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William Hazlitt
No young man believes he shall ever die. It was a saying of my brother's and a fine one. There is a feeling of eternity in youth which makes us amend for everything. To be young is to be as one of the immortals . One half of time indeed is spent—the other half remains in store for us with all its countless treasures, for there is no line drawn, and we see no limit to our hopes and wishes. We make the coming age our own—
“The vast, the unbounded prospect lies before us.”
Death, old age, are words without a meaning that pass by us like the idle air which we regard not. Others may have undergone, or may still be liable to them—we “bear a charmed life”, which laughs to scorn all such sickly fancies. As, in setting out on a delightful journey, we strain our eager gaze forward—
“Bidding the lovely scenes at distance hail!”
And see no end to prospect after prospect, new objects presenting themselves as we advance, so in the outset of life we see no end to our desires nor to the opportunities of gratifying them. We have as yet found no obstacle, no disposition to flag, and it seems that we can go on so forever.
We look round in a new world, full of life and motion, and ceaseless progress, and feel in ourselves all the vigor and spirit to keep pace with it, and do not foresee from any present signs how we shall be left behind in the natural course of things, decline into old age, and drop into the grave. It is the simplicity and, as it were, abstractedness of our feelings in youth that (so to speak) identifies us with nature and (our experience being weak and our passions strong) makes us fancy ourselves immortal like it.
Our short-lived connection with being, we fondly flatter ourselves, is an indissoluble and lasting union, a honey-moon that knows neither coldness, jar, nor separation. As infants smile and sleep, we are rocked in the cradle of our desires, and hushed into fancied security by the roar of the universe around us—we quaff the cup of life with eager thirst without draining it, and joy and hope seem ever mantling to the brim—objects press around us, filling the mind with their magnitude and with the throng of desires that wait upon them, so that there is no room for the thoughts of death.
难词释义
eternity n. 永恒；永生；不朽
amend v. 赔偿；补偿
immortal n. 神；永生不灭者 adj.长生的；不朽的
ceaseless adj. 不停的；（好像）无休止的，不断的
indissoluble adj. 不可分解的；牢不可破的
quaff v. 豪饮；痛饮；开怀畅饮
威廉·赫兹里特
年轻人不相信自己会死。这是我哥哥的话，可算得一句妙语。青春有一种永恒之感——它能弥补一切。人在青年时代就好像永生的神明。诚然，生命的一半已经消逝，但蕴藏着不尽财富的另一半还有所保留，我们对它抱着无穷的希望和幻想。未来的时代完全属于我们——
“无限辽阔的前景在我们面前展现。”
死亡，老年，不过是空话，毫无意义；我们听了，只当耳边风，全不放在心上。这些事，别人也许经历过，或者可能要承受——但我们自己“冥冥中有神保佑”，对于诸如此类脆弱的念头，统统付之轻蔑的一笑。像是刚刚走上愉快的旅程，极目远眺——
“向远方的美景欢呼！”
此时，但觉好风光应接不暇，而且，前程更有美不胜收的新鲜景致。在这生活的开端，我们听任自己的志趣驰骋，放手给它们一切满足的机会。到此为止，我们还没有碰上过什么障碍，也没有感觉到什么疲惫，因此觉得还可以一直这样向前走去，直到永远。
我们看到四周一派新天地——生机盎然，变动不居，日新月异；我们觉得自己活力充盈，精神饱满，可与宇宙并驾齐驱。而且，眼前没有任何迹象可以证明，在大自然的发展过程中，我们自己也会落伍，衰老，进入坟墓。由于年轻人天真单纯，可以说是茫然无知，因而将自己跟大自然画上等号；并且，由于经验少而感情盛，误以为自己也能和大自然一样永世长存。
我们一厢情愿，痴心妄想，竟把自己在世上的暂时栖身，当作千古不变的结合，好像没有冷淡、争执、离别的蜜月。像婴儿带着微笑入睡，我们躺在用自己的欲望编织成的摇篮里，让大千世界的万籁之声催哄我们安然入梦；我们急切切、兴冲冲地畅饮生命之杯，怎么也不会饮干，反而好像永远是满满欲溢；森罗万象纷至沓来，各种欲望随之而生，使我们腾不出工夫想死亡。