LATIN | But under whose care soever a child is put to be taught during the tender and flexible years of his life, this is certain, it should be one who thinks Latin and language the least part of education; one, who knowing how much virtue, and a well-tempered soul, is to be preferred to any sort of learning or language, makes it his chief business to form the mind of his scholars and give that a right disposition: which, if once got, though all the rest should be neglected, would, in due time, produce all the rest; and which if it be not got, and settled so as to keep out ill and vicious habits, languages and sciences, and all the other accomplishments of education, will be to no purpose, but to make the worse or more dangerous man. And indeed, whatever stir there is made about getting of Latin, as the great and difficult business; his mother may teach it him herself, if she will but spend two or three hours in a day with him, and make him read the evangelists in Latin to her: for she need but buy a Latin testament, and having got somebody to mark the last syllable but one, where it is long, in words above two syllables, (which is enough to regulate her pronunciation, and accenting the words,) read daily in the gospels, and then let her avoid understanding them in Latin, if she can. And when she understands the evangelists in Latin, let her, in the same manner, read "Aesop's fables", and so proceed on to Eutropius, Justin, and other such books. I do not mention this as an imagination of what I fancy may do, but as of a thing I have known done, and the Latin tongue with ease got this way.

拉丁语 |  但是在小孩柔弱可塑的年纪，无论由谁来管教他，这一点使肯定的，就是管教者应该觉得拉丁文和语言是教育中最不重要的部分，应该知道美德与善良的心灵比任何学问和语言都更值得推崇，应该把他的主要工作放在塑造学生的心理上，使它具有一种正确的性格：如果有了这一点，一切别的东西即使被疏忽了，也会在适当的时候产生出来；如果没有这一点，不能排除不良与邪恶的习惯，语言与科学以及教育上其它所有的成就都没有用处，只会使人变得更坏、更危险。实际上，无论怎样忙碌学习拉丁语，当作是一件重要而困难的工作；其实小孩的妈妈自己就可以教他，只要她肯每天花两三个小时和他在一起，让他读拉丁语的传道书给她听：她只需要买一本拉丁文的圣经，找人把有两个以上音节的拉丁词的倒数第二个音节标记下来，那是长音(这样就能校准她的发音及单词的重音)，让她天天读福音书，可能的话避免从拉丁语去理解它们。当她读懂了拉丁语的传道书之后，同样她可以阅读"伊索寓言"，然后进到读"游措皮亚司"、"贾斯廷"及其它这类的书。我这里提到这一点，不是出于我想象该做的，我是知道有人这样做，很容易地学会说拉丁语。

But to return to what I was saying: he that takes on him the charge of bringing up young men, especially young gentlemen, should have something more in him than Latin, more than even a knowledge in the liberal sciences; he should be a person of eminent virtue and prudence, and with good sense have good humour, and the skill to carry himself with gravity, ease and kindness, in a constant conversation with his pupils. But of this I have spoken at large in another place.

但是回到我所说的事情来：那负责培养年轻人的人，特别是负责培养年轻绅士的人，应该具有比拉丁文多、比人文科学多的知识；他应该是一个具有卓越的德行和深谋远虑的人，一个明智和幽默的人，一个能够常常与他的学生进行严肃、轻松与友好的谈话的人。而这一点我在别处已经讲了很多。

GEOGRAPHY | At the same time that he is learning French and Latin, a child, as has been said, may also be entered in arithmetic, geography, chronology, history, and geometry too. For if these be taught him in French or Latin, when he begins once to understand either of these tongues, he will get a knowledge in these sciences, and the language to boot.

地理 | 前面说过，一个小孩学习法语和拉丁语的同时，他还可以学习算术、地理、年代学、历史和几何。假如用法语或拉丁语教他这些学问，当他一旦懂得了法语或拉丁语之后，他就在语言之外获得这些科学的知识。

Geography, I think, should be begun with; for the learning of the figure of the globe, the situation and boundaries of the four parts of the world, and that of particular kingdoms and countries, being only an exercise of the eyes and memory, a child with pleasure will learn and retain them: and this is so certain, that I now live in the house with a child, whom his mother has so well instructed this way in geography, that he knew the limits of the four parts of the world, could readily point, being asked, to any country upon the globe, or any county in the map of England; knew all the great rivers, promontories, straits, and bays in the world, and could find the longitude and latitude of any place before he was six years old. These things, that he will thus learn by sight, and have by rote in his memory, are not all, I confess, that he is to learn upon the globes. But yet it is a good step and preparation to it, and will make the remainder much easier, when his judgment is grown ripe enough for it: besides that, it gets so much time now, and by the pleasure of knowing things, leads him on insensibly to the gaining of languages.

我觉得应该从地理开始学；因为学习地球的形状，世界四大部分的位置与疆界，以及某些王国与国家的位置与国界，只是视觉与记忆的练习，小孩会乐意学习和记住它们的：这是很肯定的，我现在住的房子里就有一个小孩，他妈妈用这样的方法很好地教他地理，他在不到六岁，就知道世界四大部分的界限，如果问他，他可以在地球仪上指出任何一个国家，在英国地图上指出任何一个郡县；他还知道世界上所有的大河、海角、海峡和海湾，能够找到任何地方的经纬度。我承认，他应该在地球仪上学习的，还不只是他看见与死记的这些东西。但是这是良好的一步与预备，当他的判断力足够成熟了，余下的就更容易学了；而且他现在有很多时间，知道事情的快乐会引导他不知不觉地学会语言。

ARITHMETIC | When he has the natural parts of the globe well fixed in his memory, it may then be time to begin arithmetic. By the natural parts of the globe, I mean several positions of the parts of the earth and sea, under different names and distinctions of countries; not coming yet to those artificial and imaginary lines, which have been invented, and are only supposed, for the better improvement of that science.

算术 |  当他记住了地球的各个自然部分，他就该开始学习算术。我所说的地球的自然部分，是指陆地与海洋的各个部分的位置，在各个国家的不同名字和区分；还没有讲到那些人工与想象的划线，那是只为了改进地理科学而发明的。

Arithmetic is the easiest, and consequently the first sort of abstract reasoning, which the mind commonly bears, or accustoms itself to: and is of so general use in all parts of life and business, that scarce any thing is to be done without it. This is certain, a man cannot have too much of it, nor too perfectly; he should therefore begin to be exercised in counting, as soon, and as far, as he is capable of it; and do something in it every day till he is master of the art of numbers. When he understands addition and subtraction, he may then be advanced farther in geography, and after he is acquainted with the poles, zones, parallel circles, and meridians, be taught longitude and latitude, and by them be made to understand the use of maps, and by the numbers placed on their sides, to know the respective situation of countries, and how to find them out on the terrestrial globe. Which when he can readily do, he may then be entered in the celestial; and there going over all the circles again, with a more particular observation of the ecliptic or zodiac, to fix them all very clearly and distinctly in his mind, he may be taught the figure and position of the several constellations, which may be showed him first upon the globe, and then in the heavens.

算术是最容易的，因此也是第一种抽象的推理，是心理通常具有或习惯的：在生活与工作的各个部分中它有如此普遍的用途，离了它几乎不能完成任何事情。这是肯定的，一个人不怕懂得太多的算术，不怕理解得太完全；所以当他能力允许时，他应该尽早、尽可能地开始练习计数；他要每天做一些计数地事情直到他掌握数的技巧。当他懂得加减法，他就可以进一步学习地理，在他明白两极、气候带、平行圈和子午线后，可以教他经纬度，使他由经纬度学会使用地图，通过地图两侧的数字去找到国家的相对位置，知道怎样从地球仪上找到它们。当他能够做到这些，他就可以去研究天球仪；再次复习那些环圈，特别注意黄道或黄道十二宫，要在心里弄得清楚明白，然后可以教给他一些星座的形状与位置，先在天球仪上教，然后从夜空上教。

ASTRONOMY | When that is done, and he knows pretty well the constellations of this our hemisphere, it may be time to give him some notions of this our planetary world, and to that purpose it may not be amiss to make him a draught of the Copernican system; and therein explain to him the situation of the planets, their respective distances from the sun, the centre of their revolutions. This will prepare him to understand the motion and theory of the planets the most easy and natural way. For, since astronomers no longer doubt of the motion of the planets about the sun, it is fit he should proceed upon that hypothesis, which is not only the simplest and least perplexed for a learner, but also the likeliest to be true in itself. But in this, as in all other parts of instruction, great care must be taken with children, to begin with that which is plain and simple, and to teach them as little as can be at once, and settle that well in their heads, before you proceed to the next, or any thing new in that science. Give them first one simple idea, and see that they take it right, and perfectly comprehend it, before you go any farther; and then add some other simple idea, which lies next in your way to what you aim at; and so proceeding by gentle and insensible steps, children, without confusion and amazement, will have their understandings opened, and their thoughts extended, farther than could have been expected. And when any one has learned any thing himself, there is no such way to fix it in his memory, and to encourage him to go on, as to set him to teach it others.

