名篇背诵：On Marriage and Single Life 论婚姻和单身生活

On Marriage and Single Life 论婚姻和单身生活

弗朗西斯·培根(Francis Bacon)

He that has wife and children has given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises. Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men, which both in affection and means have married and endowed the public. Yet it were great reason that those that have children should have greatest care of future times, unto which they know they must transmit their dearest pledges. Some there are who, though they lead a single life, yet their thoughts do end with themselves, and account future times impertinences . Nay, there are some other that account wife and children but as bills of charges . Nay more, there are some foolish rich covetous men that take a pride in having no children, because they may be thought so much the richer. For perhaps they have heard some talk, “Such an one is a great rich man,” and another except to it, “Yea, but he has a great charge of children”； as if it were an abatement to his riches. But the most ordinary cause of a single life is liberty, especially in certain self-pleasing and humorous minds, which are so sensible of every restraint, as they will go near to think their girdles and garters to be bonds and shackles. Unmarried men are best friends, best masters, best servants, but not always best subjects , for they are light to run away, and almost all fugitives are of that condition. A single life does well with churchmen, for charity will hardly water the ground where it must first fill a pool. It is indifferent for judges and magistrates, for if they be facile and corrupt, you shall have a servant five times worse than a wife. For soldiers, I find the generals commonly in their hortatives put men in mind of their wives and children; and I think the despising of marriage amongst the Turks makes the vulgar soldier more base. Certainly wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity; and single men, though they be many times more charitable, because their means are less exhaust, yet, on the other side, they are more cruel and hard-hearted(good to make severe inquisitors), because their tenderness is not so often called upon. Grave natures, led by custom, and therefore constant, are commonly loving husbands. Chaste women are often proud and forward , as presuming upon the merit of their chastity. It is one of the best bonds, both of chastity and obedience, in the wife, if she thinks her husband wise, which she will never do if she finds him jealous. Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses, so as a man may have a quarrel to marry when he will. But yet he was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question when a man should marry:“A young man not yet, an elder man not at all.”

- impediment [ɪmˈpedɪmənt] v. 阻碍，妨碍

- impertinence [ɪmˈpɜːtɪnəns] n. 粗鲁无礼，不敬

bills of charges 累赘

- subject [ˈsʌbdʒɪkt] n. 臣民

- fugitive [ˈfjuːdʒɪtɪv] n. 流窜犯

- facile [ˈfæsaɪl] a. 轻率而浅薄的，表面(上)的

proud and forward 高傲专横

有妻子儿女的人就有了人质给命运作抵押，因为他们是大事业上的障碍。当然对于公众来说，最佳著作和功绩出自未婚者、没有子女者。这些人在感情上和财源上都归属于公众。然而，那些有家室的人对未来时期要倍加小心，这有真正的原因。他们知道，到那个时期，他们必须转交自己最珍贵的人质作抵押。有的人虽然过着单身生活，但他们一心想的还是自己，把未来的时间看成障碍。还另有一些人，只是把妻子儿女看成一笔笔开销的经济拖累。更有甚者，有些愚蠢贪婪的富人，以没有子女为骄傲，因为这么一来人家看他们就更加富有了。因为兴许他们听到过人们议论，“此人是个大富翁。”而另外一些人则会说：“是啊，不过他也要承担极大的儿女费用。”仿佛那对他的财富是一种克扣。但是要过单身生活的最普遍的原因是要自由，他们自我满足，思维敏捷，具有幽默感，对什么约束都敏感，近乎认为他们的腰带和吊裤带都是束缚和枷锁。未婚者是最好的朋友，最好的主人，最好的奴仆，但不是最好的臣民，因为他们容易逃避，几乎所有的逃亡者都是如此。单身生活对于教会人士很合适，因为慈善需要等到水池注满才浇洒土地。是否单身对于大法官和地方法官无关紧要，因为如果他们当真草率行事或贪污腐化，那么做就会有一个比妻子坏五倍的公仆。对于士兵来说，我发现将军们出于激励目的常常让士兵关心妻子儿女；我认为土耳其轻视婚姻，使得下流的士兵变得更加卑鄙。妻子儿女肯定是一种人道主义的纪律约束，单身的人即使数倍地慈善，因为他们的钱财消耗得少些，但另一方面，因为缺乏客观上唤起温柔的因素，心肠更硬，为人更残忍（适合充当严厉的审判员）。由习惯引导出来的庄重个性往往经久不变，一般为充满深情的丈夫们所有。恪守贞洁的妇女，以贞操作为优点自居，显得骄傲而刚愎自用。如果她认为丈夫很聪明，作为妻子身上的贞洁和顺从是最好的纽带之一。如果她发现丈夫妒忌，她绝不肯善罢善休。妻子在年轻时是主妇，中年时是伴侣，老年时是保姆。所以，一个男人如果不想结婚，那就请便吧。但是如果他回答男人该什么时候结婚，那他就可称得上是个明智的男人：“年轻人不结婚，那就根本不能成为长大的人。”

弗朗西斯·培根(1561—1626)，英国哲学家。马克思称他为“英国唯物主义和整个现代实验科学的真正始祖”。主要著作有《论科学的价值和发展》《新工具》等。