It has been found that several tribes in Africa and in America worship the moon, and not the sun; a great number worship both; but no tribes are known to adore the sun, and not the moon. For the periodicity of the sun is still in part a secret; but that of the moon is modestly apparent, perpetually inf?luential. On her depend the tides; and she is Selene, mother of Herse, bringer of the dews that recurrently irrigate lands where rain is rare. More than any other companion of earth is she the Measurer. Early Indo-Germanic languages knew her by that name. Her metrical phases are the symbol of the order of recurrence. Constancy in approach and in departure is the reason of her inconstancies. Juliet will not receive a vow spoken in invocation of the moon; but Juliet did not live to know that love itself has tidal times — lapses and ebbs which are due to the metrical rule of the interior heart, but which the lover vainly and unkindly attributes to some outward alteration in the beloved. For man — except those elect already named — is hardly aware of periodicity. The individual man either never learns it fully, or learns it late. And he learns it so late, because it is a matter of cumulative experience upon which cumulative evidence is lacking. It is in the after-part of each life that the law is learnt so def?initely as to do away with the hope or fear of continuance. That young sorrow comes so near to despair is a result of this young ignorance. So is the early hope of great achievement. Life seems so long, and its capacity so great, to one who knows nothing of all the intervals it needs must hold — intervals between aspirations, between actions, pauses as inevitable as the pauses of sleep. And life looks impossible to the young unfortunate, unaware of the inevitable and unfailing refreshment. It would be for their peace to learn that there is a tide in the affairs of men, in a sense more subtle — if it is not too audacious to add a meaning to Shakespeare — than the phrase was meant to contain. Their joy is f?lying away from them on its way home; their life will wax and wane; and if they would be wise, they must wake and rest in its phases, knowing that they are ruled by the law that commands all things — a sun’s revolutions and the rhythmic pangs of maternity.
如果说生活并非总诗情画意，但它至少是富有韵律的。根据一个人思维轨迹的路径来看，人的精神体验呈现周期性。尽管其距离，轨道的长短，运行速度，循环周期都不得而知，但是其循环性是可以肯定的。在上周或去年内心所遭受的痛苦，现在已烟消云散；但是痛苦会在下周或明年卷土重来。快乐与否和我们所经历的事情并不相干，而是取决于思维的浪潮。疾病是有节奏的，越接近死亡，其周期越短，身体恢复所需要的时间也越长。对于一件事的悲痛，昨天不堪忍受，明天也会如此。尽管今天很容易承受，可是悲痛却没有过去。甚至未解的精神痛苦的负担，也一定能给内心留下片刻的安宁。悔恨不是滞留着不去，它会再次回来。
