富兰克林自传:英汉对照(txt+pdf+epub+mobi电子书下载)


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作者:[美]富兰克林

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富兰克林自传:英汉对照

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版权信息COPYRIGHT INFORMATION书名:富兰克林自传:英汉对照作者:[美]富兰克林排版:skip出版社:天津社会科学院出版社出版时间:2016-09-01ISBN:9787556302741本书由同人阁文化传媒(北京)有限公司授权北京当当科文电子商务有限公司制作与发行。— · 版权所有 侵权必究 · —译者序 人性的光辉本杰明·富兰克林(Benjamin Franklin,1706-1790)是美国著名的思想家、政治家、外交家和科学家、实业家。富兰克林出生在波士顿一个皂烛制造商家庭,他的父亲先后娶了两个妻子,前妻生了7个孩子,后妻生了10个孩子,富兰克林是他的第15个孩子。富兰克林10岁之前,曾上过两年小学,但是由于家庭人多,经济困难而被迫辍学,到父亲的商店帮着做一些剪烛芯、灌烛模、看店铺、跑腿的事情。但是,由于富兰克林不喜欢干这一行,在12岁的时候,他开始在哥哥詹姆斯的印刷厂当了一名学徒工。在那里,他除了学得一手出色的印刷技术之外,还充分利用一切空闲时间刻苦自学,读书成了他唯一的乐趣。正是通过这种长期的刻苦努力和坚忍不拔,富兰克林后来通晓了法语、意大利语、西班牙语和拉丁语,还大量阅读了欧洲各国的历史、哲学、文学等著作,而且对自然科学和政治经济学也有很深的研究。17岁的时候,富兰克林因不满哥哥詹姆斯的虐待而来到费城,在一家印刷厂当了一名工人,获得州长的赏识。次年,由于州长劝富兰克林独立开业,于是富兰克林去了一趟英国,打算购买开业需要的设备,没想到受州长的欺骗而被迫留在英国一年多时间。回到费城后,富兰克林于1728年与人合伙开了一家印刷厂,因质量精良而获得了许多业务。第二年,富兰克林成为《宾夕法尼亚公报》的主办者。1736年,富兰克林当选为宾州州议会秘书,开始了他的政治生涯。■富兰克林出生的地方富兰克林成名之后,在北美殖民地的文化传播和社会福利方面做了大量工作。例如,由他组建的“共读社”“美洲哲学会”“北美科学促进会”、印刷厂、报社、图书馆、书店、医院、大学、城市环保队、消防队、治安队和地方民兵等组织,都成为北美相关组织和机构的开路先锋。他还对宾夕法尼亚的市政进行了革新,在农业生产、新式路灯和新式火炉、电学、避雷针、高架取书器、自动烤肉机、双光眼镜、玻璃乐器等方面做出了重大发明,在印刷技术的改进上也有所贡献。此外,富兰克林还研究过物理学、数学、光学、植物学、海洋学和天文学,他的成就甚至引起了英国皇家学会和其他学会的重视,使他成为它们的会员。1754年,北美洲各殖民地代表在纽约的阿尔巴尼集会,通过了由富兰克林起草的殖民地联盟方案。富兰克林在这次大会上首先提出了“不联合则灭亡”的口号,号召北美各殖民地联合起来,为自由而斗争。1757年7月到1775年3月,富兰克林被派往英国,长期住在伦敦,和英国王室、议会等各界人士进行交往,为了北美殖民地人民的利益而努力斡旋,充分展现了一位优秀外交家和政治家的风采。1775年5月,富兰克林参加了第二届大陆会议,和杰斐逊、亚当斯等人领导了会议中民主派(即主战派)对保守派(即主和派)的斗争。次年7月,他又参与起草和修改了美国历史上具有伟大意义的《独立宣言》。同年底,富兰克林出使法国,于1778年缔结法美同盟;又代表美国和英国谈判,于1783年签订《巴黎和约》,使英国正式承认北美殖民地独立,从而出色地完成了一系列外交使命,成为整个巴黎妇孺皆知的人物。1785年,富兰克林回国,接连三次当选宾夕法尼亚州州长。1787年5月25日,美国第一次制宪会议召开,已经81岁高龄的富兰克林抱病参加会议,担任大会的副主席。当时,由于13个州的人口和实力相差悬殊,利益难以均衡,因此各州在“制宪”问题上争吵不休。这时,富兰克林再次发挥了他的个人魅力和才华,先后在大会上做了两次重要发言,并努力协调各方利益,终于使美国第一部《宪法》诞生。事实上,富兰克林还参加了这部《宪法》的部分编写工作。1790年4月17日,富兰克林因患胸膜炎病逝。作为美国著名的思想家,富兰克林不仅用自己的远见卓识为我们今天所认识的美利坚合众国奠定了基础,清晰地构想出美国的立国之本,指出各个联邦必须走联合之路,必须脱离英国的统治,并且投入了毕生的精力,来维护和确保这个国家成为他心目中的理想国度;更重要的是,富兰克林还用自己的思想影响了一代又一代的美国青年,而最能体现他这些思想的,莫过于他的代表作《自传》了。■美国《独立宣言》签署时的情况《富兰克林自传》分为正传和续传,是作者在晚年分四次写成的:第一部分也即正传的全部,是1771年在都怀福德村圣·阿萨夫教堂主教家中写的;第二部分是1784年在巴黎附近的帕西写的;第三部分则于1788写于费城;第四部分是退休之后于1790年初在家里写的,但是只写了两天,富兰克林就一病不起,离开了人世。因此,这部《自传》只写到1757年,至于作者更加辉煌灿烂的后半生却没有写出来。《自传》的第一部分是富兰克林写给儿子的信,所以主要讲述家庭和个人的历史。但是当富兰克林的朋友艾贝尔·詹姆斯和本杰明·沃恩等人看了这部《自传》的部分手稿后,大为赞赏,他们写信给富兰克林,要求将它发表出来:

