西奧多‧羅斯福 (THEODORE ROOSEVELT)

讚奮鬥不息 In Praise of the Strenuous Life

    向強有力的事物挑戰，去奪取輝煌的勝利，即使遭受挫折也比苟且偷安強得多，因為得過且過的人生活在暗淡的暮光之中，既體驗不到勝利的歡樂，也嘗受不到失敗的痛苦。

    西奧多‧羅斯福(1858－1919)出生於紐約一富豪的家庭，小時候身體虛弱，可是他以鋼鐵般的意志鍛煉身體，成了十分活躍的野外體育活動愛好者。他從哈佛學院畢業後，曾在哥倫比亞法律學院學習過一小段時間，而後選擇了政治及歷史寫作的生涯。23歲時，他被選入州立法機構，在政治上遭受幾次失敗後，他有兩年在達科他領地經營農牧場。接著他在紐約當了一段警察局總長，隨後在麥金萊政府時期出任海軍部長助理。

    1898年美國──西班牙戰爭爆發，他辭去海軍內的職務，率領美國第一義勇騎兵團作戰。他在古巴的英勇行為使他當上了紐約州長。在紐約，他開始疏遠共和黨核心人物，因為1900年他們提名讓羅斯福為威廉‧麥金萊競選總統時的副總統候選人，想以此擺脫羅斯福的影響。他們原想讓人們漸漸忘卻不斷取得卓越政績的羅斯福，可是麥金萊在1901年遭暗殺後，羅斯福接任了總統職務。

    羅斯福宣誓就任紐約州長幾個月後，於1899年4月l0日在芝加哥發表了演講，這是他最受人們歡迎的演講之一。就在六周前，威廉‧詹寧斯‧布賴恩也曾在芝加哥發表演講，譴責美國的帝國主義行為。羅斯福在這篇於內戰結束三十四週年紀念日發表的演講中反駁了布賴恩。結合人生是外界對人們的挑戰這一個人看法，他在演講中談了美國在國際事務中應起的作用。

    今天的聽眾來自美國西部最偉大的城市，這裏出過林肯總統、格蘭特將軍這樣的偉人，這裏的人民最突出最明顯地體現了美國人的特點，面對這樣偉大的人民，我想宣揚的不是可鄙的貪圖安逸享樂的人生哲學，而是生命不止奮鬥不息的人生哲學。我認為人生應該為最出色的成就奮鬥，這種成就決不是那些想安閒地過日子的人們所能得到的，只有那些不畏艱險，不怕勞累的人們才有可能取得最後的輝煌勝利對一個人來說應該奮鬥不息，對一個民族來說也應該如此。說沒有歷史的民族是幸福的民族，這是卑劣的謊言。具有光榮歷史的民族是十分幸運的。向強有力的事物挑戰，去奪取輝煌的勝利，即使遭受挫折也比苟且偷安強得多，因為得過且過的人生活在暗淡的暮光之中，既體驗不到勝利的歡樂，也嘗受不到失敗的痛苦。在1861年，要是那些熱愛聯邦的人們認為和平是最終的目的，認為戰爭與衝突是最不幸的事情，並且按這種想法去做了，那麼我們可以避免千百萬人頭顱落地，可以節省大量的財力，而且除了可以省去我們所付出的生命和金錢方面的代價外，還可以使我們的婦女同胞免受心碎之苦，使我們的人民免遭家破人亡之罪。當聯邦軍隊似乎只是在走向失敗時，我們的國家也可以免得陷入長達幾個月之久的憂愁與恥辱之中。要是我們在衝突面前畏縮不前，我們可以避免這些痛苦；要是我們迴避了這些痛苦，我們就成了不配屹立於世界偉大民族之林的懦夫。感謝主給了我們先輩鋼鐵般的意志，他們支援了林肯總統的英明抉擇，拿起了刀槍加入了格蘭特將軍的隊伍。我們是不愧於偉大時代的英雄們的兒女，是把偉大內戰進行到底直至取得最後勝利的英雄們的後代，讓我們讚美主讓我們的先輩拒絕了可恥的主和意見，讓我們的先輩毫不畏縮地去面對痛苦、失敗、悲傷、失望的磨煉，去經歷幾年的內戰，因為最後奴隸們獲得了解放，聯邦得到了保存，強大的美利堅合眾國再一次像巨人般地屹立於世界民族之林。

