第1个回答 2013-09-20
虽然很久了 但是看到了就说出来。
The Penalty of Leadership
In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually
live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested
in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at
work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the
punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition;
the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. When a man’s work becomes a
standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts
of the envious few. If his work be merely mediocre, he will be left
severely alone – if he achieve a masterpiece, it will set a million
tongues a-wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the
artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or
paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass or to
slander you, unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. Long,
long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are
disappointed or envious continue to cry out that it cannot be done.
Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own
Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed him its
greatest genius. Multitudes flocked to worship at the shrine of Wagner,
while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced
argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world
continued to protest that Fulton could not build a steamboat, while the
big world flocked to the river to see his boat steam by. The leader is
assailed because he is the leader, and the effort to equal him is merely
added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the
follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy – but only confirms once
more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. There is
nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as the human
passions – envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And
it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains – the
leader. Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is
assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is
good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of
denial. That which deserves to live – lives.