天文 | 当这已经完成，他对我们这个半球的星座知道很清楚，就该教他一些关于我们这个行星世界的观念，为此不妨让他了解一点哥白尼的学说；并且据此向他讲解行星的位置，它们距太阳－它们的公转中心的远近。这可以预备他用最容易、最自然的方式去理解行星的运动与学说。因为天文学家不再怀疑行星绕着太阳转，他就该从这个设想出发，它不仅是最简单、最不会使学生困惑的，它本身也最可能是真实的。但是在这一点，就如同其它一切教育一样，必须非常注意地对待小孩，要从浅显简单的东西开始，一次教他们的也要越少越好，等到他们把这些都吸收到他们的头脑中，再进展到下面的或新的科学知识。先教给他们一个简单的慨念，看他们正确地掌握它、完全地理解它，再往下面进行；然后再加上一些别的、与你的目标相近的简单观念；这样通过平缓、不知不觉的步骤，使小孩不致困惑惊讶，可以超出预想地开启他们的悟性，扩展他们的思维。而且当任何人自己学会任何东西，没有比让他去教别人更能使他记住，更能鼓励他继续下去的。

GEOMETRY | When he has once got such an acquaintance with the globes, as is above mentioned, he may be fit to be tried a little in geometry; wherein I think the six first books of Euclid enough for him to be taught. For I am in some doubt whether more to a man of business be necessary or useful; at least if he have a genius or inclination to it, being entered so far by his tutor, he will be able to go on of himself without a teacher.

几何 | 当他一旦熟悉了上述的这些天体仪与地球仪后，他就可以试着学一点几何；我觉得他只要学欧几里德的前六本书就足够了。因为我怀疑一个商人学更多是否必要或有用；至少，如果他有学习几何的天才或爱好，在老师教了他这么多以后，他就可以不要老师，而自己学习了。

The globes therefore must be studied, and that diligently; and I think may be begun betimes, if the tutor will but be careful to distinguish what the child is capable of knowing, and what not; for which this may be a rule, that perhaps will go a pretty way, (viz.) that children may be taught any thing that falls under their senses, especially their sight, as far as their memories only are exercised; and thus a child very young may learn, which is the equator, which the meridian, etc. which Europe, and which England, upon the globes, as soon almost as he knows the rooms of the house he lives in; if care be taken not to teach him too much at once, nor to set him upon a new part, till that, which he is upon, be perfectly learned and fixed in his memory.

所以这些天体仪与地球仪必须要学，而且要勤勉地学；我觉得假如导师能够仔细地分辨什么是小孩能够明白的，什么是他不能明白的，学习还应该及早开始；这里有一条可能广泛运用的规则，(就是)可以教小孩任何感官能感受到的东西，特别是他们眼睛能看见的东西，他们记忆只是经受锻炼；这样孩子很小的时候就可以学习，当他知道所住的房子中房间的位置，他就可以在地球仪上找到哪里是赤道，哪里是子午线，哪里是欧洲，和哪里是英国；只要注意一次不要教他太多，在他没有完全学会和记住他正在学的东西之前，不要教他新的知识。

CHRONOLOGY | With geography, chronology ought to go hand in hand. I mean the general part of it, so that he may have in his mind a view of the whole current of time, and the several considerable epochs that are made use of in history. Without these two, history, which is the great mistress of prudence and civil knowledge; and ought to be the proper study of a gentleman or man of business in the world: without geography and chronology, I say, history will be very ill retained, and very little useful; but be only a jumble of matters of fact, confusedly heaped together without order or instruction. It is by these two that the actions of mankind are ranked into their proper places of times and countries; under which circumstances, they are not only much easier kept in the memory, but, in that natural order, are only capable to afford those observations, which make a man the better and the abler for reading them.

年代学 |  年代学应该与地理一起学习。我的意思是年代学的大致部分，这样他可以心里明白时间的整个趋势，以及历史中几个引人注目的时代。历史可以教人谨慎持重与公民知识，是绅士与实业家应该适当研究的；但是没有地理与年代学，我认为历史是很难记住的，也没有什么用处；它就只是一堆杂乱的事实，混乱不堪地堆砌在一起，没有任何次序或指引。通过地理与年代学，人类的行为才能按时间与国家放入合适的位置；这样一来，这些行为不仅更容易记住，而且在这自然的次序中，才能够便于观察，让人更好地、更能干地阅读它们。

When I speak of chronology as a science he should be perfect in, I do not mean the little controversies that are in it. These are endless, and most of them of so little importance to a gentleman, as not to deserve to be inquired into, were they capable of an easy decision. And therefore all that learned noise and dust of the chronologist is wholly to be avoided. The most useful book I have seen in that part of learning, is a small treatise of Strauchius, which is printed in twelves, under the title of  "Breviarium Chronologicum," out of which may be selected all that is necessary to be taught a young gentleman concerning chronology; for all that is in that treatise a learner need not be cumbered with. He has in him the most remarkable or usual epochs reduced all to that of the Julian period, which is the easiest, and plainest, and surest method, that can be made use of in chronology. To this treatise of Strauchius, Helvicus's tables may be added, as a book to be turned to on all occasions.

当我说他应当精通年代学这门科学，我不是指 (懂得)其中细微的争议。这些争议是没有尽头的，它们大多数对一个绅士很不重要，即使它们能很容易被确定，也不值得去探究。因此所有那些年代学家的学术性争吵可以完全避免。在这方面学问中，我见到最有用的书是斯特劳裘司 (Strauchius)的一本小专著，现在是第十二次印本，书名叫"年代学综述 (Breviarium Chronologicum)"，从中可以选取一个年轻绅士对于年代学所应具备的知识；因为学生不必为书中的所有材料所拖累。他将一切最著名或常见的时期都转化成儒略历 (Julian Period)，这是一个年代学上所能利用的最方便、最简明、最可靠的方法。除了斯特劳裘司这本书外，还可以加上爱尔威格斯 (Helvicus)的年代表，这是一本任何场合都用得着的书。

HISTORY | As nothing teaches, so nothing delights, more than history. The first of these recommends it to the study of grown men; the latter makes me think it the fittest for a young lad, who, as soon as he is instructed in chronology, and acquainted with the several epochs in use in this part of the world, and can reduce them to the Julian period, should then have some Latin history put into his hand. The choice should be directed by the easiness of the style; for wherever he begins, chronology will keep it from confusion; and the pleasantness of the subject inviting him to read, the language will insensibly be got, without that terrible vexation and uneasiness which children suffer where they are put into books beyond their capacity, such as are the Roman orators and poets, only to learn the Roman language. When he has by reading mastered the easier, such perhaps as Justin, Eutropius, Quintus Curtius, etc. the next degree to these will give him no great trouble: and thus, by a gradual progress from the plainest and easiest historians, he may at last come to read the most difficult and sublime of the Latin authors, such as are Tully, Virgil, and Horace.

