Day4｜寻找人生意义正如精神的食粮和甘泉

第3句见：Day3

《哲学的故事》的第4句：序言中的第4句。

Introduction
On the uses of Philosophy
There is a pleasure in philosophy, and a lure even in the mirages of metaphysics, which every student feels until the coarse necessities of physical existence drag him from the heights of thought into the mart of economic strife and gain. Most of us have known some golden days in the June of life when philosophy was in fact what Plato calls it, “that dear delight”; when the love of a modestly elusive Truth seemed more glorious, incomparably, than the lust for the ways of the flesh and the dross of the world. And there is always some wistful remnant in us of that early wooing of wisdom."Life has meaning,”we feel with Browning—“to find its meaning is my meat and drink.” So much of our lives is meaningless, a self-cancelling vacillation and futility; we strive with the chaos about us and within; but we would believe all the while that there is something vital and significant in us, could we but decipher our own souls. We want too understand; “life means for us constantly to transform into light and flame all that are or meet with”; we are like Mitya in The Brothers Karamazov —“one of those who don’t want millions, but an answer to their questions”; we want to seize the value and perspective of passing things, and so to pull ourselves up out of the maelstrom of daily circumstance. We want to know that the little things are little, and the big things big, before it is too late.We want to see things now as they will seem forever—"in the light of eternity." We want to learn to laugh in the face of the inevitable, to smile even at the looming of death. We want to be whole, to coördinate our energies by criticizing and harmonizing our desires; for coördinated energy is the last word in ethics and politics, and perhaps in logic and metaphysics too."To be a philosopher," said Thoreau, "is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live, according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust." We may be sure that if we can but find wisdom, all things else will be added unto us. "Seek ye first the good things of the mind," Bacon admonishes us, "and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt." Truth will not make us rich, but it will make us free.
浙江大学版本：“生命有其意义，”正如勃朗宁所说，“对它的探求是我精神所寄。”

解析

这句话引用罗伯特·勃朗宁的观点，表达了寻找生命意义的渴望，也就暗示了哲学的有用。

无论意义是什么，意义其实就在找的过程中。人都想活得明明白白，但外加的意义总显得离自己很远，自己找的还是符合自己。更多的时候，意义就在找寻意义的过程中。

1、feel with：“同意”或“共鸣”的意思。

作者对生命意义及其追求的理解与Browning有着共鸣，也就是Browning的观点基本上代表了作者自己的观点。

2、to find its meaning is my meat and drink：这里用了比喻，将“寻找生命意义”比作“肉和饮料”，也就意味着寻找生命意义就如生活中高一层的需求“肉和饮料”一样。在英语中，meat and drink 常常用来表示某人非常享受或对某事非常感兴趣，是他们生活的重要组成部分。

“人生有其意义”，正如勃朗宁所说，“寻找它的意义就如我精神的食粮和甘泉”。

补充

1、Browning：

指的是罗伯特·勃朗宁，一位英国诗人及剧作家。他的戏剧独白诗让他在维多利亚时期的诗人中名声鹊起。他擅用讽刺、人物刻画、黑幽社会评论、历史背景以及具有挑战性的词汇和语法。

他的早期长诗《波琳》（1833）以及帕拉塞尔斯（1835）就受到好评，但因1840的《索德罗》名誉受到影响，一路向下，直到10年后才恢复。那个时候，他已经从模仿雪莱到更具个性的风格。1846年，他与诗人伊丽莎白·巴莱特结婚并移居意大利。直到1861年妻子去世，他出版了《男人和女人》（1855）。他的《剧中人物》（1864）以及他的史诗《指环与书》（1868-1869）让他成为著名诗人。直到1889年他去世，他一直被人认为哲人以及哲学诗人，他一直深入维多利亚时期的社会及政治言论。