第一次去参加了“康科德爱默生读书会”的活动。哈哈，大家多少有一些敬畏神灵似地，开读之前大家还安静一会儿，低着头听读书小组长说一段话，类似于饭前祈祷，不过用的词很美丽，那种虔诚也让我感动。我只记得一句： Let his muse be our muse. (Waldo My Lord :))
今天阅读的是 "Uses of Great Men". 印象很深的是，爱默生显然对当时科学的前沿发展了如指掌，提及了许多科学家，并援用了许多科学的新发现来论证他的观点。
读起来有时候觉得语言有些晦涩，有时候又觉得十分简洁易懂，恍然大悟：原来是这样啊，我早就知道了的。
所有的“同学”说起爱圣人都是毕恭毕敬的，有一位简直是个活字典，考据冬烘，夹了几本泛黄的硬装书，随时查阅，无论说起什么来，他都能够马上找出类似的典故。
提起老爱的女人观，他一定要强调圣人是女权主义者，还举出他的 "Women" 一文为例。我说我没读过这篇论文，但（作为历史唯物主义者，哈哈）即便他的观点与今天有差距，我也会“原谅”他，因为每个人，即便是伟大如老爱的人，也会受到时代的局限云云。“原谅”一词令老头子大受伤害，呵呵。
不怪我读 Hawthorne 和 Thoreau 时发音有困难，这帮人读起来也是南腔北调，每个人的发音都不同。我最近看的八卦多，爱圣人的思想精髓没有掌握多少，倒是七大姑八大姨的摸得门儿清，他们一定当我是小报记者。:)
Uses of Great Men
from Representative Men (1850)
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Activity is contagious. Looking where others look, and conversing with the same things, we catch the charm which lured them. Napoleon said, "You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war." Talk much with any man of vigorous mind, and we acquire very fast the habit of looking at things in the same light, and on each occurrence we anticipate his thought.
还有一段是引孟子的，记得小时候能够倒背如流的，这一段却想不出是什么。
“A sage is the instructor of a hundred ages. When the manners of Loo are heard of, the stupid become intelligent, and the wavering, determined."
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7 comments:
Good experience. But I can assure you this is every bit anti-Emersonian.
Every great iconoclast ended up being idol of worshipers.
Be a true Emersonian in the Emerson country. :-)
There is more than one way to be an Emersonian - everyone has his/her own way to read Emerson, including worshiping him. ;) Look who is the true Emersonian here. :)
I think I will stick around with the group. I rather prefer this naive admiration and humility to cynical, smart-a*s intellectualism. ;) I believe coming here to talk about Emerson is more of a spiritual cleansing and recreation for them, not academic research or probing.
Plus it was such a beautiful, beautiful night. Mr. E must have some words to describe it - I felt like flying through the mid-air. :)
八爷，你的狗狗很厉害啊。我以为“百世之师”是“万世师表”。
其实这个团体水平还是不错的，是我描述得太不厚道。:)他们有天时地利，信息很灵通，并不完全是生吞活剥地读圣贤书。:)
柳下惠也是圣人啊？看来不理女人就可以成为圣贤。:)
Ah oh, I regret pointing you to Emerson.
I have few regrets in my whole life. :)
"this is every bit anti-Emersonian." - Gadfly
Does not matter. Because this 查经班 has nothing to do with Emerson. 查经班 is Juzi's spa and Emerson is the 面膜.
heihei:
Welcome. :) I'm trying to get some depth into my reading but I keep going after all the biographies and fictions. ;)
But that aside, who are you? :))
Do you know how to import some smilies?
查经班's hot topic: Emerson on Women
Will read it when I have nothing else to do.
http://www.rwe.org/comm/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=77&Itemid=294
Woman
RWE.org - The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson - Volume XI - Miscellanies (1884)
WOMAN
A LECTURE READ BEFORE THE WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION, BOSTON, SEMPTERMBER 20, 1855
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