胡適
諸位畢業(yè)同學(xué)，你們現在要離開(kāi)母校了，我沒(méi)有什么禮物送給你們，只好送你們一句話(huà)罷。
這一句話(huà)是：“不要拋棄學(xué)問(wèn)?！币郧暗墓φn也許有一大部分是為這張文憑， 不得已而做的，從今而后，你們可以依自己的心愿去自由研究了。趁現在年富力強的時(shí)候，努力做一種學(xué)問(wèn)。少年是一去不復返的，等到精力衰時(shí)，努力做學(xué)問(wèn)也來(lái)不及了。即為吃飯計，學(xué)問(wèn)決不會(huì )辜負人的。吃飯而不求學(xué)問(wèn)，三年五年后，你們都江堰市要被后來(lái)少年淘汰掉的。到那時(shí)再想做點(diǎn)學(xué)問(wèn)來(lái)補救，恐怕已太晚了。
有人說(shuō)：“出去做事之后，生活問(wèn)題急需解決，哪有工夫去讀書(shū)？即使要做學(xué)問(wèn)，既沒(méi)有圖書(shū)館，又沒(méi)有實(shí)驗室，哪能做學(xué)問(wèn)？”
我要對你們說(shuō)：凡是要等到有了圖書(shū)館才讀書(shū)的，有了圖書(shū)館也不肯讀書(shū)。凡是要等到有了實(shí)驗室才做研究的，有了實(shí)驗室也不肯做研究。你有了決心要研究一個(gè)問(wèn)題，自然會(huì )撙衣節食去買(mǎi)書(shū)，自然會(huì )想出來(lái)法子來(lái)設置儀器。
至于時(shí)間，更不成問(wèn)題。達爾文一生多病，不能多作工，每天只能做一點(diǎn)鐘的工作。你們看他的成績(jì)！每天花一點(diǎn)鐘看10 頁(yè)有用的書(shū)，每年可看3600 多頁(yè)書(shū)，30 年可讀11 萬(wàn)頁(yè)書(shū)。
諸位，11 萬(wàn)頁(yè)書(shū)可以使你成一個(gè)學(xué)者了，可是，每天看三種小報也得費你一點(diǎn)鐘的工夫，四圈麻將也得費你一點(diǎn)半鐘的光陰?？葱竽?，還打麻將呢？還是努力做一個(gè)學(xué)者呢？全靠你們自己的選擇 ！
易卜生說(shuō)：“你的最大責任是把你這塊材料鑄造成器?！?
學(xué)問(wèn)便是鑄器的工具。拋棄了學(xué)問(wèn)便是毀了你們自己。
再會(huì )了！你們的母校眼睜睜地要看你們十年之后成什么器。
Never Give Up the Pursuit of Learning
Hu Shi
Dear students of the Graduating Class,
As you are leaving your alma mater, I have nothing to offer you as a gift except a
word of advice.
My advice is, “Never give up the pursuit of learning.” You have perhaps finished
your college courses mostly for obtaining the diploma, or, in other words, out of sheer
necessity. However, from now you are free to follow your own bent in the choice of
studies. While you are in the prime of life, why not devote yourselves to a special field of study? Youth will soon be gone never to return. And it will be too late for you to go into scholarship when in your declining years. Knowledge will do you a good turn even as a means of subsistence. If you give up studies while holding a job, you will in a couple of14years have had yourselves replaced by younger people. It will then be too late to remedy the situation by picking up studies again.
Some people say, “Once you have a job, you’ll come up against the urgent problem
of making a living. How can you manage to find time to study? Even if you want to, will it be possible with no library or no laboratory available?”
Now let me tell you this. Those who refuse to study for lack of a library will most probably continue to do so even though there is a library. And those who refuse to do
research for lack of a laboratory will most probably continue to do so even though a
laboratory is available. As long as you set your mind on studies, you will naturally cut down on food and clothing to buy books or do everything possible to acquire necessary instruments.
Time is no object. Charles Darwin could only work one hour a day due to ill health.
Yet what a remarkable man he was! If you spend one hour a day reading 10 pages of a
book, you can finish more than 3600 pages a year, and 110000 pages in 30 years.
Dear students, 110000 pages will be quite enough to make a learned man of man. It
will take you one hour to read three tabloids a day, and one and half hours to finish four rounds of mah-jong a day. Reading tabloids, playing mah-jong or striving to be a learned man, the choice lies with you.
Henrik Ibsen says, “it is your supreme duty to cast yourself into a useful implement.”
Learning is the casting mould. Forsake learning, and you will ruin yourself.
Farewell! Your alma mater is watching eagerly to see what will become of you ten
years from now.
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