REQUIEM
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me：
Here he lies where he longed to be；
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
自挽诗
在星空之下，多么开朗，
掘一个坟，我就一躺，
我活得痛快，死得清爽，
我一心横卧，什么也不想。
请刻这首诗，在我坟场：
他躺的地方，正他所向往，
水手已回来，从那海上，
猎人已回来，从那山岗。
画片上小狗背后刻的诗，就是上面这首。
《金银岛》是一本写海盗的小说，你一定要看一看。写得非常好。英文的学校图书馆一定有，中文的翻译有开明书店的《宝岛》和东方出版社的两种带注音的《金银岛》。
你给爸爸的信、生日卡都收到，你的成绩单也收到，你的好成绩爸爸真高兴。文学家Henry James once praised Stevenson as “the only man in England who can write a decent English sentence.”（英国只有他能写出最好的英文句子）。爸爸盼你在班上也这样。
爸爸 一九七五年四月二十六日
素食种种
亲爱的小文：
英文里有四句诗：
It's a very odd thing——
As odd as can be——
That whatever Miss T eats
Turns into Miss T.（Walter de la Mare，“Miss T.”1913）
（那真是顶怪顶怪的事，要怎么怪怎么怪，不论T小姐吃什么，结果都变成了T小姐。）
为什么吗？因为Miss T肚子里来了一套nutrition，中文叫“营养”。最重要的“营养素”（nutrients）是：
一、蛋白质（proteins）——蛋白质是增加和修补身体组织的材料，就好像房子的砖头一样。蛋白质不能存在身体里，所以要每天吃才行。
缺乏蛋白质就要得“垮十奥克尔”病。kwashiorkor—an often fatal condition of infants and young children caused by a protein deficiency in the diet. It occurs among poorer peoples of the world and cause stunted physical and mental growth, loss of hair pigment, swelling of tissues, etc. 非洲的小黑人很穷，吃的东西只是热量足，蛋白质不足，所以常得这种病。不但人，动物缺乏了蛋白质也不行，小老鼠缺乏蛋白质就长不大，走起路来也懒洋洋的。
食物中的蛋白质多没用，还得有“生理价”（Biological Value）才行，生理价就是包含“胺基酸”（amino acids）的多少，花生（peanuts）虽然蛋白质比蛋（eggs）多，但生理价却少，所以蛋的蛋白质最多，因为蛋白质的生理价最多。
动物性的蛋白质比植物性的蛋白质生理价多，所以吃肉少的或吃素的块头就小。
“素食主义”（vegetarianism）是很人道的，但缺乏蛋白质，是一个大问题。
很多名人是吃素的，这种人叫vegetarian，十八世纪法国大哲学家、思想家卢梭（Rousseau）是吃素的、十九到二十世纪的俄国文学家托尔斯泰（Leo Tolstoy）是吃素的、十九到二十世纪的英国文学家萧伯纳（George Bernard Shaw）是吃素的、爸爸一再跟你提到过的印度甘地（Gandhi）也是吃素的。吃素的人比较长寿， Shaw活了九十四、Tolstoy活了八十二、Gandhi活了七十八（被刺的）、Rousseau活了六十六（传说被害），由此可见，蛋白质光吃植物性的好像也够了。
二、醣类（carbohydrates）——醣类给人energy，人走路、写字、打架、飞眼、大便……都需要能源，醣类就是电灯的电、汽车的汽油，醣类以糖最多，下面这个表，你可清楚地知道食物中糖占的百分比：
Sugar 100 Banana 22.0
Rice 90.0 Corn 19.2
Prune 73.3 Potato 18.4
Molasses（cane） 69.3 Grapefruit 14.4
Oatmeal 67.5 Apple 14.2
Lima beans 65.9 Orange 11.6
White bread 53.1 Milk 4.9
whole-wheat bread 49.7 Celery 3.7
三、脂肪（fats）——也给人energy，人用不了，多余的脂肪便会存下来，于是变成胖了，变成Mr. Five-by-Five，像六姑父一样，六姑父再胖一点，就和图片上的大胖子一样。
四、维生素，就是维他命（vitamins）——维他命不能缺，缺了就生怪毛病，比如两只小猪一只缺了维他命B1，就长得不一样。缺乏维他命D，就得软骨病（rickets）。
五、矿物质（minerals）——缺了钙，牙齿和骨头就受影响。人身体里还需要别的许多矿物质。
六、水（water）——水占人体重的六○%—六五%。有人说女人是水做的，男人是泥做的，其实男女都是水做的。
营养病有两种，一种是营养不足（malnutrition），一种是吃得太好体重过重（overweight）。
爸 爸 一九七五年五月十日
