培根散文随笔集中英对照，通过阅读文学名著学语言，是掌握英语的绝佳方法。既可接触原汁原味的英语，又能享受文学之美，一举两得，何乐不为?

1 of truth 论真理

what is truth; said jesting pilate; and would not stay for an answer. certainly there be, that delight in giddiness; and count it a bondage, to fix a belief, affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. and though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them, as was in those of the ancients.

善戏谑的彼拉多曾说：“真理是什么呢?”说了之后并且不肯等候回答。世上尽有一般人喜欢把意见变来变去，并且认为固定了一种信仰即等于上了一套枷锁;在思想上和在行为上他们都一样地要求意志底自由。并且虽然这一流的各派哲学家已成过去，然而仍有些心志游移的说者和他们同声同气，——虽然这般人比起古人来血气薄弱一点。