《英美散文选读（二）（第二版）/新基点全国高等院校英语专业本科系列规划教材·人文素养子系列》与《选读（一）》相比，所选的篇章在语言和内容上难度都更大，长度也有所增加。因此，供正式讲授的课文一共有十二篇，每篇可用6课时讲授（包括讲解练习）。这些篇章均出自英美名家之手，涉及的主题也多种多样。然而它们共同的特点就是观点新颖、视角独特、行文流畅，用词精巧准确，论证符合逻辑，因此可供写作范文之用。每篇课文前均有课前讨论的一些名言，与课文内容相关，可引发学生对课文主题进行深入思考。课文后练习的编排与《选读（一）》体例类似，建议采用《英美散文选读（二）（第二版）/新基点全国高等院校英语专业本科系列规划教材·人文素养子系列》的教师把重点放在讨论课文内容和作者写作技巧的问题上，同时也不要忽略难句释义练习。对课文中出现的生词，建议教师要结合其使用语境来教，并且注意一词多义现象。在讲解完每一课后，最好能总结一下要点和思维脉络，以使学生既见“木”又见“林”。
Unit One Knowledge and Wisdom NN
Unit Two Habit
Unit Three The Scientist as Rebel
Unit Four Predictable Crises of Adulthood
Unit Five The Evolution of Good and Bad
Unit Six Faces of the Enemy
Unit Seven Gibbon
Unit Eight Philistines and Philistinism
Unit Nine The American Scholar
Unit Ten A Professional Malaise
Unit Eleven Hebraism and Hellenism
Unit Twelve The Gift of Tongues
Supplementary Reading
Translation of Selected Sentences
The ten years of Gibbon's life in London afford an astonishing spectacle of interacting energies. By what strange power did he succeed in producing a masterpiece of enormous erudition and perfect form， while he was leading the gay life of a man about town， spending his evenings at White's or Boodle's or the Club， attending Parliament， oscillating between his house in Bentineck Street， his country cottage at Hampton Court， and his little establishment at Brighton， spending his summers in Bath or Paris， and even， at odd moments， doing a little work at the Board of Trade， to show that his place was not entirely a sinecure? Such a triumph could only have been achieved by the sweet easonableness of the eighteenth century. "Monsieur Gibbon n'est point mon homme，" said Rousseau. Decidedly ! The prophet of the coming age of sentiment and romance could have nothing in common with such a nature. It was not that the historian was a mere frigid observer of the golden mean - far from it. He was full of fire and feeling. His youth had been at moments riotous - night after night he had reeled hallooing down St. James's Street. Old age did not diminish the natural warmth of his affections; the beautiful letter - a model of its kind - written on the death of his aunt， in his fiftieth year， is a proof of it. But the fire and the feeling were controlled and coordinated. Boswell was a Rousseauite， one of the first of the Romantics， an inveterate sentimentalist and nothing could be more complete than the contrast between his career and Gibbon's. He， too， achieved a glorious triumph; but it was by dint of the sheer force of native genius sserting itself over the extravagance and disorder of an agitated life - a life which， after a desperate struggle， seemed to end at last in darkness and shipwreck.
With Gibbon there was never any struggle: everything came naturally to him - learning and dissipation， industry and indolence， affection and scepticism - in the correct proportions; and he enjoyed himself up to the very end.
3 To complete the picture one must notice another antithesis: the wit， the genius， the massive intellect， were housed in a physical mould that was ridiculous. A little figure， extraordinarily rotund， met the eye， surmounted by a top-heavy head， with a button nose， planted amid a vast expanse of cheek and ear， and chin upon chin rolling downward. Nor was this appearance only; the odd shape reflected something in the inner man. Mr. Gibbon， it was noticed， was always slightly over-dressed; his favourite wear was flowered velvet. He was a little vain， a little pompous; at the first moment one almost laughed; then one forgot everything under the fascination of that even flow of admirably intelligent， exquisitely turned， and most amusing sentences. Among all his other merits this obviously ludicrous egotism took its place. The astonishing creature was able to make a virtue of absurdity.
Without that touch of nature he would have run the risk of being too much of a good thing; as it was there was no such danger; he was preposterous and a human being.
4 It is not difficult to envisage the character and figure; what seems strange， and remote， and hard to grasp is the connection between this individual and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The paradox， indeed， is so complete as to be almost romantic. At a given moment - October 15， 1764 - at a given place - the Capitoline Hill， outside the church of Aracoeli - the impact occurred between the serried centuries of Rome and Edward Gibbon. His life， his work， his fame， his place in the history of civilization， followed from that circumstance. The point of his achievement lay precisely in the extreme improbability of it. The utter incongruity of those combining elements produced the masterpiece - the gigantic ruin of Europe through a thousand years， mirrored in the mind of an eighteenth- century English gentleman.
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