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Reflections on the Revolution in France

对法国大革命的反思
1790  ·  Edmund Burke  ·  原文

A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MEN, IN A LETTER TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE _EDMUND BURKE_; OCCASIONED BY HIS REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE.

捍卫人权,致埃德蒙·伯克阁下的一封信;恰逢他对法国革命的反思。

_By MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT._

_玛丽·沃斯通克拉夫特撰写。_

THE SECOND EDITION.

第二版。

_LONDON_:

_伦敦_:

PRINTED FOR J.

为 J. 印刷

JOHNSON.

约翰逊。

NO. 72, ST. PAUL’S CHURCH-YARD.

不。 72,ST。保罗的教堂院子。

M.

M。

DCC.

DCC。

XC.

XC。

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ADVERTISEMENT.

广告。

Mr. Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution first engaged my attention as the transient topic of the day; and reading it more for amusement than information, my indignation was roused by the sophistical arguments, that every moment crossed me, in the questionable shape of natural feelings and common sense.

伯克先生对法国大革命的反思首先引起了我的注意,因为它是当时短暂的话题。读这本书更多的是为了消遣,而不是为了获取信息,其中那些诡辩的论点激起了我的愤慨,这些论点每时每刻都在我脑海中闪现,其自然情感和常识的可疑形式。

Many pages of the following letter were the effusions of the moment; but, swelling imperceptibly to a considerable size, the idea was suggested of publishing a short vindication of _the Rights of Men_.

下面这封信的很多页都是当时的倾诉之情。但是,不知不觉地膨胀到相当大的规模,有人建议出版一篇简短的《人权》辩护书。

Not having leisure or patience to follow this desultory writer through all the devious tracks in which his fancy has started fresh game, I have confined my strictures, in a great measure, to the grand principles at which he has levelled many ingenious arguments in a very specious garb.

我没有闲暇或耐心跟随这位漫无目的的作家走过他的想象力开始新游戏的所有曲折轨迹,所以我在很大程度上将我的批评限制在他以非常似是而非的外衣提出许多巧妙论点的宏伟原则上。

A LETTER TO THE _Right Honourable EDMUND BURKE_.

致_尊敬的埃德蒙·伯克_的一封信。

SIR,

先生,

It is not necessary, with courtly insincerity, to apologise to you for thus intruding on your precious time, not to profess that I think it an honour to discuss an important subject with a man whose literary abilities have raised him to notice in the state.

没有必要以宫廷式的不真诚向您道歉,因为这样打扰了您的宝贵时间,也没有必要声称我认为与一位文学能力已在国家引起关注的人讨论一个重要话题是我的荣幸。

I have not yet learned to twist my periods, nor, in the equivocal idiom of politeness, to disguise my sentiments, and imply what I should be afraid to utter: if, therefore, in the course of this epistle, I chance to express contempt, and even indignation, with some emphasis, I beseech you to believe that it is not a flight of fancy; for truth, in morals, has ever appeared to me the essence of the sublime; and, in taste, simplicity the only criterion of the beautiful.

我还没有学会曲解我的句号,也没有学会用模棱两可的礼貌用语来掩饰我的情感,并暗示我应该害怕说的话:因此,如果我在写这封信的过程中偶然表达了轻蔑,甚至是愤慨,并强调了一些,我恳求你相信这不是一种幻想;而是一种幻想。因为在我看来,道德上的真理一直是崇高的本质。在品味上,简单是美丽的唯一标准。

But I war not with an individual when I contend for the _rights of men_ and the liberty of reason.

但当我争取人类权利和理性自由时,我并不是与个人作战。

You see I do not condescend to cull my words to avoid the invidious phrase, nor shall I be prevented from giving a manly definition of it, by the flimsy ridicule which a lively fancy has interwoven with the present acceptation of the term.

你看,我不会屈尊挑选我的措辞来避免使用令人反感的短语,也不会因为活泼的幻想与目前对该术语的接受交织在一起的脆弱的嘲笑而阻止我对它给出一个男子气概的定义。

Reverencing the rights of humanity, I shall dare to assert them; not intimidated by the horse laugh that you have raised, or waiting till time has wiped away the compassionate tears which you have elaborately laboured to excite.

尊重人类的权利,我将敢于维护它们;不被你发出的马笑声吓倒,也不等待时间擦去你精心激起的同情泪水。

From the many just sentiments interspersed through the letter before me, and from the whole tendency of it, I should believe you to be a good, though a vain man, if some circumstances in your conduct did not render the inflexibility of your integrity doubtful; and for this vanity a knowledge of human nature enables me to discover such extenuating circumstances, in the very texture of your mind, that I am ready to call it amiable, and separate the public from the private character.

从我面前的这封信中散布的许多正义的情感来看,从它的整体倾向来看,我应该相信你是一个好人,尽管是一个虚荣的人,如果你的行为中的某些情况没有使你的正直的顽固性受到怀疑的话;出于这种虚荣心,对人性的了解使我能够在你的思想中发现这种情有可原的情况,我准备称之为和蔼可亲,并将公众与私人性格分开。

I know that a lively imagination renders a man particularly calculated to shine in conversation and in those desultory productions where method is disregarded; and the instantaneous applause which his eloquence extorts is at once a reward and a spur.

我知道,生动的想象力使一个人特别适合在谈话和那些不顾方法的杂乱作品中发光。他的雄辩所带来的瞬间掌声既是一种奖励,也是一种鞭策。

Once a wit and always a wit, is an aphorism that has received the sanction of experience; yet I am apt to conclude that the man who with scrupulous anxiety endeavours to support that shining character, can never nourish by reflection any profound, or, if you please, metaphysical passion.

曾经是一个机智,永远是一个机智,这是一句经过经验认可的格言。然而,我很容易得出这样的结论:一个人若怀着一丝不苟的焦虑,努力支持那种光辉的性格,就永远无法通过反思来滋养任何深刻的,或者,如果你愿意的话,形而上学的激情。

Ambition becomes only the tool of vanity, and his reason, the weather-cock of unrestrained feelings, is only employed to varnish over the faults which it ought to have corrected.

野心变成了虚荣的工具,而他的理性,无拘无束的感情的风向标,只被用来掩盖它应该纠正的错误。

Sacred, however, would the infirmities and errors of a good man be, in my eyes, if they were only displayed in a private circle; if the venial fault only rendered the wit anxious, like a celebrated beauty, to raise admiration on every occasion, and excite emotion, instead of the calm reciprocation of mutual esteem and unimpassioned respect.

然而,在我看来,一个好人的弱点和错误如果只在私人圈子里表现出来,那就是神圣的;如果小过错只会让才智像一位著名的美人一样,在任何场合都渴望引起钦佩并激发情感,而不是平静地回报相互尊重和无情的尊重。

Such vanity enlivens social intercourse, and forces the little great man to be always on his guard to secure his throne; and an ingenious man, who is ever on the watch for conquest, will, in his eagerness to exhibit his whole store of knowledge, furnish an attentive observer with some useful information, calcined by fancy and formed by taste.

这种虚荣心使社交活跃起来,迫使小伟人时刻警惕以确保自己的王位。一个永远警惕征服的聪明人,会在渴望展示他全部知识的过程中,为细心的观察者提供一些有用的信息,这些信息经过想象和品味形成。

And though some dry reasoner might whisper that the arguments were superficial, and should even add, that the feelings which are thus ostentatiously displayed are often the cold declamation of the head, and not the effusions of the heart—what will these shrewd remarks avail, when the witty arguments and ornamental feelings are on a level with the comprehension of the fashionable world, and a book is found very amusing?

尽管有些干巴巴的推理家可能会窃窃私语,认为这些论点是肤浅的,甚至应该补充说,如此夸张地表现出来的感情往往是头脑中的冷酷言论,而不是内心的流露——当机智的论点和装饰性的情感与时尚界的理解水平相当,而一本书又被认为非常有趣时,这些精明的言论有什么用呢?

Even the Ladies, Sir, may repeat your sprightly sallies, and retail in theatrical attitudes many of your sentimental exclamations.

先生,即使是女士们,也可能会重复您活泼的俏皮话,并以戏剧性的态度重复您的许多感伤的感叹。

Sensibility is the _manie_ of the day, and compassion the virtue which is to cover a multitude of vices, whilst justice is left to mourn in sullen silence, and balance truth in vain.

感性是当今的潮流,同情心是美德,可以掩盖多种罪恶,而正义只能在阴沉的沉默中哀悼,徒劳地平衡真理。

In life, an honest man with a confined understanding is frequently the slave of his habits and the dupe of his feelings, whilst the man with a clearer head and colder heart makes the passions of others bend to his interest; but truly sublime is the character that acts from principle, and governs the inferior springs of activity without slackening their vigour; whose feelings give vital heat to his resolves, but never hurry him into feverish eccentricities.

在生活中,一个诚实而认识有限的人,往往会成为习惯的奴隶,被感情所欺骗,而头脑清醒、内心冷漠的人,往往会令别人的热情屈服于自己的利益;但真正崇高的品格是根据原则行事,并控制较低的活动源泉而不减弱其活力。他们的感情为他的决心提供了至关重要的热量,但绝不会让他陷入狂热的怪癖之中。

However, as you have informed us that respect chills love, it is natural to conclude, that all your pretty flights arise from your pampered sensibility; and that, vain of this fancied pre-eminence of organs, you foster every emotion till the fumes, mounting to your brain, dispel the sober suggestions of reason.

然而,正如您告诉我们的,尊重冷酷的爱,很自然地得出结论,您所有漂亮的飞行都源于您被宠坏的情感;你不顾这种幻想中的卓越器官,培养各种情感,直到烟雾上升到你的大脑,驱散了理智的清醒暗示。

It is not in this view surprising, that when you should argue you become impassioned, and that reflection inflames your imagination, instead of enlightening your understanding.

从这个角度来看,当你应该争论时,你会变得充满激情,而这种反思会激发你的想象力,而不是启发你的理解,这并不奇怪。

Quitting now the flowers of rhetoric, let us, Sir, reason together; and, believe me, I should not have meddled with these troubled waters, in order to point out your inconsistencies, if your wit had not burnished up some rusty, baneful opinions, and swelled the shallow current of ridicule till it resembled the flow of reason, and presumed to be the test of truth.

现在,先生们,让我们抛开华丽的辞藻,一起推理吧!相信我,如果你的智慧没有磨亮一些生锈的、有害的观点,并扩大嘲笑的浅流,直到它类似于理性的流动,并被认为是真理的检验,我就不会为了指出你的矛盾而插手这些浑水。

I shall not attempt to follow you through “horse-way and foot-path;” but, attacking the foundation of your opinions, I shall leave the superstructure to find a centre of gravity on which it may lean till some strong blast puffs it into air; or your teeming fancy, which the ripening judgment of sixty years has not tamed, produces another Chinese erection, to stare, at every turn, the plain country people in the face, who bluntly call such an airy edifice—a folly.

我不会试图跟随你走过“马路和人行道”;但是,为了攻击你的观点的基础,我将离开上层建筑,寻找一个重心,让它可以倾斜,直到一阵强烈的爆炸将它吹到空中;或者你丰富的想象力,六十年来成熟的判断力还没有驯服,产生了另一种中国式的勃起​​,在每一个转折点上,盯着朴素的乡下人的脸,他们直言不讳地称这样一座空中建筑为愚蠢。

The birthright of man, to give you, Sir, a short definition of this disputed right, is such a degree of liberty, civil and religious, as is compatible with the liberty of every other individual with whom he is united in a social compact, and the continued existence of that compact.

先生,给你一个关于这一有争议的权利的简短定义,人的与生俱来的权利是一种程度的公民和宗教自由,与与他结合在社会契约中的每个其他个人的自由相容,并与该契约的持续存在相容。

Liberty, in this simple, unsophisticated sense, I acknowledge, is a fair idea that has never yet received a form in the various governments that have been established on our beauteous globe; the demon of property has ever been at hand to encroach on the sacred rights of men, and to fence round with awful pomp laws that war with justice.

我承认,从这个简单、不复杂的意义上讲,自由是一个公平的理念,但在我们美丽的地球上建立的各个政府中尚未得到体现。财产恶魔一直在侵犯人类的神圣权利,并用与正义相悖的可怕的排场法律来围堵。

But that it results from the eternal foundation of right—from immutable truth—who will presume to deny, that pretends to rationality—if reason has led them to build their morality[1] and religion on an everlasting foundation—the attributes of God?

但它是来自权利的永恒基础——来自不变的真理——如果理性引导他们将道德[1]和宗教建立在永恒的基础上——上帝的属性,谁会否认、假装理性呢?

I glow with indignation when I attempt, methodically, to unravel your slavish paradoxes, in which I can find no fixed first principle to refute; I shall not, therefore, condescend to shew where you affirm in one page what you deny in another; and how frequently you draw conclusions without any previous premises:—it would be something like cowardice to fight with a man who had never exercised the weapons with which his opponent chose to combat, and irksome to refute sentence after sentence in which the latent spirit of tyranny appeared.

当我试图有条不紊地解开你的奴隶般的悖论时,我义愤填膺,在这些悖论中我找不到任何固定的首要原则来反驳;因此,我不会屈尊指出你在一页中肯定了你在另一页中否认的地方。你经常在没有任何先决条件的情况下得出结论:——与一个从未使用过对手选择战斗的武器的人战斗,就像是怯懦,而且逐句反驳出现潜在暴政精神的句子是令人厌烦的。

I perceive, from the whole tenor of your Reflections, that you have a mortal antipathy to reason; but, if there is any thing like argument, or first principles, in your wild declamation, behold the result:—that we are to reverence the rust of antiquity, and term the unnatural customs, which ignorance and mistaken self-interest have consolidated, the sage fruit of experience: nay, that, if we do discover some errors, our _feelings_ should lead us to excuse, with blind love, or unprincipled filial affection, the venerable vestiges of ancient days.

从你的反思的整个基调中,我看出你对理性有一种致命的反感。但是,如果在你的狂妄的演讲中存在任何诸如论证或首要原则之类的东西,请看结果:——我们要尊重古代的锈迹,并将无知和错误的自利所巩固的不自然的习俗称为经验的圣果:不,如果我们确实发现了一些错误,我们的感觉应该引导我们以盲目的爱或无原则的孝道来原谅,古老时代的古老遗迹。

These are gothic notions of beauty—the ivy is beautiful, but, when it insidiously destroys the trunk from which it receives support, who would not grub it up?

这些都是哥特式的美观念——常春藤是美丽的,但是,当它阴险地破坏了支撑它的树干时,谁不会把它拔掉呢?

Further, that we ought cautiously to remain for ever in frozen inactivity, because a thaw, whilst it nourishes the soil, spreads a temporary inundation; and the fear of risking any personal present convenience should prevent a struggle for the most estimable advantages.

此外,我们应该小心翼翼地永远保持冻结状态,因为解冻在滋养土壤的同时,也会造成暂时的洪水;由于担心危及个人现有的便利,应该阻止为最可贵的利益而进行的斗争。

This is sound reasoning, I grant, in the mouth of the rich and short-sighted.

我承认,这是富人和短视人士口中的合理推理。

Yes, Sir, the strong gained riches, the few have sacrificed the many to their vices; and, to be able to pamper their appetites, and supinely exist without exercising mind or body, they have ceased to be men.—Lost to the relish of true pleasure, such beings would, indeed, deserve compassion, if injustice was not softened by the tyrant’s plea—necessity; if prescription was not raised as an immortal boundary against innovation.

是的,先生,强者获得了财富,少数人却牺牲了许多人的罪恶;而且,能够放纵自己的食欲,在不锻炼身心的情况下安逸地生存,他们就不再是人了。——失去了真正快乐的滋味,这样的人确实值得同情,如果不公正没有被暴君的恳求所软化——必要性;如果处方没有被提出作为反对创新的不朽界限。

Their minds, in fact, instead of being cultivated, have been so warped by education, that it may require some ages to bring them back to nature, and enable them to see their true interest, with that degree of conviction which is necessary to influence their conduct.

事实上,他们的思想并没有受到教养,而是被教育所扭曲,以至于可能需要一些年龄才能使他们回归自然,使他们能够看到自己真正的兴趣,并具有影响他们行为所必需的信念。

The civilization which has taken place in Europe has been very partial, and, like every custom that an arbitrary point of honour has established, refines the manners at the expence of morals, by making sentiments and opinions current in conversation that have no root in the heart, or weight in the cooler resolves of the mind.—And what has stopped its progress?—hereditary property—hereditary honours.

欧洲所发生的文明是非常偏颇的,并且,就像每一个任意的荣誉点所建立的习俗一样,通过使谈话中流行的情感和观点以牺牲道德为代价来提高礼仪,而这些情感和观点没有扎根于内心,也没有在头脑中冷静的决心中发挥作用。——什么阻止了它的进步?——世袭财产——世袭荣誉。

The man has been changed into an artificial monster by the station in which he was born, and the consequent homage that benumbed his faculties like the torpedo’s touch;—or a being, with a capacity of reasoning, would not have failed to discover, as his faculties unfolded, that true happiness arose from the friendship and intimacy which can only be enjoyed by equals; and that charity is not a condescending distribution of alms, but an intercourse of good offices and mutual benefits, founded on respect for justice and humanity.

这个人已经被他出生的位置变成了一个人造怪物,随之而来的敬意就像鱼雷的触碰一样麻木了他的能力;或者一个具有推理能力的人,随着他的能力的展开,不会没有发现真正的幸福来自于只有平等的友谊和亲密关系;慈善不是居高临下的施舍,而是在尊重正义和人性的基础上进行斡旋和互惠互利。

Governed by these principles, the poor wretch, whose _inelegant_ distress extorted from a mixed feeling of disgust and animal sympathy present relief, would have been considered as a man, whose misery demanded a part of his birthright, supposing him to be industrious; but should his vices have reduced him to poverty, he could only have addressed his fellow-men as weak beings, subject to like passions, who ought to forgive, because they expect to be forgiven, for suffering the impulse of the moment to silence the suggestions of conscience, or reason, which you will; for, in my view of things, they are synonymous terms.

在这些原则的指导下,这个可怜的可怜虫,他的不优雅的痛苦是由厌恶感和动物同情心的混合感觉所造成的,现在得到了缓解,他会被视为一个人,假设他勤奋,他的苦难需要他与生俱来的一部分权利;但如果他勤奋,他就会被视为一个人,他的苦难需要他与生俱来的权利。但如果他的恶行使他陷入贫困,他只能把他的同胞视为软弱的人,受制于同样的激情,他们应该宽恕,因为他们期望得到宽恕,因为他们一时冲动地压制了良心或理性的建议,你会这样做;因为,在我看来,它们是同义词。

Will Mr. Burke be at the trouble to inform us, how far we are to go back to discover the rights of men, since the light of reason is such a fallacious guide that none but fools trust to its cold investigation?

伯克先生是否会不厌其烦地告诉我们,我们还要走多远才能发现人类的权利,因为理性之光是如此错误的指导,除了傻瓜之外没有人相信它的冷酷调查?

In the infancy of society, confining our view to our own country, customs were established by the lawless power of an ambitious individual; or a weak prince was obliged to comply with every demand of the licentious barbarous insurgents, who disputed his authority with irrefragable arguments at the point of their swords; or the more specious requests of the Parliament, who only allowed him conditional supplies.

在社会的萌芽期,我们的视野仅限于自己的国家,习俗是由野心勃勃的个人的不法权力所建立的;或者,一个软弱的王子不得不满足那些放荡的野蛮叛乱分子的每一个要求,这些叛乱分子用刀剑以无可辩驳的论据来质疑他的权威。或者议会更似是而非的要求,议会只允许他有条件的供应。

Are these the venerable pillars of our constitution?

这些是我们宪法的令人尊敬的支柱吗?

And is Magna Charta to rest for its chief support on a former grant, which reverts to another, till chaos becomes the base of the mighty structure—or we cannot tell what?—for coherence, without some pervading principle of order, is a solecism.

大宪章的主要支持是否要依靠先前的一项授权,然后又恢复到另一项授权,直到混乱成为这个强大结构的基础——或者我们不知道是什么?——因为没有某种普遍的秩序原则的连贯性是一种错误。

Speaking of Edward the IIId.

说到爱德华三世。

Hume observes, that ‘he was a prince of great capacity, not governed by favourites, not led astray by any unruly passion, sensible that nothing could be more essential to his interests than to keep on good terms with his people: yet, on the whole, it appears that the government, at best, was only a barbarous monarchy, not regulated by any fixed maxims, or bounded by any certain or undisputed rights, which in practice were regularly observed.

休谟指出,“他是一位能力非凡的君主,不受宠臣统治,不被任何不守规矩的激情引入歧途,他意识到没有什么比与人民保持良好关系对他的利益更重要的了:然而,总体而言,政府充其量只是一个野蛮的君主政体,不受任何固定准则的约束,也不受任何在实践中经常遵守的某些或无可争议的权利的约束。”

The King conducted himself by one set of principles; the Barons by another; the Commons by a third; the Clergy by a fourth.

国王行事遵循一套原则;另一个男爵;下议院三分之一;神职人员占第四位。

All these systems of government were opposite and incompatible: each of them prevailed in its turn, as incidents were favourable to it: a great prince rendered the monarchical power predominant: the weakness of a king gave reins to the aristocracy: a superstitious age saw the clergy triumphant: the people, for whom chiefly government was instituted, and who chiefly deserve consideration, were the weakest of the whole.’

所有这些政府制度都是对立且不相容的:每一种制度都在其有利的情况下轮流占上风:伟大的王子使君主权力占主导地位:国王的软弱使贵族得以控制:迷信的时代看到了神职人员的胜利:政府主要为他们而建立、最值得考虑的人民却是整体中最弱的。

And just before that most auspicious æra, the fourteenth century, during the reign of Richard II.

就在那个最吉祥的时代之前,十四世纪,理查二世统治时期。

whose total incapacity to manage the reins of power, and keep in subjection his haughty Barons, rendered him a mere cypher; the House of Commons, to whom he was obliged frequently to apply, not only for subsidies but assistance to quell the insurrections that the contempt in which he was held naturally produced, gradually rose into power; for whenever they granted supplies to the King, they demanded in return, though it bore the name of petition, a confirmation, or the renewal of former charters, which had been infringed, and even utterly disregarded by the King and his seditious Barons, who principally held their independence of the crown by force of arms, and the encouragement which they gave to robbers and villains, who infested the country, and lived by rapine and violence.

他完全没有能力管理权力,也没有能力让傲慢的男爵们屈服,这使他成为一个无名的人。他不得不经常向下议院申请补贴,而且还提供援助,以平息他因受到蔑视而自然产生的叛乱,而下议院逐渐掌握了权力。因为每当他们向国王提供物资时,他们都会要求回报,尽管它以请愿书的名义,确认或更新以前的特许状,这些特许状已被国王和他的煽动性男爵们所侵犯,甚至完全无视,他们主要通过武力保持对王室的独立,并鼓励强盗和恶棍横行全国,靠掠夺和暴力为生。

To what dreadful extremities were the poorer sort reduced, their property, the fruit of their industry, being entirely at the disposal of their lords, who were so many petty tyrants!

穷人的财产和辛勤劳动的成果完全由他们的领主支配,而领主却是一群小暴君!

In return for the supplies and assistance which the king received from the commons, they demanded privileges, which Edward, in his distress for money to prosecute the numerous wars in which he was engaged during the greater part of his reign, was constrained to grant them; so that by degrees they rose to power, and became a check on both king and nobles.

作为对国王从下议院获得的供给和援助的回报,他们要求给予特权,而爱德华在他统治的大部分时间里,由于缺乏资金来进行无数的战争,被迫给予他们这些特权;因此,他们逐渐掌握了权力,并成为对国王和贵族的制衡。

Thus was the foundation of our liberty established, chiefly through the pressing necessities of the king, who was more intent on being supplied for the moment, in order to carry on his wars and ambitious projects, than aware of the blow he gave to kingly power, by thus making a body of men feel their importance, who afterwards might strenuously oppose tyranny and oppression, and effectually guard the subject’s property from seizure and confiscation.

因此,我们的自由的基础主要是通过国王的迫切需要而建立的,国王更专注于暂时得到供应,以便进行他的战争和雄心勃勃的计划,而不是意识到他对王权的打击,从而使一群人感到自己的重要性,他们随后可能会大力反对暴政和压迫,并有效地保护臣民的财产不被夺取和没收。

Richard’s weakness completed what Edward’s ambition began.

理查德的弱点完成了爱德华的野心开始。

At this period, it is true, Wickliffe opened a vista for reason by attacking some of the most pernicious tenets of the church of Rome; still the prospect was sufficiently misty to authorize the question—Where was the dignity of thinking of the fourteenth century?

诚然,在这一时期,威克利夫通过攻击罗马教会的一些最有害的信条,为理性开辟了前景。然而,前景仍然十分模糊,足以证明这样一个问题:14世纪思想的尊严在哪里?

A Roman Catholic, it is true, enlightened by the reformation, might, with singular propriety, celebrate the epoch that preceded it, to turn our thoughts from former atrocious enormities; but a Protestant must acknowledge that this faint dawn of liberty only made the subsiding darkness more visible; and that the boasted virtues of that century all bear the stamp of stupid pride and headstrong barbarism.

诚然,罗马天主教徒在宗教改革的启发下,可能会以独特的礼节庆祝之前的时代,使我们的思想从以前的残暴暴行中转移出来。但新教徒必须承认,自由的微弱曙光只会让正在消退的黑暗变得更加明显。那个世纪所吹嘘的美德都带有愚蠢的骄傲和任性的野蛮的印记。

Civility was then called condescension, and ostentatious almsgiving humanity; and men were content to borrow their virtues, or, to speak with more propriety, their consequence, from posterity, rather than undertake the arduous task of acquiring it for themselves.

那时,文明被称为居高临下、炫耀性的施舍人性。人们满足于从后代那里借用他们的美德,或者更恰当地说,他们的后果,而不是承担为自己获得它的艰巨任务。

The imperfection of all modern governments must, without waiting to repeat the trite remark, that all human institutions are unavoidably imperfect, in a great measure have arisen from this simple circumstance, that the constitution, if such an heterogeneous mass deserve that name, was settled in the dark days of ignorance, when the minds of men were shackled by the grossest prejudices and most immoral superstition.

所有现代政府的不完美必定是,无需重复陈词滥调,所有人类制度都不可避免地不完美,在很大程度上是由于这种简单的情况而产生的,宪法,如果这样一个异类群众配得上这个名字的话,是在无知的黑暗时代制定的,当时人们的思想被最严重的偏见和最不道德的迷信所束缚。

And do you, Sir, a sagacious philosopher, recommend night as the fittest time to analyze a ray of light?

先生,一位睿智的哲学家,您是否建议将夜晚作为分析光线的最佳时间?

Are we to seek for the rights of men in the ages when a few marks were the only penalty imposed for the life of a man, and death for death when the property of the rich was touched?

在这个时代,我们是否应该寻求人类的权利?在这个时代,几个马克是对一个人的生命施加的唯一惩罚,当富人的财产受到侵犯时,就以死亡为代价?

when—I blush to discover the depravity of our nature—when a deer was killed!

当——当我发现我们本性的堕落时——当一只鹿被杀时,我感到羞愧!

Are these the laws that it is natural to love, and sacrilegious to invade?—Were the rights of men understood when the law authorized or tolerated murder?—or is power and right the same in your creed?

热爱这些法律是理所当然的,侵犯这些法律就是亵渎吗?——当法律授权或容忍谋杀时,人们是否理解了人的权利?——或者在你的信条中,权力和权利是一样的吗?

But in fact all your declamation leads so directly to this conclusion, that I beseech you to ask your own heart, when you call yourself a friend of liberty, whether it would not be more consistent to style yourself the champion of property, the adorer of the golden image which power has set up?—And, when you are examining your heart, if it would not be too much like mathematical drudgery, to which a fine imagination very reluctantly stoops, enquire further, how it is consistent with the vulgar notions of honesty, and the foundation of morality—truth; for a man to boast of his virtue and independence, when he cannot forget that he is at the moment enjoying the wages of falsehood[2]; and that, in a skulking, unmanly way, he has secured himself a pension of fifteen hundred pounds per annum on the Irish establishment?

但事实上,你所有的言论都如此直接地引向这个结论,所以我恳求你问问你自己的心,当你自称为自由之友时,把自己称为财产的捍卫者、权力所树立的金色形象的崇拜者,是否会更一致?——而且,当你审视你的心时,如果这不是太像数学苦差事,一个优秀的想象力非常不情愿地屈服于这一点,请进一步询问,它如何与庸俗的观念相一致诚实是道德的基础——真理;一个人夸耀自己的美德和独立,却无法忘记自己此刻正享受着谎言的报酬[2];他以一种偷偷摸摸、缺乏男子气概的方式,在爱尔兰机构中为自己谋取了每年一千五百英镑的养老金?

Do honest men, Sir, for I am not rising to the refined principle of honour, ever receive the reward of their public services, or secret assistance, in the name of _another_?

先生,诚实的人是否曾以他人的名义接受公共服务或秘密援助的奖励,因为我没有达到严格的荣誉原则?

