热情可以创造奇迹 The Triumphs of Enthusiasm

奥里森·马登/Orison Marden

"I do not know how it is with others when speaking on an important question," said Henry Clay, "but on such occasions I seem to be unconscious of the external world. Wholly engrossed by the subject before me, I lose all sense of personal identity, of time, or of surrounding objects."

"A bank never becomes very successful," says a noted financier, "until it gets a president who takes it to bed with him."

"Men are nothing," exclaimed Montaigne, "until they are excited." As the young lover has finer sense and more acute vision and sees in the object of his affections a hundred virtues and charms invisible to all other eyes, so a man permeated with enthusiasm has his power of perception heightened and his vision magnified until he sees beauty and charms others cannot discern which compensate for drudgery, privations, hardships, and even persecution.

Dickens says he was haunted, possessed, spirit—driven by the plots and characters in his stories which would not let him sleep or rest until he had committed them to paper. On one sketch he shut himself up for a month, and when he came out he looked haggard as a murderer. His characters haunted him day and night.

"Herr Capellmeister, I should like to compose something; how shall I begin?" asked a youth of twelve, who had played with great skill on the piano.

"Pooh, Pooh;" replied Mozart, "you must wait."

"But you began when you were younger than I am," said the boy.

"Yes, so I did," said the great composer, "but I never asked anything about it. When one has the spirit of a composer, he writes because he can't help it."

Gladstone says that what is really wanted is to light up the spirit that is within a boy. In some sense and in some degree, in some effectual degree, there is in every boy the material of good work in the world; in every boy, not only in those who are brilliant, not only in those who are quick, but in those who are stolid, and even in those who are dull, or who seem to be dull. If they have only the good will, the dullness will day by day clear away, under the influence of the good will.

"Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world," says Emerson, "is the triumph of some enthusiasm." It was enthusiasm that enabled Napoleon to make a campaign in two weeks that would have taken another a year to accomplish." These Frenchmen are not men, they fly," said the Austrians in consternation. In fifteen days Napoleon, in his first Italian campaign, had gained six victories, taken twenty-one standards, fifty-five pieces of cannon, had captured fifteen thousand prisoners, and had conquered Piedmont.

"There are important cases," says A.H.K. Boyd, "in which the difference between half a heart and a whole heart makes just the difference between signal defeat and a splendid victory."

“当谈及一个重大的问题时，我不知道别人会做何反应，”美国政治家亨利·克莱说，“但是，在这样的场合，我似乎会忘记外面的世界，全身心地投入到讨论中去，没有个人身份、时间或是周围其他事物的意识。”

一位知名的金融家说：“一家银行，在没有一位做梦都想着如何经营银行的行长之前，是永远都不会取得成功的。”

蒙田声称：“没有热情的人一无是处。”正如年轻的恋人拥有更敏感的感觉和更敏锐的视觉一样，可以从爱人身上发现诸多他人所看不到的优点和魅力。因此，一个充满热情的人，他的感知能力会增强，视野也会变大，他能够看到别人无法洞悉的美丽与优雅。工作生活中的劳累、困苦、艰辛，甚至烦扰都会消除。

狄更斯说，他曾变得很疯狂——他构想的故事情节和人物使他寝食难安，这种情况直到他专心地将故事写完才有所好转。在拟定一个故事场景时，狄更斯曾把自己关在房里一个月。等他终于走出房门的时候，他看上去憔悴得像落难的凶手。狄更斯笔下的人物日夜纠缠着他，令他无暇顾及其他事情。

一个琴技十分高超的12岁小男孩问道：“莫扎特先生，我想谱支曲子，我该如何开始呢？”

“年轻人，年轻人，”莫扎特回答道，“你必须要等待。”

“但是，您开始谱写曲子的时候比我现在的年龄还小。”小男孩说道。

“是，你说得没错，”伟大的作曲家说，“但是我从来没有向别人问过有关谱曲的问题。一个具有作曲热情的人，谱写曲子是因为创作的热情而难以自控。”

英国政治家格莱斯顿说：“人类社会最需要的是，激发孩子心中潜藏的热情。从某种意义上说，每个人都具有成就事业的潜质。不仅仅只是那些聪慧、反应敏捷的孩子，每个孩子身上都有自己独特的潜质，即使那些思维迟钝，甚至呆滞的、看上去愚笨的孩子也是如此。如果他们拥有坚强的意志，那么在意志的作用下，愚笨就会日益消减。”

爱默生说：“在人类历史上，每一次伟大而有决定意义的举动都是某种热情创造的成果。”正是在热情的鼓舞下，拿破仑用两天的时间结束了本应一年才能结束的战役。奥地利人惊慌失措地说道：“这些法国人不是人，他们会飞。”在他的第一次对意大利征战中，拿破仑在15天内就赢得了六场战役的胜利，缴获对手21面军旗，55门大炮，捕获战俘15000人，占领了皮德蒙特高原。

正如博伊德所说的那样：“做事三心二意与一心一意的区别就在于前者象征着失败，而后者却是巨大胜利的征兆。”

The unexamined life is not worth living.

—Socrates

混混噩噩的生活不值得过。

——苏格拉底

engross[inˈgrəus]v.占去；使全神贯注

I'd go into bookshops and engross myself in diet books and cookbooks.

我走进书店，聚精会神地读关于饮食的书以及食谱。

invisible[inˈvizəbl]adj.看不见的；无形的

The mends were almost invisible.

修补过的地方几乎看不出来。

stolid[ˈstɔlid]adj.迟钝的；神经麻木的

He conceals his feelings behind a rather stolid manner.

他装作无动于衷的样子以掩盖自己的感情。

consternation[ˌkɔnstəˈneiʃən]n.惊愕；恐怖；惊惶失措

To her consternation, he asked her to make a speech.

她感到惊慌的是，他要求她发言。

没有热情的人一无是处。

__________________________________________

一个充满热情的人，他的感知能力会增强，视野也会变大，他能够看到别人无法洞悉的美丽与优雅。

__________________________________________

在人类历史上，每一次伟大而有决定意义的举动都是某种热情创造的成果。

__________________________________________

...he sees beauty and charms others cannot discern which compensate for drudgery, privations, hardships, and even persecution.

compensate for：弥补；赔偿

__________________________________________

If they have only the good will, the dullness will day by day clear away, under the influence of the good will.

day by day：一天天

__________________________________________