罗素：强烈爱好使我们免于衰老 [zz] - 未名空间MITBBS历史存档

罗素：强烈爱好使我们免于衰老 [zz]# LeisureTime - 读书听歌看电影

x*i2015-01-30 08:01

1 楼

我吃喝均随心所欲，醒不了的时候就睡觉。我做事情从不以它是否有益健康为依据。只
要具有强烈的爱好，活动又都恰当适宜，我根本不必担心衰老。
虽然有这样一个标题，这篇文章真正要谈的却是怎样才能不老。在我这个年纪，这
实在是一个至关重要的问题。我的第一个忠告是，要仔细选择你的祖先。尽管我的双亲
皆属早逝，但是考虑到我的其他祖先，我的选择还是很不错的。是的，我的外祖父六十
七岁时去世，正值盛年，可是另外三位祖父辈的亲人都活到八十岁以上。至于稍远些的
亲戚，我只发现一位没能长寿的，他死于一种现已罕见的病症：被杀头。我的一位曾祖
母是吉本的朋友，她活到九十二岁高龄，一直到死，她始终是让子孙们全都感到敬畏的
人。我的外祖母，一辈子生了十个孩子，活了九个，还有一个早年夭折，此外还有过多
次流产。可是守寡以后，她马上就致力于妇女的高等教育事业。她是格顿学院的创办人
之一，力图使妇女进入医疗行业。她总好讲起她在意大利遇到过的一位面容悲哀的老年
绅士。她询问他忧郁的缘故，他说他刚刚同两个孙儿女分手。“天哪！”她叫道，“我
有七十二个孙儿孙女，如果我每次分手就要悲伤不已，那我早就没法活了！”“奇怪的
母亲。”他回答说。但是，作为她的七十二个孙儿孙女的一员，我却要说我更喜欢她的
见地。上了八十岁，她开始感到有些难以入睡，她便经常在午夜时分至凌晨三时这段时
间里阅读科普方面的书籍。我想她根本就没有功夫去留意她在衰老。我认为，这就是保
持年轻的最佳方法。如果你的兴趣和活动既广泛又浓烈，而且你又能从中感到自己仍然
精力旺盛，那么你就不必去考虑你已经活了多少年这种纯粹的统计学情况，更不必去考
虑你那也许不很长久的未来。
至于健康，由于我这一生几乎从未患过病，也就没有什么有益的忠告。我吃喝均随
心所欲，醒不了的时候就睡觉。我做事情从不以它是否有益健康为依据，尽管实际上我
喜欢做的事情通常都是有益健康的。
从心理角度讲，老年需防止两种危险。一是过分沉湎于往事。人不能生活在回忆当
中，不能生活在对美好往昔的怀念或对去世的友人的哀念之中。一个人应当把心思放在
未来，放到需要自己去做点什么的事情上。要做到这一点并非轻而易举，往事的影响总
是在不断增加。人们总好认为自己过去的情感要比现在强烈得多，头脑也比现在敏锐。
假如真的如此，就该忘掉它；而如果可以忘掉它，那你自以为是的情况就可能并不是真
的。
另一件应当避免的事是依恋年轻人，期望从他们的勃勃生气中获取力量。子女们长
大成人以后，都想按照自己的意愿生活。如果你还想象她们年幼时那样关心他们，你就
会成为他们的包袱，除非她们是异常迟钝的人。我不是说不应该关心子女，而是说这种
关心应该是含蓄的，假如可能的话，还应是宽厚的，而不应该过分地感情用事。动物的
幼子一旦自立，大动物就不再关心它们了。人类则因其幼年时期较长而难于做到这一点。
我认为，对于那些具有强烈的爱好，其活动又都恰当适宜、并且不受个人情感影响
的人们，成功地度过老年决非难事。只有在这个范围里，长寿才真正有益；只有在这个
范围里，源于经验的智慧才能得到运用而不令人感到压抑。告诫已经成人的孩子别犯错
误是没有用处的，因为一来他们不会相信你，二来错误原本就是教育所必不可少的要素
之一。但是，如果你是那种受个人情感支配的人，你就会感到，不把心思都放在子女和
孙儿女身上，你就会觉得生活很空虚。假如事实确是如此，那么你必须明白，虽然你还
能为他们提供物质上的帮助，比如支援他们一笔钱或者为他们编织毛线外套的时候，决
不要期望他们会因为你的陪伴而感到快乐。
有些老人因害怕死亡而苦恼。年轻人害怕死亡是可以理解的。有些年轻人担心他们
会在战斗中丧身。一想到会失去生活能够给予他们的种种美好事务，他们就感到痛苦。
这种担心并不是无缘无故的，也是情有可原的。但是，对于一位经历了人世的悲欢、履
行了个人职责的老人，害怕死亡就有些可怜且可耻了。克服这种恐惧的最好办法是——
至少我是这样看的——逐渐扩大你的兴趣范围并使其不受个人情感的影响，直至包围自
我的围墙一点一点地离开你，而你的生活则越来越融合于大家的生活之中。每一个人的
生活都应该象河水一样——开始是细小的，被限制在狭窄的两岸之间，然后热烈地冲过
巨石，滑下瀑布。渐渐地，河道变宽了，河岸扩展了，河水流得更平稳了。最后，河水
流入了海洋，不再有明显的间断和停顿，而后便毫无痛苦地摆脱了自身的存在。能够这
样理解自己一生的老人，将不会因害怕死亡而痛苦，因为他所珍爱的一切都将继续存在
下去。而且，如果随着精力的衰退，疲倦之感日渐增加，长眠并非是不受欢迎的念头。
我渴望死于尚能劳作之时，同时知道他人将继续我所未竟的事业，我大可因为已经尽了
自己之所能而感到安慰。
http://zg-xbwh.com/html/2015/zhys_0130/5241.html

