ESSAY, any relatively brief literary composition on a restricted topic. It is one of the principal divisions of literature—along with poetry, drama, and fiction.

随笔，关于限定话题，相对简短的任何文学作品。它与诗歌、戏剧和小说等一起都是文学的主要门类之一。

The essay as a literary genre is very broad, covering many subforms, a wide range of subject, and a variety of styles. The essay, an artistically wrought and imaginatively developed work of nonfiction, may reveal an author’s personality, express his speculations on life or events, or make a formal statement about his attitude toward a precise, objective subject. Although an essay is customarily brief, it may also be an extended formal treatise, such as John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) and Ernst Cassirer’s Essay on Man (1944). An essay is usually in prose, but there are examples in verse, such as Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism (1711) and Essay on Man (1733—1734). The term “essay” originated in the 16th century with Montaigne, who called his writings essais---that is, trials or attempts and hence tentative rather than final statements. But the form is actually far older.

随笔作为一种文学体裁非常宽泛，涵盖许多子形式，主题广泛，形式多样。随笔，在艺术上有特定风格，并在想象力上是成熟的虚构作品，可以揭示作者的个性，表达其对生活或事件的思索，或者对一个明确、客观的主题进行一番其态度的正式阐述。尽管随笔通常是简短的，但它也可以是一种扩展的正式论述，诸如约翰·洛克的《人类理解论》（1690年）和恩斯特·卡西尔的《人论》（1944年）。随笔通常归属散文，但在韵文中也有例子，比如亚历山大·蒲柏的《论批评》（1711年）和《人论》（1733年至1734年）。“随笔”一词，源自16世纪的蒙田，他称他的作品为随笔---换句话说，是试验或尝试，因此是试验性的，而不是最终的陈述。不过这种形式实际上要古老得多。

Types. Attempts to classify the types of essays have had only limited success, for a literary mode as protean as the essay can assume an almost endless number of forms. There are two principal kinds of essays: formal and informal. Informal essays are brief, discursive, highly personal and individual statements that are conversational in tone and loose in structure. Formal essays are longer, more tightly organized expositions of personal opinions or attitudes on specific and impersonal subjects. Sharper distinctions than these are arbitrary and usually deal more with subject matter or style than with literary form. Often, but by no means always, the informal essay is considered the only one that may be regarded a truly literary type.

类型 想对随笔进行分类的尝试收获不大，因为作为像随笔一样千变万化的文学模式可以设想几乎有无数的形式。但随笔有两种主要形式：正式的和非正式的。非正式随笔简短、散漫、高度个人化，而且陈述独特，因此它口语化，结构松散。正式随笔更长，对表达个人见解或特定且客观主题的态度要更为严谨。相比那些武断的陈述区别更为明显，通常是更多地涉及主题事物或风格，而非文学形式。

In the informal essay the emphasis is placed on the revelation of some aspect of the personality of the author. Informal essays range from brief observations—such as La Rochefoucauld’s Maxims (1665), which are sometimes only a sentence in length—to extended and elaborate treatments of a subject—such as Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (1854), a full-length book. But almost all informal essays are characterized by a marked personal element, a suggestive rather than formal or analytical treatment of the subject, an informal structure, a graceful style that appears to be effortless, and a conscious striving for literary effect. The informal essay is the most urbane and civilized of literary forms. Its best examples are graceful ruminations of persons of wit, learning, and good humor, presenting the play of well-trained, speculative minds on events and persons. It attempts to convey a mood and an attitude, to persuade without argument and to entertain without strain.

在非正式随笔中，重点在于揭示作者个性的某些方面。非正式随笔出自简单的观察—如拉罗什福科的《箴言集》（1665年），有时仅仅是扩展和详细阐述主题的一个长句子，又如亨利·大卫·梭罗的《瓦尔登湖》（1854年），有时是一本完整的书。但几乎所有非正式随笔都是以个人因素为特征的，一种对主题揭示性的，而非正式或分析的阐述，一种非正式的结构，一种看起来不费力的优雅风格，以及一种有意识追求的文学效果。非正式随笔是最文雅，最文明的文学形式。它的最佳例子是人的智慧、学识和机智幽默的优雅沉思，呈现出对事件和人物训练有素，深思熟虑的思想把握。

Certain general subcategories of informal essays may be made, although they are not mutually exclusive. The familiar, or personal, essay presents an aspect of the writer’s personality as he reacts to an experience, object, or event, usually in a light, conversational tone and with a structure apparently determined by patterns of association—although the “formlessness” of the familiar essay is often a deceptive mask for skillful organization. The familiar essay strives to be what Virginia Woolf said of Montaigne’s work—a “talking of oneself, following one’s own vagaries, giving the whole maps, weight, colour and circumference of the soul in its confusion, its variety, its imperfection.” The character essay describes a representative person in term of a dominant trait, and it thus becomes a personal, and often witty and satiric, comment on a class or a type.

