[英国]约翰·亨利·纽曼/John Henry Newman

　　约翰·亨利·纽曼（1801-1890），生于一个加尔文教派家庭，就读于牛津大学，1824年任神职，为英国基督教圣公会内部牛津运动的领袖，后皈依天主教，1846年成为红衣主教。1854年在都柏林成立了天主教大学，并任该校校长。为促成该校成立，他发表了一系列精彩演说。

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　　I protest to you, gentlemen, that if I had to choose between a so-called university which dispensed with residence and tutorial superintendence, and gave its degrees to any person who passed an examination in a wide range of subjects, and a university which had no professors or examinations at all, but merely brought a number of young men together for three or four years, and then sent them away as the University of Oxford is said to have done some sixty years since, if I were asked which of these two methods was the better discipline of the intellect-I do not say which is morally the better, for it is plain that compulsory study must be a good and idleness an intolerable mischief-but if I must determine which of the two courses was the more successful in training, molding, enlarging the mind, which sent out men the more fitted for their secular duties, which produced better public men, men of the world, men whose names would descend to posterity, I have no hesitation in giving the preference to that university which did nothing, over that which exacted of its members an acquaintance with every science under the sun……

　　When a multitude of young persons, keen, openhearted, sympathetic, and observant, as young persons are, come together and freely mix with each other, they are sure to learn one from another, even if there be no one to teach them;the conversation of all is a series of lectures to each, and they gain for themselves new ideas and views, fresh matter of thought, and distinct principles for judging and acting, day by day. An infant has to learn the meaning of the information which its senses convey to it, and this seems to be its employment. It fancies all that the eye presents to it to be close to it, till it actually learns the contrary, and thus by practice does it ascertain the relations and uses of those first elements of knowledge which are necessary for its animal existence. A parallel teaching is necessary for our social being, and it is secured by a large school or a college, and this effect may be fairly called in its own department an enlargement of mind……

　　Here then is a real teaching whatever be its standards and principles, true or false;and it at least tends towards cultivation of the intellect;it at least recognizes that knowledge is something more than a sort of passive reception of scraps and details;it is a something, and it does a something, which never will issue from the most strenuous efforts of a set of teachers, with no mutual sympathies and no intercommunion, of a set of examiners with no opinions which they dare profess, and with no common principles, who are teaching or questioning a set of youths who do not know them, and do not know each other, on a large number of subjects, different in kind, and connected by no wide philosophy, three times a week, or three times a year or once in three years, in chill lecture-rooms or on a pompous anniversary.

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　　How much more profitable for the independent mind, after the mere rudiments of education, to range through a library at random, taking down books as they meet him, and pursuing the trains of thought which his mother wit suggests!How much healthier to wander into the fields, and there with the exiled prince to find“tongues in the trees, books in the running brooks!”……

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　　先生们，如果我必须在两种大学中选择——一种是所谓的大学，它不提供住宿和学习指导，每个学生只要通过一场包括各方面知识的综合考试，就可以获得学位；另一种学校根本就没有教授和考试，只是让一群年轻人共同生活三四年，然后把他们送走，据说牛津大学已经这样做了60年。如果要我说出哪种方法更利于智力的培养，那么，我要向你们声明：如果指的是哪种方法能更成功地训练、塑造和拓宽一个人的思维，哪种方法更能培养出适合担当世俗责任的人员、好的公职人员、世事通达的人以及流芳百世的人，那么我会毫不犹豫地选择那种看来无所作为的大学，它好过那种要求学生通晓世上所有学科的大学。我这样选择，并不是指从道德方面考虑二者的优劣，因为很显然，强制性的学习必定有益，而懒散的习惯必有大害……

　　当一大群具有年轻人特有的敏锐、直率、同情、观察细微等品质的青年来到一起，自由地相互交往，即使没人教导他们，他们也必定能够彼此学习；他们的谈话对个人来讲，就是一系列的讲课。一天天地，他们从中学习到新的思想和观点、新的思维方式，以及判断和行为准则。婴儿必须弄明白他感觉到的信息，这似乎是他的本能。他以为眼睛所见到的东西都离自己很近，直到他真正明白其中是有对比的。这样，他就通过实践懂得了生存所必需的基本知识。我们社会的生存也需要类似的教育，这些教育就由大学校或者大学提供。它的作用在自己的范围内可以称为拓宽思维……不管这种教育的标准和原则是什么，也不管它是对是错，这都是一种真正的教育；最起码它有益于智力的开拓；最起码它认识到知识并不只是一种被动接受的片段和细节；它是有意义的事情，而且能够产生一些有意义的影响。那些相互没有交流和情感的老师产生不了这种影响，那些不敢于发表意见、没有共同原则的考官也产生不了这种影响，因为他们所教或所考的年轻人互不相识，也不认识他们。他们只是每周三次或每年三次或三年一次地在冰冷的教室里或大型的纪念日中，向学生们讲授或测试一大堆种类繁多且互不相干的学科。

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　　接受基本教育后，愿意独立思考的人在图书馆信步流连，随手取阅一些自己真心愿意深入学习的书籍，这该是多么有益的一件事啊！在原野上徜徉，与被流放的王子一起欣赏“树儿的低语，奔流的溪水中的美文”，又该是一种多么健康的学习啊……

　　词汇笔记

　　protest[pr?'test]v.主张，抗议，断言

　　They protested to the mayor that the taxes were too high.

　　他们向市长抗议税款过高。

　　compulsory[k?m'p?ls?ri]adj.被强制的，强迫的，义务的

　　Attendance at evening prayers is not compulsory.

　　参加晚祷并非硬性规定。

　　preference['pref?r?ns]n.偏爱，优先，喜爱物

　　I don't know your preferences, so please help yourself.

　　我不知道你喜欢吃什么，请你自便吧。

　　ascertain[,?s?'tein]v.确定，探知

　　I ascertain that he was murdered.

　　我确定他是被谋杀的。

　　小试身手

　　强制性的学习必定有益，而懒散的习惯必有大害。

　　译______________________________

　　一天天地，他们从中学习到新的思想和观点、新的思维方式，以及判断和行为准则。

　　译______________________________

　　我们社会的生存也需要类似的教育，这些教育就由大学校或者大学提供。

　　译______________________________

　　短语家族

　　If I had to to choose between a so-called university which dispensed with residence and tutorial superintendence……

　　dispense with：摒弃，省掉，没有……也行

　　造______________________________

　　They gain for themselves new ideas and riens, fresh matter of thought, and distinet principles for judging and acting, day by day.

　　day by day：一天天

　　造______________________________