But to return from a digression which you will more perfectly understand than any of my readers—on what principle you, Sir, can justify the reformation, which tore up by the roots an old establishment, I cannot guess—but, I beg your pardon, perhaps you do not wish to justify it—and have some mental reservation to excuse you, to yourself, for not openly avowing your reverence.

不过,言归正传,您比我的任何一位读者都更能理解这一点——先生,您可以根据什么原则来证明改革的合理性,因为改革从根源上摧毁了一个旧的体制,我无法猜测——但是,请您原谅,也许您不想为它辩护——并在心理上保留一些保留,以原谅您没有公开表达您的敬意。

Or, to go further back;—had you been a Jew—you would have joined in the cry, crucify him!—crucify him!

或者,追溯得更远;——如果你是犹太人——你一定会加入到呼喊中,把他钉在十字架上!——把他钉在十字架上!

The promulgator of a new doctrine, and the violator of old laws and customs, that not melting, like ours, into darkness and ignorance, rested on Divine authority, must have been a dangerous innovator, in your eyes, particularly if you had not been informed that the Carpenter’s Son was of the stock and lineage of David.

新教义的传播者,旧法律和习俗的违反者,不像我们一样,融入黑暗和无知,依靠神圣的权威,在你眼中一定是一个危险的创新者,特别是如果你不知道木匠的儿子是大卫的血统和血统的话。

But there is no end to the arguments which might be deduced to combat such palpable absurdities, by shewing the manifest inconsistencies which are necessarily involved in a direful train of false opinions.

但是,通过展示明显的不一致之处,可以推出无穷无尽的论据来对抗这种明显的荒谬,而这些不一致必然涉及一系列可怕的错误观点。

It is necessary emphatically to repeat, that there are rights which men inherit at their birth, as rational creatures, who were raised above the brute creation by their improvable faculties; and that, in receiving these, not from their forefathers but, from God, prescription can never undermine natural rights.

有必要强调重申,人类作为理性的生物,在出生时就继承了一些权利,他们凭借其可改进的能力而超越了野蛮的创造物;并且,在接受这些权利时,不是从他们的祖先那里,而是从上帝那里,规定永远不会损害自然权利。

A father may dissipate his property without his child having any right to complain;—but should he attempt to sell him for a slave, or fetter him with laws contrary to reason; nature, in enabling him to discern good from evil, teaches him to break the ignoble chain, and not to believe that bread becomes flesh, and wine blood, because his parents swallowed the Eucharist with this blind persuasion.

父亲可以挥霍他的财产,而他的孩子没有任何权利抱怨;但如果他试图将他卖作奴隶,或用违背理性的法律束缚他;大自然使他能够辨别善恶,教导他挣断不光彩的锁链,不要相信面包变成肉,酒变成血,因为他的父母在这种盲目的劝说下吞下了圣体圣事。

There is no end to this implicit submission to authority—some where it must stop, or we return to barbarism; and the capacity of improvement, which gives us a natural sceptre on earth, is a cheat, an ignis-fatuus, that leads us from inviting meadows into bogs and dunghills.

这种对权威的隐性服从是没有止境的——有些地方必须停止,否则我们就会回到野蛮状态;进步的能力给了我们地球上天然的权杖,但它却是一种欺骗,一种迷失,它使我们从邀请草地变成沼泽和粪堆。

And if it be allowed that many of the precautions, with which any alteration was made, in our government, were prudent, it rather proves its weakness than substantiates an opinion of the soundness of the stamina, or the excellence of the constitution.

如果我们的政府在进行任何变革时所采取的许多预防措施都是审慎的,那它宁愿证明政府的弱点,而不是证实对耐力的健全性或宪法的卓越性的看法。

But on what principle Mr. Burke could defend American independence, I cannot conceive; for the whole tenor of his plausible arguments settles slavery on an everlasting foundation.

但伯克先生能够依据什么原则来捍卫美国独立,我无法想象;因为他的所有看似合理的论点都将奴隶制建立在永恒的基础上。

Allowing his servile reverence for antiquity, and prudent attention to self-interest, to have the force which he insists on, the slave trade ought never to be abolished; and, because our ignorant forefathers, not understanding the native dignity of man, sanctioned a traffic that outrages every suggestion of reason and religion, we are to submit to the inhuman custom, and term an atrocious insult to humanity the love of our country, and a proper submission to the laws by which our property is secured.—Security of property!

考虑到他对古代的奴性敬畏和对自身利益的谨慎关注,具有他所坚持的力量,奴隶贸易永远不应该被废除;而且,因为我们无知的祖先不理解人的固有尊严,批准了一种违反理性和宗教建议的交易,所以我们必须服从这种不人道的习俗,并将对我们国家的热爱和对保护我们财产的法律的适当服从称为对人类的残酷侮辱。——财产安全!

Behold, in a few words, the definition of English liberty.

用几句话来看看英国自由的定义。

And to this selfish principle every nobler one is sacrificed.—The Briton takes place of the man, and the image of God is lost in the citizen!

为了这个自私的原则,每一个高贵的人都被牺牲了。——英国人取代了人,上帝的形象在公民身上消失了!

But it is not that enthusiastic flame which in Greece and Rome consumed every sordid passion: no, self is the focus; and the disparting rays rise not above our foggy atmosphere.

但在希腊和罗马,燃烧一切肮脏激情的并不是那种热情的火焰:不,自我才是焦点;自我才是焦点。分散的光线并没有升到我们雾蒙蒙的大气层之上。

But softly—it is only the property of the rich that is secure; the man who lives by the sweat of his brow has no asylum from oppression; the strong man may enter—when was the castle of the poor sacred?

但温柔的是——只有富人的财产才是安全的;靠自己的汗水生活的人无法免受压迫。强者可以进入——穷人的城堡什么时候是神圣的?

and the base informer steal him from the family that depend on his industry for subsistence.

卑鄙的线人把他从靠他的工业维持生计的家庭中偷了出来。

Fully sensible as you must be of the baneful consequences that inevitably follow this notorious infringement on the dearest rights of men, and that it is an infernal blot on the very face of our immaculate constitution, I cannot avoid expressing my surprise that when you recommended our form of government as a model, you did not caution the French against the arbitrary custom of pressing men for the sea service.

尽管您必须充分意识到这种对人类最宝贵权利的臭名昭著的侵犯不可避免地会带来可怕的后果,并且这是我们完美宪法表面上的一个地狱般的污点,但我无法避免表达我的惊讶,当您推荐我们的政府形式作为模型时,您没有警告法国人不要强迫人们去海军服役的武断习惯。

You should have hinted to them, that property in England is much more secure than liberty, and not have concealed that the liberty of an honest mechanic—his all—is often sacrificed to secure the property of the rich.

你应该向他们暗示,英国的财产比自由更安全,并且不要隐瞒诚实的机械师的自由——他的全部——常常为了保护富人的财产而牺牲。

For it is a farce to pretend that a man fights _for his country, his hearth, or his altars_, when he has neither liberty nor property.—His property is in his nervous arms—and they are compelled to pull a strange rope at the surly command of a tyrannic boy, who probably obtained his rank on account of his family connections, or the prostituted vote of his father, whose interest in a borough, or voice as a senator, was acceptable to the minister.

因为假装一个人为他的国家、他的壁炉或他的祭坛而战,而他既没有自由,也没有财产,那就是一场闹剧。——他的财产掌握在他紧张的手臂中——他们被迫在一个暴虐男孩的粗暴指挥下拉一根奇怪的绳子,这个男孩可能因为他的家庭关系或他父亲的卖淫选票而获得了这个地位,他对一个行政区的兴趣,或者作为参议员的声音,是可以被政府接受的。部长。

Our penal laws punish with death the thief who steals a few pounds; but to take by violence, or trepan, a man, is no such heinous offence.—For who shall dare to complain of the venerable vestige of the law that rendered the life of a deer more sacred than that of a man?

我们的刑法对偷窃几磅的小偷处以死刑;但以暴力或环钻手段夺走一个人,却并非如此令人发指的罪行。——因为谁敢抱怨法律的古老残余,使鹿的生命比人的生命更加神圣呢?

But it was the poor man with only his native dignity who was thus oppressed—and only metaphysical sophists and cold mathematicians can discern this insubstantial form; it is a work of abstraction—and a _gentleman_ of lively imagination must borrow some drapery from fancy before he can love or pity a _man_.—Misery, to reach your heart, I perceive, must have its cap and bells; your tears are reserved, very _naturally_ considering your character, for the declamation of the theatre, or for the downfall of queens, whose rank alters the nature of folly, and throws a graceful veil over vices that degrade humanity; whilst the distress of many industrious mothers, whose _helpmates_ have been torn from them, and the hungry cry of helpless babes, were vulgar sorrows that could not move your commiseration, though they might extort an alms.

但受压迫的却是那些只有与生俱来的尊严的穷人——只有形而上学的诡辩家和冷酷的数学家才能辨别这种非实体的形式;这是一件抽象的作品——一位富有生动想象力的绅士必须借用想象中的一些帷幔,然后才能爱或怜悯一个人。——我认为,苦难要想触及你的心,就必须有它的帽子和铃铛;考虑到你的性格,你的眼泪是很自然地保留下来的,是为了剧院的演说,或者是为了女王的垮台,女王的地位改变了愚蠢的本质,并为降低人性的罪恶蒙上了一层优雅的面纱;而许多勤劳的母亲的痛苦,她们的助手被夺走,以及无助的婴儿的饥饿哭声,都是粗俗的悲伤,无法动摇你的同情心,尽管他们可能会勒索施舍。

‘The tears that are shed for fictitious sorrow are admirably adapted,’ says Rousseau, ‘to make us proud of all the virtues which we do not possess.’

卢梭说:“为虚构的悲伤而流下的眼泪得到了令人钦佩的改编,使我们为我们不具备的所有美德感到自豪。”

The baneful effects of the despotic practice of pressing we shall, in all probability, soon feel; for a number of men, who have been taken from their daily employments, will shortly be let loose on society, now that there is no longer any apprehension of a war.

我们很可能很快就会感受到强制施压的专制做法的有害影响。因为现在不再有任何对战争的担忧,一些被从日常工作中解脱出来的人很快就会被释放到社会中。

The vulgar, and by this epithet I mean not only to describe a class of people, who, working to support the body, have not had time to cultivate their minds; but likewise those who, born in the lap of affluence, have never had their invention sharpened by necessity are, nine out of ten, the creatures of habit and impulse.

粗俗,我用这个词来形容的不仅是指一类人,他们靠劳动养活身体,却没有时间培养自己的思想;但同样,那些出生在富裕家庭、从未因必要而磨练自己的发明的人,十分之九是习惯和冲动的生物。

If I were not afraid to derange your nervous system by the bare mention of a metaphysical enquiry, I should observe, Sir, that self-preservation is, literally speaking, the first law of nature; and that the care necessary to support and guard the body is the first step to unfold the mind, and inspire a manly spirit of independence.

如果我不担心仅仅提及形而上学的探究就会扰乱你的神经系统,那么我应该观察到,先生,自我保护,从字面上讲,是第一自然法则;支撑和保护身体所必需的护理是展开思想、激发独立的男子气概的第一步。

The mewing babe in swaddling clothes, who is treated like a superior being, may perchance become a gentleman; but nature must have given him uncommon faculties if, when pleasure hangs on every bough, he has sufficient fortitude either to exercise his mind or body in order to acquire personal merit.

襁褓中的喵喵婴儿,受到上等人的对待,也许会成为绅士;但是,如果当快乐挂在每一根树枝上时,如果他有足够的毅力锻炼自己的思想或身体以获得个人功绩,那么大自然一定赋予了他非凡的才能。

The passions are necessary auxiliaries of reason: a present impulse pushes us forward, and when we discover that the game did not deserve the chace, we find that we have gone over much ground, and not only gained many new ideas, but a habit of thinking.

激情是理性的必要辅助:当下的冲动推动我们前进,当我们发现游戏不值得冒险时,我们发现我们已经走过了很多路,不仅获得了许多新想法,而且养成了思考的习惯。

The exercise of our faculties is the great end, though not the goal we had in view when we started with such eagerness.

锻炼我们的才能是伟大的目标,尽管这并不是我们如此热切地开始时所设想的目标。

It would be straying still further into metaphysics to add, that this is one of the strongest arguments for the natural immortality of the soul.—Every thing looks like a means, nothing like an end, or point of rest, when we can say, now let us sit down and enjoy the present moment; our faculties and wishes are proportioned to the present scene; we may return without repining to our sister clod.

如果补充说,这是灵魂自然不朽的最有力的论据之一,那将进一步误入形而上学。——每件事看起来都像是一种手段,不像目的或休息点,当我们可以说,现在让我们坐下来享受当下的时刻;我们的才能和愿望与当前的情况相称;我们可以毫无怨言地返回我们的姐妹土块。

And, if no conscious dignity whisper that we are capable of relishing more refined pleasures, the thirst of truth appears to be allayed; and thought, the faint type of an immaterial energy, no longer bounding it knows not where, is confined to the tenement that affords it sufficient variety.—The rich man may then thank his God that he is not like other men—but when is retribution to be made to the miserable, who cry day and night for help, and there is no one at hand to help them?

而且,如果没有自觉的尊严低语说我们有能力享受更精致的快乐,那么对真理的渴望似乎就会得到缓解;思想,一种无形能量的微弱类型,不再限制它不知道在哪里,被限制在提供足够多样性的公寓里。——那么,富人可能会感谢他的上帝,因为他不像其他人——但是,什么时候才能对那些日夜呼救、却无人帮助他们的悲惨者进行报应呢?

And not only misery but immorality proceeds from this stretch of arbitrary authority.

这种专断的权威不仅造成痛苦,而且造成不道德行为。

The vulgar have not the power of emptying their mind of the only ideas they imbibed whilst their hands were employed; they cannot quickly turn from one kind of life to another.

庸俗的人没有能力清空头脑中他们在双手工作时所吸收的唯一想法。他们无法迅速从一种生活转向另一种生活。

Pressing them entirely unhinges their minds; they acquire new habits, and cannot return to their old occupations with their former readiness; consequently they fall into idleness, drunkenness, and the whole train of vices which you stigmatise as gross.

压迫他们会使他们完全精神错乱。他们养成了新的习惯,无法回到原来的工作状态。结果,他们陷入了懒惰、酗酒以及一系列被你视为粗俗的恶习之中。

A government that acts in this manner cannot be called a good parent, nor inspire natural (habitual is the proper word) affection, in the breasts of children who are thus disregarded.

以这种方式行事的政府不能被称为好父母,也不能在因此被忽视的孩子们心中激发自然的(习惯性的才是正确的词)情感。

The game laws are almost as oppressive to the peasantry as press-warrants to the mechanic.

游戏规则对农民的压迫几乎就像新闻令对机械师的压迫一样。

In this land of liberty what is to secure the property of the poor farmer when his noble landlord chooses to plant a decoy field near his little property?

在这片自由的土地上,当贫穷的农民的高贵地主选择在他的小财产附近种植一个诱饵田时,如何保护他的财产呢?

Game devour the fruit of his labour; but fines and imprisonment await him if he dare to kill any—or lift up his hand to interrupt the pleasure of his lord.

游戏吞噬了他的劳动成果;但如果他胆敢杀人,或者举手打扰主人的欢乐,他就会面临罚款和监禁。

How many families have been plunged, in the _sporting_ countries, into misery and vice for some paltry transgression of these coercive laws, by the natural consequence of that anger which a man feels when he sees the reward of his industry laid waste by unfeeling luxury?—when his children’s bread is given to dogs!

在体育国家里,有多少家庭因轻微违反这些强制性法律而陷入痛苦和罪恶之中,当一个人看到他的勤劳的回报被无情的奢侈浪费时,当他的孩子的面包被喂给狗时,他会感到愤怒,这是自然的结果!

You have shewn, Sir, by your silence on these subjects, that your respect for rank has swallowed up the common feelings of humanity; you seem to consider the poor as only the live stock of an estate, the feather of hereditary nobility.

先生,您对这些问题的沉默表明,您对等级的尊重已经吞噬了人类的共同感情;你似乎认为穷人只是庄园里的牲畜,是世袭贵族的羽毛。

When you had so little respect for the silent majesty of misery, I am not surprised at your manner of treating an individual whose brow a mitre will never grace, and whose popularity may have wounded your vanity—for vanity is ever fore.

当你对苦难的沉默威严如此不尊重时,我对你对待一个人的方式并不感到惊讶,这个人的眉毛永远不会优雅,而且他的受欢迎程度可能会伤害你的虚荣心——因为虚荣心永远存在。

Even in France, Sir, before the revolution, literary celebrity procured a man the treatment of a gentleman; but you are going back for your credentials of politeness to more distant times.—Gothic affability is the mode you think proper to adopt, the condescension of a Baron, not the civility of a liberal man.

先生,即使在革命之前的法国,文学名人也能让一个人得到绅士的待遇。但你要回溯到更遥远的时代去寻找你的礼貌凭证。——哥特式的和蔼可亲是你认为应该采用的方式,是男爵的居高临下,而不是自由主义者的礼貌。

Politeness is, indeed, the only substitute for humanity; or what distinguishes the civilised man from the unlettered savage?

事实上,礼貌是人性的唯一替代品。或者说文明人与没有受过教育的野蛮人的区别是什么?

and he who is not governed by reason should square his behaviour by an arbitrary standard; but by what rule your attack on Dr. Price was regulated we have yet to learn.

不受理性支配的人应该以武断的标准来规范自己的行为。但我们还不知道你对普莱斯博士的攻击是根据什么规则来规范的。

I agree with you, Sir, that the pulpit is not the place for political discussions, though it might be more excusable to enter on such a subject, when the day was set apart merely to commemorate a political revolution, and no stated duty was encroached upon.

先生,我同意你的观点,即讲坛不是进行政治讨论的场所,尽管进入这一主题可能更情有可原,因为这一天只是为了纪念一场政治革命而设立的,并且没有侵犯任何规定的义务。

I will, however, wave this point, and allow that Dr. Price’s zeal may have carried him further than sound reason can justify.

然而,我会放弃这一点,并承认普莱斯博士的热情可能使他走得比合理理性所能证明的更远。

I do also most cordially coincide with you, that till we can see the remote consequences of things, present calamities must appear in the ugly form of evil, and excite our commiseration.

我也非常真诚地同意你的看法,在我们能够看到事情的遥远后果之前,当前的灾难必须以邪恶的丑陋形式出现,并激发我们的同情心。

The good that time slowly educes from them may be hid from mortal eye, or dimly seen; whilst sympathy compels man to feel for man, and almost restrains the hand that would amputate a limb to save the whole body.

时间慢慢从他们身上带来的好处可能是肉眼看不见的,或者是隐约可见的。而同情则迫使人同情他人,几乎克制住为了拯救整个身体而截肢的手。

But, after making this concession, allow me to expostulate with you, and calmly hold up the glass which will shew you your partial feelings.

但是,在做出这个让步之后,请允许我向你劝诫一下,平静地举起酒杯,让你看到你的部分感情。

In reprobating Dr. Price’s opinions you might have spared the man; and if you had had but half as much reverence for the grey hairs of virtue as for the accidental distinctions of rank, you would not have treated with such indecent familiarity and supercilious contempt, a member of the community whose talents and modest virtues place him high in the scale of moral excellence.

在驳斥普赖斯博士的观点时,你可能会放过这个人;如果你对白发美德的敬意只有对偶然的等级区别的敬意的一半,你就不会以如此不雅的熟悉和傲慢的蔑视对待一个社区成员,他的才能和谦虚的美德使他在道德卓越的标准上处于很高的地位。

I am not accustomed to look up with vulgar awe, even when mental superiority exalts a man above his fellows; but still the sight of a man whose habits are fixed by piety and reason, and whose virtues are consolidated into goodness, commands my homage—and I should touch his errors with a tender hand when I made a parade of my sensibility.

我不习惯以粗俗的敬畏之情抬头仰视,即使一个人因精神上的优越性而高于他的同胞。但是,看到一个人的习惯被虔诚和理性所固定,他的美德被巩固为善良,仍然让我感到敬意——当我展示我的感性时,我应该用温柔的手去触碰他的错误。

Granting, for a moment, that Dr. Price’s political opinions are Utopian reveries, and that the world is not yet sufficiently civilized to adopt such a sublime system of morality; they could, however, only be the reveries of a benevolent mind.

暂时承认普莱斯博士的政治观点是乌托邦式的幻想,世界还没有足够文明来采用如此崇高的道德体系;然而,它们只能是仁慈之心的幻想。

Tottering on the verge of the grave, that worthy man in his whole life never dreamt of struggling for power or riches; and, if a glimpse of the glad dawn of liberty rekindled the fire of youth in his veins, you, who could not stand the fascinating glance of a _great_ Lady’s eyes, when neither virtue nor sense beamed in them, might have pardoned his unseemly transport,—if such it must be deemed.

那个在坟墓边缘摇摇欲坠的人,他的一生从未梦想过为权力或财富而奋斗;如果一睹自由的喜悦曙光在他的血管中重新点燃了青春的火焰,那么你,你无法忍受一位伟大女士的迷人目光,当他们的眼睛里既没有美德也没有理智时,你可能会原谅他不合时宜的情绪,如果必须这样认为的话。

I could almost fancy that I now see this respectable old man, in his pulpit, with hands clasped, and eyes devoutly fixed, praying with all the simple energy of unaffected piety; or, when more erect, inculcating the dignity of virtue, and enforcing the doctrines his life adorns; benevolence animated each feature, and persuasion attuned his accents; the preacher grew eloquent, who only laboured to be clear; and the respect that he extorted, seemed only the respect due to personified virtue and matured wisdom.—Is this the man you brand with so many opprobrious epithets?

我几乎可以想象我现在看到这位令人尊敬的老人,在他的讲坛上,双手紧握,眼睛虔诚地凝视着,用所有不受影响的虔诚的简单能量祈祷;或者,当他更加直立时,灌输美德的尊严,并执行他的生活所装饰的教义;仁慈使每一个特征都充满活力,说服使他的口音变得协调一致。传教士变得能言善道,但他只是费力地把话说清楚。而他所索取的尊重,似乎只是由于人格化的美德和成熟的智慧而产生的尊重。——这就是你贴上这么多侮辱性绰号的人吗?

he whose private life will stand the test of the strictest enquiry—away with such unmanly sarcasms, and puerile conceits.—But, before I close this part of my animadversions, I must convict you of wilful misrepresentation and wanton abuse.

他的私生活将经受住最严格调查的考验——远离这种缺乏男子气概的讽刺和幼稚的自负。——但是,在我结束这部分的批评之前,我必须判定你犯有故意歪曲和肆意虐待的罪行。

Dr. Price, when he reasons on the necessity of men attending some place of public worship, concisely obviates an objection that has been made in the form of an apology, by advising those, who do not approve of our Liturgy, and cannot find any mode of worship out of the church, in which they can conscientiously join, to establish one for themselves.

普赖斯博士在论证人们参加某些公共礼拜场所的必要性时,简明地排除了以道歉的形式提出的反对意见,建议那些不赞成我们的礼仪,并且在教会之外找不到任何可以认真加入的礼拜方式的人为自己建立一种礼拜方式。

This plain advice you have tortured into a very different meaning, and represented the preacher as actuated by a dissenting phrensy, recommending dissensions, ‘not to diffuse truth, but to spread contradictions[3].’ A simple question will silence this impertinent declamation.—What is truth?

你把这个简单的建议折磨成一个完全不同的含义,并把传教士描述为受到异议精神的驱使,建议争论,“不是为了散布真理,而是为了散布矛盾[3]。”一个简单的问题就能让这种无礼的言论安静下来。——什么是真理?

A few fundamental truths meet the first enquiry of reason, and appear as clear to an unwarped mind, as that air and bread are necessary to enable the body to fulfil its vital functions; but the opinions which men discuss with so much heat must be simplified and brought back to first principles; or who can discriminate the vagaries of the imagination, or scrupulosity of weakness, from the verdict of reason?

一些基本真理满足了理性的初步探究,并且对于一个清醒的头脑来说似乎是清晰的,就像空气和面包是使身体能够履行其重要功能所必需的一样;但是,人们如此激烈地讨论的观点必须被简化并回归到首要原则。或者谁能​​区分想象力的变幻莫测或软弱的谨慎与理性的判断?

Let all these points be demonstrated, and not determined by arbitrary authority and dark traditions, lest a dangerous supineness should take place; for probably, in ceasing to enquire, our reason would remain dormant, and delivered up, without a curb, to every impulse of passion, we might soon lose sight of the clear light which the exercise of our understanding no longer kept alive.

让所有这些要点得到证明,而不是由专断的权威和黑暗的传统决定,以免发生危险的消极态度;因为,如果停止探究,我们的理性可能会保持休眠状态,并毫无节制地屈服于每一种激情的冲动,我们可能很快就会看不到清晰的光芒,而我们的理解力的运用已经不再使我们保持活力。

To argue from experience, it should seem as if the human mind, averse to thought, could only be opened by necessity; for, when it can take opinions on trust, it gladly lets the spirit lie quiet in its gross tenement.

从经验来看,人类的心灵似乎是厌恶思想的,只有在必要时才能被打开。因为,当它能够接受信任的意见时,它很乐意让精神安静地躺在它简陋的房屋里。

Perhaps the most improving exercise of the mind, confining the argument to the enlargement of the understanding, is the restless enquiries that hover on the boundary, or stretch over the dark abyss of uncertainty.

也许,将争论限制在扩大理解范围上的最有进步的思维锻炼,就是徘徊在边界上或延伸到不确定性的黑暗深渊上的不安的询问。

These lively conjectures are the breezes that preserve the still lake from stagnating.

这些生动的猜想是让平静的湖面不至于停滞的微风。

We should be aware of confining all moral excellence to one channel, however capacious; or, if we are so narrow-minded, we should not forget how much we owe to chance that our inheritance was not Mahometism; and that the iron hand of destiny, in the shape of deeply rooted authority, has not suspended the sword of destruction over our heads.

我们应该意识到,无论多么广阔,所有道德美德都仅限于一个渠道;或者,如果我们心胸如此狭隘,我们就不应该忘记,我们所继承的并不是穆罕默德主义,这在很大程度上是由于偶然性造成的。命运的铁手以根深蒂固的权威形式出现,并没有将毁灭之剑悬在我们头上。

But to return to the misrepresentation.

但回到误传。

[4]Blackstone, to whom Mr. Burke pays great deference, seems to agree with Dr. Price, that the succession of the King of Great Britain depends on the choice of the people, or that they have a power to cut it off; but this power, as you have fully proved, has been cautiously exerted, and might with more propriety be termed a _right_ than a power.

[4]伯克先生非常尊敬的布莱克斯通似乎同意普莱斯博士的观点,即英国国王的继承取决于人民的选择,或者他们有权切断它;但是,正如你已经充分证明的那样,这种权力一直被谨慎地运用,并且可以更恰当地称为“权利”而不是权力。

Be it so!—yet when you elaborately cited precedents to shew that our forefathers paid great respect to hereditary claims, you might have gone back to your favourite epoch, and shewn their respect for a church that fulminating laws have since loaded with opprobrium.

就这样吧!——然而,当你精心引用先例来表明我们的祖先非常尊重世袭主张时,你可能已经回到了你最喜欢的时代,并表达了他们对教会的尊重,而教会的严厉法律自那时起就充满了谴责。

The preponderance of inconsistencies, when weighed with precedents, should lessen the most bigoted veneration for antiquity, and force men of the eighteenth century to acknowledge, that our _canonized forefathers_ were unable, or afraid, to revert to reason, without resting on the crutch of authority; and should not be brought as a proof that their children are never to be allowed to walk alone.

当与先例进行权衡时,大量的不一致之处应该会减少对古代最偏执的崇拜,并迫使十八世纪的人们承认,我们的祖先不能或害怕在不依靠权威的拐杖的情况下回归理性;并且不应作为他们的孩子永远不被允许单独行走的证据。

When we doubt the infallible wisdom of our ancestors, it is only advancing on the same ground to doubt the sincerity of the law, and the propriety of that servile appellation—OUR SOVEREIGN LORD THE KING.

当我们怀疑我们祖先的无误智慧时,就等于是在同一基础上怀疑法律的真诚性,以及我们的主宰国王这个奴性称谓的适当性。

Who were the dictators of this adulatory language of the law?

谁是法律中这种奉承语言的独裁者?

Were they not courtly parasites and worldly priests?

难道他们不是宫廷寄生虫和世俗牧师吗?

Besides, whoever at divine service, whose feelings were not deadened by habit, or their understandings quiescent, ever repeated without horror the same epithets applied to a man and his Creator?

此外,无论是谁,在参加神圣仪式时,如果他们的情感没有因习惯而麻木,或者他们的理解力没有停滞不前,那么,谁曾毫无恐惧地重复着同样的绰号应用于人和他的创造者呢?

If this is confused jargon—say what are the dictates of sober reason, or the criterion to distinguish nonsense?

如果这是令人困惑的行话——请问清醒理性的要求是什么,或者区分废话的标准是什么?

You further sarcastically animadvert on the consistency of the democratists, by wresting the obvious meaning of a common phrase, _the dregs of the people_; or your contempt for poverty may have led you into an error.