某些非正式随笔可能会出现一般的子分类，尽管它们并不相互排斥。即常见的随笔，或个性化的随笔，当作者对经历、对象或事件做出反应时，随笔便会呈现出他个性的某个方面，通常是以轻松、谈话的语气，而结构显然是由联想模式决定的---虽然非正式随笔的“无形”常常是一种对巧妙组织的迷惑性掩饰。常见的随笔力图达到弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙对蒙田作品评价的目标那样---一种“谈论自身，遵循作者自己的奇思妙想，迷失的灵魂、多样性、不完善中为灵魂给出整体的图样、重量、色彩和周长”。人物随笔根据一种主导特征来描述代表性的人物，因而它就成为了个人的，而且常常是风趣的和讽刺的，是对一个种类或一种类型的评论。

An informal essay may be a narrative, a description, an anecdote, a reflection, a dream, a piece of whimsical extrapolation, and exemplum, or any of various other things. What all these kinds of essay share is their personal, almost confessional, quality. What the author thinks about the subject matters more than the subject itself, and how he EXPRESSES that attitude is the essence of the art of the piece.

非正式随笔可以是一种叙述、描述、轶事、反思、梦想、一个异想天开的推断和例证，或者任何不同的其它事情。所有这些类型的随笔所分享的都是它们自身几乎自白的特性。作者对主题事物的思考要比主题本身更重，而他如何表达这种态度才是这一艺术的本质。

The formal essay has logical structure, dignity, and seriousness of purpose. It may be critical, examining and passing judgment on works of art or events of history. It may be scientific, presenting the results of experiment or observation. It may be philosophic, dealing with moral, religious, educational, social, or political issues. In the strictest sense, the formal essay, like the informal, needs to be shaped by an attitude and a special point of view but with less emphasis on the author than in the informal essay. For example, although Charles Lamb is no more present in his informal Essays of Elia (1823) than Matthew Arnold is in his formal Essays in Criticism (1865),Lamb in a sense is the subject of his essay, whereas Arnold is not of his. The formal essay should also have greater dignity and scope, firmer organization, and greater earnestness of purpose. The term “formal essay” is often applied, though with questionable appropriateness, to expository or descriptive pieces that are factual and objective—such as the 20th century magazine article—or that present reasoned opinions—such as editorials.

正式随笔具有逻辑结构、尊严和目的的严肃性。它可能是评论的，对艺术作品或历史事件进行审视和给予判定。它可能是科学的，呈现出实验或观察的结果。它可能是哲学的，应对道德、宗教、教育、社会或者政治问题。在最严格的意义上，正式随笔，像非正式随笔一样，需要通过一种态度和特殊的观点来塑造，但相比非正式随笔要更少地强调作者。例如，虽然查尔斯·兰姆在他非正式的《伊利亚随笔集》（1823年）中并不比马修·阿诺德在他正式的《评论的随笔》（1865年）中出现的多，但在某种意义上，兰姆是他随笔的主题，而阿诺德却不是。正式随笔还应当具有更大的尊严和视野，更坚实的架构，以及更重要的目的。尽管适当性还存在疑问，但“正式随笔”这个词会经常被用于陈述或描述事实和客观的作品---如20世纪杂志的文章---或者提出理性的观点---如社论。

Two qualities seem to be essential to the essay, whether formal or informal: the presentation of a personal point of view and the conscious striving for grace of EXPRESSION.

对于随笔而言，有两个特性似乎是必不可少的，无论是正式随笔或非正式随笔：对个人观点的陈述和有意识地追求优雅的表达。

Forerunners. The essay had a long prehistory if Montaigne is considered its father. In the Bible it is found in the Book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Ecclesiasticus, as well as in the discourse of the prophets and of Jesus. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (121—180) are aphoristic essays, as are the Colloquies (1519) of Erasmus, the Maxims (1665) of La Rochefoucauld, and Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac (1732—1757). The philosophical treatises, dialogues, and letter of the classical world adumbrate the essay to the extent that they embody personal EXPRESION on their subjects.

先行者 如果蒙田被认为是随笔之父的话，那么随笔已具有了很长史前史。在《圣经》中它就出现在《箴言》，《传道书》和《便西拉智训》中，也出现在先知和耶稣的话语中。马可·奥里利乌斯的《沉思录》（121年至180年）都是格言的随笔，就像伊拉斯谟的《对话录》(1519年 )，拉罗什福科的《箴言集》(1665年)，以及本杰明·富兰克林的《穷查理年鉴》（1732年至1757年）。哲学论述、对话以及古典世界的书信在某种程度上预示着随笔在它们的主题上达到了他们体现的个人表达。

The Greek philosopher Theophrastus —c.287 B. C.) is reputed to be the author of a group of characters, brief sketches describing representative personages who typify some definite quality. These characters have had a long and rich history. The method was used by Plutarch, Thucydides, and Tacitus as a means of portraying historical personages. In the Middle Ages the character was often used in sermons to illustrate virtues, vices, and other attributes. It was also adopted by Cotton Mather in Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), a history of New England with word portraits of its great men.

