《瓦尔登湖》第一章中有几句读得不是很懂,求教

《瓦尔登湖》第一章中有几句读得不是很懂,求教
There are nowadays professors of philosophy,but not philosophers.Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live.这后面一句是什么意思,不是很明白
The success of great scholars and thinkers is commonly a courtier-like success,not kingly,not manly. They make shift to live merely by conformity,practically as their fathers did,and are in no sense the progenitors of a noble race of men 这句到底是赞美还是讽刺,不是说不能囿于前人的所为吗?