Neither must we think that the life of a man begins when he can feed himself, or walk alone, when he can fight or beget his like; for so he is contemporary with a camel or a cow: but he is first a man, when he comes to a certain steady use of reason, according to his proportion: and when that is, all the world of men cannot tell precisely. Some are called at age, at fourteen; some at one-and-twenty; some never; but all men, late enough; for the life of a man comes upon him slowly and insensibly. But as when the sun approaches towards the gates of the morning, he first opens a little eye of heaven, and sends away the spirits of darkness, and gives light to a cock, and calls up the lark to matins, and by and by gilds the fringes of a cloud, and peeps over the eastern hills, thrusting out his golden horns, like those which decked the brows of Moses, when he was forced to wear a veil, because himself had seen the face of God; and still while a man tells the story, the sun gets up higher, till he shows a fair face and a full light, and then he shines one whole day, under a cloud often, and sometimes weeping great and little showers and sets quickly: so is a man’s reason and his life. He first begins to perceive himself to see or taste, making little reflections upon his actions of sense, and can discourse of flies and dogs, shells and play, horses and liberty: but when he is strong enough to enter into arts and little institutions, he is at first entertained with trifles and impertinent things, not because he needs them, but because his understanding is no bigger, and little images of things are laid before him, like a cock-boat to a whale, only to play withal: but before a man comes to be wise, he is half dead with gouts and consumption, with catarrhs and aches, with sore eyes and a worn-out body. So that if we must not reckon the life of a man but by the accounts of his reason, he is long before his soul be dressed: and he is not to be called a man without a wise and an adorned soul, a soul at least furnished with what is necessary towards his well-being: but by that time his soul is thus furnished, his body is decayed; and then you can hardly reckon him to be alive, when his body is possessed by so many degrees of death.

    But there is yet another arrest. At first he wants strength of body, and then he wants the use of reason: and when that is come, it is ten to one but he stops by the impediments of vice, and wants the strength of the spirit; and we know that body, and soul, and spirit, are the constituent parts of every Christian man. And now let us consider what that thing is which we call years of discretion. The young man is past his tutors, and arrived at the bondage of a caitiff spirit; he is run from discipline, and is let loose to passion; the man by this time hath wit enough to choose his vice, to act his lust, to court his mistress, to talk confidently, and ignorantly, and perpetually. To despise his betters, to deny nothing to his appetite, to do things that when he is indeed a man he must for ever be ashamed of: for this is all the discretion that most men show in the first stage of their manhood; they can discern good from evil; and they prove their skill by leaving all that is good; and wallowing in the evils of folly and an unbridled appetite. And, by this time, the young man hath contracted vicious habits, and is a beast in manners, and therefore it will not be fitting to reckon the beginning of his life; he is a fool in his understanding, and that is a sad death; and he is dead in trespasses and sins, and that is a sadder; so that he hath no life but a natural, the life of a beast, or a tree; in all other capacities he is dead; he neither hath the intellectual nor the spiritual life, neither the life of a man nor of a Christian; and this sad truth lasts too long. For old age seizes upon most men while they still retain the minds of boys and vicious youth, doing actions from principles of great folly and a mighty ignorance, admiring things useless and hurtful, and filling up all the dimensions of their abode with businesses of empty affairs, being at leisure to attend no virtue. They cannot pray, because they are busy, and because they are passionate. They cannot communicate, because they have quarrels and intrigues of perplexed causes, complicated hostilities, and things of the world; and therefore they cannot attend to the things of God: little considering that they must find a time to die in, when death comes they must be at leisure for that. Such men are like sailors loosing from a port, and tossed immediately with a perpetual tempest, lasting till their cordage crack, and either they sink or return back again to the same place: they did not make a voyage, though they were long at sea. The business and impertinent affairs of most men steal all their time, and they are restless in a foolish motion; but this is not the progress of a man; he is no farther advanced in the course of a life, though he reckon many years; for still his soul is childish and trifling, like an untaught boy.