希腊哲学家西奥弗拉斯托斯（大约公元前370年至大约287年）作为一群人物形象的作者而著名，他描述了具有某些明确特性代表人物的简洁素描。这些人物形象具有悠久而丰富的历史。这一方法曾被普鲁塔克，修昔底德和塔西陀作为描绘历史人物的一种手段。在中世纪，这个人物形象常常被用于布道，说明美德、罪恶以及其它的属性。它还被科顿·马瑟在《美利坚伟大的基督》中采用，是一部记载着伟大人物肖像的新英格兰历史。

The critical essay had its prototypes in the work of the classical authors Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Quintilian, and Longinus, all of whom presented ideas about art and life in dialogues, orations, and letters. Early forms of reflective writing include those by the classical authors Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch, and Aulus Gellius. De consolation philosophiae by Boethius —524 A. D.) was an influential meditation of the search for truth.

评论随笔在柏拉图，亚里士多德，贺拉斯，昆体良和朗吉努斯古典作者的作品中有其雏形。他们都用对话、演讲和书信的方式表达艺术与生活的观念。早期反思性写作的形式包括西塞罗、塞内卡、普鲁塔克和奥鲁斯·格利乌斯古典作者的那些作品。波伊提乌（大约公元480年至524年）的《哲学的慰藉》是对寻找真理有影响力的深思。

In the early Renaissance various forms of essayistic prose appeared, particularly in the vernacular. There was extensive critical writing, notably by the 16th century Italian scholar Julius Caesar Scaliger and his son Joseph Justus. The Cambridge Humanists of 16th century England produced works that foreshadowed the essay, including Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516), Sir Thomas Elyot’s The Boke Named the Governour (1531), and Roger Ascham’s Toxophilus (1545) and The Scholemaster (1570). English critical works of distinction included Sir Philip Sidney’s Defence of Poesie (1595), the first major critical essay in the language.

在文艺复兴的早期，出现了各种形式的随笔式散文，尤其是以本国语言写成的。有大量的评论性写作，特别是16世纪意大利学者尤利乌斯·凯撒·斯卡利格和他的儿子约瑟夫·贾斯特斯。16世纪英格兰剑桥的人文学者创作的作品预示了这类随笔，包括托马斯·莫尔爵士的《乌托邦》（1545年），托马斯·埃利奥特的《被指定为总督的波克》（1531年），以及罗杰·阿斯卡姆的《箭术爱好》和《教师手册》（1570年）。著名的英国评论性作品包括菲利普·西德尼爵士的《为诗歌辩护》，是英文第一篇重要的评论随笔。

Beginnings. The essay as a self-conscious genre began with the publication of the first two volumes of Montaigne’s Essais in 1580 (a THIRD volume appeared in 1588). Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, a lawyer, courtier, and politician, upon his retirement from active life devoted himself to study and reflection. Following a fashion of the time, he collected pithy sayings, anecdotes, and quotations from the classics, grouping them under single topics, such as Lecons morales. Then he began recording the results of his self-analysis, making brief statement of a highly personal and tentative nature, interlarded with aphorisms and quotations on a great variety of subjects—“On Liars,” “On Smells and Odors,” “On Presumption,” “On the Art of conversation,” “On Books,” “On Friendship,” and many others. Montaigne’s Essays constitute an urbane body of autobiography, “Myself am the groundwork of my book,” he said.

开端 随笔作为一种自我意识的体裁始于1580年（一套三卷本于1588年发行）蒙田《随笔集》前两卷的出版。米歇尔·德·蒙田，一位律师、朝臣和政治家，从职业生涯退休后将自己投身于研究和反思之中。追随时代的时尚，他收集了精炼谚语、奇闻轶事和经典语录，将它们分成单一的主题，诸如《论道德》。然后他开始记录他自我分析的结果，进行高度个人的和试验性质的简短陈述，将格言和语录融入各种各样的主题---“论撒谎”，“论气味”，“论傲慢”，“论交谈的艺术”，“论书籍”，“论友谊”以及许多其它的题目。蒙田的《随笔集》构成了一本文雅的自传，他说“我自己就是我书籍的基础”。

The translation of Montaigne’s Essays into English by John Florio in 1603 made Montaigne a major influence on English writing. However, before Florio’s translation, Sir Francis Bacon had published his first collection of aphoristic “meditations,” calling them, after Montaigne, Essays (1597; revised and enlarged in 1612 and 1625). Bacon was working largely from classical models. He cited Seneca’s Letters to Lucilius as an example of what he was doing. Highly aphoristic in style, impersonal in tone, compact and clear in structure, these essays had as their purpose the giving of useful advice about practical affairs. As the 19th century English essayist Thomas Babington Macaulay noted, it was not Bacon’s purpose to make men perfect, but to make imperfect men comfortable. He may aptly be called the father of the modern formal essay.

