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塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯：自助论·摘录 215
塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯《自助论》· Self-Help · 领导
But many are apt to feel despondent, and become discouraged in the work of self-culture, because they do not “get on” in the world so fast as they think they deserve to do. Having planted their acorn, they expect to see it grow into an oak at once. They have perhaps looked upon knowledge in the light of a marketable commodity, and are consequently mortified because it does not sell as they expected it would do. Mr. Tremenheere, in one of his ‘Education Reports’ (for 1840–1), states that a schoolmaster in Norfolk, finding his school rapidly falling off, made inquiry into the cause, and ascertained that the reason given by the majority of the parents for withdrawing their children was, that they had expected “education was to make them better off than they were before,” but that having found it had “done them no good,” they had taken their children from school, and would give themselves no further trouble about education!
出处：
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/935
定位：Excerpt 215 · 核对日期：2026-10-19 · 核验：短摘录
白话
但很多人容易沮丧，在自我修养中灰心，因为他们在世上“混”得不如自认为应得的那样快。他们种下橡子，就指望立刻长成橡树。他们也许把知识看成可买卖的商品，因此卖不出预期价钱就懊恼。特雷门希尔先生在1840—41年《教育报告》中说，诺福克一位校长发现学校迅速衰落，便调查原因，得知大多数家长带孩子退学的理由是：他们原以为“教育会让他们比从前富裕”，但发现“没带来好处”，就把孩子领走，不再为教育费心。
上下文
斯迈尔斯《自助》中引用1840年代教育报告，讽刺把教育当发财工具的功利心态。
今日一问
你是否因为学习没立刻带来好处就想放弃？
公版作品；原文逐字取自 Project Gutenberg，仅摘录段落并附全书链接。
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