阿諾德·貝內特/Arnold Bennett
“Yes, he's one of those men that don't know how to manage. Good situation. Regular income. Quite enough for luxuries as well as needs. Not really extravagant. And yet the fellow's always in difficulties. Somehow he gets nothing out of his money. Excellent flat-half empty!Always looks as if he'd had the brokers in. New suit—old hat!Magnifcent necktie-baggy trousers!Asks you to dinner：cut glass—bad mutton, or Turkish coffee-cracked cup!He can't understand it. Explanation simply is that he fritters his income away. Wish I had the half of it!I'd show him—”
So we have most of us criticised, at one time or another, in our superior way.
We are nearly all chancellors of the exchequer：it is the pride of the moment. Newspapers are full of articles explaining how to live on such-and-such a sum and these articles provoke a correspondencewhose violence proves the interest they excite. Recently, in a daily organ, a battle raged round the question whether a woman can exist nicely in the country on￡85 a year. I have seen an essay, How to live on eight shillings a week. But I have never seen an essay, How to live on twenty-four hours a day. Yet it has been said that time is money. That proverb understates the case. Time is a great deal more than money. If you have time you can obtain money—usually. But though you have the wealth of a cloak-room attendant at the Carlton Hotel, you cannot buy yourself a minute more time than I have, or the cat by the fre has.
Philosophers have explained space. They have not explained time. It is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible；without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo!Your purse is magically flled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life!It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. A highly singular commodity, showered upon you in a manner as singular as the commodity itself!
For remark!No one can take it from you. It is unstealable. And no one receives either more or less than you receive.
Talk about an ideal democracy!In the realm of time there is no aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is never rewarded by even an extra hour a day. And there is no punishment. Waste your infnitely precious commodity as much as you will, and the supply will never be withheld from you. No mysterious power will say：“This man is a fool, if not a knave. He does not deserve time；he shall be cut off at the meter.”It is more certain than consols, and payment of income is not affected by Sundays. Moreover, you cannotdraw on the future. Impossible to get into debt!You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste tomorrow；it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour；it is kept for you.
I said the affair was a miracle. Is it not?
You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling actuality. All depends on that. Your happiness—the lucrative prize that you are all clutching for, my friends!—depends on that. Strange that the newspapers, so enterprising and up-to-date as they are, are not full of“How to live on a given income of time,”instead of“How to live on a given income of money Money is far commoner than time. When one reflects, one perceives that money is just about the commonest thing there is. It encumbers the earth in gross heaps.
If one can't contrive to live on a certain income of money, one earns a little more—or steals it, or advertises for it. One doesn't necessarily muddle one's life because one can't quite manage on a thousand pounds a year；one braces the muscles and makes it guineas, and balances the budget. But if one cannot arrange that an income of twenty-four hours a day shall exactly cover all proper items of expenditure, one does muddle one's life defnitely. The supply of time, though gloriously regular, is cruelly restricted.
Which of us lives on twenty-four hours a day?And when I say“lives,”I do not mean exists, nor“muddles through.”Which of us is free from that uneasy feeling that the“great spending departments”of his daily life are not managed as they ought to be?Which of us is quite sure that his fne suit is not surmounted by a shameful hat, or that in attending to the crockery he has forgotten the quality of the food?Which of us is not saying to himself-which of us has not been saying to himself all his life：“I shall alter that when I have a little more time”?
We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is. It is the realization of this profound and neglected truth（which, by the way, I have not discovered）that has led me to the minute practical examination of daily time-expenditure.