你进一步讽刺地批评了民主主义者的一致性,通过理解一个常见短语“人民的渣滓”的明显含义;或者你对贫穷的蔑视可能导致你犯了错误。

Be that as it may, an unprejudiced man would have directly perceived the single sense of the word, and an old Member of Parliament could scarcely have missed it.

无论如何,一个不带偏见的人会直接感知到这个词的单一含义,而一位老议员几乎不可能错过它。

He who had so often felt the pulse of the electors needed not have gone beyond his own experience to discover that the dregs alluded to were the vicious, and not the lower class of the community.

他经常感受到选民的脉搏,不必超越自己的经验,就可以发现这里所指的渣滓是邪恶的人,而不是社会的下层阶级。

Again, Sir, I must doubt your sincerity or your discernment.—You have been behind the curtain; and, though it might be difficult to bring back your sophisticated heart to nature and make you feel like a man, yet the awestruck confusion in which you were plunged must have gone off when the vulgar emotion of wonder, excited by finding yourself a Senator, had subsided.

先生,我再次怀疑你的诚意或你的洞察力。——你一直在幕后;你一直在幕后。而且,虽然可能很难让你复杂的心灵回归自然,让你感觉自己像个男人,但当你因发现自己成为参议员而兴奋的粗俗的好奇情绪消退时,你所陷入的敬畏和困惑一定已经消失了。

Then you must have seen the clogged wheels of corruption continually oiled by the sweat of the laborious poor, squeezed out of them by unceasing taxation.

那么你一定看到了腐败的车轮被堵塞,不断地被勤劳的穷人的汗水所润滑,并被不断的税收从他们身上挤出来。

You must have discovered that the majority in the House of Commons was often purchased by the crown, and that the people were oppressed by the influence of their own money, extorted by the venal voice of a packed representation.

你一定已经发现,下议院的多数席位常常是被国王收买的,而人民则受到自己金钱的影响的压迫,被挤满代表的贪婪的声音勒索。

You must have known that a man of merit cannot rise in the church, the army, or navy, unless he has some interest in a borough; and that even a paltry exciseman’s place can only be secured by electioneering interest.

你一定知道,一个有功绩的人不可能在教会、陆军或海军中崛起,除非他对某个行政区有兴趣;即使是一个微不足道的税务员,也只能通过竞选利益来确保其地位。

I will go further, and assert that few Bishops, though there have been learned and good Bishops, have gained the mitre without submitting to a servility of dependence that degrades the man.—All these circumstances you must have known, yet you talk of virtue and liberty, as the vulgar talk of the letter of the law; and the polite of propriety.

我还要进一步断言,尽管有学识渊博的优秀主教,但很少有主教在获得主教冠冕时不屈服于一种使人贬低的奴性。——所有这些情况你一定都知道,但你却谈论美德和自由,就像谈论法律条文一样粗俗;以及礼仪的礼貌。

It is true that these ceremonial observances produce decorum; the sepulchres are white-washed, and do not offend the squeamish eyes of high rank; but virtue is out of the question when you only worship a shadow, and worship it to secure your property.

诚然,这些仪式确实能产生礼仪。坟墓被粉刷成白色,不会冒犯高层的挑剔的目光。但是,如果你只崇拜影子,崇拜它是为了保护你的财产,那么美德就不可能了。

Man has been termed, with strict propriety, a microcosm, a little world in himself.—He is so;—yet must, however, be reckoned an ephemera, or, to adopt your figure of rhetoric, a summer’s fly.

按照严格的礼节,人被称为一个缩影,一个自身的小世界。——他确实如此;——然而,他必须被视为短暂的,或者,采用你的修辞手法,夏天的苍蝇。

The perpetuation of property in our families is one of the privileges you most warmly contend for; yet it would not be very difficult to prove that the mind must have a very limited range that thus confines its benevolence to such a narrow circle, which, with great propriety, may be included in the sordid calculations of blind self-love.

我们家庭的财产永久化是你们最热切争取的特权之一;然而,不难证明,心灵的范围必定非常有限,从而将其仁慈限制在如此狭窄的范围内,而这个范围,很恰当地可以包括在盲目自爱的肮脏算计中。

A brutal attachment to children has appeared most conspicuous in parents who have treated them like slaves, and demanded due homage for all the property they transferred to them, during their lives.

对孩子的残酷依恋在父母身上表现得最为明显,他们像对待奴隶一样对待孩子,并要求对他们一生中转移给他们的所有财产给予应有的敬意。

It has led them to force their children to break the most sacred ties; to do violence to a natural impulse, and run into legal prostitution to increase wealth or shun poverty; and, still worse, the dread of parental malediction has made many weak characters violate truth in the face of Heaven; and, to avoid a father’s angry curse, the most sacred promises have been broken.

这导致他们强迫自己的孩子打破最神圣的纽带;为了增加财富或避免贫困而出于自然冲动而实施暴力,并从事合法卖淫活动;更糟糕的是,对父母咒骂的恐惧使得许多软弱的人在上天面前违背了真理。而且,为了避免父亲愤怒的咒骂,最神圣的诺言被打破了。

It appears to be a natural suggestion of reason, that a man should be freed from implicit obedience to parents and private punishments, when he is of an age to be subject to the jurisdiction of the laws of his country; and that the barbarous cruelty of allowing parents to imprison their children, to prevent their contaminating their noble blood by following the dictates of nature when they chose to marry, or for any misdemeanor that does not come under the cognizance of public justice, is one of the most arbitrary violations of liberty.

一个人到了受本国法律管辖的年龄时,就应该摆脱对父母的绝对服从和私人惩罚,这似乎是理性的自然暗示;允许父母监禁自己的孩子,防止他们在选择结婚时遵循自然的规定,或因任何不属于公共司法管辖的轻罪而污染其高贵的血统,这是对自由最任意的侵犯之一,这是野蛮残忍的行为。

Who can recount all the unnatural crimes which the _laudable_, _interesting_ desire of perpetuating a name has produced?

谁能详述所有因“值得赞扬”、“有趣”的永垂不朽的名字而产生的非自然罪行?

The younger children have been sacrificed to the eldest son; sent into exile, or confined in convents, that they might not encroach on what was called, with shameful falsehood, the _family_ estate.

年幼的孩子被献祭给长子;要么被流放,要么被关进修道院,以免他们以可耻的谎言侵犯所谓的“家族财产”。

Will Mr. Burke call this parental affection reasonable or virtuous?—No; it is the spurious offspring of over-weening, mistaken pride—and not that first source of civilization, natural parental affection, that makes no difference between child and child, but what reason justifies by pointing out superior merit.

伯克先生会称这种父母之爱是合理的还是高尚的吗?孩子与孩子之间没有区别的,是过分畏惧和错误的骄傲所产生的虚假后代,而不是文明的第一个源泉,即自然的父母之爱,而是通过指出优越的优点来证明合理性的理性。

Another pernicious consequence which unavoidably arises from this artificial affection is, the insuperable bar which it puts in the way of early marriages.

这种人为的感情不可避免地产生的另一个有害后果是,它对早婚设置了不可逾越的障碍。

It would be difficult to determine whether the minds or bodies of our youth are most injured by this impediment.

很难确定我们年轻人的思想或身体是否受到这种障碍的伤害最严重。

Our young men become selfish coxcombs, and gallantry with modest women, and intrigues with those of another description, weaken both mind and body, before either has arrived at maturity.

我们的年轻人变成了自私的花花公子,对谦虚的女人献殷勤,对另一种类型的女人勾心斗角,在任何一个尚未成熟之前都会削弱身心。

The character of a master of a family, a husband, and a father, forms the citizen imperceptibly, by producing a sober manliness of thought, and orderly behaviour; but, from the lax morals and depraved affections of the libertine, what results?—a finical man of taste, who is only anxious to secure his own private gratifications, and to maintain his rank in society.

一家之主、丈夫和父亲的品格,通过产生清醒的男子气概的思想和有序的行为,在不知不觉中塑造了公民;但是,由于浪荡子道德的松懈和情感的堕落,会产生什么结果呢?——一个有品味的金融人士,只渴望获得自己的私人满足,并维持自己的社会地位。

The same system has an equally pernicious effect on female morals.—Girls are sacrificed to family convenience, or else marry to settle themselves in a superior rank, and coquet, without restraint, with the fine gentleman whom I have already described.

同样的制度对女性道德也有同样有害的影响。——女孩们为了家庭的便利而做出牺牲,或者为了让自己处于较高的地位而结婚,并毫无节制地向我已经描述过的优秀绅士卖弄风骚。

And to such lengths has this vanity, this desire of shining, carried them, that it is not now necessary to guard girls against imprudent love matches; for if some widows did not now and then _fall_ in love, Love and Hymen would seldom meet, unless at a village church.

这种虚荣心、这种闪耀的欲望使她们达到了如此的程度,以至于现在没有必要保护女孩们免受轻率的爱情配对;因为她们已经不再需要保护她们了。因为如果一些寡妇不时不时地坠入爱河,爱情和海门就很少见面,除非在乡村教堂。

I do not intend to be sarcastically paradoxical when I say, that women of fashion take husbands that they may have it in their power to coquet, the grand business of genteel life, with a number of admirers, and thus flutter the spring of life away, without laying up any store for the winter of age, or being of any use to society.

当我说时尚女性找丈夫时,我并不是有意讽刺地自相矛盾,因为她们可以有能力向众多崇拜者卖弄风骚,这是上流社会生活的大事,从而挥霍生命的春天,而不为年龄的冬天积蓄任何储备,也不对社会有任何用处。

Affection in the marriage state can only be founded on respect—and are these weak beings respectable?

婚姻状态下的感情只能建立在尊重的基础上——而这些弱者值得尊重吗?

Children are neglected for lovers, and we express surprise that adulteries are so common!

孩子们因恋人而被忽视,我们对通奸如此普遍感到惊讶!

A woman never forgets to adorn herself to make an impression on the senses of the other sex, and to extort the homage which it is gallant to pay, and yet we wonder that they have such confined understandings!

女人永远不会忘记打扮自己,以给异性留下深刻的印象,并索取值得尊敬的敬意,但我们奇怪她们的理解力如此有限!

Have ye not heard that we cannot serve two masters?

难道你们没有听说我们不能事奉两个主吗?

an immoderate desire to please contracts the faculties, and immerges, to borrow the idea of a great philosopher, the soul in matter, till it becomes unable to mount on the wing of contemplation.

借用一位伟大哲学家的观点,一种过分取悦他人的欲望收缩了我们的能力,并融入了物质中的灵魂,直到它无法登上沉思的翅膀。

It would be an arduous task to trace all the vice and misery that arise in society from the middle class of people apeing the manners of the great.

要追查社会中因模仿伟人举止而产生的所有罪恶和苦难,将是一项艰巨的任务。

All are aiming to procure respect on account of their property; and most places are considered as sinecures that enable men to start into notice.

所有人都希望通过自己的财产获得尊重;大多数地方都被认为是能让男人开始引起注意的闲职。

The grand concern of three parts out of four is to contrive to live above their equals, and to appear to be richer than they are.

四分之三的人最关心的是设法过上比他们同等的人,并显得比他们更富有。

How much domestic comfort and private satisfaction is sacrificed to this irrational ambition!

为了这种非理性的野心,牺牲了多少家庭舒适和个人满足感!

It is a destructive mildew that blights the fairest virtues; benevolence, friendship, generosity, and all those endearing charities which bind human hearts together, and the pursuits which raise the mind to higher contemplations, all that were not cankered in the bud by the false notions that ‘grew with its growth and strengthened with its strength,’ are crushed by the iron hand of property!

它是一种破坏性的霉菌,破坏了最美好的美德;仁慈、友谊、慷慨,以及所有那些将人类心灵联系在一起的可爱的慈善事业,以及将心灵提升到更高沉思的追求,所有这些不是在萌芽状态下就被“随其成长而增强,随其力量而增强”的错误观念所腐烂的,都被财产的铁手粉碎了!

Property, I do not scruple to aver it, should be fluctuating, which would be the case, if it were more equally divided amongst all the children of a family; else it is an everlasting rampart, in consequence of a barbarous feudal institution, that enables the elder son to overpower talents and depress virtue.

我毫不犹豫地断言,财产应该是波动的,如果财产能更平等地分配给一个家庭的所有孩子,情况就会是这样。否则,它就是野蛮封建制度造成的永远的壁垒,使长子能够压倒才干,压制德行。

Besides, an unmanly servility, most inimical to true dignity of character is, by this means, fostered in society.

此外,通过这种方式,社会上培养了一种缺乏男子气概的奴性,这对真正的品格尊严是最不利的。

Men of some abilities play on the follies of the rich, and mounting to fortune as they degrade themselves, they stand in the way of men of superior talents, who cannot advance in such crooked paths, or wade through the filth which _parasites_ never boggle at.

有些能力的人利用富人的愚蠢行为,在自我贬低的同时获得财富,他们阻碍了具有卓越才能的人的道路,这些人无法在如此弯曲的道路上前进,也无法涉过寄生虫从不畏惧的污秽。

Pursuing their way straight forward, their spirit is either bent or broken by the rich man’s contumelies, or the difficulties they have to encounter.

直奔前路的他们,精神要么因富人的侮辱,要么因所遭遇的困难而弯曲或崩溃。

The only security of property that nature authorizes and reason sanctions is, the right a man has to enjoy the acquisitions which his talents and industry have acquired; and to bequeath them to whom he chooses.

自然授权和理性制裁的唯一财产保障是,一个人有权享受他的才能和勤奋所获得的成果;并将其遗赠给他所选择的人。

Happy would it be for the world if there were no other road to wealth or honour; if pride, in the shape of parental affection, did not absorb the man, and prevent friendship from having the same weight as relationship.

如果没有其他通往财富或荣誉的道路,这对世界来说是幸福的;如果骄傲,以父母之爱的形式,没有吸引男人,并阻止友谊与关系具有同等的分量。

Luxury and effeminacy would not then introduce so much idiotism into the noble families which form one of the pillars of our state: the ground would not lie fallow, nor would undirected activity of mind spread the contagion of restless idleness, and its concomitant, vice, through the whole mass of society.

这样,奢侈和女性化就不会在构成我们国家支柱之一的贵族家庭中引入如此多的白痴行为:土地不会休耕,无方向的思想活动也不会在整个社会大众中传播焦躁不安的闲散及其伴随的恶习。

Instead of gaming they might nourish a virtuous ambition, and love might take place of the gallantry which you, with knightly fealty, venerate.

他们可能会培养一种高尚的野心,而不是游戏,而爱情可能会取代你怀着骑士般的忠诚所崇敬的英勇。

Women would probably then act like mothers, and the fine lady, become a rational woman, might think it necessary to superintend her family and suckle her children, in order to fulfil her part of the social compact.

女性可能会像母亲一样行事,而优秀的女士会成为一个理性的女性,可能会认为有必要监督她的家庭并哺乳她的孩子,以履行她在社会契约中的部分。

But vain is the hope, whilst great masses of property are hedged round by hereditary honours; for numberless vices, forced in the hot-bed of wealth, assume a sightly form to dazzle the senses and cloud the understanding.

但希望是徒劳的,而大量的财产却被世袭的荣誉所包围。因为在财富的温床中被迫犯下的无数恶习,呈现出一种令人眼花缭乱的视觉形式,使人们眼花缭乱,蒙蔽了人们的理解力。

The respect paid to rank and fortune damps every generous purpose of the soul, and stifles the natural affections on which human contentment ought to be built.

对地位和财富的尊重削弱了灵魂的每一个慷慨的目标,并扼杀了人类满足感所赖以建立的自然情感。

Who will venturously ascend the steeps of virtue, or explore the great deep for knowledge, when _the one thing needful_, attained by less arduous exertions, if not inherited, procures the attention man naturally pants after, and vice ‘loses half its evil by losing all its grossness[5].’—What a sentiment to come from a moral pen!

谁会冒险攀登美德的高峰,或探索知识的深渊,当“需要的一件事”,通过不那么艰苦的努力获得,即使不是遗传的,也能获得人们自然渴望的关注,而罪恶“通过失去所有的粗鄙而失去了一半的邪恶”[5]。——来自道德之笔的情感是多么美好!

A surgeon would tell you that by skinning over a wound you spread disease through the whole frame; and, surely, they indirectly aim at destroying all purity of morals, who poison the very source of virtue, by smearing a sentimental varnish over vice, to hide its natural deformity.

外科医生会告诉你,通过在伤口上剥皮,你会将疾病传播到整个身体;当然,他们间接地旨在破坏道德的一切纯洁性,通过在罪恶上涂抹感性的清漆来掩盖其自然的畸形,从而毒害了美德的源泉。

Stealing, whoring, and drunkenness, are gross vices, I presume, though they may not obliterate every moral sentiment, and have a vulgar brand that makes them appear with all their native deformity; but overreaching, adultery, and coquetry, are venial offences, though they reduce virtue to an empty name, and make wisdom consist in saving appearances.

我认为,偷窃、嫖娼和酗酒都是严重的恶习,尽管它们可能无法抹杀所有的道德情感,并且带有粗俗的烙印,使它们显得带有所有与生俱来的畸形;但放纵、通奸、卖弄风骚,却是轻微的罪行,尽管它们使美德沦为空名,使智慧在于拯救外表。

‘On this scheme of things[6] a king _is_ but a man; a queen _is_ but a woman; a woman _is_ but an animal, and an animal not of the highest order.’—All true, Sir; if she is not more attentive to the duties of humanity than queens and fashionable ladies in general are, I will still further accede to the opinion you have so justly conceived of the spirit which begins to animate this age.—‘All homage paid to the sex in general, as such, and without distinct views, is to be regarded as _romance_ and folly.’ Undoubtedly; because such homage vitiates them, prevents their endeavouring to obtain solid personal merit; and, in short, makes those beings vain inconsiderate dolls, who ought to be prudent mothers and useful members of society.

“在这个计划中[6],国王只是一个人;女王只不过是一个女人;女人不过是一种动物,而且不是最高等的动物。”——说得对,先生;如果她不比一般的女王和时尚女士更关注人类的义务,我会进一步同意你对开始为这个时代注入活力的精神所正确理解的观点。——“对一般性的所有敬意,本身,如果没有明确的观点,都将被视为浪漫和愚蠢。”毫无疑问;因为这种崇拜会损害他们的尊严,阻碍他们努力获得坚实的个人功德;简而言之,这使那些本应是谨慎的母亲和有用的社会成员的人变成了虚荣、不体贴的玩偶。

‘Regicide and sacrilege are but fictions of superstition corrupting jurisprudence, by destroying its simplicity.

“弑君和亵渎只不过是迷信的虚构,它们破坏了法理学的简单性,从而腐蚀了法理学。

The murder of a king, or a queen, or a bishop, are only common homicide.’—Again I agree with you; but you perceive, Sir, that by leaving out the word _father_, I think the whole extent of the comparison invidious.

谋杀国王、王后或主教只是普通的凶杀案。”——我再次同意你的观点。但先生,您认为,通过省略“父亲”这个词,我认为这种比较的整个程度是令人反感的。

You further proceed grossly to misrepresent Dr. Price’s meaning; and, with an affectation of holy fervour, express your indignation at his profaning a beautiful rapturous ejaculation, when alluding to the King of France’s submission to the National Assembly[7]; he rejoiced to hail a glorious revolution, which promised an universal diffusion of liberty and happiness.

你进一步严重歪曲了普莱斯博士的意思;并且,带着一种神圣的热情,表达你对他在提到法国国王向国民议会屈服时亵渎美丽的狂喜射精的愤慨[7];他很高兴地欢呼一场光荣的革命,这场革命承诺了自由和幸福的普遍传播。

Observe, Sir, that I called your piety affectation.—A rant to enable you to point your venomous dart, and round your period.

请注意,先生,我称你为虔诚的矫揉造作。——一种咆哮,使你能够瞄准你的毒镖,并围绕着你的经期。

I speak with warmth, because, of all hypocrites, my soul most indignantly spurns a religious one;—and I very cautiously bring forward such a heavy charge, to strip you of your cloak of sanctity.

我的讲话充满热情,因为在所有的伪君子中,我的灵魂最愤慨地唾弃虔诚的人;——我非常谨慎地提出如此沉重的指控,剥夺你神圣的外衣。

Your speech at the time the bill for a regency was agitated now lies before me.—_Then_ you could in direct terms, to promote ambitious or interested views, exclaim without any pious qualms—‘Ought they to make a mockery of him, putting a crown of thorns on his head, a reed in his hand, and dressing him in a raiment of purple, cry, Hail!

你在摄政法案被激起时的演讲现在就摆在我面前。——然后你可以用直接的语言,宣扬雄心勃勃或感兴趣的观点,毫无虔诚地惊呼——“他们应该嘲笑他,给他戴上荆棘王冠,手里拿着芦苇,给他穿上紫色的衣服,喊道,万岁!”

King of the British!’ Where was your sensibility when you could utter this cruel mockery, equally insulting to God and man?

英国之王!’当你说出这种残忍的嘲讽,同样侮辱上帝和人类时,你的感性在哪里?

Go hence, thou slave of impulse, look into the private recesses of thy heart, and take not a mote from thy brother’s eye, till thou hast removed the beam from thine own.

走吧,你这个冲动的奴隶,审视一下你内心深处的隐秘之处,在你把自己眼中的梁木移开之前,不要移开你兄弟眼中的任何一毫。

Of your partial feelings I shall take another view, and shew that ‘following nature, which is,’ you say, ‘wisdom without reflection, and _above it_’—has led you into great inconsistences, to use the softest phrase.

对于你的片面感情,我将采取另一种观点,用最温和的措辞来表明,“遵循自然,即你所说的,‘不加反思的智慧,以及超越它的智慧’”——用最温和的措辞来说,已经导致你陷入极大的不一致。

When, on a late melancholy occasion, a very important question was agitated, with what indecent warmth did _you_ treat a woman, for I shall not lay any stress on her title, whose conduct in life has deserved praise, though not, perhaps, the servile elogiums which have been lavished on the queen.

当,在最近的忧郁场合,一个非常重要的问题被激起,你对待一个女人有什么不雅的热情,因为我不会强调她的头衔,她在生活中的行为值得赞扬,尽管也许不是对女王慷慨的奴性颂词。

But sympathy, and you tell us that you have a heart of flesh, was made to give way to party spirit, and the feelings of a man, not to allude to your romantic gallantry, to the views of the statesman.

但是同情心,你告诉我们你有一颗血肉之心,是为了让位于党派精神和男人的感情,而不是暗示你浪漫的英勇,为了政治家的观点。

When you descanted on the horrors of the 6th of October, and gave a glowing, and, in some instances, a most exaggerated description of that infernal night, without having troubled yourself to clean your palette, you might have returned home and indulged us with a sketch of the misery you personally aggravated.

当你详细描述 10 月 6 日的恐怖事件,对那个地狱般的夜晚进行热情洋溢、有时甚至是最夸张的描述时,你却没有费力去清理你的调色板,你可能已经回到家,向我们描绘了你个人加剧的痛苦。

With what eloquence might you not have insinuated, that the sight of unexpected misery and strange reverse of fortune makes the mind recoil on itself; and, pondering, traced the uncertainty of all human hope, the frail foundation of sublunary grandeur!

你可能没有用多么雄辩的口才暗示说,看到意想不到的苦难和奇怪的命运逆转会让你的思想退缩。并且,在沉思中,追溯了所有人类希望的不确定性,世俗宏伟的脆弱基础!

What a climax lay before you.

多么高潮就在你面前。

A father torn from his children,—a husband from an affectionate wife,—a man from himself!

一个父亲与他的孩子分离,一个丈夫与一个深情的妻子分离,一个男人与他自己分离!

And not torn by the resistless stroke of death, for time would then have lent its aid to mitigate remediless sorrow; but that living death, which only kept hope alive in the corroding form of suspense, was a calamity that called for all your pity.

也没有被死亡的无情打击所撕裂,因为时间会帮助减轻无可救药的悲伤;但那种活生生的死亡,只能以腐蚀的悬念形式维持希望,是一场需要你怜悯的灾难。

The sight of august ruins, of a depopulated country—what are they to a disordered soul!

看到庄严的废墟,看到一个人烟稀少的国家——对于一个混乱的灵魂来说,这算什么!

when all the faculties are mixed in wild confusion.

当所有的能力都陷入疯狂的混乱中时。

It is then indeed we tremble for humanity—and, if some wild fancy chance to cross the brain, we fearfully start, and pressing our hand against our brow, ask if we are yet men?—if our reason is undisturbed?—if judgment hold the helm?

正是在那时,我们确实为人性而颤抖——如果某种疯狂的幻想机会穿过大脑,我们就会恐惧地开始,用手按着额头,问我们是否还是人?——我们的理性是否不受干扰?——判断是否掌舵?

Marius might sit with dignity on the ruins of Carthage, and the wretch in the Bastille, who longed in vain to see the human face divine, might yet view the operations of his own mind, and vary the leaden prospect by new combinations of thought: poverty, shame, and even slavery, may be endured by the virtuous man—he has still a world to range in—but the loss of reason appears a monstrous flaw in the moral world, that eludes all investigation, and humbles without enlightening.

马吕斯可能有尊严地坐在迦太基的废墟上,而巴士底狱中的可怜虫,徒劳地渴望看到人的面孔神圣,可能仍然会看到自己思想的运作,并通过新的思想组合来改变沉重的前景:贫穷,耻辱,甚至奴隶制,可能是有德行的人所忍受的——他还有一个世界可以涉足——但理性的丧失似乎是道德世界中的一个巨大缺陷,逃避了所有的调查,谦卑而不启迪。

In this state was the King, when you, with unfeeling disrespect, and indecent haste, wished to strip him of all his hereditary honours.—You were so eager to taste the sweets of power, that you could not wait till time had determined, whether a dreadful delirium would settle into a confirmed madness; but, prying into the secrets of Omnipotence, you thundered out that God had _hurled him from his throne_, and that it was the most insulting mockery to recollect that he had been a king, or to treat him with any particular respect on account of his former dignity.—And who was the monster whom Heaven had thus awfully deposed, and smitten with such an angry blow?

当你怀着无情的不尊重和不雅的匆忙,希望剥夺他所有的世袭荣誉时,国王就处于这种状态。——你如此渴望品尝权力的甜头,以至于你不能等到时间决定,可怕的谵妄是否会陷入确定的疯狂;但是,在窥探全能者的秘密时,你大声疾呼说上帝把他从王位上赶了下来,回忆起他曾经是一个国王,或者因为他以前的尊严而对他给予任何特别的尊重,这是最无耻的嘲笑。——上天如此可怕地废黜并以如此愤怒的打击击打的怪物是谁?

Surely as harmless a character as Lewis XVIth; and the queen of Great Britain, though her heart may not be enlarged by generosity, who will presume to compare her character with that of the queen of France?

肯定是像刘易斯十六世一样无害的人物;而英国女王,虽然她的心胸不会因慷慨而宽广,但谁会敢将她的品格与法国女王相比较呢?

Where then was the infallibility of that extolled instinct which rises above reason?

那么,那种超越理性的、被颂扬的本能的绝对正确性又在哪里呢?

was it warped by vanity, or _hurled_ from its throne by self-interest?

它是被虚荣心扭曲了,还是被自私自利从王座上赶了下来?

To your own heart answer these questions in the sober hours of reflection—and, after reviewing this gust of passion, learn to respect the sovereignty of reason.

在清醒的反思时间里,用你自己的内心回答这些问题——并且在回顾了这股激情之后,学会尊重理性的主权。

I have, Sir, been reading, with a scrutinizing, comparative eye, several of your insensible and profane speeches during the King’s illness.

先生,我以仔细、比较的眼光阅读了您在国王生病期间发表的几篇麻木不仁、亵渎的言论。

I disdain to take advantage of a man’s weak side, or draw consequences from an unguarded transport—A lion preys not on carcasses!

我不屑于利用人的弱点,或因毫无防备的运输而承担后果——狮子不会捕食尸体!

But on this occasion you acted systematically.

但这次你表现得很有系统。

It was not the passion of the moment, over which humanity draws a veil: no; what but the odious maxims of Machiavelian policy could have led you to have searched in the very dregs of misery for forcible arguments to support your party?

这不是一时的激情,人类在其上蒙上了面纱:不;是的。除了马基雅维主义政策的可憎格言之外,还有什么能让你在苦难的最深处寻找有力的论据来支持你的政党呢?

Had not vanity or interest steeled your heart, you would have been shocked at the cold insensibility which could carry a man to those dreadful mansions, where human weakness appears in its most awful form to _calculate_ the chances against the King’s recovery.

如果不是虚荣心或利益坚定了你的心,你一定会对冷漠的麻木不仁感到震惊,这种麻木不仁的态度可以把一个人带到那些可怕的宅邸,在那里,人性的弱点以最可怕的形式表现出来,以计算国王康复的机会。

Impressed as _you are_ with respect for royalty, I am astonished that you did not tremble at every step, lest Heaven should avenge on your guilty head the insult offered to its vicegerent.

尽管你对皇室的尊重给我留下了深刻的印象,但令我惊讶的是,你每一步都没有颤抖,以免上天对你对代理人的侮辱进行报复。

But the conscience that is under the direction of transient ebullitions of feeling, is not very tender or consistent, when the current runs another way.

