花间书斋
成功之门原来虚掩着
第三篇
论幸运与不幸对人们判断行为是否得体的能力之作用；何以有时容易被认可，有时则不易
。
Chap. I
第一章
1．
That though our sympathy with sorrow is generally a more lively
sensation than our sympathy with joy, it commonly falls much more
short of the violence of what is naturally felt by the person
principally concerned
同给予快乐的同情相比，我们给予悲痛的同情一般来讲是一种十分强烈的感情，但在当事人的自然感觉中却依然不够强烈.
2．
Our sympathy with sorrow, though not more real, has been more
taken notice of than our sympathy with joy. The word sympathy, in
its most proper and primitive signification, denotes our
fellow-feeling with the sufferings, not that with the enjoyments,
of others. A late ingenious and subtile philosopher thought it
necessary to prove, by arguments, that we had a real sympathy
with joy, and that congratulation was a principle of human
nature. Nobody, I believe, ever thought it necessary to prove
that compassion was such.
我们给予悲痛的同情，其真切程度虽然已经无以复加，但和给予快乐的同情相比，却依然获得更多的关注。同情这一字眼，按其最确切、最基本的含义来讲，向我们传达的是一种对痛苦，而不是对快乐等所给予的体谅之情。一位已故的睿智机敏的哲学家认为，有必要通过辩论来证实：我们对快乐怀有真切的同情心；祝贺是人性中的天性。窃以为，从来没有任何人认为有必要证实怜悯之心就是这种情感。
3.
First of all, our sympathy with sorrow is, in some sense,
more universal than that with joy. Though sorrow is excessive, we
may still have some fellow-feeling with it. What we feel does
not, indeed, in this case, amount to that complete sympathy, to
that perfect harmony and correspondence of sentiments which
constitutes approbation. We do not weep, and exclaim, and lament,
with the sufferer. We are sensible, on the contrary, of his weak
ness and of the extravagance of his passion, and yet often feel a
very sensible concern upon his account. But if we do not entirely
enter into, and go along with, the joy of another, we have no
sort of regard or fellow-feeling for it. The man who skips and
dances about with that intemperate and senseless joy which we
cannot accompany him in, is the object of our contempt and
indignation.
首先，我们对悲痛给予的同情，从某种意义上讲，要比对快乐给予的同情更加普遍。虽然悲痛有时会过分，但我们可能依然会给予某些同情。在这种情况下，我们的感情其实既不能完全等同于同情，也不能与这种备受赞誉的激情全然吻合。我们并不能与受苦受难者一起啜泣、惊呼和悲痛。相反，我们却对他的懦弱、对他过激的情绪非常敏感，对他之所以如此的原因也更加关心。然而，对于另外一个人的快乐，如果我们不能动情，不能体谅他，我们就不能给予同情。一个人如果快活得毫无节制，快活得莫名其妙，快活得手舞足蹈，快活得我们无法理解，他就将沦为我们蔑视和怨恨的对象。
4
Pain besides, whether of mind or body, is a more pungent
sensation than pleasure, and our sympathy with pain, though it
falls greatly short of what is naturally felt by the sufferer, is
generally a more lively and distinct perception than our sympathy
with pleasure, though this last often approaches more nearly, as
I shall shew immediately, to the natural vivacity of the original
passion.
此外，无论是精神的，还是肉体的痛苦，都是一种比快乐更加强烈的感情。我们对痛苦给予的同情，虽然很缺乏当事者自然感觉到的东西，虽然给予欢乐的同情更加贴近天性中的自然欢乐之情，但与我们对快乐所给予的同情相比，它依然是一种更为强烈，更为清晰的观念。
5.
Over and above all this, we often struggle to keep down our
sympathy with the sorrow of others. Whenever we are not under the
observation of the sufferer, we endeavour, for our own sake, to
suppress it as much as we can, and we are not always successful.
The opposition which we make to it, and the reluctance with which
we yield to it, necessarily oblige us to take more particular
notice of it. But we never have occasion to make this opposition
to our sympathy with joy. If there is any envy in the case, we
never feel the least propensity towards it; and if there is none,
we give way to it without any reluctance. On the contrary, as we
are always ashamed of our own envy, we often pretend, and
sometimes really wish to sympathize with the joy of others, when
by that disagreeable sentiment we are disqualified from doing so.
We are glad, we say on account of our neighbour's good fortune,
when in our hearts, perhaps, we are really sorry. We often feel a
sympathy with sorrow when we would wish to be rid of it; and we
often miss that with joy when we would be glad to have it. The
obvious observation, therefore, which it naturally falls in our
way to make, is, that our propensity to sympathize with sorrow
must be very strong, and our inclination to sympathize with joy
very weak.
除此之外，我们还经常极力减少对他人悲伤的同情心。当我们没有处在受苦者的视野之内时，我们就尽量压制这种同情，不过我们总是做不到这点。我们总是适得其反，勉为其难，这势必会迫使我们对其注入更加特殊的关注。不过，对快乐给予的同情，我们从来也没有出现过适得其反的情况。相反，我们总是为自己的嫉妒之心感到羞耻，当那种不快的情绪阻碍我们对他人的快乐给予同情时，我们经常假装，有时实际上是希望自己能够这样做。比如说对待邻居的好运，我们表现得很高兴，但也许我们心里的实际感受却是酸溜溜的。我们希望解除悲痛的时候，就经常会感到自己对他人的悲痛表示同情；当获得快乐也会使我们自己开心时，我们却经常得不到那份快乐。我们以自己方式进行的观察自然地表明，我们对悲痛给予同情的倾向十分强烈，而对快乐给予同情的倾向则十分微弱。
6.
Notwithstanding this prejudice, however, I will venture to
affirm, that, when there is no envy in the case, our propensity
to sympathize with joy is much stronger than our propensity to
sympathize with sorrow; and that our fellow-feeling for the
agreeable emotion approaches much more nearly to the vivacity of
what is naturally felt by the persons principally concerned, than
that which we conceive for the painful one.
然而，即使存在这种偏见，我依然敢断言，在没有嫉妒之心存在的情况下，我们对快乐给予同情的倾向，要比对悲伤给予同情的倾向强烈得多，我们对愉悦情感给予的同情，最接近当事人自然感觉到的快乐，与之相比，我们对痛苦给予的同情，在接近我们想象中当事人所感觉到的痛苦方面，就显得十分逊色了。
7.
We have some indulgence for that excessive grief which we
cannot entirely go along with. We know what a prodigious effort
is requisite before the sufferer can bring down his emotions. to
complete harmony and concord with those of the spectator. Though
he fails, therefore, we easily pardon him. But we have no such
indulgence for the intemperance of joy; because we are not
conscious that any such vast effort is requisite to bring it down
to what we can entirely enter into. The man who, under the
greatest calamities, can command his sorrow, seems worthy of the
highest admiration; but he who, in the fulness of prosperity, can
in the same manner master his joy, seems hardly to deserve any
praise. We are sensible that there is a much wider interval in
the one case than in the other, between what is naturally felt by
the person principally concerned, and what the spectator can
entirely go along with.
我们对于无法完全给予谅解的过度悲痛，有时候会有些许宽容之心。我们深知，受苦者要想为自己的情感降温，使之与旁观者的情感全然协调一致，这该需要多么巨大的努力。因此，他虽然失败，我们依然能够原谅。然而我们对待过度的快乐却没有这种宽容之心；因为我们意识不到当事者为这种过度的快乐降温，使之完全与我们所能体谅的快乐协调一致，这该需要多么巨大的努力。遭遇大灾大难却能驾驭自己情感的人，看起是最值得赞誉的；然而春风得意者同样能驾驭自己的欢娱之情，却几乎不值一赞。我们觉得，在当事者自然感觉到的情感与旁观者完全能体谅的情感之间存在着一个很大差距，这种差距在一种情况之下就大，在另外一种情况之下就小。
8.
What can he added to the happiness of the man who is in
health, who is out of debt, and has a clear conscience? To one in
this situation, all accessions of fortune may properly be said to
be superfluous; and if he is much elevated upon account of them,
it must be the effect of the most frivolous levity. This
situation, however, may very well be called the natural and
ordinary state of mankind. Notwithstanding the present misery and
depravity of the world, so justly lamented, this really is the
state of the greater part of men. The greater part of men,
therefore, cannot find any great difficulty in elevating
themselves to all the joy which any accession to this situation
can well excite in their companion.
一个身体健康、无债可偿、问心无愧的人，他的欢乐已经无以复加。在这种情况之下，为增加财富所做的一切都可能被视为多此一举；如果他的状况的确能因为所有这一切而百尺竿头更进一步，那也只是轻浮行动产生的效果使然。而这种情况也许可以被恰如其分地称之为人类自然而普通的状态。尽管这就是当今世界最令人悲哀的痛苦与堕落，但这的确就是很大一部分人的状况。因此他们都能轻而易举地提升自己的欢乐度，而其同伴一旦处于相同的状况之下，也能达到这种欢乐度。
9.
But though little can be added to this state, much may be
taken from it. Though between this condition and the highest
pitch of human prosperity, the interval is but a trifle; between
it and the lowest depth of misery the distance is immense and
prodigious. Adversity, on this account, necessarily depresses the
mind of the sufferer much more below its natural state, than
prosperity can elevate him above it. The spectator therefore,
must find it much more difficult to sympathize entirely, and keep
perfect time, with his sorrow, than thoroughly to enter into his
joy, and must depart much further from his own natural and
ordinary temper of mind in the one case than in the other. It is
on this account, that though our sympathy with sorrow is often a
more pungent sensation than our sympathy with joy, it always
falls much more short of the violence of what is naturally felt
by the person principally concerned.
不过，他的欢乐虽然无可复加，但却大可减少。在他的状况与人类富足的巅峰之间虽然存在差距，但却微乎其微；然而在他的状况与人类悲惨的谷底之间的差距，但却巨大无比。悲惨使人痛苦，幸运使人快乐。悲惨的现状必然低于自然状况，欢乐的现状必然高于自然状况，前两者之间的差距，要远远超过后两者之间的差距。因此，旁观者不仅必定会发现自己对他的悲痛及时完全地给予同情，要比全然体谅他的快乐更加困难，也必定会时多时少地背离自己自然而普通的情绪。也正是这个原因，我们对悲痛给予的同情往往是一种比对快乐的同情更加敏锐的感觉，但却总是缺乏当事人自然感觉到这种情感时的激情。
10.
