时,就会发现自己的确是个白痴。显而易见,从最初之时,我就缺少某种平衡能力,而这是其他人多多少少都会拥有的。我有头脑,但它们在平常的生活环境之中却不能给予我任何帮助。幸亏好运将我从迷途中拉出,让我置身天堂，否则,毋庸置疑,我一定会继续盲目乱撞,一错到底的。最后一次打击在我正要变成一个真正的审慎之人时袭来,再次使我一蹶不振。
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