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Unit Eleven Beyond Invalidism, Part One Norman Cousins
1 The sense of being locked into a body that is inadequate for its needs, the sense of living under a lowering ceiling, the sense of having to separate oneself from vital prospects, the sense of coming to terms with bleakness — all these are the stuff of invalidism. The person who is put on notice by the physician that he or she has a ―bad heart‖ tends to live a life of reduced expectations, to take slower and fewer steps, and to move tentatively in the outside world.
2. How does one avoid the feeling of being an invalid when underlying corditions create and indeed seem to dictate it? When a physician tells you that your heart is weak and must be spared the strains that other people routinely and joyously bear, how do you go through life without flinching when you approach stairs or hilly streets or children reaching out to be lifted?
3 Perhaps the best way to answer these questions is to begin by reflecting on the way the human body works. A weak body becomes weaker in a mood of total surrender.思想上先缴了械，身体便会更加孱弱。The mechanisms of repair and rehabilitation that are built into the human system have a natural drive to assert themselves under conditions of illness, but that natural tendency is deferred or deflected by an erosion of the will to live, or by the absence of confidence in one‘s physician or in one‘s own ability to play a vital part in the attack on disease.
4 Obviously, it is absurd to suppose that there is no illness or somber circumstance that can‘t be reversed. But it is also true that under conditions of extreme illness we need all the help we can get. For the same reason it is necessary to put all our own powers to work in our own behalf. We want to get the most out of whatever is possible. An integral part of this process is respect for the human body — an organism of astounding tenacity, resiliency, and recuperative capability. And, since the human body tends to move in the direction of its expectations — plus or minus — it is important to know that attitudes of confidence and determination are no less a part of the treatment program than medical science and technology.
5 The day after I came home from the hospital, I arranged with a building contractor to construct a new study and storage facility for all the Saturday Review files and other books and records that had been moved out from the East. The only place available for the new construction was above a steep hill in back of the house. This meant I would have to climb the equivalent of four flights of stairs every time I wanted to go to the study.
6 The building was completed in about three months. I have never felt the slightest hesitation in making the ascent, which I have done at least twice daily. The sense of pleasurable anticipations is enough to allow me to endure any strain.
7 I do know this, however: if I had any distasteful expectations or reactions my body would supply all the signs of chest pressure to accommodate that distaste. More and more, I am inclined to accept the notion that the body produces its own poisons under circumstances of apprehension or emotional strain and that this factor is intimately involved in serious illness, whether it takes the form of cardiac disease, joint disabilities, or even cancer. The title of Kenneth Pelletier‘s book Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer may say it all.
8 Nothing is more amazing or heartening to me than to see the way in which many persons with severe afflictions or handicaps nonetheless manage to affirm life. Just in the act of mobilizing their emotional resources they help to potentiate themselves physically. I am not saying here that no one ever need feel disadvantaged; all I am doing is making a distinction between being an invalid and thinking and acting like one.
9 I know that I am still at risk. I know that, without warning, my heart could suddenly fail. If that should happen, I will have no complaints. As I told Dr. Shine, I have nothing but gratitude for a heart that has seen me through an eventful life and several medical ordeals, beginning in childhood.
10 Death is not the enemy; living in constant fear of it is. I have no intention of swathing myself in cotton to soften a possibly fatal episode. I will continue to live and think as actively and creatively as it is physically possible for me to do, knowing that longevity by self can be sterile but that vital feelings and thoughts give meaning and depth to life and provide a true sense of possibilities of human existence.
11 I have already lived more than an average lifetime, but I want to continue to live long enough to see the establishment of a world under law and a planet made safe and fit for human habitation. I hope, too, to live long enough to
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see the conquest of human squalor. What stands in the way is not insufficiency o natural resources but the way people choose to think about their problems and opportunities. In any event, I am grateful that I am able to continue working for those causes that seek to free our age from gross indignities and the fear of nuclear devastation.
