The Englishman has been called a political animal, and he values what is political and practical so much that ideas easily become objects of dislike in his eyes, and thinkers, miscreants, because practice is everything, a free play of the mind is nothing.(46) The notion of the free play of the mind upon all subjects being a pleasure in itself, being an object of desire, being an essential provider of elements without which a nation’s spirit, whatever compensations it may have for them, must in the long run, die of emptiness, hardly enters into an Englishman’s thoughts. It is noticeable that the word curiosity, which in other languages is used in a good sense, to mean, as a high and fine quality of man’s nature, just this disinterested love of a free play of the mind on all subjects, for its own sake—it is noticeable, I say, that this word has in our language no sense of the kind, no sense but a rather bad and disparaging one. But criticism, real criticism, is essentially the exercise of this very quality. (47)It obeys an instinct prompting it to try to know the best that is known and thought in the world, irrespectively of practice, politics, and everything of the kind; and to value knowledge and thought as they approach this best, without the intrusion of any other considerations whatever. (48)This is an instinct for which there is, I think, little original sympathy in the practical English nature, and what there was of it has undergone a long benumbing period of blight and suppression in the epoch of Romanticism.

　　(49)It is of the last importance that English criticism should clearly discern what rule for its course, in order to avail itself of the field now opening to it, and to produce fruit for the future, it ought to take. The rule may be summed up in one word-disinterestedness. And how is criticism to show disinterestedness? By keeping aloof from what is called “the practical view of things”; by resolutely following the law of its own nature, which is to be a free play of the mind on all subjects which it touches. (50)By steadily refusing to lend itself to any of those concealed, political, practical considerations about ideas, which plenty of people will be sure to attach to them, but which criticism has really nothing to do with. Its business is, as I have said, simply to know the best that is known and thought in the world, and by in its turn making this known, to create a current of true and fresh ideas. Its business is to do this with inflexible honesty, with due ability; but its business is to do no more.

　　答案

　　46.對(duì)所有事物的自由思考本身就是一種樂(lè)趣，一種愿望，為民族精神提供了賴以生存的重要因素。離開(kāi)這些因素，不管有其他什么樣的補(bǔ)償，一個(gè)國(guó)家的民族精神終究將會(huì)由于空洞而消逝。但是這種認(rèn)識(shí)很難進(jìn)入英國(guó)人的思想。

　　47.它遵循一種本能，促使它不考慮實(shí)踐、政治和所有類(lèi)似的事物，汲取世界上知識(shí)和思想的精華;并且促使它在這個(gè)過(guò)程中不受任何其他考慮的侵?jǐn)_，珍視知識(shí)和思想。

　　48.好奇是一種本能，但我認(rèn)為，英國(guó)人講究實(shí)際的本性中幾乎找不到這一本能的痕跡;而且僅存的求知欲也在浪漫主義時(shí)代里，經(jīng)歷了長(zhǎng)期的不良影響和壓制而變得麻木了。

　　49.至關(guān)重要的是，英國(guó)的批評(píng)界若想利用向它敞開(kāi)的領(lǐng)域，若想在將來(lái)有所收獲，必須清楚應(yīng)該為自己的發(fā)展道路選擇什么樣的原則。

　　50.方法便是：堅(jiān)決不為那些隱秘的、政治的和功利的觀點(diǎn)服務(wù)，盡管很多人肯定會(huì)依附于這些觀點(diǎn)，但批評(píng)活動(dòng)卻與它們毫不相干。

　　總體分析

　　英國(guó)人素來(lái)看重政治和實(shí)際，而忽視自由思想和對(duì)事物的好奇心。然而對(duì)于批評(píng)界來(lái)說(shuō)，他們的驅(qū)動(dòng)力應(yīng)該是對(duì)世界了解的欲望，而不是政治和實(shí)際。英國(guó)的批評(píng)界若想有所作為，必須清楚應(yīng)該采取什么樣的原則。按照作者的主張，英國(guó)的批評(píng)界應(yīng)該以求知、傳播和創(chuàng)新思想為己任，杜絕任何政治和功利因素的影響。