但是,当水流朝另一个方向流动时,在短暂的情感沸腾的指导下的良心就不再那么温柔或一致。

Had you been in a philosophizing mood, had your heart or your reason been at home, you might have been convinced, by ocular demonstration, that madness is only the absence of reason.—The ruling angel leaving its seat, wild anarchy ensues.

如果你处于一种哲学的心情,如果你的心或你的理性在家里,你可能会通过视觉演示相信疯狂只是缺乏理性。——统治天使离开了座位,随之而来的是疯狂的无政府状态。

You would have seen that the uncontrouled imagination often pursues the most regular course in its most daring flight; and that the eccentricities are boldly relieved when judgment no longer officiously arranges the sentiments, by bringing them to the test of principles.

你会发现,不受控制的想象力常常在其最大胆的飞行中追求最正常的路线。当判断力不再通过原则检验来调整情绪时,怪癖就会被大胆地缓解。

You would have seen every thing out of nature in that strange chaos of levity and ferocity, and of all sorts of follies jumbled together.

在那种轻率和凶猛的奇怪混乱以及各种愚蠢行为混杂在一起的情况下,你会看到一切脱离自然的事物。

You would have seen in that monstrous tragi-comic scene the most opposite passions necessarily succeed, and sometimes mix with each other in the mind; alternate contempt and indignation; alternate laughter and tears; alternate scorn and horror[8].—This is a true picture of that chaotic state of mind, called madness; when reason gone, we know not where, the wild elements of passion clash, and all is horror and confusion.

你会看到,在那个可怕的悲喜剧场景中,最相反的激情必然会成功,有时甚至会在头脑中相互混合。蔑视和愤慨交替出现;欢笑与泪水交替;蔑视和恐惧交替出现[8]。——这是一种混乱的心理状态的真实写照,被称为疯狂;当理性消失时,我们不知道激情的狂野元素会发生冲突,一切都变得恐怖和混乱。

You might have heard the best turned conceits, flash following flash, and doubted whether the rhapsody was not eloquent, if it had not been delivered in an equivocal language, neither verse nor prose, if the sparkling periods had not stood alone, wanting force because they wanted concatenation.

你可能听过最好的自负,一闪接着一闪,并怀疑狂想曲是否不雄辩,如果它不是用模棱两可的语言表达的,无论是诗歌还是散文,如果闪闪发光的段落不是孤立的,因为它们需要串联而缺乏力量。

It is a proverbial observation, that a very thin partition divides wit and madness.

众所周知,智慧与疯狂之间的界限非常薄弱。

Poetry therefore naturally addresses the fancy, and the language of passion is with great felicity borrowed from the heightened picture which the imagination draws of sensible objects concentred by impassioned reflection.

因此,诗歌自然而然地表达了幻想,而激情的语言则非常恰当地借用了想象所描绘的由热情的反思所集中的感性对象的高度图景。

And, during this ‘fine phrensy,’ reason has no right to rein-in the imagination, unless to prevent the introduction of supernumerary images; if the passion is real, the head will not be ransacked for stale tropes and cold rodomontade.

而且,在这种“美好的精神”中,理性无权控制想象力,除非阻止引入多余的图像;如果激情是真实的,头脑就不会被陈旧的比喻和冷酷的蒙太奇所搜查。

I now speak of the genuine enthusiasm of genius, which, perhaps, seldom appears, but in the infancy of civilization; for as this light becomes more luminous reason clips the wing of fancy—the youth becomes a man.

我现在谈论的是天才的真正热情,这种热情也许很少出现,但在文明的起步阶段;因为当这盏灯变得更加明亮时,理性就会剪掉幻想的翅膀——年轻人变成了一个男人。

Whether the glory of Europe is set, I shall not now enquire; but probably the spirit of romance and chivalry is in the wane; and reason will gain by its extinction.

欧洲的荣耀是否已定,我现在不会询问;但浪漫和骑士精神可能正在衰落;理性将因它的消亡而获益。

From observing several cold romantic characters I have been led to confine the term romantic to one definition—false, or rather artificial, feelings.

通过观察几个冷酷的浪漫人物,我被引导将浪漫一词限制在一个定义上:虚假的,或者说是人为的感觉。

Works of genius are read with a prepossession in their favour, and sentiments imitated, because they were fashionable and pretty, and not because they were forcibly felt.

天才的作品被人们带着一种偏爱的偏见来阅读,人们的情感被模仿,因为它们时尚而美丽,而不是因为它们是被迫感受到的。

In modern poetry the understanding and memory often fabricate the pretended effusions of the heart, and romance destroys all simplicity; which, in works of taste, is but a synonymous word for truth.

现代诗歌中的理解和记忆常常编造出假装的内心流露,浪漫破坏了一切纯朴;在品味作品中,它只不过是真理的同义词。

This romantic spirit has extended to our prose, and scattered artificial flowers over the most barren heath; or a mixture of verse and prose producing the strangest incongruities.

这种浪漫精神延伸到了我们的散文中,在最贫瘠的荒原上撒满了人造花;或者是诗歌和散文的混合,产生了最奇怪的不协调。

The turgid bombast of some of your periods fully proves these assertions; for when the heart speaks we are seldom shocked by hyperbole, or dry raptures.

您某些时期的浮夸夸夸其谈充分证明了这些主张;因为当内心说话时,我们很少会被夸张或干巴巴的狂喜所震惊。

I speak in this decided tone, because from turning over the pages of your late publication, with more attention than I did when I first read it cursorily over; and comparing the sentiments it contains with your conduct on many important occasions, I am led very often to doubt your sincerity, and to suppose that you have said many things merely for the sake of saying them well; or to throw some pointed obloquy on characters and opinions that jostled with your vanity.

我以这种坚决的语气说话,因为我翻阅了你最新出版的书页,比我第一次粗略地阅读它时更加专注;将其中所包含的情感与你在许多重要场合的行为相比较,我常常怀疑你的诚意,并认为你说很多话只是为了说好话;或者对那些与你的虚荣心相冲突的人物和观点进行尖锐的诽谤。

It is an arduous task to follow the doublings of cunning, or the subterfuges of inconsistency; for in controversy, as in battle, the brave man wishes to face his enemy, and fight on the same ground.

追踪狡猾的加倍或不一致的诡计是一项艰巨的任务。因为在争论中,就像在战斗中一样,勇敢的人希望面对他的敌人,并在同一立场上战斗。

Knowing, however, the influence of a ruling passion, and how often it assumes the form of reason when there is much sensibility in the heart, I respect an opponent, though he tenaciously maintains opinions in which I cannot coincide; but, if I once discover that many of those opinions are empty rhetorical flourishes, my respect is soon changed into that pity which borders on contempt; and the mock dignity and haughty stalk, only reminds me of the ass in the lion’s skin.

然而,我知道占主导地位的激情的影响力,以及当内心有很多感性时它经常呈现出理性的形式,我尊重对手,尽管他顽固地坚持我无法同意的观点;但是,如果我一旦发现其中许多观点都是空洞的华丽辞藻,我的敬意很快就会变成近乎蔑视的怜悯;而那虚伪的威严和傲慢的梗,只让我想起了狮皮下的屁股。

A sentiment of this kind glanced across my mind when I read the following exclamation.

当我读到下面的感叹时,这样的情绪在我的脑海中闪过。

‘Whilst the royal captives, who followed in the train, were slowly moved along, amidst the horrid yells, and shrilling screams, and frantic dances, and infamous contumelies, and all the unutterable abominations of the furies of hell, in the abused shape of the ‘vilest of women[9].’ Probably you mean women who gained a livelihood by selling vegetables or fish, who never had had any advantages of education; or their vices might have lost part of their abominable deformity, by losing part of their grossness.

“而跟随在火车上的皇家俘虏则在可怕的叫喊、尖锐的尖叫、疯狂的舞蹈、臭名昭著的侮辱和地狱愤怒的所有不可言喻的可憎之物中缓慢前行,以“最卑鄙的妇女[9]”的受虐形象。也许你指的是靠卖菜或卖鱼谋生的妇女,她们从来没有受过任何教育的优势;或者他们的恶习可能会因为失去一部分粗俗而失去一部分可恶的畸形。

The queen of France—the great and small vulgar, claim our pity; they have almost insuperable obstacles to surmount in their progress towards true dignity of character; still I have such a plain downright understanding that I do not like to make a distinction without a difference.

法国女王,无论大小,都要求我们怜悯;他们在迈向真正的品格尊严的道路上几乎有不可逾越的障碍;但我还是有这么浅显的认识,不喜欢无差别地加以区分。

But it is not very extraordinary that _you_ should, for throughout your letter you frequently advert to a sentimental jargon which has long been current in conversation, and even in books of morals, though it never received the _regal_-stamp of reason.

但你应该这样做并不是很奇怪,因为在你的信中,你经常提到一种伤感的行话,这些行话长期以来一直在谈话中甚至在道德书籍中流行,尽管它从未获得理性的“帝王”印记。

A kind of mysterious instinct is _supposed_ to reside in the soul, that instantaneously discerns truth, without the tedious labour of ratiocination.

灵魂中应该存在着一种神秘的本能,它可以立即辨别真理,无需繁琐的推理工作。

This instinct, for I know not what other name to give it, has been termed _common sense_, and more frequently _sensibility_; and, by a kind of _indefeasible_ right, it has been _supposed_, for rights of this kind are not easily proved, to reign paramount over the other faculties of the mind, and to be an authority from which there is no appeal.

这种本能,因为我不知道该给它起什么别的名字,被称为“常识”,更常见的是“感性”;而且,由于这种权利不容易被证明,人们认为,通过一种不可废除的权利,它对心灵的其他能力具有至高无上的统治地位,并且成为一种不容上诉的权威。

This subtle magnetic fluid, that runs round the whole circle of society, is not subject to any known rule, or, to use an obnoxious phrase, in spite of the sneers of mock humility, or the timid fears of some well-meaning Christians, who shrink from any freedom of thought, lest they should rouse the old serpent, to the _eternal fitness of things_.

这种围绕整个社会圈子流动的微妙磁性流体不受任何已知规则的约束,或者用一个令人讨厌的短语来说,尽管有人假装谦逊地嘲笑,或者有些善意的基督徒胆怯地担心,他们回避任何思想自由,以免唤醒老蛇,以实现“事物的永恒适应性”。

It dips, we know not why, granting it to be an infallible instinct, and, though supposed always to point to truth, its pole-star, the point is always shifting, and seldom stands due north.

它会下降,我们不知道为什么,这使它成为一种绝对可靠的本能,而且,尽管人们认为它的北极星总是指向真理,但它的指向总是在变化,很少站在正北。

It is to this instinct, without doubt, that you allude, when you talk of the ‘moral constitution of the heart.’ To it, I allow, for I consider it as a congregate of sensations and passions, _Poets_ must apply, ‘who have to deal with an audience not yet graduated in the school of the rights of men.’ They must, it is clear, often cloud the understanding, whilst they move the heart by a kind of mechanical spring; but that ‘in the theatre the first intuitive glance’ of feeling should discriminate the form of truth, and see her fair proportion, I must beg leave to doubt.

毫无疑问,当你谈到“心灵的道德构成”时,你所指的就是这种本能。我允许,因为我认为诗人是感觉和激情的集合体,“他们必须面对尚未从人权学校毕业的观众”。很明显,当他们通过一种机械弹簧推动心灵时,他们必须经常遮蔽理解;他们必须与那些尚未从人权学校毕业的观众打交道。但是,“在剧院里,第一眼直观的感觉”应该能够辨别真理的形式,并看到她的公平比例,我必须对此表示怀疑。

Sacred be the feelings of the heart!

内心的感受是神圣的!

concentred in a glowing flame, they become the sun of life; and, without his invigorating impregnation, reason would probably lie in helpless inactivity, and never bring forth her only legitimate offspring—virtue.

它们集中在炽热的火焰中,成为生命的太阳;如果没有他令人振奋的怀孕,理性可能会陷入无助的无所作为,永远不会产生她唯一合法的后代——美德。

But to prove that virtue is really an acquisition of the individual, and not the blind impulse of unerring instinct, the bastard vice has often been begotten by the same father.

但为了证明美德确实是个人的后天习得,而不是无误本能的盲目冲动,混蛋恶习往往是由同一位父亲所生。

In what respect are we superior to the brute creation, if intellect is not allowed to be the guide of passion?

如果不允许智力指导激情,我们在哪些方面优于野蛮的创造?

Brutes hope and fear, love and hate; but, without a capacity to improve, a power of turning these passions to good or evil, they neither acquire virtue nor wisdom.—Why?

野兽有希望与恐惧,爱与恨;但是,如果没有改进的能力,没有将这些激情转为善或恶的能力,他们既不能获得美德,也不能获得智慧。——为什么?

Because the Creator has not given them reason[10].

因为造物主没有给他们理由[10]。

But the cultivation of reason is an arduous task, and men of lively fancy, finding it easier to follow the impulse of passion, endeavour to persuade themselves and others that it is most _natural_.

但培养理性是一项艰巨的任务,而富有想象力的人发现追随激情的冲动更容易,因此努力说服自己和他人,这是最自然的。

And happy is it for those, who indolently let that heaven-lighted spark rest like the ancient lamps in sepulchres, that some virtuous habits, with which the reason of others shackled them, supplies its place.—Affection for parents, reverence for superiors or antiquity, notions of honour, or that worldly self-interest that shrewdly shews them that honesty is the best policy: all proceed from the reason for which they serve as substitutes;—but it is reason at second-hand.

对于那些懒洋洋地让天堂之光的火花像坟墓里的古灯那样安息的人来说,有一些美德习惯取代了他们的位置,而其他人的理性束缚了他们,这是幸福的。——对父母的热爱,对上级或古代的尊敬,荣誉观念,或精明地向他们表明诚实是最好策略的世俗自身利益:所有这些都源于他们所服务的理性。替代品;——但它是二手理性。

Children are born ignorant, consequently innocent; the passions, are neither good nor evil dispositions, till they receive a direction, and either bound over the feeble barrier raised by a faint glimmering of unexercised reason, called conscience, or strengthen her wavering dictates till sound principles are deeply rooted, and able to cope with the headstrong passions that often assume her awful form.

孩子生来无知,因而天真无邪;激情既不是善性也不是邪恶性情,除非它们得到了指导,或者被束缚在未运用的理性(称为良心)的微弱光芒所建立的微弱屏障上,或者加强了她摇摆不定的指令,直到正确的原则根深蒂固,并且能够应对经常呈现出可怕形式的任性激情。

What moral purpose can be answered by extolling good dispositions, as they are called, when these good dispositions are described as instincts: for instinct moves in a direct line to its ultimate end, and asks not for guide or support.

当这些良好的性情被描述为本能时,通过赞扬所谓的良好性情可以回答什么道德目的:因为本能直接走向其最终目的,而不需要指导或支持。

But if virtue is to be acquired by experience, or taught by example, reason, perfected by reflection, must be the director of the whole host of passions, which produce a fructifying heat, but no light, that you would exalt into her place.—She must hold the rudder, or, let the wind blow which way it list, the vessel will never advance smoothly to its destined port; for the time lost in tacking about would dreadfully impede its progress.

但是,如果美德是通过经验获得的,或者通过榜样传授的,那么,通过反思完善的理性就必须是所有激情的指挥者,它会产生一种富有成果的热量,但不会产生光,让你将其提升到她的位置。——她必须握住舵,否则,让风向它所偏向的方向吹,船永远不会顺利地驶向预定的港口;因为在迎风航行中浪费的时间将严重阻碍其进展。

In the name of the people of England, you say, ‘that we know _we_ have made no discoveries; and we think that no discoveries are to be made in morality; nor many in the great principles of government, nor in the ideas of liberty, which were understood long before we were born, altogether as well as they will be after the grave has heaped its mould upon our presumption, and the silent tomb shall have imposed its law on our pert loquacity.

你以英国人民的名义说,‘我们知道我们没有任何发现;我们认为道德方面不应有任何发现;政府的伟大原则和自由观念也没有多少,这些在我们出生之前很久就已经被理解了,在坟墓把它的模具堆放在我们的推定上之后,它们也将如此,而寂静的坟墓将把它的法律强加给我们肆无忌惮的喋喋不休。

In England we have not yet been completely emboweled of our natural entrails; we still feel within us, and we cherish and cultivate those inbred sentiments which are the faithful guardians, the active monitors of our duty, the true supporters of all liberal and manly morals[11].’—What do you mean by inbred sentiments?

在英国,我们的天然内脏还没有被完全吸收。我们内心仍然有感觉,我们珍视和培养那些与生俱来的情感,它们是我们职责的忠实守护者、积极的监督者、所有自由和男子气概道德的真正支持者[11]。”——你所说的与生俱来的情感是什么意思?

From whence do they come?

他们从哪里来?

How were they bred?

它们是如何培育出来的?

Are they the brood of folly, which swarm like the insects on the banks of the Nile, when mud and putrefaction have enriched the languid soil?

当泥土和腐烂物肥沃了贫瘠的土壤时,它们是否像尼罗河畔的昆虫一样蜂拥而至,蠢蠢欲动?

Were these _inbred_ sentiments faithful guardians of our duty when the church was an asylum for murderers, and men worshipped bread as a God?

当教会成为杀人犯的庇护所、人们崇拜面包如上帝时,这些近亲情感是我们职责的忠实守护者吗?

when slavery was authorized by law to fasten her fangs on human flesh, and the iron eat into the very soul?

当法律授权奴隶制将她的獠牙固定在人的肉体上,而铁会侵蚀人的灵魂时?

If these sentiments are not acquired, if our passive dispositions do not expand into virtuous affections and passions, why are not the Tartars in the first rude horde endued with sentiments white and _elegant_ as the driven snow?

如果这些情感不是后天习得的,如果我们的消极性情没有发展成善良的情感和激情,为什么最初的野蛮部落中的鞑靼人没有像被驱赶的雪一样洁白而优雅的情感呢?

Why is passion or heroism the child of reflection, the consequence of dwelling with intent contemplation on one object?

为什么激情或英雄主义是反思的产物,是全神贯注于一个物体的结果?

The appetites are the only perfect inbred powers that I can discern; and they like instincts have a certain aim, they can be satisfied—but improvable reason has not yet discovered the perfection it may arrive at—God forbid!

欲望是我能辨别的唯一完美的与生俱来的力量。他们喜欢本能,有一定的目标,他们可以得到满足——但改进的理性还没有发现它可能达到的完美——上帝禁止!

First, however, it is necessary to make what we know practical.

然而,首先有必要使我们所知道的变得实用。

Who can deny, that has marked the slow progress of civilization, that men may become more virtuous and happy without any new discovery in morals?

谁能否认,人类在道德上没有任何新的发现,就可以变得更加善良和幸福,这标志着文明的缓慢进步?

Who will venture to assert that virtue would not be promoted by the more extensive cultivation of reason?

谁敢断言,更广泛的理性培养不会促进美德呢?

If nothing more is to be done, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die—and die for ever!

如果没有什么可做的,那就让我们吃吃喝喝吧,因为明天我们就会死——而且永远死!

Who will pretend to say, that there is as much happiness diffused on this globe as it is capable of affording?

谁会假装说,这个地球上有尽可能多的幸福?

as many social virtues as reason would foster, if she could gain the strength she is able to acquire even in this imperfect state; if the voice of nature was allowed to speak audibly from the bottom of the heart, and the _native_ unalienable rights of men were recognized in their full force; if factitious merit did not take place of genuine acquired virtue, and enable men to build their enjoyment on the misery of their fellow-creatures; if men were more under the dominion of reason than opinion, and did not cherish their prejudices ‘because they were prejudices[12]?’ I am not, Sir, aware of your sneers, hailing a millennium, though a state of greater purity of morals may not be a mere poetic fiction; nor did my fancy ever create a heaven on earth, since reason threw off her swaddling clothes.

如果她能够获得即使在这种不完美的状态下也能获得的力量,她就能培养尽可能多的社会美德;如果大自然的声音被允许从心底发出声音,并且人类不可剥夺的天生权利得到充分的承认;如果人为的功绩没有取代真正获得的美德,使人们能够把自己的快乐建立在同胞的痛苦之上;如果人们更多地受理性而非意见的支配,并且不珍惜他们的偏见,“因为他们是偏见[12]”?先生,我不知道你的嘲笑,欢呼千年,尽管道德更加纯洁的状态可能不仅仅是诗意的虚构;我的幻想也从未创造过人间天堂,因为理性已经摆脱了她的襁褓。

I perceive, but too forcibly, that happiness, literally speaking, dwells not here;—and that we wander to and fro in a vale of darkness as well as tears.

我感觉到,但太强烈的是,幸福,从字面上来说,并不存在于此;——我们在黑暗的山谷和眼泪中来回徘徊。

I perceive that my passions pursue objects that the imagination enlarges, till they become only a sublime idea that shrinks from the enquiry of sense, and mocks the experimental philosophers who would confine this spiritual phlogiston in their material crucibles.

我发现我的激情追求的是想象力扩大的物体,直到它们变成一个崇高的想法,回避了感官的探究,并嘲笑那些将这种精神燃素限制在物质坩埚中的实验哲学家。

I know that the human understanding is deluded with vain shadows, and that when we eagerly pursue any study, we only reach the boundary set to human enquires.—Thus far shalt thou go, and no further, says some stern difficulty; and the _cause_ we were pursuing melts into utter darkness.

我知道人类的理解力被虚幻的阴影所迷惑,当我们热切地追求任何研究时,我们只能达到人类询问所设定的界限。而我们所追求的事业则融入了彻底的黑暗。

But these are only the trials of contemplative minds, the foundation of virtue remains firm.—The power of exercising our understanding raises us above the brutes; and this exercise produces that ‘primary morality,’ which you term ‘untaught feelings.’

但这些只是沉思之心的考验,美德的基础仍然牢固。——运用我们的理解力使我们超越畜生;这种练习会产生“基本道德”,你称之为“未受教养的情感”。

If virtue be an instinct, I renounce all hope of immortality; and with it all the sublime reveries and dignified sentiments that have smoothed the rugged path of life: it is all a cheat, a lying vision; I have disquieted myself in vain; for in my eye all feelings are false and spurious, that do not rest on justice as their foundation, and are not concentred by universal love.

如果美德是一种本能,我就放弃一切永生的希望;随之而来的所有崇高的遐想和庄严的情感,使崎岖的人生之路变得平坦:这一切都是骗局,是虚假的幻象;我徒劳地不安;因为在我看来,一切不以正义为基础、不以博爱为中心的感情都是虚假的。

I reverence the rights of men.—Sacred rights!

我尊重人的权利。——神圣的权利!

for which I acquire a more profound respect, the more I look into my own mind; and, professing these heterodox opinions, I still preserve my bowels; my heart is human, beats quick with human sympathies—and I FEAR God!

我越审视自己的内心,就越对它怀有深深的敬意。尽管我提出了这些非正统的观点,但我仍然保留着我的肠子。我的心是人性的,因人类的同情心而跳动得很快——而且我敬畏上帝!

I bend with awful reverence when I enquire on what my fear is built.—I fear that sublime power, whose motive for creating me must have been wise and good; and I submit to the moral laws which my reason deduces from this view of my dependence on him.—It is not his power that I fear—it is not to an arbitrary will, but to unerring _reason_ I submit.—Submit—yes; I disregard the charge of arrogance, to the law that regulates his just resolves; and the happiness I pant after must be the same in kind, and produced by the same exertions as his—though unfeigned humility overwhelms every idea that would presume to compare the goodness which the most exalted created being could acquire, with the grand source of life and bliss.

当我询问我的恐惧源自何方时,我怀着无比崇敬的心情弯下腰。——我害怕那崇高的力量,它创造我的动机一定是明智而善良的;我害怕那种崇高的力量。我服从我的理性从我对他的依赖这一观点中推导出来的道德法则。——我害怕的不是他的力量——这不是武断的意志,而是我服从的无误的理性。——服从——是的;我无视对他傲慢的指控,也无视规范他正义决心的法律;我所渴望的幸福一定是与他一样的,并且是通过同样的努力而产生的——尽管真诚的谦卑压倒了所有想将最崇高的受造物所能获得的善良与生命和幸福的伟大源泉进行比较的想法。

This fear of God makes me reverence myself.—Yes, Sir, the regard I have for honest fame, and the friendship of the virtuous, falls far short of the respect which I have for myself.

这种对上帝的敬畏使我敬畏自己。——是的,先生,我对诚实的名声和有德之士的友谊的尊重远远不及我对自己的尊重。

And this, enlightened self-love, if an epithet the meaning of which has been grossly perverted will convey my idea, forces me to see; and, if I may venture to borrow a prostituted term, to _feel_, that happiness is reflected, and that, in communicating good, my soul receives its noble aliment.—I do not trouble myself, therefore, to enquire whether this is the fear the _people_ of England feel:—and, if it be _natural_ to include all the modifications which you have annexed—it is not[13].

而这种开明的自爱,如果一个其含义已被严重歪曲的绰号能够传达我的想法,它迫使我看到;而且,如果我可以冒昧地借用一个卖淫的术语,我会感觉到,幸福得到了体现,并且在交流善的过程中,我的灵魂得到了高贵的滋养。——因此,我不费心去询问这是否是英格兰_人民_所感受到的恐惧:——而且,如果包括你所附的所有修改是_自然的_,那么它就不是[13]。

Besides, I cannot help suspecting that, if you had the _enlightened_ respect for yourself, which you affect to despise, you would not have said that the constitution of our church and state, formed, like most other modern ones, by degrees, as Europe was emerging out of barbarism, was formed ‘under the auspices, and was confirmed by the sanctions, of religion and piety.’ You have turned over the historic page; have been hackneyed in the ways of men, and must know that private cabals and public feuds, private virtues and vices, religion and superstition, have all concurred to foment the mass and swell it to its present form; nay more, that it in part owes its sightly appearance to bold rebellion and insidious innovation.

此外,我不禁怀疑,如果你对自己有一种你假装鄙视的_开明_尊重,你就不会说我们的教会和国家的宪法,就像大多数其他现代教会和国家的宪法一样,是在欧洲摆脱野蛮状态时逐渐形成的,是“在宗教和虔诚的支持下形成的,并得到了宗教和虔诚的制裁所确认的”。你已经翻开了历史的一页;他们已经习惯了人类的方式,并且必须知道,私人阴谋和公共争斗、私人美德和恶习、宗教和迷信,所有这些都共同煽动了群众并将其膨胀到目前的形式;更重要的是,它的美丽外观部分归功于大胆的叛逆和阴险的创新。

Factions, Sir, have been the leaven, and private interest has produced public good.

先生,派系是发酵剂,私人利益产生了公共利益。

These general reflections are not thrown out to insinuate that virtue was a creature of yesterday: No; she had her share in the grand drama.

这些普遍的反思并不是为了暗示美德是昨天的产物:不;是的。她在这出大戏中占有一席之地。

I guard against misrepresentation; but the man who cannot modify general assertions, has scarcely learned the first rudiments of reasoning.

我谨防误传;但是,如果一个人不能修改一般的断言,那么他几乎还没有学会推理的初步基础。

I know that there is a great portion of virtue in the Romish church, yet I should not choose to neglect clothing myself with a garment of my own righteousness, depending on a kind donative of works of supererogation.

我知道罗马教会中有很大一部分美德,但我不应该选择忽视为自己穿上正义的外衣,依赖于一种过度劳作的捐赠。

I know that there are many clergymen, of all denominations, wise and virtuous; yet I have not that respect for the whole body, which, you say, characterizes our nation, ‘emanating from a certain plainness and directness of understanding.’—Now we are stumbling on _inbred_ feelings and secret lights again—or, I beg your pardon, it may be the furbished up face which you choose to give to the argument.

我知道有许多神职人员,来自各个教派,有智慧,有德行。然而,我对整个国家却没有那种尊重,正如你所说,这是我们国家的特征,“源于某种朴素和直接的理解”。——现在我们又在近亲情感和秘密的光芒中绊倒了——或者,我请你原谅,这可能是你选择在争论中选择的修饰过的面孔。

It is a well-known fact, that when _we_, the people of England, have a son whom we scarcely know what to do with—_we_ make a clergyman of him.

众所周知的事实是,当我们英国人民有一个我们几乎不知道该怎么办的儿子时,我们就会把他选为一名牧师。

When a living is in the gift of a family, a son is brought up to the church; but not always with hopes full of immortality.

当一个家庭的恩赐维持生计时,一个儿子就会被带到教会;但并不总是充满不朽的希望。

‘Such sublime principles are _not constantly_ infused into persons of exalted birth;’ they sometimes think of ‘the paltry pelf of the moment[14]’—and the vulgar care of preaching the gospel, or practising self-denial, is left to the poor curates, who, arguing on your ground, cannot have, from the scanty stipend they receive, ‘very high and worthy notions of their function and destination.’ This consecration _for ever_; a word, that from lips of flesh is big with a mighty nothing, has not purged the _sacred temple_ from all the impurities of fraud, violence, injustice, and tyranny.