历史 |  没有任何事情能比历史给人更多的教益，没有任何事情比历史更能使人愉快。这前者使历史成为成人研究的课题，后者让我觉得它最适合年轻人学习，一旦他学过了年代学，知道了本地所经历的几个时代，而又能将其变成儒略历以后，他就应该去学一点拉丁语的历史。选择的时候要以文体容易程度为准，无论他从什么地方读起，借助于年代学可以避免学习的困惑；而题材有乐趣，就会吸引他去读，并在不知不觉之中就将语言学会，不致于像一般小孩一样，只是为了学习罗马语言，就被要求去阅读他们的力所不及的书籍，诸如罗马演说家和诗人的作品等，结果只是着急烦恼和局促不安。当他阅读掌握了较容易的作家作品，例如可能包括贾斯廷 (Justin)、游措皮亚司 (Eutropius)、昆塔斯$cdot$库提斯 (Quintus Curtius)等等的作品，再去阅读稍难理解的作家作品就没有大的麻烦；这样从最浅显、最容易的历史学家渐渐读去，他最后就能阅读最困难、最精练的拉丁语作家的作品，诸如杜理 (Tully)、维吉尔 (Virgil)和贺瑞斯 (Horace)等人的作品。

ETHICS | The knowledge of virtue, all along from the beginning, in all the instances he is capable of, being taught him, more by practice than rules; and the love of reputation, instead of satisfying his appetite, being made habitual in him; I know not whether he should read any other discourses of morality, but what he finds in the bible; or have any system of ethics put into his hand, till he can read Tully's "Offices", not as a school-boy to learn Latin, but as one that would be informed in the principles and precepts of virtue, for the conduct of his life.

伦理 |  有关德行的知识，应该从一开始，在一切可能的情况下，通过实践而不是规则来教育小孩；如果他养成爱好名誉，而不是爱满足自己欲望的习惯，我不知道他除了圣经之外，是否还需要读别的有关道德的论述，是否他需要学习任何伦理体系，直到他能够学习杜理(Tully)的《责任论》("Offices"是指西塞罗的一篇关于责任的拉丁散文"De officiis")，这不是象学生那样当拉丁文学习，而是想要知晓德行的原则与戒律。

CIVIL LAW | When he has pretty well digested Tully’s Offices, and added to it Puffendorf "de officio hominis & civis," it may be seasonable to set him upon Grotius "de jure belli & pacis," or, which perhaps is the better of the two, Puffendorf "de jure naturali & gentium," wherein he will be instructed in the natural rights of men, and the original and foundations of society, and the duties resulting from thence. This general part of civil law and history are studies which a gentleman should not barely touch at, but constantly dwell upon, and never have done with. A virtuous and well-behaved young man, that is well versed in the general part of the civil law, (which concerns not the chicane of private cases, but the affairs and intercourse of civilized nations in general, grounded upon principles of reason,) understands Latin well, and can write a good hand, one may turn loose into the world, with great assurance that he will find employment and esteem every-where.

民法 | 当他充分消化了杜理的《责任论》，并且也学过了蒲芬多夫 (Puffendorf)的《论人及公民的责任》，就可以及时让他学习格若修斯 (Grotius)的《论战争及和平的法律》，或者可以读蒲芬多夫另一本更好的书《论国家的自然法则》；因此他学到人的自然权利，社会的起源和基础，以及由此而衍生的责任。这些有关民法与历史的主要部分，一个绅士不能只是稍微接触，还应经常全神贯注地投入其中，没有大功告成而收手的时候。一个德行及举止良好的青年，精通民法概要(它所涉及的不是个人事件中的诈骗，而是根据理性原则，讨论文明国家的一般事务及交往)，通晓拉丁文，还写得一手好字，这样他就可以脱颖而出，有充分把握找到职业，并到处受到重视。

LAW | It would be strange to suppose an English gentleman should be ignorant of the law of his country. This, whatever station he is in, is so requisite, that, from a justice of the peace to a minister of state, I know no place he can well fill without it. I do not mean the chicane or wrangling and captious part of the law; a gentleman whose business is to seek the true measures of right and wrong, and not the arts how to avoid doing the one, and secure himself in doing the other, ought to be as far from such a study of the law, as he is concerned diligently to apply himself to that wherein he may be serviceable to his country. And to that purpose I think the right way for a gentleman to study our law, which he does not design for his calling, is to take a view of our English constitution and government, in the ancient books of the common law, and some more modern writers, who out of them have given an account of this government. And having got a true idea of that, then to read our history, and with it join in every king's reign the laws then made. This will give an insight into the reason of our statutes, and show the true ground upon which they came to be made, and what weight they ought to have.

法律 |  认为一个英国绅士不必懂得他本国的法律，这是奇怪的想法。不管他处于什么地位，懂法都是必不可少的，从治安法官到政府部长，我不知道没有它他怎能够胜任。我并不是指法律中欺诈、争吵以及吹毛求疵的部分；一个绅士的职责是寻求是非的真实尺度，而不是掌握回避干一件事，而确保自己可以干另一事的技巧，当他非常用心地考虑自己应该如何服务于国家的时候，他绝不应该这样去研究法律。为了这个目的，我认为一个不以法律为职业的绅士学习我们法律的正确方法是：从有关普通法的古书中，以及一些较现代作家关于现政府的说法中，找到有关我们英国宪法和政府的观点看法。对此有了正确的观念，然后他可以去读我们的历史，并且加上了解在每一个国王的治下法律是如何制定的。这样可以揭示我们各种法令的理由，制定法律的真实基础，以及这些法律应有的重要性。

RHETORIC, LOGIC | Rhetoric and logic being the arts that in the ordinary method usually follow immediately after grammar, it may perhaps be wondered, that I have said so little of them. The reason is, because of the little advantage young people receive by them; for I have seldom or never observed any one to get the skill of reasoning well, or speaking handsomely, by studying those rules which pretend to teach it: and therefore I would have a young gentleman take a view of them in the shortest systems could be found, without dwelling long on the contemplation and study of those formalities. Right reasoning is founded on something else than the predicaments and predicables, and does not consist in talking in mode and figure itself. But it is besides my present business to enlarge upon this speculation. To come therefore to what we have in hand; if you would have your son reason well, let him read Chillingworth; and if you would have him speak well, let him be conversant in Tully, to give him the true idea of eloquence; and let him read those things that are well written in English, to perfect his style in the purity of our language.

修辞，逻辑 |  修辞与逻辑作为艺术，按照惯例通常紧接在语法之后学习，大家或许会奇怪我以前对此很少提及。原因是年轻人从中获益甚少；因为我很少或从来没有看见任何人，通过学习那些声称的规则而掌握推理严密、谈吐文雅的技巧；所以我宁可一个年轻的绅士在最基本的体系中认识它们，而不是过久地沉迷于冥想与研究那些形式。正确的推理不是源于范畴与预测，也不包含在谈吐时髦与形象生动之中。但是我现在的任务不是思考这个问题。所以回到我们现时的问题来；如果你想使你的儿子擅长推理，就让他读契林沃斯 (Chillingworth)的作品；如果你想使他谈吐自如，就让他精通杜理 (Tully)，明白雄辩术的真实观念；并且让他阅读那些用英语写作的作品，以使他的文体在我们的语言中达到纯正完美的程度。

If the use and end of right reasoning be to have right notions, and a right judgment of things; to distinguish betwixt truth and falsehood, right and wrong, and to act accordingly; be sure not to let your son be bred up in the art and formality of disputing, either practising it himself, or admiring it in others; unless, instead of an able man, you desire to have him an insignificant wrangler, opiniator in discourse, and priding himself in contradicting others; or, which is worse, questioning every thing, and thinking there is no such thing as truth to be sought, but only victory, in disputing. There cannot be any thing so disingenuous, so misbecoming a gentleman, or any one who pretends to be a rational creature, as not to yield to plain reason, and the conviction of clear arguments. Is there any thing more inconsistent with civil conversation, and the end of all debate, than not to take an answer, though ever so full and satisfactory; but still to go on with the dispute, as long as equivocal sounds can furnish [a "medius terminus"] a term to wrangle with on the one side, or a distinction on the other? Whether pertinent or impertinent, sense or nonsense, agreeing with, or contrary to, what he had said before, it matters not. For this, in short, is the way and perfection of logical disputes, that the opponent never takes any answer, nor the respondent ever yields to any argument. This neither of them must do, whatever becomes of truth or knowledge, unless he will pass for a poor baffled wretch, and lie under the disgrace of not being able to maintain whatever he has once affirmed, which is the great aim and glory in disputing. Truth is to be found and supported by a mature and due consideration of things themselves, and not by artificial terms and ways of arguing: these lead not men so much into the discovery of truth, as into a captious and fallacious use of doubtful words, which is the most useless and most offensive way of talking, and such as least suits a gentleman or a lover of truth of any thing in the world.

