胡適留學日記卷三二九、友人勸戒吸紙煙

卷三二九、友人勸戒吸紙煙

　　（一月廿四日）

　　I am very much worried about you, for the boys told me at Iowa city that your health was in bad shape. I wonder, old man, whether you have still kept up your furious smoking? I was dead in earnest when I told you last summer that I thought it was a mistake for you to smoke as incessantly as you did. In fact, as a non-smoker myself, I am of the opinion that you would be better off without the use of tobacco. Please don't think that I want to preach to you or try to boss you. The fact is that I have seldom taken as intimately to a foreign friend as I have to you, and I honestly and without flattery believe you are a rare genius. I think it is your duty to society to preserve your intellectual powers to their fullest extent, and for that reason I think you ought to take every precaution to keep in good health. If the cause was something else than smoking, then remove that cause.

　　〔中譯〕

　　曾在衣阿華聽說你的身體狀況很糟，所以為你感到非常擔憂。老朋友，不知你是否仍然吸煙很凶？去年夏天我向你說過，像你這樣吸煙，實在是一個大錯誤。我這話是發自內心的。我是一個不吸煙的人，因此我的看法是，如果你不吸煙，你的身體狀況一定會好得多的。請不要以為我是在向你說教，或是想對你指手畫腳。說實在的，我對外國朋友很少有對你這麼親近。我認為你是一個難得的少有的人材，這並非阿諛你，而是誠懇的。我以為把你的智慧才能完全服務於社會，是你應盡的職責，因此，我想你應該特別注意保持身體健康。如果不是吸煙的緣故，則當另除病因。

　　此友人Louis P. Lochner所寄書。記此以自警焉。

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