Of Truth
談?wù)胬?BR> Francis Bacon
王佐良 譯
WHAT is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them, as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labor, which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural, though corrupt love, of the lie itself. One of the later school of the Grecians, examineth the matter, and is at a stand, to think what should be in it, that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell; this same truth, is a naked, and open day-light, that doth not show the masks, and mummeries, and triumphs, of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond, or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds, of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves? One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum daemonum, because it fireth the imagination; and yet, it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt; such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved judgments, and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last, was the light of reason; and his sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First he breathed light, upon the face of the matter or chaos; then he breathed light, into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light, into the face of his chosen. The poet, that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure, to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure, to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below; so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling, or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.
真理何物？皮拉多笑而問曰，未待人答，不顧而去。確有見異思遷之徒，以持見不變?yōu)槭`，而標(biāo)榜思想與行動之自由意志。先哲一派曾持此見，雖已逝去，尚有二三散漫書生依附舊說，唯精力已大不如古人矣。固然，真理費(fèi)力難求，求得之后不免限制思想，唯人之愛偽非坐此一因，蓋由其天性中原有愛偽之劣念耳。希臘晚期學(xué)人審問此事，不解人為何喜愛偽說，既不能從中得樂，如詩人然，又不能從中獲利，如商人然，則唯有愛偽之本體而已。余亦難言究竟，唯思真理猶如白日無遮之光，直照人世之歌舞慶典，不如燭光掩映，反能顯其堂皇之美。真理之價，有似珍珠，白晝最見其長，而不如鉆石，弱光始露其妙。言中有偽，常能更增其趣。蓋人心如盡去其空論、妄念、誤斷、怪想，則僅余一萎縮之囊，囊中盡裝怨聲呻吟之類，本人見之亦不樂矣！事實如此，誰復(fù)疑之？昔有長老厲責(zé)詩歌，稱之為魔鬼之酒，即因其擴(kuò)展幻想，實則僅得偽之一影耳。為害最烈者并非飄略人心之偽，而系滯留人心之偽，前已言及。然不論人在墮落時有幾許誤斷妄念，真理仍為人性之至善。蓋真理者，唯真理始能判之，其所教者為求真理，即對之愛慕；為知真理，即得之于心；為信真理，即用之為樂。上帝創(chuàng)世時首創(chuàng)感覺之光，末創(chuàng)理智之光，此后安息而顯圣靈。先以光照物質(zhì)，分別混沌；次以光照人面，對其所選之人面更常耀不滅。古有詩人①信非崇高，言則美善，曾有妙語云： “立岸上見浪催船行，一樂也；立城堡孔后看戰(zhàn)斗進(jìn)退，一樂也；然皆不足以比身居真理高地之樂也；真理之峰高不可及，可吸純潔之氣，可瞰谷下側(cè)行、瞭徨、迷霧、風(fēng)暴之變”。景象如此，但須臨之以憐世之心，而不可妄自尊大也。人心果能行愛心，安天命，運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)于真理之軸上，誠為世上天國矣。
To pass from theological, and philosophical truth, to the truth of civil business; it will be acknowledged, even by those that practise it not, that clear, and round dealing, is the honor of man's nature; and that mixture of falsehoods, is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. For these winding, and crooked courses, are the goings of the serpent; which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice, that doth so cover a man with shame, as to be found false and perfidious. And therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge? Saith he, If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man. Surely the wickedness of falsehood, and breach of faith, cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal, to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men; it being foretold, that when Christ cometh, he shall not find faith upon the earth.
如自神學(xué)哲學(xué)之真理轉(zhuǎn)論社會事務(wù)，則人無論遵守與否，皆識一點，即公開正直之行為人性之榮，如摻偽則如金銀幣中摻雜，用時縱然方便，其值大貶矣。蓋此類歪斜之行唯毒蛇始為，其因無公行之足，唯有暗爬之腹也。惡行之中，令人蒙羞者莫過于虛偽背信。謊言之為奇恥大辱也，蒙田探究真理，曾云：“如深究此事，指人說謊猶言此人對上帝勇而對人怯也，蓋說謊者敢于面對上帝，而畏避世人”。②善哉此言。虛偽背信之惡，最有力之指責(zé)莫過于稱之為向上帝鳴最后警鐘，請來裁判無數(shù)世代之人，蓋圣經(jīng)早已預(yù)言，基督降世時，“世上已無信義可言矣”。③
①指魯克利修斯，屬伊壁鳩魯派，即所謂享樂主義派。
②《蒙田散文集》2.18。
③《路加福音》18.8。
談?wù)胬?BR> Francis Bacon
王佐良 譯
WHAT is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them, as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labor, which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural, though corrupt love, of the lie itself. One of the later school of the Grecians, examineth the matter, and is at a stand, to think what should be in it, that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell; this same truth, is a naked, and open day-light, that doth not show the masks, and mummeries, and triumphs, of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond, or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds, of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves? One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum daemonum, because it fireth the imagination; and yet, it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt; such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved judgments, and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last, was the light of reason; and his sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First he breathed light, upon the face of the matter or chaos; then he breathed light, into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light, into the face of his chosen. The poet, that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure, to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure, to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below; so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling, or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.