如果正确推理的用途和目的是获得对于事物的正确观念与判断，是在于分辨真和假、分清正确和错误，并且按照这种鉴别去行动；那么切记不要让令郎在关于争辩的技巧与形式中教育长大，他既不可自己这样去实践，也不应崇拜别人这样做；除非你不希望他成为一个能干的人，而成为一个毫无意义的争执者，在交谈中固执己见，以与别人抵触而自鸣得意；更糟的情况是怀疑一切，以为争辩中绝无诸如真理之类的事物可以追求，唯一能找到的东西就是胜利。世上最不诚实、最有悖于一个绅士或者任何一个自命为理性动物的事情，莫过于不承认显而易见的道理，以及清晰论证的说服力。还有什么事情比这更不符合文明的谈话以及一切辩论目的，就是无论对方的回答如何圆满、如何令人满意，他都要坚持争论，只要能用模棱两可的词汇修饰自己的论点(一种不明是非的辩论方法)，去与别人争论，或是显示自己的与众不同？也不管所说的话中肯或不中肯，有意义或无意义，与自己过去的说法相符或相反，都毫不在意。因为简而言之，这就是逻辑辩论的方法与目的，也就是在辩论中的正方决不会认可反方的任何回答，而反方也决不会屈从正方的论证。任何一方都决不会完全依据真理及知识行事，否则他就会被视为一个可怜的失败者，受到不能坚持自己信念的羞辱，这就是辩论的主要目的和荣誉所在。真理是要通过对于事物本身进行成熟与合适的思考，才能够被发现，并获得支持，而不是通过杜撰的词语与辩论的方式得到的；这种办法强词夺理地、错误地运用含糊的字眼，决不会使人发现真理，这是一种最无用、最令人厌恶的谈话方式，对于一个绅士或对于一个热爱世上任何事物的真理的人来说，它是尤为不适宜的。

There can scarce be a greater defect in a gentleman than not to express himself well, either in writing or speaking. But yet, I think, I may ask my reader, Whether he doth not know a great many, who live upon their estates, and so, with the name, should have the qualities of gentlemen, who cannot so much as tell a story as they should, much less speak clearly and persuasively in any business? This I think not to be so much their fault, as the fault of their education; for I must, without partiality, do my countrymen this right, that where they apply themselves, I see none of their neighbours outgo them. They have been taught rhetoric, but yet never taught how to express themselves handsomely with their tongues, or pens, in the language they are always to use; as if the names of the figures that embellished the discourses of those who understood the art of speaking, were the very art and skill of speaking well. This, as all other things of practice, is to be learned not by a few or a great many rules given, but by exercise and application, according to good rules, or rather patterns, till habits are got, and a facility of doing it well.

一个绅士如果不能通过写作或讲述来很好地表达自己，没有比这更大的缺陷了。不过，我想还是不妨问问我的读者，他是否不知道许许多多有丰厚家产的人，名义上应该有绅士的品质，却连一个故事都不能讲好，更不用说把任何事情说得清楚明白，令人信服了？我认为这不是他们的错，而是他们所受的教育的错；因此我必须公平地为我的同胞说，只要他们努力的事情，我不认为他们的邻居能够胜过他们。他们学过修辞，却从没有学过怎样用他们一直使用的语言，在书面或口头上完美地表达自己；就如那些好像懂得说话艺术的人，用各种辞藻来润饰谈话，把那些辞藻作为出色谈吐的艺术与技巧。这就和一切其它需要练习的事情一样，不可能通过一些或很多规则学会，而是要根据良好的规则或榜样，不断地练习与实践，直到形成习惯，有能力将其做好。

STYLE | Agreeable hereunto, perhaps it might not be amiss to make children, as soon as they are capable of it, often to tell a story of any thing they know; and to correct at first the most remarkable fault they are guilty of, in their way of putting it together. When that fault is cured, then to show them the next, and so on, till, one after another, all, at least the gross ones, are mended. When they can tell tales pretty well, then it may be time to make them write them. The fables of Aesop, the only book almost that I know fit for children, may afford them matter for this exercise of writing English, as well as for reading and translating, to enter them in the Latin tongue. When they are got past the faults of grammar, and can join in a continued coherent discourse the several parts of a story, without bald and unhandsome forms of transition (as is usual) often repeated; he that desires to perfect them yet farther in this, which is the first step to speaking well, and needs no invention, may have recourse to Tully; and by putting in practice those rules, which that master of eloquence gives in his first book "De Inventione," section 20, make them know wherein the skill and graces of an handsome narrative, according to the several subjects and designs of it, lie. Of each of which rules fit examples may be found out, and therein they may be shown how others have practised them. The ancient classic authors afford plenty of such examples, which they should be made not only to translate, but have set before them as patterns for their daily imitation.

文体 |  迄今我们达成的共识是，一旦小孩有能力的时候，也许应不失时机地让他们经常讲述他们知道的故事；开始时只在故事情节联结的方式上，帮助他们纠正其中最明显的错误。当这个错误改正了，就可以向他们指出下一个错误，这样一个接一个，直到所有的错误，至少那些重大的错误都得到改正。当他们能够相当不错地讲述故事，就该让他们把故事写下来。《伊索寓言》差不多是我所知道的唯一一本适合小孩的书，可以提供他们练习英语写作的材料，就如同为他们学习拉丁语提供阅读和翻译的材料一样。当他们不再犯语法错误，能够将一个故事的若干情节组合成一篇连续一致的文章，而不在过渡之处显得突兀、不自然 (这种情况是经常发生的)；这只是能够勿需构想就能很好讲述的第一步，那时如果有人希望他们更进一步，他可以向杜理 (Tully)求助，杜理这位雄辩大师在他的第一部书《论创造》 ("De Inventione")的第二十节给出了一些规则，通过对这些规则的实践，他们可以明白，一个完美的叙事，按照几个主题与构思，其技巧及优雅究竟何在。这些规则的每一条都可以找到恰当的例子，向他们显示别人是如何实践的。古代的经典作家提供了许多这样的范例，这些范例不仅可用于翻译，而且应放在他们面前作为日常效法的榜样。

LETTERS | When they understand how to write English with due connexion, propriety, and order, and are pretty well masters of a tolerable narrative style, they may be advanced to writing of letters; wherein they should not be put upon any strains of wit or compliment, but taught to express their own plain easy sense, without any incoherence, confusion, or roughness. And when they are perfect in this, they may, to raise their thoughts, have set before them the example of Voiture's, for the entertainment of their friends at a distance, with letters of compliment, mirth, raillery, or diversion; and Tully's epistles, as the best pattern, whether for business or conversation. The writing of letters has so much to do in all the occurrences of human life, that no gentleman can avoid showing himself in this kind of writing: occasions will daily force him to make this use of his pen, which, besides the consequences, that, in his affairs, his well or ill managing of it often draws after it, always lays him open to a severer examination of his breeding, sense, and abilities, than oral discourses; whose transient faults, dying for the most part with the sound that gives them life, and so not subject to a strict review, more easily escape observation and censure.

