Ihave neither long visits to pay nor to receive, nor ladies to spend hours in telling me that which might be told in five minutes; yet often find myself obliged to be an economist of time, and to make the most of a short opportunity. Let our station be as retired as it may, there is no want of playthings and avocations, nor much need to seek them, in this world of ours. Business, or what presents itself to us under that imposing character, will find us out even in the stillest retreat, and plead its importance, however trivial in reality, as a just demand upon our attention.

It is wonderful how by means of such real or seeming necessities my time is stolen away. I have just time to observe that time is short, and by the time I have made the observation time is gone.

I have wondered in former days at the patience of the antediluvian world, that they could endure a life almost millenary, and with so little variety as seems to have fallen to their share. It is probable that they had much fewer employments than we. Their affairs lay in a narrower compass; their libraries were indifferently furnished; philosophical researches were carried on with much less industry and acuteness of penetration, and fiddles perhaps were not even invented. How then could seven or eight hundred years of life be supported? I have asked this question formerly, and been at a loss to resolve it; but I think I can answer it now. I will suppose myself born a thousand years before Noah was born or thought of. I rise with the sun; I worship; I prepare my breakfast; I swallow a bucket of goats milk and a dozen good sizable cakes. I fasten a new string to my bow, and my youngest boy, a lad of about thirty years of age, having played with my arrows till he has stript off all the feathers, I find myself obliged to repair them. The morning is thus spent in preparing for the chase, and it is become necessary that I should dine. I dig up my roots; I wash them; boil them; I find them not done enough, I boil them again; my wife is angry; we dispute; we settle the point; but in the mean time the fire goes out, and must be kindled again. All this is very amusing.

I hunt; I bring home the prey; with the skin of it I mend an old coat, or I make a new one. By this time the day is far spent; I feel myself fatigued, and retire to rest. Thus, what with tilling the ground and eating the fruit of it, hunting, and walking, and running, and mending old clothes, and sleeping and rising again, I can suppose an inhabitant of the primeval world so much occupied as to sigh over the shortness of life, and to find, at the end of many centuries, that they had all slipt through his fingers and were passing away like a shadow. What wonder then that I, who live in a day of so much greater refinement, when there is so much more to be wanted and wished, and to be enjoyed, should feel myself now and then pinched in point of opportunity, and at some loss for leisure to fill four sides of a sheet like this?

我既沒有誰要去拜訪，也沒有遠道而來的客人需要招待，更沒有女士花上幾小時來給我講述幾分鐘就可能說清楚的事兒；但我還是總感覺不得不在時間上精打細算，并充分利用每一個短暫的時機。在這個世界上，無論我們身處如何偏僻的地方，都不缺少賞玩之物和娛樂消遣，而且也很容易找到。事情，或者說任何以這樣一種堂而皇之的面目出現(xiàn)的事情，一定會把我們從即使是最僻靜的休憩處尋出來，宣告其重要性，理直氣壯地要求我們予以關(guān)注，而不管它實際上有多么微不足道。

我的時間就這樣被這些必要的或看似必要的事情偷走了，這真讓人驚訝。我僅有時間發(fā)現(xiàn)時間的短暫，而每當有此發(fā)現(xiàn)，時間卻已然過去。

我從前曾驚訝于上古世界人們的耐心，他們能忍受長達近千年而分配到單個的人生卻幾乎沒有什么變化的生活。他們的工作很可能比我們少很多。他們的事情范圍比較窄，圖書館很寒磣，哲學研究也遠沒有像現(xiàn)在這樣作得孜孜以求和深刻敏銳，而小提琴或許都還沒有發(fā)明出來。那么，七八百年的生活是怎么支撐下來的呢？我從前就問過這個問題，但一直無從解決它；不過，我想我現(xiàn)在找到答案了。我假設自己在諾亞誕生或是被想出來的一千年以前出生。我日出而起，祭拜神靈，準備早餐，大口喝下一桶羊奶，吃掉一摞大塊兒的餅。我把一根新弦綁到我的弓上，我那最小的兒子，大概三十歲吧，一直在拿我的箭玩，直到把箭上的羽毛都弄了下來，我只好將這些箭再一一修好。于是，這個上午就花在了狩獵準備上，而到這時我也該吃飯了。我把土豆什么的挖出來，洗一洗，把它們煮上；發(fā)現(xiàn)它們沒煮好，就接著煮。我老婆生氣了，我們吵架，最后解決了問題，可是此時火也滅了，又得重新生火。這一切都很有趣。

我打獵，把獵物帶回家，用獵物的皮修補一件舊外套，或是做一件新衣裳。到這個時候，一天的絕大部分已經(jīng)過去，我感到很疲憊，便去睡覺。就這樣，耕種土地，吃地里產(chǎn)出的果實，打獵，走路，奔跑，修補舊衣裳，睡覺，再起床，我可以想象所有這些事情讓上古世界的先民忙碌不已，以至于感慨生命的短暫，以至于在許多世紀以后發(fā)現(xiàn)，幾千年的時間就這樣從指縫間溜走，像影子一樣逝去。如此看來，我現(xiàn)在的生活比那個時候要精致得多，想要的、渴望的和可以享受的也多得多，所以我時不時地感到機會難得，時間緊張，并且缺少閑暇來寫滿一張面前這樣的

紙，也就不足為奇了。