北京大学英语系精读课本.pdf

大学英语阅读 IV Readings in English Prose 北京大学英语系 2010 年2 月 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Of Individuality …………………………………………… 1 2 The Medium is the Message …………………………………………… 7 3 On Familiar Style …………………………………………… 14 4 The Indispensable Opposition …………………………………………… 21 5 The Decline and Fall of Literature …………………………………………… 29 6 Preface to The Renaissance …………………………………………… 35 7 Notes on the English Character …………………………………………… 40 8 Knowledge Its Own End …………………………………………… 51 9 Imitation of Our Lord Don Quixote …………………………………………… 60 10 Death of the Moth …………………………………………… 65 Readings in English Prose IV 1 Of Individuality① John Stuart Mill In sober truth, whatever homage may be professed, or even paid, to real or 5 supposed mental superiority, the general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind. In ancient history, in the Middle Ages, and in a diminishing degree through the long transition from feudality to the present time, the individual was a power in himself; and if he had either great talents or a high social position, he was a considerable power. At present individuals 10 are lost in the crowd. In politics it is almost a tri