“如此崇高的原则并没有不断地注入出身高贵的人身上;”他们有时会想到“当下的微不足道的财富[14]”——而传播福音或实行自我否定的粗俗关怀则留给了可怜的牧师,他们站在你的立场上争论,从他们收到的微薄津贴中,不可能拥有“对他们的职能和目的地非常高和有价值的概念。”这种奉献_曾经_;一个从肉身嘴里冒出来的大而无足轻重的词,并没有清除圣殿中所有欺诈、暴力、不公正和暴政的杂质。

Human passions still lurk in her _sanctum sanctorum_; and, without the profane exertions of reason, vain would be her ceremonial ablutions; morality would still stand aloof from this national religion, this ideal consecration of a state; and men would rather choose to give the goods of their body, when on their death beds, to clear the narrow way to heaven, than restrain the mad career of passions during life.

人类的激情仍然潜伏在她的圣所里;如果没有理智的世俗努力,她的仪式性沐浴将是徒劳的。道德仍然与这个民族宗教、这个国家的理想奉献保持距离。人们宁可在临终时选择献出自己的身体财产,以扫清通往天堂的狭窄道路,也不愿在生前抑制激情的疯狂事业。

Such a curious paragraph occurs in this part of your letter, that I am tempted to transcribe it[15], and must beg you to elucidate it, if I misconceive your meaning.

你信的这一部分出现了这样一个奇怪的段落,我很想把它抄下来[15],如果我误解了你的意思,我必须恳求你解释它。

The only way in which the people interfere in government, religious or civil, is in electing representatives.

人民干预政府、宗教或民事的唯一方式是选举代表。

And, Sir, let me ask you, with manly plainness—are these _holy_ nominations?

而且,先生,让我以男子气概的坦白问你——这些提名是神圣的吗?

Where is the booth of religion?

宗教的摊位在哪里?

Does she mix her awful mandates, or lift her persuasive voice, in those scenes of drunken riot and beastly gluttony?

在那些醉酒骚乱和野蛮暴食的场景中,她是否混合了她可怕的命令,或者提高了她有说服力的声音?

Does she preside over those nocturnal abominations which so evidently tend to deprave the manners of the lower class of people?

她是否主持了那些明显有损下层人民风俗的夜间活动?

The pestilence stops not here—the rich and poor have one common nature, and many of the great families, which, on this side adoration, you venerate, date their misery, I speak of stubborn matters of fact, from the thoughtless extravagance of an electioneering frolic.—Yet, after the effervescence of spirits, raised by opposition, and all the little and tyrannic arts of canvassing are over—quiet souls!

瘟疫并不止于此——富人和穷人有着共同的本性,许多伟大的家族,在这一方面,你们崇拜他们,你们尊敬他们,他们的苦难也算日出。我说的是顽固的事实,来自竞选嬉戏的不假思索的奢侈。——然而,在反对派兴起的精神沸腾之后,所有小而残暴的拉票艺术都结束了——安静的灵魂!

they only intend to march rank and file to say YES—or NO.

他们只想对普通民众说“是”或“否”。

Experience, I believe, will shew that sordid interest, or licentious thoughtlessness, is the spring of action at most elections.—Again, I beg you not to lose sight of my modification of general rules.

我相信,经验将表明,肮脏的利益或放荡的轻率行为是大多数选举行动的源泉。——我再次恳求你们不要忽视我对一般规则的修改。

So far are the people from being habitually convinced of the sanctity of the charge they are conferring, that the venality of their votes must admonish them that they have no right to expect disinterested conduct.

到目前为止,人们还没有习惯性地相信他们所赋予的指控的神圣性,他们的选票的唯利是图必须告诫他们,他们没有权利期待无私的行为。

But to return to the church, and the habitual conviction of the people of England.

但回到教会,以及英国人民的习惯信念。

So far are the people from being ‘habitually convinced that no evil can be acceptable, either in the act or the permission, to him whose essence is good[16];’ that the sermons which they hear are to them almost as unintelligible as if they were preached in a foreign tongue.

人们远远没有“习惯性地相信,对于本质善良的人来说,无论是行为还是许可,任何邪恶都是不能接受的”[16];他们听到的布道对他们来说几乎就像是用外语宣讲一样难以理解。

The language and sentiments rising above their capacities, very orthodox Christians are driven to fanatical meetings for amusement, if not for edification.

非常正统的基督徒被迫参加狂热的聚会,其语言和情感超出了他们的能力范围,即使不是为了启迪,也是为了娱乐。

The clergy, I speak of the body, not forgetting the respect and affection which I have for individuals, perform the duty of their profession as a kind of fee-simple, to entitle them to the emoluments accruing from it; and their ignorant flock think that merely going to church is meritorious.

神职人员,我指的是身体,没有忘记我对个人的尊重和感情,履行他们的职业职责,就像一种简单的收费,使他们有权获得由此产生的报酬;他们无知的追随者认为仅仅去教堂就是有功德的。

So defective, in fact, are our laws, respecting religious establishments, that I have heard many rational pious clergymen complain, that they had no method of receiving their stipend that did not clog their endeavours to be useful; whilst the lives of many less conscientious rectors are passed in litigious disputes with the people they engaged to instruct; or in distant cities, in all the ease of luxurious idleness.

事实上,我们的法律在尊重宗教机构方面是如此有缺陷,以至于我听到许多理性虔诚的神职人员抱怨说,他们没有办法获得津贴,这会阻碍他们努力发挥作用;而许多不太尽责的校长则在与他们所指导的人的诉讼纠纷中度过了一生。或者在遥远的城市,享受奢华的闲散。

But you return to your old firm ground.—_Art thou there, True-penny?_ Must we swear to secure property, and make assurance doubly sure, to give your perturbed spirit rest?

但你又回到了你原来的坚定立场。——_你在吗,真正的便士?_我们必须发誓保护财产,并加倍保证,让你不安的精神得到安息吗?

Peace, peace to the manes of thy patriotic phrensy, which contributed to deprive some of thy fellow-citizens of their property in America: another spirit now walks abroad to secure the property of the church.—The tithes are safe!—We will not say for ever—because the time may come, when the traveller may ask where proud London stood?

和平,和平,你的爱国精神的鬃毛,它导致剥夺了你在美国的一些同胞的财产:另一种精神现在走出国门,以确保教会的财产。——什一税是安全的!——我们不会说永远——因为时间可能会到来,那时旅行者可能会问骄傲的伦敦站在哪里?

when its _temples_, its laws, and its trade, may be buried in one common ruin, and only serve as a by-word to point a moral, or furnish senators, who wage a wordy war, on the other side of the Atlantic, with tropes to swell their thundering bursts of eloquence.

当它的寺庙、它的法律和它的贸易可能被埋葬在一个共同的废墟中时,它们只能作为道德的代名词,或者为在大西洋彼岸发动一场冗长的战争的参议员们提供比喻,以增强他们雷鸣般的口才。

Who shall dare to accuse you of inconsistency any more, when you have so staunchly supported the despotic principles which agree so perfectly with the unerring interest of a large body of your fellow-citizens; not the largest—for when you venerate parliaments—I presume it is not the majority, as you have had the presumption to dissent, and loudly explain your reasons.—But it was not my intention, when I began this letter, to descend to the minutiæ of your conduct, or to weigh your infirmities in a balance; it is only some of your pernicious opinions that I wish to hunt out of their lurking holes; and to shew you to yourself, stripped of the gorgeous drapery in which you have enwrapped your tyrannic principles.

当你们如此坚定地支持专制原则时,谁还敢再指责你们前后不一呢?不是最大的——因为当你们尊敬议会时——我认为它不是多数,因为你们有反对意见的假定,并大声解释你们的理由。——但是,当我开始写这封信时,我的本意并不是要深入探讨你们行为的细节,或者权衡你们的弱点;我只想从潜伏的洞里找出你的一些有害的观点;并向你展示你自己,剥去包裹你暴虐原则的华丽帷幔。

That the people of England respect the national establishment I do not deny; I recollect the melancholy proof which they gave, in this very century, of their _enlightened_ zeal and reasonable affection.

我并不否认英国人民尊重国家制度;我记得他们在这个世纪中用忧郁的方式证明了他们开明的热情和合理的感情。

I likewise know that, according to the dictates of a _prudent_ law, in a commercial state, truth is reckoned a libel; yet I acknowledge, having never made my humanity give place to Gothic gallantry, that I should have been better pleased to have heard that Lord George Gordon was confined on account of the calamities which he brought on his country, than for a _libel_ on the queen of France.

我同样知道,根据谨慎法律的规定,在商业状态下,真相被视为诽谤;但我承认,我从来没有让我的人性让位于哥特式的英勇,如果我听到乔治·戈登勋爵因为给他的国家带来的灾难而被监禁,我会更高兴,而不是因为诽谤法国女王。

But one argument which you adduce to strengthen your assertion, appears to carry the preponderancy towards the other side.

但你为强化你的主张而提出的一个论点,似乎使另一方占了优势。

You observe that ‘our education is so formed as to confirm and fix this impression, (respect for the religious establishment); and that our education is in a manner wholly in the hands of ecclesiastics, and in all stages from infancy to manhood[17].’ Far from agreeing with you, Sir, that these regulations render the clergy a more useful and respectable body, experience convinces me that the very contrary is the fact.

您观察到“我们的教育是为了确认和固定这种印象(尊重宗教机构);我们的教育在某种程度上完全掌握在神职人员手中,从婴儿期到成年的各个阶段都是如此[17]。先生,我完全不同意你的观点,即这些规定使神职人员成为一个更有用和更受人尊敬的机构,但经验使我相信,事实恰恰相反。

In schools and colleges they may, in some degree, support their dignity within the monastic walls; but, in paying due respect to the parents of the young nobility under their tutorage, they do not forget, obsequiously, to respect their noble patrons.

在学校和大学里,他们可能在某种程度上维护自己在修道院围墙内的尊严;但是,在对受其指导的年轻贵族的父母表示应有的尊重时,他们并没有忘记谄媚地尊重他们的贵族赞助人。

The little respect paid, in great houses, to tutors and chaplains proves, Sir, the fallacy of your reasoning.

先生,在大房子里,对导师和牧师的一点尊重证明了你的推理是错误的。

It would be almost invidious to remark, that they sometimes are only modern substitutes for the jesters of Gothic memory, and serve as whetstones for the blunt wit of the noble peer who patronizes them; and what respect a boy can imbibe for a _butt_, at which the shaft of ridicule is daily glanced, I leave those to determine who can distinguish depravity of morals under the specious mask of refined manners.

说它们有时只是哥特式记忆中小丑的现代替代品,并充当光顾它们的贵族同侪的直率智慧的磨刀石,这几乎是令人反感的。一个男孩对一个每天都会受到嘲笑的屁股能有什么尊重,我让那些人来决定谁能在优雅举止的似是而非的面具下辨别道德的堕落。

Besides, the custom of sending clergymen to travel with their noble pupils, as humble companions, instead of exalting, tends inevitably to degrade the clerical character: it is notorious that they meanly submit to the most servile dependence, and gloss over the most capricious follies, to use a soft phrase, of the boys to whom they look up for preferment.

此外,派遣神职人员与他们的贵族学生一起旅行的习俗,作为卑微的同伴,而不是提升,不可避免地会降低神职人员的品格:众所周知,他们卑鄙地屈服于他们所仰慕的男孩最奴性的依赖,并掩盖最反复无常的愚蠢行为。

An airy mitre dances before them, and they wrap their sheep’s clothing more closely about them, and make their spirits bend till it is prudent to claim the rights of men and the honest freedom of speech of an Englishman.

一顶飘逸的法冠在他们面前翩翩起舞,他们把羊皮裹得更紧,让他们的精神屈服,直到谨慎地要求人权和英国人诚实的言论自由。

How, indeed, could they venture to reprove for his vices their patron: the clergy only give the true feudal emphasis to this word.

事实上,他们怎能冒险责备他们的赞助人的恶习:神职人员只对这个词给予真正的封建强调。

It has been observed, by men who have not superficially investigated the human heart, that when a man makes his spirit bend to any power but reason, his character is soon degraded, and his mind shackled by the very prejudices to which he submits with reluctance.

那些没有深入研究过人心的人已经观察到,当一个人让自己的精神屈从于理性以外的任何力量时,他的品格很快就会堕落,他的思想就会被他不情愿地屈服的偏见所束缚。

The observations of experience have been carried still further; and the servility to superiors, and tyranny to inferiors, said to characterize our clergy, have rationally been supposed to arise naturally from their associating with the nobility.

对经验的观察又进一步进行了;对上级的奴性和对下级的暴虐据说是我们神职人员的特征,但理性地认为,这些特征是他们与贵族的交往中自然产生的。

Among unequals there can be no society;—giving a manly meaning to the term; from such intimacies friendship can never grow; if the basis of friendship is mutual respect, and not a commercial treaty.

不平等之间不可能存在社会;——赋予这个词以男子气概的含义;从这种亲密关系中,友谊永远无法发展;如果友谊的基础是相互尊重,而不是商业条约。

Taken thus out of their sphere, and enjoying their tithes at a distance from their flocks, is it not natural for them to become courtly parasites, and intriguing dependents on great patrons, or the treasury?

因此,他们被排除在自己的领域之外,在远离羊群的地方享受什一税,他们自然会成为宫廷寄生虫,成为大赞助人和国库的迷人依赖者,这不是很自然的吗?

Observing all this—for these things have not been transacted in the dark—our young men of fashion, by a common, though erroneous, association of ideas, have conceived a contempt for religion, as they sucked in with their milk a contempt for the clergy.

观察这一切——因为这些事情并不是在黑暗中进行的——我们的时尚年轻人通过一种共同的、尽管是错误的观念联想,产生了对宗教的蔑视,就像他们吮吸着对神职人员的蔑视一样。

The people of England, Sir, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, I will not go any further back to insult the ashes of departed popery, did not settle the establishment, and endow it with princely revenues, to make it proudly rear its head, as a part of the constitutional body, to guard the liberties of the community; but, like some of the laborious commentators on Shakespeare, you have affixed a meaning to laws that chance, or, to speak more philosophically, the interested views of men, settled, not dreaming of your ingenious elucidations.

先生,英格兰人民,在十三和十四世纪,我不会再回去侮辱已故教皇的骨灰,也不会安顿这个机构,并赋予它王子般的收入,让它自豪地抬起头来,作为宪法机构的一部分,捍卫社会的自由;但是,就像一些辛勤的莎士比亚评论家一样,你给法律赋予了一种意义,这些法律是偶然的,或者更哲学地说,是人们感兴趣的观点,而不是梦想着你巧妙的阐释。

What, but the rapacity of the only men who exercised their reason, the priests, secured such vast property to the church, when a man gave his perishable substance to save himself from the dark torments of purgatory; and found it more convenient to indulge his depraved appetites, and pay an exorbitant price for absolution, than listen to the suggestions of reason, and work out his own salvation: in a word, was not the separation of religion from morality the work of the priests, and partly achieved in those _honourable_ days which you so piously deplore?

当一个人献出自己易腐烂的财产来拯救自己免受炼狱的黑暗折磨时,唯一运用理性的人——牧师——的贪婪,为教会获得了如此巨大的财产,这又是什么?他发现,放纵自己堕落的欲望,并为赦免付出高昂的代价,比听从理性的建议并实现自己的救赎更方便:总而言之,宗教与道德的分离不是牧师的工作,并且在您如此虔诚地谴责的那些光荣的日子里部分地实现了吗?

That civilization, that the cultivation of the understanding, and refinement of the affections, naturally make a man religious, I am proud to acknowledge.—What else can fill the aching void in the heart, that human pleasures, human friendships can never fill?

我很自豪地承认,这种文明,那种理解力的培养和情感的提炼,自然地使一个人变得虔诚。——还有什么可以填补内心痛苦的空虚,人类的快乐、人类的友谊永远无法填补呢?

What else can render us resigned to live, though condemned to ignorance?—What but a profound reverence for the model of all perfection, and the mysterious tie which arises from a love of goodness?

还有什么能让我们即使注定无知,也能甘心生活呢?——除了对一切完美典范的深刻崇敬,以及源于对善良的热爱而产生的神秘纽带之外,还能有什么呢?

What can make us reverence ourselves, but a reverence for that Being, of whom we are a faint image?

除了敬畏那个存在(我们是他的微弱形象)之外,还有什么能让我们敬畏自己呢?

That mighty Spirit moves on the waters—confusion hears his voice, and the troubled heart ceases to beat with anguish, for trust in Him bade it be still.

那强大的圣灵在水面上移动——混乱听到他的声音,烦躁的心不再因痛苦而跳动,因为对他的信任要求它安静下来。

Conscious dignity may make us rise superior to calumny, and sternly brave the winds of adverse fortune,—raised in our own esteem by the very storms of which we are the sport—but when friends are unkind, and the heart has not the prop on which it fondly leaned, where can a tender suffering being fly but to the Searcher of hearts?

有意识的尊严可能使我们战胜诽谤,并勇敢地勇敢地面对逆运的风——我们自己的自尊是由我们所参与的风暴而提高的——但是,当朋友不友善,而心没有它所深情依靠的支柱时,除了向心灵的探索者以外,温柔的痛苦还能飞向哪里呢?

and, when death has desolated the present scene, and torn from us the friend of our youth—when we walk along the accustomed path, and, almost fancying nature dead, ask, Where art thou who gave life to these well-known scenes?

当死亡使眼前的景色变得荒凉,并把我们年轻时的朋友从我们身上夺走时——当我们沿着惯常的道路行走时,几乎想象大自然已经死了,我们会问,赋予这些众所周知的场景生命的你在哪里?

when memory heightens former pleasures to contrast our present prospects—there is but one source of comfort within our reach;—and in this sublime solitude the world appears to contain only the Creator and the creature, of whose happiness he is the source.—These are human feelings; but I know not of any common nature or common relation amongst men but what results from reason.

当记忆增强了以前的快乐,与我们现在的前景形成鲜明对比时——我们所能得到的安慰只有一个来源;——在这崇高的孤独中,世界似乎只包含造物主和受造物,而造物主是造物主和受造物的幸福源泉。但除了理性的结果之外,我不知道人类之间有什么共同的性质或共同的关系。

The common affections and passions equally bind brutes together; and it is only the continuity of those relations that entitles us to the denomination of rational creatures; and this continuity arises from reflection—from the operations of that reason which you contemn with flippant disrespect.

共同的感情和激情同样将野兽团结在一起;正是这些关系的连续性使我们有资格被称为理性生物。这种连续性源于反思——源于你轻率不敬地蔑视的理性的运作。

If then it appears, arguing from analogy, that reflection must be the natural foundation of _rational_ affections, and of that experience which enables one man to rise above another, a phenomenon that has never been seen in the brute creation, it may not be stretching the argument further than it will go to suppose, that those men who are obliged to exercise their reason have the most reason, and are the persons pointed out by Nature to direct the society of which they make a part, on any extraordinary emergency.

如果从类比的角度来看,反思必然是理性情感的自然基础,也是使一个人超越另一个人的经验的自然基础,这是一种在野蛮的创造中从未见过的现象,那么它可能不会比它的假设更进一步地延伸这个论点,即那些被迫运用理性的人最有理性,并且是大自然指出的人,在任何特殊的紧急情况下,他们都可以指导他们所属的社会。

Time only will shew whether the general censure, which you afterwards qualify, if not contradict, and the unmerited contempt that you have ostentatiously displayed of the National Assembly, be founded on reason, the offspring of conviction, or the spawn of envy.

只有时间才能证明,您后来提出的普遍谴责,如果不是反驳的话,以及您对国民议会公然表现出的无理蔑视,是建立在理性的基础上,是信念的产物,还是嫉妒的滋生。

Time may shew, that this obscure throng knew more of the human heart and of legislation than the profligates of rank, emasculated by hereditary effeminacy.

时间也许会证明,这些默默无闻的人群比那些因世袭的女性气质而被阉割的挥霍阶级的人更了解人心和立法。

It is not, perhaps, of very great consequence who were the founders of a state; savages, thieves, curates, or practitioners in the law.

谁是一个国家的缔造者也许并不具有多大的影响;野蛮人、小偷、牧师或法律从业者。

It is true, you might sarcastically remark, that the Romans had always a _smack_ of the old leaven, and that the private robbers, supposing the tradition to be true, only became public depredators.

确实,你可能会讽刺地说,罗马人总是带有一点旧酵母的味道,而私人强盗,假设传统是真实的,只会成为公共掠夺者。

You might have added, that their civilization must have been very partial, and had more influence on the manners than morals of the people; or the amusements of the amphitheatre would not have remained an everlasting blot not only on their humanity, but on their refinement, if a vicious elegance of behaviour and luxurious mode of life is not a prostitution of the term.

你可能会补充说,他们的文明一定是非常偏颇的,对人们的风俗习惯的影响大于对道德的影响。否则,如果恶毒的高雅行为和奢华的生活方式不是所谓的卖淫,那么圆形剧场的娱乐活动就不会成为他们人性和文雅的永久污点。

However, the thundering censures which you have cast with a ponderous arm, and the more playful bushfiring of ridicule, are not arguments that will ever depreciate the National Assembly, for applying to their understanding rather than to their imagination, when they met to settle the newly acquired liberty of the state on a solid foundation.

然而,你们用沉重的手臂发出的雷鸣般的谴责,以及更有趣的嘲讽,都不会贬低国民议会,因为当国民议会开会将新获得的国家自由建立在坚实的基础上时,国民议会适用的是他们的理解而不是他们的想象。

If you had given the same advice to a young history painter of abilities, I should have admired your judgment, and re-echoed your sentiments[18].

如果你向一位有能力的年轻历史画家提出同样的建议,我会钦佩你的判断,并重申你的观点[18]。

Study, you might have said, the noble models of antiquity, till your imagination is inflamed; and, rising above the vulgar practice of the hour, you may imitate without copying those great originals.

你可能会说,研究古代的崇高典范,直到激发你的想象力;而且,超越当时的庸俗做法,你可以模仿而不抄袭那些伟大的原创作品。

A glowing picture, of some interesting moment, would probably have been produced by these natural means; particularly if one little circumstance is not overlooked, that the painter had noble models to revert to, calculated to excite admiration and stimulate exertion.

一幅关于某个有趣时刻的发光图片可能是通过这些自然手段产生的;特别是如果不忽视一点点的话,那就是画家有崇高的典范可以回归,旨在激发钦佩和刺激努力。

But, in settling a constitution that involved the happiness of millions, that stretch beyond the computation of science, it was, perhaps, necessary for the Assembly to have a higher model in view than the _imagined_ virtues of their forefathers; and wise to deduce their respect for themselves from the only legitimate source, respect for justice.

但是,在制定一部涉及数百万人幸福、超越科学计算范围的宪法时,议会也许有必要考虑一个比他们祖先想象的美德更高的模式;明智地从唯一合法的来源——对正义的尊重中推断出他们对自己的尊重。

Why was it a duty to repair an ancient castle, built in barbarous ages, of Gothic materials?

为什么有责任修复一座建于野蛮时代、采用哥特式材料的古城堡?

Why were the legislators obliged to rake amongst heterogeneous ruins; to rebuild old walls, whose foundations could scarcely be explored, when a simple structure might be raised on the foundation of experience, the only valuable inheritance our forefathers could bequeath?

为什么立法者必须在异质的废墟中搜寻?重建旧墙,其地基几乎无法探索,而一个简单的结构可以在经验的基础上建立起来,这是我们的祖先可以留下的唯一宝贵的遗产?

Yet of this bequest we can make little use till we have gained a stock of our own; and even then, their inherited experience would rather serve as lighthouses, to warn us against dangerous rocks or sand-banks, than as finger-posts that stand at every turning to point out the right road.

然而,在我们拥有自己的股票之前,我们无法利用这笔遗产。即便如此,他们继承的经验也宁愿充当灯塔,警告我们远离危险的岩石或沙洲,而不是充当在每个拐角处指示正确道路的指柱。

Nor was it absolutely necessary that they should be diffident of themselves when they were dissatisfied with, or could not discern the _almost obliterated_ constitution of their ancestors[19].

当他们不满意或无法辨别他们祖先的“几乎被抹杀”的体质时,他们也没有绝对必要对自己感到羞耻[19]。

They should first have been convinced that our constitution was not only the best modern, but the best possible one; and that our social compact was the surest foundation of all the _possible_ liberty a mass of men could enjoy, that the human understanding could form.

他们首先应该相信我们的宪法不仅是最好的现代宪法,而且是最好的宪法;我们的社会契约是一大群人可以享受的所有可能的自由的最可靠的基础,这是人类理解可以形成的。

They should have been certain that our representation answered all the purposes of representation; and that an established inequality of rank and property secured the liberty of the whole community, instead of rendering it a sounding epithet of subjection, when applied to the nation at large.

他们应该确信我们的代表满足了代表的所有目的;等级和财产的既定不平等确保了整个社会的自由,而当应用于整个国家时,它并没有使它成为一个听上去服从的绰号。

They should have had the same respect for our House of Commons that you, vauntingly, intrude on us, though your conduct throughout life has spoken a very different language; before they made a point of not deviating from the model which first engaged their attention.

他们应该对我们的下议院怀有同样的尊重,正如你大肆侵犯我们一样,尽管你一生的行为表现出一种截然不同的语言;在他们强调不偏离最初引起他们注意的模型之前。

That the British House of Commons is filled with every thing illustrious in rank, in descent, in hereditary, and acquired opulence, may be true,—but that it contains every thing respectable in talents, in military, civil, naval, and political distinction, is very problematical.

英国下议院充满了在地位、血统、世袭和后天富裕方面显赫的一切,这可能是真的,但它包含在军事、民事、海军和政治方面的才能方面值得尊敬的一切,这是非常成问题的。

Arguing from natural causes, the very contrary would appear to the speculatist to be the fact; and let experience say whether these speculations are built on sure ground.

从自然原因出发,对于投机主义者来说,事实恰恰相反。让经验来证明这些猜测是否有根据。

It is true you lay great stress on the effects produced by the bare idea of a liberal descent[20]; but from the conduct of men of rank, men of discernment would rather be led to conclude, that this idea obliterated instead of inspiring native dignity, and substituted a factitious pride that disemboweled the man.

确实,您非常强调自由主义血统这一纯粹想法所产生的影响[20];但是,从有地位的人的行为来看,有洞察力的人宁愿得出这样的结论:这种想法抹杀了而不是激发了天生的尊严,取而代之的是一种人为的骄傲,这种骄傲使人感到内疚。

The liberty of the rich has its ensigns armorial to puff the individual out with insubstantial honours; but where are blazoned the struggles of virtuous poverty?

富人的自由有其标志,可以用微不足道的荣誉来夸耀个人。但是,道德贫困的斗争在哪里呢?

Who, indeed, would dare to blazon what would blur the pompous monumental inscription you boast of, and make us view with horror, as monsters in human shape, the superb gallery of portraits proudly set in battle array?

确实,谁敢标榜什么会模糊你所吹嘘的浮夸的纪念碑铭文,让我们带着恐惧,像人形怪物一样,骄傲地排成战斗队形的华丽肖像画廊?

But to examine the subject more closely.

但要更仔细地研究这个主题。

Is it among the list of possibilities that a man of rank and fortune _can_ have received a good education?

一个有地位、有财富的人是否可以接受良好的教育?

How can he discover that he is a man, when all his wants are instantly supplied, and invention is never sharpened by necessity?

当他所有的需要都立即得到满足,并且发明永远不会因需要而变得尖锐时,他怎么能发现自己是一个人呢?

Will he labour, for every thing valuable must be the fruit of laborious exertions, to attain knowledge and virtue, in order to merit the affection of his equals, when the flattering attention of sycophants is a more luscious cordial?

当阿谀奉承者的阿谀奉承是一种更甘美的热情时,他是否会努力获得知识和美德,因为一切有价值的东西都必须是辛勤努力的成果?

Health can only be secured by temperance; but is it easy to persuade a man to live on plain food even to recover his health, who has been accustomed to fare sumptuously every day?

唯有节制才能保证健康;但是,要说服一个习惯于每天吃得奢侈的人,甚至为了恢复健康而只吃清淡的食物是件容易的事吗?

Can a man relish the simple food of friendship, who has been habitually pampered by flattery?

一个习惯于奉承奉承的人还能享受友谊这道简单的食物吗?

And when the blood boils, and the senses meet allurements on every side, will knowledge be pursued on account of its abstract beauty?

当热血沸腾,感官遭遇四面八方的诱惑时,知识会因为其抽象的美而受到追捧吗?

No; it is well known that talents are only to be unfolded by industry, and that we must have made some advances, led by an inferior motive, before we discover that they are their own reward.

不;众所周知,才华只能通过勤奋来展现,而我们必须在低等动机的引导下取得一些进步,然后才能发现它们是对自己的奖励。

But _full blown_ talents _may_, according to your system, be hereditary, and as independent of ripening judgment, as the inbred feelings that, rising above reason, naturally guard Englishmen from error.

但是,根据你们的体系,成熟的才能可能是遗传的,并且独立于成熟的判断,就像超越理性的天生情感一样,自然地保护英国人免遭错误。

Noble franchises!

高贵的特许经营权!

what a grovelling mind must that man have, who can pardon his step-dame Nature for not having made him at least a lord?

这个人必须有多么卑鄙的心才能原谅他的继母本性没有让他至少成为一个领主?

And who will, after your description of senatorial virtues, dare to say that our House of Commons has often resembled a bear-garden; and appeared rather like a committee of _ways and means_ than a dignified legislative body, though the concentrated wisdom and virtue of the whole nation blazed in one superb constellation?

