培根散文隨筆集中英對照，通過閱讀文學名著學語言，是掌握英語的絕佳方法。既可接觸原汁原味的英語，又能享受文學之美，一舉兩得，何樂不為?

1 of truth 論真理

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.

善戲謔的彼拉多曾說：“真理是什么呢?”說了之后并且不肯等候回答。世上盡有一般人喜歡把意見變來變去，并且認為固定了一種信仰即等于上了一套枷鎖;在思想上和在行為上他們都一樣地要求意志底自由。并且雖然這一流的各派哲學家已成過去，然而仍有些心志游移的說者和他們同聲同氣，——雖然這般人比起古人來血氣薄弱一點。