Passage Six (The Present Is the Most Important)
Shams and delusions³ are esteemed⁵ for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous⁶. If men would steadily⁷ observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded⁸, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. If we respected only what is inevitable⁹ and has a right to be , music and poetry would resound¹⁰ along the streets. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy¹¹ things have any permanent and absolute existence, --that petty fears and petty pleasure are but the shadow of reality. This is always exhilarating and sublime¹². By closing the eyes and slumbering¹⁴, by consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit everywhere, which still is built on purely¹⁵ illusory foundation. Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live worthily¹⁶, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure. I have read in a Hindoo book, that “there was a king’s son, who, being expelled in infancy¹⁷ from his native city, was brought up by a forester, and, growing up to maturity¹⁸ in that state, imagined himself to belong to the barbarous race with which be lived. One of his father’s ministers having discovered him, revealed to him what he was, and the misconception of his character was removed, and he knew himself to be a prince. So soul, from the circumstances in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahme.” We think that that is which appears to be. If a man should give us an account of the realities he beheld¹⁹, we should not recognize the place in his description. Look at a meeting-house, or a court-house, or a jail, or a shop. Or a dwelling-house, and say what that thing really is before a true gaze, and they would all go to pieces in your account of them. Men esteem⁴ truth remote, in the outskirts²⁰ of the system, behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last man. In eternity²¹ there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates²² in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse²³ of all ages. And we are enabled to apprehend²⁴ at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling²⁵ and drenching²⁶ of the reality that surrounds us. The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let us spend our lives in conceiving then. The poet or the artist never yet had as fair and noble a design but some of his posterity²⁷ at least could accomplish it.
1. The writer’s attitude toward the arts is one of
[A]. admiration²⁸. [B]. indifference²⁹. [C]. suspicion. [D]. repulsion
2. The author believes that a child.
[A]. should practice what the Hindoos preach.
[B]. frequently faces vital problems better than grownups do.
[C]. hardly ever knows his true origin.
[D]. is incapable³⁰ of appreciating the arts.
3. The author is primarily concerned with urging the reader to
[A]. look to the future for enlightenment. [B]. appraise³¹ the present for its true value.
[C]. honor the wisdom of the past ages. [D]. spend more time in leisure activities.
4. The passage is primarily concerned with problem of
[A]. history and economics. [B]. society and population.
[C]. biology and physics. [D]. theology and philosophy.
Vocabulary
1. sham¹ 虚伪
2. delusion² 欺骗
3. fabulous 荒诞无稽的，不存在的
4. exhilarating 令人高兴的
5. sublime 崇高的
6. slumber¹³ 睡眠
7. Hindoo 印度
8. Brahma 婆罗门（贵族）
9. come, fall, go to pieces 崩溃，垮台

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