Between Lincoln and His Half－Brother|林肯与继弟的友情佳话
On December 24, 1848, long before Lincoln became the 16th president of America, he received a letter from his half-bother Johnston, with whom he had been going along well, who meant to borrow $80. Lincoln had once lent $80 to Johnston, who had not returned it till then. Not at that moment did Lincoln realize that lending money alone would never be enough to help Johnston, whose pride he hated to hurt, but anyway to whom he had to offer help. And the best way to help him is to help him help himself. So he wrote: Dear Johnston:
Your request for eighty dollars, I do not think it best to comply with1 you now． At the various times when I have helped you a little, you have said to me, “We can get along very well,” but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again． Now this can only happen by some defect2 in your conduct． What that defect is, I think I know． You are not lazy．．． I doubt whether since I saw you, you have done a good whole day＇s work, in any day． You do not very much dislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it．
This habit of uselessly wasting time, is the whole difficulty; it is vastly3 important to you, and still more so to your children, that you should break this habit． It is more important to them, because they have longer to live, and can keep out of an idle4 habit before they are in it, easier than they can get out after they are in．
．．．now if you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, and what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again． But if I should now clear you out, next year you will be just as deep in as ever．．．
．．．if you will but follow my advice, you will find it worth more than eight times eighty dollars to you．．．
1848年12月24日，早在林肯当选美国第十六任总统之前，他一直与继母之子约翰斯顿相处融洽。可这天他又收到约翰斯顿的信，找他借80美元。林肯此前曾经借给他80美元，这笔钱约翰斯顿尚未归还。直到这时林肯才意识到光借钱给他不是帮人之道。他不想伤害继弟的自尊心，但又不得不帮助他。而最好的帮助便是帮他自立。于是林肯写道：亲爱的约翰斯顿：
你来信想借80美元，我觉得最好不满足你的这一要求。记得有多少次，每当我帮你一把时，你总是说：“我们一定会过得很好。”可一转眼的功夫，你又陷入窘境。这种事之所以一再发生，皆源于你个性中的不足。这种不足何在？我是知道的。你并不懒惰……自从我俩认识以来，你是否好好地干过一天的活？对此我表示怀疑。对于干活，你并不厌恶，可是你干得并不多，仅仅因为你觉得干活挣不了多少钱。
这种浪费时间的不良习惯，就是全部问题的症结。你应该克服这种不良习惯，这对你来说非常重要，对于你的孩子们来说更是如此。因为他们还有更长的路要走，因为在他们还没有染上这种习惯之前远离它要容易得多，一旦染上就不那么容易改掉了。
…… 如果你能这样做，你很快就能摆脱债务。更妙的是，你会找到一种永远不陷进债务的良策。而万一我现在帮你还清债务，恐怕明年你又会深陷其中，一如既往……
……如果我的建议能被采纳，你会发现这价值要比8个80美元还多……
Between Browning and Barrett|布朗宁与芭蕾特的患难之交
Robert Browning's early works was rather unkindly treated by the critics5, which made him depressed sometimes. And a much better known poet, Elizabeth Barrett, who had already, in a private letter, expressed her great admiration, now wrote to the editor declaring, “It is easier to find a more faultless writer than a poet of equal genius6.”
Browning was now interested enough to ask a classmate of his father's, who was a distant relative of hers, what Miss Barrett was like. He learned that she was a delightful but very shy woman, no longer quite young, so weak as to lie in bed all day and all night, who read Greek and Latin, and a poet since the age of twelve.
Browning was curious. How could it be possible for a lady of physical defect to achieve such great achievement and to have so much open a mind? He tried unsuccessfully through his friend to meet her. In 1844 she published a number of poems including The Cry of the Children, in which she thought highly of Browning, who wrote a letter of gratitude7 with a wish that he be permitted to meet her. His letter dated January 10,1845, begins, “I love your verses8 with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett...I do, as I say, love these books with all my heart...”
Her reply opens, “Sympathy9 is dear, very dear to me; but the sympathy of a poet, and of such a poet, is the quintessence10 of sympathy for me.” In fact, Browning, though never seeing her, even proposed11 to her, which encouraged her so much that she could stand up for a few minutes a day, walk about the room, go out for air with her sister...It was nothing but a miracle!
The pure and noble friendship also inspired12 Browning, who wrote his greatest poem Sonnets13 from the Portuguese. The pure and noble friendship even encouraged Miss Barrett to be Mrs. Browning, against her father's will.
Well, a friend in need is a friend indeed!