在你描述了参议员的美德之后,谁还敢说我们的下议院常常像一个熊花园;尽管整个国家的集中智慧和美德在一个壮丽的星座中闪耀,但它看起来更像是一个由各种方式和手段组成的委员会,而不是一个庄严的立法机构?

That it contains a dead weight of benumbing opulence I readily allow, and of ignoble ambition; nor is there any thing surpassing belief in a supposition that the raw recruits, when properly drilled by the minister, would gladly march to the Upper House to unite hereditary honours to fortune.

它包含着我欣然接受的令人麻木的富裕和不光彩的野心的沉重负担;也没有任何令人难以置信的假设,即新兵经过部长的适当训练后,会很高兴地游行到上议院,将世袭的荣誉与财富结合起来。

But talents, knowledge, and virtue, must be a part of the man, and cannot be put, as robes of state often are, on a servant or a block, to render a pageant more magnificent.

但才干、知识和美德必须是人的一部分,不能像国服那样,被放在仆人或块上,以使盛会更加华丽。

Our House of Commons, it is true, has been celebrated as a school of eloquence, a hot-bed for wit, even when party intrigues narrow the understanding and contract the heart; yet, from the few proficients it has accomplished, this inferior praise is not of great magnitude: nor of great consequence, Mr. Locke would have added, who was ever of opinion that eloquence was oftener employed to make ‘the worse appear the better part,’ than to support the dictates of cool judgment.

诚然,我们的下议院被誉为一所口才学校、智慧的温床,即使党派阴谋缩小了人们的理解并收缩了人们的心灵。然而,从少数精通它的人看来,这种低劣的赞扬并不严重:洛克先生会补充说,也没有什么大的后果,他一直认为,雄辩更多地被用来使“最坏的部分显得更好”,而不是支持冷静判断的命令。

However, the greater number who have gained a seat by their fortune and hereditary rank, are content with their pre-eminence, and struggle not for more hazardous honours.

然而,大多数靠财富和世袭地位获得席位的人满足于自己的显赫地位,而不是为了更危险的荣誉而奋斗。

But you are an exception; you have raised yourself by the exertion of abilities, and thrown the automatons of rank into the back ground.

但你是个例外;你通过发挥能力提升了自己,而把等级的机器人抛到了后台。

Your exertions have been a generous contest for secondary honours, or a grateful tribute of respect due to the noble ashes that lent a hand to raise you into notice, by introducing you into the house of which you have ever been an ornament, if not a support.

你的努力是为了次要荣誉而进行的一场慷慨的竞赛,或者是对高贵骨灰的感激之情,这些高贵的骨灰帮助你引起了人们的注意,把你引入了这座房子,你曾经是这个房子的装饰品,如果不是支撑的话。

But, unfortunately, you have lately lost a great part of your popularity: members were tired of listening to declamation, or had not sufficient taste to be amused when you ingeniously wandered from the question, and said certainly many good things, if they were not to the present purpose.

但不幸的是,你最近失去了很大一部分声望:成员们厌倦了听演讲,或者没有足够的品味,当你巧妙地偏离问题时,并且说了很多好话,如果它们不是为了当前的目的的话。

You were the Cicero of one side of the house for years; and then to sink into oblivion, to see your blooming honours fade before you, was enough to rouse all that was human in you—and make you produce the impassioned _Reflections_ which have been a glorious revivification of your fame.—Richard is himself again!

多年来,你一直是房子一侧的西塞罗;然后陷入遗忘,看到你盛开的荣誉在你面前褪色,足以唤醒你内心所有的人性——并让你产生慷慨激昂的_反思_,这使你的名声光荣复兴。——理查德又是他自己了!

He is still a great man, though he has deserted his post, and buried in elogiums, on church establishments, the enthusiasm that forced him to throw the weight of his talents on the side of liberty and natural rights, when the _will_[21] of the nation oppressed the Americans.

他仍然是一个伟人,尽管他已经放弃了自己的职位,并埋葬在哀歌和教堂设施中,当国家的意志[21]压迫美国人时,他的热情迫使他将自己的才华投向自由和自然权利一边。

There appears to be such a mixture of real sensibility and fondly cherished romance in your composition, that the present crisis carries you out of yourself; and since you could not be one of the grand movers, the next _best_ thing that dazzled your imagination was to be a conspicuous opposer.

你的作品中似乎融合了真实的感性和深情的浪漫,以至于当前的危机使你失去了自我;既然你不可能成为伟大的推动者之一,那么让你的想象力变得眼花缭乱的下一个最好的事情就是成为一个引人注目的反对者。

Full of yourself, you make as much noise to convince the world that you despise the revolution, as Rousseau did to persuade his contemporaries to let him live in obscurity.

你自以为是,大声喧哗,让世界相信你鄙视革命,就像卢梭说服他的同时代人让他默默无闻地生活一样。

Reading your Reflections warily over, it has continually and forcibly struck me, that had you been a Frenchman, you would have been, in spite of your respect for rank and antiquity, a violent revolutionist; and deceived, as you now probably are, by the passions that cloud your reason, have termed your romantic enthusiasm an enlightened love of your country, a benevolent respect for the rights of men.

仔细阅读你的《反思》,我不断地强烈地意识到,如果你是一个法国人,尽管你尊重等级和古老,你也会是一个暴力革命者;正如你现在可能受到的欺骗,你被蒙蔽了你的理性的激情所欺骗,把你的浪漫热情称为对你的国家的开明的爱,对人权的仁慈的尊重。

Your imagination would have taken fire, and have found arguments, full as ingenious as those you now offer, to prove that the constitution, of which so few pillars remained, that constitution which time had almost obliterated, was not a model sufficiently noble to deserve close adherence.

你的想象力会被激发,并找到像你现在提供的那些一样巧妙的论点,来证明这部宪法,它的支柱所剩无几,那部几乎被时间抹杀的宪法,不是一个足够崇高的模式,值得密切遵守。

And, for the English constitution, you might not have had such a profound veneration as you have lately acquired; nay, it is not impossible that you might have entertained the same opinion of the English Parliament, that you professed to have during the American war.

而且,对于英国宪法,你可能不会像最近那样怀有如此深刻的崇敬之情。不仅如此,您也有可能接受英国议会的相同观点,就像您在美国战争期间所声称的那样。

Another observation which, by frequently occurring, has almost grown into a conviction, is simply this, that had the English in general reprobated the French revolution, you would have stood forth alone, and been the avowed Goliah of liberty.

另一种经常出现的观察几乎已成为一种信念,那就是,如果英国人普遍谴责法国大革命,你就会独自站出来,成为公认的自由歌利亚。

But, not liking to see so many brothers near the throne of fame, you have turned the current of your passions, and consequently of your reasoning, another way.

但是,由于不喜欢看到这么多兄弟靠近名誉宝座,你已经将你的激情和推理的潮流转向了另一种方式。

Had Dr. Price’s sermon not lighted some sparks very like envy in your bosom, I shrewdly suspect that he would have been treated with more candour; nor is it charitable to suppose that any thing but personal pique and hurt vanity could have dictated such bitter sarcasms and reiterated expressions of contempt as occur in your Reflections.

如果普赖斯博士的讲道没有在你的心中点燃一些嫉妒的火花,我敏锐地怀疑他会受到更坦诚的对待;如果你认为除了个人的愤怒和受伤的虚荣心之外还有什么因素会导致你在《反思》中出现如此尖酸刻薄的讽刺和反复表达的蔑视,那么这种假设也是不仁慈的。

But without fixed principles even goodness of heart is no security from inconsistency, and mild affectionate sensibility only renders a man more ingeniously cruel, when the pangs of hurt vanity are mistaken for virtuous indignation, and the gall of bitterness for the milk of Christian charity.

但是,如果没有固定的原则,即使是善良的心也不能避免前后矛盾,当虚荣心的痛苦被误认为是良性的愤慨,而苦涩的胆汁被误认为是基督教慈善的乳汁时,温和的情感只会使一个人更加巧妙地残忍。

Where is the dignity, the infallibility of sensibility, in the fair ladies, whom, if the voice of rumour is to be credited, the captive negroes curse in all the agony of bodily pain, for the unheard of tortures they invent?

那些美丽的女士们的尊严和绝对正确的情感在哪里?如果传闻的声音可信的话,被俘虏的黑人会因她们发明的闻所未闻的酷刑而在身体疼痛的所有痛苦中咒骂她们?

It is probable that some of them, after the sight of a flagellation, compose their ruffled spirits and exercise their tender feelings by the perusal of the last imported novel.—How true these tears are to nature, I leave you to determine.

很可能,他们中的一些人在看到鞭打之后,通过阅读最后一本进口小说来平复烦躁的情绪,锻炼他们的温柔感情。——这些眼泪是否真实,我让你来判断。

But these ladies may have read your Enquiry concerning the origin of our ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, and, convinced by your arguments, may have laboured to be pretty, by counterfeiting weakness.

但是这些女士可能读过你关于我们崇高和美丽的观念起源的询问,并且被你的论点所说服,可能通过假装弱点而努力变得漂亮。

You may have convinced them that _littleness_ and _weakness_ are the very essence of beauty; and that the Supreme Being, in giving women beauty in the most supereminent degree, seemed to command them, by the powerful voice of Nature, not to cultivate the moral virtues that might chance to excite respect, and interfere with the pleasing sensations they were created to inspire.

你可能已经让他们相信,“渺小”和“软弱”才是美的本质;至高无上的存在,在给予女性最卓越的美丽时,似乎通过自然的强大声音命令她们不要培养可能会引起尊重的道德美德,并干扰她们被创造来激发的愉悦感。

Thus confining truth, fortitude, and humanity, within the rigid pale of manly morals, they might justly argue, that to be loved, woman’s high end and great distinction!

因此,他们将真理、刚毅和人性限制在严格的男子气概道德范围内,他们可能会公正地争辩说,被爱是女人的高端和伟大的区别!

they should ‘learn to lisp, to totter in their walk, and nick-name God’s creatures.’ Never, they might repeat after you, was any man, much less a woman, rendered amiable by the force of those exalted qualities, fortitude, justice, wisdom, and truth; and thus forewarned of the sacrifice they must make to those austere, unnatural virtues, they would be authorized to turn all their attention to their persons, systematically neglecting morals to secure beauty.—Some rational old woman indeed might chance to stumble at this doctrine, and hint, that in avoiding atheism you had not steered clear of the mussulman’s creed; but you could readily exculpate yourself by turning the charge on Nature, who made our idea of beauty independent of reason.

他们应该“学会口齿不清,走路摇摇欲坠,并给上帝的创造物起绰号。”他们可能会在你之后重复一遍,从来没有任何一个男人,更不用说女人,会因为那些崇高品质,坚韧,正义,智慧和真理的力量而变得和蔼可亲;他们应该“学会说话”。因此,预先警告她们必须为那些朴素的、不自然的美德做出牺牲,她们将被授权将所有注意力转向自己的个人,系统性地忽视道德以确保美丽。——一些理性的老妇人确实可能会偶然发现这个学说,并暗示,在避免无神论时,你并没有避开穆斯林的信条;但你可以很容易地把罪责归咎于大自然来为自己开脱,因为大自然使我们对美的观念独立于理性。

Nor would it be necessary for you to recollect, that if virtue has any other foundation than worldly utility, you have clearly proved that one half of the human species, at least, have not souls; and that Nature, by making women _little_, _smooth_, _delicate_, _fair_ creatures, never designed that they should exercise their reason to acquire the virtues that produce opposite, if not contradictory, feelings.

你也不必记得,如果美德除了世俗功利之外还有任何其他基础,你已经清楚地证明了,至少一半的人类没有灵魂;大自然把女人塑造成“娇小”、“圆滑”、“精致”、“公平”的生物,从来没有计划让她们运用理性来获得美德,从而产生相反的、甚至是矛盾的情感。

The affection they excite, to be uniform and perfect, should not be tinctured with the respect which moral virtues inspire, lest pain should be blended with pleasure, and admiration disturb the soft intimacy of love.

它们所激发的感情要一致而完美,不应该与道德美德所激发的尊重掺杂在一起,以免痛苦与快乐混合在一起,而钦佩会扰乱爱的柔和亲密。

This laxity of morals in the female world is certainly more captivating to a libertine imagination than the cold arguments of reason, that give no sex to virtue.

女性世界中这种道德的松懈无疑比冷酷的理性论证更能吸引放荡的想象力,理性的论证并不赋予性以美德。

If beautiful weakness be interwoven in a woman’s frame, if the chief business of her life be (as you insinuate) to inspire love, and Nature has made an eternal distinction between the qualities that dignify a rational being and this animal perfection, her duty and happiness in this life must clash with any preparation for a more exalted state.

如果美丽的弱点交织在一个女人的身体里,如果她生命的主要任务是(如你所暗示的)激发爱,并且大自然在尊严理性存在的品质和这种动物完美之间做出了永恒的区分,那么她今生的责任和幸福必须与为更崇高的状态所做的任何准备发生冲突。

So that Plato and Milton were grossly mistaken in asserting that human love led to heavenly, and was only an exaltation of the same affection; for the love of the Deity, which is mixed with the most profound reverence, must be love of perfection, and not compassion for weakness.

因此,柏拉图和弥尔顿断言人类之爱通向天堂,而且只是对同样情感的提升,这是严重错误的。因为对神的爱,夹杂着最深切的崇敬,必须是对完美的爱,而不是对软弱的怜悯。

To say the truth, I not only tremble for the souls of women, but for the good natured man, whom every one loves.

说实话,我不仅为女性的灵魂而颤抖,也为每个人都喜爱的善良男人而颤抖。

The _amiable_ weakness of his mind is a strong argument against its immateriality, and seems to prove that beauty relaxes the _solids_ of the soul as well as the body.

他心灵中可爱的弱点是反对其非物质性的有力论据,并且似乎证明美可以放松灵魂和身体的实体。

It follows then immediately, from your own reasoning, that respect and love are antagonist principles; and that, if we really wish to render men more virtuous, we must endeavour to banish all enervating modifications of beauty from civil society.

根据你自己的推理,立即可以得出结论,尊重和爱是对立的原则;如果我们真的希望让人类变得更加有道德,我们就必须努力从文明社会中消除一切对美的削弱性修饰。

We must, to carry your argument a little further, return to the Spartan regulations, and settle the virtues of men on the stern foundation of mortification and self-denial; for any attempt to civilize the heart, to make it humane by implanting reasonable principles, is a mere philosophic dream.

为了让你的论点更进一步,我们必须回到斯巴达的规则,把人类的美德建立在克己和克己的严格基础上;因为任何通过灌输合理原则来文明人心、使其变得人道的尝试都只是一个哲学梦想。

If refinement inevitably lessens respect for virtue, by rendering beauty, the grand tempter, more seductive; if these relaxing feelings are incompatible with the nervous exertions of morality, the sun of Europe is not set; it begins to dawn, when cold metaphysicians try to make the head give laws to the heart.

如果精致不可避免地会减少对美德的尊重,那么美德这个伟大的诱惑者就会变得更加诱人;如果这些轻松的感觉与道德的紧张努力不相容,欧洲的太阳就不会落下;当冷酷的形而上学家试图让头脑为心灵提供法则时,黎明开始了。

But should experience prove that there is a beauty in virtue, a charm in order, which necessarily implies exertion, a depraved sensual taste may give way to a more manly one—and _melting_ feelings to rational satisfactions.

但是,如果经验证明美德中存在着美,秩序中存在着魅力,而这必然意味着努力,那么堕落的感性品味可能会让位于更具男子气概的品味,并且将情感融化为理性的满足。

Both may be equally natural to man; the test is their moral difference, and that point reason alone can decide.

Both may be equally natural to man;考验的是他们的道德差异,这一点单凭理性就可以决定。

Such a glorious change can only be produced by liberty.

如此光荣的变化只有自由才能产生。

Inequality of rank must ever impede the growth of virtue, by vitiating the mind that submits or domineers; that is ever employed to procure nourishment for the body, or amusement for the mind.

等级的不平等必定会损害顺从或专横的思想,从而阻碍美德的发展。它总是被用来获取身体的营养或心灵的娱乐。

And if this grand example be set by an assembly of unlettered clowns, if they can produce a crisis that may involve the fate of Europe, and ‘more than Europe[22],’ you must allow us to respect unsophisticated reason, and reverence the active exertions that were not relaxed by a fastidious respect for the beauty of rank, or a dread of the deformity produced by any _void_ in the social structure.

如果这个伟大的榜样是由一群无知的小丑所树立的,如果他们能够产生一场可能涉及欧洲命运的危机,并且“不仅仅是欧洲[22]”,那么你必须允许我们尊重朴素的理性,尊重那些积极的努力,这种努力不会因对等级之美的挑剔尊重或对社会结构中任何“空虚”所产生的畸形的恐惧而放松。

After your contemptuous manner of speaking of the National Assembly, after descanting on the coarse vulgarity of their proceedings, which, according to your own definition of virtue, is a proof of its genuineness; was it not a little inconsistent, not to say absurd, to assert, that a dozen people of quality were not a sufficient counterpoise to the vulgar mob with whom they condescended to associate?

在您以轻蔑的方式谈论国民议会之后,在对国民议会的粗俗粗俗的议事进行了严厉的批评之后,根据您自己对美德的定义,这证明了其真实性;断言十几个有素质的人不足以制衡他们屈尊与之交往的粗俗暴民,这不是有点矛盾,甚至可以说是荒谬吗?

Have we half a dozen leaders of eminence in our House of Commons, or even in the fashionable world?

我们下议院甚至时尚界有六位杰出领导人吗?

yet the sheep obsequiously pursue their steps with all the undeviating sagacity of instinct.

然而,羊却凭借本能的坚定不移的睿智,谄媚地追随自己的脚步。

In order that liberty should have a firm foundation, an acquaintance with the world would naturally lead cool men to conclude that it must be laid, knowing the weakness of the human heart, and the ‘deceitfulness of riches,’ either by _poor_ men, or philosophers, if a sufficient number of men, disinterested from principle, or truly wise, could be found.

为了让自由拥有坚实的基础,对世界的了解自然会让冷静的人得出这样的结论:自由必须由穷人或哲学家来奠定,因为他们知道人心的弱点和“财富的欺骗性”,如果能够找到足够数量的不顾原则或真正明智的人的话。

Was it natural to expect that sensual prejudices should give way to reason, or present feelings to enlarged views?—No; I am afraid that human nature is still in such a weak state, that the abolition of titles, the corner-stone of despotism, could only have been the work of men who had no titles to sacrifice.

期待感性偏见让位于理性,或者将情感呈现给扩大的视野,这是自然的吗?恐怕人性仍然处于如此脆弱的状态,废除头衔这一专制制度的基石只能是那些没有头衔可以牺牲的人的工作。

The National Assembly, it is true, contains some honourable exceptions; but the majority had not such powerful feelings to struggle with, when reason led them to respect the naked dignity of virtue.

国民议会确实有一些光荣的例外。但当理性引导他们尊重美德的赤裸裸的尊严时,大多数人并没有如此强烈的情感来与之斗争。

Weak minds are always timid.

Weak minds are always timid.

And what can equal the weakness of mind produced by servile flattery, and the vapid pleasures that neither hope nor fear seasoned?

还有什么能比得上奴性奉承所造成的心灵软弱,以及既不希望也不恐惧的乏味快乐呢?

Had the constitution of France been new modelled, or more cautiously repaired, by the lovers of elegance and beauty, it is natural to suppose that the imagination would have erected a fragile temporary building; or the power of one tyrant, divided amongst a hundred, might have rendered the struggle for liberty only a choice of masters.

如果法国宪法是由优雅和美丽的爱好者们重新设计的,或者更谨慎地修复的,那么人们很自然地会认为想象力会建造一座脆弱的临时建筑;或者一个暴君的权力被分配给一百个暴君,可能会使争取自由的斗争只是对主人的选择。

And the glorious _chance_ that is now given to human nature of attaining more virtue and happiness than has hitherto blessed our globe, might have been sacrificed to a meteor of the imagination, a bubble of passion.

现在人类本性获得比迄今为止所赐予的更多美德和幸福的光荣机会,可能会被想象力的流星和激情的泡沫所牺牲。

The ecclesiastics, indeed, would probably have remained in quiet possession of their sinecures; and your gall might not have been mixed with your ink on account of the daring sacrilege that brought them more on a level.

事实上,神职人员很可能仍然默默地拥有他们的闲职。你的胆汁可能不会与你的墨水混合在一起,因为大胆的亵渎行为使他们更上一层楼。

The nobles would have had bowels for their younger sons, if not for the misery of their fellow-creatures.

如果不是因为同胞们的苦难,贵族们本来会为他们的小儿子们着想的。

An august mass of property would have been transmitted to posterity to guard the temple of superstition, and prevent reason from entering with her officious light.

大量庄严的财产将被传给后代,以守卫迷信的殿堂,并阻止理性带着她多管闲事的光芒进入。

And the pomp of religion would have continued to impress the senses, if she were unable to subjugate the passions.

如果她无法抑制激情,宗教的盛况就会继续给人们留下深刻的印象。

Is hereditary weakness necessary to render religion lovely?

遗传的弱点是否必须使宗教变得可爱?

and will her form have lost the smooth delicacy that inspires love, when stripped of its Gothic drapery?

当剥去哥特式的帷幔后,她的身材是否会失去激发爱情的光滑精致?

Must every grand model be placed on the pedestal of property?

每一个伟大的模型都必须被放置在财产的基座上吗?

and is there no beauteous proportion in virtue, when not clothed in a sensual garb?

如果不穿上肉欲的外衣,美德难道就没有美丽的比例吗?

Of these questions there would be no end, though they lead to the same conclusion;—that your politics and morals, when simplified, would undermine religion and virtue to set up a spurious, sensual beauty, that has long debauched your imagination, under the specious form of natural feelings.

这些问题是没有尽头的,尽管它们会得出同样的结论;——你们的政治和道德如果被简化,就会破坏宗教和美德,从而建立一种虚假的、感性的美,这种美早已在自然情感的似是而非的形式下败坏了你们的想象力。

And what is this mighty revolution in property?

And what is this mighty revolution in property?

The present incumbents only are injured, or the hierarchy of the clergy, an ideal part of the constitution, which you have personified, to render your affection more tender.

The present incumbents only are injured, or the hierarchy of the clergy, an ideal part of the constitution, which you have personified, to render your affection more tender.

How has posterity been injured by a distribution of the property snatched, perhaps, from innocent hands, but accumulated by the most abominable violation of every sentiment of justice and piety?

财产的分配也许是从无辜者手中夺走的,但却是通过对正义和虔诚的最可恶的侵犯而积累起来的,这对子孙后代造成了怎样的伤害?

Was the monument of former ignorance and iniquity to be held sacred, to enable the present possessors of enormous benefices to _dissolve_ in indolent pleasures?

Was the monument of former ignorance and iniquity to be held sacred, to enable the present possessors of enormous benefices to _dissolve_ in indolent pleasures?

Was not their convenience, for they have not been turned adrift on the world, to give place to a just partition of the land belonging to the state?

Was not their convenience, for they have not been turned adrift on the world, to give place to a just partition of the land belonging to the state?

And did not the respect due to the natural equality of man require this triumph over Monkish rapacity?

难道人类自然平等所带来的尊重不就需要战胜僧侣的贪婪吗?

Were those monsters to be reverenced on account of their antiquity, and their unjust claims perpetuated to their ideal children, the clergy, merely to preserve the sacred majesty of Property inviolate, and to enable the Church to retain her pristine splendor?

这些怪物是否因其古老而受到尊敬,以及他们对他们理想的孩子、神职人员的不公正要求,仅仅是为了维护财产的神圣威严不受侵犯,并使教会保持其原始的辉煌吗?

Can posterity be injured by individuals losing the chance of obtaining great wealth, without meriting it, by its being diverted from a narrow channel, and disembogued into the sea that affords clouds to water all the land?

个人失去了获得巨额财富的机会,而不是因为财富被从狭窄的通道转移到提供云浇灌所有土地的海洋中,子孙后代会受到伤害吗?

Besides, the clergy not brought up with the expectation of great revenues will not feel the loss; and if bishops should happen to be chosen on account of their personal merit, religion may be benefited by the vulgar nomination.

此外,那些从小就没有对巨额收入抱有期望的神职人员不会感到损失。如果主教碰巧是根据个人功绩来选择的,那么粗俗的提名可能会给宗教带来好处。

The sophistry of asserting that Nature leads us to reverence our civil institutions from the same principle that we venerate aged individuals, is a palpable fallacy ‘that is so like truth, it will serve the turn as well.’ And when you add, ‘that we have chosen our nature rather than our speculations, our breasts rather than our inventions[23]’, the pretty jargon seems equally unintelligible.

声称自然引导我们尊重我们的公民制度,就像我们尊重老年人一样,这是一种明显的谬论,“这就像真理,它也将服务于轮回。”当你补充说,“我们选择了我们的本性而不是我们的投机,我们的乳房而不是我们的发明[23]”,这些漂亮的行话似乎同样难以理解。

But it was the downfall of the visible power and dignity of the church that roused your ire; you could have excused a little squeezing of the individuals to supply present exigencies; the actual possessors of the property might have been oppressed with something like impunity, if the church had not been spoiled of its gaudy trappings.

但正是教会的可见权力和尊严的垮台才引起了你的愤怒。您可以原谅对人员进行一些挤压以应对当前的紧急情况;如果教堂没有被华丽的装饰所破坏的话,财产的实际拥有者可能会受到类似有罪不罚的压迫。

You love the church, your country, and its laws, you repeatedly tell us, because they deserve to be loved; but from you this is not a panegyric: weakness and indulgence are the only incitements to love and confidence that you can discern, and it cannot be denied that the tender mother you venerate deserves, on this score, all your affection.

您反复告诉我们,您爱教会、您的国家及其法律,因为它们值得被爱; but from you this is not a panegyric: weakness and indulgence are the only incitements to love and confidence that you can discern, and it cannot be denied that the tender mother you venerate deserves, on this score, all your affection.

It would be as vain a task to attempt to obviate all your passionate objections, as to unravel all your plausible arguments, often illustrated by known truths, and rendered forcible by pointed invectives.

It would be as vain a task to attempt to obviate all your passionate objections, as to unravel all your plausible arguments, often illustrated by known truths, and rendered forcible by pointed invectives.

I only attack the foundation.

I only attack the foundation.

On the natural principles of justice I build my plea for disseminating the property artfully said to be appropriated to religious purposes, but, in reality, to support idle tyrants, amongst the society whose ancestors were cheated or forced into illegal grants.

基于正义的自然原则,我呼吁传播那些被巧妙地据说是用于宗教目的的财产,但实际上是为了在祖先被欺骗或被迫非法赠予的社会中支持游手好闲的暴君。

Can there be an opinion more subversive of morality, than that time sanctifies crimes, and silences the blood that calls out for retribution, if not for vengeance?

Can there be an opinion more subversive of morality, than that time sanctifies crimes, and silences the blood that calls out for retribution, if not for vengeance?

If the revenue annexed to the Gallic church was greater than the most bigoted protestant would now allow to be its reasonable share, would it not have been trampling on the rights of men to perpetuate such an arbitrary appropriation of the common stock, because time had rendered the fraudulent seizure venerable?

If the revenue annexed to the Gallic church was greater than the most bigoted protestant would now allow to be its reasonable share, would it not have been trampling on the rights of men to perpetuate such an arbitrary appropriation of the common stock, because time had rendered the fraudulent seizure venerable?

Besides, if Reason had suggested, as surely she must, if the imagination had not been allowed to dwell on the fascinating pomp of ceremonial grandeur, that the clergy would be rendered both more virtuous and useful by being put more on a par with each other, and the mass of the people it was their duty to instruct;—where was there room for hesitation?

此外,如果理性暗示——她肯定会暗示——如果不让想象力停留在令人着迷的盛况上,神职人员之间的地位更加平等,就会变得更加有德行和有用,而他们的职责就是指导人民大众;——还有什么犹豫的余地呢?

The charge of presumption, thrown by you on the most reasonable innovations, may, without any violence to truth, be retorted on every reformation that has meliorated our condition, and even on the improvable faculty that gives us a claim to the pre-eminence of intelligent beings.

你们对最合理的创新提出的推定指控,在不违背真理的情况下,可能会被反驳到每一项改善我们状况的改革,甚至反驳到那些使我们声称拥有卓越智慧生物的可改进能力。

Plausibility, I know, can only be unmasked by shewing the absurdities it glosses over, and the simple truths it involves with specious errors.

我知道,只有通过展示它所掩盖的荒谬性以及它所涉及的似是而非的错误的简单事实,才能揭开合理性的面纱。

Eloquence has often confounded triumphant villainy; but it is probable that it has more frequently rendered the boundary that separates virtue and vice doubtful.—Poisons may be only medicines in judicious hands; but they should not be administered by the ignorant, because they have sometimes seen great cures performed by their powerful aid.

雄辩常常会挫败胜利的邪恶; but it is probable that it has more frequently rendered the boundary that separates virtue and vice doubtful.—Poisons may be only medicines in judicious hands;但它们不应该由无知的人来管理,因为他们有时会看到它们的强大帮助带来了伟大的治愈。

The many sensible remarks and pointed observations which you have mixed with opinions that strike at our dearest interests, fortify those opinions, and give them a degree of strength that render them formidable to the wise, and convincing to the superficial.

