罗伯特·L. 斯蒂文森(Robert L. Stevenson)
Extreme busyness, whether at school or college, church or market, is a symptom of deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity. There is a sort of dead-alive, hackneyed people about, who are scarcely conscious of living except in the exercise of some conventional occupation. Bring these fellows into the country, or set them aboard ship, and you will see how they pine for their desk or their study. They have no curiosity; they cannot give themselves over to random provocations; they do not take pleasure in the exercise of their faculties for its own sake; and unless Necessity lays about them with a stick, they will even stand still. It is no good speaking to such folk: they cannot be idle, their nature is not generous enough; and they pass those hours in a sort of coma , which are not dedicated to furious moiling in the gold-mill. When they do not require to go to the office, when they are not hungry and have no mind to drink, the whole breathing world is a blank to them. If they have to wait an hour or so for a train, they fall into a stupid trance with their eyes open. To see them, you would suppose there was nothing to look at and no one to speak with; you would imagine they were paralyzed or alienated ; and yet very possibly they are hard workers in their own way, and have good eyesight for a flaw in a deed or a turn of the market. They have been to school and college, but all the time they had their eyes on the medal; they have gone about in the world and mixed with clever people, but all the time they were thinking of their own affairs. As if a man's soul were not too small to begin with, they have dwarfed and narrowed theirs by a life of all work and no play; until here they are at forty, with a listless attention, a mind vacant of all material of amusement, and not one thought to rub against another, while they wait for the train. Before he was breeched， he might have clambered on the boxes, when he was twenty, he would have stared at the girls; but now the pipe is smoked out, the snuff-box empty, and my gentleman sits bolt upright upon a bench, with lamentable eyes.
- hackneyed [ˈhæknɪd] a. 平凡的，陈腐的
- coma [ˈkəʊmə] n. 昏迷，麻木
- moil [mɔɪl] v. 拼命苦干
- trance [trɑːns] n. 昏昏欲睡；发呆
- alienate [ˈeɪlɪəneɪt] v. 使疏远，使不友好
- clamber [ˈklæmbə] v. (吃力地)攀登，攀爬
极度忙碌，无论是在大、中、小学，在教堂还是在商场，都是一种生命力缺乏的征兆；而闲散的能力意味着爱好广泛和个人身份感强烈。在我们周围有一种半死不活、庸庸碌碌的人，除了从事日常事务，难得有活着的意识。把这些人拽到乡下，或是送上轮船，你就会发现他们多么眷念自己的办公桌或书房。他们没有好奇心，让自己欣赏随机产生的种种兴奋刺激；不喜欢在发挥能力的过程中激发出来的乐趣。除非实际需要用鞭杖在他们身上，否则他们将纹丝不动。跟这些人讲也无济于事：他们生性闲不住，秉性极不豪爽；他们不在金矿里拼命苦干的那些时光，全都迷迷糊糊打发掉了。他们不必去办公室的时候，他们不饿也不想喝点什么的时候，整个生机盎然的外部世界，对他们来说是一片空白。如果他们要等一个小时左右的火车，他们便睁着大眼睛傻乎乎地发呆。遇到这种人你会认为他们没有什么看的，也没有人和他们说话；你会认为他们瘫痪了，或是极不合群；然而，很有可能他们是以自己的方式辛勤的劳作者，有眼力明察业务活动中的缺陷，瞅准市场上的新机遇。他们受过系统的学校教育，不过他们始终密切注意着奖章；他们见过世面，和聪明人频繁交往过，但是一直都在想着自己的事务。好像一个人的心灵起先不够小似的，他们整天忙碌不停，没有丝毫休闲玩耍，把自己的心灵缩小变窄；直到年届四十，他们依然兴味索然，心灵贫瘠，没有任何休闲娱乐的兴趣爱好；在等火车时，他们根本不想去同他人说话，聊天。还是光屁孩时，他可能会爬箱子玩耍，二十岁时，他很可能凝神注目小妞儿们，但是现在，烟袋里的烟抽完了，鼻烟壶用空了，我说的这位先生身体笔挺着坐在板凳上，眼神里充满哀伤。
罗伯特·L. 斯蒂文森(1850—1894)，英国小说家。曾在爱丁堡大学攻读土木工程学，后改学法律，当了律师。16岁起开始写作，因病周游欧美多国疗养，后定居太平洋萨摩亚岛，直到病逝。成名作为长篇小说《金银岛》(Treasure Island ，1833)，还出版过《儿童诗园》(A Child's Garden of Verse， 1885)。他认为文学艺术是为了消遣，使读者发挥想象力，所以反对道德说教；然而他又回避对现实生活的反映。他的小说情节动人，引人入胜，文笔简洁，是19世纪末新浪漫主义文学的杰出代表。