1603年，约翰·弗洛里奥把蒙田的《随笔集》译成了英文，使蒙田对英国写作产生了重要影响。然而，在翻译之前，弗朗西斯·培根爵士已经出版了他的第一本格言集“沉思”，在蒙田之后称它们为《随笔集》（1597年；在1612年至1625年间修订并增补）。在很大程度上，培根是基于古典的模式。他引用塞内卡给鲁西利乌斯的书信作为他写作的例子。极富格言风格，语气客观，结构简洁而清晰，这些随笔的目的就是对具体事务给出有用的忠告。正如19世纪英国随笔作家托马斯·巴宾顿·麦考利指出的那样，使人完美，这并不是培根的目的，目的是使不完美的人舒畅。因此，我们可以恰当地称他为现代正式随笔之父。

The 17th century. The 17th century produced many essayists who followed the example of these two masters. Owen Felltham’s Resolves (1620) applies Bacon’s methods to religious matters. Sir William Cornwallis’ Essays (1600) follow Montaigne’s method. James Howell’s Epistolae Ho-Elianae (1645—1655) mingles fact with fiction. Sir Thomas Browne’s Religio Medici (1643) and Hydriotaphia, or Urn Burial (1658) are formal essays in a sonorous style. Ben Johnson’s Timber, or Discoveries Made Upon Men and Matter (1641) consists of miscellaneous sketches in the informal mode, as does Sir William Temple’s Miscellanea (1680—1701). The essays of Abraham Cowley, posthumously published in 1668, are particularly happy and graceful efforts.

17世纪 17世纪产生了许多效法这两位大师的随笔作家。欧文·费尔萨姆的《决定》（1620年）将培根的方法应用于宗教事物中。威廉·康沃利斯爵士的《随笔集》（1600年）追随着蒙田的方法。詹姆斯·豪厄尔的《私人信札》 （1645年至1655年）将虚构与事实混合在一起。托马斯·布朗爵士的《医生的宗教》（1643年）和《Hydriotaphia》或称《瓮葬》（1658年）都是响亮风格的正式随笔。本·约翰逊的《木料》，或《人类与物质的发现》（1641年）包含了非正式模式多方面的素描，正如威廉·坦普尔爵士的《杂集》一样（1680年至1701年）。亚伯拉罕·考利去世后于1668年出版的随笔都是特别快乐和优雅的努力。

John Milton was a master of the formal essay as political pamphlet, notably in Areopagitica (1644), Of Education (1644), and Of the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649). In France, Pierre Corneille’s Discourse on the THREE Unities (1660) was an important critical essay and Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux was a profound influence through his verse essays on the classical unities, notably L’art poetique (1674). In England, John Dryden’s Of Dramatick Poesy, an Essay (1668) was but one of his several important critical statements, usually prefaces to his translations and plays.

约翰·弥尔顿是一位政治小册子正式随笔的大师，特别是在《论出版自由》（1644年），《论教育》（1644年）以及《论君王与地方官的任期》（1649年）中的论述。在法国，皮埃尔·科尔内耶的《论三一律》（1660）是一篇重要的评论随笔，而尼古拉斯·波瓦洛-德彼雷奥通过他的韵文随笔对经典三一律产生了深远的影响，尤其是《诗学的艺术》（1674年）。在英格兰，约翰·德莱顿的（1668年）《论戏剧化的诗，一篇随笔》，只是他的一些重要评述，通常是他的译著和戏剧的序言。

The most important development of the 17th century was the English adaptation of the Theophrastian character. Joseph Hall published Characters of Virtues and Vices (1606), which was followed in 1614 by the posthumous publication of Characters by Sir Thomas Overbury. In 1628, John Earle published a popular collection, Micro-cosmographie. Samuel Butler also composed a collection of characters, but they were not published until 1759. In France, La Bruyere produced Les Caracteres… ou les moeur de ce Siecle (1688), an influential work. By the 18th century, however, the character as a distinctive type was being blended with other essay forms.

17世纪最重要的发展是英国对西奥弗拉斯蒂安人物的改编。约瑟夫·霍尔出版了《美德与罪恶的特征》（1606年），随后是1614年在托马斯·奥弗柏利爵士死后出版了他的《人物》。1628年，约翰·厄尔出版了一部受欢迎的合集《微观宇宙》。塞缪尔·巴特勒也创作了一部人物合集，但它们直到1759年才出版。在法国，拉布吕耶尔创作了《品格论… 或世纪风俗》（1688年），是一部有影响力的作品。然而，到了18世纪，作为一种独特类型的人物已与其它随笔形式融为了一体。

Development of the Periodical. In the late 17th and 18th centuries the development of the periodical brought to bear on the essay a new influence that has proved second in importance only to that of Montaigne and Bacon. The development of newspapers and magazines proved to be a healthy and hungry medium for the essay, greatly increased its popularity, expanded its audience, and moved its appeal from an essentially aristocratic audience to the middle class. By their format and editorial policies periodicals exercised great control on the form and content of the essay.

期刊的发展 在17世纪末和18世纪，期刊的发展给随笔施加了新的影响，因而证明了仅次于蒙田和培根的重要性。对随笔来说，报纸和杂志的发展证明是健康和渴望的媒介，极大地增加了它的普及，扩大了它的观众，并且将它的吸引力从实质上的贵族观众转移到中产阶级。通过它们的格式和编辑政策，期刊对随笔的形式和内容形成了很好的掌控。

As early as 1620 a periodical pamphlet was published in Amsterdam. In 1638 a newsbook was licensed in England, and it was followed by a series of pamphlets devoted as much to controversy as to the news. In 1691, Dunston’s Athenian Gazette, designed to entertain and instruct, first appeared. A feature of Daniel Defoe’s Weekly Review (1704) was a department called “Advice from the Scandalous Club.”

