1735 Benjamin Franklin.ON TRUE HAPPINESS.
The desire of happiness in general is so natural to us, that all the world are in pursuit of it; all have this one end in view, though they take such different methods to attain it, and are so much divided in their notions of it.
幸福的愿望对我们来说是如此自然的，以至于全世界都在追求它；每个人都以此为目标，尽管他们采取了不同的方法去实现它，并且在对幸福的理解上有很大的分歧。
Evil, as evil, can never be chosen; and, though evil is often the effect of our own choice, yet we never desire it, but under the appearance of an imaginary good.
邪恶本身永远不会被选择；虽然邪恶往往是我们自己选择的结果，但我们从来不会愿意选择它，除非它以一种虚假的好处的形式出现。
Many things we indulge ourselves in may be considered by us as evils, and yet be desirable; but then they are only considered as evils in their effects and consequences, not as evils at present, and attended with immediate misery.
我们所纵容自己的一些事情，可能被我们视为邪恶，但却是值得追求的；但它们只是在其结果和后果上被认为是邪恶，而不是现在就显现出来，并且伴随有即时的痛苦。
Reason represents things to us not only as they are at present, but as they are in their whole nature and tendency; passion only regards them in the former light.
理性向我们呈现事物，不仅仅是它们当前的样子，更是它们的整体性质和发展趋势；而情感只会从前者的角度来看待事物。
When this governs us, we are regardless of the future, and are only affected with the present.
当情感支配我们时，我们对未来漠不关心，只关注当下。
It is impossible ever to enjoy ourselves rightly, if our conduct be not such as to preserve the harmony and order of our faculties, and the original frame and constitution of our minds; all true happiness, as all that is truly beautiful, can only result from order.
如果我们的行为没有保持我们心智和能力的和谐与秩序，以及我们心灵的原始结构和构成，就不可能真正享受自己。所有真正的幸福，就像所有真正美丽的事物，只有在秩序中才能实现。
While there is a conflict between the two principles of passion and reason, we must be miserable in proportion to the struggle; and when the victory is gained, and reason so far subdued as seldom to trouble us with its remonstrances, the happiness we have then is not the happiness of our rational nature, but the happiness only of the inferior and sensual part of us, and, consequently, a very low and imperfect happiness to what the other would have afforded us.
当情感与理性之间存在冲突时，我们将按斗争的程度感到痛苦；而当胜利获得，理性被压制到很少干扰我们时，我们获得的幸福不是理性本性的幸福，而只是我们低级和感性部分的幸福，因此，这是一种非常低级且不完美的幸福，远不如理性所带来的幸福。
If we reflect upon any one passion and disposition of mind, abstract from virtue, we shall soon see the disconnexion between that and true, solid happiness.
如果我们思考任何一种情感和心态，抛开美德，我们很快就会看到它与真正的、坚实的幸福之间的脱节。
It is of the very essence, for instance, of envy to be uneasy and disquieted.
例如，嫉妒的本质就是不安和烦扰。
Pride meets with provocations and disturbances upon almost every occasion.
骄傲几乎在每个场合都会遭遇挑衅和扰乱。
Covetousness is ever attended with solicitude and anxiety.
贪婪总是伴随着焦虑和忧虑。
Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us; its appetite grows the keener by indulgence, and all we can gratify it with at present serves but the more to inflame its insatiable desires.
雄心带来了让我们失望的苦涩，但从不带来满足；它的欲望随着纵容变得愈加强烈，而我们目前所能满足的，只会更加激发它那无法满足的欲望。
The passions, by being too much conversant with earthly objects, can never fix in us a proper composure and acquiescence of mind.
情感过于沉溺于世俗事物，无法在我们心中建立起恰当的平静和顺从。
Nothing but an indifference to the things of this world, an entire submission to the will of Providence here, and a well-grounded expectation of happiness hereafter, can give us a true, satisfactory enjoyment of ourselves.
只有对这个世界的无动于衷、对天命的完全服从，以及对未来幸福的有根据的期待，才能给我们带来真正、令人满意的自我享受。
Virtue is the best guard against the many unavoidable evils incident to us; nothing better alleviates the weight of the afflictions, or gives a truer relish of the blessings, of human life.
美德是对我们遭遇的许多不可避免的邪恶的最佳防护；没有什么能比美德更好地缓解痛苦的沉重，或更真实地品味人生的祝福。
What is without us has not the least connexion with happiness, only so far as the preservation of our lives and health depends upon it.
外界的事物与幸福没有丝毫关系，只有当它关系到我们生命和健康的保全时，才与幸福有所联系。
Health of body, though so far necessary that we cannot be perfectly happy without it, is not sufficient to make us happy of itself.
身体的健康，虽然在某种程度上是必要的，因为没有它我们无法获得完全的幸福，但它本身并不足以使我们快乐。
Happiness springs immediately from the mind; health is but to be considered as a condition or circumstance, without which this happiness cannot be tasted pure and unabated.
幸福直接源自内心；健康仅仅被视为一种条件或环境，没有它，幸福无法纯粹且不间断地品味。
Virtue is the best preservation of health, as it prescribes temperance, and such a regulation of our passions as is most conducive to the well-being of the animal economy; so that it is, at the same time, the only true happiness of the mind, and the best means of preserving the health of the body.
美德是健康的最佳保护，它规定了节制，并调节我们的情感，使之最有利于动物机体的健康；因此，它既是心灵的唯一真正幸福，也是保持身体健康的最佳手段。
If our desires are to the things of this world, they are never to be satisfied.
如果我们的欲望指向世间的事物，它们永远无法得到满足。
If our great view is upon those of the next, the expectation of them is an infinitely higher satisfaction than the enjoyment of those of the present.
如果我们主要的目标是指向来世，那么对它们的期待就比享受当前的事物带来无比更高的满足感。
There is no happiness, then, but in a virtuous and self-approving conduct.
那么，只有在道德和自我认同的行为中，才有幸福。
Unless our actions will bear the test of our sober judgments and reflections upon them, they are not the actions, and, consequently, not the happiness, of a rational being.
除非我们的行为能够经得起我们冷静的判断和反思，否则这些行为就不是理性存在的行为，因此也不是幸福。
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