姥姥和你五月一日信都收到。你的成绩比别的小朋友都好，爸爸真高兴。
海外人鱼
亲爱的小文：
安徒生（Andersen）的童话你看了吗？童话里的丑小鸭（The Ugly Duckling）、国王的新衣（The Emperor’s New Clothes），你都记得吗？安徒生是丹麦（Danmark）人，一八七五年死的，今年正好是一百年。他童话里的小美人鱼（The Little Mermaid），被丹麦人做成铜像，放在首都哥本哈根（Copenhagen）的港口。
美人鱼并不是安徒生创造的，美人鱼是神话里的人儿，很早很早就有了。不谋而合的是，中国也有，中国小说《镜花缘》里说的“海外人鱼”——“上身宛似妇人，下身仍是鱼形”，就是她。
英国以前有一家美人鱼酒店（Mermaid Tavern, an inn once located on Bread Street, Cheapside, in the heart of old London: a meeting place and informal club for Elizabethan playwrights and poests.），是Shakespeare、Ben Jonson等文学家聚会的地方。Ben Jonson也坐过牢。
英文mermaid有两个意思。1．an imaginary female marine creature，having the head, torso, and arms of a woman and the tail of a fish．2．a highly-skilled girl swimmer, as a member of a swimming team．游泳游得好也叫mermaid。
小文，你要做美人鱼吗？
下周起信寄家里，因你放暑假了。
姥姥生日，你代爸爸送礼物。
爸 爸 一九七五年五月二十四日
他们六个
亲爱的小文：
你要爸爸给你讲六个科学家，好。现在就照你开来的名字讲。
第一个是亚里士多德（Aristotle），活了六十二岁。
公元前五到四世纪的时候，有四个人有师生关系，并且都是大名人，前三个人都是哲学家（philosophers），最后一个是东征西讨的皇帝Alexander the Great。
苏格拉底 柏拉图 亚里士多德 亚历山大
Socrates Plato Aristotle Alexander
Socrates' greatest pupil Plato's greatest pupil Aristotle's greatest pupil
Aristotle的学问很大，是哲学家，也是教育家（educator），也是科学家（scientist），他在科学方面的著作有logic、physics、natural history、psychology……但他究竟是两千三百年前的人，他的科学有很多错误，比如他认为地球是宇宙中心，太阳星星绕地球转，这是错的；他认为月亮表面是光滑的，自己发光，这是错的；他认为同时下落，重的东西比轻的东西先着地，这是错的；他认为男人的牙比女人多，这也是错的，这大概是Mrs. Aristotle的牙掉了的缘故！
Aristotle的真正贡献，chief contribution是他把学问造成一个“继往开来”（to carry on the heritage so as to pave the way for future generations）的局面，使人类爱真理（truth）。
Aristotle在他的Ethica（ethics伦理学）中表示他爱老师Plato，但是更爱真理。在中国也有这种看法，叫“当仁不让于师”。（to yield to nobody when one is doing what is right；do not refuse to accept a reward or position which one deserves；to be behind none in the desire to benefit mankind.）Aristotle differed from Plato both in the aims of his philosophy and in the methods of his investigation. In his Ethica he states that, while both Plato and truth are dear to him, he is bound to prefer truth.
While Aristotle was a biologist of note, even if we allow for some rather peculiar lapses, his views on physics and astronomy were hopelessly muddled. Plato, combining the Milesian and Pythagorean traditions, had been much nearer the mark, and so were later Hellenistic scientists like Aristarchus and Eratosthenes. Aristotle's most famous contribution to systematic thought is probably his work in logic.