早在1620年，一种期刊小册子就在阿姆斯特出版。1638年英格兰批准了一份报刊，接着出现了一系列有很多争议的不亚于新闻的小册子。1691年，目的在于娱乐和指导的邓斯顿《雅典公报》首次发行。丹尼尔·笛福《每周评论》中的一个专题节目被称为“来自丑闻俱乐部的忠告”。

The wedding of essay and periodical was complete with the twice-weekly publication of The Tatler (1709—1711), an essay-periodical founded by Sir Richard Steele, who was soon joined by Joseph Addison. Each issue consisted of an essay whose purpose, in Steele’s words, was “to recommend truth, innocence, honor, virtue, as the chief ornament of life.” The editor in 1711 launched the daily periodical The Spectator, of which 555 numbers appeared before it ceased publication in 1712. It was briefly revived by Addison in 1714. It published serious essays on topics such as death, marriage, and education; occasional pieces dealing with “the folly, extravagance, and caprice of the present age”; critical essays; and familiar essays of humor and graceful informality on a host of topics. A series of Spectator papers about a fictional baronet, Roger de Coverley, and his friends successfully merged the 17th century character with the familiar essay.

随笔与期刊的结合是伴随着一周两期的《闲谈者》（1709年至1711年）的出版完成的，由理查德·斯蒂尔爵士创办的一个随笔期刊，不久约瑟夫·艾迪生加入进来。每期都包括一篇有意图的随笔，用斯蒂尔的话就是“把真理、清白、荣誉、美德作为生命主要的装饰”。1711年，编辑开办了每日期刊《旁观者》，在1712年停刊前共发行了555期。1714年艾迪生短时间地恢复了它。它发表了涉及死亡、婚姻和教育话题的严肃随笔；文章偶尔涉及到“当时的愚蠢、奢侈以及任性”；涉及到评论随笔；以及涉及到常见的幽默随笔和优雅的非正式的许多话题。《旁观者》报的一系列有关虚构的准男爵罗杰·德·柯夫雷和他的朋友们，成功地将17世纪的人物与常见的随笔融合在一起。

The great success of The Tatler and The Spectator led to the publication of many other essay-periodicals, including The Guardian in England, the Mercure and the Spectator Francais in France, and similar journals in Zurich, Hamburg, and Leipzig. Samuel Johnson produced distinguished informal essays in The Rambler (1750-1752) and in the Idler papers (1758—1760). Oliver Goldsmith contributed essays to The Bee (1759), and his Chinese Letter in the Public Ledger (1760---1761)—published in 1762 as The Citizen of the World—is a charming series of familiar essays in which a Chinese philosopher writes home about English life and manners. This device had been used by the French author and philosopher Montesquieu in his Lettres Persanes (1721) and was later adopted in America by William Wirt in The Letters of the British Spy (1803) and by James Fenimore Cooper in Notions of the Americans (1828), supposedly written by an Englishman.

《闲谈者》和《旁观者》的巨大成功导致了许多其它随笔期刊的出版，包括英格兰的《卫报》，法国的《墨丘利》和《法国旁观者》，以及在苏黎世、汉堡和莱比锡相同的期刊。塞缪尔·约翰逊在《漫步者》（1750年至1752年）和《闲人》报（1758年至1760年）上发表了杰出的非正式随笔。奥里弗·哥尔德斯密斯把随笔投给《蜜蜂》（1759年），而他在《大众纪事报》（1760年至1761年）上发表的《中国人来信》---1762年出版的《世界公民》---是一系列熟悉而迷人的随笔，其中一位中国哲学家写家信谈到了英国的生活和礼节。这是法国作家和哲学家孟德斯鸠在其《波斯人信札》（1721年）中曾用过的方法，后来在美国被威廉·沃特用于《英国间谍的信件》（1803年），以及被詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库柏用于《美国人观念》（1828年）中，据推测，是由一位英国人写的。

Other 18th century English writers of essays included Jonathan Swift, Lord Chesterfield, Horace Walpole, and Alexander Pope. Pope’s verse Epistles and Imitations of Horace were almost as nearly informal essays—with substantial satiric bite—as his occasional pieces in The Guardian. By the end of the century the busy concern with man’s exterior world, which had been the enlivening subject of the essay-periodicals, was giving way to the revival of interest in the self which marked the romantic movement.