    我們這一代人用不著面臨我們先輩所面臨的那種任務，但是，我們也有自己的任務，要是我們沒能完成我們的任務，我們就要遭到不幸。我們決不能扮演中國的角色，要是我們重蹈中國的覆轍，自滿自足，貪圖自己疆域內的安寧享樂，漸漸地腐敗墮落，對國外的事情毫無興趣，沈溺於紙醉金迷之中，忘掉了奮發向上、苦幹冒險的高尚生活，整天忙於滿足我們肉體暫時的慾望，那麼，毫無疑問，總有一天我們會突然發現中國今天已經發生的這一事實：畏懼戰爭、閉關鎖國、貪圖安寧享樂的民族在其他好戰，愛冒險的民族的進攻面前是肯定要衰敗的。如果我們要成為真正偉大的民族，我們必須竭盡全力在國際事務中起巨大的作用。我們無法迴避大問題，我們能決定的僅是該如何處理這些問題。去年我們被捲入了與西班牙的戰爭，那也是不可避免的。我們所能考慮的僅是我們該像懦夫那樣退縮呢？還是該勇敢、鬥志昂揚地開赴戰場，以及一旦進入了戰場，我們是否能打勝。現在的情況也是如此，我們無法迴避在夏威夷、古巴、波多黎各和菲律賓所面臨的責任。我們所能考慮的僅是，我們能否妥善處理這些問題，增強我國的威望，以及我們對這些新問題的處理不當，會不會成為我們歷史上黑暗恥辱的一頁。拒絕處理這些問題與處理得一敗塗地沒什麼兩樣。我們面臨著要我們處理的問題，要是我們著手去解決，必然存在著處理不當的危險，但是拒不處理就等於承認我們根本無法處理。

    懦夫，懶漢，對政府持懷疑態度的人，喪失了鬥爭精神和支配能力的文質彬彬的人，愚昧無知的人，還有那些無法感受到堅定不移的人們所受到的巨大鼓舞的麻木不仁的人──所有這些人當然害怕看到他們的國家承擔了新的職責，害怕看到我們建立能滿足我國需要的海軍和陸軍，害怕看到我們承擔國際義務，害怕看到我們勇敢的士兵和水手們把西班牙的軍隊趕出去，讓偉大美麗的熱帶島嶼從大亂中達到大治。這些人害怕過艱苦的生活，害怕過這種唯一值得過的民族生活。

    同胞們，我們國家要求大家過的不是安逸的生活而是艱苦奮鬥的生活。二十世紀許多國家的命運將處於危難之中，這種危險也威脅著我們。如果我們袖手旁觀，如果我們僅僅追求昏庸懶散的悠閒生活和安逸，如果我們不參與這種必須以生命和珍愛的一切去獲取勝利的激烈競爭，那麼比我們野蠻強大的民族將甩開我們，控制整個世界。因此，讓我們勇敢地面臨生活的挑戰，決心以男子漢大丈夫的氣概去完成我們的職責，用我們的誓言和行動來維護正義，既要真誠大膽又要採取切實可行的方法來實現我們的理想。最重要的是，只要我們認為我們是站在正義一邊，我們都不要在國內外物質或精神上的衝突面前退縮，因為只有通過鬥爭，通過艱苦危險的鬥爭，我們才能取得我們民族進步的目的。

In speaking to you, men of the greatest city of the West, men of the state which gave to the country Lincoln and Grant, men who preeminently and distinctly embody all that is most American in the American character, I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease but the doctrine of the strenuous life; the life of toil and effort; of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes not to the man who desires mere easy peace but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph. . . .