书信 |  当他们懂得怎样将英语写得前后连贯、恰如其分、有条不紊，很熟练地掌握了一种过得去的叙事文体之后，他们可以进到写书信；他们写信时不要受限于机敏或客套的表述，只要教他们表达他们自己朴素自如的感受，避免有任何的不连贯、混乱或粗俗。一旦他们在这方面已经完善了，他们以瓦蒂尔 (Voiture)为榜样，激发他们的思想，写下问候的、欢乐的、逗趣的或消遣的书信，以慰籍远方的朋友；或者参照杜理 (Tully)的书信，作为事务或交往信件的最佳范例。写信在人生的各个场合都有很多用处，没有一个绅士能够避免在这种写作中表现出自己来：他每天都会遇到一些机会，迫使他不得不动笔，结果他的书信表述得体与否，除了常常影响到他的事务外，而且还总是使他的教养、观念与能力暴露无遗，受到比在交谈中更为严格的检验；因为交谈中一时的差错，大多数刚刚说完就消逝了，故不至于受到严格的评论，更容易脱逃人们的注意和指责。

Had the methods of education been directed to their right end, one would have thought this, so necessary a part, could not have been neglected, whilst themes and verses in Latin, of no use at all, were, so constantly every-where, pressed, to the racking of children's inventions beyond their strength, and hindering their cheerful progress in learning the tongues, by unnatural difficulties. But custom has so ordained it, and who dares disobey? And would it not be very unreasonable to require of a learned country school-master (who has all the tropes and figures in Farnaby's rhetoric at his fingers ends) to teach his scholar to express himself handsomely in English, when it appears to be so little his business or thought, that the boy's mother (despised, it is like, a illiterate, for not having read a system of logic and rhetoric) outdoes him in it?

假如教育方法指向正确的目标，那么人们会认为写信这样必要的事情不可能被忽略，因为用拉丁语作文写诗这样无用的事情，尚且到处强加给小孩，让他们在力所不逮的情况下伤神费力去创作，使其被不自然的困难阻碍了他们学习语言的愉快进程。但是习俗确定如此，而谁又敢违背呢？而且你叫一个饱学的乡村教师 (他精通法内比(Farnaby)的《修辞学》上的所有比喻和词藻)去教他的学生用英语恰当地表达自己，他却不认为那是他的工作，甚至想也不想一下，结果学生的母亲 (即使她对逻辑和修辞学体系一无所知)比他教得更好，那你的要求岂不是很不合理？

To write and speak correctly, gives a grace, and gains a favourable attention to what one has to say: and since it is English that an English gentleman will have constant use of, that is the language he should chiefly cultivate, and wherein most care should be taken to polish and perfect his style. To speak or write better Latin than English, may make a man be talked of; but he would find it more to his purpose to express himself well in his own tongue, that he uses every moment, than to have the vain commendation of others for a very insignificant quality. This I find universally neglected, and no care taken any-where to improve young men in their own language, that they may thoroughly understand and be masters of it. If any one among us have a facility or purity more than ordinary in his mother tongue, it is owing to chance, or his genius, or any thing, rather than to his education, or any care of his teacher. To mind what English his pupil speaks or writes, is below the dignity of one bred up amongst Greek and Latin, though he have but little of them himself. These are the learned languages, fit only for learned men to meddle with and teach; English is the language of the illiterate vulgar; though yet we see the policy of some of our neighbours hath not thought it beneath the public care to promote and reward the improvement of their own language. Polishing and enriching their tongue, is no small business amongst them; it hath colleges and stipends appointed it, and there is raised amongst them a great ambition and emulation of writing correctly; and we see what they are come to by it, and how far they have spread one of the worst languages possibly in this part of the world, if we look upon it as it was in some few reigns backwards, whatever it be now. The great men among the Romans were daily exercising themselves in their own language; and we find yet upon record the names of orators, who taught some of their emperors Latin, though it were their mother tongue.

正确地写和说，使人显得优雅，让别人乐于关注他要说的话：而且因为一个英国绅士常用的是英语，那么他应该主要培养的，最该注意去修饰和完善他的文体的，也应该是英语。一个人拉丁语说得或写得比英语好，也许会使他成为大家的谈资；但是他会发现用自己时刻运用的母语流利地表达自己，相对于因为一个微不足道的品质得到别人空洞的赞扬，更能达到自己的目的。我发现这一点被普遍地忽略了，无论何处没有人注意增进年轻人的母语能力，以便他们能对母语充分理解并掌握。假如我们中间有谁说母语比平常人更熟练、更纯正，那应该归功于机会、或他的天才、或者别的事情，而不是由于他的教育，或者他的老师的关照。去关注他的学生说或写什么样的英语，对一个在希腊语和拉丁语中教养长大的(老师)来说是有损尊严的，即使他自己也只掌握了一点点希腊语和拉丁语。这些是学究性的语言，只适合有学究们去鼓捣、去教授；而英语被认为是目不识丁的平民百姓的语言；虽然我们知道我们一些邻邦的政策，他们并不认为公众不该关注以促进与奖励来提高他们母语。改善与丰富他们的语言，在他们之中并不是一件小事；他们为此设立大学与提供助学金，并且在他们当中激发正确写作的意愿与竞赛；如果我们不管现在如何，只是回顾过去几个朝代的情况，我们可以看到他们怎样把一个最糟糕的语言传播到世界的这部分，我们也就能知道他们会由此获得什么样的结果；罗马的伟人天天练习他们的母语；我们也在记录中发现一些雄辩家的名字，他们教给他们的帝王拉丁语，只是拉丁语是他们的母语。

It is plain the Greeks were yet more nice in theirs; all other speech was barbarous to them but their own, and no foreign language appears to have been studied or valued amongst that learned and acute people; though it be past doubt, that they borrowed their learning and philosophy from abroad.

很明显希腊人更精通他们自己的语言，他们认为，除了他们本身的语言，所有别的语言都是蛮族的，没有一门外语为这个聪明有学问的民族所看重和研究；虽然无疑他们的学问和哲学也借鉴了国外的东西。

I am not here speaking against Greek and Latin; I think they ought to be studied, and the Latin, at least, understood well, by every gentleman. But whatever foreign languages a young man meddles with, (and the more he knows, the better,) that which he should critically study, and labour to get a facility, clearness, and elegancy to express himself in, should be his own, and to this purpose he should daily be exercised in it.

我这里不是反对希腊语和拉丁语；我认为它们值得研究，至少拉丁语值得每一个绅士很好地理解。但是一个年轻人无论学习什么外语 (他知道得越多越好)，他应该审慎研究，努力去娴熟、清楚和优雅地表达自己的，还是他的母语，为此目的他应该天天练习母语。

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY | Natural philosophy, as a speculative science, I imagine we have none; and perhaps I may think I have reason to say, we never shall be able to make a science of it. The works of nature are contrived by a wisdom, and operate by ways, too far surpassing our faculties to discover, or capacities to conceive, for us ever to be able to reduce them into a science. Natural philosophy being the knowledge of the principles, properties, and operations of things, as they are in themselves, I imagine there are two parts of it, one comprehending spirits, with their nature and qualities; and the other bodies. The first of these is usually referred to metaphysics: but under what title soever the consideration of spirits comes, I think it ought to go before the study of matter and body, not as a science that can be methodized into a system, and treated of, upon principles of knowledge; but as an enlargement of our minds towards a truer and fuller comprehension of the intellectual world, to which we are led both by reason and revelation. And since the clearest and largest discoveries we have of other spirits, besides God and our own souls, is imparted to us from heaven by revelation, I think the information, that at least young people should have of them, should be taken from that revelation. To this purpose, I conclude, it would be well, if there were made a good history of the Bible for young people to read; wherein if every thing that is fit to be put into it, were laid down in its due order of time, and several things omitted, which are suited only to riper age; that confusion, which is usually produced by promiscuous reading of the scripture, as it lies now bound up in our Bibles, would be avoided; and also this other good obtained, that by reading of it constantly, there would be instilled into the minds of children a notion and belief of spirits, they having so much to do, in all the transactions of that history, which will be a good preparation to the study of bodies. For, without the notion and allowance of spirit, our philosophy will be lame and defective in one main part of it, when it leaves out the contemplation of the most excellent and powerful part of the creation.

