Last year, my second year at Radcliffe, I studied English composition, the Bible as English composition, the governments of America and Europe, the Odes of Horace, and Latin comedy. The class in composition was the pleasantest. It was very lively. The lectures were always interesting, vivacious, witty; for the instructor, Mr. Charles Townsend Copeland, more than any one else I have had until this year, brings before you literature in all its original freshness and power. For one short hour you are permitted to drink in the eternal beauty of the old masters without needless interpretation or exposition. You revel in their fine thoughts. You enjoy with all your soul the sweet thunder of the Old Testament, forgetting the existence of Jahweh and Elohim; and you go home feeling that you have had "a glimpse of that perfection in which spirit and form dwell in immortal harmony; truth and beauty bearing a new growth on the ancient stem of time."
去年，也就是我在拉德克利夫学院的第二年，我主修的科目有英文写作，《圣经》文学，美国和欧洲政体，贺拉斯颂诗，及拉丁文喜剧。最有趣，课堂气氛最活跃的是写作课。查尔斯·唐森·科普兰先生的写作课总是充满了妙趣横生、诙谐而睿智的语言，就那个学期而言，我觉得他比其他任何老师教得都好。他让你领略到的是最纯粹和最具震撼力的文学。在短短一个小时中，你可以尽情赏析前辈大师们的永恒魅力，你听不到多余的解释和说明，一切都让作品本身说话。由此，你会沉醉在他们那深邃的思想之中；你会全身心地陶醉于《旧约》那黄钟大吕般的雷声之中，乃至于忽略了耶和华上帝的存在；你会带着这样一种心情回家——你已经“窥见到不朽的灵魂以一种和谐的方式常驻人间，而真善美则是同上古精神一脉相承的不二准则”。
This year is the happiest because I am studying subjects that especially interest me, economics, Elizabethan literature, Shakespeare under Professor George L. Kittredge, and the History of Philosophy under Professor Josiah Royce. Through philosophy one enters with sympathy of comprehension into the traditions of remote ages and other modes of thought, which erewhile seemed alien and without reason.
这真是令人愉快的一年，因为我所学的科目特别合我的胃口，比如经济学，伊丽莎白时期文学，还有乔治·L.吉特莱芝教授主讲的莎士比亚，约西亚·罗伊斯教授主讲的哲学史。一旦步入哲学的殿堂，你就会领略到久远年代的种种传统及其思想模式的精妙，而在不久前，这些知识在世人眼中还是陌生而不知所云的。
But college is not the universal Athens I thought it was. There one does not meet the great and the wise face to face; one does not even feel their living touch. They are there, it is true; but they seem mummified. We must extract them from the crannied wall of learning and dissect and analyze them before we can be sure that we have a Milton or an Isaiah, and not merely a clever imitation. Many scholars forget, it seems to me, that our enjoyment of the great works of literature depends more upon the depth of our sympathy than upon our understanding. The trouble is that very few of their laborious explanations stick in the memory. The mind drops them as a branch drops its overripe fruit. It is possible to know a flower, root and stem and all, and all the processes of growth, and yet to have no appreciation of the flower fresh bathed in heaven's dew. Again and again I ask impatiently, "Why concern myself with these explanations and hypotheses?" They fly hither and thither in my thought like blind birds beatingthe air with ineffectual wings. I do not mean to object to a thorough knowledge of the famous works we read. I object only to the interminable comments and bewildering criticisms that teach but one thing: there are as many opinions as there are men. But when a great scholar like Professor Kittredge interprets what the master said, it is "as if new sight were given the blind." He brings back Shakespeare, the poet.
不过，大学并不是万能的“雅典学园”。你不会在这里遇到伟大的灵魂，也不会与智慧面面相对，你甚至感觉不到他们手指的触摸。虽然他们是确实存在的，但是他们似乎已经变成了干枯的木乃伊。在我们确信已经拥有了弥尔顿或者以赛亚之前，我们必须要将他们从知识的缝隙中抽取出来，并对其进行细致入微的分析，而不仅仅是自作聪明的模仿。在我看来，很多学者都忘记了这样一个事实，我们因伟大文学作品而产生的共鸣，更多地是依赖于我们深切的同情心，而非我们的理解力。问题是留存在人们记忆中的文化精髓极其稀少。不妨说，精髓的传承犹如枝条上垂下的成熟果实——你能够寻觅到一朵花、一条根茎和一束枝条的生长轨迹，但是你却不会对滋润鲜花的天堂雨露心存感激。我不耐烦地反复问自己：“为什么你要在意那些个解释和臆测？”这样的念头在我的脑中飞来飞去，就像失明的鸟儿无助地在空中扑打着翅膀。当然，对于我们所读过的那些著名作品的精髓，我并没有全盘否定的意思。我所反对的只是冗长而令人困惑的评论，但有一件事是肯定的：有多少人就有多少种观点。像吉特莱芝教授这样的大学者在阐释大师作品时曾说过，大师之作“恰如赐予盲人的新视觉”。的确，他正是把莎士比亚的诗人地位复原如初的先驱，也是带给我们光明的使者。
There are, however, times when I long to sweep away half the things I am expected to learn; for the overtaxed mind cannot enjoy the treasure it has secured at the greatest cost. It is impossible, I think, to read in one day four or five different books in different languages and treating of widely different subjects, and not lose sight of the very ends for which one reads. When one reads hurriedly and nervously, having in mind written tests and examinations, one's brain becomes encumbered with a lot of choice bric-?brac for which there seems to be little use. At the present time my mind is so full of heterogeneous matter that I almost despair of ever being able to put it in order. Whenever I enter the region that was the kingdom of my mind I feel like the proverbial bull in the china shop. A thousand odds and ends of knowledge come crashing about my head like hailstones, and when I try to escape them, theme-goblins and college nixies of all sorts pursue me, until I wish—oh, may I be forgiven the wicked wish!—that I might smash the idols I came to worship.
然而，当我试图卸载掉一半的课业负担时，结果却是每每而不可得；事实上，过重的思维负担会令你无暇分享知识所蕴涵的巨大价值。在一天之内阅读四本或五本不同科目不同语种的书籍，而且又不遗漏细枝末节，这显然是不可能的事。当你带着焦虑不安的心情匆匆阅读，心里只想着各种测验和考试时，你的大脑就会变得无所适从，似乎有太多无用的小摆设堆在你面前，而如何选择就成了一个问题。当时，我的脑子里塞满了各种各样的问题，以至于无法将思路理清。无论何时，只要我一踏入意识王国的领地，我就会感到自己像一头闯进瓷器店的公牛。成千上万种零零碎碎的知识就像冰雹一样在我的脑中四处飞溅，当我试图逃离险境时，传说中的妖精和校园水鬼就会紧追不舍，直到我愿意——或者说迁就那些邪恶的意识肆虐横行！——或许，我应该把顶礼膜拜的偶像统统砸碎。