Chapter One
第一章 写传缘由
WYFORD, at the Bishop of St. Asaph.s, 1771.
1771年写于都维夫圣?阿萨福教堂的主教家中。
Dear son,
I have ever had a pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my
ancestors. You may remember the inquiries I made among the remains
of my relations when you were with me in England, and the journey I
undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may be equally agreeable
to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which you are
yet unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment of a week.s
uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement,I sit down
to write them for you, to which I have besides some other
inducements. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which
I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of
reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a
considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of,
which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may
like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own
situations, and therefore fit to be imitated.
That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to
say, that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection
to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking
the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some
faults of the first. So I might, besides correcting the faults,
change some sinister accidents and events of it for others more
favorable. But though this were denied, I should still accept the
offer. Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next
thing most like living one’s life over again seems to be a
recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable
as possible by putting it down in writing.
吾儿：
我一贯喜欢搜集自己祖上哪怕是点点滴滴的珍闻逸事。你可能还记得，为此我曾特意去过英格兰，跟那些依旧健在的族中老人们打听这些事，当时你也随我一同前往。想到你可能也同样乐于了解我一生的境遇，而且，有许多的经历是你不曾知晓的，加之在现住的乡间别墅里，我恰好有大概整整一个星期不受任何人打扰的悠闲时光，于是坐下来，想把这些事情记述出来给你看。除此之外，之所以写这些东西，我还有一些别的目的。我出身低微，幼年在贫寒的家庭中长大，后来竟能够生活优裕，并在世界上赢得了些许的声名，迄今为止我的一生总是好运相伴。我的为人处世之道，承蒙上帝恩惠，让我有了今天这些成就。我的后代子孙们可能想了解这些处世之道是什么，也许他们会发现其中的某些情况跟他们的情形有相似之处，因此可以用于借鉴和模仿。
每次回想起自己一生中碰到的好运气，我总是忍不住感慨，如果再给我一次重新选择人生的机会，我也不会反对将自己的人生从头到尾再重演一次，只希望能像作家们在作品再版时会校正初版的错误一样，可以对人生做一些小小的修正。除了能改正其中的一些错误以外，我可能还会把人生中的某些不好的事情和事件做一些变动以利于他人。但是，即便没有这种修正的机会，我仍然愿意将自己的人生重新过一遍。当然，人生是不可能重复去过的，那么最接近于重演人生的方式莫过于回忆自己的一生，将这些回忆尽可能地付诸笔端了。
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