《塞缪尔·约翰逊书信选集》前言（节选）Introduction to Dr. Johnson His Life in Letters Selected (Excerpt)

【编者按】

现代社会，科技迅猛发展。如今再也没有了“家书抵万金”的期盼与快乐。电话、微信、电子邮件……各种新科技手段让我们免去了等候的痛苦，但我们也失去了很多。我们觉得时间之快，快得还来不及拥抱清晨，便已到了黄昏。情感的表达，也不需要在信中慢慢琢磨、慢慢倾诉、慢慢享受。纵然端上来的，也有诱人的香味，但都是快餐，容不得你细嚼慢咽、细细品味。书信，这曾经让我们热切期盼着的、给我们带来苦乐的、一个字一个字写成的、曾有着诸如“尺素”“鸿雁”等美好称谓的东西，随着时代的变迁，都已化为陈迹，只有沉淀在其中的那份芬芳，依然如故。

为钩沉这份芬芳的沉淀，我们开辟了这个有关书信的系列聚焦栏目，相信会有广泛的回响。

【导读】2024年是英国18世纪大文豪塞缪尔·约翰逊（1709—1784）逝世240周年。约翰逊以编撰了第一部英语词典而名垂青史，而他因这部词典写下的《致切斯特菲尔德伯爵书》在学界几乎无人不晓，被认为是18世纪英国文人的独立宣言。该信熠熠生辉的文采，绵里藏针的讽刺，对权势者虚伪、沽名钓誉的有力鞭挞，使这封信成为英国文学中的名篇。由此而联想到约翰逊的书信集——《塞缪尔·约翰逊书信选集》，其编者戴维·利特尔约翰在“前言”中阐述了编此选集的动机：：第一，书信作者其实是想把他的信公之于众的；第二，由书信我们可以了解书信作者的诸多信息，比如他的性格、爱好、友谊、爱情、社会关系及信件涉及的社会历史等等。书信的内容是丰富的、生动的、细致的。书信是个人的，也是历史的。读约翰逊的信，他本人以及他周围的一切就活生生呈现于我们眼前了。约翰逊的信是他血管里的血，信里有他的智慧、学识、友谊、痛苦、欢乐。240年过去了，他的书信——像所有其他书信一样——已为陈迹，只有香如故。

There are a number of possible justifications for our prying habit of publishing and reading the private letters of eminent men. In many cases， the letters were not meant to be private; the author had honestly hoped that someone would publish them. The device of a private letter， like the device of a diary， has often served simply as a comfortable way of writing to the world while pretending not to.

出版、阅读名人私函，借以窥其隐私，已司空见惯，缘由约有数种。很多情况下，信函本就不想成为私密，写信者诚欲将其出版。私函的写作方式，犹如写日记，常常就是安适地写给天下人看的，却又装作不是如此罢了。

Letters， secondly， often contain valuable comments on valuable works， on historic events; an author can confess his misgivings， reveal the stages in his progress， judge his own works all in the quiet comfort of a letter.

其次，信函常常对有价值的著作或者历史事件做出有价值的评论；写信者会坦白自己的疑虑，透露事情的进展情况，评判自己的著作——由于是在信中，他会不动声色而暗自惬意。

And thinkers， thirdly， have often thought as well and as usefully in the privacy of correspondence as in the publicity of print. We can appeal to each of these justifications in the case of Samuel Johnson.

再次，思想家在私函中所表达的思想，往往与在公开出版物中一样清晰而有用。在谈论塞缪尔·约翰逊的书信时，我们可以一一援引这些缘由。

The celebrated insults to Chesterfield and Macpherson （Letters 19 and 120） were obviously half intended for larger audiences.1 As for “valuable comments，” it is surely no mere eavesdropping curiosity to trace， through the letters， the origins of the Dictionary and of Rasselas2， to follow the Lives of the Poets3 from inception through publication， to read Johnson’s own judgments of his Shakespeare or his Journey to the Western Islands4. And thirdly， Johnsonian wisdom fills these letters， wisdom of both the spontaneous and the more carefully brewed varieties， as beneficial to the last reader as to the first. There are here hundreds of opinions from a man whose every opinion warrants attention.

致切斯特菲尔德伯爵和致麦克弗森的信中（信函第19号和第120号）所表达的羞辱尽人皆知，显然某种程度上意在公之于众。至于“有价值的评述”，通过这些信函，我们可以追溯约翰逊编纂《英语词典》和撰写《拉塞勒斯》的最初情况，可以了解《诗人传》从酝酿到出版的全过程，可以读到约翰逊对自己主编的《莎士比亚集》和撰写的《苏格兰西部诸岛纪游》的评价——这当然不仅仅是出于窥听的好奇。第三点，信中充满了约翰逊的智慧，既有灵光一闪的机智，又有深思沉淀的大智——这些智慧对最先和最后读到信函的人都有裨益。信中可见此君看法数百条，每一条都值得注意。

These letters are not just the bits and scraps that a great man leaves in his wake; they are a part， an essential part， of that storehouse of documentation that creates， for us， the experience of his greatness. For his is not an historical greatness， or even （as we have seen） a literary one. It is a human greatness; and it depends on these documented evidences of his humanness. He is what the French， having so many， call an “Exemplary Man”; a man whose whole life， whose moral presence， whose quality and bearing and depth as a man are his claim to greatness.

这些信函并非只是一位伟人留在身后的只言片语，而是铸造其伟大经历的文献宝库中的一部分，且是至为重要的一部分。因为他的伟大不是历史性的，甚或（如我们所见）不是文学性的——这是一种人性的伟大，而这些彰显其人性的信函文献正是明证。他是法国人称为“楷模”的许多人中的一个；他的一生，他的道德风范，他作为一个人的品格、举止和深度，都使他的伟大实至名归。

He is wise， benevolent， penetrating， long-suffering， yes—all hugely， gigantically. But he is also mean， idiosyncratic， prejudiced， cruel—and all these gigantically too. He is one of the largest and most complete human beings that ever lived; the world’s content of life was measurably increased by his being in it.

他明智，仁慈，深刻，久病缠身——是的，每一点都显而易见。但他也刻薄，怪异，偏狭，冷酷——这些同样显而易见。他是史上最高大、最完美的人之一；他的存在极大地增加了世人生命的内涵。

Consider only his titanic struggles against disease， against madness， against death-wishing lethargy， against death itself. The “storehouse of documentation” is no accident. Men came to see him like a Pyramid， to hear him like an oracle. They recognized in Johnson a singular phenomenon， and felt compelled to record it.

只要想想他是怎样与疾病、疯狂、求死的倦怠及死亡本身作着巨大的斗争就明白了，说他的信函是“文献宝库”不是偶然的。人们视他如视金字塔，听他的话语如听神谕。他们认定约翰逊有一种不同凡响的魅力，因而非得把它记录下来不可。

These letters fall somewhere between the journals and the essays， between the writings wholly private and those wholly public， being neither quite so intimate as the one nor so studied as the other.

这些信函介乎日记与小品文之间，介乎完全私密和完全公开的作品之间，既不像前者那么亲密，也不像后者那么刻意。

All of these letters， beside their special delights， tell us something of Johnson. But more to the point， since “the experience of Johnson” is my basic defense for this series， are those that reveal character directly. Such letters offer pages of living evidence for the quality of his religious orthodoxy， of his political opinions， of his moral beliefs; for his desperate fears of death and aloneness and insanity， for the “vile melancholy” that became his personal plague. We learn of his health and sicknesses， his joys and despairs， of his secret benevolence.