The many sensible remarks and pointed observations which you have mixed with opinions that strike at our dearest interests, fortify those opinions, and give them a degree of strength that render them formidable to the wise, and convincing to the superficial.

It is impossible to read half a dozen pages of your book without admiring your ingenuity, or indignantly spurning your sophisms.

读完你的书的六页,你不可能不钦佩你的聪明才智,或者愤怒地驳斥你的诡辩。

Words are heaped on words, till the understanding is confused by endeavouring to disentangle the sense, and the memory by tracing contradictions.

Words are heaped on words, till the understanding is confused by endeavouring to disentangle the sense, and the memory by tracing contradictions.

After observing a host of these contradictions, it can scarcely be a breach of charity to think that you have often sacrificed your sincerity to enforce your favourite arguments, and called in your judgment to adjust the arrangement of words that could not convey its dictates.

After observing a host of these contradictions, it can scarcely be a breach of charity to think that you have often sacrificed your sincerity to enforce your favourite arguments, and called in your judgment to adjust the arrangement of words that could not convey its dictates.

A fallacy of this kind, I think, could not have escaped you when you were treating the subject that called forth your bitterest animadversions, the confiscation of the ecclesiastical revenue.

我认为,当您在讨论引起您最强烈反对的主题(即没收教会收入)时,您不可能逃脱这种谬论。

Who of the vindicators of the rights of men ever ventured to assert, that the clergy of the present day should be punished on account of the intolerable pride and inhuman cruelty of many of their predecessors[24]?

Who of the vindicators of the rights of men ever ventured to assert, that the clergy of the present day should be punished on account of the intolerable pride and inhuman cruelty of many of their predecessors[24]?

No; such a thought never entered the mind of those who warred with inveterate prejudices.

不;那些与根深蒂固的偏见作斗争的人从来没有想到过这样的想法。

A desperate disease required a powerful remedy.

A desperate disease required a powerful remedy.

Injustice had no right to rest on prescription; nor has the character of the present clergy any weight in the argument.

Injustice had no right to rest on prescription;目前神职人员的性格在争论中也没有任何分量。

You find it very difficult to separate policy from justice: in the political world they have frequently been separated with shameful dexterity.

你会发现将政策与正义分开是非常困难的:在政治世界中,它们经常被以可耻的巧妙方式分开。

To mention a recent instance.

To mention a recent instance.

According to the limited views of timid, or interested politicians, an abolition of the infernal slave trade would not only be unsound policy, but a flagrant infringement of the laws (which are allowed to have been infamous) that induced the planters to purchase their estates.

According to the limited views of timid, or interested politicians, an abolition of the infernal slave trade would not only be unsound policy, but a flagrant infringement of the laws (which are allowed to have been infamous) that induced the planters to purchase their estates.

But is it not consonant with justice, with the common principles of humanity, not to mention Christianity, to abolish this abominable mischief?

但是,废除这种可恶的祸害,难道不符合正义,不符合人类的共同原则,更不用说基督教了?

[25]There is not one argument, one invective, levelled by you at the confiscators of the church revenue, which could not, with the strictest propriety, be applied by the planters and negro-drivers to our Parliament, if it gloriously dared to shew the world that British senators were men: if the natural feelings of humanity silenced the cold cautions of timidity, till this stigma on our nature was wiped off, and all men were allowed to enjoy their birth-right—liberty, till by their crimes they had authorized society to deprive them of the blessing they had abused.

[25]如果你对没收教会收入的人提出的任何一种论点、一种谩骂,只要我们的议会敢于光荣地向世界展示英国参议员是男人,那么种植园主和黑人司机就不能以最严格的礼节向我们的议会提出这样的论点、谩骂:如果人性的自然感情平息了胆怯的冷酷警告,直到我们本性上的这种耻辱被抹去,所有的人都被允许享受他们的生活。与生俱来的权利——自由,直到他们通过自己的罪行授权社会剥夺他们所滥用的祝福。

The same arguments might be used in India, if any attempt were made to bring back things to nature, to prove that a man ought never to quit the cast that confined him to the profession of his lineal forefathers.

如果有人试图让事物回归自然,那么在印度也可以使用同样的论点来证明一个人永远不应该放弃将他限制在直系祖先职业中的角色。

The Bramins would doubtless find many ingenious reasons to justify this debasing, though venerable prejudice; and would not, it is to be supposed, forget to observe that time, by interweaving the oppressive law with many useful customs, had rendered it for the present very convenient, and consequently legal.

布拉明一家无疑会找到许多巧妙的理由来证明这种贬低但令人尊敬的偏见是正当的。 and would not, it is to be supposed, forget to observe that time, by interweaving the oppressive law with many useful customs, had rendered it for the present very convenient, and consequently legal.

Almost every vice that has degraded our nature might be justified by shewing that it had been productive of _some_ benefit to society: for it would be as difficult to point out positive evil as unallayed good, in this imperfect state.

Almost every vice that has degraded our nature might be justified by shewing that it had been productive of _some_ benefit to society: for it would be as difficult to point out positive evil as unallayed good, in this imperfect state.

What indeed would become of morals, if they had no other test than prescription?

如果道德除了规范之外没有其他检验,那么道德到底会变成什么样子呢?

The manners of men may change without end; but, wherever reason receives the least cultivation—wherever men rise above brutes, morality must rest on the same base.

The manners of men may change without end;但是,凡是理性受到最少培养的地方,凡是人超越畜生的地方,道德都必须建立在同样的基础上。

And the more man discovers of the nature of his mind and body, the more clearly he is convinced, that to act according to the dictates of reason is to conform to the law of God.

And the more man discovers of the nature of his mind and body, the more clearly he is convinced, that to act according to the dictates of reason is to conform to the law of God.

The test of honour may be arbitrary and fallacious, and, retiring into subterfuge, elude close enquiry; but true morality shuns not the day, nor shrinks from the ordeal of investigation.

荣誉的考验可能是任意的、错误的,并且会采取诡计,逃避仔细的调查;但真正的道德不会回避这一天,也不会回避调查的考验。

Most of the happy revolutions that have taken place in the world have happened when weak princes held the reins they could not manage; but are they, on that account, to be canonized as saints or demi-gods, and pushed forward to notice on the throne of ignorance?

世界上发生的大多数幸福革命都是在软弱的王子掌握了他们无法管理的缰绳时发生的。但他们是否会因此而被封为圣人或半神,并被推上无知的宝座?

Pleasure wants a zest, if experience cannot compare it with pain; but who courts pain to heighten his pleasures?

如果经验无法与痛苦相比,快乐就需要热情; but who courts pain to heighten his pleasures?

A transient view of society will further illustrate arguments which appear so obvious that I am almost ashamed to produce illustrations.

对社会的转瞬即逝的看法将进一步阐明那些显而易见的论点,以至于我几乎羞于制作插图。

How many children have been taught œconomy, and many other virtues, by the extravagant thoughtlessness of their parents; yet a good education is allowed to be an inestimable blessing.

有多少孩子是因为父母的过度疏忽而学会了节约和许多其他美德?然而,良好的教育却是一种无法估量的祝福。

The tenderest mothers are often the most unhappy wives; but can the good that accrues from the private distress that produces a sober dignity of mind justify the inflictor?

最温柔的母亲往往是最不幸福的妻子;但是,从私人痛苦中产生的好处,产生清醒的心灵尊严,可以证明加害者是正当的吗?

Right or wrong may be estimated according to the point of sight, and other adventitious circumstances; but, to discover its real nature, the enquiry must go deeper than the surface, and beyond the local consequences that confound good and evil together.

正确或错误可以根据观点和其他偶然情况来估计;但是,为了发现其真正本质,探究必须比表面更深入,超越将善与恶混为一谈的局部后果。

The rich and weak, a numerous train, will certainly applaud your system, and loudly celebrate your pious reverence for authority and establishments—they find it pleasanter to enjoy than to think; to justify oppression than correct abuses.—_The rights of men_ are grating sounds that set their teeth on edge; the impertinent enquiry of philosophic meddling innovation.

富人和弱者,众多的列车,一定会为你的制度喝彩,大声庆祝你对权威和制度的虔诚敬畏——他们觉得享受比思考更愉快;为压迫辩护,而不是纠正虐待行为。——_人的权利_是刺耳的声音,让他们咬牙切齿;对哲学干预创新的无礼探究。

If the poor are in distress, they will make some _benevolent_ exertions to assist them; they will confer obligations, but not do justice.

如果穷人有困难,他们会尽一些善意的努力来帮助他们;他们会赋予义务,但不会伸张正义。

Benevolence is a very amiable specious quality; yet the aversion which men feel to accept a right as a favour, should rather be extolled as a vestige of native dignity, than stigmatized as the odious offspring of ingratitude.

仁是一种非常可亲的、似是而非的品质;然而,人们对接受权利作为恩惠的厌恶情绪,应该被赞扬为天生尊严的残余,而不是被污蔑为忘恩负义的可憎后代。

The poor consider the rich as their lawful prey; but we ought not too severely to animadvert on their ingratitude.

穷人认为富人是他们的合法猎物;但我们不应该过于严厉地批评他们的忘恩负义。

When they receive an alms they are commonly grateful at the moment; but old habits quickly return, and cunning has ever been a substitute for force.

当他们收到施舍时,他们通常会心怀感激;但旧习惯很快就会回归,狡猾一直是武力的替代品。

That both physical and moral evil were not only foreseen, but entered into the scheme of Providence, when this world was contemplated in the Divine mind, who can doubt, without robbing Omnipotence of a most exalted attribute?

当神圣心灵思考这个世界时,身体和道德上的邪恶不仅被预见,而且进入了上帝的计划,谁能怀疑,而不剥夺全能最崇高的属性?

But the business of the life of a good man should be, to separate light from darkness; to diffuse happiness, whilst he submits to unavoidable misery.

但好人一生的职责应该是区分光明与黑暗;散布幸福,同时他却遭受不可避免的痛苦。

And a conviction that there is much unavoidable wretchedness, appointed by the grand Disposer of all events, should not slacken his exertions: the extent of what is possible can only be discerned by God.

坚信一切事件的伟大处置者所指定的许多不可避免的不幸,不应放松他的努力:可能性的程度只能由上帝来辨别。

The justice of God may be vindicated by a belief in a future state; but, only by believing that evil is educing good for the individual, and not for an imaginary whole.

上帝的正义可以通过对未来状态的信仰得到证实。但是,只有相信邪恶才能为个人带来好处,而不是为想象中的整体带来好处。

The happiness of the whole must arise from the happiness of the constituent parts, or the essence of justice is sacrificed to a supposed grand arrangement.

整体的幸福必须源于各组成部分的幸福,否则正义的本质就会被某种所谓的宏大安排所牺牲。

And that may be good for the whole of a creature’s existence, that disturbs the comfort of a small portion.

这可能对整个生物的存在有利,但却扰乱了一小部分生物的舒适感。

The evil which an individual suffers for the good of the community is partial, it must be allowed, if the account is settled by death.—But the partial evil which it suffers, during one stage of existence, to render another stage more perfect, is strictly just.

一个人为了社会的利益而遭受的邪恶是部分的,如果以死亡来解决的话,就必须允许它。——但是,在存在的一个阶段中,为了使另一个阶段更加完美,他所遭受的部分邪恶是严格正义的。

The Father of all only can regulate the education of his children.

只有万有之父才能规范他孩子的教育。

To suppose that, during the whole or part of its existence, the happiness of any individual is sacrificed to promote the welfare of ten, or ten thousand, other beings—is impious.

假设在其存在的全部或部分时间里,牺牲任何个人的幸福来促进十个或一万个其他生物的福利,这是不虔诚的。

But to suppose that the happiness, or animal enjoyment, of one portion of existence is sacrificed to improve and ennoble the being itself, and render it capable of more perfect happiness, is not to reflect on either the goodness or wisdom of God.

但是,假设牺牲一部分存在的幸福或动物的享受来改善和提高存在本身,并使其能够获得更完美的幸福,这并不是在反思上帝的善良或智慧。

It may be confidently asserted that no man chooses evil, because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.

我们可以自信地断言,没有人会选择邪恶,因为它就是邪恶。他只是误认为这是幸福,是他所追求的美好。

And the desire of rectifying these mistakes, is the noble ambition of an enlightened understanding, the impulse of feelings that Philosophy invigorates.

而纠正这些错误的愿望,是一种开悟的崇高抱负,是哲学所激发的情感冲动。

To endeavour to make unhappy men resigned to their fate, is the tender endeavour of short-sighted benevolence, of transient yearnings of humanity; but to labour to increase human happiness by extirpating error, is a masculine godlike affection.

努力让不幸的人听天由命,是短视的仁慈和人类短暂的渴望的温柔努力。但通过消除错误而努力增加人类幸福,则是一种男性神般的情感。

This remark may be carried still further.

This remark may be carried still further.

Men who possess uncommon sensibility, whose quick emotions shew how closely the eye and heart are connected, soon forget the most forcible sensations.

拥有非凡敏感性的人,其快速的情绪显示了眼睛和心灵的紧密联系,很快就会忘记最强烈的感觉。

Not tarrying long enough in the brain to be subject to reflection, the next sensations, of course, obliterate them.

由于在大脑中停留的时间不够长,无法进行反射,接下来的感觉当然会抹掉它们。

Memory, however, treasures up these proofs of native goodness; and the being who is not spurred on to any virtuous act, still thinks itself of consequence, and boasts of its feelings.

然而,记忆却珍藏着这些与生俱来的善良的证据。一个人如果没有受到任何善行的激励,他仍然会认为自己很重要,并夸耀自己的感受。

Why?

为什么?

Because the sight of distress, or an affecting narrative, made its blood flow with more velocity, and the heart, literally speaking, beat with sympathetic emotion.

因为痛苦的景象,或者感人的叙述,让血液流动得更快,心脏,字面上讲,伴随着同情的情感而跳动。

We ought to beware of confounding mechanical instinctive sensations with emotions that reason deepens, and justly terms the feelings of _humanity_.

我们应该小心,不要将机械的本能感觉与理性深化的情感混为一谈,并公正地称之为“人性”的情感。

This word discriminates the active exertions of virtue from the vague declamation of sensibility.

这个词区分了美德的积极发挥和感性的模糊声明。

The declaration of the National Assembly, when they recognized the rights of men, was calculated to touch the humane heart—the downfall of the clergy, to agitate the pupil of impulse.

国民议会承认人权的宣言,旨在触动人性的心灵——神职人员的垮台,激起冲动的学生。

On the watch to find fault, faults met your prying eye; a different prepossession might have produced a different conviction.

警惕地寻找缺点,缺点遇到了你的窥视者;不同的先入之见可能会产生不同的信念。

When we read a book that supports our favourite opinions, how eagerly do we suck in the doctrines, and suffer our minds placidly to reflect the images that illustrate the tenets we have previously embraced.

当我们阅读一本支持我们最喜欢的观点的书时,我们是多么急切地吸收其中的教义,并让我们的头脑平静地反映那些说明我们以前所信奉的原则的图像。

We indolently acquiesce in the conclusion, and our spirit animates and corrects the various subjects.

我们懒洋洋地默许了结论,我们的精神激发并纠正了各种主题。

But when, on the contrary, we peruse a skilful writer, with whom we do not coincide in opinion, how attentive is the mind to detect fallacy.

但相反,当我们阅读一位技巧娴熟的作家,而我们的观点与他不一致时,我们的头脑是多么注意发现谬误。

And this suspicious coolness often prevents our being carried away by a stream of natural eloquence, which the prejudiced mind terms declamation—a pomp of words!

而这种多疑的冷静往往会阻止我们被自然的雄辩之流所迷惑,偏见的头脑将其称为“演讲”——一种浮夸的言词!

We never allow ourselves to be warmed; and, after contending with the writer, are more confirmed in our opinion; as much, perhaps, from a spirit of contradiction as from reason.

我们从不让自己被温暖;经过与作者的争论,更加证实了我们的观点;或许,这不仅是出于理性,也是出于矛盾精神。

A lively imagination is ever in danger of being betrayed into error by favourite opinions, which it almost personifies, the more effectually to intoxicate the understanding.

生动的想象力总是有被喜爱的观点欺骗而陷入错误的危险,它几乎是人格化的,越能有效地陶醉理解力。

Always tending to extremes, truth is left behind in the heat of the chace, and things are viewed as positively good, or bad, though they wear an equivocal face.

真理总是趋于极端,在激烈的竞争中被抛在了后面,事物被认为是积极的好或坏,尽管它们的面孔是模棱两可的。

Some celebrated writers have supposed that wit and judgment were incompatible; opposite qualities, that, in a kind of elementary strife, destroyed each other: and many men of wit have endeavoured to prove that they were mistaken.

一些著名作家认为智慧和判断力是不相容的。相反的品质,在一种基本的冲突中,互相摧毁:许多智者都努力证明他们是错误的。

Much may be adduced by wits and metaphysicians on both sides of the question.

问题双方的智者和形而上学家都可以举出很多东西。

But, from experience, I am apt to believe that they do weaken each other, and that great quickness of comprehension, and facile association of ideas, naturally preclude profundity of research.

但是,从经验来看,我倾向于相信它们确实互相削弱,而快速的理解和轻松的思想联想自然排除了研究的深度。

Wit is often a lucky hit; the result of a momentary inspiration.

机智往往是幸运的。瞬间灵感的结果。

We know not whence it comes, and it blows where it lifts.

我们不知道它从哪里来,它升到哪里就吹到哪里。

The operations of judgment, on the contrary, are cool and circumspect; and coolness and deliberation are great enemies to enthusiasm.

相反,判断的运作是冷静而谨慎的。冷静和深思熟虑是热情的大敌。

If wit is of so fine a spirit, that it almost evaporates when translated into another language, why may not the temperature have an influence over it?

如果智慧的精神如此美好,翻译成另一种语言时几乎会蒸发,为什么温度不会对其产生影响呢?

This remark may be thought derogatory to the inferior qualities of the mind: but it is not a hasty one; and I mention it as a prelude to a conclusion I have frequently drawn, that the cultivation of reason damps fancy.

这句话可能会被认为是对低劣思想品质的贬低:但这并不是一个仓促的言论;它是一种轻率的言论。我提到它是作为我经常得出的一个结论的前奏,即理性的培养会抑制幻想。

The blessings of Heaven lie on each side; we must choose, if we wish to attain any degree of superiority, and not lose our lives in laborious idleness.

天道之福,两岸皆有;如果我们希望获得某种程度的优越性,我们就必须做出选择,而不是在劳累的无所事事中失去生命。

If we mean to build our knowledge or happiness on a rational basis, we must learn to distinguish the _possible_, and not fight against the stream.

如果我们打算在理性的基础上建立我们的知识或幸福,我们就必须学会区分_可能_,而不是与潮流作斗争。

And if we are careful to guard ourselves from imaginary sorrows and vain fears, we must also resign many enchanting illusions: for shallow must be the discernment which fails to discover that raptures and ecstasies arise from error.—Whether it will always be so, is not now to be discussed; suffice it to observe, that Truth is seldom arrayed by the Graces; and if she charms, it is only by inspiring a sober satisfaction, which takes its rise from a calm contemplation of proportion and simplicity.

如果我们小心翼翼地保护自己免受想象中的悲伤和徒劳的恐惧的影响,我们也必须放弃许多令人着迷的幻想:因为洞察力必定是肤浅的,无法发现狂喜和狂喜源于错误。——是否永远如此,现在不讨论;只要注意到这一点就足够了:真理很少被圣宠所装饰。如果说她迷人的话,那只能是激发一种清醒的满足感,而这种满足感是从对比例和简洁的冷静沉思中产生的。

But, though it is allowed that one man has by nature more fancy than another, in each individual there is a spring-tide when fancy should govern and amalgamate materials for the understanding; and a graver period, when those materials should be employed by the judgment.

但是,尽管一个人在本质上比另一个人拥有更多的想象力是被允许的,但在每个人身上都存在着一股春潮,此时想象力应该支配并融合材料以促进理解。以及更严重的时期,即判决应使用这些材料。

For example, I am inclined to have a better opinion of the heart of an _old_ man, who speaks of Sterne as his favourite author, than of his understanding.

例如,我倾向于对一个老人的内心有更好的看法,他说斯特恩是他最喜欢的作家,而不是他的理解。

There are times and seasons for all things: and moralists appear to me to err, when they would confound the gaiety of youth with the seriousness of age; for the virtues of age look not only more imposing, but more natural, when they appear rather rigid.

一切事物都有时间和季节:在我看来,道德家们犯了错误,他们将青年时期的欢乐与老年时期的严肃混为一谈。因为当年龄的美德显得相当僵化时,它们不仅看起来更令人印象深刻,而且更自然。

He who has not exercised his judgment to curb his imagination during the meridian of life, becomes, in its decline, too often the prey of childish feelings.

那些在生命的正午时期没有运用自己的判断力来抑制自己的想象力的人,在生命的衰退中往往会成为幼稚情感的牺牲品。

Age demands respect; youth love: if this order is disturbed, the emotions are not pure; and when love for a man in his grand climacteric takes place of respect, it, generally speaking, borders on contempt.

年龄需要尊重;青春爱情:如果这个秩序被打乱,情感就不纯洁;当对一个处于更年期的男人的爱取代了尊重时,一般来说,它就接近于蔑视。

Judgment is sublime, wit beautiful; and, according to your own theory, they cannot exist together without impairing each other’s power.

判断力崇高,智慧美丽;而且,根据你自己的理论,它们不可能共存而不损害彼此的力量。

The predominancy of the latter, in your endless Reflections, should lead hasty readers to suspect that it may, in a great degree, exclude the former.

在你无尽的反思中,后者的主导地位应该会让仓促的读者怀疑它可能在很大程度上排除了前者。

But, among all your plausible arguments, and witty illustrations, your contempt for the poor always appears conspicuous, and rouses my indignation.

但是,在你所有的振聋发聩的论据和诙谐的例证中,你对穷人的蔑视总是显得很显眼,激起了我的愤慨。

The following paragraph in particular struck me, as breathing the most tyrannic spirit, and displaying the most factitious feelings.

尤其是下面这一段,呼吸着最霸道的气息,表现着最做作的感情。

‘Good order is the foundation of all good things.

“良好的秩序是一切美好事物的基础。

To be enabled to acquire, the people, without being servile, must be tractable and obedient.

为了能够获得财富,人民必须驯服和服从,而不是奴性。

The magistrate must have his reverence, the laws their authority.

法官必须受人尊敬,法律必须有权威。

The body of the people must not find the principles of natural subordination by art rooted out of their minds.

人民群众决不能发现艺术自然服从的原则从他们的头脑中根深蒂固。

They _must_ respect that property of which they _cannot_ partake.

他们_必须_尊重他们_不能_分享的财产。

_They must labour to obtain what by labour can be obtained; and when they find, as they commonly do, the success disproportioned to the endeavour, they must be taught their consolation in the final proportions of eternal justice._ Of this consolation, whoever deprives them, deadens their industry, and strikes at the root of all acquisition as of all conservation.

_他们必须劳动才能获得可以通过劳动获得的东西;当他们发现,正如他们通常所做的那样,成功与努力不成比例时,他们必须被教导以永恒正义的最终比例来获得安慰。无论谁剥夺了他们的这种安慰,都会削弱他们的勤奋,并打击所有获得和所有保存的根源。

He that does this, is the cruel oppressor, the merciless enemy, of the poor and wretched; at the same time that, by his wicked speculations, he exposes the fruits of successful industry, and the accumulations of fortune,’ (ah!

这样做的人就是穷人和不幸者的残酷压迫者、无情敌人。同时,通过他邪恶的投机,他暴露了成功勤奋的成果和财富的积累,”(啊!

there’s the rub) ‘to the plunder of the negligent, the disappointed, and the unprosperous[26].’

这就是问题所在)“对疏忽的人、失望的人和不富裕的人的掠夺[26]。”

This is contemptible hard-hearted sophistry, in the specious form of humility, and submission to the will of Heaven.—It is, Sir, _possible_ to render the poor happier in this world, without depriving them of the consolation which you gratuitously grant them in the next.

这是可鄙的、铁石心肠的诡辩,以似是而非的谦卑和服从天意的形式出现。——先生,有可能让穷人在这个世界上更加幸福,而不剥夺他们在来世无偿给予他们的安慰。

They have a right to more comfort than they at present enjoy; and more comfort might be afforded them, without encroaching on the pleasures of the rich: not now waiting to enquire whether the rich have any right to exclusive pleasures.

他们有权享受比现在更多的舒适;可以为他们提供更多的安慰,而不会侵犯富人的快乐:现在不必等待询问富人是否有权享受专有的快乐。

What do I say?—encroaching!

我该说什么?——侵犯!

No; if an intercourse were established between them, it would impart the only true pleasure that can be snatched in this land of shadows, this hard school of moral discipline.

不;如果他们之间建立了交流,这将带来在这片阴影之地、这所道德纪律严酷的学校中所能获得的唯一真正的快乐。

I know, indeed, that there is often something disgusting in the distresses of poverty, at which the imagination revolts, and starts back to exercise itself in the more attractive Arcadia of fiction.

事实上,我知道,贫穷的苦恼中常常有一些令人厌恶的东西,想象力会反抗,并开始在小说中更有吸引力的阿卡迪亚中发挥作用。

The rich man builds a house, art and taste give it the highest finish.

有钱人建造一座房子,艺术和品味赋予它最高的完成度。

His gardens are planted, and the trees grow to recreate the fancy of the planter, though the temperature of the climate may rather force him to avoid the dangerous damps they exhale, than seek the umbrageous retreat.

他的花园里种植着植物,树木的生长再现了种植者的幻想,尽管气候的温度可能会迫使他避开它们呼出的危险的湿气,而不是寻求令人讨厌的撤退。

Every thing on the estate is cherished but man;—yet, to contribute to the happiness of man, is the most sublime of all enjoyments.

庄园里的一切都受到珍惜,除了人;然而,为人类的幸福做出贡献,是所有享受中最崇高的。

But if, instead of sweeping pleasure-grounds, obelisks, temples, and elegant cottages, as _objects_ for the eye, the heart was allowed to beat true to nature, decent farms would be scattered over the estate, and plenty smile around.

但是,如果不再将游乐场、方尖碑、寺庙和优雅的小屋作为视觉对象,而让心灵忠于自然地跳动,体面的农场就会散布在庄园各处,周围也会有很多人微笑。

Instead of the poor being subject to the griping hand of an avaricious steward, they would be watched over with fatherly solicitude, by the man whose duty and pleasure it was to guard their happiness, and shield from rapacity the beings who, by the sweat of their brow, exalted him above his fellows.

穷人不再受到贪婪管家的紧握之手,而是被一个以父亲般的关怀看护着,这个人的责任和乐趣就是守护他们的幸福,并保护那些通过汗水把他抬高到同胞之上的人免遭贪婪。

I could almost imagine I see a man thus gathering blessings as he mounted the hill of life; or consolation, in those days when the spirits lag, and the tired heart finds no pleasure in them.

我几乎可以想象我看到一个人在登上生命之山时如此收集祝福;或安慰,在那些精神萎靡、疲惫的心在其中找不到乐趣的日子里。

It is not by squandering alms that the poor can be relieved, or improved—it is the fostering sun of kindness, the wisdom that finds them employments calculated to give them habits of virtue, that meliorates their condition.

穷人的救济和改善并不是通过挥霍施舍来实现的,而是仁慈的养育之阳,智慧为他们找到了精心设计的工作,培养了他们美德的习惯,改善了他们的处境。

Love is only the fruit of love; condescension and authority may produce the obedience you applaud; but he has lost his heart of flesh who can see a fellow-creature humbled before him, and trembling at the frown of a being, whose heart is supplied by the same vital current, and whose pride ought to be checked by a consciousness of having the same infirmities.

爱只是爱的果实;居高临下和权威可能会产生你所称赞的服从;但他已经失去了肉身的心,他能看到一个同类在他面前谦卑,并因一个人的皱眉而颤抖,而他的心由同样的生命之流供给,并且他的骄傲应该通过意识到自己有同样的软弱而受到遏制。

What salutary dews might not be shed to refresh this thirsty land, if men were more _enlightened_!

如果人们更加开明的话,可能不会洒下多么有益的露珠来滋润这片干渴的土地!

Smiles and premiums might encourage cleanliness, industry, and emulation.—A garden more inviting than Eden would then meet the eye, and springs of joy murmur on every side.

微笑和溢美之词可能会鼓励清洁、勤奋和竞争。——比伊甸园更诱人的花园随即映入眼帘,欢乐的泉水从四面八方涌出。

The clergyman would superintend his own flock, the shepherd would then love the sheep he daily tended; the school might rear its decent head, and the buzzing tribe, let loose to play, impart a portion of their vivacious spirits to the heart that longed to open their minds, and lead them to taste the pleasures of men.

牧师会看管自己的羊群,牧羊人也会爱他每天照料的羊群。学校可以昂首挺胸,喧闹的部落可以自由玩耍,将一部分活泼的精神传授给渴望开放的心灵,引导他们品尝人类的快乐。

Domestic comfort, the civilizing relations of husband, brother, and father, would soften labour, and render life contented.

