失舵的船 第3期

A man or a woman without a goal is like a ship without a rudder. Each will drift and not drive. Each will end up on the beaches of despair, defeat and despondency. John Henry Fabre, the great French naturalist, conducted a most unusual experiment with some Processionary Caterpillars. These caterpillars blindly follow the one in front of them. Hence the name. Fabre carefully arranged them in a circle around the rim of a flower pot, so that the lead caterpillar actually touched the last one, making a complete circle. In the center of the flower pot he put pine needies, which is food for the Processionary Caterpillar. The caterpillars started around this circular flower pot. Around and around they went, hour after hour, day after day, night after night. For seven full days and seven full nights they went around the flower pot. Finally, they dropped dead of starvation and exhaustion. With an abundance of food less than six inches away, they literally starved to death, because they confused activity, with accomplishment.

Many people make the same mistake and as a result reap only a small fraction of the harvest life has to offer. Despite the fact that untold wealth lies within reach, they acquire very little of it because they blindly, without question, follow the crowd in a circle to nowhere. They follow methods and procedures for no other reason than "It' s always been done that way."

一个人没有目标，就如同一艘失去舵的轮船，只能随波逐流，无法控制，最终将在绝望、失败、消沉的海滩上搁浅。法国著名自然学家约翰・亨利・费伯勒，用一些列队毛虫做过一次特别的实验。这些毛虫总是盲目地跟随前边的一个，它们因此而得名。费伯勒很仔细地把它们放在一个花盆外的框架上并排成一圈，这样，领头的毛虫事实上碰到了最后一只毛虫，它们完全围成了一个圆圈。他在花盆中间放上列队毛虫爱吃的食物――松蜡。于是，这些毛虫开始围着花盆转圈。它们转了一圈又一圈，一小时又一小时，一天又一天，一夜又一夜。它们围着花盆整整转了七天七夜。最后因饥饿、劳累全都死了。离它们不到6英寸远的地方就有一大堆食物，然而它们却一个个饿死了。不是因为别的，只是因为它们按照原有的习惯方式而盲目地去行动。

许多人也都犯过相同的错误，生活提供给他巨大的财富，结果他却只有一点点的收获。尽管未知的财富就近在眼前，他们却很少能够得到，就是因为他们盲目地、固执地跟着圆圈里的人群漫无目的地走着。他们随波逐流，只是因为“事情一直就是这样做的”。

注释

caterpillar n．毛虫；履带式车辆

arrange v．整理；安排；布置；筹备；做安排，

做准备；商妥，洽商

starvation n．挨饿，饥饿；饿死

fraction n．分数；破片，小部分

acquire v．获得，取得；养成；学到；捕获