①Wherever you are, and whoever you may be, there is one thing in which you and I are just alike at this moment, and in all the moments of our existence. ②We are not at rest, we are on a journey. ③Our life is a movement, a tendency, a steady, ceaseless progress towards an unseen goal.

④We are gaining something, or losing something, everyday. ⑤Even when our position and our character seem to remain precisely the same, they are changing. ⑥For the mere advance of time is a change. ⑦It is not the same thing to have a bare field in January and in July. ⑧The season makes the difference. ⑨The limitations that are childlike in the child are childish in the man.

⑩Everything that we do is a step in one direction or another. ⑪Even the failure to do something is in itself a deed, it sets us forward or backward, the action of the negative pole of a magnetic needle is just as real as the action of the positive pole. ⑫To decline is to accept——the other alternative.

existence [ɪgˈzɪstəns] n．存在

precisely[prɪˈsaɪslɪ]ad．精确地，严谨地

childlike [ˈtʃaɪldlaɪk] a．孩子般的，天真的

alternative [ɔ:lˈtɜ:nətɪv] a．备选的 n．可供选择的事物