惊喜令我们快乐，如果我们能够记录下惊喜来临的路线，那么我们可以期待快乐的如期而至，而不必在已来临后才发现；可是没有人做过这样的观察；在人们的所有内心世界日记中，从来没有出现过这样的周期开普勒式记录。即使坎普滕的托马斯没能测算出它的周期，但是他的确发现了这种周期的存在。“除此之外，夫复何求？万事万物皆由此构成”，带着这种理念，他发现，在深切的痛苦中反倒能找到快乐的逗留；快乐的时刻来临时，记忆抑制人的心灵，使迎接快乐之情更强烈，但是预感快乐将无情地消失。“你很少，很少到来，”雪莱叹息道。他叹息的不仅仅是快乐本身，还是快乐的灵魂。为了我们的服务，快乐可以事先被强迫使用，被调遣，被约束——埃里厄尔可以被分派日常工作；但是这样人为的暴行使生活变得没有了节制，而如此强迫也并非快乐的灵魂。它在椭圆形、抛物线形或双曲线形的轨道上飞来飞去，没有人知道它与时间有着怎样的约会。
雪莱与《效法基督》的作者本应敏锐而简单地察觉到这种飞跃，并猜测其周期的规则，这似乎是情理之中的事。他们的灵魂与他们多个世界中的精灵有着密切的联系，并且人类的世故，有悖于普遍运动的自由与规则的东西，都不能阻止他们找到循环这种现象的道理。“它仍然在转动。”他们懂得，无往不复，没有分别就没有再现；他们知道，离去便是踏上漫长的回程；目标的接近就意味着离去的来临。秋天，雪莱感慨道：
“啊！风。”
“风啊，
如果冬天来了，
春天还远吗？”
他们知道，潮涨与潮落一样，不合时宜的、人为周期的干扰可以减弱潮水的来势和去势，削弱其冲撞和推动力。永远平等的生活——不管是寻找精神产物的平等，还是精神愉悦上的平等，还是在感官享受上的平等，就是既不劳累，又不懒散的生活。一些圣人的生活，是极其朴素和单纯的，与周期性规律非常吻合。欣喜与忧伤交替在他们身上发生。在头脑空虚的时间里，他们忍受着放弃凡尘俗世的种种内心痛苦。为了心中点亮的不受约束的甜美祝福，他们欣喜不已。诗人骚客与他们一样，在漫漫的人生旅途中，缪斯女神有三次或十次降临到他们身边，抚摸他们，又抛弃他们。然而，两者迥然相异的是，诗人并不总是驯服的，因此也不会为与宝贵而不可取消的时光的离去和小别，做好充分的准备。对于他们的缪斯离开的规律，很少有诗人能够充分认识到。因为对此的充分意识是通过一种方式表达，那就是沉默。
人们发现非洲和美洲的一些部落崇拜月亮，而非太阳；大多数部落则两者都崇拜；却无一个部落是只崇拜太阳的。因为太阳的运动规律还有一部分不为人知，而月亮的周期规律却很显著，影响四季。月亮的运转周期决定着潮汐的涨落；她是塞勒涅，是赫斯之母；在降雨稀少的地方，她带来露水来滋润陆地。同能在地球上看到的其他天体相比，月亮是度量者。早期的印欧语就是这样称呼月亮的。她的度量的定相便是其阴晴圆缺的象征。恒久不变的定期而至与按期返回，正是她反复无常的原因所在。朱丽叶不接受指月盟誓，但她不知道爱情本身也是有潮汐的——爱的消长是由内心的反复规律所决定的，但是恋人徒劳而无情地归咎于他的爱人外表的某些变化。因为除了非同一般的人之外，人是很难有周期意识的。一个人要么对此永远浑然不觉，要么认识到时，为时已晚。
他之所以很迟才懂得这点，是因为这是一个缺乏累积证据基础上的经验累积。一个人直到了他的后半生，才能清晰地懂得这个道理，并因此放弃自己的期望和担忧。年轻人对这一规律的无知，导致了他们接近于绝望的悲痛。成就非凡事业的期望也是如此。人生漫长，潜力无穷。对于人生的周期循环毫无所知的人来说，这些间隔——愿望与渴望的间隔、行动与行动的间隔——如同睡眠的间隔一样，是不可避免的。对间隔的不可避免与无穷无尽的无知，使得人生对于时运不济的年轻人来说，似乎是不可思议。他们应该明白，从更微妙意义上说，人间世事如同潮汐一样有涨有落——如果延伸了莎士比亚的意思，不是胆大妄为之举的话，它应当包含这层意思。快乐从他们身边离去，走上回家的路；他们的生命也会有月盈月亏，如果他们明智的话，他们就必须顺从他的规律，知道这一规律能掌控世间的万事万物——太阳的旋转与产妇的阵痛。
记忆填空
1. Happiness is not a of events; it depends upon the tides of the . Disease is metrical, closing in at and shorter periods towards death, sweeping abroad at longer and longer intervals recovery. Sorrow for one cause was intolerable , and will be intolerable tomorrow; today it is to bear, but the cause has not passed.
2. So is the early of great achievement. Life seems so , and its capacity so great, to one who knows of all the intervals it needs must hold—intervals between aspirations, between actions, pauses inevitable as the pauses of sleep.
佳句翻译
1. 如果说生活并不总是诗情画意的，但它至少是富有韵律的。
2. 对于一件事的悲痛，昨天不堪忍受，明天也会如此。
3. 他们应该明白，从更微妙意义上说，人间世事如同潮汐一样有涨有落。
短语应用
1. Even the burden of a spiritual distress unsolved is bound to leave the heart to a temporary peace; and remorse itself does not remain — it returns.
be bound to：注定；必然
2. The souls of certain of the saints, being singularly simple and single, have been in the most complete subjection to the law of periodicity.
subjection to：屈从于，隶属于
As the Ephemera in the World
寄蜉蝣于天地