Application and Perseverance Give Results


勤奋有恒结硕果 ( 1 )

IN THIS ARTICLE: Samuel Smiles, the eldest of eleven children, was born on 23rd December, 1812 in Scotland. He was apprenticed to a doctor, studied medicine at Edinburgh University and graduated in 1832. Five years later, he abandoned medicine to become editor of the Leeds Times, following the successful publication of several of his articles about self-improvement. His famous book Self Help; With Illustrations of Conduct and Perseverance was published in England in 1859. Now, more than 140 years later, it still provides sound advice. ---- Editor

[1]The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means, and the exercise of ordinary qualities. The common life of every day, with its cares, necessities, and duties, affords ample opportunity for acquiring experience of the best kind; and its most beaten paths provide the true worker with abundant scope for effort and mom for self-improvement. The road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will usually be the most successful.

[2] Fortune has often been blamed for her blindness; but fortune is not so blind as men are. Those who look into practical life will find that fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves are on the side of the best navigators. In the pursuit of even the highest branches of human inquiry, the commoner qualities are found the most useful--such as common sense, attention, application, and perseverance.

[3] Genius may not be necessary, though even genius of the highest sort does not disdain the use of these ordinary qualities. The very greatest men have been among the least believers in the power of genius, and as worldly wise and persevering as successful men of the commoner sort. Some have even defined genius to be only common sense intensified. A distinguished teacher and president of a college spoke of it as the power of making efforts. John Foster held it to be the power of lighting one s own fire. Buffon* said of genius "it is patience".

[4] Newton's was unquestionably a mind of the very highest order, and yet, when asked by what means he had worked out his extraordinary discoveries, he modestly answered, "By always thinking unto them." At another time he thus expressed his method of study: "I keep the subject continually before me, and wait till the first dawnings open slowly by little and little into a full and clear light." It was in Newton's case, as in every other, only by diligent application and perseverance that his great reputation was achieved. Even his recreation consisted in change of study, laying down one subject to take up another. To Dr. Bentley he said: 'If I have done the public any service, it is due to nothing but industry and patient thought."

[5] The extraordinary results effected by dint of sheer industry and perseverance, have led many distinguished men to doubt whether the gift of genius be so exceptional an endowment as it is usually supposed to be. Thus Voltaire held that it is only a very slight line of separation that divides the man of genius from the man of ordinary mould. Beccaria was even of opinion that all men might be poets and orators, and Reynolds that they might be painters and sculptors. If this were really so, that stolid Englishman might not have been so very far wrong after all, who, on Canova's death, inquired of his brother whether it was "his intention to carry on the business!".

[6] Locke, Helvetius, and Diderot believed that all men have an equal aptitude for genius, and that what some are able to effect, under the laws which regulate the operations of the intellect, must also be within the reach of others who, under like circumstances, apply themselves to like pursuits. But while admitting to the fullest extent the wonderful achievements of labour, and recognising the fact that men of the most distinguished genius have invariably been found the most indefatigable workers, it must nevertheless be sufficiently obvious that, without the original endowment of heart and brain, no amount of labour, however well applied, could have produced a Shakespeare, a Newton, a Beethoven, or a Michelangelo.

本文简介：塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯在1812年12月23日出生于苏格兰．是11个孩子中最大的。他曾跟一位大夫当学徒，后在爱丁堡大学学医，1832年毕业。五年之后，他放奔了医学，成为《利兹时报》的编辑，此前，他已成功地发表了几篇关于自我修养的文章。他的名著《自助；附有关于品德和坚持不懈的图例》于1859年在英国出版。140多年后的今天，这本书仍然可以提供明智的忠告。----编者

［1]人生最大的成就通常是靠简单的方法和运用一般的才干获得的。普通的日常生活以及其中的忧虑、各种不可避免之事和种种职责提供了取得最好经验的很多机会；生活中走过最多的老路给诚实的工作者以充分努力的机会和自我修养的空间。人类幸福之路就是坚定不移沿着做好事的大道前进；那些最坚毅而又最诚挚地工作的人常常是最成功的人。

［2]人们经常指责运气是盲目的；但是运气并不像人那样盲目。那些观察实际生活的人会发现运气通常支持勤劳的人，正如风浪支持最优秀的航海家一样。甚至在人类对所研究的最高学科的探索中，也能发现比较普通的素质是最有用的----诸如常识、专心、勤奋和锲而不舍。

［3]天赋或许是不必要的，即使是具备最高天赋的人也不轻视使用一般性的才能。最伟大的人物一直列身于最不相信天赋力量的人们之中，他们像一般的成功者一样，是善于处世和坚韧不拔的。有人甚至将天赋解释为只是增强的常识。一位杰出的教师兼大学校长说，天赋是努力的力量。约翰·福斯特认为天赋是点燃自己热情的力量。布丰在谈到天才时说“它就是耐心”。

[4]无可争议，牛顿的头脑是最高才智的头脑，然而当问到他是用什么方法获得惊人的发现时，牛顿谦虚地回答：“全靠对那些问题不断地深思。”在另一次，他这样表述他的研究方法：“我连续不断地思考问题，一直等到最初的曙光慢慢一点一点地发展成完全明晰的亮光。”牛顿的事例和其他事例一样，就是靠孜孜不倦的努力和坚持不懈的精神，他才获得了极大的声望。连他的消遣都是放下一个科目又拿起另一个科目的变换研究。他对本特利博士说：“如果我对社会有些贡献的话，那完全是由于勤奋和耐心的思考。”

［5］完全凭借勤奋与毅力所产生的非凡成果，已经引起许多名人怀疑天赋是否真像通常认为的那样，是种极为异常的才能。所以，伏尔泰认为区分天才和一般类型的人的界线是非常细微的。拜克雷亚甚至认为所有人都可能成为诗人和演说家，雷诺兹则认为所有的人都可能成为画家和雕塑家。假如真是这样的话，那么这位不动感情的英国人（指雷诺兹）犯的错误归根结底也不算太大了，他在卡诺瓦临死之际，询问其兄弟是否“有意继续那桩营生（指雕塑）！”。

[6］洛克、爱尔维休和狄德罗都相信所有的人都有相同的天赋，并且相信在约束大智英才的活动的法则之下，有些人所能完成的，其他的人在相似的环境下，致力于相似的追求，也准是力所能及的。但是，在最大程度上承认劳动的了不起的成就，承认最出类拔革的天才人物永远是最不知疲倦的工作者这一事实的同时，无论怎样都必然十分明显的是，假如没有心灵和头脑固有的天赋，不论多么大量的劳动，应用得多么恰当也创造不出一位莎士比亚、牛顿、贝多芬或者米开朗琪罗。

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