《智慧书·第三辑·一〇一至一五〇》第40则
Find the Good in a Thing at once. 'Tis the advantage of good taste. The bee goes to the honey for her comb, the serpent to the gall for its venom. So with taste: some seek the good, others the ill. There is nothing that has no good in it, especially in books, as giving food for thought. But many have such a scent that amid a thousand excellences they fix upon a single defect, and single it out for blame as if they were scavengers of men's minds and hearts. So they draw up a balance sheet of defects which does more credit to their bad taste than to their intelligence. They lead a sad life, nourishing themselves on bitters and battening on garbage. They have the luckier taste who midst a thousand defects seize upon a single beauty they may have hit upon by chance.
注释摘要
这则格言的标题和第一句话原是一体的：在事物中立刻发现好的一面，这就是好的品味所带来的优势。这里的关键词是“好的品味”——葛拉西安笔下的“buen gusto”，既是一种审美判断力，也是一种道德鉴别力。它不是被动地感受，而是一种主动选择朝哪个方向去看的能力。蜂往花中去采蜜，蛇向胆汁去取毒，这个对仗就是全则的核心意象：同样的对象，不同的取向，得到的是截然相反的…