英语励志美文：生命的精神支撑(2)

Desperately, I looked for something that would offer support and lurched forward to grasp a light outcropping of solid rock just as the surface shale underfoot - loosened from its foundation by the warm noonday sun - cascaded downward and disappeared over the cliff. Several seconds passed before I heard it rattle into the lake.

　　Finally - after due consideration of the folly of short cuts - I managed to move from handhold to handhold and, at last, pulled myself to the trail by the aid of a dwarf juniper root. I have forgotten how many trout I caught that afternoon, but I have not forgotten the value of handhold.

　　就在这时，脚下被午后阳光照射的发热的页岩表层开始松动，从山上滑了下去，消失在峭壁上。几秒钟后，我听到它落进湖中的声音。稍微考虑了一下抄近路这愚蠢行为的后果后，我想办法从一个支撑点挪到另一个支撑点

　　最终借助一棵矮松的根将自己拉到小路上。那天下午钓了多少鲑鱼，我已经不记得了，但我绝对忘不了支撑点的重要性。

　　Handholds are needed also during the course of everyday life. They provide security when the things we depend upon seem to be slipping out from under us. What are the spiritual handholds I have found to be most value?

　　First, the teachings of the humble carpenter of Nazareth - for their insistence on the supreme worth of the individual, for their stressing of the significance of sympathetic understanding, and for their unsurpassed evidence of dauntless faith.

　　在日常生活中，支撑点也是非常重要的。当我们的依靠即将从脚下溜走时，支撑点会带给我们安全的保障。我发现的最有价值的精神支撑是什么呢?

　　首先，是拿撒勒卑微的木匠的教诲——他坚决主张个人价值至上，强调同情与理解的重要性，并为坚定的信仰提供了无可厚非的证明。

　　Second, the conviction that, while every person should delight in making a courageous and self-reliant effort to live up to his capabilities, there are well-springs of power outside himself that can be tapped - if he will avail himself of them.

　　Third, that the nature of this world and of the people in it is determined more by our individual vision, understanding and conduct than by any material environmental factors, and that - in other words - nothing will produce the good world but the good man.

　　These are the principal spiritual handholds I have found to possess enduring value. They offer both an exciting challenge and a calm assurance. They are the things I believe.

　　其次，尽管我们每个人都应该乐于勇敢、独立地发挥自己的能力，但也要相信，只要我们愿意，我们也能从外界获得力量之源。

　　再次，除了物质环境因素外，世界和人类的本质更多的是取决于我们个人的视野、理解和行为。也就是说，唯有出色的人才能创造出美好的世界。

　　这些便是我所发现的精神支撑点，它们具有永恒的价值。它们给予我们的不仅是刺激的挑战，还有令人安心的承诺。这就是我信仰的一切。