12 What seems especially important to me in retrospect is that I am the beneficiary of the best that modern medical science has to offer. For many years, deaths from heart attacks have outnumbered fatalities from all other diseases. That number is now on the decline and will, I believe, decline further still with the full recognition, not just by the profession but by the general public, that a comprehensive program of treatment involves both the full utilization of medical science and full development of the human healing system. The fact that the belief
13 I look up at the calendar as I put down these final notes and see that it is two years and five months since the heart attack of December 22, 1980 Dr. Shine has gone out of his way to congratulate me, using the word ―magnificent‖ to describe my process, even though he feels I may still be at substantial risk. The portion of the heart muscle has been strengthened and has adapted itself to my needs. Dr. Cannon says it is difficult to believe that bypass surgery could have achieved a better functional result than has been achieved without it. The original treadmill results that produced the finding of severe coronary insufficiency have been reversed.最初检测出了严重冠状动脉功能不全的踏车试验结果已经被逆转了。
14 I manage to set aside time each week for the sports I enjoy — doubles or singles in tennis, and golf with old friends. Golf does not really qualify as exercise, but it is a game that offers tangible and tantalizing possibilities for measurable improvement of one‘s skill. Besides, it provides an arena for banter and the rewards of companionship in an outdoor setting. I maintain a full working schedule, and I pay visits to the hospital at the request of physicians to see ill persons in need of a morale boost. The different between what I did before the heart attack and what I am doing now is that I now maintain some semblance of control I try to run my schedule instead of letting the schedule run me.我努力驾驭时间表，而不是被时间表所束缚。
From: C. Shrodes, pp. 732-734.
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Unit Twelve Charles Darwin Thomas Henry Huxley
1 Very few, even among those who have taken the keenest interest in the progress of the revolution in natural knowledge set afoot by the publication of \rapid and complete change which has been effected both inside and outside the boundaries of the scientific world in the attitude of men's minds towards the doctrines which are expounded in that great work, can have been prepared for the extraordinary manifestation of affectionate regard for the man, and of profound reverence for the philosopher, which followed the announcement, on Thursday last, of the death of Mr. Darwin.
很少有人，即使是那些对由于《物种起源》一书的发表而推动的自然知识的变革进程极度感兴趣的人，以及那些满怀讶异关注着导致科学界内外人士对待这一巨著中阐明的观点的态度发生迅速而彻底变化的人，能够预料到上周四宣布达尔文死亡之后人们对于达尔文这一思想家的异乎寻常的挚爱和崇敬之情。
2 Not only in these islands, where so many have felt the fascination of personal contact with an intellect which had no superior, and with a character which was even nobler than the intellect; but, in all parts of the civilised world, it would seem that those whose business it is to feel the pulse of nations and to know what interests the masses of mankind, were well aware that thousands of their readers would think the world the poorer for Darwin's death, and would dwell with eager interest upon every incident of his history. In France, in Germany, in Austro-Hungary, in Italy, in the United States, writers of all shades of opinion, for once unanimous, have paid a willing tribute to the worth of our great countryman, ignored in life by the official representatives of the kingdom, but laid in death among his peers in Westminster Abbey by the will of the intelligence of the nation.
不止是在英伦三岛，那里有如此多的人深切感受到一个无与伦比的灵魂的魅力，感受到一个比这一灵魂更加高贵的品质；在文明世界所有疆域里，似乎那些密切关注世界进程以及关心人民利益的人都能意识到他们数以千计的读者将会认为达尔文的死是我们这个世界的一大损失，并将急迫地研读他一生中的每一事件来缅怀他。在法国，在德国，在奥匈帝国，在意大利，在美国，所有持不同观点的作家在这一刻一致同意为我们这一伟大同胞的价值表示致敬，尽管他一生都不被英国当局认同和尊敬，他死后还是遵由这一国家中智者的意愿被安葬在西敏寺的其他伟人之间。
3 It is not for us to allude to the sacred sorrows of the bereaved home at Down; but it is no secret that, outside that domestic group, there are many to whom Mr. Darwin's death is a wholly irreparable loss. And this not merely because of his wonderfully genial, simple, and generous nature; his cheerful and animated conversation, and the infinite variety and accuracy of his information; but because the more one knew of him, the more he seemed the incorporated ideal of a man of science. Acute as were his reasoning powers, vast as was his knowledge, marvellous as was his tenacious industry, under physical difficulties which would have converted nine men out of ten into aimless invalids; it was not these qualities, great as they were, which impressed those who were admitted to his intimacy with involuntary veneration, but a certain intense and almost passionate honesty by which all his thoughts and actions were irradiated, as by a central fire.
