We Are on a journey

Wherever you are, and whoever you may be, there is one thing in which you and I are just alike, at this moment, and in all the moments of our existence. We are not at rest; we are on a journey. Our life is not a mere fact; it is a movement, a tendency, a steady, ceaseless progress towards an unseen goal. We are gaining something, or losing something, every day. Even when our position and our character seem to remain precisely the same, they are changing. It is not the same thing to have a bare field in January and in July. The season makes the difference. The limitations that are childlike in the child are childish in the man.

Everything that we do is a step in one direction or another. Even the failure to do something is in itself a deed. It sets us forward or vackward. The action of the negative pole of a magnetic needle is just as real as the action of the positive pole. To decline is to accept——the other alternative.

Are you nearer to your port today than you were yesterday? Yes, ——you must be a little nearer to some port or other; for since your ship was first launched upon the sea of life you have never been still for a single moment; the sea is too deep, you could not find a anchorage if you would; there can be no pause until you come into port.

tendency n, 趋向，倾向 ceaseless a. 不停的，不断地 negative a. 负的，阴性的 magnetic a. 有磁性的 alernative n. 二中择一，抉择 anchorage n. 锚地，泊地

child的派生词： childlike 通常指孩童持有的天真烂漫，直率无忌等品性，一般为人所嘉许，二childish一词强调孩子般的不成熟的状态，如幼稚、傻气，通常为人所不以为然。例如： The sea had unmoored my childhood memories, and midst the sound of the surging waves, a sence of childlike innocence and my young playmates flooded my mind. （海浪唤起了我的回忆，海浪声中，孩童的天真单纯和我的小玩伴的影子都跳到我脑中来。） All that had passed between her and him was childish nonsence, not worth talking of and long ago forgotten. （她和他之间的这一切往事无非是孩子气的举动，不值得一提，老早就遗忘了。;）