18世纪其他的英国随笔作家包括乔纳森·斯威夫特，查斯特菲尔德勋爵，贺拉斯·沃波尔，以及亚历山大·蒲柏。蒲柏的韵文诗《书信集》和贺拉斯的《模仿》几乎都是非正式随笔---带有明显的讽刺意味---如同他在《卫报》上偶尔发表的文章一样。到本世纪末，对人类外部世界的忙碌关注，这一直是随笔期刊有生命力的主题，但这正在让位于标志着浪漫主义运动的对自我兴趣的复兴。

The 19th century. The 19th century was rich in essays. Both formal and informal. The development in England of major critical journals, especially the Edinburgh Review (1802—1929), the Quarterly Review (1809-- ), the West-minster Review (1824—1914), Fraser’s (1830—1882), Macmillan’s (1859—1907), and the Cornhill Magazine (1860—1930, encouraged the long critical essay. Most of the major British essayist included Sir Walter Scott, Francis Jeffrey, John Wilson (pseudonym Christopher North), Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Matthew Arnold, and Thomas H. Huxley. These and other 19th century writers gave England the greatest amount of formal criticism of art, literature, history, politics, religion, and social problems that the nation has ever had. And they raised the formal essay, often called the review-essay, to a major art form. Similar journals in the United States, with equally distinguished contributors, included the North American Review (1815—1940), the Southern Quarterly Review (1842—1857), Harper’s (1850-- ), and the Atlantic Monthly (1857-- ).

19世纪 19世纪的随笔创作是丰富的。正式随笔与非正式随笔都是如此。在英格兰，重要评论期刊的发展，特别是《爱丁堡评论》（1802年至1929年），《评论季刊》（1809年至 ），《威斯-敏斯特评论》（1824年至1914年，《弗雷泽》（1830年至1882年），《麦克米伦》（1859年至1907年）以及《康希尔杂志》（1860年至1930年）都鼓励长篇的评论随笔。英国的大多数随笔作家，包括沃尔特·斯科特爵士，弗朗西斯·杰弗里，约翰·威尔逊（笔名克里斯多夫·诺斯），托马斯·卡莱尔，托马斯·巴宾顿·麦考利，马休·阿诺德以及托马斯·H. 赫胥黎。这些作家和19世纪的作家们对英格兰这个国家有史以来的艺术、文学、历史、政治、宗教以及社会问题给予了大量的正式评论。他们将正式随笔，通常称为评论随笔，提升为一种主要的艺术形式。在美国有类似的期刊，也有同样杰出的作者，包括《北美评论》（1842年至1857年），《哈珀》（1850年 ）和《大西洋月刊》（1857年至 ）。

At the same time, the personal essay was also developing a special relaxed quality and familiar tone in the hands of some of its greatest practitioners, such as Charles Lamb, whose Essays of Elia (1823) exhibited intimate style, auto-biographical interest, light humor and sentiment, urbanity, and grace and are among the favorite essays of all time. Others working with distinction as familiar essayists were William Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, Thomas De Quincey, and Walter Savage Landor—whose Imaginary conversations (1824—1853) revived the character essay to present historical personages.

同时，个人随笔在一些最杰出的实践者手中也发展出一种特别轻松的特质和熟悉的基调，诸如查尔斯·兰姆，他的《伊利亚随笔集》（1823年）表现出亲密的风格，自传体的趣味，轻松幽默而且多情、雅致和优雅，它们一直都是最受喜爱的随笔。其他出色的随笔作家还有威廉·赫兹里特，利·亨特，托马斯·德·昆西，还有沃尔特·萨维奇·兰道---他的《想象的对话》（1824年至1853年）为人物随笔展现历史人物注入了活力。

Alexander Smith’s “On the Writing of Essays,” which was published in Dreamthorp in 1863, was a graceful study of the genre. In addition to the review-essays, several 19th century poets wrote important critical essays—notably William Wordsworth in his preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800), Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Biographia Literaria (1817), and Shelley in his Defence of Poetry (1821). The Oxford Movement, between 1833 and 1841, produced 90 religious essays in the form of pamphlets, known as Tracts for the Times. Among the authors were John Keble, Edward Bouverie Pusey, and John Henry Newman. Some novelists also wrote essays. Charles Dickens produced Sketches by Boz (1836); William Makepeace Thackeray, The Roundabout Papers (1860—1863); and George Eliot, IMPRESSIONS of Theophrastus Such (1879).

亚历山大·史密斯的《论随笔的写作》，于1863在《梦想之路》上发表，是对这种体裁的优雅研究。除了评论随笔之外，一些19世纪的诗人也写作了重要的评论随笔---特别是威廉·华兹华斯在他的《抒情诗集》（1800年）的前言中，塞缪尔·泰勒·柯勒律治在《文学传记》（1817年）中，以及雪莱在他的《为诗辩护》（1821年）中。在1833年到1841年之间的牛津运动中，以小册子形式产生了90篇宗教随笔，被称为《时论册集》。其中的作者有约翰·基布尔，爱德华·包法利·蒲赛，以及约翰·亨利·纽曼。一些小说家也写随笔。查尔斯·狄更斯创作了《博兹速写》（1836年）；威廉·梅克比斯·萨克雷写作了《拐弯抹角的随笔》（1860年至1863年）；还有乔治·艾略特写作的《西奥弗拉斯托斯如是之印象》（1879年）。

Toward the end of the century appeared two other distinguished essayists, Walter Pater and Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson practiced all the essay forms, but he was, with Lamb, one of the two great 19th century English stylists in the familiar essay. In France a group of important critics used the formal essay. Hippolyte Taine, Ferdinand Brunetiere, Anatole France, and particularly Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, whose long critical essays have had great influence in both England and America.