a*u2015-01-30 08:01

2 楼

我的第一个忠告是，要仔细选择你的祖先？？？
这个翻译牛逼。

l*O2015-01-30 08:01

3 楼

How to grow old By Bertrand Russell
In spite of the title, this article will really be on how not to grow old,
which, at my time of life, is a much more important subject. My first advice
would be to choose your ancestors carefully. Although both my parents died
young, I have done well in this respect as regards my other ancestors. My
maternal grandfather, it is true, was cut off in the flower of his youth at
the age of sixty-seven, but my other three grandparents all lived to be over
eighty. Of remoter ancestors I can only discover one who did not live to a
great age, and he died of a disease which is now rare, namely, having his
head cut off. A great-grandmother of mine, who was a friend of Gibbon, lived
to the age of ninety-two, and to her last day remained a terror to all her
descendants. My maternal grandmother, after having nine children who
survived, one who died in infancy, and many miscarriages, as soon as she
became a widow devoted herself to women’s higher education. She was one of
the founders of Girton College, and worked hard at opening the medical
profession to women. She used to tell of how she met in Italy an elderly
gentleman who was looking very sad. She asked him why he was so melancholy
and he said that he had just parted from his two grandchildren. ‘Good
gracious,’ she exclaimed, ‘I have seventy-two grandchildren, and if I were
sad each time I parted from one of them, I should have a miserable
existence!’ ‘Madre snaturale!,’ he replied. But speaking as one of the
seventy-two, I prefer her recipe. After the age of eighty she found she had
some difficulty in getting to sleep, so she habitually spent the hours from
midnight to 3 a.m. in reading popular science. I do not believe that she
ever had time to notice that she was growing old. This, I think, is the
proper recipe for remaining young. If you have wide and keen interests and
activities in which you can still be effective, you will have no reason to
think about the merely statistical fact of the number of years you have
already lived, still less of the probable shortness of your future.
As regards health, I have nothing useful to say as I have little experience
of illness. I eat and drink whatever I like, and sleep when I cannot keep
awake. I never do anything whatever on the ground that it is good for health
, though in actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.
Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One
of these is undue absorption in the past. It does not do to live in memories
, in regrets for the good old days, or in sadness about friends who are dead
. One’s thoughts must be directed to the future, and to things about which
there is something to be done. This is not always easy; one’s own past is a
gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that one’s
emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and one’s mind more keen. If
this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably
not be true.
The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking
vigour from its vitality. When your children are grown up they want to live
their own lives, and if you continue to be as interested in them as you were
when they were young, you are likely to become a burden to them, unless
they are unusually callous. I do not mean that one should be without
interest in them, but one’s interest should be contemplative and, if
possible, philanthropic, but not unduly emotional. Animals become
indifferent to their young as soon as their young can look after themselves,
but human beings, owing to the length of infancy, find this difficult.
I think that a successful old age is easiest for those who have strong
impersonal interests involving appropriate activities. It is in this sphere
that long experience is really fruitful, and it is in this sphere that the
wisdom born of experience can be exercised without being oppressive. It is
no use telling grownup children not to make mistakes, both because they will
not believe you, and because mistakes are an essential part of education.
But if you are one of those who are incapable of impersonal interests, you
may find that your life will be empty unless you concern yourself with your
children and grandchildren. In that case you must realise that while you can
still render them material services, such as making them an allowance or
knitting them jumpers, you must not expect that they will enjoy your company.
Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death. In the young there there
is a justification for this feeling. Young men who have reason to fear that
they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought
that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer. But
in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows, and has achieved
whatever work it was in him to do, the fear of death is somewhat abject and
ignoble. The best way to overcome it -so at least it seems to me- is to make
your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the
walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the
universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river: small
at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past
rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks
recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible
break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual
being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not
suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue.
And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest
will not be unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing
that others will carry on what I can no longer do and content in the thought
that what was possible has been done.
[from “Portraits From Memory And Other Essays”]
Related Posts:

