By V. M. Hillyer ——V. M. 希利爾

V. M.希利爾（1875—1931），美國(guó)著名的兒童教育家、科普作家，創(chuàng)建了卡爾弗特教育體系。他為孩子們編寫了一套趣味盎然的歷史、地理、藝術(shù)讀物，即《寫給孩子看的世界歷史》《寫給孩子看的世界地理》《寫給孩子看的藝術(shù)史》。本文選自《寫給孩子看的藝術(shù)史》。

SUPPOSE you were a sculptor and wanted to make a statue meaning thought. Thought is an idea. In grammar we would call it an abstract noun. How， then， could a sculptor make as solid a material as bronze or marble represent an abstract idea like thought？

Of course a sculptor could make a statue of a person sitting as one sits when thinking. He could label this statue “Thought”， but without the label it might just as well be “Sleep” or “Rest” or “Fatigue”.

The Greeks solved the problem in their way by imagining a goddess of thought or wisdom and then making a statue of the goddess. The statue would look wise， but still it would be just a likeness of a goddess， not of thought. Any thoughtful or wise-looking woman might serve for the model.

Lets try another way. A person who does much thinking is generally able to think easily. Often， if he is a very wise and thoughtful person， you may not see him thinking at all. Probably he would not look as if he were thinking， because he could think so easily. He thinks with his brain and not with his muscles.

But watch a boy who is not very bright at his lessons trying to do an arithmetic problem. He does not think easily. He sticks out his tongue. He twists his legs about his chair. He bends his head on one side. He holds his pencil so tight that his fingers hurt. You can see him thinking because it is hard for him to do it.

假設(shè)你是一名雕塑家，那么如果讓你雕刻一件表現(xiàn)“思想”的作品，你會(huì)怎么做呢？“思想”就是你大腦里面的觀念、想法。在語法里它被稱為“抽象名詞”?，F(xiàn)在的問題是，雕塑家是否可以雕刻出表現(xiàn)思想的作品呢？他們能夠用青銅或者大理石這樣具體的物質(zhì)，去表現(xiàn)“思想”這種抽象的概念嗎？

如果你要說形態(tài)，那么雕塑家肯定可以雕刻出一個(gè)人坐著思考的樣子，這點(diǎn)當(dāng)然沒有問題。但是這座雕像必須有“思想”這個(gè)題目作為這個(gè)形象的標(biāo)簽，否則，你可以說它代表的是“睡覺”“休息”“疲憊”之類的形象，不是嗎？

人們很早就開始尋找解決這個(gè)問題的路徑，古希臘人有自己的方法——他們先想象出一位思想女神或智慧女神，然后制作出這個(gè)女神的雕像。這類雕像可以被雕刻得看上去很智慧，但是她們看起來也只是像女神，而不是“思想”。因此，用這種方法制作出的任何有思想，或者看起來很聰明的女性，都可以被當(dāng)成這類雕像的模特兒了。

讓我們來想想其他的辦法吧。其實(shí)對(duì)于經(jīng)常思考的人而言，思考問題是一件輕松的事情。因此對(duì)于真正有智慧、有思想的人，他在思考的時(shí)候可能你根本看不出來。正因?yàn)樗伎紗栴}時(shí)不費(fèi)力，所以其他人很可能根本看不出來他在思考。當(dāng)然，還有一個(gè)原因就是他是用頭腦思考，而不是用我們可以看見的肌肉之類的在思考。

不過，如果你觀察一個(gè)學(xué)習(xí)成績(jī)不太好的小男孩做算術(shù)題，你很容易就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)他在思考的時(shí)候一點(diǎn)兒也不輕松。他很可能會(huì)眉頭緊鎖，把腿盤在椅子上，頭部側(cè)向一邊，手里緊緊地握住筆，甚至把手指都握疼了。僅僅從外表你就可以明顯地看出他在思考，這是因?yàn)樗伎嫉膯栴}對(duì)于他來說太難了。

statue /'st?t?u?/ n. 雕塑，雕像

label /'le?bl/ v. 貼標(biāo)簽于;用標(biāo)簽標(biāo)明

We carefully labeled each item with the contents and the date.

muscle /'m?sl/ n. 肌肉

arithmetic /?'r?θm?t?k/ n. 算術(shù)

twist /tw?st/ v.（使）彎曲變形

He grabbed me and twisted my arm behind my back.

