读书乐

约翰·卢伯克

约翰·卢伯克（1834—1913），英国考古学家，生物学家和政治家。出生于伦敦，曾任下议院议员，提出过数十个议案，包括1871年通过的《银行节假法》

（后来被称为“圣卢伯克日”）。

书对于人类就如同记忆对于个人一样。书籍记载了民族的历史，人类的发现、世代累积的知识和经验；书为我们描述自然界的奇迹和美丽，帮我们渡过难关，在我们伤痛时给予安慰，将疲劳的日子变为快乐短暂的时刻；书知识武装我们的头脑，填满美好而快乐的思想，然后提升自我，超越自我。

读书时，请不要做皇宫里的国王，最好让自己沉醉在山林海滨，探询美丽奇景，而不必受疲惫、麻烦和费用巨大之苦。书籍把珍贵无价的祝福撒在身边的小径，我们心情高尚，想像丰富地穿梭其中，去探寻壮丽迷人的地区。

麦考莱拥有财富和名声、地位和权力，然而他在传记里告诉我们，他一生中最快乐的时光就是与书为伴。在一封写给一个小女孩的迷人信件中，他写道：“如果有人能使我做有史以来最伟大的国王，拥有宫殿、园林、美酒、佳肴、马车、华服和上百名仆从，却以不能读书为条件，我不会做这个国王。我宁愿做个穷人，住在小阁楼却能饱览群书，而不愿变成不爱读书的国王。”

The Delights of Books

John Lubbock

Books are to mankind what memory is to the individual. They contain the history of our race, the discoveries we have made, the accumulated knowledge and experience of ages; they picture for us the marvels and beauties of nature; help us in our difficulties, comfort us in sorrow and in suffering, change hours of weariness into moments of delight, store our minds with ideas, fill them with good and happy thoughts, and lift us out of and above ourselves.

When we read we may not only be kings and live in palaces, but, what is far better, we may transport ourselves to the mountains or the seashore, and visit the most beautiful parts of the earth, without fatigue, inconvenience, expense. Precious and priceless are the blessing, which the books scatter around our daily paths. We walk, in imagination, with the noblest spirits, through the most sublime and enchanting regions.

Macaulay had wealth and fame, rank and power, and yet he tells us in his biography that he owed the happiest hours of his life to books. In a charming letter to a little girl, he says: “If any one would make me the greatest king that ever lived, with palaces and gardens and fine dinners, and wines and coaches, and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants, on condition that I should not read books, I would not be a king. I would rather be a poor man in garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.”