【在 a***u 的大作中提到】

: 我的第一个忠告是，要仔细选择你的祖先？？？
: 这个翻译牛逼。

l*O2015-01-30 08:01

4 楼

How to grow old By Bertrand Russell
In spite of the title, this article will really be on how not to grow old,
which, at my time of life, is a much more important subject. My first advice
would be to choose your ancestors carefully. Although both my parents died
young, I have done well in this respect as regards my other ancestors. My
maternal grandfather, it is true, was cut off in the flower of his youth at
the age of sixty-seven, but my other three grandparents all lived to be over
eighty. Of remoter ancestors I can only discover one who did not live to a
great age, and he died of a disease which is now rare, namely, having his
head cut off. A great-grandmother of mine, who was a friend of Gibbon, lived
to the age of ninety-two, and to her last day remained a terror to all her
descendants. My maternal grandmother, after having nine children who
survived, one who died in infancy, and many miscarriages, as soon as she
became a widow devoted herself to women’s higher education. She was one of
the founders of Girton College, and worked hard at opening the medical
profession to women. She used to tell of how she met in Italy an elderly
gentleman who was looking very sad. She asked him why he was so melancholy
and he said that he had just parted from his two grandchildren. ‘Good
gracious,’ she exclaimed, ‘I have seventy-two grandchildren, and if I were
sad each time I parted from one of them, I should have a miserable
existence!’ ‘Madre snaturale!,’ he replied. But speaking as one of the
seventy-two, I prefer her recipe. After the age of eighty she found she had
some difficulty in getting to sleep, so she habitually spent the hours from
midnight to 3 a.m. in reading popular science. I do not believe that she
ever had time to notice that she was growing old. This, I think, is the
proper recipe for remaining young. If you have wide and keen interests and
activities in which you can still be effective, you will have no reason to
think about the merely statistical fact of the number of years you have
already lived, still less of the probable shortness of your future.
As regards health, I have nothing useful to say as I have little experience
of illness. I eat and drink whatever I like, and sleep when I cannot keep
awake. I never do anything whatever on the ground that it is good for health
, though in actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.
Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One
of these is undue absorption in the past. It does not do to live in memories
, in regrets for the good old days, or in sadness about friends who are dead
. One’s thoughts must be directed to the future, and to things about which
there is something to be done. This is not always easy; one’s own past is a
gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that one’s
emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and one’s mind more keen. If
this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably
not be true.
The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking
vigour from its vitality. When your children are grown up they want to live
their own lives, and if you continue to be as interested in them as you were
when they were young, you are likely to become a burden to them, unless
they are unusually callous. I do not mean that one should be without
interest in them, but one’s interest should be contemplative and, if
possible, philanthropic, but not unduly emotional. Animals become
indifferent to their young as soon as their young can look after themselves,
but human beings, owing to the length of infancy, find this difficult.
I think that a successful old age is easiest for those who have strong
impersonal interests involving appropriate activities. It is in this sphere
that long experience is really fruitful, and it is in this sphere that the
wisdom born of experience can be exercised without being oppressive. It is
no use telling grownup children not to make mistakes, both because they will
not believe you, and because mistakes are an essential part of education.
But if you are one of those who are incapable of impersonal interests, you
may find that your life will be empty unless you concern yourself with your
children and grandchildren. In that case you must realise that while you can
still render them material services, such as making them an allowance or
knitting them jumpers, you must not expect that they will enjoy your company.
Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death. In the young there there
is a justification for this feeling. Young men who have reason to fear that
they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought
that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer. But
in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows, and has achieved
whatever work it was in him to do, the fear of death is somewhat abject and
ignoble. The best way to overcome it -so at least it seems to me- is to make
your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the
walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the
universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river: small
at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past
rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks
recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible
break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual
being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not
suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue.
And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest
will not be unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing
that others will carry on what I can no longer do and content in the thought
that what was possible has been done.
[from “Portraits From Memory And Other Essays”]
Related Posts:

