Unit 13
Friendship
FRIENDSHIP
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1. We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken. Maugre all the selfishness that chills like east winds the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like a fine ether. How many persons we meet in houses, whom we scarcely speak to, whom yet we honor, and who honor us! How many we see in the street, or sit with in church, whom, though silently, we warmly rejoice to be with! Read the language of these wandering eye-beams. The heart knoweth.
2. The effect of the indulgence of this human affection is a certain cordial exhilaration. In poetry, and in common speech, the emotions of benevolence and complacency which are felt towards others are likened to the material effects of fire; so swift, or much more swift, more active, more cheering, are these fine inward irradiations. From the highest degree of passionate love, to the lowest degree of goodwill, they make the sweetness of life.
3. Our intellectual and active powers increase with our affection. The scholar sits down to write, and all his years of meditation do not furnish him with one good thought or happy expression; but it is necessary to write a letter to a friend — and forthwith troops of gentle thoughts invest themselves, on every hand, with chosen words.
4. See, in any house where virtue and self-respect abide, the palpitation which the approach of a stranger causes. A commended stranger is expected and announced, and an uneasiness betwixt pleasure and pain invades all the hearts of a household. His arrival almost brings fear to the good hearts that would welcome him. The house is dusted, all things fly into their places, the old coat is exchanged for the new, and they must get up a dinner if they can. Of a commended stranger, only the good report is told by others, only the good and new is heard by us. He stands to us for humanity. He is what we wish. Having imagined and invested him, we ask how we should stand related in conversation and action with such a man, and are uneasy with fear. The same idea exalts conversation with him. We talk better than we are wont. We have the nimblest fancy, a richer memory, and our dumb devil has taken leave for the time. For long hours we can continue a series of sincere, graceful, rich communications, drawn from the oldest secretest experience, so that they who sit by, of our own kinsfolk and acquaintance, shall feel a lively surprise at our unusual powers. But as soon as the stranger begins to intrude his partialities, his definitions, his defects, into the conversation, it is all over. He has heard the first, the last and best he will ever hear from us. He is no stranger now. Vulgarity, ignorance, misapprehension are old acquaintances. Now, when he comes, he may get the order, the dress, and the dinner, — but the throbbing of the heart, and the communications of the soul, no more.
5. What is so pleasant as these jets of affection which make a young world for me again? What so delicious as a just and firm encounter of two, in a thought, in a feeling? How beautiful, on their approach to this beating heart, the steps and forms of the gifted and the true! The moment we indulge our affections, the earth is metamorphosed; there is no winter, and no night; all tragedies, all ennuis, vanish, — all duties even; nothing fills the proceeding eternity but the forms all radiant of beloved persons. Let the soul be assured that somewhere in the universe it should rejoin its friend, and it would be content and cheerful alone for a thousand years.
6. I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. Shall I not call God the Beautiful, who daily showeth himself so to me in his gifts? I chide society, I embrace solitude, and yet I am not so ungrateful as not to see the wise, the lovely, and the noble-minded, as from time to time they pass my gate. Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine, a possession for all time. Nor is nature so poor but she gives me this joy several times, and thus we weave social threads of our own, a new web of relations; and, as many thoughts in succession substantiate themselves, we shall by and by stand in a new world of our own creation, and no longer strangers and pilgrims in a traditionary globe.
1. 我们的友善远非言语可以表达。尽管私心像东面来袭的寒风吹过大地，整个人类却依然沐浴在爱的阳光里。 有多少人，我们 与他们邂逅在厅堂，甚至从未交谈，可我们却尊敬他们，他们也尊敬我们！又有多少人，我们在街头看见他们，或者与他们同坐于教堂之内，虽然默默无言，我们却非常乐意与他们在一起！读读这些游移目光背后的语言，你内心就会明白。
2. 沉浸在仁爱之中，是一种发自内心的愉悦。在诗歌里，在日常交谈中，对他人的仁义之德和满足之情，常常被喻为烈火的真实效果，这些发自内心的美丽光辉也同样迅猛，或许更迅猛、更活跃、更振奋人心。从最炽热的爱情到最普通的善意，这些情感让生活美妙无比。
3. 我们的智力与能量因情感而增强。一位学者端坐桌前，他数年的沉思激发不出思想的火花和快乐的语言；但当他有必要给友人写信时，心头便会立即情思泉涌、妙语连珠。
4. 看一看，一位陌生的访客，会使一户善良自尊的人家多么激动。一番等待过后，当一位受人赞誉的陌生人到访时，全家上下无不诚惶诚恐，喜悲交加。他的造访几乎使迎接他的好心人感到恐慌。这家人将房屋打扫干净，归整所有家当，旧衣换成新 装，还要尽可能设宴招待。对于这位享有美誉的陌生人，别人的谈论只是些溢美之辞，我们听到的也只是些有关他的新闻善事。对我们而言，他代表人性，更代表了我们的理想。对他这般构想一番并寄予厚望之后，我们开始寻思应该如何同这样一个人进行交谈、相处，内心便惶恐不安起来。同样的想法又增进了我们与之谈话的兴致，我们比平日更为健谈，思维极其敏快，记忆更为丰富，素日的沉默也一时被彻底打破。我们长时间与之进行一连串真诚优雅、内容丰富的交谈，谈论自己最早最隐秘的经历，以至于坐在我们身边的亲属和熟人都对我们少见的才能惊诧不已。但是一旦这个陌生人硬把他的偏袒、臆断和缺陷扯进谈话中，一切就都结束。他从我们这里听到了他所能听到的最初 的、最后的、最好的言语。现在，他已不再陌生。粗俗、无知、误解，我们再熟悉不过了。当他再次登门时，他可能看到房屋依然整洁、衣服依然崭新、饭菜依然丰盛，但那种心灵的悸动和精神上的交流却已不复存在。
5. 有什么比这为我唤回青春世界的情感喷发更令人惬意？有什么比两个人同样的思想情感的真切邂逅更沁人心脾呢？当有才之人与率真之士向一颗跳动的心灵靠近时，他们的步伐和身影又是多么的优美啊！当我们的情感得到满足之时，世界就变了模样：没有了冬天和黑夜；人世间所有的悲剧、所有的无聊——甚至所有的义务——都烟消云散；绵延的永恒中只有心爱之人 光芒四射的身影。只要让灵魂相信，它终将在宇宙的某个角落重逢知己，它就会心甘情愿独自欢快地等待千年。
6. 今晨醒来，我心中充满了对新友故知的感恩之心。难道我不该把上帝称作“至美”吗？他每天赋予我很多，就是在向我展示他的至美。我斥逐社交，我拥抱孤独。然而，当智慧、美丽、高尚的人不时经过我家门的时候，我不会无动于衷，更不会无视他们。谁聆听我的心声，谁理解我的衷肠，谁就会成为我一生的拥有。自然并不贫乏，它多次赐予我这种快乐，我们也因此纺出属于自己的社交之线，编成一张全新的关系之网；当诸多思想相继成为现实之后，我们将逐渐立足于自己创造的全新世 界之中，不再是传统世界里的陌生人与寻梦者。
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