罗伯特·布朗宁的早期作品受到评论家不友好的对待，这有时让他很消沉。当时一位更有名的诗人伊丽莎白·芭蕾特已在一封私人信件中对他表达了仰慕之情，还给编辑写信，说“找一位完美无缺的作家容易，而找一位同样有才华的诗人则难上加难！”
布朗宁对芭蕾特产生了兴趣，便找到父亲的一位同学、也是芭蕾特的一位远房亲戚，问芭蕾特何许人也。他于是了解到芭蕾特让人感到快乐，可她很害羞；她那时已不年轻，身体非常虚弱，整天躺在床上；这位能看懂希腊、拉丁文的才女，十二岁就名扬诗坛了。
布朗宁很好奇——像这样一位身有残疾的女子，何以取得如此巨大的成就、心胸又何以如此开阔？他通过朋友试图见她一面，然未能如愿。1844年芭蕾特又发表了许多诗，包括《哭泣的孩子》，她在诗中对布朗宁予以高度赞扬。布朗宁写信表示感谢，并在信中请求一见。在1845年元月10日的信中，他写道：“我以全部的身心爱您的诗歌，亲爱的芭蕾特小姐……诚如所言，我确确实实以我全部的身心爱您的诗集……”
她在回信写道：“对我来说，同情太宝贵，太宝贵了；但对于您这样的诗人，您的同情乃一切同情之精华。”事实上，从未见过芭蕾特的布朗宁甚至向她求婚了——这极大地鼓舞了她，她竟能够每天站起一会儿，在房间里走一走，同妹妹一起到外面透透气……这不是奇迹，又是什么？
这段纯洁而高尚的友情也激发了布朗宁的灵感，他因此而写出了他最伟大的作品《葡萄牙十四行组诗》。这段纯洁而高尚的友情也鼓舞了芭蕾特，她不顾父亲的阻挠，从芭蕾特小姐变成了布朗宁夫人。
果不其然，患难之交见真情。
Between General Grant and Lee|格兰特与李将军相逢一笑为国家
Robert E. Lee embodied14 a way of life that had come down through the age of knighthood15. In contrast, Ulysses S. Grant stood for America—a land that was beginning all over again, dedicated16 to nothing much more complicated than the rather foggy17 belief that all men had equal rights and should have an equal chance in the world. In such a land Lee would fight for the feeling that it was somewhat of advantage to human society to have inequality in the social structure.
For four years the Southern states had fought a war for the ideals18 for which Lee stood. Thousands of tired, underfed, poorly clothed Southern soldiers considered Lee as the symbol of everything for which they had been willing to die.
Grant the son of a tanner19 on the West frontier was everything Lee was not. He had come up the hard way and had nothing in particular except that he cared hardly anything of the past but had a sharp eye for the future. He stood for democracy, whose society might have privileges20, but these would be ones that one had won for himself.
Grant lived in a society of competition, while Lee a society which could endure almost anything except change.
Different as they were—in background, in personality—these two generals had much in common. Under everything else, they were marvelous soldiers. Horrified of game hunting and never to shoot an animal or bird, Grant declared he would fight to death for his ideal. General Lee would keep fighting after hope itself had died.
Perhaps greatest of all, there was the ability to turn quickly from war to peace. When it was agreed that continuous fight would do good neither to the North nor to the South, they considered an end to the civil war that had already claimed about 620,000 Americans. It was wise of them to put aside personal ideals, for the sake21 of national interests. On April 9, 1865, they worked out the terms for peace, a great chapter in American life came to a close, and a great new chapter began.
Just as Lee put it, “Foes we were in the front, friends we must be face to face.”
Four years later, when Grant became president, he wrote to Lee, “...it was our friendly signature that put all succeeding generations22 of Americans in our debt...”
罗伯特·E·李将军传承了骑士时代的生活方式，而尤利西斯·S·格兰特将军则是美国的象征——这是一片白手起家的土地，它所奋斗的目标只是简单而又模糊的所谓人人生而平等、机会均等这样一些信念。在这样一个国度里，李将军认为保持一定程度的不平等对社会有益而无害，他要为这种信念而战。
在四年里，南方邦联军队为李将军所代表的理想而战。成千上万疲惫不堪、营养不良、衣衫褴褛的邦联士兵认为李将军是他们心中一切的象征，他们愿意为之献身。
格兰特是西部边疆鞣皮工的儿子，个性与李将军截然不同。他历经磨难，无特别之处，对过去的一切不大放在心上，却对未来格外敏锐。他主张民主自由，认为社会可能存在特权，但这种特权应该是个人通过奋斗而得来的。
格兰特生活在竞争的社会里，而李将军所生活的社会——除了变革，一切皆可容忍。
就背景、就个性而言，他们水火不容，可这两位将军却有许多共同之处。首先他们都是了不起的战士。虽然害怕打猎、从不伤害动物或鸟类，格兰特将军却宣布要为自己的理想而战斗到死。而李将军呢，纵使希望已经不复存在时，他也要战斗。
或许最伟大的，是他们能迅速从战争走向和平。当他们都认为继续打下去对南北双方都没有好处时，他们决定结束这场已经夺去约62万美国人生命的内战。把个人理想放在一边，把国家利益摆在第一位，这是多么的明智啊！1865年4月9日，他们签定了和平条约，从此美国生活中伟大的一页掀过去了，由此开始了崭新的篇章……
诚如李将军所言：“在前线我们是对手，面对面时我们必须作朋友。”
四年后当格兰特将军当选为美国总统时，他写信给李将军道：“是我俩友好的（停战）签字才使得所有后来人对我们感激不尽……”
1. comply with 顺从，依从
2． defect n．缺陷，不足之处
3． vastly adv．巨大地
4． idle adj．懒惰的
5． critic n．批评家
6． genius n．天才
7． gratitude n． 感谢
8． verse n．诗歌
9． sympathy n．同情
10． quintessence n．精华
11． propose v．求婚
12． inspire v．启迪，激发
13． sonnet n．十四行诗
14． embody v．包括，包含
15． knighthood n．骑士
16． be dedicated to sth． 致力于（某事）
17． foggy adj．雾的
18． ideal n．理想
19． tanner n．鞣皮工
20． privilege n．特权
21． for the sake [seik] 为了……的缘故
22． succeed v． 继承
generation n．一代人