对Aristotle在science方面的conclusion是——300's B.C. Aristotle's studies in logic and classification contributed to the foundations of science.
第二个科学家——伽利略（Galileo），活了七十八岁。Galileo was the first great experimenter and the father of modern astronomy. He was also an outstanding mathematician. Galileo说
Aristotle认为重东西先落地，不对，他跑上比萨斜塔（the Leaning Tower of Pisa），拿两个不同重量的球实验，结果证明Aristotle错了。——但别人都错的时候，他一个人对没有用，他被大学赶走了。
Galileo又印了一本书，说太阳不动，动的是地球，于是，惹起公愤，虽然他对了。——但别人都错的时候，他一个人对没有用，他被抓到“宗教裁判所”，宗教法庭（Inquisition）。Inquisition动不动就把人烧死，因为Galileo是大学者，又太老了（七十岁），又有点后台（有贵人保护），又“认错”，于是“优待”，改判为“终身软禁”（permanent house arrest）。House arrest, a form of arrest in which a person is confined under guard in his own house：Authorities insisted no one had been jailed but said some strikers were under house arrest.（Tuscaloosa News）
他“认错”以后，偷偷在一个朋友耳边说：“但它（地球）还在动啊！”Yet it does move！（Epur si muove！）
他被关在家里，大诗人John Milton（当时三十岁），到Italy旅行，到Galileo家里拜访，Galileo已经瞎了，真巧，十四年后，Milton也瞎了。
John Milton, an English poet and political writer, wrote one of the world's greatest epics, Paradise Lost.（一六六七）He composed this famous epic and two other works, Paradise Regained（一六七一）and Samson Agonistes（一六七一）, when he was totally blind. Milton
Galileo的头脑比时代新，所以老是倒霉。这叫“生不逢辰”（born at a wrong time；luckless；unlucky）。
对Galileo在science方面的conclusion是——c. 1600 Galileo emphasized the mathematical interpretation of experiments in science. He discovered many important physical laws.
第三个科学家——哈维（William Harvey），活了七十九岁。
中文有句成语叫“周而复始”（to repeat the cycle all over again）血在人身体里就是周而复始的。发现这一现象很不容易。
但是哈维发现了。哈维也指出过Aristotle的错误，但对Aristotle的敬爱并不因而减少。哈维有一个大阔佬病人，也是他的好朋友，就是当时英国的皇帝King Charles I。后来Charles I倒台，在Oxford地方哈维的许多稿本都被反对皇帝的人destroyed了，Their loss caused him great sorrow.
对William Harvey在science方面的conclusion是——1628 William Harvey published his theory on the circulation of the blood.
第四个科学家——波义尔（Robert Boyle），活了六十四岁。
波义尔是哲学家、物理学家、化学家（Boyel was a philosopher, a physicist and a chemist）,“the father of modern chemistry”。
英国最有名，也是世界最有名的学术团体——皇家学会（the Royal Society）创办的时候，本来要请Boyel做会长，但因为他在religion方面的原因不愿宣誓，所以没做。（While at Oxford he was the leader of a group of scientists known as the Invisible College, which in 1663 was incorporated as the Royal Society of London. Although Boyle was invited to be president of this organization in 1680, he refused because he had religious scruples against taking an oath. Boyle was deeply religious. At Geneva he had been under strong Calvinist influence which deeply impressed him and gave his life a serious character.）
ROYAL SOCIETY is the oldest scientific society in the world and probably the most famous. The full title of the organization is The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge. It grew out of weekly meetings which London scientists held as early as 1645. In 1660, the society was officially organized with the approval of King Charles II.（就是Charles I的儿子。）
In 1662, the society was formally incorporated by charter of Charles II as the Royal Society of London for Promoting Natural Knowledge, or, as it is popularly known, the Royal Society. From its earliest years, the Society maintained correspondence with Continental philosophers, and selections from this correspondence became the world-famous Philosophical Transactions. Sir Isaac Newton was the Society's president from 1703 until his death in 1727. In the approximately 300 years of its existence, the Society has sponsored numerous scientific expeditions and extensive research, including, in recent years, a notable series of investigations of tropical diseases.