It is agreeable to sympathize with, joy; and wherever envy
does not oppose it, our heart abandons itself with satisfaction
to the highest transports of that delightful sentiment. But it is
painful to go along with grief, and we always enter into it with
reluctance.(*) When we attend to the representation of a tragedy,
we struggle against that sympathetic sorrow which the
entertainment inspires as long as we can, and we give way to it
at last only when we can no longer avoid it: we even then
endeavour to cover our concern from the company. If we shed any
tears, we carefully conceal them, and are afraid, lest the
spectators, not entering into this excessive tenderness, should
regard it as effeminacy and weakness. The wretch whose
misfortunes call upon our compassion feels with what reluctance
we are likely to enter into his sorrow, and therefore proposes
his grief to us with fear and hesitation: he even smothers the
half of it, and is ashamed, upon account of this hard-heartedness
of mankind, to give vent to the fulness of his affliction. It is
otherwise with the man who riots in joy and success. Wherever
envy does not interest us against him, he expects our completest
sympathy. He does not fear, therefore, to announce himself with
shouts of exultation, in full confidence that we are heartily
disposed to go along with him.
对快乐给予同情是令人愉快的；只要嫉妒心不产生阻碍作用，我们的一颗心就会对令人愉悦的情感之转移表示满意。然而对悲伤加以体谅是痛苦的，我们往往是不得已而为之。我们观赏一出悲剧时，总是竭尽全力抑制自己，以免剧情激发我们对悲情给予的同情，只有我们不再能避免这一点时，才最终放弃这种做法；之后我们甚至会向同伴掩饰自己的关心。我们如果已经流泪，就会仔细地加以掩饰，以免旁观者全然不能体谅这种超温柔的情感，从而把这看成是娇气与脆弱。以自身不幸来激发我们同情的可怜人，由于感觉到我们对其不幸所给予的同情可能十分勉强，因此在向我们展示其遭遇时总是畏首畏尾，首鼠两端；他甚至会对自己的悲伤半遮半掩，也正是因为人类这种冷漠无情，才使他在向人们倾诉自己悲情时颇感汗颜。而一个纵情欢乐、沉湎成功的人，他的情况则截然不同。当嫉妒之心无法驱使我们对他持有敌意时，他就会期待我们对他表示全然的体谅。于是他就会信心十足，欣喜若狂，乃至大呼小叫地自我宣布，我们将会真心实意地与他同喜共乐。
11.
Why should we be more ashamed to weep than to laugh before
company? We may often have as real occasion to do the one as to
do the other. but we always feel that the spectators are more
likely to go along with us in the agreeable, than in the painful
emotion. It is always miserable to complain, even when we are
oppressed by the most dreadful calamities. But the triumph of
victory is not always ungraceful. Prudence, indeed, would often
advise us to bear our prosperity with more moderation; because
prudence would teach us to avoid that envy which this very
triumph is, more than any thing, apt to excite.
为什么我们在同伴面前悲泣比欢笑感到更羞愧？无论是哪种做法，我们可能都有实实在在的原因，但我们经常觉得旁观者似乎更能体谅我们的愉悦之情，而不是痛苦之情。即便为可怕的灾难所迫而鸣冤叫屈也是悲惨的。为胜利而喜悦并非总是有失文雅。谨慎的确总会提醒我们要以节制态度对待成功；因为谨慎会教导我们避免这种喜悦比任何其它事物更易激发出来的嫉妒之心。
12.
How hearty are the acclamations of the mob, who never bear
any envy to their superiors, at a triumph or a public entry? And
how sedate and moderate is commonly their grief at an execution?
Our sorrow at a funeral generally amounts to no more than an
affected gravity. but our mirth at a christening or a marriage,
is always from the heart, and without any affectation. Upon
these, and all such joyous occasions, our satisfaction, though
not so durable, is often as lively as that of the persons
principally concerned. Whenever we cordially congratulate our
friends, which, however, to the disgrace of human nature, we do
but seldom, their joy literally becomes our joy. we are, for the
moment, as happy as they are: our heart swells and overflows with
real pleasure: joy and complacency sparkle from our eyes, and
animate every feature of our countenance, and every gesture of
our body.
在欢庆胜利或出席公众典礼时，对自己上司从来没有嫉妒之心的普通民众的欢呼是多么真诚啊！可是在执行死刑时，他们的悲伤却是多么地沉静与平淡啊！在参加葬礼时我们的哀伤表现一般来讲最多不过是矫揉造作的神情肃穆而已，但是我们在参加洗礼或婚礼时的欢笑总是出自真心，没有丝毫虚情假意。我们对所有这些，对所有这类欢快的事情表示的满意感，与当事人的感觉相比，虽然不如他们那样持久，但却经常和他们一样强烈。每当我们为朋友表示衷心祝贺时，不过，一旦有悖于人性，我们虽然也这样做，但却很少去做，朋友的欢乐简直就变成了我们的欢乐，我们会暂时和他们一样兴高采烈；我们就会心花怒放，满心欢喜；我们的两眼就会闪烁出欢欣愉悦与沾沾自喜之光，面部的各种表情就会展现得淋漓尽致，身体各部位的特征就会利用得炉火纯青。
13.
But, on the contrary, when we condole with our friends in
their afflictions, how little do we feel, in comparison of what
they feel? We sit down by them, we look at them, and while they
relate to us the circumstances of their misfortune, we listen to
them with gravity and attention. But while their narration is
every moment interrupted by those natural bursts of passion which
often seem almost to choak them in the midst of it; how far are
the languid emotions of our hearts from keeping time to the
transports of theirs? We may be sensible, at the same time, that
their passion is natural, and no greater than what we ourselves
might feel upon the like occasion. We may even inwardly reproach
ourselves with our own want of sensibility, and perhaps, on that
account, work ourselves up into an artificial sympathy, which,
however, when it is raised, is always the slightest and most
transitory imaginable; and generally, as soon as we have left the
room, vanishes, and is gone for ever. Nature, it seems, when she
loaded us with our own sorrows, thought that they were enough,
and therefore did not command us to take any further share in
those of others, than what was necessary to prompt us to relieve
them.
然而与此相反，当我们安慰苦恼难当的朋友时，与他们的感受相比，我们所能感受到的该是多么地微乎其微？我们坐在他们身边，我们看着他们，当他们向我们倾述所遭受的不幸时，我们神情凝重、专心致志地聆听着。然而，当他们的倾诉不时地被自然迸发的激情干扰时，往往会显得几乎要在中途哽噎无语。我们心中这种慵懒怠惰之情，距离体谅他们的欣喜若狂该是多么遥远啊! 与此同时，我们可能会觉察到，他们的激情不过是油然而生，与我们自己在类似情况下可能感觉到的毫无二致。由于我们自己缺乏认识，甚至会在内心中感到自责，也正是因为如此，我们才可能会驱使自己人为地产生同情之心，不过当它生成的时候，却又总是可以想见得到，它既微不足道，又如昙花一现；一般来讲，当我们离开房间的那一时刻，它就会化为乌有，而且永世不归。上苍把我们自身的悲痛压在我们肩上时，她似乎就会认为这些悲痛已经足够多，因此不会驱使我们再去分享他人的悲情，只会促使我们帮助他们去排解悲痛。
14.
It is on account of this dull sensibility to the afflictions
of others, that magnanimity amidst great distress appears always
so divinely graceful. His behaviour is genteel and agreeable who
can maintain his cheerfulness amidst a number of frivolous
disasters. But he appears to be more than mortal who can support
in the same manner the most dreadful calamities. We feel what an
immense effort is requisite to silence those violent emotions
which naturally agitate and distract those in his situation. We
are amazed to find that he can command himself so entirely. His
firmness, at the same time, perfectly coincides with our
insensibility. He makes no demand upon us for that more exquisite
degree of sensibility which we find, and which we are mortified
to find, that we do not possess. There is the most perfect
correspondence between his sentiments and ours, and on that
account the most perfect propriety in his behaviour. It is a
propriety too, which, from our experience of the usual weakness
of human nature, we could not reasonably have expected he should
be able to maintain. We wonder with surprise and astonishment at
that strength of mind which is capable of so noble and generous
an effort. The sentiment of complete sympathy and approbation,
mixed and animated with wonder and surprise, constitutes what is
properly called admiration, as has already been more than once
taken notice of Cato, surrounded on all sides by his enemies,
unable to resist them, disdaining to submit to them, and reduced,
by the proud maxims of that age, to the necessity of destroying
himself; yet never shrinking from his misfortunes, never
supplicating with the lamentable voice of wretchedness, those
miserable sympathetic tears which we are always so unwilling to
give; but on the contrary, arming himself with manly fortitude,
and the moment before he executes his fatal resolution, giving,
with his usual tranquillity, all necessary orders for the safety
of his friends; appears to Seneca, that great preacher of
insensibility, a spectacle which even the gods themselves might
behold with pleasure and admiration.
正是由于有这种对他人苦难的迟钝感作比较，一个极度悲痛的人如果能展现高风亮节，才总是显得高雅之至。有人面临大灾大难却能忍受，有人面临小灾小难却能保持快乐，这种人的表现颇为绅士，赏人心，悦人目，二者相比，后者要胜于前者。有些激情是自然形成的，而且会使处于他那种环境中的人发狂，我们感觉到要使这些激情归于平静，该需要多么巨大的努力。我们惊奇地发现，他却完全能驾驭自己。而与此同时，他的坚定与我们的迟钝完全默契。他并不要求我们增加敏感度，而我们发现，或者说我们羞于发现，这种敏感度我们并不具备。他和我们之间的情感全然协调一致，正因为如此，他的行为才极其得体。据我们自己对通常人性弱点的体验，我们并没有理由期待他应该能够保持这种得体性。那种能够做出如此难能可贵努力的意志力，着实令我们惊叹不已。那种与惊叹交织在一起的全然同情与认可的情感就构成了被称之为赞美的情操，就如同已经不止一次引起关注的加图那样。他四面受敌，不能自持，但依然拒绝向敌人投降，而且由于受到当时那个年代备受崇敬的行为准则所约束，竟然甘愿自毁其身；然而他遭遇不幸却从不退缩，从不以痛苦凄惨的声音，决不以我们所不愿流下的那种其情可悯的痛苦的泪水求饶；相反，他表现得果敢坚毅，在实行自己命运攸关的决定之前那一时刻，为了朋友的安全，一如既往地镇定自若，发出一切必要的命令；在那位冷漠无情的伟大传教士面前，他大义凛然，即便众神仙目睹之后也要欣然赞许。
15.
