微尘与栋梁On Motes and Beams（1/2）

威廉·萨默塞特·毛姆/ Willia Sorset Maugha

威廉·萨默塞特·毛姆（1874—1965），英国著名小说家、剧作家、散文家。原是医学系学生，后转而致力写作。他的文章常在讥讽中潜藏对人性的怜悯与同情。《人性的枷锁》是倾其毕生心血的巨著，也为他奠定了伟大小说家的不朽地位。本文的《微尘与栋梁》指他人的小缺点与自己的大缺点，以此为篇名喻义深远，希冀藉此申明责己与责人之道。

Practicg for Better Learng

Thk about the question before you read this article.

Make a list of rits and shs of yourself.

It is curio that our own offenses should see so uch less heo than the offenses of others. I suppose the reason is that we know all the circtahat have oasiohe and so ao exeothers. We turn our attention away fro our ows, and when we are forced by untoward events to he, fd it easy to he. For all I know we are right to do this; they are part ofa aept the good and badourselves together.

But wheo judge others, it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge the, but by an iage that we have ford of ourselves fro which we have left out everythg that offends our vanity or would discreditthe eyes of the world. To take a trivial stance: how srnful we are whech soo tellg a lie; but whosay that he has old not one, but a hundred?

There is not uch to choose beeen n. They are all a hotchpotch of greatness and littleness, of virtue and vice, of nobility and baseness. So have ore strength of character, or ore opportunity, and soone dire or aheir stcts freer py, but potentially they are the sa. For y part, I do not thk I a aer or any worse than ost people, but I know that if I set down every ay life and every thought that has crossed y d, the world would nsidera onster of depravity. The knowledge that these reveries are on to all n should spire oh tolerao oneself as well as to others. It is well also if they eo look upon our fellows, eve eent and respectable, with huor, and if they leadto take ourselves not too serioly.

参考译文

令人好奇的是，与他人的过失相比，我们自己的过失往往不是那么可憎。我想，原因是我们了解一切导致过失出现的情况，因而，能够想办法原谅自己犯一些不容许他人犯的过错。我们不关注自己的缺点，即使身陷困境，不得不正视它们时，我们也会很容易就宽恕自己。据我所知，我们这样做是正确的。缺点是我们自己的一部分，我们必须接纳自己的好与坏。

但当我们评判别人时，情况就不一样了。我们不是通过真正的自我，而是用另外一种自我形象来判断，完全摒除了在任何世人眼中，会伤害到自己的虚荣或者体面的事物。举一个小例子：当觉察到别人说谎时，我们是多么地不屑啊！但是有谁可以说自己从未说过谎？可能还不止一百次呢！

人与人之间没什么大的区别。他们皆是伟大与渺小，善良与邪恶，高贵与低贱的混合体。有些人性格比较坚毅，机会也较多，因此在这个或者那个方向上，更能自由地发挥自己的天资，但是人类的潜质都是同样的。至于我自己，我认为自己不比多数人更好或更差，但是我知道，如果我记下我生命中每一个行动和每一个掠过我心头的想法的话，世人将会把我看成一个邪恶的怪物。每个人都会有这样的怪念头，这样的认识应能启发我们宽容自己，也宽容他人。同时，若因此使我们在看待他人时，即使是对天下最优秀最令人尊敬的人，也可以有幽默感，而且也不太苛求自己的话，那也是很有益的。

心灵小语

我们的一生，都会遇到很多不如意的事情，不要过多苛求自己，要努力，但不能超越自身所承受的极限。

ksPractice

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