它几乎不知不觉地引导着年轻人决心努力成为一个像作者一样善良而优秀的人。比方说,如果您的传记发表的话(我想它一定会发表的),引导年轻人模仿您早年的勤恳和节制,那么这样一部作品将是多么的有益呀!我还找不到一个人,或者是许多人联合起来,能够像您这样有影响地促进美国青年对勤勉精神和早期对尽职、俭朴和节制的注意……我还想不出能有什么东西可与它相提并论的。

考虑到您的声望,我想不出比您的自传更有效的广告来了……您的自传的重要性,不亚于恺撒和塔西佗的著作……它会成为自学的崇高法则和典型……而且能改进全人类。富兰克林接受了朋友们的建议,因此在写第二部分的时候,就开始改变写作的重点,决定和广大青年朋友谈心,用自己一生的经验教训给后人以启示。其实,在这些经验教训中,最能启发后人、对于“改进全人类”最有影响的,要数他的13项美德修养了。值得注意的是,富兰克林提出13项美德修养时才22岁。关于这13项美德,作者在《自传》中这样写道:“大约在这时,我想出了一个达到完美品德的大胆而费力的计划。我希望这一辈子任何时候都不犯任何错误,我要克服所有的缺点,不管它们是由天生的爱好而引起的,还是由于习惯或交友不慎而引起的。因为我知道,或者自以为知道什么是对的、什么是错的,所以我觉得或许我能达到只做好事而不做坏事的地步……为了这个目标……我总结出了13项美德,这是我当时认为必需的或适合的所有美德条目……这些道德的名目及其含义如下:■富兰克林墓1.节制。食不过饱,饮酒不醉。2.沉默。说话必须对别人或你自己有益;要避免无益的聊天。3.生活秩序。将每一样东西放在它们应该放的地方;每件日常事务应当有一定的时间。4.决心。做应该做的事情;决心要做的事应坚持不懈。5.俭朴。花钱必须于人于己有益;换言之,切忌浪费。6.勤勉。不浪费时间,只做那些有用的事情,戒掉一切不必要的行动。7.诚恳。不欺骗人;思想纯洁公正;说话也要如此。8.公正。不做害人的事情,不要忘记履行对人有益而且又是你应尽的义务。9.中庸适度。避免极端;要容忍别人对你应得的处罚。10.清洁。身体、衣服和住所力求清洁。11.镇静。不要因为小事或普通的、不可避免的事故而惊慌失措。12.贞节。除非为了健康或生育后代,不常进行房事,永远不要房事过度、伤害身体或损害你自己或他人的安宁或名誉。13.谦虚。仿效苏格拉底。”几百年来,富兰克林提出来的这13项美德影响了一代又一代青年,他也由此而被誉为“美国青年的灵魂和心灵导师”。所以,富兰克林作为美利坚合众国的缔造者之一,不仅在政治、思想和科学发明等领域备受世人瞩目,更因其光辉的人性而名垂史册,甚至受到了世界著名的成功学大师戴尔·卡耐基和拿破仑·希尔的推崇,成为美国人民心目中的楷模!他的这部《自传》,也成为影响无数读者的成功励志经典;就连《世界上最伟大的推销员》的作者奥格·曼狄诺在编撰《羊皮卷》这本世界畅销的励志作品时,也将它列为重点推荐书,足见它的地位。两百多年来,《富兰克林自传》在世界上许多国家被翻译出版,成为激励各国青年成长的有益作品。我们翻译整理了他的《自传》,希望能对我国读者朋友有所裨益,若能如此,我们将不胜欣慰!Chapter 1TWYFORD, at the Bishop of St. Asaph's, 1771Dear son:

