I hate to read new books. There are twenty or thirty volumes that I have read over and over again, and these are the only ones that I have any desire ever to read at all. It was a long time before I could bring myself to sit down to the Tales of My Landlord, but now that author's works have made a considerable addition to my scanty library. I am told that some of Lady Morgan's are good, and have been recommended to look into Anastasius; but I have not yet ventured upon that task. A lady, the other day, could not refrain from expressing her surprise to a friend, who said he had been reading Delphine:2 -- she asked, -- If it had not been published some time back? Women judge of books as they do of fashions or complexions, which are admired only "in their newest gloss." That is not my way. I am not one of those who trouble the circulating libraries much, or pester the booksellers for mail-coach copies of standard periodical publications. I cannot say that I am greatly addicted to black-letter, but I profess myself well versed in the marble bindings of Andrew Millar in the middle of the last century; nor does my taste revolt at Thurlow's State Papers, in russia leather; or an ample impression of Sir William Temple's Essays, with a portrait after Sir Godfrey Kneller in front. I do not think altogether the worse for a book for having survived the author a generation or two. I have more confidence in the dead than the living. Contemporary writers may generally be divided into two classes -- one's friends or one's foes. Of the first we are compelled to think too well, and of the last we are disposed to think to ill, to receive much genuine pleasure from the perusal, or to judge fairly of the merits of either.
我討厭讀新書。有那麽二三十本書我可以壹遍又壹遍不厭其煩地閱讀，可是這些卻讓我連看壹眼的興趣都沒有。我花了很長時間才讓我自己沈澱下來讀完《我房東的故事》，但現在這篇文章的作者讓我的收藏又增加不少。我被告知摩根夫人很好，並被建議研究安娜斯達西，但我還未開始這探險任務。壹位女士，有壹天，忍不住對她的朋友表達她的驚喜：誰說他曾在閱讀達爾芬:2？ - 她問， - 如果不是它出版了不短時間了？女人品論書籍總像在評論流行款式或膚色，只喜歡“它們最新的光澤。” 這不是我的風格。我不是那種給圖書館的循環添麻煩，或糾纏書商郵寄標準定期刊物的人。我不能說我沈迷於白紙黑字，但我承認我醉心於安德魯。米勒在上個世紀中葉出版的大理石花紋裝訂本，讀寫在俄羅斯皮革上的瑟婁的國家論文時也無反感;或是在爵士戈弗雷奈勒後的肖像前面對威廉爵士寺的散文印象頗深。壹兩代作家的書的差距我認為完全不能幸免。我對死人比對活人有信心。當代作家，壹般可分為兩大類 - 朋友類或敵人類。第壹種人，我們不得不把故事往好裏想，而後者我們傾向於往糟裏想，或接收來自精讀的純粹快樂，或衡量兩者的優點。
太長了。給妳壹段吧。
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