Now， instead of the boy， imagine a cave man. His muscles are big and powerful. He is more like an animal than a man. As he is a man， however， he has a soul and sooner or later he will wonder about his life and what is going to come of it. Why is he here in this world？ What happens when he dies？ Does he just go out like a dying fire or does part of him live on in some other world that he knows nothing about？ He begins thinking， wondering， pondering with his brute-like mind. Even more than the schoolboy， you can see him thinking. The first thing you would say if you saw him would be， “How hard he is thinking！”

A statue of such a cave man would show thinking much better than a goddess of thought or a brilliant thinker. A sculptor who used this idea of showing thinking by a statue of some one trying hard to think， was a Frenchman. This sculptor died in 1917. His name was Auguste Rodin. His most famous statue is called “The Thinker”. It isnt thinking—but a man thinking—a thinker. It is probably as near as any one can get to showing thinking or thought.

The statue is of a brute-like man. It isnt smooth and pretty like Canovas “Mercury”. It is roughly and strongly modeled. This rough modeling helps make the man look more brute-like and unused to thinking. He sits pondering， head in hand， pondering so intensely that even his toes are tightly clutching the ground.

Rodin loved contrasts. Often he carved delicate and beautiful forms as though they were just coming out of the uncarved marble block. The beauty is increased by the contrast of the finished part with the unfinished.

如果是這樣，那么我們可以來想象一下洞穴人思考問題時(shí)的樣子。洞穴人頭腦簡(jiǎn)單、四肢發(fā)達(dá)、肌肉充滿力量。相比我們現(xiàn)代人，他們更像動(dòng)物一些。不過呢，他們的確是人，也有著自己的靈魂，而且遲早有一天會(huì)開始思考生命的價(jià)值，甚至是人生意義的問題。他會(huì)思考：自己為什么會(huì)來到這個(gè)世界上？死后會(huì)變成什么？是會(huì)消失得無影無蹤，就像一團(tuán)熄滅的火苗那樣呢，還是會(huì)進(jìn)入另外一個(gè)未知的世界繼續(xù)生活呢？雖然洞穴人與動(dòng)物的智力水平相差無幾，但是他們已經(jīng)會(huì)思考、質(zhì)疑，并開始追問了。如果你遇到他們?cè)谒伎?，那么一眼就能看出來，因?yàn)樗麄冊(cè)谒伎嫉臅r(shí)候比那位冥思苦想數(shù)學(xué)題的小男孩還要困難很多倍。假如你能看到這樣場(chǎng)景下的一個(gè)洞穴人，你肯定想說的第一句話就是：“多么努力思考的人??！”

與智慧女神或者思想家的雕像相比，一座洞穴人的雕像能夠更好地表現(xiàn)這個(gè)“思考或思想”的概念。一位法國(guó)雕塑家就想到了這一點(diǎn)，并且很好地利用了這個(gè)方法雕刻出了一座正在思考的人物雕像。這個(gè)雕塑家的名字叫奧古斯特·羅丹，于1917年逝世。羅丹最著名的一件雕塑作品就是《思想者》，雕像表現(xiàn)的正是“思考”這一個(gè)抽象的概念。雖然雕像本身并不是“思考”，而是思想者——一個(gè)正在思考的人，但這可能是表現(xiàn)“思想”這個(gè)概念的所有作品中，最貼近這個(gè)抽象概念本身的作品了。

這座《思想者》雕像中的人物，是一個(gè)大腦尚不發(fā)達(dá)、智力還沒有發(fā)育完全的野人。這座雕像與卡諾瓦的《墨丘利》那座平滑圓潤(rùn)的雕像相比簡(jiǎn)直是天淵之別，羅丹雕刻的《思想者》顯得非常粗糙，不過意境卻相得益彰，粗糙的模型使得人物看起來更加粗野，也更加凸顯了雕塑人物不善于思考的一面。這個(gè)野人坐在那兒，用一只手撐著下巴，用力地想啊想。因?yàn)橄氲锰M(fèi)力，也太專注，連腳趾頭都緊緊地抓著地面，用力地繃著。

羅丹喜歡對(duì)比。在雕像完成后，羅丹常常保留后面剩下的、未經(jīng)雕刻的大理石塊。于是羅丹的外形精美的雕像，看上去就像是從大理石里天然長(zhǎng)出來似的，而已雕刻和未雕刻的大理石部分又很鮮明地形成了對(duì)比，從而更加突顯出了雕像的美感。

soul /s??l/ n. 靈魂

ponder /'p?nd?（r）/ v. 沉思;考慮;琢磨

They are pondering whether the money could be

better used elsewhere.

brilliant /'br?li?nt/ adj. 聰穎的

clutch /kl?t?/ v. 緊握;抓緊

contrast /'k?ntrɑ?st/ n. 對(duì)比