到了世纪末出现了其他两位杰出的随笔作家，沃尔特·佩特和罗伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森。史蒂文森实践过所有的随笔形式，但他与兰姆一起，他在我们熟悉的随笔中是19世纪两位重要的文体家之一。在法国，一群重要的评论家使用过正式随笔。伊波利特·丹纳，费迪南德·布吕纳介，阿纳托尔·法朗士，尤其是查尔斯·奥古斯丁·圣伯夫，他们的长篇随笔对英格兰和美国都产生了极大的影响。

America. The essay was also a major form in America in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Benjamin Franklin in numerous essays—notably The Dogood Papers (1722), modeled on Cotton Mather’s Essays to Do Good (1710), his pamphlets during the Revolution; and his light, witty “bagatelles”—was the chief essayist of the 18th century America. His supremacy was challenged only by the formal essays of Jonathan Edwards. Washington Irving wrote graceful and genial essays all his life, from his contributions to Salmagundi (1807-1808) to The Sketch Book (1820), which won him international fame, and was followed by several volumes of essays, ending with Wolfert’s Roost (1855).

美国 在18世纪末和19世纪的美国，随笔也是一种主要形式。本杰明·富兰克林写过很多随笔---特别是《做好你的文章》（1722年），模仿了科顿·马瑟在革命时期的小册子《论行善》（1701年），还有他轻松、诙谐的“琐事”---他是18世纪美国重要的随笔作家。他至高无上的地位只受到过乔纳森·爱德华兹正式随笔的挑战。华盛顿·欧文一生写的随笔优雅而亲切，他的贡献从《大杂烩》（1807年至1808年）到《见闻札记》（1820年），让他赢得了国际名望，接下来是几卷随笔，最后以《沃尔夫特的栖息处》收笔。

Ralph Waldo Emerson became the best known of American essayists for his writings on transcendentalism, Henry David Thoreau, produced extended informal essay of great literary merit, the most notable being Walden (1854) and the most influential being On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849). Oliver Wendell Holmes produced witty familiar essays in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858) and succeeding volumes. James Russell Lowell and Edgar Allan Poe wrote important critical essays.

拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生因他的超验主义作品成为了美国最著名的随笔作家，亨利·大卫·梭罗，创作了具有重要文学价值的长篇非正式随笔，最值得注意的是《瓦尔登湖》（1854年）和最具影响力的《论公民不服从的义务》（1849年）。奥利弗·温德尔·赫姆斯创作了诙谐熟悉的随笔《早餐桌上的独裁者》（1858年）以及随后的卷本。詹姆斯·拉塞尔·洛威尔和埃德加·爱伦·坡，都曾写过重要的评论随笔。

Two novelists who produced substantial bodies of critical work were William Dean Howells, particularly in Criticism and Fiction (1891) and My Literary Passions (1895), and Henry James, a prolific essayist on the subjects of travel, art, and literature, whose prefaces to the New York edition of his works (1907—1909) combine with great urbanity the familiar and the critical essay. S. M. Crothers and Agnes Repplier were popular and voluminous writers of familiar essays. Mark Twain raised the humorous essay to a high art.

两位创作了大量评论性作品的小说家是威廉·迪恩·豪威尔斯，特别是在《批评与小说》（1891年）和《我的文学激情》（1895年）中，而亨利·詹姆斯，是一位以旅行、艺术和文学为主题的多产随笔作家，在他的作品纽约版的前言中将熟悉的都市风格与评论随笔结合在一起。S. M. 克罗瑟斯和阿格尼丝·雷普利尔都是人们熟悉的，很受欢迎的长篇随笔作家。马克·吐温将幽默随笔提升为了一种极其高雅的艺术。

The 20th Century. Essays of all kinds continued to be written in England and America in the 20th century, although the informal essay seemed to be greatly reduced in popularity and the formal essay to have lost some of its more distinctively literary qualities. In America Paul Elmer More’s critical essays were collected in 14 volumes as The Shelburne Essays (1904—1935). The philosopher George Santayana’s Obiter Scripta (1936) are urbane essays. During the early decades of the century, H. L. Mencken wrote many slashing and amusing pieces of social and literary criticism, a role in which Bernard De Vote followed him. Christopher Morley was a skilled and witty stylist, as was E. B. White, and Edmund Wilson was a critic who worked IMPRESSIVELY in the tradition of Sainte-Beuve. James Thurber was one of the great humorous essayists, as was Robert Benchley. British-born poet W. H. Auden, who became an American citizen in 1941, was also a fine essayist.

