第七课 Lucidity 最新0101213.doc

Lucidity, Simplicity, Euphony By W. Somerset Maugham I have never had much patience with the writers who claim from the reader an effort to understand their meaning. You have only to go to the great philosophers你只要读读大哲学家的著作就可以知道to see that it is possible to express with lucidity the most subtle reflections. A thought or an opinion resulting from such careful consideration. You may find it difficult to understand the thought of Hume, and if you have no philosophical training its implications will doubtless escape you; but no one with any education at all can fail to understand exactly what the meaning of each sentence is. Implications Something that is implied, especially: a. An indirect indication; a suggestion. b. An implied meaning; implicit significance. c. An inference. Socrates argued that a statue雕像，塑像inferred the existence of a sculptor Few people have written English with more grace than Berkeley. ·贝克莱 (Irish prelate[prelit]高级教士and philosopher of idealist philosophy), 贝克莱（George Berkeley ???????,1695~1753） 近代西方主观唯心主义哲学的鼻祖，是英国唯心主义经验论心理学思想的主要代表，其空间知觉学说对心理学有重要贡献，影响马赫主义、实证主义，并促进联想主义心理学的发展。 grace: charm and elegance优美, 雅致, 优雅 There are two sorts of obscurity that you find in writers. One is due to negligence and the other to willfulness Willfulness任性；故意: the trait of being prone to disobedience and lack of discipline negligence粗心大意；忽视；疏忽: failure to act with the prudence that a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstances . People often write obscurely because they have never taken the trouble to learn to write clearly. Have never been trained in writing This sort of obscurity you find too often in modern philosophers, in men of science, and even in literary critics. Here it is indeed strange. You would have thought that men who passed their lives in the study of the great masters of literature would be sufficiently sensitive to the beauty of language to write if not beautifully at least with perspicuity. Perspicuity [????