2018-04-11 11:02:28 英語週報

On Motes and Beams

微塵與棟樑

It is curious that our own offenses should seem so much less heinous than the offenses of others.

令人好奇的是，與他人的過失相比，我們自己的過失往往不是那麼的可憎。

I suppose the reason is that we know all the circumstances that have occasioned them and so manage to excuse in ourselves what we cannot excuse in others.

我想，原因是我們瞭解一切導致過失出現的情況，因而，能夠想法原諒自己犯了一些不容許他人犯的過錯。

We turn our attention away from our own defects,

我們不關注自己的缺點，

and when we are forced by untoward events to consider them,find it easy to condone them.

即使身陷困境，不得不正視它們時，我們也會很容易就寬恕自己。

For all I know we are right to do this;

據我所知，我們這樣做是正確的。

they are part of us and we must accept the good and bad in ourselves together.

缺點是我們自己的一部分，我們必須接納自己的好與壞。

But when we come to judge others,it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them,but by an image that we have formed of ourselves from which we have left out everything that offends our vanity or would discredit us in the eyes of the world.

但當我們評判別人時，情況就不一樣了。我們不是通過真正的自我而是用另外一種自我形象來判斷，完全摒除了在任何世人眼中，會傷害到自己的虛榮或者體面的事物。

To take a trivial instance:

舉一個小例子：

how scornful we are when we catch someone out telling a lie;

當覺察到別人說謊時，我們是多麼地不屑啊！

but who can say that he has never told not one, but a hundred?

但是有誰可以說自己從未說過謊？可能還不止一百次呢！

雙語閱讀：On Motes and Beams

There is not much to choose between men.

人與人之間沒什麼大的區別。

They are all a hotchpotch of greatness and littleness,of virtue and vice, of nobility and baseness.

他們皆是偉大與渺小、善良與邪惡、高貴與低賤的混合體。

Some have more strength of character, or more opportunity,and so in one direction or another give their instincts freer play, but potentially they are the same.

有些人性格比較堅毅，機會也較多，因此在這個或者那個方向上，更能自由地發揮自己的天資，但是人類潛質都是同樣的。

For my part, I do not think I am any better or any worse than most people,but I know that if I set down every action in my life and every thought that has crossed my mind,the world would consider me a monster of depravity.

至於我自己，我不認為自己會比多數人更好或更差，但是我知道，如果我記下我生命中每一個行動和每一個掠過我心頭的想法的話，世人將會把我看成一個邪惡的怪物。

The knowledge that these reveries are common to all men should inspire one with tolerance to oneself as well as to others.

每個人都會有這樣的怪念頭，這樣的認識應能啟發我們寬容自己，也寬容他人。

雙語閱讀：On Motes and Beams

It is well also if they enable us to look upon our fellows,even the most eminent and respectable, with humor,and if they lead us to take ourselves not too seriously.

同時，若因此使我們在看待他人時，即使是對天下最優秀最令人尊敬的人，也可以有幽默感的話，而且也不太苛求自己，那也是很有益的。