I have ever had pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my ancestors. You may remember the inquiries I made among the remains of my relations when you were with me in England, and the journey I undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which you are yet unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment of a week's uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, I sit down to write them for you.

To which I have besides some other inducements. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of, which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated.

That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to say, that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first. So I might, besides correcting the faults, change some sinister accidents and events of it for others more favorable. But though this were denied, I should still accept the offer. Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing most like living one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down in writing.

Hereby, too, I shall indulge the inclination so natural in old men, to be talking of themselves and their own past actions; and I shall indulge it without being tiresome to others, who, through respect to age, might conceive themselves obliged to give me a hearing, since this may be read or not as any one pleases.

And, lastly (I may as well confess it, since my denial of it will be believed by nobody), perhaps I shall a good deal gratify my own vanity. Indeed, I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory words, "Without vanity I may say," &c., but some vain thing immediately followed. Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor, and to others that are within his sphere of action; and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.

The notes one of my uncles (who had the same kind of curiosity in collecting family anecdotes) once put into my hands, furnished me with several particulars relating to our ancestors. From these notes I learned that the family had lived in the same village, Ecton, in Northamptonshire, for three hundred years, and how much longer he knew not (perhaps from the time when the name of Franklin, that before was the name of an order of people, was assumed by them as a surname when others took surnames all over the kingdom), on a freehold of about thirty acres, aided by the smith's business, which had continued in the family till his time, the eldest son being always bred to that business; a custom which he and my father followed as to their eldest sons.

When I searched the registers at Ecton, I found an account of their births, marriages and burials from the year 1555 only, there being no registers kept in that parish at any time preceding. By that register I perceived that I was the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations back.

My grandfather Thomas, who was born in 1598, lived at Ecton till he grew too old to follow business longer, when he went to live with his son John, a dyer at Banbury, in Oxfordshire, with whom my father served an apprenticeship. There my grandfather died and lies buried. We saw his gravestone in 1758. His eldest son Thomas lived in the house at Ecton, and left it with the land to his only child, a daughter, who, with her husband, one Fisher, of Wellingborough, sold it to Mr. Isted, now lord of the manor there.

My grandfather had four sons that grew up, viz.: Thomas, John, Benjamin and Josiah. I will give you what account I can of them, at this distance from my papers, and if these are not lost in my absence, you will among them find many more particulars.

Thomas was bred a smith under his father; but, being ingenious, and encouraged in learning (as all my brothers were) by an Esquire Palmer, then the principal gentleman in that parish, he qualified himself for the business of scrivener; became a considerable man in the county; was a chief mover of all public-spirited undertakings for the county or town of Northampton, and his own village, of which many instances were related of him; and much taken notice of and patronized by the then Lord Halifax.

He died in 1702, January 6, old style, just four years to a day before I was born. The account we received of his life and character from some old people at Ecton, I remember, struck you as something extraordinary, from its similarity to what you knew of mine.

"Had he died on the same day," you said, "one might have supposed a transmigration."

John was bred a dyer, I believe of woolens. Benjamin was bred a silk dyer, serving an apprenticeship at London. He was an ingenious man. I remember him well, for when I was a boy he came over to my father in Boston, and lived in the house with us some years. He lived to a great age. His grandson, Samuel Franklin, now lives in Boston. He left behind him two quarto volumes, MS., of his own poetry, consisting of little occasional pieces addressed to his friends and relations, of which the following, sent to me, is a specimen.

