—from Past and Present(Chapter 4 of Book Ⅲ)
Thomas Carlyle
All work, even cotton-spinning, is noble; work is alone noble: be that here said and asserted once more.And in like manner too all dignity is painful; a life of ease is not for any man, nor for any god. The life of all gods figures itself to us as a Sublime Sadness—earnestness of Infinite Battle against Infinite Labour.Our highest religion is named the ‘Worship of Sorrow.’For the son of man there is no noble crown, well worn, or even ill worn, but is a crown of thorns!—These things, in spoken words, or still better, in felt instincts alive in every heart, were once well known.
Does not the whole wretchedness, the wholeAtheismas I call it, of man’s ways, in these generations, shadow itself for us in that unspeakable Life-philosophy of his: The pretension to be what he calls “happy”? Every pitifulest whipster that walks within a skin has his head filled with the notion that he is, shall be, or by all human and divine laws ought to be, “happy”.His wishes, the pitifulest whipster’s, are to be fulfilled for him; his days, the pitifulest whipster’s, are to flow on in ever-gentle current of enjoyment, impossible even for the gods.The prophets preach to us, Thou shalt be happy; thou shalt love pleasant things, and find them.The people clamor, why have we not found pleasant things?
We construct our theory of Human Duties, not on any Greatest-Nobleness Principle, never so mistaken; no, but on a Greatest-Happiness Principle.The word Soulwith us, as in some Slavonic dialects, seems to be synonymous withStomach.We plead and speak, in our Parliaments and elsewhere, not as from the Soul, but from the Stomach;—wherefore, indeed, our pleadings are so slow to profit.We plead not for God’s justice; we are not ashamed to stand clamoring and pleading for our own “interests”, our own rents and trade-profits; we say.They are the “interests”of so many; there is such an intense desire for them in us! We demand Free-Trade, with much just vociferation and benevolence, that the poorer classes, who are terribly ill-off at present, may have cheaper New-Orleans bacon.Men ask on Free-trade platforms, how can the indomitable spirit of Englishmen be kept up without plenty of bacon? We shall become a ruined Nation!—surely, my friends, plenty of bacon is good and indispensable: but, I doubt, you will never get even bacon by aiming only at that.You are men, not animals of prey, well-used or ill-used! Your Greatest-Happiness Principle seems to me fast becoming a rather unhappy one.—What if we should cease babbling about “happiness”, and leaveitresting on its own basis, as it used to do!
A gifted Byron rises in his wrath; and feeling too surely that he for his part is not “happy”, declares the same in very violent language, as a piece of news that may be interesting.It evidently has surprised him much.One dislikes to see a man and poet reduced to proclaim on the streets such tidings: but on the whole, as matters go, that is not the most dislikable.Byron speaks thetruthin this matter.Byron’s large audience indicates how true it is felt to be.
“Happy”, my brother? First of all, what difference is it whether thou art happy or not! Today becomes Yesterday so fast, all Tomorrows become Yesterdays; and then there is no question whatever of the “happiness”, but quite another question.Nay, thou hast such a sacred pity left at least for thyself, thy very pains once gone over into Yesterday become joys to thee.Besides, thou knowest not what heavenly blessedness and indispensable sanative virtue was in them; thou shalt only know it after many days, when thou art wiser!—A benevolent old Surgeon sat once in our company, with a Patient fallen sick by gourmandizing, whom he had just, too briefly in the Patient’s judgment, been examining.The foolish Patient still at intervals continued to break in on our discourse, which rather promised to take a philosophic turn: “But I have lost my appetite,”said he, objurgate, with a tone of irritated pathos; “I have no appetite; I can’t eat!”—“My dear fellow,”answered the Doctor in mildest tone, “it isn’t of the slightest consequence;”—and continued his philosophical discoursing with us!
1.Questions for discussion.
1)Why did the author say “All work, even cotton-spinning, is noble”?
2)Why did the author say “a life of ease is not for any man, nor for any god”?
3)What is the author’s attitude toward the pains and harshness we have to bear in work?
4)Who do the “pitifulest whipsters”refer to?
5)How did we construct our theory of Human Duties？
6)What are Greatest-Nobleness Principle and Greatest-Happiness Principle, and what are the differences between the two?
7)Why did Byron rise up in wrath, according to the author?
8)What is the relationship between happiness and time?
2.Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
____ 1)In the beginning of the prose, the author determines that although work is noble, dignity shouldn’t bring us pains.
____ 2)One of the biggest differences between the mortals and the gods lies in that the latter enjoys a life of ease.
____ 3)The sadness from the “infinite battle”against the “infinite labor”is sublime.
____ 4)The present generations is discussed by the author in the second paragraph with great sympathy.
____ 5)The concept of happiness for these generations is nothing but shallow pretension.
____ 6)The present generations are satisfied with their lives, because they have already found the “pleasant things”.
____ 7)The romantic poet, Byron, was against this kind of shallow happiness in his poems.
____ 8)According to the author, people should construct the theory of duties not on the great happiness principle but on the great nobleness principle.
Proper Names
Monmouthshire 蒙茅斯郡
Slavonic 斯拉夫人的，斯拉夫语
New Orleans 新奥尔良
Byron 拜伦
Notes
1. Analytic philosophy(sometimes analytical philosophy):It is a generic term for a style ofphilosophythat came to dominateEnglish-speaking countriesin the 20th century.In theUnited States,United Kingdom,Canada,Scandinavia, Australia, andNew Zealand, the overwhelming majority of university philosophy departments identify themselves as “analytic”departments.
2. Past and Present:It is a book byThomas Carlylepublished in April1843in England and in May in the United States.It combinesmedievalhistory with criticism of 19th century British society.It was written in seven weeks, as a respite from the harassing labor of writingCromwell.In 1842, the Camden Society had published theChronicles of the Abbey of Saint Edmund’s Bury, written byJocelin of Brakelond, at the close of the 12th century.This account of a medieval monastery had taken Carlyle’s fancy, and he draws upon the chronicle in order to contrast the monks’reverence for work and heroism with the sham leadership of his own day.
3. Thomas Carlyle(4 December 1795-5 February 1881):He was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics “the dismal science”, wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia , and became a controversial social commentator.