自然哲学 |  自然哲学作为一门思辨的科学，我认为我们是没有的；而且我觉得我有理由说，我们永远也不可能将其变成一门科学。自然的运作是一种智慧的设计，它的运行方式远远超出我们的能力所能发现或想像的，我们永远不可能将其简化为一种科学。自然哲学是关于事物的原理、特性和运作的知识，我认为它本身有两部分，一部分关于精神及其本性和品质；另一部分是关于物体的。这前一部分通常是指形而上学；但是无论这对精神的思考叫什么名目，我觉得它都应该放在对研究物质和物体之前，不可将其作为自成系统、可以根据知识原则而对待的一门科学；而是把它作为我们心灵的扩展，借着理性与启示的引导，使我们对智力世界有更真切、更充分的理解。除了上帝与我们自己的灵魂外，我们对于其它精神的最清晰、最重大的发现都是上天以启示的方法给予我们的，所以我觉得这些知识，至少年轻人应具有的知识，应该从这种启示而来。为此目的，我的结论是，如果有一本写得很好的关于圣经的史书供年轻人阅读，那将是很好的事情；其中每一件适合记入的事情都按时间顺序编排下来，而一些只适合成人的事情就省略掉；这样，就可以避免与圣经关联在一起的滥读经文所引起的迷惑；同时还可以得到别的好处，通过持续不断地阅读圣经，可以在小孩心里逐渐灌输关于圣灵的观念与信仰，他们在读这史书时经常会牵涉到精神方面，这是研究物体的一种良好准备。因为没有精神的观念与认可，我们的哲学的很大部分就是残缺不全的，它把有关创造最美好与最强大的部分摒弃在思虑之外。

Of this history of the Bible, I think too it would be well, if there were a short and plain epitome made, containing the chief and most material heads for children to be conversant in, as soon as they can read. This, though it will lead them early into some notion of spirits, yet is not contrary to what I said above, that I would not have children troubled, whilst young, with notions of spirits; whereby my meaning was, that I think it inconvenient, that their yet tender minds should receive early impressions of goblins, spectres, and apparitions, wherewith their maids, and those about them, are apt to fright them into a compliance of their orders, which often proves a great inconvenience to them all their lives after, by subjecting their minds to frights, fearful apprehensions, weakness, and superstition; which, when coming abroad into the world and conversation, they grow weary and ashamed of; it not seldom happens, that to make, as they think, a thorough cure, and ease themselves of a load, which has sat so heavy on them, they throw away the thoughts of all spirits together, and so run into the other, but worse extreme.

关于圣经的历史，我觉得最好有一个简短的摘要，包含着小孩子到能阅读的时候就需要熟悉了解的主要和最本质的条目。虽然这会把他们早早地引向关于某些精神相关的观念，但是这并不与我以前说的，孩子年幼时不该被精灵的观念所困扰的说法冲突；我那里所说的意思是，他们的女仆及周围的人，喜欢以恐吓来让小孩对自己言听计从，使他们幼稚的心灵很早就具有关于妖魔、鬼怪及精灵的印象，我认为这是很不妥的，这会使他们的心灵处于恐惧、害怕、软弱和迷信的境地，对他们以后的整个一生都极其不利；以后当他们出而面世，与人交谈时，他们会为此感到厌倦与可耻；为了得到他们所想的完全矫治，使他们自己减轻如此的重负，常常发生的情形是，他们抛弃所有关于精神的思想，从一个极端跑到了另一个更坏的极端。

The reason why I would have this premised to the study of bodies, and the doctrine of the scriptures well imbibed, before young men be entered in natural philosophy, is, because matter being a thing that all our senses are constantly conversant with, it is so apt to possess the mind, and exclude all other beings but matter, that prejudice, grounded on such principles, often leaves no room for the admittance of spirits, or the allowing any such things as immaterial beings, "in rerum naturâ (Latin "in rerum natura": in the nature of things.)" when yet it is evident, that by mere matter and motion, none of the great phoenomena of nature can be resolved: to instance but in that common one of gravity, which I think impossible to be explained by any natural operation of matter, or any other law of motion, but the positive will of a superior Being so ordering it. And therefore since the deluge cannot be well explained, without admitting something out of the ordinary course of nature, I propose it to be considered, whether God's altering the centre of gravity in the earth for a time (a thing as intelligible as gravity itself, which perhaps a little variation of causes, unknown to us, would produce) will not more easily account for Noah's flood, than any hypothesis yet made use of, to solve it. I hear the great objection to this is, that it would produce but a partial deluge. But the alteration of the centre of gravity once allowed, it is no hard matter to conceive, that the divine power might make the centre of gravity, placed at a due distance from the centre of the earth, move round it in a convenient space of time, whereby the flood would become universal, and, as I think, answer all the phaenomena of the deluge as delivered by Moses, at an easier rate than those many hard suppositions that are made use of to explain it. But this is not a place for that argument, which is here only mentioned by the by, to show the necessity of having recourse to something beyond bare matter and its motion in the explication of nature; to which the notions of spirits and their power, as delivered in the Bible, where so much is attributed to their operation, may be a fit preparative, reserving to a fitter opportunity a fuller explication of this hypothesis, and the application of it to all the parts of the deluge, and any difficulties can be supposed in the history of the flood, as recorded in the scripture.

我主张把这种有关精神的研究放在研究物体之前，主张年轻人在学习自然哲学之前很好地领会经文的教义，是因为物质是我们一切感官不断接触的东西，极容易控制心灵，使其排斥除物质以外的所有别的事物，因而建立在这种原则上的偏见，常常不为精神的存在留下空间了，或是不承认在大自然 ("in rerum natura")里面还有非物质的东西存在；而很显然，如果只有物质与运动，是不能解释任何重大的自然现象的；譬如通常的引力问题，我认为很难用物质的自然作用或者任何其它运动规律去解释，只可能是一种更高存在的绝对意志所决定的。所以，既然不承认一些超越自然的事情就不能很好地解释大洪荒，我提议我们可以考虑那是不是上帝暂时改变了地球引力的中心 (这是和引力本身一样可以理解的事情，也许是由未知的一种原因变化引起的)，这比任何可资利用的假设更容易解释挪亚 (Noah)时期的大洪水。对此我知道一种重要的反对意见，就是认为这只会产生局部的洪水。不过一旦承认引力中心的改变，那么不难想象神力可能把地球引力的中心放在离地心有适当距离的地方，使其在一定时间内围绕地心转动，这样一来，洪水就遍布全球了，而且我认为去解释摩西(Moses)所说的洪水中的一切现象，比起许多用来解释它的困难假设更容易理解。但是这里不是辩论这个问题的地方，这只是顺便提到，以表明在解释自然现象时，除了纯粹物质及其运动之外，还有必要借助其它东西；对此，圣经所提到的有关圣灵及其力量的观念，很大程度解释了它们的运作，可能是作为一种合适的准备，到更合适的时机更全面地说明这个假设，并且运用它解释经书上记载的大洪水的所有阶段，以及洪水历史上的任何困难。

But to return to the study of natural philosophy. Though the world be full of systems of it, yet I cannot say, I know any one which can be taught a young man as a science wherein he may be sure to find truth and certainty, which is what all sciences give an expectation of. I do not hence conclude, that none of them are to be read. It is necessary for a gentleman in this learned age to look into some of them to fit himself for conversation: but whether that of Descartes be put into his hands, as that which is most in fashion, or it be thought fit to give him a short view of that and several others also, I think the systems of natural philosophy that have obtained in this part of the world, are to be read more to know the hypotheses, and to understand the terms and ways of talking of the several sects, than with hopes to gain thereby a comprehensive, scientifical and satisfactory knowledge of the works of nature. Only this may be said, that the modern Corpuscularians talk in most things more intelligibly than the Peripateticks, who possessed the schools immediately before them. He that would look further back, and acquaint himself with the several opinions of the antients, may consult Dr. Cudworth's "Intellectual System", wherein that very learned author hath with such accurateness and judgment collected and explained the opinions of the Greek philosophers, that what principles they built on, and what were the chief hypotheses that divided them, is better to be seen in him than any where else that I know. But I would not deter any one from the study of nature because all the knowledge we have or possibly can have of it cannot be brought into a science. There are very many things in it that are convenient and necessary to be known to a gentleman; and a great many other that will abundantly reward the pains of the curious with delight and advantage. But these, I think, are rather to be found amongst such writers as have employed themselves in making rational experiments and observations than in starting barely speculative systems. Such writings therefore, as many of Mr. Boyle's are, with others that have written of husbandry, planting, gardening, and the like, may be fit for a gentleman, when he has a little acquainted himself with some of the systems of the natural philosophy in fashion.

