精選英語美文摘抄

這是兩篇小編精心整理的英語美文摘抄，希望大家喜歡!更多消息請關注應屆畢業生網。

　　Knowledge and Virtue

Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view faith.

Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman.

It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University.

I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them.

Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not, and are officious in arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim.

Quarry the granite rock with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants, the passion and the pride of man.

知識是一回事，美德是另一回事。好意並非良心，優雅並非謙讓，廣博與公正的觀點也並非信仰。哲學，無論多麼富有啓迪和深奧莫測，都無法駕馭情感，不具備有影響力的動機，不具有導致生動活潑的原理。文科教育並不造就基督教徒抑或天主教徒，而是造就了紳士。造就一個紳士誠爲美事。有教養的才智，優雅的情趣，正直、公正而冷靜的頭腦，高貴而彬彬有禮的舉止--這些是與淵博的學識生來固有的品質, 它也是大學教育的目的。對此我提倡之，並將加以闡釋和堅持。然而我要說的是，它們仍然不能確保聖潔，或甚至不能保證誠實。它們可以附庸於世故的俗人，附庸於玩世不恭的浪子。唉，當他們用它僞裝起來時，就更增加了他們外表上的冷靜、快活和魅力。就其本身而言，它們似乎已遠非其本來面目，它們似乎一遠看的美德，經久久細察方可探知。因此它們受到廣泛的責難，指責其虛飾與僞善。我要強調，這絕非是因爲其自身有什麼過錯，而是因爲教授們和讚美者們一味地把它們弄得面目全非，並且還要殷勤地獻上其本身並不希冀的讚頌。如若用剃刀就可以開採出花崗岩，用絲線即能繫泊位船隻，那麼，也許你才能希望用人的知識和理性這樣美妙而優雅的東西去與人類的情感與高傲那樣的龐然大物進行抗爭。

　　A Tribute to the Dog

The best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name may become traitors to their faith.

The money that a man has, he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us, may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads.

The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog. A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer.

He will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings, and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.

If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad, but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.

一個人在世上最好的朋友會和他反目，成爲他的敵人。他悉心養育的兒女會不忠不孝。那些和我們最親近的人，那些我們以幸福和美名信賴的人會背信棄義。一個人擁有的金錢會失去，也許就在他最需要的時候。一個人的名譽會因瞬間的`不當之舉而喪失貽盡。那些當我們功成名就時跪拜向我們致敬的人也許是第一個在失敗的陰雲籠罩我們時對我們投石下井。在這個自私的世界裏，一個人能有的最無私的，從不拋棄他，從不知恩不報，從不背信棄義的朋友是他的狗。

無論富有或貧窮，無論健康或是患病，一個人的狗總佇立在主人身旁。如果能和主人在一起，它願意睡在冰冷的地上，任憑寒風凜冽，朔雪飄零。它願意親吻沒有食物奉送的手;它願意舔撫艱難人世帶來的創痕。它守衛着窮主人安睡如同守衛王子。當所有的朋友離去，它留駐。當財富不翼而飛，當名譽毀之貽盡，它仍然熱愛着主人，如日當空，亙古不變。如果在命運驅使下，主人被世人拋棄，衆叛親離，無家可歸，忠誠的狗僅僅要求能陪伴主人，守衛他免遭危險，去和他的敵人搏鬥。

當最後的時刻來臨，死神擁抱着主人，他的驅體掩埋在冰冷的黃土之下，任憑所有的朋友風流雲散，就在墓地旁，你可以看見那高尚的狗，它的頭伏在兩爪之間，雙眼神情悲傷，卻警覺注視着，忠誠至死。