Chapter Two VIEWS OF MANKIND II. Earthbound Page 23
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第二章 關於人類的觀念 二 與塵世結不解緣 見比賽原文第二十三頁
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The situation then is this: man wants to live, but he still must live upon this earth. All questions of living in heaven must be brushed aside. Let not the spirit take wings and soar to the abode of the gods and forget the earth. Are we not mortals, condemned to die? The span of life vouchsafed us, threescore and ten, is short enough, if the spirit gets too haughty and wants to live forever, but on the other hand, it is also long enough, if the spirit is a little humble. One can learn such a lot and enjoy such a lot in seventy years, and three generations is a long, long time to see human follies and acquire human wisdom. Anyone who is wise and has lived long enough to witness the changes of fashion and morals and politics through the rise and fall of three generations should be perfectly satisfied to rise from his seat and go away saying, "It was a good show" when the curtain falls.
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1. 是以人類若要生活,仍鬚生活在此塵世間;要拋開生活在極樂世界的諸類問題。人類的心神喲!毋張開翅膀,飛到天神之所,而忘卻塵世呀!難道我們不都是凡人,可免於死亡?上天賜予吾等七十年壽命,倘若吾等心志倨傲不遜,想要永生不死,這七十年,確是很短促的,然而稍為謙遜些,那就足夠長了。一個人在七十年可以學習體驗到很多東西;三代人的時間亦令其成為智者,看透愚昧。智者若足夠長壽,在此興衰沉浮中,見證了道德風俗及政局變遷,待他人生舞臺閉幕之時,絕對會心滿意足地起身而立,道一聲“這是出好戲”而走開吧。
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For we are of the earth, earth-born and earth-bound. There is nothing to be unhappy about the fact that we are, as it were, delivered upon this beautiful earth as its transient guests. Even if it were a dark dungeon, we still would have to make the best of it; it would be ungrateful of us not to do so when we have, instead of a dungeon, such a beautiful earth to live on for a good part of a century. Sometimes we get too ambitious and disdain the humble and yet generous earth. Yet a sentiment for this Mother Earth, a feeling of true affection and attachment, one must have for this temporary abode of our body and spirit, if we are to have a sense of spiritual harmony.
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2. 我們屬於這塵世,生在其間又歸於塵土。大家都不否認:在這美麗的塵世上,似乎我們皆是過客。即使這塵世是個黑暗地牢,我們仍會儘量生活美滿;何況我們並非住在地牢裡,而是在這個美麗的塵世,要過大半個世紀的生活,倘若生活得不美滿,那就是不領情了。有時我們過於野心勃勃,蔑視這低卑卻慷慨的塵世。可是我們若要精神澄明和諧,對於大地母親就須有種柔情,對於這個身心的寄居之所須誠摯地依戀。
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We have to have, therefore, a kind of animal skepticism as well as animal faith, taking this earthly life largely as it is. And we have to retain the wholeness of nature that we see in Thoreau who felt himself kin to the sod and partook largely of its dull patience, in winter expecting the sun of spring, who in his cheapest moments was apt to think that it was not his business to be "seeking the spirit", but as much the spirit's business to seek him, and whose happiness, as he described it, was a good deal like that of the woodchucks. The earth, after all is real, as the heaven is unreal: how fortunate is man that he is born between the real earth and the unreal heaven!
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因此我們須有種動物性的信仰及懷疑精神,把這塵世當做滾滾紅塵來看。梭羅(Thoreau,美國十九世紀作家和自然主義者)覺得自己和草皮屬同族,同樣堅忍,冬日裡期盼著春日來臨,百無聊賴之際,不免想到尋求神靈不是分內之事,而應由神靈來尋覓自己;依他的說法,其快樂也不過如同土撥鼠的那般。梭羅體現的自然完整性是我們應該保持的。塵世到底真實,天堂終究飄渺,人類生在這真實的塵世和飄渺的天堂之間,何之有幸!
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Any good practical philosophy must start out with the recognition of our having a body. It is high time that some among us made the straight admission that we are animals, an admission which is inevitable since the establishment of the basic truth of the Darwinian theory and the great progress of biology, especially bio-chemistry. It was very unfortunate that our teachers and philosophers belonged to the so-called intellectual class, with a characteristic professional pride of intellect. The men of the spirit were as proud of the spirit as the shoemaker is proud of leather. Sometimes even the spirit was not sufficiently remote and abstract and they had to use the words, "essence" or "soul" or "idea," writing them with capital letters to frighten us. The human body was distilled in this scholastic machine into a spirit, and the spirit was further concentrated into a kind of essence, forgetting that even alcoholic drinks must have a "body" --- mixed with plain water --- if they are to be palatable at all. And we poor laymen were supposed to drink that concentrated quintessence of spirit. This over-emphasis on the spirit was fatal. It made us war with our natural instincts, and my chief criticism is that it made a whole and rounded view of human nature impossible. It proceeded also from an inadequate knowledge of biology and psychology, and of the place of the senses, emotions and, above all, instincts in our life. Man is made of flesh and spirit both, and it should be philosophy's business to see that the mind and body live harmoniously together, that there be a reconciliation between the two.
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4. 凡經世致用之哲理,必承認我們擁有身體這個實體。自達爾文進化論基本真理成立以來,自從生物學,尤其是生物化學,取得極大進步之後,我們中的一部分人就該坦白地承認“我們是動物”,也是必然的,如今正當其時。不幸我們的教師和哲學家都屬所謂的知識份子階層,對才智秉持特有的、職業性的自負,致力於精神的人以精神為榮,一如皮鞋匠以皮革為傲。有時他們連“性靈”都覺得不夠飄乎抽象,只能借助“精粹” “靈魂”或“觀念”一類的詞字,並用大寫字體標示來嚇唬我們。人類身體便在這學術機器中,蒸餾成精神,隨後漸凝聚成一種精粹之物;卻忘了即使是酒也須有“實體”——和淡水混合起來——才能味美適口。然而吾等可憐的外行人卻覺得應該飲此精神所凝聚的精華。這種過分著重精神的態度是有害的。它使我們和自身的自然本能搏鬥,它無法促成吾等天性之融通圓一,這是我批評它的主要論據。同時我們對生物學和心理學知識的欠缺,對感官、情感,最重要的是本能所占生命裡的地位認知不足,都使此態度得以繼續。人類由靈與肉鑄成,哲學家之職責在於使身心和諧,二者統一。
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