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The objections and reluctances I met with in soliciting the subscriptions, made me soon feel the impropriety of presenting one's self as the proposer of any useful project, that might be suppos'd to raise one's reputation in the smallest degree above that of one's neighbours, when one has need of their assistance to accomplish that project.
我在邀请人们加入订阅图书馆时所遇到的反对和抗拒不久就使我想到，当一个有用的计划可能被认为是会使一个人的名誉稍稍高出他的邻居而他又需要别人的赞助去完成这个计划时，最好不要宣布你自己就是这个计划的首创者。
I therefore put myself as much as I could out of sight, and stated it as a scheme of a number of friends, who had requested me to go about and propose it to such as they thought lovers of reading.
因此我尽可能地把自己隐藏起来，说这是几个友人们的计划，我受了他们的委托去访问那些被认为是爱好读书的人并邀请他们参加。
In this way my affair went on more smoothly, and I ever after practis'd it on such occasions; and, from my frequent successes, can heartily recommend it.
这样我的事情就顺利得多了，以后在这种情况下我总是这样做的，因为它的效果良好，我可以衷心地推荐这个方法。
The present little sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid.
你目前牺牲了一点虚荣，以后你可以得到巨大的报酬。
If it remains a while uncertain to whom the merit belongs, someone more vain than yourself will be encouraged to claim it, and then even envy will be disposed to do you justice by plucking those assumed feathers, and restoring them to their right owner.
如果一时还不能确定事情当归功于谁，有些比你更爱虚荣的人就会出来自称是他的功劳，那时连忌妒也愿为你主持公道，它会拔取那些僭取冒充的羽毛，把它们送还给合法的主人。
This library afforded me the means of improvement by constant study, for which I set apart an hour or two each day, and thus repair'd in some degree the loss of the learned education my father once intended for me.
这个图书馆给我一个不断钻研提高自己的机会，我每日划出一两小时来读书，这样在某种程度上弥补了我没有受过高深教育的缺陷，我父亲曾经一度有意让我受这种高深广博的教育。
Reading was the only amusement I allow'd myself.
除了读书以外，我不允许我自己有其他的娱乐。
I spent no time in taverns, games, or frolicks of any kind; and my industry in my business continu'd as indefatigable as it was necessary.
我从不到酒馆、赌场或任何其他娱乐场所去消磨辰光，我在我业务上继续勤勤恳恳辛辛苦苦地工作，这在当时是必要的。
I was indebted for my printing-house; I had a young family coming on to be educated, and I had to contend with for business two printers, who were established in the place before me.
我为印刷铺负的债还未偿清，我家里的小孩快要受教育了，在业务上我还得跟两家在我以前就在本地开业的印刷铺竞争。
My circumstances, however, grew daily easier.
虽然如此，我的境遇逐渐好转了。
My original habits of frugality continuing, and my father having, among his instructions to me when a boy, frequently repeated a proverb of Solomon, "Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men."
我原先节俭朴素的习惯还是保持着。在我童年时期我父亲对我的教诲当中，有一句他常常提到的所罗门的箴言说：“若是一个人勤勉从事，他将站在君王的面前，他将不站在普通人面前。”
I from thence considered industry as a means of obtaining wealth and distinction, which encourag'd me, tho' I did not think that I should ever literally stand before kings, which, however, has since happened; for I have stood before five, and even had the honor of sitting down with one, the King of Denmark, to dinner.
因此我认为勤勉是发财和成名的手段，这一信仰鼓励了我，虽然我从没有想到我会真正地站在君王面前，但是这一点倒真的已经做到了，因为我曾经站在五个国王面前过，甚至还曾有过跟一个国王同坐吃饭的光荣--那就是跟丹麦国王。
We have an English proverb that says, "He that would thrive, must ask his wife."
我们有一句英国的谚语说：“人要发财，就得请教他的妻子。”
It was lucky for me that I had one as much dispos'd to industry and frugality as myself.
侥幸我的妻子也愿意像我一样地克勤克俭地过活。
She assisted me chearfully in my business, folding and stitching pamphlets, tending shop, purchasing old linen rags for the paper-makers, etc., etc.
她愉快地在业务上帮助我，帮我折叠和装订小册子，照料店铺，替造纸商人收购破布等等等等。
We kept no idle servants, our table was plain and simple, our furniture of the cheapest.
我们并不雇用闲着无事的仆人，我们的伙食简单朴素，我们的家具都是最起码的。
For instance, my breakfast was a long time break and milk (no tea), and I ate it out of a twopenny earthen porringer, with a pewter spoon.
比方说，在很长的一个时期内，我的早餐只是面包和牛奶（不喝茶），用的是一只价值两便士的陶制粥碗和一只锡制的调羹。
But mark how luxury will enter families, and make a progress, in spite of principle: being call'd one morning to breakfast, I found it in a China bowl, with a spoon of silver!
但是请注意奢侈是怎样地侵入家庭并且继续滋长，尽管你在原则上反对它：有一天早晨我去吃早餐时，我发现盛早餐的是一只瓷碗和一只银调羹。
They had been bought for me without my knowledge by my wife, and had cost her the enormous sum of three-and-twenty shillings, for which she had no other excuse or apology to make, but that she thought her husband deserv'd a silver spoon and China bowl as well as any of his neighbors.
我妻子瞒着我替我买了这些东西，她一共花了二十三先令的巨款，她并没有其他的借口或辩解，仅仅说她认为她的丈夫也应该像邻居们一样享受一只银调羹和一只瓷碗。
This was the first appearance of plate and China in our house, which afterward, in a course of years, as our wealth increas'd, augmented gradually to several hundred pounds in value.
这是银器瓷器第一次在我们家里出现，以后在许多年中，当我们的财富逐渐增多，我家杯盘碗碟之类的瓷器也逐渐增添到价值几百镑的总数了。