He had formed a short-hand of his own, which he taught me, but, never practising it, I have now forgot it. I was named after this uncle, there being a particular affection between him and my father.

He was very pious, a great attender of sermons of the best preachers, which he took down in his short-hand, and had with him many volumes of them. He was also much of a politician; too much, perhaps, for his station.

There fell lately into my hands, in London, a collection he had made of all the principal pamphlets, relating to public affairs, from 1641 to 1717; many of the volumes are wanting as appears by the numbering, but there still remain eight volumes in folio, and twenty-four in quarto and in octavo. A dealer in old books met with them, and knowing me by my sometimes buying of him, he brought them to me. It seems my uncle must have left them here, when he went to America, which was about fifty years since. There are many of his notes in the margins.

This obscure family of ours was early in the Reformation, and continued Protestants through the reign of Queen Mary, when they were sometimes in danger of trouble on account of their zeal against popery. They had got an English Bible, and to conceal and secure it, it was fastened open with tapes under and within the cover of a joint-stool. When my great-great-grandfather read it to his family, he turned up the joint-stool upon his knees, turning over the leaves then under the tapes.

One of the children stood at the door to give notice if he saw the apparitor coming, who was an officer of the spiritual court. In that case the stool was turned down again upon its feet, when the Bible remained concealed under it as before. This anecdote I had from my uncle Benjamin. The family continued all of the Church of England till about the end of Charles the Second's reign, when some of the ministers that had been outed for nonconformity holding conventicles in Northamptonshire, Benjamin and Josiah adhered to them, and so continued all their lives: the rest of the family remained with the Episcopal Church.

Josiah, my father, married young, and carried his wife with three children into New England, about 1682. The conventicles having been forbidden by law, and frequently disturbed, induced some considerable men of his acquaintance to remove to that country, and he was prevailed with to accompany them thither, where they expected to enjoy their mode of religion with freedom.

By the same wife he had four children more born there, and by a second wife ten more, in all seventeen; of which I remember thirteen sitting at one time at his table, who all grew up to be men and women, and married; I was the youngest son, and the youngest child but two, and was born in Boston, New England.

My mother, the second wife, was Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter Folger, one of the first settlers of New England, of whom honorable mention is made by Cotton Mather in his church history of that country, entitled Magnalia Christi Americana, as 'a godly, learned Englishman," if I remember the words rightly. I have heard that he wrote sundry small occasional pieces, but only one of them was printed, which I saw now many years since.

It was written in 1675, in the home-spun verse of that time and people, and addressed to those then concerned in the government there. It was in favor of liberty of conscience, and in behalf of the Baptists, Quakers, and other sectaries that had been under persecution, ascribing the Indian wars, and other distresses that had befallen the country, to that persecution, as so many judgments of God to punish so heinous an offense, and exhorting a repeal of those uncharitable laws.

The whole appeared to me as written with a good deal of decent plainness and manly freedom. The six concluding lines I remember, though I have forgotten the two first of the stanza; but the purport of them was, that his censures proceeded from good-will, and, therefore, he would be known to be the author.

"Because to be a libeller (says he)I hate it with my heart;From Sherburne town, where now I dwellMy name I do put here;Without offense your real friend,It is Peter Folgier."

My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different trades. I was put to the grammar-school at eight years of age, my father intending to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the Church. My early readiness in learning to read (which must have been very early, as I do not remember when I could not read), and the opinion of all his friends, that I should certainly make a good scholar, encouraged him in this purpose of his.

My uncle Benjamin, too, approved of it, and proposed to give me all his short-hand volumes of sermons, I suppose as a stock to set up with, if I would learn his character. I continued, however, at the grammar-school not quite one year, though in that time I had risen gradually from the middle of the class of that year to be the head of it, and farther was removed into the next class above it, in order to go with that into the third at the end of the year. But my father, in the meantime, from a view of the expense of a college education, which having so large a family he could not well afford, and the mean living many so educated were afterwards able to obtain—reasons that be gave to his friends in my hearing-altered his first intention, took me from the grammar-school, and sent me to a school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a then famous man, Mr. George Brownell, very successful in his profession generally, and that by mild, encouraging methods. Under him I acquired fair writing pretty soon, but I failed in the arithmetic, and made no progress in it.