不过我们还是回到研究自然哲学来。虽然世上充满了自然哲学的各种体系，我却不能说我知道其中哪一派能够当作一种科学去教给年轻人，使他能够肯定地发现真理与确定性，而这二者是一切科学都预期给出的东西。我并不是因此总结说，任何一门自然哲学都不该学习。在这个注重学问的时代，一个绅士有必要对此懂得一些以使他能与人交谈；但是不管是教他掌握现在最流行的笛卡尔(Descartes)学说，还是只教他笛卡尔学说及其它几个学说的简介，我认为阅读这里的自然哲学体系的目的是了解各种假设，明白各学派所用的术语及论说方式，而不是求得对于自然现象广泛的、科学的和满意的知识。能说的就是，现代微粒论 (Corpuscularian)对大多数事物的解释比亚里士多德学派(Peripateticks)更容易理解，而后者在被前者取代之前一直是占主导地位的学派。若想进一步回顾，了解古人的各种意见，可以参考卡德沃斯博士 (Dr. Cudworth)的著作《智慧体系》 ("Intellectual System")，其中这位博学的作者以如此的精确性与判断力来收录并解释希腊哲学家的观点，他对他们所依据的原则以及他们之间不同的主要假设，阐述得比我所知的任何别的地方都清楚。但是我不会因为我们关于自然的所有知识或者可能有的知识不能都归到一门科学而阻止任何人去研究自然。自然之中有许多事情是一个绅士容易知道和应该知道的；而且还有许多别的事情能够以快乐与益处来回报好奇者的努力。但是，我认为这些应该是从那种自己做过合理的实验与观察的作者那里来的，而不是从纯粹推测性的体系那里得来。所以，这样的著作，譬如波义耳先生 (Mr. Boyle)的许多作品，还有其它关于耕作、种植、园艺等等的作品，在一个绅士熟悉了时兴的一些自然哲学系统之后，都适合他阅读的。

Though the systems of physics that I have met with, afford little encouragement to look for certainty or science in any treatise which shall pretend to give us a body of natural philosophy from the first principles of bodies in general, yet the incomparable Mr. Newton has shown, how far mathematics applied to some parts of nature may, upon principles that matter of fact justify, carry us in the knowledge of some, as I may so call them, particular provinces of the incomprehensible universe. And if others could give us so good and clear an account of other parts of nature, as he has of this our planetary world, and the most considerable phaenomena observable in it, in his admirable book, Philosophiae naturalis Principia Mathematica, we might in time hope to be furnished with more true and certain knowledge in several parts of this stupendous machine, than hitherto we could have expected. And though there are very few that have mathematicks enough to understand his demonstrations, yet the most accurate mathematicians who have examined them allowing them to be such, his book will deserve to be read, and give no small light and pleasure to those, who, willing to understand the motions, properties, and operations of the great masses of matter, in this our solar system, will but carefully mind his conclusions, which may be depended on as propositions well proved.

虽然我所遇到的各种物理学派，都很难激励我从那些号称能够大体上根据物质的基本原则给予我们一种自然哲学体系的各种论文中，去获得确切的知识或科学，但是无与伦比的牛顿(Newton)先生却向人揭示，根据以事实来证明的原则，将数学应用于自然界某些领域的研究，能使我们获得多少关于深奥莫测的宇宙的某些特定领域的知识。假如其他人对于自然界的另外一些领域也能为我们作出精彩与清晰的说明，就如同牛顿在其令人赞叹的著作《自然哲学的数学原理》 ("Philosophiae naturalis Principia Mathematica") 一书中，对于我们这个行星世界及其可观察到的最发人深思的现象所作的说明，那么，对于自然这个庞大机器的若干部分，我们最终可能希望得到比迄今为止我们可以期盼的更真实、更确切的知识。虽然世上只有很少的几个人具备足够的数学知识，可以理解牛顿的论证，可是既然最缜密的数学家对其论证已进行检查并予以认可，可见他的书确实值得一读，那些欲了解我们所在太阳系中巨大天体的运动、性质和运行的人，一定会从中得到不少启示和快乐，他们只要小心注意他的结论，这些结论可视为已经证明的命题而予以信靠。

GREEK | This is, in short, what I have thought concerning a young gentleman's studies; wherein it will possibly be wondered that I should omit Greek, since amongst the Grecians is to be found the original as it were, and foundation of all that learning which we have in this part of the world. I grant it so; and will add, that no man can pass for a scholar that is ignorant of the Greek tongue. But I am not here considering the education of a professed scholar, but of a gentleman, to whom Latin and French, as the world now goes, is by every one acknowledged to be necessary. When he comes to be a man, if he has a mind to carry his studies farther, and look into the Greek learning, he will then easily get that tongue himself; and if he has not that inclination, his learning of it under a tutor will be but lost labour, and much of his time and pains spent in that which will be neglected and thrown away as soon as he is at liberty. For how many are there of an hundred, ever amongst scholars themselves, who retain the Greek they carried from school; or ever improve it to a familiar reading and perfect understanding of Greek authors?

希腊语 |  简而言之，这就是我对于一个年轻绅士的学业所持的一些想法；也许有人会奇怪我竟会忽略希腊语，因为我们这里的所有学问都可以在希腊人那里找到源头和基础。我承认确是如此，而且我还要补充一点，一个人不懂希腊语是不能算作一个学者。但是我这里要考虑的不是一个专业学者的教育，而是一个绅士的教育，照世上的看法，每个人都承认他需要学习拉丁语和法语。当他成人后，如果他有心做进一步的研究，并且探究希腊学术，他自己就能很容易学会希腊语；如果他没有这个倾向，那他在导师教导下的学习只是白费劲，他花时间和精力所学的东西，在他自主之后都会忽视和丢弃。因为就学者本身而言，他们在学校学习了希腊语，但是一百人中间，有几个能记住不忘，又有几个甚至提高到可以熟练阅读和完全理解希腊作家呢？

To conclude this part, which concerns a young gentleman's studies, his tutor should remember, that his business is not so much to teach him all that is knowable, as to raise in him a love and esteem of knowledge; and to put him in the right way of knowing and improving himself when he has a mind to it.

总结这一部分关于年轻绅士的学习问题，他的导师应该记住，他的任务并不是把所有已知的知识教给学生，而是培养学生对知识的热爱和尊重；并且当学生有心求知的时候，使学生能够正确地了解与提高自己。

The thoughts of a judicious author on the subject of languages, I shall here give the reader, as near as I can, in his own way of expressing them: he says, "One can scarce burden children too much with the knowledge of languages. They are useful to men of all conditions, and they equally open them the entrance, either to the most profound, or the more easy and entertaining parts of learning. If this irksome study be put off to a little more advanced age, young men either have not resolution enough to apply it out of choice or steadiness to carry it on. And if any one has the gift of perseverance, it is not without the inconvenience of spending that time upon languages, which is destined to other uses: and he confines to the study of words that age of his life that is above it, and requires things; at least it is the losing the best and beautifullest season of one's life. This large foundation of languages cannot be well laid but when every thing makes an easy and deep impression on the mind; when the memory is fresh, ready, and tenacious; when the head and heart are as yet free from cares, passions, and designs; and those on whom the child depends have authority enough to keep him close to a long continued application. I am persuaded that the small number of truly learned, and the multitude of superficial pretenders, is owing to the neglect of this."

