Action and Repose. By John Ruskin
活动和休憩。约翰·拉斯金
About the river of human life there is a wintry wind, though a heavenly sunshine;
在人类的生命长河里，始终存在一股凛冽的风，尽管苍穹阳光明媚。
the iris colors its agitation, the frost fixes upon its repose.
彩虹在摇动中变换着色彩，冰霜凝住了它的安宁。
Let us beware that our rest become not the rest of stones,
我们要明白，我们的休憩不会像石头那样一动不动，
which, so long as they are tempest-tossed and thunderstricken, maintain their majesty;
只要它们能够忍受暴风雨的肆虐和雷电的鞭打，仍然不失其庄严。
but when the stream is silent and the storm passed, suffer the grass to cover them, and are plowed into the dust.
但是，当小溪静谧，风暴过后，草就会蔓延而至，覆盖在它们身上，耕犁所至皆为尘土。
Time and Change. By Sir Humphry Davy
时间和改变。汉弗莱·戴维
Time is almost a human word, and Change entirely a human idea;
有一个人类差不多天天挂在嘴边上的字眼，改变完全是人类的主观想法。
in the system of nature, we should rather say progress than change.
在自然界，我们说得更多的是进步，而不是改变。
The sun appears to sink in the ocean in darkness, but it rises in another hemisphere;
太阳似乎湮没于大海黑暗的尽端，但却升起于另一个半球。
the ruins of a city fall, but they are often used to form more magnificent structures:
一座城市尽成废墟，但是通常会形成更为壮观的建筑景象。
even when they are destroyed so as to produce only dust, Nature asserts her empire over them;
甚至当这些建筑被摧毁时，只不过化为尘土而已。大自然声称它的帝国必须覆盖在这些建筑之上，
and the vegetable world rises in constant youth, in a period of annual successions, by the labors of man — providing food, vitality, and beauty
而年景交替之间，在人们辛勤劳作之下，绿色植物世界永远焕发生机——提供食物、生机和美景
upon the wrecks of monuments which were raised for the purposes of glory, but which are now applied to objects of utility.
在这些纪念物的残垣断壁上，为了荣耀的目的而茁壮成长，但是现在这些建筑物则被用于公益事业。