      As it is with the individual so it is with the nation. It is a base untruth to say that happy is the nation that has no history. Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. If in 1861 the men who loved the Union had believed that peace was the end of all things and war and strife a worst of all things, and had acted up to their belief, we would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, we would have saved hundreds of millions of dollars. Moreover, besides saving all the blood and treasure we then lavished, we would have prevented the heartbreak of many women, the dissolution of many homes; and we would have spared the country those months of gloom and shame when it seemed as if our armies marched only to defeat. We would have avoided all this suffering simply by shrinking from strife. And if we had thus avoided it we would have shown that we were -weaklings and that we were unfit to stand among the great nations of the earth. Thank God for the iron in the blood of our fathers, the men who upheld the wisdom of Lincoln and bore sword or rifle in the armies of Grant! Let us, the children of the men who proved themselves equal to the mighty days－ let us, the children of the men who carried the great Civil War to a triumphant conclusion, praise the God of our fathers that the ignoble counsels of peace were rejected, that the suffering and loss, the blackness of sorrow and despair, were unflinchingly faced and the years of strife endured; for in the end the slave was freed, the Union restored, and the mighty American Republic placed once more as a helmeted queen among nations.

      We of this generation do not have to face a task such as that our fathers faced, but we have our tasks, and -woe to us if we fail to perform them! We cannot, if we would, play the part of China, and be content to rot by inches in ignoble ease within our borders, taking no interest in what goes on beyond them; sunk in a scrambling commercialism; heedless of the higher life, the life of aspiration, of toil and risk; busying ourselves only with the wants of our bodies for the day; until suddenly we should find, beyond a shadow of question, what China has already found, that in this world the nation that has trained itself to a career of unwarlike and isolated ease is bound in the end to go down before other nations which have not lost the manly and adventurous qualities. If we are to be a really great people, we must strive in good faith to play a great part in the world. We cannot avoid meeting great issues. All that we can determine for ourselves is whether we shall meet them well or ill. Last year we could not help being brought face to face with the problem of war with Spain. All we could decide was whether we should shrink like cowards from the contest or enter into it as beseemed a brave and high-spirited people; and, once in, whether failure or success should crown our banners. So it is now. We cannot avoid the responsibilities that confront us in Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. All we can decide is whether we shall meet them in a way that will redound to the national credit, or whether we shall make of our dealings with these new problems a dark and shameful page in our history. To refuse to deal with them at all merely amounts to dealing with them badly. We have a given problem to solve. If we undertake the solution there is, of course, always danger that we may not solve it aright, but to refuse to undertake the solution simply renders it certain that we cannot possibly solve it aright.

      The timid man, the lazy man, the man who distrusts his country, the overcivilized man, who has lost the great fighting, masterful virtues, the ignorant man and the man of dull mind, whose soul is incapable of feeling the mighty lift that thrills "stern men with empires in their brains"－all these, of course, shrink from seeing the nation undertake its new duties; shrink from seeing us build a navy and army adequate to our needs; shrink from seeing us do our share of the world's work by bringing order out of chaos in the great, fair tropic islands from which the valor of our soldiers and sailors has driven the Spanish flag. These are the men who fear the strenuous life, who fear the only national life which is really worth leading. . . .

      I preach to you, then, my countrymen, that our country calls not for the life of ease, but for the life of strenuous endeavor. The twentieth century looms before us big with the fate of many nations. If we stand idly by, if we seek merely swollen, slothful ease, and ignoble peace, if we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at hazard of their lives and at the risk of all they hold dear, then the bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by and will win for themselves the domination of the world. Let us therefore boldly face the life of strife, resolute to do our duty well and manfully; resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and by word; resolute to be both honest and brave, to serve high ideals, yet to use practical methods. Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified; for it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness.