《智慧书·第一辑·一至五十》第48则
Be Thorough. How much depends on the person. The interior must be at least as much as the exterior. There are natures all frontage, like houses that for want of means have the portico of a palace leading to the rooms of a cottage. It is no use boring into such persons, although they bore you, for conversation flags after the first salutation. They prance through the first compliments like Sicilian barbs, but silence soon succeeds, for the flow of words soon ceases where there is no spring of thoughts. Others may be taken in by them because they themselves have but a view of the surface, but not the prudent, who look within them and find nothing there except material for scorn.
注释摘要
这一则的标题与正文实为一体：Be Thorough 说的是一个人必须表里如一、底子扎实，而正文随即用最尖锐的比喻把这句话翻了过来——有些人就像一座徒有宫殿门廊的村舍，正面看着气派恢弘，走进去却只有四壁空空的陋室。葛拉西安用了一个建筑学的类比：portico of a palace leading to the rooms of a cottage。这不是说…