SELF-CULTIVATION IN ENGLISH, by George Herbert Palmer, published 1909 by the Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston as one of the “Riverside Education Monographs.”

English studies have four aims: the mastery of our language as a science, as a history, as a joy, and as a tool. I am concerned with but one, the mastery of it as a tool. Philology and grammar present it as a science: the one attempting to follow its words, the other its sentence, through all the intricacies of their growth, and so to manifest laws which lie hidden in these airy products no less than in the moving stars or the myriad flowers of spring. Fascinating and important as all this is, I do not recommend it here. For I want to call attention only to that sort of English study which can be carried on without any large apparatus of books. For a reason similar though less cogent, I do not urge historical study. Probably the current of English literature is more attractive through its continuity than that of any other nation. Notable works in verse and prose have appeared in long succession, and without gaps intervening, in a way that would be hard to parallel in any other language known to man. A bounteous endowment is for every English speaker, and one which should stimulate us to trace the marvelous and close-linked progress from the times of the Saxons to those of Tennyson and Kipling. Literature, too, has this advantage over every other species of art study, that everybody can examine the original masterpieces and not depend on reproductions, as in the cases of painting, sculpture, and architecture; or on intermediate interpretation, as in the case of music. To-day most of these masterpieces can be studied as a history only at the cost of solid time and continuous attention, much more time than the majority of those I am addressing can afford. By most of us our mighty literature cannot be taken in its continuous current, the latter stretches proving interesting through relation with the earlier. It must be taken fragmentarily, if at all, the attention delaying on those parts only which offer the greatest beauty or promise the best exhilaration. In other words, English may be possible as a joy where it is not possible as a history. In the endless wealth which our poetry, story, essay, and drama afford, every disposition may find its appropriate nutriment, correction, or solace. He is unwise, however busy, who does not have his loved authors, veritable friends with whom he takes refuge in the intervals of work, and by whose intimacy he enlarges, refines, sweetens, and emboldens his own limited existence. Yet the fact that English as joy must largely be conditioned by individual taste prevents me from offering general rules for its pursuit. The road which leads one man straight to enjoyment leads another to tedium. In all literary enjoyment there is something incalculable, something wayward, eluding the precision of rule and rendering inexact the precepts of him who would point out the path to it. While I believe that many suggestions may be made, useful to the young enjoyer, and promotive of his wise vagrancy, I shall not undertake here the complicated task of offering them. Let enjoyment go, let science go, still English remains, English as a tool. Every hour our language is an engine for communicating with others, every instant for fashioning the thoughts of our minds. I want to call attention to the means of mastering this curious and essential tool, and to land everyone who hears me to become discontented with his employment of it.

学习英语的目标有四：视为科学习之，视为历史明之，视为娱乐悦之，视为工具用之。我只关注其中一点：视为工具用之。语文学和语法学将之视为一门科学，分别以词和句为研究脉络，厘清各自纷繁复杂的发展过程，发现潜于词句背后的语言规则，好比从移动的点点繁星，春日的簇锦繁花中寻求规律。此种思路固然重要而且也有趣，但在此我并不推介，因为我希望大家关注的仅仅是那类脱离群书厚册的英语学习。同理，我也不主张视其为历史明之，虽原因差强人意。现今的英语文学源远流长，可能比其他任何民族的文学都更充满吸引力。文学杰作接连涌现从未间断，此乃人类其他任何语言所难以匹敌。每个说英语的人都赋有一种天资，激励我们去追溯从撒克逊人时期一直到诗人丁尼森和吉普林时代的非凡发展历程。文学还有其胜过其他任何艺术研究的优势，即每个人都可以研究经典原作，而不用依赖于复制品，比如绘画、雕刻和建筑，也无需依靠媒介表达，比如音乐。在当下，要把经典作品视为历史来研究，大多必须投入充足的时间和持续的关注，而这对本书的大多数读者而言是无法承受的。我们大多数人不能持续地关注现今强大的文学，只有通过和早期文学的联系，后期文学的发展才显得更加有趣。如果必须碎片式地阅读文学，我们的注意力则只会停留在那些能够提供至美和允诺极乐的文学段落上。换言之，如果不是从历史的角度学习英语，或许可以从娱乐入手。在我们的诗歌、小说、散文、戏剧等创造的无尽财富中，每一部分都能找到适合自己的养分、修正和慰藉。一个人无论多忙，如果没有自己热爱的作者——他真正的朋友，那么他是不明智的。因为热爱一个作者，可以让他在工作间隙有一席避难之地，他与作者的亲密关系可以让他有限的存在得以扩充、完善，从而让他变得心平气和，大胆英勇。然而，英语作为一种乐趣主要取决于个人喜好，这样我就无法为这类人提供普适法则了，因为吾之蜜糖可能成为彼之砒霜。就文学的乐趣而言，有些无法预测，有些反复无常，它没有精准的规则可言，试图承担引路人角色的人的格言显得并不准确。虽然我相信许多建议的提出对年轻的“文学逐乐者”有所裨益，让他们游移不定的思想变得明智，但在此我并不打算着手其繁、出计献策。驱散乐趣的喧嚣，剥离科学的外衣，英语就是个工具。我们的语言无时无刻不在塑造大脑中的思维，充当与他人交流的工具。我想提请大家掌握这不同寻常的重要工具，让每一位听到我想法的人都不再满足于自己对这个工具的使用。