Narcissus: on Self-Love
Narcissus is said to have been a young man of wonderful beauty, but intolerably proud, fastidious, and disdainful. Pleased with himself and despising all others, he led a solitary life in the woods and hunting grounds; with a few companions to whom he was all in all; followed also wherever he went by a nymph called Echo. Living thus, he came by chance one day to a clear fountain, and (being in the heat of noon) lay down by it; when beholding in the water his own image, he fell into such a study and then into such a rapturous admiration of himself, that he could not be drawn away from gazing at the shadowy picture, but remained rooted to the spot till sense left him; and at last he was changed into the flower that bears his name; a flower which appears in he early spring; and is sacred to the infernal deities----Pluto, Proserpine, and the Furies. From liuxuepaper.com.

In this fable are represented the dispositions, and the fortunes too, of those persons who from consciousness either of beauty or some other gift with which nature unaided by any industry of their own has graced them, fall in love as it were with themselves. For with this state of mind there is commonly joined an indisposition to appear much in public or engage in business; because business would expose them to many neglects and scorns, by which their minds would be dejected and troubled. Therefore they commonly live a solitary, private, and shadowed life; with a small circle of chosen companions, all devoted admirers, who assent like an echo to everything they say, and entertain them with mouth-homage; till being by such habits gradually depraved and puffed up, and besotted at last with self-admiration, they fall into such a sloth and listlessness that they grow utterly stupid, and lose all vigour and alacrity. And it was a beautiful thought to choose the flower of spring as an emblem of characters like this: characters which in the opening of their career flourish and are talked of, but disappoint in maturity the promise of their youth. The fact too that this flower is sacred to the infernal deities contains an allusion to the same thing. For men of this disposition turn out utterly useless and good for nothing whatever; and anything that yields no fruit, but like the way of a ship in the sea passes and leaves no trace, was by the ancients held sacred to the shades and infernal gods.

----F.Bacon

那喀索斯：自恋

据说那喀索斯是一位非常美丽的少年，但是傲慢无比，挑三拣四，藐视一切。他只是陶醉于自我，轻视所有的人。他过着林中孤独的生活，出没于猎场。他有几个心爱的朋友。无论他去何方，林中仙女厄科都追随于后。就在这种生活中，有一天，他偶然来到一池清泉旁。正值炎热的中午，他便在泉边躺下。一看到池水中自己的倒影时，他便细细察看观赏，继而狂喜地恋慕自己。凝视着自己若隐若现的水中美影，他不能自拔，就像扎根于此，直到感觉消去。最后他变成以他名字命名的水仙花。水仙花于早春开放，是冥府诸神的圣花：普路托，普洛塞尔皮那，复仇三女神皆以此花作祭。本文来自作文地带。

在这篇寓言中描述了一些人的心情和命运，这些人感到自己的面貌以及其他的才能均为天赋，而非个人的努力所能得到，于是他们就自恋起来。与此种状况相伴随的往往是不情愿在公众中露面或与人打交道；因为与人打交道会暴露自己的癖性，会受到别人的冷落和鄙视，自己会心意烦乱、沮丧万分。正因为如此，这些人通常孤独而居，不和别人来往，过着暗淡的生活；只有几个挑拣出来的朋友，大家互相奉承，每一件事都像回声一样的附和，相互之间都是口头上的你好我好。英语作文