关于旅行(节选)

Of Travel（Excerpt）

It was a frequent saying of Alexander, that he had discovered more by his eyes than other kings could comprehend in their thoughts. In this, he referred to travel. There is no map like the view of a country. Experience is the best informer; and one journey will show us more than any description can. Some would not have a man move out of his own country; and Claudian mentions it as a happiness, for one’s birth, life, and burial, to have been all in one parish. But surely, travel is of service to man. He has lived as if locked up in a larger chest, who has never seen any but his own land. One who is learned, honest, and who has travelled, is the best compound of man, and can correct the vices of one country with the virtues of another. Italy, England, France, and Spain, are as the court of the world; Germany, Denmark, and China, are as the city; and he who has not seen the best of these, is a little lame in knowledge.

Yet I think it not fit, that every man should travel. It makes a wise man better; but a fool worse, for he attends to nothing but the public sights, the exotic manners, the aperies; and the vices of the country he visits. A travelling fool is the shame of all nations: he shames his own, by his conduct abroad: he shames others, by bringing home nothing but their follies. A man, to improve himself by travel, ought to observe and comment on what he sees, noting as well the bad, to avoid it, as the good, to make use of it―and without registering these things by the pen, they will pass away without profiting him. One can hardly conceive how much the committing of a thought to paper, fixes it in the mind. He who does this, can, when he pleases, go over his journey again in his closet.

It were an excellent thing in a state, to have always a select number of youth, of the nobility and gentry, to send abroad at years of some maturity, for education. Their parents could not better dispose of them, than in thus dedicating them to the commonwealth; nor could they themselves be in a fairer way of preferment; and there is no question but they might prove highly serviceable to the state, on their return home, well versed in the world and foreign languages, and well read in men; which, for policy and negotiation, is much better than any booklearning, though never so deep and extensive.

Being abroad, the best is to converse with the best, and not to choose by the eye, but by fame. For politics, instruction is to be had, at the court; for traffic, among merchants; for religious rites, among the clergy; for government, among the lawyers; and as for the country itself and rural knowledge, the boors and peasantry can best help you. Curiosities ought not to be neglected, especially antiquities; for these shew us the ingenuity of past ages, and include in them both example and precept. By comparing these with modern inventions, we may see how the world improves in knowledge.

But above all, search out men of distingiushed and superior merit. There is no monument like a living worthy man. We shall be sure to find something in him, to kindle our faculties and enlarge our minds, and rouse us to a generous emulation of his virtues. Parts of extraordinary note cannot so lie hid, but they will shine forth through the tongue and behaviour, to the admiration and advantage of beholders; but, unless a man has judgment to direct him, he will, at his return, find all his labour lost. Some men, by travel, change in nothing: and some again, change too much. Indeed the moral outside, wheresoever we be, may seem best, when something fitted to the nation we are in: but wherever I should go or stay, I would ever keep to my God and friends, unchangeably. Howsoever he returns, he makes an ill voyage, who changes his faith with his tongue and garments. ?

亚历山大大帝常说，他用眼睛所发现的比其他国王用思考所领悟的更为丰富。他在这里所指的是旅行。一个国家的景致是任何地图都无法捕捉的。只有亲身游历，才能获得最透彻的了解。读再多的描述也比不上行一段路的见闻。有些人反对离开故乡；古罗马诗人克劳地安提出，能够生老病死于同一个教区是一种幸福。但是旅行绝对对人有好处。如果一个人从来没有见过自己故乡之外的土地，他的人生就像是被锁进了一只大箱子。那些有学问、有诚信、有远游经历的人是人类中的精英，他们懂得用某一国家的美德来纠正另一个国家的缺陷。意大利、英格兰、法国和西班牙就像是世 界的庭院；德国、丹麦和中国就像是城市；那些没有领略过其中胜景的人，只能说见识有限。

但我认为并不是所有的人都适合旅行。旅行让聪明人更聪明，却让傻瓜更愚蠢，因为傻瓜什么也注意不到，只看到了大众景观、奇风异俗、愚昧行径；以及所参观的国家的种种缺点。一个旅行的傻瓜是所有国家的耻辱：他让自己的国家蒙羞，在国外的时候，行为举止失当；他令别的国家蒙羞，只染了一身恶习回到故乡。如果人们想通过旅行改善自己，应该对所看到的一切进行观察和评价，既注意到应该避免的缺点，同时也注意到可以利用的优点――如果不用笔把这些记录下来，走马看花，不会有任何收获。把想法落在纸上，大脑就会把它牢牢地记住。大多数人认识不到这样做的好处。谁能做到这一点，谁就能随心所欲地在小书房里重温走过的旅程。

如果能够不断从贵族士绅中精选年轻人，派他们在比较成熟的年纪出国接受教育，这对国家而言是件好事。让年轻人以这样的方式献身国家，这是父母能够做出的最好安排；也是年轻人最佳的晋升途径。毫无疑问，这些人在回国以后，能够更好地报效祖国，因为他们了解世界，精通外语，洞晓人情世故。这些素质在制订政策以及进行谈判的时候，比书本知识更实用，虽然它没有书本知识那么深邃广博。

到了国外，交谈的最佳对象应该是最优秀的人。选人不要凭眼睛，要考察对方的声誉。学政治要到宫廷去接受训导；学做生意要在商人之间；学宗教要去找神职人员；学政府管理要去找律师；想了解这个国家，了解农村，村夫野汉是你最好的帮手。别忘了还有宝物珍玩，尤其是那 些古董；它们向我们展示了旧时代的创造力，它们自身既是范本，也是准则。通过古董和现明之间的比较，我们能够看到世界知识发展的进程。

不过最重要的是要懂得如何识别那些品格不凡的人。有血有肉的圣贤是真正的典范。我们一定能够从他们身上发现某种特质，激发我们的能力，扩展我们的视野，让我们愿意竭力向他们的美德看齐。卓越的品行是无法被彻底埋没的，它们会在言语与行为中闪光，使看到的人心生敬仰，并且从中受益；不过旅行者需要有足够的判断能力做指导，否则当他回国的时候，会发现一切都是徒劳。经过旅行，有些人一成不变：有些人则面目全非。无论身在何处，外在的行为准则能够入乡随俗，这似乎是上上策：但无论是走还是留，我们需要信奉上帝，忠诚朋友，矢志不渝。人们无论以什么方式回归故乡，如果改变的不仅是乡音和衣着，也改变了信仰，这注定是一次失败的旅行。?