第三册第13篇：让爱美的天性常在

13. A True Instinct for the Beautiful 让爱美的天性常在



A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct of what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed or even lost before we reach adulthood 1. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote 2 against the boredom 3 and disenchantments of later years, the sterile 4 preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation 5 from the sources of our strength.

儿童的世界新奇而美丽，充满了惊异和兴奋。可是，对我们多数人来说，还未到成年，这种锐利的目光，这种爱一切美丽的和令人敬畏的事物的天性，就已经变得迟钝，甚至丧失殆尽。这真是我们的不幸。据说，有一位善心的仙女主持所有儿童的洗礼。假如我能对她有所影响的话，我倒想向她提个要求：请她赋予世间的儿童以新奇感（一种能伴随他们终身的无可摧毁的新奇感），并使它成为万灵的解药。有了它，他们在以后的岁月中就会永远陶醉在新奇之中，不致产生厌倦感，不致徒劳地全神贯注于人为的虚假的事物，不致脱离力量的源泉。



If a child is to keep alive his inborn 6 sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement of mystery of the world we live in. Parents often have a sense of inadequacy 7 when confronted on the hand with eager, sensitive child mind of a child and on the other with a world of complex physical nature, inhabited by a life so various and unfamiliar 8 that it seems hopeless to reduce it to order and knowledge. In a mood of self-defeat, they exclaim, "How can I possibly teach my child about nature - why, I don't even know one bird from another!"

假如一个儿童没有受到仙女的赐予而想要持久地保持他那天生的新奇感，他至少需要有一个能与他共享新奇感的成年人和他作伴，并且跟他一起不断去发现我们所生活的这个世界中的一切欢乐、刺激和神秘。做父母的常有力不从心之感。一方面，他们要满足孩子那感觉灵敏而又渴望求知的心灵。另一方面，复杂的物质世界却使他们感到难于应付，他们自己对于这个世界形形色色的生活都感到生疏，好像未抱有理出头绪、弄个明白的愿望。他们自己就泄了气，喊道：“我哪能教我的孩子认识大自然！啊，我连两只鸟都分不清哩！”



I sincerely believe that for the child, and for the parent seeking to guide them, it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused - a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration 9 or love - then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found, it has lasting 10 meaning. It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.

我真诚地相信，对于儿童以及期望引导儿童的父母来说，感觉力比理解力相对更为重要。如果将事实比作是以后会萌发知识和智慧的“种子”的话，那么，情感激情与感官印象就好比是肥沃的“土壤”，“种子”离开它就无法生长。童年早期是准备、培育“土壤”的时期。一旦唤起了内心中的种种情感，如美感、对新鲜事物和未知事物的兴奋感、同情心、恻隐之心、钦慕之情、爱慕之心，我们继而就会希望获得关于引起我们产生情感反应的事物的知识。而这种知识一旦获得，就会产生深远的意义与影响。显而易见，培养、激发孩子的求知欲与探究欲，比像饮食似地让孩子吞咽下他还吸收不了的种种知识更为重要。