Whenever we meet, in common life, with any examples of such
heroic magnanimity, we are always extremely affected. We are more
apt to weep and shed tears for such as, in this manner, seem to
feel nothing for them. and in selves, than for those who give way
to all the weakness of sorrow: this particular case, the
sympathetic grief of the spectator appears to go beyond the
original passion in the person principally concerned. The friends
of Socrates all wept when he drank the last potion, while he
himself expressed the gayest and most cheerful tranquillity. Upon
all such occasions the spectator makes no effort, and has no
occasion to make any, in order to conquer his sympathetic sorrow.
He is under no fear that it will transport him to any thing that
is extravagant and improper; he is rather pleased with the
sensibility of his own heart, and gives way to it with
complacence and self-approbation. He gladly indulges, therefore,
the most melancholy views which can naturally occur to him,
concerning the calamity of his friend, for whom, perhaps, he
never felt so exquisitely before, the tender and tearful passion
of love. But it is quite otherwise with the person principally
concerned. He is obliged, as much as possible, to turn away his
eyes from whatever is either naturally terrible or disagreeable
in his situation. Too serious an attention to those
circumstances, he fears, might make so violent an impression upon
him, that he could no longer keep within the bounds of
moderation, or render himself the object of the complete sympathy
and approbation of the spectators. He fixes his thoughts,
therefore, upon those only which are agreeable, the applause and
admiration which he is about to deserve by the heroic magnanimity
of his behaviour. To feel that he is capable of so noble and
generous an effort, to feel that in this dreadful situation he
can still act as he would desire to act, animates and transports
him with joy, and enables him to support that triumphant gaiety
which seems to exult in the victory he thus gains over his
misfortunes.
在日常生活中，每当我们遇到行为高尚的英雄榜样时，我们总是备受感动。与那些充分暴露自己悲哀弱点的人相比，我们更会为这种虽行为高尚而他们自己却不以为然的人啜泣不已甚至潸然泪下；在这种特殊情况下，旁观者因同情心而激发的悲伤似乎比当事者的原始激情更甚一筹。苏格拉底将最后一剂毒药一饮而下的时候，其朋友无不为之啜泣，然而他自己却表现得无限欢欣，镇静至极。在所有这些情况之下，旁观者不会，也没有理由去极力抑制自己因同情之心而激发的悲伤。他无须担心自己的所作所为会变得夸张与失体；他因自己内心中的激情感到乐不可支，并且心满意足地浸淫在这种感受之中。因此，面对朋友的灾难，一种抑郁难当的见解油然而生，他为自己沉湎于这种见解感到快慰，此时此刻，他对朋友的情感从来也没有像现在这样微妙，那是一种格外温馨、催人泪下的大爱之情。然而当事者的情况则当别论。面对自身所处的令人心生不快的可怕境地，他却被迫极力熟视无睹。他怕对这种处境过分关注，会导致他人对自己产生一种过激的印象，即：他已不再受制于往日那种温文尔雅的性情，也不再能使自己成为旁观者同情和认可的对象。因此他已经将自己的思想仅仅定位于那些令人愉快的事情上，定位于因自己的高尚品质而即将获得的赞扬和钦佩之上。感到他完全能够做出如此难能可贵的努力，感到在这种可怕的环境中他依然能够随心所欲，就能够使他因欢乐而激情迸发，就能够使他维持那些似乎因战胜苦难而生发的喜悦之情。
16．
On the contrary, he always appears, in some measure, mean and
despicable, who is sunk in sorrow and dejection upon account of
any calamity of his own. We cannot bring ourselves to feel for
him what he feels for himself, and what, perhaps, we should feel
for ourselves if in his situation: we, therefore, despise him;
unjustly, perhaps, if any sentiment could be regarded as unjust,
to which we are by nature irresistibly determined. The weakness
of sorrow never appears in any respect agreeable, except when it
arises from what we feel for others more than from what we feel
for ourselves. A son, upon the death of an indulgent and
respectable father, may give way to it without much blame. His
sorrow is chiefly founded upon a sort of sympathy with his
departed parent and we readily enter into this humane emotion.
But if he should indulge the same weakness upon account of any
misfortune which affected himself only, he would no longer meet
with any such indulgence. If he should be reduced to beggary and
ruin, if he should be exposed to the most dreadful dangers, if he
should even be led out to a public execution, and there shed one
single tear upon the scaffold, he would disgrace himself for ever
in the opinion of all the gallant and generous part of mankind.
Their compassion for him, however, would be very strong, and very
sincere; but as it would still fall short of this excessive
weakness, they would have no pardon for the man who could thus
expose himself in the eyes of the world. His behaviour would
affect them with shame rather than with sorrow; and the dishonour
which he had thus brought upon himself would appear to them the
most lamentable circumstance in his misfortune. How did it
disgrace the memory of the intrepid Duke of Biron, who had so
often braved death in the field, that he wept upon the scaffold,
when he beheld the state to which he was fallen, and remembered
the favour and the glory from which his own rashness had so
unfortunately thrown him!
相反，因自身遭遇而浸沉在悲痛与沮丧之中的人，总是在某种程度上显得卑鄙猥琐。我们无法使自己感受到他的自我感觉，也无法感受到如果我们也处于他那种处境时我们自己可能产生怎样的自我感觉：因此我们便会蔑视他；如果将我们天生就会决心坚持的情感看成有失公正，这本身也许就有失公正。悲哀所显示的弱点从来不会讨人喜欢，除非我们这种悲哀是因他人，而不是因我们自己而生。一位生性宽容而又令人尊敬的父亲去世之后，一个儿子可能就会悲哀不已，无甚怨言。他的悲哀主要是建立在他对已故父亲的同情基础之上，而我们对这种充满人性的情感便会欣然加以体谅。有些不幸只能对他自己产生影响，如果他竟然为这种不幸而滥情不能自拔，那他将不再会得到他人的容情。如果他万一沦为乞丐、或遭遇灭顶之灾，如果他万一被抛入可怕至极的危难深渊之中，如果他万一被当众处以极刑，并泪洒断头台，哪怕仅仅一滴泪水而已，依照人类中那些绅士豪侠的看法，他将会遗臭万年，永世不得翻身。他们给予他的怜悯之心既强烈，又真诚；不过在世人看来，因为这种怜悯之心依然缺乏对过度懦弱的宽容与谅解，所以他们对这个如此这般暴露自己的人并不会加以原谅。他的行为会对他们产生影响，不过原因却是耻辱而不是悲伤；在他们看来，他为自己招致的恶名乃是他所遭不幸之中的至悲至痛。比隆三公爵在战场上经常出生入死，但当他目睹自己为之捐躯的国家时，当他忆及由于自己的鲁莽而不幸失去的爱戴与荣耀时，却在断头台上潸然泪下，而他的懦弱使他那种勇猛无畏的英明蒙上怎样的耻辱啊！
Chap. II
Of the origin of Ambition, and of the distinction of Ranks
第二章 论野心的起源，兼论及等级的区别
1.
It is because mankind are disposed to sympathize more
entirely with our joy than with our sorrow, that we make parade
of our riches, and conceal our poverty. Nothing is so mortifying
as to be obliged to expose our distress to the view of the
public, and to feel, that though our situation is open to the
eyes of all mankind, no mortal conceives for us the half of what
we suffer. Nay, it is chiefly from this regard to the sentiments
of mankind, that we pursue riches and avoid poverty. For to what
purpose is all the toil and bustle of this world? what is the end
of avarice and ambition, of the pursuit of wealth, of power, and
preheminence? Is it to supply the necessities of nature? The
wages of the meanest labourer can supply them. We see that they
afford him food and clothing, the comfort of a house, and of a
family. If we examined his oeconomy with rigour, we should find
that he spends a great part of them upon conveniencies, which may
be regarded as superfluities, and that, upon extraordinary
occasions, he can give something even to vanity and distinction.
What then is the cause of our aversion to his situation, and why
should those who have been educated in the higher ranks of life,
regard it as worse than death, to be reduced to live, even
without labour, upon the same simple fare with him, to dwell
under the same lowly roof, and to be clothed in the same humble
attire? Do they imagine that their stomach is better, or their
sleep sounder in a palace than in a cottage? The contrary has
been so often observed, and, indeed, is so very obvious, though
it had never been observed, that there is nobody ignorant of it.
From whence, then, arises that emulation which runs through all
the different ranks of men, and what are the advantages which we
propose by that great purpose of human life which we call
bettering our condition? To be observed, to be attended to, to be
taken notice of with sympathy, complacency, and approbation, are
all the advantages which we can propose to derive from it. It is
the vanity, not the ease, or the pleasure, which interests us.
But vanity is always founded upon the belief of our being the
object of attention and approbation. The rich man glories in his
riches, because he feels that they naturally draw upon him the
attention of the world, and that mankind are disposed to go along
with him in all those agreeable emotions with which the
advantages of his situation so readily inspire him. At the
thought of this, his heart seems to swell and dilate itself
within him, and he is fonder of his wealth, upon this account,
than for all the other advantages it procures him. The poor man,
on the contrary, is ashamed of his poverty. He feels that it
either places him out of the sight of mankind, or, that if they
take any notice of him, they have, however, scarce any
fellow-feeling with the misery and distress which he suffers.
Heis mortified upon both accounts. for though to be overlooked, and
to be disapproved of, are things entirely different, yet as
obscurity covers us from the daylight of honour and approbation,
to feel that we are taken no notice of, necessarily damps the
most agreeable hope, and disappoints the most ardent desire, of
human nature. The poor man goes out and comes in unheeded, and
when in the midst of a crowd is in the same obscurity as if shut
up in his own hovel. Those humble cares and painful attentions
which occupy those in his situation, afford no amusement to the
dissipated and the gay. They turn away their eyes from him, or if
the extremity of his distress forces them to look at him, it is
only to spurn so disagreeable an object from among them. The
fortunate and the proud wonder at the insolence of human
wretchedness, that it should dare to present itself before them,
and with the loathsome aspect of its misery presume to disturb
the serenity of their happiness. The man of rank and distinction,
on the contrary, is observed by all the world. Every body is
eager to look at him, and to conceive, at least by sympathy, that
joy and exultation with which his circumstances naturally inspire
him. His actions are the objects of the public care. Scarce a
word, scarce a gesture, can fall from him that is altogether
neglected.In a great assembly he is the person upon whom all
direct their eyes; it is upon him that their passions seem all to
wait with expectation, in order to receive that movement and
direction which he shall impress upon them; and if his behaviour
is not altogether absurd, he has, every moment, an opportunity of
interesting mankind, and of rendering himself the object of the
observation and fellow-feeling of every body about him. It is
this, which, notwithstanding the restraint it imposes,
notwithstanding the loss of liberty with which it is attended,
renders greatness the object of envy, and compensates, in the
opinion of all those mortifications which must mankind, all that
toil, all that anxiety, be undergone in the pursuit of it; and
what is of yet more consequence, all that leisure, all that ease,
all that careless security, which are forfeited for ever by the
acquisition.