20世纪 在20世纪，英格兰和美国的各种随笔创作一直在持续，尽管非正式随笔受欢迎的情况已大为减弱，而且正式随笔也已失去了它某些更特殊的文学品质。在美国，保罗·埃尔默·莫尔的评论随笔被汇集成14卷的《谢尔本随笔集》（1904年至1935的年）。哲学家乔治·桑塔耶拿的《附言》（1936年）都是些温文尔雅的随笔。在那个世纪的前十年，H. L. 门肯写作了许多有关社会和文学评论尖锐而有趣的文章，伯纳德·德·沃特紧随其后成为其中的一员。像E. B. 怀特一样，克里斯托夫·莫利也是一位熟练而诙谐的文体家，而埃德蒙·威尔逊则是一位在圣伯夫传统上令人印象深刻的评论家。像罗伯特·本奇利一样，詹姆斯·瑟伯也是重要的幽默随笔作家之一。英国出生的诗人W. H. 奥登，1941年成为了美国公民，也是一位出色的随笔作家。

Essayists of the second half of the 20th century include Mary McCarthy, Norman Mailer, James Baldwin, Herbert Gold, and John Updike. These authors demonstrate in their essays that the form is still vigorous and various in its tones and subject matter in America.

20世纪后半叶的随笔作家包括玛丽·麦卡锡，诺曼·梅勒，詹姆斯·鲍德温，赫伯特·戈尔德和约翰·厄普代克。这些作者在他们的随笔中证明，在美国，随笔这一形式在其基调和主题事物方面依然是有力而多样的。

In England the number of essayists is IMPRESSIVE. It includes Max Beerbohm, G. K. Chesterton, Virginia Wolf, E. M. Forster, D. H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, Robert Graves, George Orwell, Stephen Spender, and American-born T. S. Eliot---perhaps the leading writer of critical essays in English in the 20th century. These writers supplied readers with essays of distinction, intelligence, and variety.

在英格兰，随笔作家的数量令人印象深刻。这包括麦克斯·比尔博姆，G. K.切斯特顿，弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙，E. M.福斯特，D. H.劳伦斯，奥尔德斯·赫胥黎，罗伯特·格雷夫斯，乔治·奥威尔，史蒂芬·斯彭德，还有美国出生的T. S.艾略特---也许是20世纪英语评论随笔的主要作家。

New Forms. Since the 18th century, the essay has assumed a shape and tone dictated in part by its chief modes of dissemination. The impact of magazines like The Criterion, Scrutiny, and Encounter upon the British essay in the 20th century has been incalculably great. Similarly the New Yorker magazine has revitalized the familiar essay in America, and the New York Review of Books, Commentary, Harper’s and the Atlantic Monthly have encouraged the highly literate formal essay. But as new form of communication began replacing the magazine in the mid-20th century, it was feared by some that the literate intelligence of forms of writing like the essay would be lost.

新形式 从18世纪开始，随笔在一定程度上便承担了由其主要传播方式决定的形式和基调。像《标准》、《调查》和《邂逅》这样的杂志对20世纪英国随笔的影响极其重大。同样，《纽约人》杂志让熟悉的随笔在美国焕发了生机，而《纽约书评》，《评论》，《哈珀》和《大西洋月刊》也鼓励了有高度文化素养的正式随笔。但伴随着交流的新形式开始替代20世纪中叶的杂志，一些人担心会丢失像随笔这样写作形式的文化智慧。

Such fears were probably unfounded, however, for as the mass communications media developed, appropriate substitutes for the essay were being found. For example, American newscaster Eric Sevareid in his television commentaries bring many of the qualities customarily associated with the best essay tradition into the homes of millions, and sportscaster Heyward Hale Broun’s commentaries are true descendants of The Spectator papers.

然而，这样的担心可能毫无根据，因为随着大众交流媒介的发展，正在建立合适的随笔替代品。例如，美国新闻评论人埃里克·塞瓦赖德在其电视评论中将许多传统上最好的随笔传统具有的品质带入了千家万户，而体育节目主持人海沃德·哈勒·布龙的评论是《旁观者》真正的后代。

The essential characteristics of the essay—clarity, grace, good humor, wit, personal attribute of urbanity and tolerance, all badly needed in any age—still survive and will continue to find the essay, either in its traditional forms or in mutations of them, a meaningful vehicle for the sane, calm grace of the literate mind. If the history of the essay teaches us anything, it is that the essay at its best reflects a civilized mind and that the forms of its reflection have changed and will change without losing the essence of the genre.

随笔的基本特征---清晰、优雅、富于幽默、智慧、雅致与宽容的个人属性，这在任何时代都非常需要---它们依然存在并会继续与随笔为伴，无论是其传统形式或是它们的变化形式，一种意味深长的、理智的、有文化的、平静而优雅的精神载体。假如随笔的历史教会了我们什么，那就是处于最佳状态的随笔反映了一种文明的观念，而且其反映的形式已经改变，而且还会改变，但不会丢失这种体裁的精髓。

C. HUGH HOLMAN

University of North Carolina

Coauthor of “A Handbook to Literature”

C. 休·霍尔曼

北卡罗莱纳大学

“文学手册”的合著者

2021年6月24日译

(译者注：该词条位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第10卷，第589页至592页)