An individual human existence should be like a river—small at first， narrowly contained within its banks， and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls.
How to Grow Old
Bertrand Russell
In spite of the title， this article will really be on How Not to Grow Old， which， at my time of life， is a much more important subject. My first advice would be to choose your ancestors ancestor n.祖先， 祖宗 carefully.
每个人的存在都应该像河水一样——起初是细小的，被夹在狭窄的两岸之间，然后汹涌澎湃地冲过岩石，滑下瀑布。
论老年
伯特兰·罗素
尽管这篇文章的标题为《论老年》，但它真正要讲的却是如何才能不变老。在我的人生岁月中，这确实是一个尤为重要的课题。我的第一个建议是，谨慎选择你的祖先。
Although both my parents died young， I have done well in this respect as regards my other ancestors. My maternal maternal adj.母亲的， 似母亲的， 母性的 grandfather， it is true， was cut off in the flower of his youth at the age of sixtyseven， but my other three grandparents all lived to be over eighty.
Of remote ancestors I can only discover one who did not live to a great age， and he died of a disease which is now rare， namely， having his head cut off. A greatgrandmother of mine， who was a friend of Gibbon， lived to the age of ninetytwo， and to her last day remained a terror to all her descendants descendant n.子孙， 后裔， 后代 .
My maternal grandmother， after having nine children who survived， one who died in infancy ， and many miscarriages miscarriage n. 流产，失败，误送 .
虽然我的父母早逝，但对于我的其他祖先，在这方面我做的还不错。是的，我的外祖父正值盛年去世，那时他六十七岁，不过其他三位祖父辈都活到八十岁以上。
就稍远一点的亲戚来讲，我只发现一位没能活到高龄的，他是死于一种现已少见的病症：被砍头。我的一位曾祖母，她是吉本的朋友，活到九十二岁，一直到最后，她始终是子孙们敬畏的人。
我的外祖母，生了十个孩子，九个活下来，一个早年夭折，此外还有过多次流产。
As soon as she became a widow devoteddevote vt.投入于， 献身 herself to womens higher education. She was one of the founders of Girton College， and worked hard at opening the medical profession to women.
She used to relate how she met in Italy an elderly gentleman who was looking very sad. She inquired the cause of his melancholy melancholy n.忧郁 and he said that he had just parted from his two grandchildren. “Good gracious，” she exclaimed exclaim v.呼喊， 惊叫， 大声叫 ， “I have seventytwo grandchildren， and if I were sad each time I parted from one of them， I should have a dismaldismal adj.阴沉的， 凄凉的， 暗的 existence！” “Madre snaturale，” he replied.
But speaking as one of the seventytwo， I prefer her recipe recipe n.处方 .
在守寡后不久，她很快就投身于妇女高等教育事业中。她是格顿学院的创始人之一，致力使妇女进入医疗职业。
她常常讲到她在意大利碰到过的一位满面愁容的老年绅士。她询问他为何忧郁，他说他刚离开两个孙儿。“天呀！”她大声叫道，“我有七十二个孙儿孙女，如果我每次离开他们中的一个就难过，那我早就活不了！”“古怪的母亲。”他回答说。
但作为她的七十二个孙儿孙女的一员，我更喜欢她的见解。
After the age of eighty she found she had some difficulty in getting to sleep， so she habitually habitually adv.习惯地 spent the hours from midnight to 3 a.m. in reading popular science. I do not believe that she ever had time to notice that she was growing old.
This， I think， is the proper recipe for remaining young. If you have wide and keen interests and activities in which you can still be effective， you will have no reason to think about the merely statistical statistical adj.统计的， 统计学的 fact of the number of years you have already lived， still less of the probable brevity brevity n.(时间)短暂， (讲话， 文章等)简短 of your future.
As regards health， I have nothing useful to say since I have little experience of illness. I eat and drink whatever I like， and sleep when I cannot keep awakeawake adj.警觉的， 醒的 .
过了八十岁，她发现自己有些难以入睡，于是她常常从午夜到凌晨三点这段时间里阅读科普读物。我相信她根本就没有时间去关注自己在衰老。
我认为，这就是永葆年轻的最好方法。如果你有广泛又浓烈的兴趣和活动，而且你又能从中感到自己仍然精力充沛，那么你就不必去想你已经活了多少年这种单纯的统计学问题，更不必去想你那或许短暂的未来。
至于健康，由于我一生很少患病，也就无有益的建议可说。我想吃就吃，想喝就喝，没醒的时候就睡觉。
I never do anything whatever on the ground that it is good for health， though in actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome wholesome adj.有益于健康的 .
Psychologically psychologically adv.心理上地， 心理学地 there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One of these is undue undue adj.不适当的 absorption in the past. It does not do to live in memories， in regrets for the good old days， or in sadness about friends who are dead.
Ones thoughts must be directed to the future， and to things about which there is something to be done. This is not always easy； ones own past is a gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that ones emotions used to be more vivid than they are， and ones mind more keen keen adj.敏锐的， 敏捷的， 热心的， 渴望的 .
我做事情从不根据它是否有益于健康的标准来做，尽管事实上我喜欢做的事情大都是有益于健康的。
从心理学角度讲，在老年的时候，要防止两种危险情况。一是过分沉溺于过去。人不能活在回忆中，不能活在对美好日子的怀念或对去世故友的悼念之中。
一个人的思想应该投射到未来，放到需要自己去做的事情上。做到这一点并不容易，一个人过去对他的影响随着时间的推移也会逐渐增加。人们容易认为他的情感过去要比现在鲜明得多，思维反应也比现在敏捷。
