Solitude
独处

现在，城市的规模在不断变大，城市人口也越来越多，但是城市中却出现了越来越多孤独的灵魂。其实，只要内心充实，即便是一个人独处，也是一种美好的体验。当然，人是社会性的动物，会渴望拥有友谊和关爱，能时常与好友或家人把酒言欢自是美事一桩。但是，正所谓“海内存知己，天涯若比邻”，那些真正倾心的交流和情感，你见或不见，它其实都在那里。

Henry David Thoreau
亨利·大卫·梭罗

I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The farmer can work alone in the field or the woods all day, hoeing or chopping, and not feel lonesome, because he is employed; but when he comes home at night he cannot sit down in a room alone, at the mercy of his thoughts, but must be where he can “see the folks,” and recreate, and, as he thinks, remunerate himself for his day's solitude; and hence he wonders how the student can sit alone in the house all night and most of the day without ennui and “the blues”; but he does not realize that the student, though in the house, is still at work in his field, and chopping in his woods, as the farmer in his, and in turn seeks the same recreation and society that the latter does, though it may be a more condensed form of it.

Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war. We meet at the post-office, and at the sociable, and about the fireside every night; we live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another. Certainly less frequency would suffice for all important and hearty communications. Consider the girls in a factory—never alone, hardly in their dreams. It would be better if there were but one inhabitant to a square mile, as where I live. The value of a man is not in his skin, that we should touch him.

我发现，把大部分时间用来独处是有益健康的。与人相伴，即便是最亲近的人，也会很快让人感觉疲倦和浪费光阴。我爱独处。我发现没有比独处更好的伴侣了。多数情况下，到外面和形形色色的人接触要比独自待在屋里更让人感觉孤独。不论在哪里，一个思考或劳作的人总是独自一人的。孤独与否并不取决于人与人之间的空间距离。一个勤奋的学生，即使身处剑桥大学像蜂巢一般拥挤的教室，实际上也像沙漠中的托钵僧一样孤独。农民可以整天一个人在田地或林子里锄地或伐木，但丝毫不觉得孤单，因为他有事可做；但晚上回到家后，只有自己的思想做伴，便无法一个人坐在屋里，而必须待在能“看见大伙儿”的地方，正如他所认为的那样，通过消遣来弥补白日里独处的时光，也正因为如此，他无法理解学生为何能整夜独自坐在屋内，而且白天大部分的时间也是如此，还不觉得厌倦和忧伤。他并没有意识到学生虽然待在屋里，但也是在自己的田地里耕耘，在自己的林子里伐木，恰如农民一般，而且同样会去寻求消遣和社交，只不过方式更为简洁罢了。

社交通常很廉价。人与人之间见面的时间很短，都来不及发现任何对彼此的新价值。我们每日三餐时见面，每次见面大家都是老样子，这种感觉就好像重新品尝过期发霉的奶酪。好在我们相互都同意一些规则，即礼仪与礼貌，这让我们能忍受如此频繁的见面，而不至于开战。我们会在邮局相遇、会在联谊会上碰面，每晚还要在炉火边见面；我们扎堆在一起，相互挡道，一次又一次地绊倒，相互之间的尊重日益变少。其实，所有重要的倾心交流，并不需要频繁相见。试想工厂里的女工——她们从未独处过，即便是在梦里。如果一平方英里的区域只住一个人，就像我住的这里一样，那会好很多。人的价值与是否和他人接触无关。

巧记词汇

wearisome [ˈwɪərisəm] a. 使人疲倦的

【拓】weary [ˈwɪəri] a. 疲倦的

dissipating [ˈdɪsɪpeɪtɪŋ] a. 浪费光阴的

【拓】waste [weɪst] v./n. 浪费

chamber [ˈtʃeɪmbə(r)] n. 房间

【拓】cabin [ˈkæbɪn] n. 小屋

intervene [ˌɪntəˈviːn] v. 介于其间

【拓】intervention [ˌɪntəˈvenʃn] n. 介入

dervish [ˈdɜːvɪʃ] n. 托钵僧

【拓】monk [mʌŋk] n. 僧侣

hoe [həʊ] v. 锄地

【拓】plough [plaʊ] v. 耕地

chop [tʃɒp] v. 劈，砍

【拓】slash [slæʃ] v. 砍，鞭打

recreate [ˌriːkriˈeɪt] v. 娱乐，消遣

【拓】recreation [ˌriːkriˈeɪʃn] n. 娱乐

remunerate [rɪˈmjuːnəreɪt] v. 补偿

【拓】compensate [ˈkɒmpenseɪt] v. 补偿

ennui [ɒnˈwiː] n. 倦怠，无聊

【拓】tedium [ˈtiːdɪəm] n. 枯燥无聊

musty [ˈmʌsti] a. 发霉的

【拓】decay [dɪˈkeɪ ] v. 腐烂

趣学短语

at the mercy of 任凭……的摆布；完全受……的支配

【例】It is suggested that you make a plan for emergencies, or you'll possibly leave yourself at the mercy of fears and flusters. 建议你做一个应对紧急情况的计划，否则你有可能会陷入恐惧与慌张。