藏贫露富，这是因为人类对于欢乐和悲伤都能给予全身心地同情，但相比之下，前者则多于后者。被迫在众人面前暴露我们的贫穷，被迫感受到虽然我们的情况向所有人的眼球开放，但却没有人能够想象得到我们所遭受贫困，哪怕连一半都想象不到，而这实在令人羞愧难当。不仅如此，我们追富避贫，主因就是非常关注人的情感。世人东奔西跑，日夜操劳，究竟为了什么呢？贪婪和野心，追求财富，争权夺利，追求地位，所有这些的终极目标是什么呢？难道只是为提供人们的日常所需吗？一个最无能的的劳动者靠薪水也能提供生活所需。我们看到这些薪水不仅能他自己衣食不愁，居有其屋，而且还能养活全家。如果我们仔细地观察他的经济状况，我们就会发现他把自己薪水的大部分都花在生活便利品上，这也许可以被认为是奢侈，还会发现在非常特殊的情况下，他还能把一些东西用于满足虚荣心和荣誉方面。那么是什么原因导致我们对他的状况嗤之以鼻？为何那些过着高档生活，受过教育的人会把和他一样地生活，甚至无需劳动，和他吃同样简单的伙食，住同样低矮的房屋，穿同样寒酸的衣服看作比死不如？他们是否想象自己的胃口会更好，他们住在宫殿里会比住在草屋里睡得更香？人们往往会看到相反的情况，的确是显而易见，虽然从来也没有被人这样说起过，但却没有人会对此加以否认。各种不同阶层的人们中间普遍存在的攀比竞争从何而来？改善我们状况常被视为人生最伟大目标，而这又会给我们带来那些好处呢？被人以同情怜悯之心，以心满意足之情，以认可承认之态度加以谈论，加以照顾，加以注意，这就是我们能从上述目标获得的好处。令我们感兴趣的既不是安逸，也不是快乐，而是虚荣心。不过虚荣心往往从自信能成为他人注意与认可的目标中得以发现。富人因为自己的财富感到骄傲，因为他既感到财富自然可以使他受到世界的关注，又感到人们会以愉快的心情体谅他，而正是由于这种愉快的心情，他才会因为得益于自己的优越环境而倍受鼓舞。一想到这里，他的心似乎要在体内膨胀扩张，正是因为如此，他对自己财富本身要比对财富给他带来的好处爱得更甚。相反，穷人则因为贫穷而感到羞耻。他感觉贫穷会导致别人的藐视，而且，即便人们注意到他，他们对他所遭受的痛苦与贫困也会缺乏同情心。他对这两种情况都感到十分不爽，因为，虽然被人藐视与得不到认可完全是两回事，然而，被人冷落毕竟会像乌云一样笼罩我们，从而得不到荣誉与认可之阳光的照射，因此，被人冷落的感觉，一定会使最令人愉快的梦想破灭，会使人性中最强烈的欲望变失望。贫穷者终日游走于无人瞩目的窘境之中，即便置身于人群之中，依然犹如深锁陋室一般无二。令人倍感卑贱的关心以及颇为痛苦的注意，制约着那些与他处境相同的人，不会使放荡不羁、寻欢作乐者感到任何乐趣。他们对他不屑一顾，即便他的极度贫穷也会迫使他们把目光集中在他身上，那也只是把他看成一个与他们格格不入的、令人厌恶的可怜虫。运气颇佳、春风得意者对于可悲人物的表现颇感惊讶，即：这些人居然也能傲慢一把，而且竟然会在他们面前表现出来，更有甚至，居然胆敢以其令人生厌的痛苦搅扰他们悠然自得地享受快乐。与此相反，声名显赫、地位崇高者自然倍受世人瞩目。每个人都渴望一睹他的风采，并且至少能以体谅之心，去设想那种能使他在自己处境中自然受到激励的愉悦心情。他的一举一动都是公众关注的目标。他的每一句话，每一个手势，几乎无不倍受关注。在一场大型集会中，他是最吸引人们眼球的人；他们似乎是在激情满怀、期盼甚殷地等待，以便获得他的青睐；如果他的行为并非全然荒唐无稽，他每时每刻都能有机会吸引他人，进而将自己变成倍受众人关注与同情的目标。虽然这会将许多限制强加给他，会令他失去倍受珍视的自由，但却使他成为众人钦羡的目标，在那些人看来，这足能补偿他为追求这一目标而对人类不可或缺的种种欲望所做出的节制，所付出的艰辛，以及所经受的焦虑；而最终结果呢，所有那种悠闲，所有那种舒适，所有那种无忧无虑的安全感，皆因上述所得而将永远丧失殆尽。
2.
When we consider the condition of the great, in those
delusive colours in which the imagination is apt to paint it. it
seems to be almost the abstract idea of a perfect and happy
state. It is the very state which, in all our waking dreams and
idle reveries, we had sketched out to ourselves as the final
object of all our desires. We feel, therefore, a peculiar
sympathy with the satisfaction of those who are in it. We favour
all their inclinations, and forward all their wishes. What pity,
we think, that any thing should spoil and corrupt so agreeable a
situation! We could even wish them immortal; and it seems hard to
us, that death should at last put an end to such perfect
enjoyment. It is cruel, we think, in Nature to compel them from
their exalted stations to that humble, but hospitable home, which
she has provided for all her children. Great King, live for ever!
is the compliment, which, after the manner of eastern adulation,
we should readily make them, if experience did not teach us its
absurdity. Every calamity that befals them, every injury that is
done them, excites in the breast of the spectator ten times more
compassion and resentment than he would have felt, had the same
things happened to other men. It is the misfortunes of Kings only
which afford the proper subjects for tragedy. They resemble, in
this respect, the misfortunes of lovers. Those two situations are
the chief which interest us upon the theatre; because, in spite
of all that reason and experience can tell us to the contrary,
the prejudices of the imagination attach to these two states a
happiness superior to any other. To disturb, or to put an end to
such perfect enjoyment, seems to be the most atrocious of all
injuries. The traitor who conspires against the life of his
monarch, is thought a greater monster than any other murderer.
All the innocent blood that was shed in the civil wars, provoked
less indignation than the death of Charles I. A stranger to human
nature, who saw the indifference of men about the misery of their
inferiors, and the regret and indignation which they feel for the
misfortunes and sufferings of those above them, would be apt to
imagine, that pain must be more agonizing, and the convulsions of
death more terrible to persons of higher rank, than to those of
meaner stations.
当我们以一种想象力易于采取的迷人色彩去考虑大人物时，这种想象简直就是对完美而愉快的状况所描绘出的抽象概念。被我们在梦幻中描绘成自己所有欲望终极目标的，正是这种状况。我们因此会感到一种独特的同情心，完全能够体谅置身这种状况之人的满足感。我们与他们志趣相投，并能促使他们的愿望得以实现。损害或葬送如此令人愉快的状况，在我们看来实在可惜！我们甚至还会祝愿他们万寿无疆；对于死亡最终竟然能够终结如此完美的幸福，在我们看来简直难以置信。神祗将他们从显赫的高位驱离，继而屈身于神祗为其圣子提供的那种寒酸然而温馨的家园，这在我们看来实在残酷。吾王万岁，万万岁！这纯属照搬东方谄媚之风的恭维之词，如果亲身体验没能使我们领教其中的荒诞，我们使用起来本该乐此不疲。他们所遭遇的灾难，所蒙受的伤害，都会在广大旁观者中激发出十倍于他们自己看到别人遭遇同样灾难时所体验到的同情与怨恨。正是国王们遭受的不幸，才为悲剧提供了适当的题材。他们在这方面类似于情人所遭不幸。二者都是在剧场里吸引我们的主要之点；因为，虽然理智与经验都会使我们产生相反的想法，但不无偏见的想象却总为这两种情况添加无人能比的幸福结局。干扰或者扼杀如此完美的享受堪称诸般伤害之最。君主的夺命叛徒被视为比任何凶犯都恐怖的魔王。无辜者血洒内战，不如查理一世之死更能激发义愤。对人性陌生的人，当他看到人们对地位低下者的痛苦麻木不仁，对地位高贵者的不幸与悲痛却遗憾与义愤的时候就会认为，以身居高位者与人轻位卑者相比，痛苦对后者比对前者更加难以忍受，面对死亡引起的痉挛，后者比前者更加厉害。
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3.
Upon this disposition of mankind, to go along with all the
passions of the rich and the powerful, is founded the distinction
of ranks, and the order of society. Our obsequiousness to our
superiors more frequently arises from our admiration for the
advantages of their situation, than from any private expectations
of benefit from their good-will. Their benefits can extend but to
a few. but their fortunes interest almost every body. We are
eager to assist them in completing a system of happiness that
approaches so near to perfection; and we desire to serve them for
their own sake, without any other recompense but the vanity or
the honour of obliging them. Neither is our deference to their
inclinations founded chiefly, or altogether, upon a regard to the
utility of such submission, and to the order of society, which is
best supported by it. Even when the order of society seems to
require that we should oppose them, we can hardly bring ourselves
to do it. That kings are the servants of the people, to be
obeyed, resisted, deposed, or punished, as the public conveniency
may require, is the doctrine of reason and philosophy; but it is
not the doctrine of Nature. Nature would teach us to submit to
them for their own sake, to tremble and bow down before their
exalted station, to regard their smile as a reward sufficient to
compensate any services, and to dread their displeasure, though
no other evil were to follow from it, as the severest of all
mortifications. To treat them in any respect as men, to reason
and dispute with them upon ordinary occasions, requires such
resolution, that there are few men whose magnanimity can support
them in it, unless they are likewise assisted by familiarity and
acquaintance. The strongest motives, the most furious passions,
fear, hatred, and resentment, are scarce sufficient to balance
this natural disposition to respect them: and their conduct must,
either justly or unjustly, have excited the highest degree of all
those passions, before the bulk of the people can be brought to
oppose them with violence, or to desire to see them either
punished or deposed. Even when the people have been brought this
length, they are apt to relent every moment, and easily relapse
into their habitual state of deference to those whom they have
been accustomed to look upon as their natural superiors. They
cannot stand the mortification of their monarch.Compassion soon
takes the place of resentment, they forget all past provocations,
their old principles of loyalty revive, and they run to
re-establish the ruined authority of their old masters, with the
same violence with which they had opposed it. The death of
Charles I brought about the Restoration of the royal family.
