不要抛弃学问.胡适

不要抛弃学问

胡 适

诸位毕业同学：

你们现在要离开学校了，我没有什么礼物送你们，只好送你们一句活罢。

这一句话是：“不要抛弃学问。”以前的功课也许有一大部份是为了这张毕业文凭，不得已而做的，从今以后，你们可以依自己的心愿去自由研究了。趁现在年富力强的时候，努力做一种专门学问。少年是一去不复返的，等到精力衰时，要做学问也来不及了。即为吃饭计，学问决不会辜负人的。吃饭而不求学问，三年五年之后，你们都要被后来少年淘汰掉的。到那时再想做点学问来补救，恐怕已太晚了。

有人说：“出去做事之后，生活问题急需解决，哪有工夫去读书？即使要做学问，既没有图书馆，又没有实验室，哪能做学问？”

我要对你们说：凡是要等到有了图书馆方才读书的，有了图书馆也不肯读书。凡是要等到有了实验室方才做研究的，有了实验室也不肯做研究。你有了决心要研究一个问题，自然会节衣缩食去买书，自然会想出法子来设置仪器。

至于时间，更不成问题。达尔文一生多病，不能多作工，每天只能做一点钟的工作。你们看他的成绩！每天花一点钟看10页有用的书，每年可看３６００多页书，３０年可读11万页书。

诸位，１１万页书可以使你成一个学者了。可是，每天看三种小报也得费你一点钟的工夫，四圈麻将也得费你一点半钟的光阴。看小报呢？还是打麻将呢？还是努力做一个学者呢？全靠你们自己的选择！

易卜生说：“你的最大责任是把你这块材料铸造成器。”

学问便是铸器的工具。抛弃了学问便是毁了你们自己。

再会了！你们的母校眼睁睁地要看你们十年之后成什么器。

译文：

Dear graduates:

Now you are leaving your alma mater. I have nothing to send you but a piece of advice. This advice is “Don’t give up learning”. Perhaps, in the past, you learned most of your courses just for getting the diploma. Because you had to do research .When you are in the prime of life, try to study a subject well. Youth is gone never to return. When you are declining in vigour, it will be too late to go into scholarship.

Even if you just want to make a living knowledge will never let you down. if you just make a living never to study. In the few years. you will be replaced by the younger generation. Then it will too late for you to make some remedy by picking up your study once again, I’m a afraid.

Somebody said:” After graduation ,we have some work to do. living problems are urgent for us to solve, how can we do that without a library or a lab. But what I want to tell

you is those who will not study until there is a library won’t study even if there is one; those who will not do research until there is a lab won’t do that even if there is one .If you have made up your mind to study a problem, you will naturally save on food and clothes to buy books and find ways to acquire necessary facilities.

As for time, it is not a problem at all. Darvin had always been ill in his life. He couldn’t work for a long time but an hour per day. However, you see what great achievement he has made. If you can spend an hour an reading 10 pages of a useful book everyday. you can finish reading 3600 pages a year . Within 30 years more than 110 thousands pages. My dear graduates.110 thousand pages of books are enough to make you a scholar. Reading 3 kinds of tabloids everyday will also take one hour. 1 and half hours to play 4 round of mahjong. Reading tabloids , playing mahjong or striving to be a scholar, it’s all up to you.

Ibsen once said” Your supreme duty is to make yourself a useful talent in future. Study is just the implementing tool to give up means ruin yourself.

Fare well, your mother school are eager to see what you will be in future.