张蓉·《习惯说》英译

蓉少时，读书养晦堂之西偏一室，俯而读，仰而思，思有弗得辄起，绕室以旋。室有洼，径尺，浸淫日广。每履之，足若踬焉。既久，而遂安之。

一日，先君子来室中坐，语之，顾而笑曰：“一室之不治，何以天下家国为？”顾谓童子取土平之。

后蓉复履其地，蹶然以惊，如土忽隆起者。俯视，地坦然，则既平矣。已而复然，又久而后安之。

噫！习之中人甚矣哉！足之履平地，而不与洼适也；及其久，则洼者若平；至使久而即乎其故，则反窒焉而不宁。故君子之学贵乎慎始。

When I was young I studied in a western chamber of the Obscurity House. Sometimes I bent down to read; sometimes I looked up to think. When I could not, after much thinking, figure out the meaning of what I was reading, I rose to my feet and walked about the room. In the earthen floor of the room there was a hollow about one foot wide; and that grew larger day by day. Every time I walked over it, I stumbled; but by degrees, I got used to it. One day Father came into my study and saw the hollow. “How can you serve your country well,” he said, smiling, “when you cannot keep such a little room tidy?” So he ordered a boy to fill it up with earth. Later when I walked over the spot again, I was surprised to find the earth there seemed swelling. I looked down, and found the hollow had already been filled up and the place was now as flat as a pancake. It was some time before I could get used to it again. Ah! How a habit works on man! You find it fit for your feet to walk on the level ground but not on places with holes. When you have, however, become accustomed to the sunken places in the floor, you will feel as if they were level. You will, on the country, stumble and feel uncomfortable when you walk on the spot newly level-up. Therefore the Superior Man is very cautious when he starts learning a thing.