Compassion for James II when he was seized by the populace in
making his escape on ship-board, had almost prevented the
Revolution, and made it go on more heavily than before.
与富人和强者的激情产生共鸣这一秉性，正是社会等级与秩序建立的基础。谁比我们优越我们就奉承谁，这往往是因为我们羡慕其优越的境遇，而不因为我们期盼能从其善意中获得多少恩泽。他们的恩泽只能惠及少数人，然而他们的运气却几乎能吸引每一个人。我们迫切地帮助他们建立一个趋于完美的幸福天地；我们只想为他们自己的利益服务，只想使他们对虚荣心或名誉的欲望得以满足，除此别无所求。他们主要，或完全考虑的问题有两个，一是对这种顺从的利用，二是社会秩序，而这上述两点都不表示我们在与他们这种意愿之间存在任何差距。即使社会秩序似乎需要我们反对他们，我们也几乎无法付诸行动。国王应当是公仆，是否应当受到尊崇，反对，废除或惩罚，要完全取决于民众的意愿，这是真理和哲学的原理；并非神的旨意。神祗会教导我们为他们的利益而服从他们，在他们至高无上的王位前瑟缩发抖鞠躬致敬，将他们的笑脸看作一种足以补偿一切服务的回报，面对他们的不悦要诚惶诚恐，虽然这种不悦之后不会有任何恶果接踵而至，但依然认为令国王不悦，乃天下奇耻大辱。把他们视为普通人那样去尊敬，在普通的场合也与他们讲理争辩，这需要决心，因为除非相知相识者，否则仅凭包容就能支持鼓励这种做法的人凤毛麟角。最强烈的动机，最激烈的情感、恐惧、仇恨乃至怨怒，都不足以抗衡对他们自然而然的尊敬之情：在民众被唤起以暴力反抗他们，或想亲自目睹看他们遭到惩罚或废黜之前，他们的行为，公正也好，不公正也罢，无论如何都早已最大限度地激发出那些情感。即使人们已经被唤起，他们依然每时每刻都会心慈手软，极易故态复萌，重新依附于他们，因为他们早已惯于将他们视为自己天然的至高无上者而顶礼膜拜。怜悯很快就会取代怨恨，他们将过去所有的义愤抛之脑后，陈旧的忠君信条死灰复燃，他们以当初反对他们的那种狂热，到处奔走呼号，以重新确立旧主人已被毁掉的权威。查理一世的死使皇室东山再起。詹姆二世登上逃亡船被民众抓到时的恻隐之心，几乎阻止了那场大革命，而且在随后的进展中也比以往倍加艰难。
5.
Do the great seem insensible of the easy price at which they
may acquire the public admiration; or do they seem to imagine
that to them, as to other men, it must be the purchase either of
sweat or of blood? By what important accomplishments is the young
nobleman instructed to support the dignity of his rank, and to
render himself worthy of that superiority over his
fellow-citizens, to which the virtue of his ancestors had raised
them? Is it by knowledge, by industry, by patience, by
self-denial, or by virtue of any kind? As all his words, as all
his motions are attended to, he learns an habitual regard to
every circumstance of ordinary behaviour, and studies to perform
all those small duties with the most exact propriety. As he is
conscious how much he is observed, and how much mankind are
disposed to favour all his inclinations, he acts, upon the most
indifferent occasions, with that freedom and elevation which the
thought of this naturally inspires. His air, his manner, his
deportment, all mark that elegant and graceful sense of his own
superiority, which those who are born to inferior stations can
hardly ever arrive at. These are the arts by which he proposes to
make mankind more easily submit to his authority, and to govern
their inclinations according to his own pleasure: and in this he
is seldom disappointed. These arts, supported by rank and
preheminence, are, upon ordinary occasions, sufficient to govern
the world. Lewis XIV during the greater part of his reign, was
regarded, not only in France, but over all Europe, as the most
perfect model of a great prince. But what were the talents and
virtues by which he acquired this great reputation? Was it by the
scrupulous and inflexible justice of all his undertakings, by the
immense dangers and difficulties with which they were attended,
or by the unwearied and unrelenting application with which he
pursued them? Was it by his extensive knowledge, by his exquisite
judgment, or by his heroic valour? It was by none of these
qualities. But he was, first of all, the most powerful prince in
Europe, and consequently held the highest rank among kings; and
then, says his historian, 'he surpassed all his courtiers in the
gracefulness of his shape, and the majestic beauty of his
features.The sound of his voice, noble and affecting, gained
those hearts which his presence intimidated. He had a step and a
deportment which could suit only him and his rank, and which
would have been ridiculous in any other person. The embarrassment
which he occasioned to those who spoke to him, flattered that
secret satisfaction with which he felt his own superiority. The
old officer, who was confounded and faultered in asking him a
favour, and not being able to conclude his discourse, said to
him: Sir, your majesty, I hope, will believe that I do not
tremble thus before your enemies: had no difficulty to obtain
what he demanded.' These frivolous accomplishments, supported by
his rank, and, no doubt too, by a degree of other talents and
virtues, which seems, however, not to have been much above
mediocrity, established this prince in the esteem of his own age,
and have drawn, even from posterity, a good deal of respect for
his memory. Compared with these, in his own times, and in his own
presence, no other virtue, it seems, appeared to have any merit.
Knowledge, industry, valour, and beneficence, trembled, were
abashed, and lost all dignity before them.
大人物似乎意识到他们是以低廉的代价博得公众的赞美？或者似乎想到他们也和别人一样，需要以血汗去赢得？年轻的贵族凭借何德何能竟被委以维护本阶层尊严的重任，以及使自己有资格享有优于同胞的特权？凭借知识？凭借勤奋？凭借耐心？凭借克己？以及所有美德？他很注意自己的一言一行，所以不仅养成了一种注意日常行为每一细节的习惯，也学会了该如何极其得体地履行所有那些小责小任。因为他知道自己是多么地备受关注，直到人们是多么地赞同他的意愿，因此他的一举一动都带有这种意识所自然激发的翩翩风度和高雅气质。他的神态，他的风度，他的举止，全都标志着自身那种高雅的优越感，而所有这些几乎都是天生卑微者所不可企及的。这些可能就是他能够使人更轻易地归顺他的权威，随心所欲地掌控自己意愿的手腕：而在这一方面，他很少会使自己失望。这些以等级和权势为基础的手腕，在一般情况下，足以掌控世界。路易十四在位大部分时期，不仅在欧洲，而且在全世界都被认为是圣君的最完美典范。然而他凭借何德何能才享有如此盛誉？凭借的是他在宏图大业中秉持的审慎坚定的公正原则？还是宏图大业所经历的巨大危险和困难？还是他在追求事业中所具备的坚持不懈，百折不挠的毅力？抑或是广博的学识？或是精准的判断？或是英雄气概？不过全然不是所有这些高贵的品质。首先，他是欧洲最强势的君主，因而能独霸王中之王的宝座；然后才像研究他的历史学家所说：“他仪表堂堂，气质优雅，使所有朝臣相形见绌。他的声音华贵煽情，征服了所有那些在他面前诚惶诚恐的心。他的一投足一举指，都只适于他自己以及与他档次相同者，如若生搬硬套于其他任何人，那将会荒诞无稽。与他说话者都会被置于尴尬的境地，他因之自认不可一世，为之自感窃喜不已。有一位年迈的军官在面前恳求恩赐是心慌意乱，语无伦次，最后实在说不下去，就说：陛下，我希望您相信我在您的死敌面前决不会发抖的，于是他便不费吹灰之力就得到了他所要求的。”这些微不足道的雕虫小技所赖以存在的不仅有他的等级，无疑也有某些其它方面似乎并不十分出众的才能和美德，然而正是这些才造就了这位一代天骄，使他不仅在他自己那个时代备受尊崇，即便后人忆及他时依然崇敬有加。就他自己那个时代以及他的表现而言，与这些雕虫小技相比，其它美德似乎并没有发挥任何作用。相形之下，知识、勤奋、勇气、仁慈、谦卑，统统显得苍白无力，全然失去应有的尊严。
6.
But it is not by accomplishments of this kind, that the man
of inferior rank must hope to distinguish himself. Politeness is
so much the virtue of the great, that it will do little honour to
any body but themselves. The coxcomb, who imitates their manner,
and affects to be eminent by the superior propriety of his
ordinary behaviour, is rewarded with a double share of contempt
for his folly and presumption.Why should the man, whom nobody
thinks it worth while to look at, be very anxious about the
manner in which he holds up his head, or disposes of his arms
while he walks through a room? He is occupied surely with a very
superfluous attention, and with an attention too that marks a
sense of his own importance, which no other mortal can go along
with. The most perfect modesty and plainness, joined to as much
negligence as is consistent with the respect due to the company,
ought to be the chief characteristics of the behaviour of a
private man. If ever he hopes to distinguish himself, it must be
by more important virtues. He must acquire dependants to balance
the dependants of the great, and he has no other fund to pay them
from, but the labour of his body, and the activity of his mind.
He must cultivate these therefore: he must acquire superior
knowledge in his profession, and superior industry in the
exercise of it. He must be patient in labour, resolute in danger,
and firm in distress. These talents he must bring into public
view, by the difficulty, importance, and, at the same time, good
judgment of his undertakings, and by the severe and unrelenting
application with which he pursues them. Probity and prudence,
generosity and frankness, must characterize his behaviour upon
all ordinary occasions; and he must, at the same time, be forward
to engage in all those situations, in which it requires the
greatest talents and virtues to act with propriety, but in which
the greatest applause is to be acquired by those who can acquit
themselves with honour. With what impatience does the man of
spirit and ambition, who is depressed by his situation, look
round for some great opportunity to distinguish himself? No
circumstances, which can afford this, appear to him undesirable.
He even looks forward with satisfaction to the prospect of
foreign war, or civil dissension; and, with secret transport and
delight, sees through all the confusion and bloodshed which
attend them, the probability of those wished-for occasions
presenting themselves, in which he may draw upon himself the
attention and admiration of mankind. The man of rank and
distinction, on the contrary, whose whole glory consists in the
propriety of his ordinary behaviour, who is contented with the
humble renown which this can afford him, and has no talents to
acquire any other, is unwilling to embarrass himself with what
can be attended either with difficulty or distress. To figure at
a ball is his great triumph, and to succeed in an intrigue of
gallantry, his highest exploit. He has an aversion to all public
confusions, not from the love of mankind, for the great never
look upon their inferiors as their fellow-creatures; nor yet from
want of courage, for in that he is seldom defective; but from a
consciousness that he possesses none of the virtues which are
required in such situations, and that the public attention will
certainly be drawn away from him by others. He may be willing to
expose himself to some little danger, and to make a campaign when
it happens to be the fashion. But he shudders with horror at the
thought of any situation which demands the continual and long
exertion of patience, industry, fortitude, and application of
thought. These virtues are hardly ever to be met with in men who
are born to those high stations. In all governments accordingly,
even in monarchies, the highest offices are generally possessed,
and the whole detail of the administration conducted, by men who
were educated in the middle and inferior ranks of life, who have
been carried forward by their own industry and abilities, though
loaded with the jealousy, and opposed by the resentment, of all
those who were born their superiors, and to whom the great, after
having regarded them first with contempt, and afterwards with
envy, are at last contented to truckle with the same abject
meanness with which they desire that the rest of mankind should
behave to themselves.
