《三種激情》是選自《伯特蘭·羅素自傳》的一篇優(yōu)秀散文。它既是作者心靈的抒發(fā)，也是生命體驗的總結(jié)。作者以深刻的感悟和敏銳的目光，分析了人生中的三種激情，即對愛的渴望，對知識的追求和對人類苦難的同情。對愛的渴望，使人欣喜若狂，既能解除孤獨，又能發(fā)現(xiàn)美好的未來。對知識的追求，使人理解人心，了解宇宙，掌握科學(xué)。愛和知識把人引向天堂般的境界，而對人類的同情之心又使人回到苦難深重的人間。作者認(rèn)為這就是人生，值得為此再活一次的人生。這篇散文似乎信手拈來，但卻耐人尋味。充滿激情，充滿感慨，充滿智慧，情文并茂，邏輯性和感染力極強(qiáng)。
    Three passions, simple but overwhelminglystrong, have governed my life:thelonging for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pityforthe suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds,haveblown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deepoceanof anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
    I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy –ecstasysogreat that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life forafew hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because itrelievesloneliness--that terrible loneliness in which oneshiveringconsciousness looks over the rim of the world into thecoldunfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, becauseinthe union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature,theprefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poetshaveimagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem toogoodfor human life, this is what- at last- I have found.
    With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wishedtounderstand the hearts of men. I have tried to apprehendthePythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flu.Alittle of this, but not much, I have achieved.
    Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, ledupwardtoward the heavens. But always pity brought me back toearth.Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Childreninfamine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people ahatedburden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness,poverty,and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. Ilong toalleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
    This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and wouldg ladly live it again if the chance were offered me.