いろいろな熱意の形態(松下彰良 訳)![]()
さらに,いろいろな人の,他の人間に対する態度も,いかに多様(千差万別)であることか。長い列車旅の間に,乗り合わせた旅行者仲間の誰一人もまったく観察できない人もいるだろうし,一方,乗客全員の'品定め’をして,彼らの性格を分析し,鋭く彼らの境遇を推測し,もしかすると,彼らのうちの何人かについては最も秘密の身の上を突きとめさえする人もいるだろう。他人について突きとめる事柄が異なるように,他人に対する感じ方も,人によって異なる。ほとんどすべての人を退屈だと思う人もいるし,何か親しくしたくない明確な理由がなければ,接触する人びとにすぐさま,容易に友好的な感情をいだく人もいる。もう一度,旅行の時の出来事についてとりあげてみよう。ある人たちは,多くの国を旅行し,いつも一流ホテルに泊まり,自宅で食べるものとまったく同じものを食べ,自宅で会うのと同じ怠けものの金持ち連中と会い,自宅の食卓で話すのと同じような話題についておしゃべりをする。(旅行から自宅に)戻り,彼らが唯一感じるのは,お金のかかる旅行(移動)の退屈さを(今ようやく)終わらせた,という一種の安堵感のみである。(これに対し)別な人たちは,どこへ行ってもその土地の特徴的なものを見学し,その土地の典型的な(特徴的な)人たちと親しくなり,その土地の歴史的あるいは社会的に興味深いものであれば何でも見学し,その国(や地方)の食べ物を味わい,その国(や地方)の風習や言葉を学び,'冬の夜のための楽しい思いを新たにたくさん持って帰国する。 |
![]() The forms of zest are innumerable. Sherlock Holmes, it may be remembered, picked up a hat which he happened to find lying in the street. After looking at it for a moment he remarked that its owner had come down in the world as the result of drink, and that his wife was no longer so fond of him as she used to be. Life could never be boring to a man to whom casual objects offered such a wealth of interest. Think of the different things that may be noticed in the course of a country walk. One man may be interested in the birds, another in the vegetation, another in the geology, yet another in the agriculture, and so on. Any one of these things is interesting if it interests you, and, other things being equal, the man who is interested in any one of them is a man better adapted to the world than the man who is not interested. How extraordinarily different, again, are the attitudes of different people to their fellow-men. One man, in the course of a long train journey, will fail entirely to observe any of his fellow travellers while another will have summed them all up, analysed their characters, made a shrewd guess at their circumstances, and perhaps even ascertained the most secret histories of several of them. People differ just as much in what they feel towards others as in what they ascertain about them. Some men find almost everybody boring, others quickly and easily develop a friendly feeling towards those with whom they are brought in contact, unless there is some definite reason for feeling otherwise. Take again such a matter as travel: some men will travel through many countries, going always to the best hotels, eating exactly the same food as they would eat at home, meeting the same idle rich whom they would meet at home, conversing on the same topics upon which they converse at their own dinner-table. When they return, their only feeling is one of relief at having done with the boredom of expensive locomotion . Other men, wherever they go, see what is characteristic, make the acquaintance of people who typify the locality, observe whatever is of interest either historically or socially, eat the food of the country, learn its manners and its language, and come home with a new stock of pleasant thoughts for winter evenings. |
(掲載日:2006.02.15/更新日:2010.4.30)