我喜欢读学术文章，而且不限于文科的，只要能懂。我更喜欢有文采的。当年读恩格斯的自然辩证法，虽非原文，译文读起来也带劲，特别是序言部分谈到文艺复兴：这是一个需要伟人而且产生了伟人的时代。

今日读 1972年美国东方学会一篇谈淮南王刘安的历史论文，其中个别段落颇有散文之美。

The author is:

http://www.davisenterprise.com/obits/benjamin-e-wallacker/

很喜欢读这段：

Liu An, at 40, must have been a frustrated and disappointed man, but from his biography we can see that he was ever alert for any word, any sign, any portent which hinted that greatness would seek him out, that the grandeur which he believed was his fate would yet come to him. He felt his destiny lay in ascending to heights from which he might look down upon the world and view it with cool omniscience, and in knowing it, control it, subtly working wonders, deviously redressing the awry, with lightning speed and pinpoint accuracy expunging every evil-doer. For Liu An was a Taoist with a mission: he contained an undeniable motive force which pressed within him and which would surely move the world as it moved him. He was an ego so grand in its dimensions and lofty in its flights that it must rise up and hover as super-ego to all below.

这段后半部分可以用来描述习近平，呵呵。


最烦的论文是连个单词短语也要表明出处的，生怕别人不知道作者看了很多文章。有的词语很普通，原作者也没有什么名气。在一般性问题上，英雄所见略同，并无抄袭之嫌，何苦来哉。