我们不应提及在唐宁镇那失去亲人的家庭的沉重的悲伤；但有一点已不是秘密，那就是除了达尔文的亲友，还有很多人认为他的死是无法挽回的损失。这不仅是由于他亲切、率真和慷慨的本性；也不仅是由于他愉快生动的谈吐，以及他庞杂而准确的信息量；而且由于人们对他了解的愈多，就愈感到他是科学工作者的典范。他的推理能力极为敏锐，他的知识面极为宽广，他的坚毅勤奋令人叹为观止，他身体的困难十有八九会让普通人沦落成没有生活目标的病弱之人；使那些不知不觉中感受到达尔文的亲切并因此而尊敬他的人们印象深刻不是他这些伟大的品质，而是如火焰一样照亮他思想和行为的那种独特的强烈而近乎热烈的诚实。
4 It was this rarest and greatest of endowments which kept his vivid imagination and great speculative powers within due bounds; which compelled him to undertake the prodigious labours of original investigation and of reading, upon which his published works are based; which made him accept criticisms and suggestions from anybody and everybody, not only without impatience, but with expressions of gratitude sometimes almost comically in excess of their value; which led him to allow neither himself nor others to be deceived by phrases, and to spare neither time nor pains in order to obtain clear and distinct ideas upon every topic with which he occupied himself.
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正是这种极其稀有的伟大的天赋使得他的生动的想象和伟大的推测能力处于合理的范畴内。这种态度使得他能够不被只言片语迷惑，并且能够不辞辛苦地尽力对他所从事的每一个议题取得清楚明确的看法。不同的是，面对大自然这一几乎没有任何破解希望的难题，我们的现代哲学家没有退缩不前，以赫拉克利特和德谟克利特的理论为基础，他把全部的生命奉献到了攻克这一难题的事业里，得到的结果和他们早先提出的理论相似甚至完全一致。
5 One could not converse with Darwin without being reminded of Socrates. There was the same desire to find some one wiser than himself; the same belief in the sovereignty of reason; the same ready humour; the same sympathetic interest in all the ways and works of men. But instead of turning away from the problems of Nature as hopelessly insoluble, our modern philosopher devoted his whole life to attacking them in the spirit of Heraclitus and of Democritus, with results which are the substance of which their speculations were anticipatory shadows.
对达尔文所取得成绩的正确评价，甚至正确的定位在当前来说是不现实甚至不应该期望的。凡事都需要时间――为我们对自然不断扩展的征服感到欣喜需要时间，哀悼带领我们取得胜利的英雄同样需要时间。
6 The due appreciation, or even enumeration, of these results is neither practicable nor desirable at this moment. There is a time for all things–a time for glorying in our ever-extending conquests over the realm of Nature, and a time for mourning over the heroes who have led us to victory.
7 None have fought better, and none have been more fortunate, than Charles Darwin. He found a great truth trodden underfoot, reviled by bigots, and ridiculed by all the world; he lived long enough to see it, chiefly by his own efforts, irrefragably established in science, inseparably incorporated with the common thoughts of men, and only hated and feared by those who would revile, but dare not. What shall a man desire more than this? Once more the image of Socrates rises unbidden, and the noble peroration of the \
8 \hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways–I to die and you to live. Which is the better, God only knows.\
他发现了深藏在我们脚下的、被偏邪之人攻击、被全世界嘲笑的真理；他活着的时候看到了这一真理，主要通过他自己的努力，无可争议地在科学中占有了一席之地，并成为普通人思想中不可分割的一部分，只被那些想攻击却又不敢攻击的人憎恶和恐惧。
From: S. F. Tropp, pp. 230-232.
