My translation: YuGong. you are killing me.

Choosing a profession

Dear Sire,

I have been busy with all kinds of business matters recently and could not reply to your letter earlier, and thus I am deeply regretful.

In my opinion, a person’s main responsibility is to try to stand on his own feet, preventing himself from being other people’s burden. In addition, he needs to learn how to perform a job that has a practical value to society cautiously and mindfully, which itself is an important education, whose effect will be reflected in all other undertakings. When you rather pursue other professions, but are still keeping doing the job you are not interested in, and it is a very worthy habit. If I had acquired such habit in my youth, I would have avoided wasting a great amount of my time.

To make an achievement in any science, it needs extraordinary ability, diligence, and energy. If you had those abovementioned traits, you would have enough spare time to make a name for yourself in the field of science after your daily business work. If you don’t have those traits, it would be better for you to be fully engaged in your business work. What is the least valued in this world is a young man, as Scottish proverb said: a ruined sheep horn, from which a spoon was not carved, who becomes an unqualified useless person in the fields of literature or science; if he had pursued other careers, he might have perhaps become a useful and valuable member of the society.

I think that you should ask your father to read this letter.

 

 選擇職業
　托馬斯·亨利·赫胥黎

 

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　伊斯特本，荷達斯裏亞
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　一八九二年十一月五日
親愛的閣下：
　　近來忙於各種事務，未能及早複信，深感抱歉。
　　依我看來，一個．人的首要職責是設法自立，以免除別人對他生活的負擔。此外，學會嚴謹而審慎地從事社會上有實際價值的工作，其本身就是一種非常重要的教育，其效果必將體現在所有別的事業上。在你寧願做其他事情的時候，卻仍能夠從事你不感興趣的工作，這種習慣是十分可貴的。要是我在年輕時養成了這種習慣，就可以避免時間上驚人的浪費。
　　任何科學事業上的成就，都需要具有不尋常的才能、勤勉和精力。你若具有上述資質，你在日常商業工作之餘，將有足夠的閑暇為自己在科學界覓得立足之地。你若不具有那種資質，還是一心經商為宜。天下最不足取的事情，莫過於一個年輕人如同蘇格蘭諺語所說的那樣，"匙子沒做成，倒毀了羊角，"成為在文學或科學領域裏濫竽充數的食客，要是去從事其他工作的話，他或許會成為社會上有用和有價值的一員。
　　我認為此信應請你父親一閱。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　你的忠實的
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　T．H·赫胥黎

所有跟帖： 

• Sorry , forgot the quatation marks for the Scottish proverb.Shou -NewVoice- ♀ (547 bytes) () 08/30/2011 postreply 05:38:10

• My dictation: -NewVoice- ♀ (3170 bytes) () 08/30/2011 postreply 12:51:43