然而地位卑微者要想咸鱼翻身绝然不能指望这些雕虫小技。彬彬有礼是大人物最重要的美德，而这除了给他们自己之外，不会给其他任何人带来荣誉。那些纨绔子弟的表现乏善可陈，但却能恰如其分地西施效颦，假作超凡脱俗，但最终却因自己的愚昧无知和傲岸无羁遭到世人的鄙视。为什么一个被认为不屑一顾的人，穿堂过室的时候却为自己昂首挥臂的风度大伤脑筋？他一定是太注重别人的注意，而且认为别人的注意就表明自己重要，然而他这些想法根本得不到任何人的苟同。谦虚质朴，不拘小节，尊重他人，所有这些尽善尽美的品质才应该是一个平民百姓行为的主要特征。如果他希望自己出类拔萃，一些更加重要的美德是不可或缺的。他必须有自己的扈从，以抗衡那位伟人的扈从，但他除了劳其筋骨，苦其心志之外，没有其它任何资本用以酬劳自己的扈从。因此他必须培养如下这些品质：他不仅必须具备足够的专业知识，也必须在运用这些知识方面表现出超人的勤勉。他必须做到劳苦时坚忍不拔，危险时信心百倍，痛苦时矢志不移。他不仅必须通过自己在事业中所克服的困难，所表现的重要性，以及所做的正确判断，而且还应该通过追求事业所表现的专心致志，来使公众看到这些才能。正直、谦虚、慷慨、坦率，在普通情况之下，必然会使他的行为个性化；与此同时，他必定会乐于从事这样一些情况，即：必须才华横溢，行为才能得体，只有德高望重才能大受欢迎。一个身处困境然而雄心勃勃的人，凭借怎样的耐心在寻求出人头地的良机？能提供这种机会的任何环境对他来讲都是求之不得的。他甚至心满意足地巴望内忧外患；暗自狂喜地关注应运而生的一切天下大乱与流血事件、关注自己所渴望的那种能被世人关注与青睐的机会是否有出现的可能。相反，有头有脸的人物，他的全部荣耀都集中体现在自己日常极为得体的行为中，他满足于由此换取的绝无仅有的谦卑之誉，他缺乏赖以支撑更多奢望的才能，他不愿使自己陷入艰难困苦的尴尬境地。在一场舞会上出尽风头，就是他巨大的胜利，在一桩勾心斗角的风流韵事中旗开得胜，就是他最辉煌的成就。他厌恶一切民众骚乱，这并非出于对人类的爱，因为大人物从来不把比自己差的人视为同类；也非因为缺乏勇气，因为在煽风点火引发骚乱方面，他罕有无能失利时候；而是因为他意识到自己并不具备应对这种情况应有的美德，而且公众的眼球也必将从他身上被吸引到别人身上。他也许会愿意面对一些小的危险，并在恰好是时髦的时候有所作为。然而当他想到那些需要持续奋斗、坚韧不拔、勤奋果敢以及专心致志的情况是，便会因惊恐万状而战栗。那些出身高贵的人几乎从来不知上述美德为何物。因此，在所有政府，乃至君主国中，最高权位的掌控者，整个行政机构各个细部的运作者，都是那些只具备中下等教育的人，他们凭借自己的勤奋和能力不断进取，大人物对他们先是鄙视，后是嫉妒，可最终却以卑鄙的心态对他们心悦诚服，而所有这些，都是他们希望别人对他们所采取的态度。
7.
It is the loss of this easy empire over the affections of
mankind which renders the fall from greatness so insupportable.
When the family of the king of Macedon was led in triumph by
Paulus Aemilius, their misfortunes, it is said, made them divide
with their conqueror the attention of the Roman people. The sight
of the royal children, whose tender age rendered them insensible
of their situation, struck the spectators, amidst the public
rejoicings and prosperity, with the tenderest sorrow and
compassion. The king appeared next in the procession; and seemed
like one confounded and astonished, and bereft of all sentiment,
by the greatness of his calamities. His friends and ministers
followed after him. As they moved along, they often cast their
eyes upon their fallen sovereign, and always burst into tears at
the sight; their whole behaviour demonstrating that they thought
not of their own misfortunes, but were occupied entirely by the
superior greatness of his. The generous Romans, on the contrary,
beheld him with disdain and indignation, and regarded as unworthy
of all compassion the man who could be so mean-spirited as to
bear to live under such calamities. Yet what did those calamities
amount to? According to the greater part of historians, he was to
spend the remainder of his days, under the protection of a
powerful and humane people, in a state which in itself should
seem worthy of envy, a state of plenty, ease, leisure, and
security, from which it was impossible for him even by his own
folly to fall. But he was no longer to be surrounded by that
admiring mob of fools, flatterers, and dependants, who had
formerly been accustomed to attend upon all his motions. He was
no longer to be gazed upon by multitudes, nor to have it in his
power to render himself the object of their respect, their
gratitude, their love, their admiration. The passions of nations
were no longer to mould themselves upon his inclinations. This
was that insupportable calamity which bereaved the king of all
sentiment; which made his friends forget their own misfortunes;
and which the Roman magnanimity could scarce conceive how any man
could be so mean-spirited as to bear to survive.
正是因为对情感失控，人们才对失去高位感到难以忍受。当保卢斯。埃米利乌斯以胜利者姿态将马其顿国王一家带走时，据说他们就以自己的不幸把罗马人的注意力从征服者身上吸引到了自己身上。皇家的儿童因年幼无知而不知自己的处境，旁观者在一片欢乐气氛中看到他们的时候，都被他们淡淡的哀伤和柔情所感动。在行列中随后出现的就是国王，看上去惊恐万状，巨大的灾难使他变得麻木不仁。亲朋大臣紧随其后。他们在行进中经常把自己的目光投向那位威风扫地的国王，一看到他就潸然泪下；其行为表明他们所想的并非自己如何不幸，而是国王的灾难有多大。相反，高贵的罗马人则态度鄙夷，怒火中烧，觉得国王根本不值得怜悯，因为他在大难当头之际居然低贱到忍辱求生。然而这些灾难是什么呢？根据大多数历史学家的记载，他在一个慈悲为怀的伟大民族保护之下度过余生，其处境本身简直令人羡慕，那是一种富足、舒适、安全的环境，即便他愚蠢之至，也不可能在这种环境中沉沦下去。只是再也没有从前那班阿谀奉承的笨伯以及围着他团团转的附庸人簇拥在身旁。他再也不是万众瞩目的焦点，再也不会因自己的权势而成为他们崇敬、感激、爱戴和钦佩的目标。民族的激情再也不按照他的意愿而塑造自己。这就是使那位国王情感枯竭、无法忍受的灾难，也正是这种灾难，不仅使他的友人忘记各自的不幸，也使品质高尚的罗马人几乎无法想像竟然有人卑鄙到屈辱求生。
8.
'Love,' says my Lord Rochfaucault, 'is commonly succeeded by
ambition; but ambition is hardly ever succeeded by love.' That
passion, when once it has got entire possession of the breast,
will admit neither a rival nor a successor. To those who have
been accustomed to the possession, or even to the hope of public
admiration, all other pleasures sicken and decay. Of all the
discarded statesmen who for their own ease have studied to get
the better of ambition, and to despise those honours which they
could no longer arrive at, how few have been able to succeed? The
greater part have spent their time in the most listless and
insipid indolence, chagrined at the thoughts of their own
insignificancy, incapable of being interested i n the occupations
of private life, without enjoyment, except when they talked of
their former greatness, and without satisfaction, except when
they were employed in some vain project to recover it. Are you in
earnest resolved never to barter your liberty for the lordly
servitude of a court, but to live free, fearless, and
independent? There seems to be one way to continue in that
virtuous resolution; and perhaps but one. Never enter the place
from whence so few have been able to return; never come within
the circle of ambition; nor ever bring yourself into comparison
with those masters of the earth who have already engrossed the
attention of half mankind before you.
“爱心通常会被野心取代，野心却几乎从未被爱心取代过，”罗斯福哥公爵如是说。一旦被这种激情占据头脑，他们就无法容纳对手和继任者。对那些惯于赢得，甚至希望赢得公众溢美之词者来说，除此之外的任何其它乐事统统味同嚼蜡。一些遭到唾弃的政客，为求得自我宽慰，也曾潜心钻研该如何战胜野心，试图不再在乎那些一去不复返的荣耀，然而成功者何其少矣！大多是无精打采，怠惰慵懒，得过且过，虚度时光。此时此刻，身卑言微，从私人私事中无从获得乐趣，除了对往昔那些伟大之处津津乐道之外，简直无聊至极，除了忙于那些旨在恢复昔日天堂的徒劳无益的计划之外，无法达到心满意足。一想到所有这些，他们就会懊恼至极。你是否已经决心不以自由换取耀武扬威的廷臣之职，而是自由自在、毫无惧色、独立自主地生活？如果你想继续实现自己的决心，似乎有一条，而且是绝无仅有的一条路可走。切莫进入只有少数人才有退身之步的地方；切莫跻身野心家充斥的领域；切勿与那些早已在你之前就已为半数世人所瞩目的世界主宰者一比高下。
在人们的想像当中，能博得他人同情心，引起他人关注的位置问题至关重要。于是，将市政高官妻子们分成三六九等的席位，便成为大多人一生追求的目标，而且也因此而成为一切骚乱动荡，一切巧取豪夺与纷争不公的根源，从而使这个世界充满贪婪和野心。据说理智的人确实不把地位位看在眼里，也就是说，他们不愿坐在首席的位置，对于因一些细琐小事被当众指责并不放在心上，因为他们觉得即使一些微乎其微的好事也能抵消其影响。然而谁也不会轻视地位的高低以及是否能够做到出类拔萃，除非他大幅超越或低于人性的普通标准；除非他并非像自己因行为得体而赢得他人认可时自认为的那样聪明和富有哲理性，虽然他对此既不在乎，也不认可，但却并不重要；或者是因为他早已习惯于微卑庸碌，懒散淡漠，以致忘掉对志向及优越地位的追求。
9.