这里我愿意把一位睿智的作家关于语言学习的意见，尽我所能地以忠于他的原意的方式转述给读者；他说："小孩很少会因为过多的语言知识而不堪重负。语言知识对各种身份的人都有用处，它们平等地为他们开辟通道，使其达到学问最深奥的部分，或是学问较容易有趣的部分。如果这种烦难的学习略微推迟到较大的年龄，年轻人不是没有足够决心全部投入，就是缺乏毅力坚持下去。即使有人具备锲而不舍的精神，他要花时间在别的事情上，就不便于把时间花在语言上面；而且他在超过了学习语言的年龄仍局限于学习字词及相关的事情；那至少是浪费了一个人一生的最美好的时光。语言的大部分基础是在一切事情都容易在心里留下深刻印象的时候奠定的；是在记忆很新鲜、有准备和持久的时候，当头脑与心胸没有牵挂、没有激情、没有企图的时候；而且那些小孩所依赖的人有足够权威使他长时间持续地用功。我相信世上只有少数真正有学问的人，更多的是徒有虚名的人，原因就在于忽视了这个道理。"

I think every body will agree with this observing gentleman, that languages are the proper study of our first years. But it is to be considered by the parents and tutors, what tongues it is fit the child should learn. For it must be confessed, that it is fruitless pains and loss of time, to learn a language which in the course of life that he is designed to, he is never like to make use of, or which one may guess by his temper he will wholly neglect and lose again, as soon as an approach to manhood, setting him free from a governor, shall put him into the hands of his own inclination, which is not likely to allot any of his time to the cultivating the learned tongues, or dispose him to mind any other language but what daily use or some particular necessity shall force upon him.

我认为每个人都会同意这位观察细致的绅士所说的，即语言适宜于在我们的人生早期去学习。至于什么语言适合小孩去学习，应该是父母与导师考虑的。因为我们必须承认，如果一门语言在小孩命定的一生中，他决不会可能用到，或者从他的脾性猜测，一旦他长大成人、脱离了监护人的管束，他就会完全忽略或遗忘，那么让他学习这门语言，只会使他作无谓的努力和浪费时间；而且当他可以听凭自己的意志行事时，他不太可能安排时间去培养学者的语言，除了日常使用或某些特别需要迫使他学习的，他不会分心注意任何别的语言。

ut yet, for the sake of those who are designed to be scholars, I will add, what the same author subjoins, to make good his foregoing remark. It will deserve to be considered by all who desire to be truly learned, and therefore may be a fit rule for tutors to inculcate, and leave with their pupils, to guide their future studies.

不过，为了那些有意成为学者的人，我愿加上同一个作者的补白，以使他前述的评论更完善。这值得所有希望成为真正学者的人考虑，因此导师们可以将其作为合适的规则来谆谆教诲他们的学生，传给学生以指导其将来的学习。

"The study," says he, "of the original text can never be sufficiently recommended. It is the shortest, surest, and most agreeable way to all sorts of learning. Draw from the spring-head, and take not things at second hand. Let the writings of the great masters be never laid aside, dwell upon them, settle them in your mind, and cite them upon occasion; make it your business throughly to understand them in their full extent and all their circumstances: acquaint yourself fully with the principles of original authors; bring them to a consistency, and then do you yourself make your deductions. In this state were the first commentators, and do not you rest till you bring yourself to the same. Content not yourself with those borrowed lights, nor guide yourself by their views but where your own fails you and leaves you in the dark. Their explications are not your's, and will give you the slip. On the contrary, your own observations are the product of your own mind, where they will abide and be ready at hand upon all occasions in converse, consultation, and dispute. Lose not the pleasure it is to see that you are not stopped in your reading but by difficulties that are invincible; where the commentators and scholiasts themselves are at a stand and have nothing to say. Those copious expositors of other places, who with a vain and pompous overflow of learning poured out on passages plain and easy in themselves, are very free of their words and pains, where there is no need. Convince yourself full by this ordering your studies, that it is nothing but men's laziness which hath encouraged pedantry to cram rather than enrich libraries, and to bury good authors under heaps of notes and commentaries, and you will perceive that sloth herein has acted against itself and its own interest by multiplying reading and enquiries, and increasing the pains it endeavoured to avoid."

他说："研究原著怎么推崇也不会过分。那是研究任何学问的一条最便捷的、最稳妥的、最适合的途径。凡事要从源头获得，不要间接取得。绝不要把伟大作家的作品搁置一旁，要沉湎于其中，将其铭记在心，有机会就加以引用；把在其全部范围内及各种情形下彻底地理解它们作为你的任务：你要充分熟悉原作者遵循的原则，并将那些原则连贯起来，然后作出你自己的推断。第一流的评注家就是这样作的，你在达到同样的境界之前不得懈怠。你自己不要以借来的光亮而满足，也不要用别人的见解作为自己的指南，除非你自己的见解让你失望，并且使你在黑暗中徘徊。他们的阐释不是你的，它们会使你滑倒。相反你自己的见解是你自己心思意念的产物，它们总会在你心里驻留，随时准备在各种交谈、商讨和辩论的场合有所发挥。不可丢弃不断阅读的乐趣，除非遇到难以克服的困难；那时评论家与注解者他们自己也停步不前、无话可说。而那些在别处显得学识渊博的评注者，总爱在原文浅显容易的段落显示过多空洞与华而不实的学问，在不必要的地方不吝言词，不辞辛劳。如果你自己完全采用这种方法做学问，那没有别的原因，只能是人的惰性，惰性鼓励书呆子去塞满而不是丰富他们的书库，并将优秀的作家埋没在大堆的注释及评论下面；你会意识到，懒惰在这里是自己与自己作对，自己伤害自己的利益，它本来竭力避免读书与询问，现在却更辛苦，要多读多问。"

This, though it may seem to concern none but direct scholars, is of so great moment for the right ordering of their education and studies, that I hope I shall not be blamed for inserting of it here, especially if it be considered, that it may be of use to gentlemen too, when at any time they have a mind to go deeper than the surface, and get to themselves a solid, satisfactory, and masterly insight in any part of learning.

这节话虽然看起来好像只与学者有关，却对合理安排他们的教育和研究至关重要，所以我希望没人责怪我把它插在此处；特别是如果大家考虑一下，它对于绅士们也不无稗益；无论何时当他们有心要在任何学问上突破浅表、深入下去，使自己具备一种坚实、令人满意的及高明的见解，这都是有用的。

METHOD | Order and constancy are said to make the great difference between one man and another; this I am sure, nothing so much clears a learner's way, helps him so much on in it, and makes him go so easy and so far in any enquiry, as a good method. His governor should take pains to make him sensible of this, accustom him to order, and teach him method in all the applications of his thoughts; show him wherein it lies, and the advantages of it; acquaint him with the several sorts of it, either from general to particulars, or from particulars to what is more general; exercise him in both of them; and make him see, in what cases each different method is most proper, and to what ends it best serves.

方法 |  次序与恒心据说是使两个人有巨大差别的原因；我确信这一点，没有任何事情比一个良好的方法更能为一个学生扫清道路，帮助他前进，使他在任何求知的道路上行进得更轻松、更深入。他的老师应努力使他明白这个道理，让他习惯遵守次序，并且教他在各种场合运用思想的方法；向他揭示方法在哪里，与什么样的优点；使他熟悉若干种方法，或是从一般到特殊的方法，或是从特殊到更一般的方法；让他在这两种方法上都得到练习；并且使他明白，各种不同方法在什么情形下最合适，对什么目的最有用。

In history the order of time should govern; in philosophical inquiries, that of nature, which in all progression is to go from the place one is then in, to that which joins and lies next to it; and so it is in the mind, from the knowledge it stands possessed of already, to that which lies next, and is coherent to it; and so on to what it aims at, by the simplest and most uncompounded parts it can divide the matter into. To this purpose, it will be of great use to his pupil to accustom him to distinguish well, that is, to have distinct notions, whereever the mind can find any real difference; but as carefully to avoid distinctions in terms, where he has not distinct and different clear ideas.

在历史中，时间的顺序应该占主导地位；在哲学探讨中，自然的次序应该占主导地位，在一切进展中，自然次序总是从现在所处的地方向邻近及周围推进；在心理上也是如此，从已经掌握的知识向相邻和相一致的知识探寻；这样，可以从物质可分割成的最简单、最纯正的部分达到目标。为此目的，应该使学生善于区分，也就是无论心理在哪里找出事物真正的区别，都能有清楚的观念；但是如果他没有确切与不同的清晰概念，应该注意避免只从术语上去区分。

摘自Some Thoughts Concerning Education (English-Chinese Edition)(ISBN-10: 1537479857)