世界上有些人受控于一种细腻的激情，他们会对生活中的每件事极为敏感。他们会为每一件愉悦的事欢呼雀跃，也会为遭遇的挫折和不幸悲痛欲绝。小恩小惠能轻易赢得他们的友谊，同样，即使是再小的伤害也会招来他们的憎恨。任何荣耀或显赫的头衔都会让他们忘乎所以，但他们也会极为敏感地感受到轻蔑。与那种性格平和、稳重的人比起来，这种性格的人无疑会感受到更多的快乐，同时也会感受到更深的痛苦。但是，我相信，如果一个人可以完全控制自己的性格取向，当一切和谐时，没有人愿意选择后一种性格。但我们很少能够掌控命运，而且，当一个人的性格对任何不幸如此敏感时，悲痛和怨恨就会占据他生命的全部，剥夺他对生活中平常事物的兴趣和权利去感受快乐，而这是我们最大快乐的源泉。巨大的喜悦并不像巨大的悲痛那样经常发生，所以，敏感的性格接受后者的考验一定会远远多于前者。
在另外一些人身上，还有一种精妙的雅致引人注目，它跟这种细腻的激情很相似，也能对每一件或美好或残缺的事产生同样的敏感性。（如果前者就顺境、逆境而论，它则是对于美丑而言。）如果你给这种性格的人看一首诗或一幅画，他细腻丰富的情感会被作品的每一部分深深触动，他不仅能欣赏其精湛的技艺，获得满足感，也能对其中的疏忽或荒谬感到厌恶和不安。他能从有礼貌而有见地的谈话中获得最大的快乐，对他来说，无礼或者鲁莽是最大的虐待。简言之，精妙的雅致能产生与细腻的激情一样的效果：它使我们快乐和痛苦的范畴扩大，让我们敏锐地体会到他人无法体会到的开心和伤痛。
但是，我相信，没有人会否认我的观点，尽管两者有相似之处，但我们更渴望得到和培养出精妙的雅趣，而悲叹细腻的激情，如果可能的话，我们还会去弥补后者。每一个明智的人都会竭力把自己的幸福置于由自己决定的事物之上，而培养这种微妙的情感是达到这种境界最好的方法。当一个人拥有了这种品质，他就会对满足自己品位的事物感受到更多的快乐，而不是出于自我欲望的满足。他会从一首诗或一篇论文中，而不是从那些昂贵的奢侈品中，获得更多的快乐。
拥有精妙的雅致，你会感受到更多的快乐。或从一首小诗中，或从一篇精美的散文里，而不是那些昂贵的奢侈品中。
provoke [pru'vuk] v. 激怒；煽动；驱使；惹起
His speech provokes the crowd and causes a riot.
他的演说激怒了群众，而且引起一阵骚动。
elevate ['eliveit] v. 举起；提升；振奋情绪；提升……的职位
Reading good books can elevate our hearts.
阅读好书可提高人的心灵修养。
sedate [si'deit] adj. 安静的；沉着的
Right now the future buzzes along at a sedate pace.
就是现在，未来正安静地向我们走来。
negligence ['nelidns] n. 粗心大意；忽视；疏忽
Ignorance and negligence has caused this mistake.
无知与疏忽是错误的原因。
世界上有些人受控于一种细腻的激情。
对他来说，无礼或者鲁莽是最大的虐待。
每一个明智的人都会竭力把自己的幸福置于由自己决定的事物之上。
His sorrow or resentment takes entire possession of him.
take possession：成为……的所有者；占有
I believe, however, there is no one who will not agree with me, that notwithstanding this resemblance, a delicacy of taste is as much to be desired and cultivated, as a delicacy of passion is to be lamented, and to be remedied, if possible.
as much：同样多的；也
10世界更高的规律
Higher Laws
佚名 / Anonymous
Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice. Goodness is only investment that never fails. In the music of the harp which trembles round the world it is the insisting on this which thrills us. Though the youth at last grows indifferent, the laws of the universe are not indifferent, but are forever on the side of the most sensitive. We cannot touch a string or move a stop but the charming moral transfixes us. Many an irksome noise, go a long way off, is heard as music, a proud, sweet satire on the meanness of our lives.
We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual, and perhaps cannot be wholly expelled; like the worms which, even in life and health, occupy our bodies. Possibly we may withdraw from it, but never change its nature. I fear that it may enjoy a certain health of its own; that we may be well, yet not pure.
If I knew so wise a man as could teach me purity I would go to seek him forthwith. Yet the spirit can for the time pervade and control every member and function of the body, and transmute what in form is the grossest sensuality into purity and devotion. The generative energy, which, when we are loose, dissipates and makes us unclean, when we are continent invigorates and inspires us. Chastity is the flowering of man; and what are called Genius, Heroism, Holiness, and the like, are but various fruits which succeed it. Man flows at once to God when the channel of purity is open. By turns our purity inspires and our impurity casts us down. He is blessed who is assured that the animal is dying out in him day by day, and the divine being established. Perhaps there is none but has cause for shame on account of the inferior and brutish nature to which he is allied. I fear that we are the divine allied to beasts, and that, to some extent, our very life is our disgrace.
All sensuality is one, though it takes many forms; all purity is one. The impure can neither stand nor sit with purity. If you would be chaste, you must be temperate. What is chastity? How shall a man know if he is chaste? He shall not know it. We have heard of this virtue, but we know not what it is. We speak conformably to the rumor which we have heard. From exertion come wisdom and purity; from sloth ignorance and sensuality. In the student sensuality is a sluggish habit of mind. An unclean person is universally a slothful one, one who sits by a stove, whom the sun shines on prostrate, who reposes without being fatigued. If you would avoid uncleanness, and all the sins, work earnestly, though it be at cleaning a stable. Nature is hard to be overcome, but she must be overcome.
We discourse freely without shame of one form of sensuality, and are silent about another. We are so degraded that we cannot speak simply of the necessary functions of human nature. In earlier ages, in some countries, every function was reverently spoken of and regulated by law. Nothing was too trivial for the Hindoo lawgiver, however offensive it may be to modern taste. He teaches how to eat, drink, cohabit, void excrement and urine, and the like, elevating what is mean, and does not falsely excuse himself by calling these things trifles.
Every man is the builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man' s features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.