Of such mighty importance does it appear to be, in the
imaginations of men, to stand in that situation which sets them
most in the view of general sympathy and attention. And thus,
place, that great object which divides the wives of aldermen, is
the end of half the labours of human life; and is the cause of
all the tumult and bustle, all the rapine and injustice, which
avarice and ambition have introduced into this world. People of
sense, it is said, indeed despise place; that is, they despise
sitting at the head of the table, and are indifferent who it is
that is pointed out to the company by that frivolous
circumstance, which the smallest advantage is capable of
overbalancing. But rank, distinction pre-eminence, no man
despises, unless he is either raised very much above, or sunk
very much below, the ordinary standard of human nature; unless he
is either so confirmed in wisdom and real philosophy, as to be
satisfied that, while the propriety of his conduct renders him
the just object of approbation, it is of little consequence
though he be neither attended to, nor approved of; or so
habituated to the idea of his own meanness, so sunk in slothful
and sottish indifference, as entirely to have forgot the desire,
and almost the very wish, for superiority.
在人们的想像当中，能博得他人同情心，引起他人关注的位置问题至关重要。于是，将市政高官妻子们分成三六九等的席位，便成为大多人一生追求的目标，而且也因此而成为一切骚乱动荡，一切巧取豪夺与纷争不公的根源，从而使这个世界充满贪婪和野心。据说理智的人确实不把地位看在眼里，也就是说，他们不愿坐在首席的位置，对于因一些细琐小事被当众指责并不放在心上，因为他们觉得即使一些微乎其微的好事也能抵消其影响。然而谁也不会轻视地位的高低以及是否能够做到出类拔萃，除非他大幅超越或低于人性的普通标准；除非他并非像自己因行为得体而赢得他人认可时自认为的那样聪明和富有哲理性，虽然他对此既不在乎，也不认可，但却并不重要；或者是因为他早已习惯于微卑庸碌，懒散淡漠，以致忘掉对志向及优越地位的追求。
10.
As to become the natural object of the joyous congratulations
and sympathetic attentions of mankind is, in this manner, the
circumstance which gives to prosperity all its dazzling
splendour; so nothing darkens so much the gloom of adversity as
to feel that our misfortunes are the objects, not of the
fellow-feeling, but of the contempt and aversion of our brethren.
It is upon this account that the most dreadful calamities are not
always those which it is most difficult to support. It is often
more mortifying to appear in public under small disasters, than
under great misfortunes. The first excite no sympathy; but the
second, though they may excite none that approaches to the
anguish of the sufferer, call forth, however, a very lively
compassion. The sentiments of the spectators are, in this last
case, less wide of those of the sufferer, and their imperfect
fellow-feeling lends him some assistance in supporting his
misery. Before a gay assembly, a gentleman would be more
mortified to appear covered with filth and rags than with blood
and wounds. This last situation would interest their pity; the
other would provoke their laughter. The judge who orders a
criminal to be set in the pillory, dishonours him more than if he
had condemned him to the scaffold. The great prince, who, some
years ago, caned a general officer at the head of his army,
disgraced him irrecoverably. The punishment would have been much
less had he shot him through the body. By the laws of honour, to
strike with a cane dishonours, to strike with a sword does not,
for an obvious reason. Those slighter punishments, when inflicted
on a gentleman, to whom dishonour is the greatest of all evils,
come to be regarded among a humane and generous people, as the
most dreadful of any. With regard to persons of that rank,
therefore, they are universally laid aside, and the law, while it
takes their life upon many occasions, respects their honour upon
almost all. To scourge a person of quality, or to set him in the
pillory, upon account of any crime whatever, is a brutality of
which no European government, except that of Russia, is capable.
成为他人兴高采烈祝贺或者同情关注的目标，从这种意义上看，才使得成功变得光芒四射，耀眼夺目；而如果感到我们的不幸变成自己同事鄙视和厌恶的目标，则是最令人沮丧郁闷的。正是因为如此，最可怕的灾难并非总是最难以忍受。如果在公众面前你显得只是蒙受小灾小难，而不是大祸临头，其实这样更没有面子。前者不能激发同情心，而后者，虽然可能不会使他人的感受近似于受害者遭受的痛苦，但却会激发一种强烈的同情心。在最后一种情况下，旁观者的情感比受苦者的要逊色，不过即使他们的同情并不完美，也毕竟能为受苦者忍受痛苦提供帮助。在欢乐的集会前，一位君子如果穿装打扮邋邋遢遢，这要比满身鲜血和伤痕更丢面子。这最后一种情况将会引发同情心；而另外一种则会招致嘲笑。一位法官下令给一名犯人戴上枷锁，比判处他去上断头台要丢脸得多。圣君几年前当着自己军队的面鞭笞一位普通军官，这使他蒙受了永远也无法消除的耻辱。如果他开枪将他穿个透心凉，那惩罚就小得多。根据荣辱观念，遭杖策可耻，被剑刺却不然，其理由显而易见。那些最轻微的惩罚被施加到一位视耻辱为最大不幸的君子身上时，就会被那些颇具人情味的绅士们认为是最可怕的。那个等级的人通常都受不到重视，但是法律却不然，在许多情况下按照法律而结束他们生命时，依然要求人们尊重他们的名誉。无论因为什么罪过原因，鞭打一位品质高尚的人，或者将他推上断头台，除俄罗斯政府，是没有任何一个欧洲国家政府会这样做。
11.
A brave man is not rendered contemptible by being brought to
the scaffold; he is, by being set in the pillory. His behaviour
in the one situation may gain him universal esteem and
admiration. No behaviour in the other can render him agreeable.
The sympathy of the spectators supports him in the one case, and
saves him from that shame, that consciousness that his misery is
felt by himself only, which is of all sentiments the most
unsupportable. There is no sympathy in the other; or, if there is
any, it is not with his pain, which is a trifle, but with his
consciousness of the want of sympathy with which this pain is
attended. It is with his shame, not with his sorrow. Those who
pity him, blush and hang down their heads for him. He droops in
the same manner, and feels himself irrecoverably degraded by the
punishment, though not by the crime. The man, on the contrary,
who dies with resolution, as he is naturally regarded with the
erect aspect of esteem and approbation, so he wears himself the
same undaunted countenance; and, if the crime does not deprive
him of the respect of others, the punishment never will. He has
no suspicion that his situation is the object of contempt or
derision to any body, and he can, with propriety, assume the air,
not only of perfect serenity, but of triumph and exultation.
勇敢的人被带上断头台并不会使他变得为人所不耻，然而被戴上枷锁却会如此。他处于前一种情况时的行为可能会赢得普遍敬重与钦佩。处于后一种情况时，无论他的行为如何也不会使他变得令人愉快。旁观者的同情在第一种情况中支持他，使他既免遭耻辱，又不会认为他那些情何以堪的痛苦只有他自己才能感知。第二种情况并不存在同情心；即便存在，也并非因为他有微不足道的痛苦，而是因为他意识到需要借以抚慰痛苦的怜悯之心。这种怜悯之心因其蒙受的耻辱而生，并非因其忍受的悲痛而起。同情他的人为他感到羞愧之至，难以抬头。他感到自己因遭到惩罚而彻底身败名裂，虽然并非因为犯罪，但他同样萎靡不振。相反，那个英勇捐躯的人，因为他自然会备受崇敬，所以神态自若，无所畏惧；而如果连罪行都无法剥夺别人对他的尊崇，更遑论惩罚了。他不怀疑自己的情况会遭到他人的鄙视与嘲笑，但他却能恰到好处地表现出那种不仅泰然自若，而且充满胜利喜悦的神情。
12.
'Great dangers,' says the Cardinal de Retz, 'have their
charms, because there is some glory to be got, even when we
miscarry. But moderate dangers have nothing but what is horrible,
because the loss of reputation always attends the want of
success.' His maxim has the same foundation with what we have
been just now observing with regard to punishments.
卡迪纳尔。德。雷斯说：“巨大的危险自有迷人之处，因为即便失败，依然虽败犹荣。然而一般的危险则只能令人惊恐万状，因为名裂与身败总是相互依伴。”他的至理名言，和我们现在正讨论的惩罚问题，都建立在相同的基础之上。
13.
Human virtue is superior to pain, to poverty, to danger, and
to death; nor does it even require its utmost efforts do despise
them. But to have its misery exposed to insult and derision, to
be led in triumph, to be set up for the hand of scorn to point
at, is a situation in which its constancy is much more apt to
fail. Compared with the contempt of mankind, all other external
evils are easily supported.
人格超越痛苦、贫困、危险及死亡；对所有这些置若罔闻并不难。然而一个人的痛苦如果遭受凌辱与鄙视，被得胜者操控，置身于千夫所指的境地，其人格就难于始终如一地立于不败之地。与人格受辱相比，其它所有外界伤害都易于忍受。
Chap. III
Of the corruption of our moral sentiments, which is occasioned by
this disposition to admire the rich and the great, and to despise
or neglect persons of poor and mean condition
第三章 论嫌贫爱富、仰慕大人物、鄙夷小人物的倾向导致的道德情操之腐败
1.
This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich
and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect
persons of poor and mean condition, though necessary both to
establish and to maintain the distinction of ranks and the order
of society, is, at the same time, the great and most universal
cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments. That wealth and
greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration
which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that the contempt,
of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is often
most unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the
complaint of moralists in all ages.
对有钱有势者仰慕，几乎是崇拜的倾向，对贫穷和地位卑微者的鄙夷，至少是怠慢的倾向，虽然在建立和维护等级制度和社会秩序方面来说是必要的，但与此同时却也是导致我们道德情操腐败的重要而极其普遍的原因。富有和显赫经常受到只有智慧与美德才能赢得的尊敬与钦佩；只有以邪恶与愚蠢为适当对象的鄙视态度，经常极不公正地落在贫困与弱势者头上；这两种倾向历来备受道德家的诟病。
2.
