To the Reader

READER, thou hast here an honest book; it doth at the outset forewarn thee that, in contriving the same, I have proposed to myself no other than a domestic and private end: I have had no consideration at all either to thy service or to my glory. My powers are not capable of any such design. I have dedicated it to the particular commodity of my kinsfolk and friends, so that, having lost me (which they must do shortly), they may therein recover some traits of my conditions and humours, and by that means preserve more whole, and more life-like, the knowledge they had of me. Had my intention been to seek the world’s favour, I should surely have adorned myself with borrowed beauties: I desire therein to be viewed as I appear in mine own genuine, simple, and ordinary manner, without study and artifice: for it is myself I paint. My defects are therein to be read to the life, and my imperfections and my natural form, so far as public reverence hath permitted me. If I had lived among those nations, which (they say) yet dwell under the sweet liberty of nature’s primitive laws, I assure thee I would most willingly have painted myself quite fully and quite naked. Thus, reader, myself am the matter of my book: there’s no reason thou shouldst employ thy leisure about so frivolous and vain a subject. Therefore farewell.

读者，你手里是一本诚实的书。它一开头就要先告诉你：我写它，没有别的目的，只为家中私事；我丝毫没有考虑过为你效劳，也没有考虑过我自己的荣誉。我的能力担不起那样的抱负。我把它献给我的亲人和朋友，供他们私下使用：等他们失去我的时候（这一天不会太远），可以在书里重新找到我的性情和脾气的一些痕迹，这样，他们对我的了解就能保存得更完整、更鲜活。假如我的用意是博取世人的青睐，我一定会用借来的美来装扮自己；可我希望人们在这本书里看到的，是我本来的样子，真实、简单、平常，不加雕琢，不施技巧：因为我画的是我自己。我的缺点在书里如实可见，我的种种不完美和我天然的样子，也都尽可能如实写出，只以不冒犯公众的礼数为限。假如我生活在据说至今仍享有自然原初法则那甜美自由的民族中间，我向你保证，我会非常乐意把自己画得完完整整、赤裸裸的。所以，读者，我自己就是这本书的题材：你没有理由把闲暇花在这样一个轻浮无谓的题目上。那么，再见。