他从不去追赶时髦，但也从不刻意脱离时尚。因此，他引导了众多的加拿大人懂得了诗歌，能够体会到诗意和诗趣。如果没有奈德，他们不会阅读诗歌，或许还会努力从某些徒有虚表、反对思想和智力的打油诗人的作品中去领悟诗歌的内涵。
There are many popular features in his work， some of them obvious， such as the preoccupationpreoccupation n.当务之急 with physical courage and heroic action， and some of them less obvious， such as the absence of bad language， even when dealing with the grousing of sailors in Behind the Log.
Yet there is a tough conceptualconceptual adj.概念上的 skeleton behind all his writing： his supposed incompetence in the two disciplines he tried before he tried English， theology and psychology， was part of his own campaign to persuade others that he was too simpleminded to have his time wasted in their interests.
So although he was never antiintellectual， and never undervalued or deprecated what the university stood for， he still avoided the pitfalls that beset intellectuals in modern society. Of these， one of the most striking is the fascination with the logical extreme， as opposed to the illogical golden mean.
奈德的作品中有许多令人欣赏的特点。有的很明显，例如他一味赞颂膂力过人的英勇和英雄行为。有的并不明显，例如他很少使用低级下流的语言。即使在《在航海日志后面》中描写水手们大发牢骚的时候，他还是避免使用咒骂的语言。
可是他的一切作品均出自非常坚定而明确的观念：他在钻研英语前从事过的两门学科研究方面——神学和心理学。他在这两门学科的所谓无能也是他自己一手炮制的，是为了使别人相信他的头脑十分简单，没有办法为他们的利益而浪费时间。
所以，虽然奈德从未反对过智力教育，从未低估或反对过大学所代表的一切，因此却避免了现代社会当中知识分子们所具有的通病，尤其是其中最为明显的毛病——热衷于走符合逻辑的极端，反对一切不符合逻辑的中庸之道。
To write and to teach in Neds generation meant defending the values of the imagination through a depression and a war， and this took courage of a kind that he not only celebrated but， very unostentatiouslyunostentatiously adv.朴素地 ， possessed.
Some of us grew up in the generation and tried to hold on to the kind of liberal values that are not simply the values of the left as against the right， but are the values of human dignity as opposed to stupidity and hysteriahysteria n.歇斯底里， 不正常的兴奋， 癔病 .
We remember many lost leaders in that period， some temporarily and some permanentlypermanently adv.永存地， 不变地 lost， who deserted wisdom for paradox. The sense of outrage and betrayalbetrayal n.出卖， 辜负， 暴露 that I felt when I first opened After Strange Gods in something I hope never to feel again.
对于奈德这一代人来说，写作和教学意味着在整个经济危机和战争年代中捍卫想像力的价值。做到这一点很需要勇气，而他不仅赞扬过这种勇气，本人还不动声色地具备了这种勇气。
我们中间有的人就是从那个时代成长起来的，也曾经试图坚持开明思想的价值观。这并不仅仅是简单的利用左派价值观来反击右派，同时还是坚持同愚昧和歇斯底里相对立的人类尊严的价值观。
我们还记得那个时期许多沉沦的领袖，有的是一时找不到了方向，有的却是永远沦落了。他们抛弃了智慧，接纳了一些似是而非的观点。我希望永远不会再体会当年打开《追求奇异之神》一书时所体会到的义愤及被人蒙骗的心情。
But during the war， at an evening in Earle Birneys apartment in Toronto， I heard Ned read The Truant， and felt， not simply that I had heard the greatest of all Canadian poems， but that the voice of humanity had spoken once more， with the kind of authorityauthority n.权威， 威信， 权威人士， 权力， 职权， 典据， 著作权威 it reservesreserves n.储量 for such moments as the bombing of London， when the powers of darkness test the soul and find once more that “The stuffstuff n.原料， 材料， 素材资料vt.塞满， 填满， 填充 is not amenableamenable adj.应服从的， 有服从义务的， 有责任的 to fire”…
但在战争年代，有一天晚上，我在厄尔·伯尼的多伦多公寓里听奈德朗读《玩忽职守者》，我不禁觉得自己聆听到了最杰出的加拿大诗歌，而且感觉到人类的声音又重新开始说话了，其权威性是专为像伦敦遭受轰炸这样的时刻而使用的。此时，黑恶势力考验着人类的灵魂，但又一次发现：“这材料是烈火不烧毁的。”……
本文是缅怀先辈的一篇文章，通过对奈德·普拉特这一人物的人生概括，他的人格魅力他在自己研究领域内取得的成就，向我们展示了一位充满人生活力的人，从中可以看出作者对他的崇敬之情，使我们对这个以前不熟悉的人有所了解，对其人生产生一种认同感。