杨自伍  译:

死得崇高
 
    当一个人能够饮食自理，或是独自行走了，当他能够拔拳相向，或生儿育女了，我们切莫以为，这个时候人的生命开始了；因为如此一来，他便跟一头骆驼或一头牛相差不多。等到他渐渐力所能及，稳当地运用理性了，这时才初次为人。什么时候达到这个程度，天底下的人都休想说个明白。有人年方十四，可以说已经成年，有人要到二十一岁，还有人毕其一生，终未长大成人。不过所有的人都成熟得较晚，因为人的生命降临时，慢慢悠悠，而且不知不觉。恍若朝阳移近清晨的门扉，先透出天堂的一点眉目，驱散了黑暗的邪气，给雄鸡送去曙光，唤醒云雀一鸣晨歌，不一会儿，一团云彩的四边涂上金色，从东山冉冉露出脸来，伸出金灿灿的触角，犹如摩西迫不得已蒙上面罩时装点在眉宇之间的尖角，因为摩西亲眼瞻仰了上帝的尊容。人在讲故事的时候，太阳高高升起，露出一脸姣容，光芒粲然，照耀一天，不时躲进云端，偶尔洒落大大小小的雨点，骤然之间，夕阳西坠——人的理性和生命，亦如太阳朝起夕落。最初他开始意识到自我，学会观察和品味，七情六欲的行为却很少反省，飞禽走兽，玩耍拾贝，快马驰骋，无不津津乐道。但是当他拿定主意学些手艺和规矩的时候，起初他玩弄些小玩意儿和不相干的东西，并非他需要这些东西，而是因为他的悟性没有提高，眼前显现的都是些不起眼的事物形象，就像一叶扁舟，出现在巨鲸面前，无非戏舟而已。可是没等到人变得聪明起来，他就浑身痛风，元气耗尽，黏液哽喉，头疼脑热，双眼发炎作痛，沦为一副烂皮囊，半死不活了。因此，如果我们只该根据理性来看待人的生命，那么早在灵魂受到陶冶之前，就已是行尸走肉了：没有一颗明于事理而又美好的心灵，一颗至少具备了获得安乐的必要条件的心灵，那就不配称之为人。可是一旦他的心灵具备了这一切，此时形骸已衰，也就很难把他视为活人，因为他已经死气沉沉，身不由己了。

    可是另有一具牢笼。起初人所需要的是身体的力量，然后则需要运用理性，十有八九，还要经受邪恶的羁绊而跋前踬后，这就需要精神的力量；大家知道，躯体、灵魂、精神，才使每个基督信徒成其为人。我们现在来看看，所谓法定责任年龄意味着什么。青年人不再受师长管束的时候，邪念已经缠身；他的一举一动，本来循规蹈矩，现在却任凭情欲摆布；到了这时，人灵机一动，便作恶多端，为所欲为，殷勤求爱，谈吐起来大言不惭，喋喋不休，莫知天高地厚。看不起强者，投其所好的样样都要，所作所为的一切，等到真正成人之后，肯定悔不当初：因为多数人在成年的初期，他们表现出来的便是这么一点辨别能力；他们能够分清善恶；他们大显身手，偏偏不做好事；荒唐且又欲壑难填，因此肆意妄为。到了这时，青年人沾染上恶习，成了衣冠禽兽，所以，认为他的生命开始了，那是不适当的；从他的思维能力来看，此乃一介蠢人，虽生犹死，可谓悲哀；他不守本分，罪孽深重而不可自拔，这就更加可悲，所以他没有生命，只是形行尸一具，就像禽兽或树木一般的生命；他的所有其他能力都已经僵化；智力生活或精神生活，人的生活或基督徒的生活，他都谈不上，这种可悲的情况持续得太久了。多数人老年侵袭的时候，还抱着少年和恶少的心思，所作所为，都出于极其荒唐而又极端无知的本性，羡慕的东西有害无益，栖身的地方，里里外外，堆积着无谓的经营所得，空闲余暇，从不重视德行。他们无法祷告念经，因为忙忙碌碌，因为性情浮躁。他们无法交流，因为莫名其妙的原因，引起反目不和，并且产生难解的恩怨，还要关心尘世琐事，所以顾及不到上帝的精义：很少想到他们应该死得其所，那就是死亡来临之际，他们一定视死如归。汝曹之辈好比起锚离港的水手，顿时便遭遇到吹打不停的风暴，颠簸起伏，知道末了喀吧一声，他们要么葬身海底，要么返回原地：虽然出海有年，却未曾完成远航。绝大多数人的本行工作和琐碎事务窃走了他们的光阴，他们焦急不安地置身于一场愚蠢的活动：不过这可不是一个人的发展过程；在一生的历程中，他未曾前进半步，尽管他谋算了多少年；因为他的灵魂依旧幼嫩而有浅薄，如同一个童蒙。

译者简介： 

    杨自伍，男，1955年生，祖籍安徽怀宁。翻译家，上海外语教育出版社英语编辑。杨自伍的主要作品有：《文学批评原理》、《英国散文名篇欣赏》、《英国文化选本》及《美国文化选本》（共4册）、《傲慢与偏见续集》，其中《近代文学批评史》（全八卷修订本）是世纪出版集团国庆六十周年的献礼书。