At ten years old I was taken home to assist my father in his business, which was that of a tallow-chandler and sope-boiler; a business he was not bred to, but had assumed on his arrival in New England, and on finding his dying trade would not maintain his family, being in little request. Accordingly, I was employed in cutting wick for the candles, filling the dipping mold and the molds for cast candles, attending the shop, going of errands, etc.

I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclination for the sea, but my father declared against it; however, living near the water, I was much in and about it, learnt early to swim well, and to manage boats; and when in a boat or canoe with other boys, I was commonly allowed to govern, especially in any case of difficulty; and upon other occasions I was generally a leader among the boys, and sometimes led them into scrapes, of which I will mention one instance, as it shows an early projecting public spirit, tho' not then justly conducted.

There was a salt-marsh that bounded part of the mill-pond, on the edge of which, at high water, we used to stand to fish for minnows. By much trampling, we had made it a mere quagmire. My proposal was to build a wharff there fit for us to stand upon, and I showed my comrades a large heap of stones, which were intended for a new house near the marsh, and which would very well suit our purpose. Accordingly, in the evening, when the workmen were gone, I assembled a number of my play-fellows, and working with them diligently like so many emmets, sometimes two or three to a stone, we brought them all away and built our little wharff. The next morning the workmen were surprised at missing the stones, which were found in our wharff. Inquiry was made after the removers; we were discovered and complained of; several of us were corrected by our fathers; and though I pleaded the usefulness of the work, mine convinced me that nothing was useful which was not honest.

I think you may like to know something of his person and character. He had an excellent constitution of body, was of middle stature, but well set, and very strong; he was ingenious, could draw prettily, was skilled a little in music, and had a clear pleasing voice, so that when he played psalm tunes on his violin and sung withal, as he sometimesdid in an evening after the business of the day was over, it was extremely agreeable to hear.

He had a mechanical genius too, and, on occasion, was very handy in the use of other tradesmen's tools; but his great excellence lay in a sound understanding and solid judgment in prudential matters, both in private and publick affairs. In the latter, indeed, he was never employed, the numerous family he had to educate and the straitness of his circumstances keeping him close to his trade; but I remember well his being frequently visited by leading people, who consulted him for his opinion in affairs of the town or of the church he belonged to, and showed a good deal of respect for his judgment and advice: he was also much consulted by private persons about their affairs when any difficulty occurred, and frequently chosen an arbitrator between contending parties.

At his table he liked to have, as often as he could, some sensible friend or neighbor to converse with, and always took care to start some ingenious or useful topic for discourse, which might tend to improve the minds of his children. By this means he turned our attention to what was good, just, and prudent in the conduct of life; and little or no notice was ever taken of what related to the victuals on the table, whether it was well or ill dressed, in or out of season, of good or bad flavor, preferable or inferior to this or that other thing of the kind, so that I was bro't up in such a perfect inattention to those matters as to be quite indifferent what kind of food was set before me, and so unobservant of it, that to this day if I am asked I can scarce tell a few hours after dinner what I dined upon. This has been a convenience to me in travelling, where my companions have been sometimes very unhappy for want of a suitable gratification of their more delicate, because better instructed, tastes and appetites.

My mother had likewise an excellent constitution: she suckled all her ten children. I never knew either my father or mother to have any sickness but that of which they dy'd, he at 89, and she at 85 years of age. They lie buried together at Boston, where I some years since placed a marble over their grave, with this inscription:

JOSIAH FRANKLIN,andABIAH his Wife,lie here interred.They lived lovingly together in wedlockifty-five years.Without an estate, or any gainful employment,By constant labor and industry,with God's blessing,They maintained a large familycomfortably,and brought up thirteen childrenand seven grandchildrenreputably.From this instance, reader,Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling,And distrust not Providence.He was a pious and prudent man;She, a discreet and virtuous woman.Their youngest son,In filial regard to their memory,Places this stone.J.F. born 1655, died 1744, AEtat 89.A.F. born 1667, died 1752, - 85.

By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be grown old. I us'd to write more methodically. But one does not dress for private company as for a publick ball. 'Tis perhaps only negligence.

To return: I continued thus employed in my father's business for two years, that is, till I was twelve years old; and my brother John, who

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