Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent（壯麗的） picture（圖畫） in a book, called True Stories from Nature（自然）, about the primeval（原始的） forest（森林）. It was a picture of a boa constrictor（大蟒蛇） in the act of swallowing（吞下） an animal. Here is a copy（複製品） of the drawing（圖畫）.
In the book it said: “Boa constrictors swallow their prey（獵物） whole（整個）, without chewing（咀嚼） it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion（消化）.”
I pondered（沉思） deeply, then, over the adventures（冒險） of the jungle（叢林）. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing Number One. It looked like this:
I showed my masterpiece（傑作） to the grown-ups（大人們）, and asked them whether the drawing frightened（驚嚇） them. But they answered: “Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?”
My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant（大象）. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My Drawing Number Two looked like this:
The grown-ups’ response（迴應）, this time, was to advise（建議） me to lay aside（擱下） my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote（投入） myself instead to geography（地理）, history（歷史）, arithmetic（算術） and grammar（語法）. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career（職業） as a painter（畫家）. I had been disheartened（沮喪） by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome（煩人的） for children to be always and forever（永遠） explaining things to them.
So then I chose another profession（職業）, and learned to pilot（駕駛） airplanes（飛機）. I have flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me. At a glance（一瞥） I can distinguish（分辨） China from Arizona（美國亞利桑那州）. If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.
In the course of this life, I have had a great many encounters（偶遇） with a great many people who have been concerned（關心） with matters（事物） of consequence（推論）. I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately（親密地）, close at hand（在附近）. And that hasn’t much improved my opinion of them.
Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted（有見識的）, I tried the experiment（實驗） of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding. But, whoever it was, he, or she, would always say: “That is a hat.”
Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge, and golf（高爾夫）, and politics（政治）, and neckties（領帶）. And the grown-up would be greatly（極大地） pleased to have met such a sensible（理智的） man.
相關推薦
