Unit 6 Free Time Activities 闲暇活动 passage (2/4)

Hints:

dormant-powder

Emerson

Shakespeare

Homer

Dante

 

The greatest advantage of books does not always come from what we remember of them, but from their suggestiveness. A good book often serves as a match to light the dormant-powder within us. There is explosive material enough in most of us if we can only reach it. A good book or good friend often excites thought in great writers, even upon entirely different subjects. We often find in books what we thought and felt, could we have expressed ourselves. Indeed, we get acquainted with ourselves in books. We discover one feature in Emerson, anoter lineament in Shakespeare, an expression in Homer, a glimpse of ourselves in Dante, and so on until we spell out our whole individuality. True, we get many pleasing reflections of ourselves from fiends, many mirrored deformities from our enemies, and a characteristic here and there from the world.