“沒錯，他是屬於不懂得如何理財的那一類人。雖然擁有較好的工作、穩定的收入，足夠供他日常消費和享用奢侈品了，但他並非特別奢華之人，時常陷入困境。總之，他屬於那種不會理財的人。他有一套很不錯的公寓，但裏麵空****的，看起來總像是接待了一撥又一撥拍賣經紀人似的。嶄新的西裝，破舊的帽子；脖子上的領帶華麗無比，下麵的褲子卻皺皺巴巴；請你吃飯時，他用雕花的玻璃器皿盛糟糕的羊肉，或把土耳其的咖啡泡在帶裂痕的杯子裏。他也弄不清楚，隻好簡單地解釋說，他零星地花完了所有的收入。真希望我能有他一半的收入！我一定會教他……”
所以，大多數人偶爾都會懷著優越感對他人說三道四，加以批評。
我們每個人幾乎都是財務部長，但這種驕傲轉瞬即逝。一些關於如何消費的文章時常見於報端，這類文章常常能引起讀者巨大的反響。由此可見，此類話題很受大眾青睞。最近，一場激烈的爭論在一份日報上展開了，話題圍繞85英鎊能否維持本國一名婦女一年的安逸生活。我曾看過一篇名為《8先令如何度過一周》的文章，但從未見過《如何度過一天的24小時》一類的報道。有人說，時間就是金錢。但我認為這句格言並不嚴謹，因為時間要比金錢更珍貴。通常，如果你有時間，就可以獲得金錢。即使你擁有卡爾頓旅館行李管理員的薪水，也無法買到比我或者火爐旁邊的那隻貓多一分鍾的時間。
許多哲學家曾經闡釋過太空，卻從未闡釋過時空。時間是無法解說的萬物之源。擁有它，一切皆有可能；沒有它，則一無所有。時間源源而來的確是每天的奇跡，人們每每遐想於此，總會為之震驚。清晨醒來時，當你睜開雙眼，瞧！24小時已魔法般地裝進你的錢包，它是你生命裏一筆永恒的財富！它是屬於你的，是你最為珍貴的財產。它是一件非凡的日用品，展現在你麵前，就像它自身一樣神奇。
注意！沒有人能偷走你的時間，它是無法被偷走的。沒有人能得到比你更多的時間，但也不會比你更少。
時間是完美的民主主義者。在時間王國裏，財富和智慧的特權不複存在。即使是天才，也不可能在一天中多得哪怕一小時的酬勞。時間王國裏也沒有懲罰，即便這無價之寶被你隨心所欲地浪費掉，它也不會拒絕再給你提供。不會有某個神秘的靈魂指責道：“這個人是傻瓜，不然就是流氓。他不配擁有時間，應剝奪他的時間享用權。”時間遠遠比英國公債更可靠，它不會因為周末的到來而停止付息。另外，未來的時間你不能預支，更不可能負債！你僅能耗費過去的時刻，但不能耗費為你保留著的明天；也不能消耗為你保留著的下一個小時。
這是一件非常奇特的事，不是嗎？
你每天都生活在這24小時裏，另外，你還要獲得健康、快樂、金錢、欲望、敬重以及提升你那聖潔的心靈。那麽，時間能否正確高效地被利用，則是一件高度緊急又令人興奮的事，它決定了一切。我的朋友！你的幸福——你所追求的一切豐厚的回報都依賴於它。奇怪的是，報紙如此富於開拓精神，站在時代的最前沿，卻並沒有太多關於“怎樣在有限的時間裏生活”的文章，反而充斥許多關於“如何支配固定收入”的文章！事實上，時間比金錢更昂貴，你仔細想想，便會意識到錢是很普通的東西，隨處可見，比比皆是。
如果一個人不能靠有限的收入維持生計時，他就會去掙更多——或者去竊取，或登報求職。一個人僅靠1000英鎊維持一年的生計的確很拮據，但他沒必要因此渾渾噩噩地過一輩子。隻要不辭辛苦，努力多賺些錢，完全可以達到收支平衡。然而，如果他沒有充分有效地利用這一天24小時，那的確是虛度了。時間雖然定期而至，但也有嚴格的限製。
誰能把握一天的24個小時呢？我所談及的“生活”既不是“生存”，也不是“稀裏糊塗地度日”。我們當中誰能從因“巨大日常消費”問題而產生的焦慮中解脫出來呢？而這應該是我們可以應付自如的。又有誰能夠確信，自己穿一套新西裝時就不會戴一頂寒酸的帽子呢？或者說在關注器皿質地時，而忽略食物的質量呢？有誰一生都沒有對自己說過“等有更多的時間，我就會改變”呢？
我們永遠都不會有任何更多的時間。我們所擁有的隻是原有的所有時間。這個真理意義深遠卻又常被忽視（順便說一下，我仍未發現），它驅使我通過實踐，考察自己每天所花費的每一分鍾。
W詞匯筆記
extravagant[iks'tr?v?g?nt]adj.奢侈的；浪費的
例 Despite this, he was so extravagant that he was always in debt.
盡管這樣，他還是如此浪費，以至於經常負債。
fritter['frit?]v.逐漸浪費；細切；剁碎
例 He has frittered away every chance he ever got.
他把到手的每個機會都糟蹋掉了。
criticise['kritisaiz]v.批評；吹毛求疵；非難
例 Many people criticise George Catlin.
許多人批評喬治·卡特林。
understate['?nd?'steit]v.保守地說；輕描淡寫地報道
例 He understates his views.
他輕描淡寫地表達了自己的觀點。
S小試身手
有人說，時間就是金錢。但我認為這句格言並不嚴謹，因為時間要比金錢更珍貴。
譯________________________________________
時間是完美的民主主義者。在時間王國裏，財富和智慧的特權不複存在。
譯________________________________________
我們永遠都不會有任何更多的時間。我們所擁有的隻是原有的所有時間。
譯________________________________________
P短語家族
He does not deserve time；he shall be cut off at the meter.
cut off：切斷
造________________________________________
By the way, I have not discovered……
by the way：順便說；順便問一下
造________________________________________