二九、友人勸戒吸紙煙

（一月廿四日）

I am very much worried about you, for the boys told me at Iowa city that your health was in bad shape. I wonder, old man, whether you have still kept up your furious smoking? I was dead in earnest when I told you last summer that I thought it was a mistake for you to smoke as incessantly as you did．In fact, as a non-smoker myself, I am of the opinion that you would be better off without the use of tobacco. Please don't think that I want to preach to you or try to boss you. The fact is that I have seldom taken as intimately to a foreign friend as I have to you, and I honestly and without flattery believe you are a rare genius．I think it is your duty to society to preserve your intellectual powers to their fullest extent, and for that reason I think you ought to take every precaution to keep in good health．If the cause was something else than smoking, then remove that cause.

〔中譯〕

曾在衣阿華聽(tīng)說(shuō)你的身體狀況很糟，所以為你感到非常擔(dān)憂。老朋友，不知你是否仍然吸煙很兇？去年夏天我向你說(shuō)過(guò)，像你這樣吸煙，實(shí)在是一個(gè)大錯(cuò)誤。我這話是發(fā)自內(nèi)心的。我是一個(gè)不吸煙的人，因此我的看法是，如果你不吸煙，你的身體狀況一定會(huì)好得多的。請(qǐng)不要以為我是在向你說(shuō)教，或是想對(duì)你指手畫腳。說(shuō)實(shí)在的，我對(duì)外國(guó)朋友很少有對(duì)你這么親近。我認(rèn)為你是一個(gè)難得的少有的人材，這并非阿諛你，而是誠(chéng)懇的。我以為把你的智慧才能完全服務(wù)于社會(huì)，是你應(yīng)盡的職責(zé)，因此，我想你應(yīng)該特別注意保持身體健康。如果不是吸煙的緣故，則當(dāng)另除病因。

此友人Louis P. Lochner所寄書。記此以自警焉。