家庭的舒适,丈夫、兄弟和父亲之间的文明关系,会减轻劳动强度,使生活感到满足。

Returning once from a despotic country to a part of England well cultivated, but not very picturesque—with what delight did I not observe the poor man’s garden!—The homely palings and twining woodbine, with all the rustic contrivances of simple, unlettered taste, was a sight which relieved the eye that had wandered indignant from the stately palace to the pestiferous hovel, and turned from the awful contrast into itself to mourn the fate of man, and curse the arts of civilization!

有一次,我从一个专制国家回到英格兰的一个耕种良好、风景如画的地方——我没有多么高兴地观察了这个穷人的花园!——朴素的栅栏和缠绕的苦藤,以及所有朴素、无知的趣味的乡村设计,这一景象缓解了那些愤怒地从庄严的宫殿到瘟疫肆虐的茅屋的眼睛,从可怕的对比转向自身,哀悼人类的命运,并诅咒文明的艺术!

Why cannot large estates be divided into small farms?

为什么大庄园不能分成小农场?

these dwellings would indeed grace our land.

这些住宅确实会给我们的土地增光添彩。

Why are huge forests still allowed to stretch out with idle pomp and all the indolence of Eastern grandeur?

为什么大片的森林仍然被允许以东方的壮丽和懒惰的方式伸展开来?

Why does the brown waste meet the traveller’s view, when men want work?

当男人想要工作时,为什么棕色废物符合旅行者的看法?

But commons cannot be enclosed without _acts of parliament_ to increase the property of the rich!

但是,如果没有_议会法案_来增加富人的财产,就不能封闭公地!

Why might not the industrious peasant be allowed to steal a farm from the heath?

为什么不可以允许勤劳的农民从荒原上偷走一块农场呢?

This sight I have seen;—the cow that supported the children grazed near the hut, and the cheerful poultry were fed by the chubby babes, who breathed a bracing air, far from the diseases and the vices of cities.

我见过这样的景象:养育孩子们的母牛在小屋附近吃草,快乐的家禽由胖乎乎的婴儿喂食,婴儿呼吸着令人振奋的空气,远离城市的疾病和罪恶。

Domination blasts all these prospects; virtue can only flourish amongst equals, and the man who submits to a fellow-creature, because it promotes his worldly interest, and he who relieves only because it is his duty to lay up a treasure in heaven, are much on a par, for both are radically degraded by the habits of their life.

统治摧毁了所有这些前景;美德只能在平等的人中盛行,而屈服于同胞的人,因为这会促进他的世俗利益,而他的救济只是因为他有责任在天上积攒财富,两者都是平等的,因为两者都因他们的生活习惯而彻底堕落。

In this great city, that proudly rears its head, and boasts of its population and commerce, how much misery lurks in pestilential corners, whilst idle mendicants assail, on every side, the man who hates to encourage importers, or repress, with angry frown, the plaints of the poor!

在这座骄傲地昂起头、夸耀其人口和商业的伟大城市里,在瘟疫的角落里潜伏着多少苦难,而游手好闲的乞丐则从四面八方攻击那些不愿鼓励进口商或愤怒地皱着眉头镇压穷人抱怨的人!

How many mechanics, by a flux of trade or fashion, lose their employment; whom misfortunes, not to be warded off, lead to the idleness that vitiates their character and renders them afterwards averse to honest labour!

有多少机械师因贸易或时尚的变化而失业;他们的不幸,如果无法避免,就会导致懒惰,从而损害他们的品格,并使他们日后厌恶诚实的劳动!

Where is the eye that marks these evils, more gigantic than any of the infringements of property, which you piously deprecate?

标记这些罪恶的眼睛在哪里,比你虔诚地反对的任何侵犯财产的行为还要巨大?

Are these remediless evils?

这些是无可救药的祸害吗?

And is the humane heart satisfied with turning the poor over to _another_ world, to receive the blessings this could afford?

仁慈的心是否满足于将穷人转移到另一个世界,接受由此带来的祝福?

If society was regulated on a more enlarged plan; if man was contented to be the friend of man, and did not seek to bury the sympathies of humanity in the servile appellation of master; if, turning his eyes from ideal regions of taste and elegance, he laboured to give the earth he inhabited all the beauty it is capable of receiving, and was ever on the watch to shed abroad all the happiness which human nature can enjoy;—he who, respecting the rights of men, wishes to convince or persuade society that this is true happiness and dignity, is not the cruel _oppressor_ of the poor, nor a short-sighted philosopher—HE fears God and loves his fellow-creatures.—Behold the whole duty of man!—the citizen who acts differently is a sophisticated being.

如果社会受到更广泛的计划的监管;如果人类满足于成为人类的朋友,而不是试图将人类的同情埋藏在主人的奴性称呼中;如果他把目光从品味和优雅的理想领域上移开,努力为他所居住的大地提供它所能接受的一切美丽,并时刻注意将人性所能享有的一切幸福传播出去;——一个尊重人的权利,希望让社会相信这是真正的幸福和尊严的人,不是穷人的残酷压迫者,也不是一个短视的哲学家——他敬畏上帝,热爱他的同胞。——看看这一切人的责任!——行为不同的公民是一个复杂的人。

Surveying civilized life, and seeing, with undazzled eye, the polished vices of the rich, their insincerity, want of natural affections, with all the specious train that luxury introduces, I have turned impatiently to the poor, to look for man undebauched by riches or power—but, alas!

纵观文明生活,我以盲目的眼光看到了富人的罪恶、他们的不真诚、缺乏自然的情感,以及奢侈所带来的一切似是而非的束缚,我不耐烦地转向穷人,寻找不为财富或权力所放荡的人——但是,唉!

what did I see?

我看到了什么?

a being scarcely above the brutes, over which he tyrannized; a broken spirit, worn-out body, and all those gross vices which the example of the rich, rudely copied, could produce.

他对野兽的暴虐程度与野兽相差无几。精神崩溃、身体疲惫,以及粗暴地效仿富人的榜样可能产生的所有这些严重恶习。

Envy built a wall of separation, that made the poor hate, whilst they bent to their superiors; who, on their part, stepped aside to avoid the loathsome sight of human misery.

嫉妒筑起一道隔离墙,使穷人产生仇恨,同时他们又屈从于上级;他们则退到一边,以避免看到人类苦难的可憎景象。

What were the outrages of a day[27] to these continual miseries?

对于这些持续不断的痛苦,一天[27]有什么暴行呢?

Let those sorrows hide their diminished head before the tremendous mountain of woe that thus defaces our globe!

让那些悲伤在如此玷污我们地球的巨大灾难面前隐藏他们已缩小的头吧!

Man preys on man; and you mourn for the idle tapestry that decorated a gothic pile, and the dronish bell that summoned the fat priest to prayer.

人捕食人;你会为装饰哥特式堆放的闲置挂毯和召唤胖牧师祈祷的嗡嗡声而哀悼。

You mourn for the empty pageant of a name, when slavery flaps her wing, and the sick heart retires to die in lonely wilds, far from the abodes of men.

当奴隶制扇动翅膀,病态的心在远离人类住所的孤独荒野中退休时,你会为一个空洞的名字而哀悼。

Did the pangs you felt for insulted nobility, the anguish that rent your heart when the gorgeous robes were torn off the idol human weakness had set up, deserve to be compared with the long-drawn sigh of melancholy reflection, when misery and vice are thus seen to haunt our steps, and swim on the top of every cheering prospect?

当你为受侮辱的贵族而感到的痛苦,当华丽的长袍被撕掉人类弱点所建立的偶像时撕裂你的心的痛苦,是否值得与忧郁反思的长叹息相比较,当痛苦和罪恶如此困扰我们的脚步,并在每一个欢呼的前景之上游泳时?

Why is our fancy to be appalled by terrific perspectives of a hell beyond the grave?—Hell stalks abroad;—the lash resounds on the slave’s naked sides; and the sick wretch, who can no longer earn the sour bread of unremitting labour, steals to a ditch to bid the world a long good night—or, neglected in some ostentatious hospital, breathes his last amidst the laugh of mercenary attendants.

为什么我们的想象会被坟墓之外的地狱的可怕景象所震惊?——地狱在国外蔓延;——鞭子在奴隶赤裸的身体上回响;——生病的可怜虫再也无法通过不懈的劳动赚取酸面包,于是偷偷溜到一条沟渠里,向世界道了一个漫长的晚安——或者,在某个豪华的医院里被忽视,在雇佣兵侍从的笑声中咽下最后一口气。

Such misery demands more than tears—I pause to recollect myself; and smother the contempt I feel rising for your rhetorical flourishes and infantine sensibility.

这种痛苦需要的不仅仅是眼泪——我停下来回忆自己;并压制我对你的华丽辞藻和幼稚情感的蔑视。

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Taking a retrospective view of my hasty answer, and casting a cursory glance over your _Reflections_, I perceive that I have not alluded to several reprehensible passages, in your elaborate work; which I marked for censure when I first perused it with a steady eye.

回顾一下我仓促的回答,并粗略地浏览一下你的《反思》,我发现我没有提到你精心设计的著作中的几段应受谴责的段落;当我第一次仔细阅读它时,我将其标记为谴责。

And now I find it almost impossible candidly to refute your sophisms, without quoting your own words, and putting the numerous contradictions I observed in opposition to each other.

现在我发现,如果不引用你自己的话,并把我观察到的众多矛盾相互对立起来,就几乎不可能坦率地反驳你的诡辩。

This would be an effectual refutation; but, after such a tedious drudgery, I fear I should only be read by the patient eye that scarcely wanted my assistance to detect the flagrant errors.

这将是一个有效的反驳;但是,在经历了如此乏味的苦差事之后,我担心只有耐心的眼睛才能阅读我的内容,他们几乎不需要我的帮助来发现明显的错误。

It would be a tedious process to shew, that often the most just and forcible illustrations are warped to colour over opinions _you_ must _sometimes_ have secretly despised; or, at least, have discovered, that what you asserted without limitation, required the greatest.

这将是一个乏味的过程,要表明,最公正和最有说服力的插图往往会被扭曲,掩盖你有时必须暗自鄙视的观点;或者,至少,已经发现,你所断言的无限制,需要最大的。

Some subjects of exaggeration may have been superficially viewed; depth of judgment is, perhaps, incompatible with the predominant features of your mind.

一些夸张的主题可能是被肤浅地看待的;判断的深度也许与你头脑的主要特征不相容。

Your reason may have often been the dupe of your imagination; but say, did you not sometimes angrily bid her be still, when she whispered that you were departing from strict truth?

你的理性可能常常被你的想象力所欺骗;但是你说,当她低声说你背离了严格的真理时,你不是有时会愤怒地叫她安静吗?

Or, when assuming the awful form of conscience, and only smiling at the vagaries of vanity, did she not austerely bid you recollect your own errors, before you lifted the avenging stone?

或者,当她表现出可怕的良心,只对变幻无常的虚荣心微笑时,在你举起复仇之石之前,她没有严厉地要求你回忆起自己的错误吗?

Did she not sometimes wave her hand, when you poured forth a torrent of shining sentences, and beseech you to concatenate them—plainly telling you that the impassioned eloquence of the heart was calculated rather to affect than dazzle the reader, whom it hurried along to conviction?

当你滔滔不绝地说出一连串闪亮的句子时,她不是有时会挥挥手,恳求你把它们连起来——直截了当地告诉你,内心的慷慨激昂的雄辩是为了感动读者,而不是让读者眼花缭乱,让读者信服吗?

Did she not anticipate the remark of the wise, who drink not at a shallow sparkling dream, and tell you that they would discover when, with the dignity of sincerity, you supported an opinion that only appeared to you with one face; or, when superannuated vanity made you torture your invention?—But I forbear.

难道她没有预见到智者的言论吗?智者不会在浅薄的闪闪发光的梦想中喝酒,并告诉你,他们会发现,当你带着真诚的尊严,支持一种只在你脸上出现的观点时;或者,当过时的虚荣心让你折磨你的发明时?——但我忍住了。

I have before animadverted on our method of electing representatives, convinced that it debauches both the morals of the people and the candidates, without rendering the member really responsible, or attached to his constituents; but, amongst your other contradictions, you blame the National Assembly for expecting any exertions from the servile principle of responsibility, and afterwards insult them for not rendering themselves responsible.

我以前曾对我们选举代表的方法提出过批评,认为它败坏了人民和候选人的道德,却没有使议员真正负责,或依附于他的选民;但是,除了你的其他矛盾之外,你指责国民议会期待任何责任奴役原则的发挥,然后又侮辱他们不承担责任。

Whether the one the French have adopted will answer the purpose better, and be more than a shadow of representation, time only can shew.

法国所采用的这一方案是否能更好地满足这一目标,并且不仅仅是一个代表的影子,只有时间才能证明。

In theory it appears more promising.

从理论上讲,它似乎更有前途。

Your real or artificial affection for the English constitution seems to me to resemble the brutal affection of some weak characters.

在我看来,你对英国宪法的真实或虚假的感情就像某些软弱人物的残酷感情。

They think it a duty to love their relations with a blind, indolent tenderness, that _will not_ see the faults it might assist to correct, if their affection had been built on rational grounds.

他们认为,以一种盲目的、懒惰的温柔来爱他们的关系是一种责任,如果他们的感情是建立在理性的基础上的话,他们就不会看到它可能有助于纠正的错误。

They love they know not why, and they will love to the end of the chapter.

他们不知道为什么会爱,但他们会爱到这一章的结尾。

Is it absolute blasphemy to doubt of the omnipotence of the law, or to suppose that religion might be more pure if there were fewer baits for hypocrites in the church?

怀疑法律的万能性,或者认为如果教会中伪善者的诱饵减少,宗教可能会更加纯洁,这是否绝对是亵渎?

But our manners, you tell us, are drawn from the French, though you had before celebrated our native plainness[28].

但你告诉我们,我们的举止是从法国人那里学来的,尽管你之前曾赞扬过我们本土的朴素[28]。

If they were, it is time we broke loose from dependence——Time that Englishmen drew water from their own springs; for, if manners are not a painted substitute for morals, we have only to cultivate our reason, and we shall not feel the want of an arbitrary model.

如果是的话,我们就该摆脱依赖了——英国人从自己的泉水中取水的时候了;因为,如果礼仪不是道德的虚假替代品,我们只需培养我们的理性,我们就不会感到缺乏任意的模式。

Nature will suffice; but I forget myself:—Nature and Reason, according to your system, are all to give place to authority; and the gods, as Shakespeare makes a frantic wretch exclaim, seem to kill us for their sport, as men do flies.

自然就足够了;但我忘记了自己:——根据你们的体系,自然和理性都将让位于权威;正如莎士比亚笔下的一个疯狂的可怜虫所惊呼的那样,众神似乎为了他们的消遣而杀死了我们,就像人类杀死苍蝇一样。

Before I conclude my cursory remarks, it is but just to acknowledge that I coincide with you in your opinion respecting the _sincerity_ of many modern philosophers.

在我结束我的粗略评论之前,我只是想承认,在尊重许多现代哲学家的_真诚_方面,我与你的观点一致。

Your consistency in avowing a veneration for rank and riches deserves praise; but I must own that I have often indignantly observed that some of the _enlightened_ philosophers, who talk most vehemently of the native rights of men, borrow many noble sentiments to adorn their conversation, which have no influence on their conduct.

你对地位和财富的一贯尊崇值得赞扬;但我必须承认,我经常愤怒地观察到,一些开明的哲学家,他们最激烈地谈论人类的天赋权利,却借用了许多高尚的情感来装饰他们的谈话,而这些情感对他们的行为没有任何影响。

They bow down to rank, and are careful to secure property; for virtue, without this adventitious drapery, is seldom very respectable in their eyes—nor are they very quick-sighted to discern real dignity of character when no sounding name exalts the man above his fellows.—But neither open enmity nor hollow homage destroys the intrinsic value of those principles which rest on an eternal foundation, and revert for a standard to the immutable attributes of God.

他们屈服于等级,并小心翼翼地保护财产;因为,如果没有这种偶然的外衣,美德在他们眼中很少是受人尊敬的——当没有任何一个响亮的名字使一个人高于他的同伴时,他们也没有敏锐的洞察力来辨别真正的品格尊严。——但是,无论是公开的敌意还是空洞的敬意,都不会破坏那些建立在永恒基础上的原则的内在价值,并恢复为上帝不变属性的标准。

THE END.

结束。

-----

-----

Footnote 1:

脚注1:

As religion is included in my idea of morality, I should not have mentioned the term without specifying all the simple ideas which that comprehensive word generalizes; but as the charge of atheism has been very freely banded about in the letter I am considering, I wish to guard against misrepresentation.

由于宗教包含在我的道德观念中,因此在没有具体说明这个综合词所概括的所有简单思想的情况下,我不应该提及这个词。但由于我正在考虑的信中已经非常随意地提出了无神论的指控,因此我希望防止歪曲事实。

Footnote 2:

脚注2:

See Mr. Burke’s Bills for œconomical reform.

请参阅伯克先生的“经济改革法案”。

Footnote 3:

脚注3:

Page 15.

第 15 页。

Footnote 4:

脚注4:

‘The doctrine of _hereditary_ right does by no means imply an _indefeasible_ right to the throne.

“世袭权的学说绝不意味着王位的权利是不可剥夺的。”

No man will, I think, assert this, that has considered our laws, constitution, and history, without prejudice, and with any degree of attention.

我认为,没有人会在没有偏见和任何程度的关注的情况下断言这一点,考虑过我们的法律、宪法和历史。

It is unquestionably in the breast of the supreme legislative authority of this kingdom, the King and both Houses of Parliament, to defeat this hereditary right; and, by particular entails, limitations, and provisions, to exclude the immediate heir, and vest the inheritance in any one else.

毫无疑问,这个王国的最高立法权——国王和议会两院——有能力推翻这种世袭权利;并且,特别需要限制和规定,排除直接继承人,并将继承权授予任何其他人。

This is strictly consonant to our laws and constitution; as may be gathered from the expression so frequently used in our statute books, of “the King’s Majesty, his heirs, and successors.” In which we may observe that, as the word “heirs” necessarily implies an inheritance, or hereditary right, generally subsisting in “the royal person;” so the word successors, distinctly taken, must imply that this inheritance may sometimes be broken through; or, that there may be a successor, without being the heir of the king.’

这严格符合我们的法律和宪法;正如我们的法典中经常使用的“国王陛下、他的继承人和继任者”的表达方式所得出的那样。其中我们可以观察到,“继承人”一词必然意味着继承权或世袭权,通常存在于“王室成员”中;因此,“继承者”一词,明确地理解,必定意味着这种继承有时可能会被打破。或者,可能有一个继承人,但不是国王的继承人。

I shall not, however, rest in something like a subterfuge, and quote, as partially as you have done, from Aristotle.

然而,我不会像你一样部分地引用亚里士多德的托辞之类的东西。

Blackstone has so cautiously fenced round his opinion with provisos, that it is obvious he thought the letter of the law leaned towards your side of the question—but a blind respect for the law is not a part of my creed.

布莱克斯通如此谨慎地回避了自己的观点,并附上了附带条件,很明显,他认为法律条文倾向于你这一方的问题——但盲目尊重法律并不是我信条的一部分。

Footnote 5:

脚注5:

Page 113.

第 113 页。

Footnote 6:

脚注 6:

As you ironically observe, p.

正如您讽刺地观察到的那样,p。

114.

114.

Footnote 7:

脚注7:

In July, when he first submitted to his people; and not the mobbing triumphal catastrophe in October, which you chose, to give full scope to your declamatory powers.

七月,他第一次臣服于他的人民;而不是你选择的十月的暴动胜利灾难,以充分发挥你的演讲能力。

Footnote 8:

脚注8:

This quotation is not marked with inverted commas, because it is not exact.

这段引文没有用引号标记,因为它不准确。

P.

P。

11.

11.

Footnote 9:

脚注9:

Page 106.

第 106 页。

Footnote 10:

脚注10:

I do not now mean to discuss the intricate subject of their mortality; reason may, perhaps, be given to them in the next stage of existence, if they are to mount in the scale of life, like men, by the medium of death.

我现在不想讨论他们的死亡这个复杂的话题;如果他们要像人一样通过死亡来提升生命的层次,也许他们在下一阶段就会被赋予理性。

Footnote 11:

脚注11:

Page 128.

第 128 页。

Footnote 12:

脚注12:

Page 129.

第 129 页。

Footnote 13:

脚注13:

_Vide_ Reflections, p.

_视频_ 反思,第 14 页

128.

128.

“We fear God; we look up with _awe_ to kings; with _affection_ to parliaments; with _duty_ to magistrates; with _reverence_ to priests; and with _respect_ to nobility.”

“我们敬畏上帝;我们对国王怀着敬畏之情;对议会怀着热爱;对地方法官怀着责任;对牧师怀着崇敬之情;对贵族怀着敬意。”

Footnote 14:

脚注 14:

Page 137.

第 137 页。

Footnote 15:

脚注 15:

‘When the people have emptied themselves of all the lust of selfish will, which without religion it is utterly impossible they ever should; when they are conscious that they exercise, and exercise perhaps in an higher link of the order of delegation, the power, which to be legitimate must be according to that eternal immutable law, in which will and reason are the same, they will be more careful how they place power in base and incapable hands.

‘当人们清空了所有自私意志的欲望时,如果没有宗教,他们就完全不可能做到这一点;当他们意识到他们所行使的权力,或许是在授权顺序的更高一环中行使的权力时,权力的合法性必须符合永恒不变的法律,在这条法律中,意志和理性是相同的,他们会更加小心地把权力交给卑鄙无能的人。

In their nomination to office, they will not appoint to the exercise of authority as to a pitiful job, but as to an holy function; not according to their sordid selfish interest, nor to their wanton caprice, nor to their arbitrary will; but they will confer that power (which any man may well tremble to give or to receive) on those only, in whom they may discern that predominant proportion of active virtue and wisdom, taken together and fitted to the charge, such, as in the great and inevitable mixed mass of human imperfections and infirmities, is to be found.’ P.

在提名担任公职时,他们不会指定行使权力作为一项可怜的工作,而是指定一项神圣的职能;不为他们卑鄙的自私利益所左右,不为他们的任意妄想所左右,更不为他们的任意意志所左右。但他们只会将这种权力(任何人都可能会颤抖地给予或接受)授予那些他们可以看出积极美德和智慧的主要部分的人,这些人综合起来并适合于指控,就像在人类的缺陷和软弱的巨大而不可避免的混合体中一样,是可以找到的。

140.

140.

Footnote 16:

脚注 16:

Page 140.

第 140 页。

Footnote 17:

脚注 17:

Page 148.

第 148 页。

Footnote 18:

脚注18:

Page 51.

第 51 页。

‘If the last generations of your country appeared without much lustre in your eyes, you might have passed them by, and derived your claims from a more early race of ancestors.

“如果你们国家的最后几代人在你们眼中没有多少光彩,那么你们可能已经超越了他们,并从更早期的祖先种族那里获得了你们的主张。

Under a pious predilection to those ancestors, your imaginations would have realized in them a standard of virtue and wisdom, beyond the vulgar practice of the hour: and you would have risen with the example to whose imitation you aspired.

在对这些祖先的虔诚偏爱下,你的想象力会在他们身上实现一种美德和智慧的标准,超越当时的庸俗做法:你会以你渴望效仿的榜样而崛起。

Respecting your forefathers, you would have been taught to respect yourselves.’

尊重你的祖先,你就会被教导要尊重自己。

Footnote 19:

脚注19:

Page 53.

第 53 页。

‘If diffident of yourselves, and not clearly discerning the almost obliterated constitution of your ancestors, you had looked to your neighbours in this land, who had kept alive the ancient principles and models of the old common law of Europe meliorated and adapted to its present state—by following wise examples you would have given new examples of wisdom to the world.’

“如果你们对自己缺乏信心,并且没有清楚地认识到你们祖先几乎被抹杀的宪法,你们就会向这片土地上你们的邻居们寻求帮助,他们使欧洲旧普通法的古老原则和模式得以改进并适应其目前的状态——通过遵循明智的榜样,你们将为世界提供新的智慧榜样。”

Footnote 20:

脚注20:

Page 49.

第 49 页。

‘Always acting as if in the presence of canonized forefathers, the spirit of freedom, leading in itself to misrule and excess, is tempered with an awful gravity.

“自由精神总是表现得好像在被封圣的祖先面前一样,它本身会导致暴政和过度行为,受到可怕的严重性的影响。

This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction!’

这种自由血统的观念激发了我们一种习惯性的本土尊严感,这可以防止暴发户的傲慢几乎不可避免地依附和羞辱那些首先获得任何荣誉的人!

Footnote 21:

脚注21:

Page 6.

第 6 页。

‘Being a citizen of a particular state, and bound up in a considerable degree, by its _public will_,’ &c.

“作为一个特定国家的公民,并在很大程度上受到其_公共意志_的约束,”等等。

Footnote 22:

脚注 22:

Page 11.

第 11 页。

‘It looks to me as if I were in a great crisis, not of the affairs of France alone but of all Europe, perhaps of more than Europe.

“在我看来,我似乎陷入了一场巨大的危机,不仅仅是法国的事务,而是整个欧洲的事务,也许不仅仅是欧洲。

All circumstances taken together, the French revolution is the most astonishing that has hitherto happened in the world.’

综合所有情况来看,法国大革命是迄今为止世界上发生的最令人震惊的革命。”

Footnote 23:

脚注 23:

Page 50.

第 50 页。

‘We procure reverence to our civil institutions on the principle upon which nature teaches us to revere individual men; on account of their age; and on account of those from whom they are descended.

“我们根据自然教导我们尊重个人的原则来获得对我们的公民机构的尊重;由于他们的年龄;并为了他们的后裔。

All your sophisters cannot produce any thing better adapted to preserve a rational and manly freedom than the course that we have pursued; who have chosen our nature rather than our speculations, our breasts rather than our inventions, for the great conservatories and magazines of our rights and privileges.’

你们所有的诡辩家都无法提出比我们所奉行的方针更适合维护理性和男子气概的自由的东西。他们选择了我们的本性而不是我们的投机,我们的胸部而不是我们的发明,为我们的权利和特权的伟大的音乐学院和杂志。

Footnote 24:

脚注 24:

_Vide_ Page 210.

_视频_第 210 页。

Footnote 25:

脚注 25:

‘When men are encouraged to go into a certain mode of life by the existing laws, and protected in that mode as in a lawful occupation—when they have accommodated _all their ideas, and all their habits to it_,’ &c.—‘I am sure it is unjust in legislature, by an arbitrary act, to offer a sudden violence to their minds and their feelings; forcibly to degrade them from their state and condition, and to stigmatize with shame and infamy that character and those customs which before had been made the measure of their happiness.’ Page 230.

“当现有法律鼓励人们进入某种生活方式,并在这种生活方式中像从事合法职业一样受到保护时——当他们将自己所有的想法和所有习惯都融入其中时,”等等——“我确信立法机关通过武断的行为对他们的思想和感情施加突然的暴力是不公正的;”强行贬低他们的地位和条件,并用羞耻和耻辱来羞辱他们的品格和那些以前被视为衡量他们幸福的习俗。”第230页。

Footnote 26:

脚注26:

Page 351.

第 351 页。

Footnote 27:

脚注 27:

The 6th of October.

10 月 6 日。

Footnote 28:

脚注 28:

Page 118.

第 118 页。

‘It is not clear, whether in England we learned those grand and decorous principles, and manners, of which considerable traces yet remain, from you, or whether you took them from us.

“不清楚的是,我们在英国是否从您那里学到了那些至今仍留有大量痕迹的宏伟而高雅的原则和礼仪,或者是否是您从我们那里学到的。

But to you, I think, we trace them best.

但我认为,对你来说,我们最好地追踪它们。

You seem to me to be—_gentis incunabula nostræ_.

在我看来,你是——_gentis incunabula nostræ_。

France has always more or less influenced manners in England; and when your fountain is choaked up and polluted, the stream will not run long, or not run clear with us, or perhaps with any nation.

法国总是或多或少地影响着英国的礼仪。当你的泉水被堵塞和污染时,溪流就不会流很久,或者不会流干净,对我们来说,也许对任何国家来说。

This gives all Europe, in my opinion, but too close and connected a concern in what is done in France.’

在我看来,这让整个欧洲都对法国的所作所为感到担忧,但这种担忧过于密切和相关。

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

抄写员的笔记

1.

1.

P.

P。

92, changed “very prejudies” to “very prejudices”.

92、将“非常偏见”改为“非常偏见”。

2.

2.

P.

P。

114, changed “quaities” to “qualities”.

114、将“品质”改为“品质”。

3.

3.

P.

P。

126, changed “triumphant villany” to “triumphant villainy”.

126、将“胜利的邪恶”改为“胜利的邪恶”。

4.

4.

Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.

默默地纠正印刷错误和拼写变化。

5.

5.

Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.

过时的、非标准的和不确定的拼写保留为印刷形式。

6.

6.

Footnotes were re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter.

脚注使用数字重新索引,并在最后一章末尾收集在一起。

7.

7.

Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.

_下划线_中包含斜体字体。

中文为机器翻译,仅供参考。