讀Wikipedia介紹 1911年版的"大英百科全書"乃是匯聚當時世界精英的貢獻所學
ブリタニカ百科事典第11版（1911年版ブリタニカ百科事典、1911 Encyclopædia Britannica）は、20世紀初頭の知識の集大成である。この版はブリタニカ百科事典の中でも最も優れたものであると、現在でも言われることが多い。他の百科事典と比べて10倍も書き込まれた記事を多く持つとも言われている。
其中引的書 ("在藝術之森林的他方")其實是Sir Kenneth Clark的回憶錄之一部--我的"藏書"可能有他的簽名本--不過20年前買它時 他已過世而我沒"空"讀它 現在懷念這緣份
他引的詩 現在可以找到全文 雖然有些差異 不過這無損於他的本事
Sir Kenneth Clark, in Another Part of the Wood (1974), wrote of the eleventh edition, "One leaps from one subject to another, fascinated as much by the play of mind and the idiosyncrasies of their authors as by the facts and dates. It must be the last encyclopaedia in the tradition of Diderot which assumes that information can be made memorable only when it is slightly coloured by prejudice. When T. S. Eliot wrote 'Soul curled up on the window seat reading the Encyclopædia Britannica,' he was certainly thinking of the eleventh edition."
ケネス・クラーク卿 (Sir Kenneth Clark) は「芸術の森のなかで」の中で第11版のことを次のように述べている。「読者は一つの記事から他の記事へと飛び跳ねる。それは精神的な戯れと著者の特質によって魅了され、また事象や時代をも魅了する。情報というものはわずかな偏見に色付けられることによってのみ記憶に残るものになるという前提に基づいたディドロの慣習に従った最新の百科事典であることに間違いない。『窓辺に座ってブリタニカ百科事典を読み、巻き上げられる魂』とT・S・エリオット (T.S. Eliot) が書いたとき、彼は確かに第11版のことを考えていたのである。」
這首詩題會令人想到古羅馬皇帝Emperor Hadrian( 76 - 138 AD)著名的詩首段:
"Animula vagula blandula,
Hospes comesque corporis."
(Ah! gentle, fleeting, wavering sprite,
Friend and associate of this clay!)
Issues from the hand of God, the simple soul,
To a flat world of changing lights and noise,
To light, dark, dry, damp, chilly or warm,
Moving between the legs of tables and of chairs
Rising or falling,
Grasping at kisses and toys,
Advancing boldly, sudden to take alarm,
Retreating to the corner of arm and knee,
Eager to be reassured, taking pleasure
In the fragrant brilliance of the Christmas tree
Pleasure in the wind, the sunlight and the sea'
Studies the sunlit pattern on the floor.
And running stays around a silver tag:
Confounds the actual and the fanciful,
Content with playing cards and kings and queens,
What the fairies do and what the servants say.
The heavy burden of the growing soul
Perplexes and offends more, day by day,
Week by week, offends and perplexes more.
With the imperatives of "so it seems"
And may and may not, desire and control.
The pain of living and the drug of dreams
Curl up the small soul in the window seat
Behind the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Issues from the hand of time, the simple soul,
Irresolute and selfish, misshapen, lame
Unable to fare forward or retreat,
Fearing the warm reality, the offered good,
Denying the importunity of the blot,
Shadow of its own shadow, spectre of its own gloom,
Leaving disordered papers in a dusty room;
Living first in silence after the viaticum,
Pray for Guiterriez, avid of speed and power
For Boudin, blown to pieces,
For this one, who made a great fortune
And that one who went his own way.
Pray for Floret by the boorhound slain between the yew trees,
Pray for us now and at the hour of our birth.
1928
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