275．参加游戏，但应得体

参加游戏，但应得体。你不应总是装模作样而令人厌烦，这是保持豪爽风度的至理名言。你可放弃一点点尊严，以赢得人们的喜欢。你可偶尔去人们常去的地方，但不能失礼。对于当众丢丑的人，人们不会认为他在私下里有多谨慎。因一时玩乐而失去的，也许会比一生辛苦所得还要多。但是，你也不能自命不凡，不合群相当于在谴责他人。你更不能故作拘谨，女人才会如此，就连在宗教方面太过拘束也会遭人嘲笑。做男人就应像个男人。女人可以模仿男人，而且把这作为优点。但男人模仿女人则不是什么优点。

275．Join in the game as far as decency permits

Join in the game as far as decency permits. Do not always pose and be a bore: this is a maxim for gallant bearing. You may yield a touch of dignity to gain the general good-will: you may now and then go where most go, yet not beyond the bounds of decorum. He who makes a fool of himself in public will not be regarded as discreet in private life. One may lose more on a day of pleasure than has been gained during a whole life of labour. Still you must not always keep away: to be singular is to condemn all others. Still less act the prude－leave that to its appropriate sex: even religious prudery is ridiculous. Nothing so becomes a man as to be a man: a woman may affect a manly bearing as an excellence, but not vice versa.