但是，最引人注目、最可颂扬且举世无双的特性还要数你宽宏大量的公民观。你将所有的臣民（也就是全世界）分成两类：对于那些更有天资、更强健的，无论他们身在何处，你都授予公民身份，甚至视为同胞；其余的你便作为顺从的臣民加以统治。无论是海洋还是广袤的陆地，都不能构成公民身份的障碍；亚细亚与欧罗巴平等相待。英才俊士均可脱颖而出。
……在你的制度里，无论贫富，人人各安其分，各谋其利；舍此别无他途。你的国度政通人和，欣欣向荣。……可以说，你是天生的统治者。从前的帝王们不过是轮流交换着主仆的角色；作为统治者，他们徒有虚名，好似一场球赛中的选手更换着彼此的位置。……你指点江山，架设桥梁，开山凿路，在荒野设立驿站，将安宁、优雅的生活方式传播四方。……愿天地间所有神灵保佑帝国和都城繁荣昌盛，万古长春，直到海枯石烂。愿吾皇子孙万代，永享国泰民安。
从公元前27年到公元180年大约200年的时间，史称“罗马的和平”（Pax Romana，即RomanPeace）。在这一时期，罗马帝国的统治达到辉煌的顶峰，其疆域横跨欧、亚、非大陆，地中海一时成为其内湖。帝国境内，政治开明、社会安宁、经济繁荣、文化兴旺，一派“和平”
景象。罗马帝国的文人墨客们于是纷纷写诗赋词，讴歌太平盛世、皇上英明。本文作者是公元2世纪的一位希腊文人，在这篇献给罗马城的演说词中，他使用了大量华丽的辞藻和夸张的手法。从中，读者不难感受到罗马帝国当年恢弘博大的气象。
Money for Nothing
J.B. Priestley
In the early nineteentwenties， when I first settled in London， I did a great deal of reviewing. （There was much more space then for book reviews than there is now.） I was ready to review anything， and often did columns of short notes on new books. The books themselves were then sold - fiction for a third of the publisher，s price， nonfictionnonfiction n.非小说的散文文学 for about a half - to a certain shop not far from the Strand， a shop that specialized in the purchase and resale of review copies， a traffic that had a faintlyfaintly adv.微弱地， 朦胧地， 模糊地 piratical air. At this shop， where human nature was understood， one was always paid at once and paid in cash， generally in exquisite new pound notes. And of all the money I have ever handled， this gave me most delight. Money for Jam， Money for Old Rope. Money for Nothing. When we receive our wages， salaries or fees， we may be content， for this is what we have earned， but we are a long way form delight. It is money that we have not earned， the windfallwindfall n.被风吹落的果子（尤指苹果）， 横财， the magical bonus， that starts us capering. Many sociologists， who understand everything except their fellow creatures， are bewildered and saddened by the ubiquitous passion among the mob for betting and gambling. But the more we standardize wages， hours and prices， the more we insist upon social security for everybody， the more we compel two and two to make four everywhere， the more people will take to the greyhound tracks and the football pools. For it is when two and two miraculously make five that the heart leaps up at last. It is when money looks like manna that we truly delight in it. Since those days when I used to sell my review copies I have earned in one way or another very considerableconsiderable adj.相当大（或多）的， 值得考虑的， 相当可观的 sums of money indeed； but they have all been lost in a dreary maze of bank accounts， stocks and shares， tax certificates， checks and bills and receipts. I have never felt rich and careless， like a man returning from a lucky day at the races or a sailor home from a long voyage. But when I used to hurry out of that shop with five or six new pound notes singing in my pocket， for quarter of an hour or so I felt like a tipsy millionaire or the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo. Money to Burn！ And the only comparable moments I have known since have been on certain very rare occasionsoccasion n.场合， 时机， 机会 when I happen to have been fortunate in playing those fruit machines， which were so popular in the American southwest when we were there. These machines are so rigged that the odds are monstrously against the customer. Nickels and quarters by the score could vanish as lemons tried to mate with plums. But the jackpot， which must surely have been the invention of some poet， more than compensated for all these losses. As the magic combination of symbols showed itself， the machine would first hesitatehesitate v.犹豫， 踌躇， 不愿， then shiver and noisily gather its works together， and then， like an exasperated fairy godmother， would sputteringly hurl whole handfuls of coin at you so that below your waist it seemed to be raining nickels or quarters. This is acquisition lit with wonder and glory. We could do with more of it.