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Unit Fourteen Reading the River Mark Twain
品读密西西比
河的脸，迟早幻化成一本神奇的书——这书于未经训练的旅人是死的语言，却毫无保留地告诉我它的思想，如同有声述说般将其最珍藏的秘密公布。这不是一本读过一遍就弃置一旁的书，因为每一天它都有新故事要颂。绵延一千二百英里，每一页均不无趣味。。。读不懂它的旅人总为水面上一种独特隐约的酒窝所着迷（那也是在少数几个偶然间，他没有完全忽视酒窝的时候，才有的事）对于水手而言，那却是一段印成斜体的文字；事实上那不仅仅是酒窝，而是最大号字体的图例，且还要在末尾附加一连串呼号的感叹符，因为它意味着那里埋藏着一艘沉船或一块暗礁，随时都有可能将漂流而过的最坚固的船舶摧毁。这是河水所能作出的最模糊，最简单的表达，在被水手视作最可怕的信号。事实上，不能读懂此书的旅人，只能从中看到形形色色的美丽图画，阳光为画笔，云朵绘阴影，而对于受过训练的眼睛，这些丝毫不是图画，而是最无情，最严肃的读物。
而今我已掌握此河的语言，开始了解构成大河的每一个琐碎特征，我认识它们，如同认识字母表的每一个字母，我获得了一份宝贵的财富。但我同时遗失了某件东西，我遗失了某件在我有生之年都无法再恢复的东西。所有的优雅，美丽，诗情，均不复存在于此壮丽的大河！犹记得我初当汽船水手时所目睹的一次奇妙的日落。河中很宽一部分区域被夕阳染成血红。远处和中央的红光耀成金黄，一根独木穿越金光漂浮而来，乌黑且显眼，有一处水面上闪现一道斜长的记号；另一处水面则为沸腾翻滚的漪所击碎，那多彩的涟漪仿佛一块蛋白石；在微红的赤晕最淡的地方，有一处光滑的地方覆有优雅的圈纹并放射状的线条，精美勾勒，无与伦比；左岸是茂密的灌木丛，这林里投下的昏暗的荫在一处被一条长且参差的痕迹阻断，那道痕迹像银子般闪耀着；在林墙上方的高处，一棵秃杆儿的死树摇曳着唯一一根带叶的枝条，在夕阳无阻倾泻的流动光辉中如火焰般闪耀着。优雅的曲线，倒映的影像，葱笼的高地，和缓的远处；在整个背景之上，远近处处，持续地浮动着光芒，那光渐渐消融在夜色中，每一刻都为河流缀以新的色彩奇迹。
我如同着了魔般久久伫立，在一种无言的狂喜中沉醉其间。世界于我是崭新的，在家我从未见过此等景象。但正如我所说的，从某天开始，我不再留意月亮太阳和暮光在河的脸上的杰作，不再留意那种灿烂和魔力；又有一天，我停止注意这所有。从那天起，即使日落的奇景再重复，我也将不带任何狂喜之情地看过，还会暗自这样评价：―这个太阳预示明天要起风；那段浮木显示河水在上涨，情况不妙；水面上倾斜的记号恰是一个陡峭的沙洲，若是这沙洲像那样继续延伸，这几天夜里必会有汽船要遭殃；那片翻滚的?沸水‘显示那里有一片消融的沙洲或是一段变道的河床；远处平滑水域里的线条和圈纹警示着那片棘手的区域正十分危险地慢慢变浅；树林的阴影里银色的条纹，是一条新增残桩的突出物，这截树桩占据了所能找到的最有利于他给汽船造成麻烦的地形；那棵仅有一条带叶树枝的死树，已经支撑不了多久了，不知道没有这位指路的老朋友，一个人还如何在夜间穿越他的盲区？‖
不，所有的浪漫和美丽都离这河远去了。它的任何特征于我的价值不外乎那些对于安全掌舵汽船有益的可用之处。自那些天起，我从心底里同情医生。美人双颊的可爱红晕对一位医生而言除了伏于某致命疾患之上的征兆外还能意味着什么呢？她那耀目的魅力于他而言不正充满一种隐匿萎败的标志与象征吗？究竟他有否瞧见她的美，还是他看她仅是以一种职业的眼光，且兀自只对他不健康的状态予以评价？他可曾犹疑自己在掌握了技能之后是得到更多还是遗失得更多呢？
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