真理何物？皮拉多笑而問曰，未待人答，不顧而去。確有見異思遷之徒，以持見不變?yōu)槭`，而標(biāo)榜思想與行動之自由意志。先哲一派曾持此見，雖已逝去，尚有二三散漫書生依附舊說，唯精力已大不如古人矣。固然，真理費(fèi)力難求，求得之后不免限制思想，唯人之愛偽非坐此一因，蓋由其天性中原有愛偽之劣念耳。希臘晚期學(xué)人審問此事，不解人為何喜愛偽說，既不能從中得樂，如詩人然，又不能從中獲利，如商人然，則唯有愛偽之本體而已。余亦難言究竟，唯思真理猶如白日無遮之光，直照人世之歌舞慶典，不如燭光掩映，反能顯其堂皇之美。真理之價，有似珍珠，白晝最見其長，而不如鉆石，弱光始露其妙。言中有偽，常能更增其趣。蓋人心如盡去其空論、妄念、誤斷、怪想，則僅余一萎縮之囊，囊中盡裝怨聲呻吟之類，本人見之亦不樂矣！事實如此，誰復(fù)疑之？昔有長老厲責(zé)詩歌，稱之為魔鬼之酒，即因其擴(kuò)展幻想，實則僅得偽之一影耳。為害最烈者并非飄略人心之偽，而系滯留人心之偽，前已言及。然不論人在墮落時有幾許誤斷妄念，真理仍為人性之至善。蓋真理者，唯真理始能判之，其所教者為求真理，即對之愛慕；為知真理，即得之于心；為信真理，即用之為樂。上帝創(chuàng)世時首創(chuàng)感覺之光，末創(chuàng)理智之光，此后安息而顯圣靈。先以光照物質(zhì)，分別混沌；次以光照人面，對其所選之人面更常耀不滅。古有詩人①信非崇高，言則美善，曾有妙語云： “立岸上見浪催船行，一樂也；立城堡孔后看戰(zhàn)斗進(jìn)退，一樂也；然皆不足以比身居真理高地之樂也；真理之峰高不可及，可吸純潔之氣，可瞰谷下側(cè)行、瞭徨、迷霧、風(fēng)暴之變”。景象如此，但須臨之以憐世之心，而不可妄自尊大也。人心果能行愛心，安天命，運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)于真理之軸上，誠為世上天國矣。
To pass from theological, and philosophical truth, to the truth of civil business; it will be acknowledged, even by those that practise it not, that clear, and round dealing, is the honor of man's nature; and that mixture of falsehoods, is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. For these winding, and crooked courses, are the goings of the serpent; which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice, that doth so cover a man with shame, as to be found false and perfidious. And therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge? Saith he, If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man. Surely the wickedness of falsehood, and breach of faith, cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal, to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men; it being foretold, that when Christ cometh, he shall not find faith upon the earth.
如自神學(xué)哲學(xué)之真理轉(zhuǎn)論社會事務(wù)，則人無論遵守與否，皆識一點，即公開正直之行為人性之榮，如摻偽則如金銀幣中摻雜，用時縱然方便，其值大貶矣。蓋此類歪斜之行唯毒蛇始為，其因無公行之足，唯有暗爬之腹也。惡行之中，令人蒙羞者莫過于虛偽背信。謊言之為奇恥大辱也，蒙田探究真理，曾云：“如深究此事，指人說謊猶言此人對上帝勇而對人怯也，蓋說謊者敢于面對上帝，而畏避世人”。②善哉此言。虛偽背信之惡，最有力之指責(zé)莫過于稱之為向上帝鳴最后警鐘，請來裁判無數(shù)世代之人，蓋圣經(jīng)早已預(yù)言，基督降世時，“世上已無信義可言矣”。③
①指魯克利修斯，屬伊壁鳩魯派，即所謂享樂主義派。
②《蒙田散文集》2.18。
③《路加福音》18.8。