英语名篇诵读菁华 1-06 Flattery on Women 恭维女人

下面的这段文字是疯狂宅男拜读完切斯特菲尔德写给儿子菲利普．斯担赫普的书信，从中摘录下来的。从这段描写女人对于外表的感观文字，我不禁对这个老男人丰富的人生阅历、深厚的文字功底和敏锐的洞察力佩服得五体投地。

Women have, in general, but one object, which is their beauty; upon which scarce any flattery is too gross for them to follow. Nature has hardly formed ?a woman ugly enough to be insensible to flattery upon her person; if her face ?is so shocking that she must, in some degree, be conscious of it, her face is so shocking that she must, in some degree, be conscious of it, her figure and air, she trusts, make ample amends for it. If they are both bad, she comforts herself that she has graces, a certain manner, a je ne sais ?quoi till more engaging than beauty. This truth is evident from the studied and elaborate dress of the ugloest woman jin the world. An undoubted, uncontested, conscious?beauty is of all women, the least sensible of flattery upon that head; she knows it is her due, and is therefore obliged to nobody for giving it her. She may possibly not doubt of herself, yet she suspects that men may distrust. ?Do not mistske me, and think that I mean to recommend to you abject and criminal flattery: no; flatter nobody's vices or crimes: on the contrary, abhor and discourage them. But there is no living in the world without a complaisant indulgence for people's weaknesses, and innocent, though ridiculous vanities. If a man has a mind to be thought woser, and a woman handsomer, ?than they reallu are, their error is acomfortble on to themselves, and ?an innocent one with regard to other people; and I would rather make them my friends by indulging them in it, than my wnemies by endeavoring (and that to no purpose) to undeceive them.