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A Treatise on Good Manners and Good
Breeding
By Jonathan Swift
Good manners are the art of making
those people easy with whom we converse.
Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy
is the best bred in the company.
As
the
best
law
is
founded
upon
reason,so
are
the
best
some
lawyers
have
introduced
unreasonable
things
into
common
law,
so
likewise
many
teachers have introduced absurd things
into common good manners.
礼貌就是使与我们交谈的人安然处之的一种艺术。
在一群人中，最越不让人感到局促不安，谁就越有教养。
最公正的法律是建立在理智之上的；同样，最好的行为举止也是建立在理智之上的。
有的律师把没有道理的东西引进了习惯法；同样，许多教师把荒唐可笑的东西引进
了礼貌之中。
One
principal
point
of
this
art
is
to
suit
our
behaviour
to
the
three
several
degrees of men; our superiors,our
equals, and those below us.
For
instance, to press either of the two former to eat
or drink is a breach
of
manners;
but
a
farmer
or
a
tradesman
must
be
thus
treated,
or
else
it
will
be difficult to persuade them that they
are welcome.
礼貌艺术的一大要素是以适当的
行为举止来对待三种不通层次的人，即我们的长者，
我们的同辈和低于我们这一层次的人
。
例如，强迫前两种层次的人吃菜喝酒是失礼的，但是农夫或
者商贩就应这样对待，
否则要让他们相信他们是受欢迎的是很困难的。
< br>
Pride, ill nature, and want of
sense, are the three great sources of ill
manners; without some one of these
defects, no man will behave himself ill
for
want
of
experience;
or
of
what,
in
the
language
of
fools,
is
called
knowing
the world.
I defy anyone to assign an incident
wherein reason will not direct us what
we are to say or do in company, if we
are not misled by pride or ill nature.
骄傲自大，性情乖癖，缺乏理性是失礼的三大根源。如果能根除这些弊病，没有人
会因为
缺乏经验，或者，如某些愚人所说，因为谙于世故而有失礼貌的。
我敢说任何人能举出一个事例来说明，要不是受到骄傲情绪或坏脾气的舞蹈，理智
总
会指引我们与人交往时谈吐得体，
举止适度。
Therefor
e,
I
insist
that
good
sense
is
the
principal
foundation
of
good
manners;
but
because
the
former
is
a
gift
which very few among
mankind are possessed of, therefore all the
civilized
nations
of
the
world
have
agreed
upon
fixing
some
rules
for
common
behavoiur,
best suited to
their genernal customs, or fancies, as a kind of
artificial
good sense, to supply the
defects of reson. Without which the gentlemanly
part of duces would be perpetually at
cuffs, as they seldom fail when they
happen to be drunk,or engaged in
squabbles about women or play. And, God be
thanked, there hardly happens a duel in
a year, which may not be imputed to
one
of those three which accout, I should be
exceedigly sorry
to find the
legislature make any new laws against the practice
of dueling;
because the methods are
easy and many for a wise man to avoid a quarrel
with
honour, or engage in it with I
can discover no political evil
in
suffering bullies, sharpers, and rakes, to rid the
world of each other
by
a
method
of
their
own;
where
the
law
hath
not
been
able
to
find
an
expedient.
因此我坚持认为理性是礼貌所需的最重
要的基础。但是由于人类之中很少有人具备
理性这种天赋才能，所以世界上所有的文明国
度都同意制定最能适合他们风俗或想
象的规范行为举止的规章制度，作为一种人为的理性
以弥补理智的缺乏。没有这种
人为的理性，愚蠢的人之中举止尚属文雅的那部分人便会无
休止的挥拳相向，他们
在喝的酩酊大醉时，或者在大声讨论女人和玩乐时总是这样的。并
且谢天谢地，每
年之中发生的决斗几乎无一不可归咎于上述三个原因中的一个。由于这一
缘故，我
将对立法机构制定任何旨在禁止决斗行为的新法律深表遗憾；因为明智的人可以
有
许多简捷的办法避免体面的决斗或无知的搏杀。并且在法律尚无有效对策的地方，
容忍恃强凌弱，诈骗者和浪荡子自己采取的方法来相互铲除，以求清理世界
< br>---
我看
不出这样做有什么政治祸害。
As
the
common
forms
of
good
manners
were
intended
for
regulating
the
conduct
of those who have
weak understandings so they have been corruped
by the
persons
for
whose
use
they
were
contrived.
For
thers
people
have
fallen
into
a
needless
and
endless
way
of
multiplying
ceremonies,
which
have
been
extremely
troublesome
to
those
who
practise
them,
and
insupportable
to
everybody else: insomuch
that wise man are often more uneasy at the over
civility
of
these
refiners,
than
they
could
possibly
be
in
the
conversations
of peasants or mechanics.
制定
良好行为的规范形式，是为了指导调整只是肤浅的人的举止，然而这些规范形
式又恰恰为
这些规范形式的制定对象所破坏。因为这些人已习惯于无必要和无休止
的增加种种繁文缛
节，这些繁文缛节使遵守执行的人无所适从，使所有别的人不敢
赞同。现在情况已经到了
这样的地步，明智的人对这些谨小慎微的人的过分客套感
到局促不安，倒不如与农夫商贩
的交谈更为轻松自如。
The
impertinencies
of
this
ceremonial
behaviour
are
nowhere
better
seen
than
at
those tables where ladies preside, who value
themselves upon account of
their good
breeding; where a man must reckon upon passing an
hour without
doing any one thing he has
a mind to; unless he will be so hardy to break
through all the settled decorum of the
family. She determines what he loves
best, and how much he shall eat; and if
the master of the house happens to
be
of the same disposition, he proceeds in the same
tyrannical manner to
prescribe
in
the
drinking
part:
at
the
same
time,
you
are
under
the
necessity
of
answering
a
thousand
apologies
for
your
entertainment.
And
although
a
good
deal of this humour is pretty well worn
off among many people of the best
fashion, yet too much of it still
remains, especially in the country; where
an
honest
gentleman
assured
me,
that
having
been
kept
four
days,
against
his
will, at a friend's house, with all the
circumstances of hiding his boots,
locking up the stable, and other
contrivances of the like nature, he could
not remember, from the moment he came
into the house to the moment he left
it, any one thing, wherein his
inclination was not directly contradicted;
as if the whole family had entered into
a combination to torment him.
But,
besides all this, it would be endless to recount
the many foolish and
ridiculous
accidents I have observed among these unfortunate
proselytes to
ceremony. I have seen a
duchess fairly knocked down, by the precipitancy
of
an officious coxcomb running to save
her the trouble of opening a door. I
remember, upon a birthday at court, a
great lady was utterly desperate by
a
dish of sauce let fall by a page directly upon her
head-dress and brocade,
while she gave
a sudden turn to her elbow upon some point of
ceremony with
the person who sat next
her. Monsieur Buys, the Dutch envoy, whose
politics
and
manners
were
much
of
a
size,
brought
a
son
with
him,
about
thirteen
years
old, to a great table at court. The boy
and his father, whatever they put