【在 a***u 的大作中提到】

: 我的第一个忠告是，要仔细选择你的祖先？？？
: 这个翻译牛逼。

l*O2015-01-30 08:01

5 楼

How to grow old By Bertrand Russell
In spite of the title, this article will really be on how not to grow old,
which, at my time of life, is a much more important subject. My first advice
would be to choose your ancestors carefully. Although both my parents died
young, I have done well in this respect as regards my other ancestors. My
maternal grandfather, it is true, was cut off in the flower of his youth at
the age of sixty-seven, but my other three grandparents all lived to be over
eighty. Of remoter ancestors I can only discover one who did not live to a
great age, and he died of a disease which is now rare, namely, having his
head cut off. A great-grandmother of mine, who was a friend of Gibbon, lived
to the age of ninety-two, and to her last day remained a terror to all her
descendants. My maternal grandmother, after having nine children who
survived, one who died in infancy, and many miscarriages, as soon as she
became a widow devoted herself to women’s higher education. She was one of
the founders of Girton College, and worked hard at opening the medical
profession to women. She used to tell of how she met in Italy an elderly
gentleman who was looking very sad. She asked him why he was so melancholy
and he said that he had just parted from his two grandchildren. ‘Good
gracious,’ she exclaimed, ‘I have seventy-two grandchildren, and if I were
sad each time I parted from one of them, I should have a miserable
existence!’ ‘Madre snaturale!,’ he replied. But speaking as one of the
seventy-two, I prefer her recipe. After the age of eighty she found she had
some difficulty in getting to sleep, so she habitually spent the hours from
midnight to 3 a.m. in reading popular science. I do not believe that she
ever had time to notice that she was growing old. This, I think, is the
proper recipe for remaining young. If you have wide and keen interests and
activities in which you can still be effective, you will have no reason to
think about the merely statistical fact of the number of years you have
already lived, still less of the probable shortness of your future.
As regards health, I have nothing useful to say as I have little experience
of illness. I eat and drink whatever I like, and sleep when I cannot keep
awake. I never do anything whatever on the ground that it is good for health
, though in actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.
Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One
of these is undue absorption in the past. It does not do to live in memories
, in regrets for the good old days, or in sadness about friends who are dead
. One’s thoughts must be directed to the future, and to things about which
there is something to be done. This is not always easy; one’s own past is a
gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that one’s
emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and one’s mind more keen. If
this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably
not be true.
The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking
vigour from its vitality. When your children are grown up they want to live
their own lives, and if you continue to be as interested in them as you were
when they were young, you are likely to become a burden to them, unless
they are unusually callous. I do not mean that one should be without
interest in them, but one’s interest should be contemplative and, if
possible, philanthropic, but not unduly emotional. Animals become
indifferent to their young as soon as their young can look after themselves,
but human beings, owing to the length of infancy, find this difficult.
I think that a successful old age is easiest for those who have strong
impersonal interests involving appropriate activities. It is in this sphere
that long experience is really fruitful, and it is in this sphere that the
wisdom born of experience can be exercised without being oppressive. It is
no use telling grownup children not to make mistakes, both because they will
not believe you, and because mistakes are an essential part of education.
But if you are one of those who are incapable of impersonal interests, you
may find that your life will be empty unless you concern yourself with your
children and grandchildren. In that case you must realise that while you can
still render them material services, such as making them an allowance or
knitting them jumpers, you must not expect that they will enjoy your company.
Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death. In the young there there
is a justification for this feeling. Young men who have reason to fear that
they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought
that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer. But
in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows, and has achieved
whatever work it was in him to do, the fear of death is somewhat abject and
ignoble. The best way to overcome it -so at least it seems to me- is to make
your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the
walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the
universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river: small
at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past
rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks
recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible
break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual
being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not
suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue.
And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest
will not be unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing
that others will carry on what I can no longer do and content in the thought
that what was possible has been done.
[from “Portraits From Memory And Other Essays”]
Related Posts:

【在 a***u 的大作中提到】

: 我的第一个忠告是，要仔细选择你的祖先？？？
: 这个翻译牛逼。

x*i2015-01-30 08:01

6 楼

谢谢。

advice
died
at
over
a
lived

【在 l*****O 的大作中提到】

: How to grow old By Bertrand Russell
: In spite of the title, this article will really be on how not to grow old,
: which, at my time of life, is a much more important subject. My first advice
: would be to choose your ancestors carefully. Although both my parents died
: young, I have done well in this respect as regards my other ancestors. My
: maternal grandfather, it is true, was cut off in the flower of his youth at
: the age of sixty-seven, but my other three grandparents all lived to be over
: eighty. Of remoter ancestors I can only discover one who did not live to a
: great age, and he died of a disease which is now rare, namely, having his
: head cut off. A great-grandmother of mine, who was a friend of Gibbon, lived