写作的乐趣（3）（2/2）
《最优美的散文》作者：徐翰林 2017-04-13 16:07
generous spirits who?in every age and in every land?have fought to establish the now unquestioned freedom of the pen.
And what a noble medium the English language is.It is not possible to write a page without experiencing positive pleasure at the richness and variety?the flexibility and the profoundness of our mother?tongue.If an English writer cannot say what he has to say in English?and in simple English?depend upon it—it is probably not worth saying.What a pity it is that English is not more generally studied.I am not going to attack one who has the slightest pretension to literary tastes can be insensible to the attraction of Greece and Rome.But I confess our present educational system excites in my mind grave misgivings.I cannot believe that a system is good?or even reasonable?which thrusts upon reluctant and uncomprehending multitudes of treasures which can only be appreciated by the privi the vast majority of boys who attend our public schools a classical education is from beginning to aningless rigmarole.If I am told that classes are the best preparation for the study of English?I reply that by far the greater number of students finish their education while this preparatory stage is still incomplete and without deriving any of the benefits which are promised as its result.
And what a noble medium the English language is.It is not possible to write a page without experiencing positive pleasure at the richness and variety?the flexibility and the profoundness of our mother?tongue.If an English writer cannot say what he has to say in English?and in simple English?depend upon it—it is probably not worth saying.What a pity it is that English is not more generally studied.I am not going to attack one who has the slightest pretension to literary tastes can be insensible to the attraction of Greece and Rome.But I confess our present educational system excites in my mind grave misgivings.I cannot believe that a system is good?or even reasonable?which thrusts upon reluctant and uncomprehending multitudes of treasures which can only be appreciated by the privi the vast majority of boys who attend our public schools a classical education is from beginning to aningless rigmarole.If I am told that classes are the best preparation for the study of English?I reply that by far the greater number of students finish their education while this preparatory stage is still incomplete and without deriving any of the benefits which are promised as its result.