对Boyle在science方面的conclusion是——1660's Robert Boyle applied the scientific method to chemistry.
第五个科学家——牛顿（Isaac Newton），活了八十五岁。
Galileo死的那年（Jan.8, 1642），就是Newton生的那年（Dec.25, 1642）。
Galileo死在年头，Newton生在年尾。他们都没结婚，但Galileo有两个女儿一个儿子。Galileo的一些观察是错的，他虽然把球从斜塔朝下丢，但并没发现落体的真正速度，也没成立定律（law），直到Newton出来，才完成了这一解释。牛顿是个“遗腹子”（an infant born after the death of its father；a posthumous child），从小妈妈不在身边，跟姥姥长大，他从小就喜欢科学。
①Newton discovered that sunlight is a mixture of light of all colors. He passed a beam of sunlight through a glass prism and studied the colors that were produced.（By passing a beam of sunlight through a prism, Newton showed that white light is made up of the rainbow's colors.）
②He made great discoveries in the field of mathematics. He is credited with inventing integral and differential calculus.（微积分）
③He was the first to state the laws of gravitation.
Newton的成绩，英国诗人Alexander Pope有两句诗描写得最好：
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night：
God said, Let Newton be！and all was light.
（Alexander Pope：Epigram on Sir Isaac Newton）
In 1705 Newton was knighted by Queen Anne. 所以他名字前面有Sir.就是爵士。热门音乐中文也翻成爵士，但那是jazz的译音，并不真的是爵士，并且乱扭乱唱，一点也不爵士。
Newton虽然有那么大的成绩，但他很谦虚（humble），他说：
To myself seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
对Newton在science方面的conclusion是——1687 Sir Isaac Newton published the Principia, which summarized basic of mechanics. Newton formulated the laws of gravitation and motion and contributed greatly to the theories of light and optical science.
第六个科学家——爱因斯坦（Albert Einstein），活了七十六岁。
爱因斯坦是German（德国人），又变成了Swiss（瑞士人），又变成了German，又变成了American（美国人），但他的blood是Jew（犹太人）。他帮助Jews复国，但成立Israel（以色列）的时候，他拒绝做总统，结果由他的朋友，会六国语言的Weizmann做了。
Einstein的新学说是“相对论”（the Theory of Relativity），使Newton的学说一部分动摇。
Albert Einstein, the German-American physicist, rejected Newton's explanation of universal gravitation but not the fact of its operation. He said that his own work would have been impossible without Newton's discoveries. He also said that the concepts Newton developed “are even today still guiding our thinking in physics”.
人类能够利用原子能（atomic power），就是从Einstein来的，没有Einstein，就没有原子弹（atomic bomb）用来war，也没有原子能用来peaceful uses。
对Einstein在science方面的conclusion是——1905 Albert Einstein presented his Special Theory of Relativity. Einstein developed the theory of relativity which revised older theories of time and space, and led to the use of atomic power.
爸 爸 一九七五年五月三十一日
五月十八日信上托姥姥每周办的事，姥姥办了吗？
从鸭嘴兽到水獭
一
亲爱的小文：
一个半世纪前，科学家刚听说有一种下蛋的哺乳动物（egg-laying mammal），他们都不相信，说胡扯（a hoax），没想到世界上真有这么一种动物，就是“鸭嘴兽”（platypus）。鸭嘴兽只在澳洲（Australia）东海岸才有，澳洲也叫澳大利亚，是一个国家。
澳洲本来跟亚洲连在一起，但在五千万年以前分开了，所以它自己成为一个特别的地方，老是有些全世界只有它有别人没有的怪东西，鸭嘴兽就是其中之一。（Australia has many kinds of strange animals not found on other continents. This is because the bridge of land that once connected Australia with Asia disappeared about 50 million years ago. From then on, most of Australia's animal life developed independently）
另外一种只有澳洲有的小动物，就是koala，爸爸有一封信专门跟你谈过它，你记得吗？
Koala means “no drink”, and the aboriginal word well describes the gentle marsupial that draws moisture only from its food, the leaves of certain eucalyptus,（油加里树，也叫桉树，是常绿乔木，长得很快）or gum trees. With oddly arranged fingers-the first two oppose the other three-a koala clings to a branch in a sanctuary at Waikerie. Phascolarctos cinereous faced extinction by fur hunters until the 1920's, when conservation laws began to protect the continent's dozens of marsupial species.
