(1933)
You ask me, in brief, what satisfaction I get out of life, and why I go on working. I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs. There is in every living creature an obscure but powerful impulse1to active functioning. Life demands to be lived. Inaction, save as a measure of recuperation between bursts of activity, is painful and dangerous to the healthy organism — in fact, it is almost impossible. Only the dying can be really idle.
The precise form of an individual’s activity is determined, of course, by the equipment2 with which he came into the world. In other words, it is determined by his heredity. I do not lay eggs, as a hen does, because I was born without any equipment for it. For the same reason I do not get myself elected to Congress, or play the violoncello, or teach metaphysics in a college, or work in a steel mill. What I do is simply what lies easiest to my hand. It happens that I was born with an intense and insatiable interest in ideas, and thus like to play with them. It happens also that I was born with rather more than the average facility2 for putting them into words. In consequence, I am a writer and editor, which is to say,a dealer in them and concoctor of them.
I am far luckier than most men, for I have been able since boyhood to make a good living3 doing precisely what I have wanted to do — what I would have done for nothing, and very gladly, if there had been no reward for it. Not many men, I believe, are so fortunate. Millions of them have to make their livings3 at tasks which really do not interest them. ...
Next to agreeable work as a means of attaining happiness I put what Huxley called the domestic affections — the day to day intercourse with family and friends. My home has seen bitter sorrow, but it has never seen any serious disputes, and it has never seen poverty. I was completely happy with my mother and sister, and I am completely happy with my wife. Most of the men I commonly associate with are friends of very old standing. I have known some of them for more than thirty years. I seldom see anyone, intimately, whom I have known for less than ten years. These friends delight me. I turn to them when work is done with unfailing eagerness. We have the same general tastes, and see the world much alike. Most of them are interested in music, as I am. It has given me more pleasure in this life than any other external thing. I love it more every year.
H. L. Mencken
obscure adj. 不明显的
impulse n. 冲动
save prep. 除了
recuperation n. 恢复体力
heredity n. 遗传
violoncello n. = cello 大提琴
metaphysics n. 形而上学；玄学（哲
学的一种）
insatiable adj. 不能满足的；贪婪的
dealer n. 贩卖者
concoctor n. 编制者
attain v. 达致
Huxley 赫胥黎 (T.H. Huxley, 1825-95) 英国生物学家
intercourse n. 交往
associate with v. 结交
standing n. 地位
中译 孟肯致杜兰德书
（1933年）
你问我，简言之，我从生活中得到什么乐趣以及我为何继续不断地工作。我继续不断地工作跟母鸡继续不断地下蛋是一个道理。凡是有生命的东西，隐隐之中都有一种积极活动的强烈冲动。生命本身逼着人活下去。不活动，除非作为激烈活动之间恢复体力的措施，对于健康的身体来说，是件痛苦而危险的事——实际上几乎是不可能的。只有垂死的人才能真正无所事事。
当然，每个人的特定活动形式是由他先天的禀赋决定的。换言之，是由遗传决定的。我不会像母鸡一样下蛋，因为我生来没有这种禀赋。我当选不了国会议员，不会拉大提琴，不会在大学里教形而上学，当不了钢铁工人，也是同样的原因。我干的只是我感到最得心应手的事。碰巧我天生对思想意识感到强烈的、如饥似渴的兴趣，因此就喜欢摆弄这些玩意儿。又碰巧我把思想意识写成文字不像一般人那么费劲，所以，我就当了一名作家和编辑，也就是说，成了一个编制和贩卖思想意识的人。