不劳而获的钱
约·博·普里斯特利
二十世纪二十年代早期，我初住伦敦时，颇写过一些评论。（当时为书评提供的篇幅比现在多得多。）不论什么书，我都乐意评，常为一些栏目写点新书短评。评过的书便售给——小说的售价为出版价格的三分之一，非小说则大约为二分之一——离斯特兰德大街不远的某家书店；此书店专门收购和转售供评论用的赠阅本，这是一种略带盗窃行为的交易。在此人性得到充分理解的书店里，总是当场付款而且是现钱，通常是一些崭新的一英镑的钞票。我经手的所有钱中，这种钱最令我愉快。这是举手之劳而到手的钱，找窍门到手的钱，不劳而获的钱。我们领到工资、新水或报酬时，我们也许会很满意，因为那是我们挣来的，但远远谈不上愉快。只有不是我们挣来的钱，意外之财，魔术般出现的奖金或红利才使我们手舞足蹈。许多社会学家无所不知，唯独对其同胞有所不知，被民众当中普遍存在的爱赌如命弄得手足无措和灰心丧气。然而，我们越使工资、工时和价格标准化，越要为人人谋求社会保险，越要处处强制实行二加二等于四，那么人们就越发沉迷于跑狗场和足球场的赌博。因为，只有当二加二奇迹般地等于五时，才能使人惊喜若狂。钱要变得跟神粮一样，我们才真正喜欢钱。自从我一出售供评论用的赠阅本以来，我这样那样挣的钱着实相当可观，却全都消失于活期存款、公债和股份、税款单据、账单和收据的可怕迷宫之中，荡然无存。我从未感到富有和无忧无虑，像个赌马票的人在走运的某一天回家，或像个水手远航后归来。然而，当我匆匆离开那家书店，五六张一镑的钞票在口袋力嘁喳地响，我却有一刻钟的时间感到自己像个喝醉了的百万富翁，也像个在蒙特卡洛抢了银行的人。财源滚滚，取之不尽！自那以后，我所知道的可与之相比的时刻甚少，唯一的一次便是我们在美国西南部玩当地十分普遍的吃饺子老虎碰巧手气好极之时。这种赌钱机安装时做了手脚，玩客休想当赢家。大批的五分镍币和两角五银币，在柠檬企图同李子相配时消失得无影无踪。但是，要是中了头彩——头彩这玩意儿肯定是某个诗人般的人发明的——捞回的就远远不止输掉的了。当符号的组合显得神奇般一致之时，赚钱机先是犹犹豫豫，接着颤颤抖抖，乒乒乓乓地聚集机件，然后好似恼怒的救星，气极败坏地将大把大把的钱币噼噼啪啪向你猛然掷来。于是在你的腰部以下，五分镍币和两角五银币哗啦哗啦如雨而下。这样的收获洋溢着奇妙与光荣。我们希望再接再厉。
Teenagers in the Looking Glass
R. Lynes
The number of 13yearolds is increasing at a rate twenty times faster than the rest of the population. “Between 1958 and 1960，” a recent report of the David L. Babson Company of Boston says， “the number of children crossing the 13yearold threshold will rise by nearly 40 percent. By 1965 there will be a 35 percent increase in the 14～17 age group.” The total population grows by a comparativelycomparatively adv.比较地， 相当地 sluggish sluggish adj.行动迟缓的 percent a year. We are obviously reaping the whirlwind of postWorld War II romance.
One of the specters that haunt our time is the sprawling expansion of the population， and it is more and more difficult not to picture the future as though it were going to be life in a sardine can. If the figures on the teenage population are correct （and they must be）， it，s going to be a boisterous， noisy， squirming can indeed.