Koala也叫袋鼠熊（kangaroo bear）。
袋鼠（kangaroo）也只有澳洲有。袋鼠前面两只手，很会打拳（boxing），后面两脚，很能跳，大尾巴在跳的时候可帮忙保持平衡（balance）。
美国有俗语“袋鼠法庭”kangaroo court, U.S. Informal. an unauthorized or unofficial court, usually self constituted, as a mock court by prisoners in a jail or a frontier court：…shot down over North Korea in 1952 and condemned to prison by a Red kangaroo court.（Newsweek），类似中文所说的“私设公堂”。以前在Kangaroo州，法官巡回各地办案，由这跑到那，很像袋鼠跳来跳去，所以叫袋鼠法庭。（Kangaroo court：A kangaroo court is an illegal mock or sham court, usually one set up by inmates of a prison to levy fines and punishment on other inmates who violate the “code”. Such organizations, usually very informal in nature, exist in most large prisons and are even encouraged by some wardens as a useful device for maintaining order. The name probably originated at the time when Australia, land of the kangaroo, was the penal colony for the British Empire. The term has occasionally-and inaccurately-been applied to the kind of roadside justice of the peace court which exists only to collect fines from motorists caught in speed traps.）
当然这个kangaroo court是来自有kangaroo的地方才对。澳洲有袋鼠，澳洲以前又是英国的天然监狱，所以kangaroo court的观念（idea）是从澳洲来的。
英国本来把political prisoners朝美国送的，美国独立以后，英国要找个地方送prisoners，于是选中澳洲，自一七八七年起，英国在八十年间，送了十六万八千prisoners到澳洲，当时路上很苦，要走四个月。一七八八年初，prisoners在现在悉尼地方，建了settlement，悉尼就是Sydney，Sydney是当时英国内政大臣的名字，大概是为了拍马屁，才这么叫的。
悉尼人口不过二○○万，世界最大的船也可以开到港里去，是世界上最好的港口之一，也是澳洲最老资格的城市。
丹麦建筑师Utzon设计了Sydney Opera House，后面就是Harbour Bridge，这座桥重五万吨。
澳洲是脱离英国而独立的国家，所以受英国影响很重，连国旗里面都有英国旗。马路上走，也靠左走，英国就是靠左的（最早宣布澳洲是英国的人是科克船长Captain James Cook，他是发现Hawaii的探险家。五十一岁的时候，在Hawaii被土人杀了。）（Captain James Cook landed at Botany Bay, south of Sydney, in 1770. He claimed Australia's entire east coast for Great Britain.）
首都堪培拉（Canberra），有一千五百万以上的树，它的议会大厦（Parliament House），尤其漂亮。
墨尔本（Melbourne）的名字是一个英国首相的名字，也是拍马屁来的。它的植物园、美术馆，都很有名，有三座大学。本来是首都，一九二七年迁都到堪培拉去了。
澳洲南部有两个有名的岛：
一个是塔斯曼尼亚（Tasmania）岛，也曾是英国关prisoners的地方，用了五十年。岛上有一种塔斯曼尼亚狼，母的也有袋鼠一样的袋，不过是装在背上，不在肚皮上。The Tasmanian wolf's genus name, Thylacinus, means “pouched dog”. The female has a pouch which opens backwards and contains four teats. The pouch is large enough to hold four pups, although the usual number of young in a litter is two. The period of gestation is not known, but it is probably a little less than one month. The young are born hairless and blind in an incomplete, almost embryonic state of development. They are carried in the pouch for three months-the duration of their semi embryonic life. The cubs are then deposited in a nest of dry leaves and grass until they are old enough to hunt for themselves.