We desire both to be respectable and to be respected. We
dread both to be contemptible and to be contemned. But, upon
coming into the world, we soon find that wisdom and virtue are by
no means the sole objects of respect; nor vice and folly, of
contempt. We frequently see the respectful attentions of the
world more strongly directed towards the rich and the great, than
towards the wise and the virtuous. We see frequently the vices
and follies of the powerful much less despised than the poverty
and weakness of the innocent. To deserve, to acquire, and to
enjoy the respect and admiration of mankind, are the great
objects of ambition and emulation. Two different roads are
presented to us, equally leading to the attainment of this so
much desired object; the one, by the study of wisdom and the
practice of virtue; the other, by the acquisition of wealth and
greatness. Two different characters are presented to our
emulation; the one, of proud ambition and ostentatious avidity.
the other, of humble modesty and equitable justice. Two different
models, two different pictures, are held out to us, according to
which we may fashion our own character and behaviour; the one
more gaudy and glittering in its colouring; the other more
correct and more exquisitely beautiful in its outline: the one
forcing itself upon the notice of every wandering eye; the other,
attracting the attention of scarce any body but the most studious
and careful observer. They are the wise and the virtuous chiefly,
a select, though, I am afraid, but a small party, who are the
real and steady admirers of wisdom and virtue. The great mob of
mankind are the admirers and worshippers, and, what may seem more
extraordinary, most frequently the disinterested admirers and
worshippers, of wealth and greatness.
我们渴望自己的表现令人尊重，并因而备受尊重。我们担心自己的表现令人鄙视，并因而备受鄙视。然而，自从我们来到这个世界，我们经常发现智慧与美德绝然不是被尊崇的唯一对象；而邪恶与愚钝亦非被蔑视的唯一对象。我们经常看到世人不无敬意的注意力，都径直地集中到腰缠万贯与地位显赫者，而不是睿智超群与德高望重者。我们经常看到邪恶愚钝的强者所遭受的鄙视，远远少于贫困无辜的弱者。值得、赢得、享受他人的尊敬与钦佩是人们雄心壮志与你争我夺的宏伟目标。有两条路摆在我们面前，同样都可以实现自己渴望的目标；一条是研究德高望重者的才智与实践；另一条是获得万贯财产与显赫地位。你争我夺体现两种不同的品格：其一，野心勃勃，贪得无厌；其二，谦卑恭敬，公平公正。两种不同的类型与两种不同的图景展现在我们面前，我们据此与时俱进地规范自己的品格与行为；一种色彩绚丽多姿，华丽无比，另一种则更加精准无误，美仑美奂；一种强行将自己置于众人恍惚迷离的眼球之前；另一种则吸引除热心细致的旁观者之外几乎任何人的注意力。他们德智双馨，虽然在我看来他们恐怕只是一个小小的群体，但他们确实是智慧与美德真正而稳定的仰慕者。而普罗大众则只是财富与显贵的仰慕与崇拜者，而看起来最令人大跌眼镜的惊人之处是，他们往往一碗水端平，都是不偏不倚的仰慕者与崇拜者。
3.
The respect which we feel for wisdom and virtue is, no doubt,
different from that which we conceive for wealth and greatness;
and it requires no very nice discernment to distinguish the
difference. But, notwithstanding this difference, those
sentiments bear a very considerable resemblance to one another.
In some particular features they are, no doubt, different, but,
in the general air of the countenance, they seem to be so very
nearly the same, that inattentive observers are very apt to
mistake the one for the other.
我们对智慧与美德所感觉的崇敬之情，无疑有别于对财富和显贵所设怀有的同样情感；将二者区别开来无需太强的辨别能力。然而，即便存在这种区别，那些情感之间依然存在相当可观的形似之处。在某些特性方面无疑存在区别，但在一般外部表现方面，二者看来几乎毫无二致，以致粗心的观察者极易将二者混淆。
4．
In equal degrees of merit there is scarce any man who does
not respect more the rich and the great, than the poor and the
humble. With most men the presumption and vanity of the former
are much more admired, than the real and solid merit of the
latter. It is scarce agreeable to good morals, or even to good
language, perhaps, to say, that mere wealth and greatness,
abstracted from merit and virtue, deserve our respect. We must
acknowledge, however, that they almost constantly obtain it; and
that they may, therefore, be considered as, in some respects, the
natural objects of it. Those exalted stations may, no doubt, be
completely degraded by vice and folly. But the vice and folly
must be very great, before they can operate this complete
degradation. The profligacy of a man of fashion is looked upon
with much less contempt and aversion, than that of a man of
meaner condition. In the latter, a single transgression of the
rules of temperance and propriety, is commonly more resented,
than the constant and avowed contempt of them ever is in the
former.
若以等量价值观来衡量，很少有人不对富人和显贵怀有超过对贫穷和卑微者所怀的崇敬之情。在大多数人看来，前者的专横与虚荣要比后者货真价实的价值更值得尊崇。如若撇开贤德而论，比如说，只有财富与显贵才值得我们崇敬，这对美好的品德，乃至美好的语言来讲，简直就是亵渎。然而我们必须承认，富人与显贵从来都是备受尊崇的；因此在某些情况下，他们会被认为是理所当然的尊崇对象。毫无疑问，那些尊贵的高位全然被邪恶与愚钝所贬损。但是，邪恶与愚钝在导致这种彻底贬损之前，也必须很有实力。有头有脸的人物行为不检遭到的鄙夷要比地位微卑者要少。对行为规范，后者稍有出轨通常都会激起公愤，然而前者经常公然地冒犯，但却很少遭到鄙视。
5．
In the middling and inferior stations of life, the road to
virtue and that to fortune, to such fortune, at least, as men in
such stations can reasonably expect to acquire, are, happily in
most cases, very nearly the same. In all the middling and
inferior professions, real and solid professional abilities,
joined to prudent, just, firm, and temperate conduct, can very
seldom fail of success. Abilities will even sometimes prevail
where the conduct is by no means correct. Either habitual
imprudence, however, or injustice, or weakness, or profligacy,
will always cloud, and sometimes depress altogether, the most
splendid professional abilities.Men in the inferior and middling
stations of life, besides, can never be great enough to be above
the law, which must generally overawe them into some sort of
respect for, at least, the more important rules of justice. The
success of such people, too, almost always depends upon the
favour and good opinion of their neighbours and equals; and
without a tolerably regular conduct these can very seldom be
obtained. The good old proverb, therefore, That honesty is the
best policy, holds, in such situations, almost always perfectly
true. In such situations, therefore, we may generally expect a
considerable degree of virtue; and, fortunately for the good
morals of society, these are the situations of by far the greater
part of mankind.
可喜的是，中低等阶层的人，通向道德与财富之路，在大多数情况下几乎相同，当然这些财富通常都是这一阶层的人在合情合理的原则下所期望得到的。在所有中低等职业领域内，真才实学与谨慎、正直、坚毅和得体的表现相结合，很少有不成功的。有时甚至在行为及其不端的情况下，才能依然无往不胜。然而无论是惯常的寡廉鲜耻、不仁不义、怯懦软弱、抑或放荡无羁，却总会使极其杰出的职业才能黯然失色，有时甚至会彻底毁掉。此外，处于中低阶层的人无论多么了不起，也永远不能超越法规，而这些法规一般来讲在某些情况下总会对他们形成威慑，迫使他们去尊重那些更重要的法规。这种人的成功几乎总是取决于邻居和地位相同者的美言；不采取任何常规行动，这些都很少能够获得成功。常言道：诚实为上策，这句美妙的古语在这种情况下几乎总是极其正确。因此，同样是在这种情况下，我们一般都会期待人们具备这种的美德；所幸的是，良好的社会道德，正是迄今为止大多数人所达到的境界。
6．
In the superior stations of life the case is unhappily not
always the same. In the courts of princes, in the drawing-rooms
of the great, where success and preferment depend, not upon the
esteem of intelligent and well-informed equals, but upon the
fanciful and foolish favour of ignorant, presumptuous, and proud
superiors; flattery and falsehood too often prevail over merit
and abilities. In such societies the abilities to please, are
more regarded than the abilities to serve. In quiet and peaceable
times, when the storm is at a distance, the prince, or great man,
wishes only to be amused, and is even apt to fancy that he has
scarce any occasion for the service of any body, or that those
who amuse him are sufficiently able to serve him. The external
graces, the frivolous accomplishments of that impertinent and
foolish thing called a man of fashion, are commonly more admired
than the solid and masculine virtues of a warrior, a statesman, a
philosopher, or a legislator. All the great and awful virtues,
all the virtues which can fit, either for the council, the
senate, or the field, are, by the insolent and insignificant
flatterers, who commonly figure the most in such corrupted
societies, held in the utmost contempt and derision. When the
duke of Sully was called upon by Lewis the Thirteenth, to give
his advice in some great emergency, he observed the favourites
and courtiers whispering to one another, and smiling at his
unfashionable appearance. 'Whenever your majesty's father,' said
the old warrior and statesman, 'did me the honour to consult me,
he ordered the buffoons of the court to retire into the
antechamber.'
令人遗憾的是，高层次人士的情况并非总是相同。在宫廷显贵的客厅内，成功与擢升并非取决于对那些在学识方面与自己旗鼓相当者的尊敬，而是取决于对那些孤陋寡闻、专横跋扈、桀骜不驯的上司之怪诞愚蠢的恩赐；阿谀奉承与弄虚作假往往比特长与才能更吃香。在这样的社会内，取悦于人的伎俩要比办事才能更受关注。在宁静祥和的环境中，在风暴尚远的时期，君主或显贵渴求的只是享乐，极易陷入空想，认为自己鲜有服务他人的理由，而那些投其所好的人足能为他效劳。凭借做蠢事所显示的表面风度与浅薄成绩，一个人便可以被誉为上等人，而所有这些，通常要比一位武士、一位政治家、一位哲学家、一位议员气宇轩昂的美德更受尊崇。一切崇高美德，所有那些既适于议会、国会，又适于村野乡间的美德，都被那些占据这个腐败社会成员大多数的妄自尊大，然而极其猥琐微卑的小人看作是最可鄙视与嘲笑的。苏利公爵被路易十三召见为应对紧急状况献计献策时，看到国王的心腹廷臣们交头接耳、窃窃私语，嘲笑他不合时宜的外表。这位年迈的武士兼政治家便说：“老臣当年荣获陛下父王宠召献策时，都要命令庭上诸般小丑退入前庭。”
7．
It is from our disposition to admire, and consequently to
imitate, the rich and the great, that they are enabled to set, or
to lead what is called the fashion. Their dress is the
fashionable dress; the language of their conversation, the
fashionable style; their air and deportment, the fashionable
behaviour. Even their vices and follies are fashionable; and the
greater part of men are proud to imitate and resemble them in the
very qualities which dishonour and degrade them. Vain men often
give themselves airs of a fashionable profligacy, which, in their
hearts, they do not approve of, and of which, perhaps, they are
really not guilty. They desire to be praised for what they
themselves do not think praise-worthy, and are ashamed of
unfashionable virtues which they sometimes practise in secret,
and for which they have secretly some degree of real veneration.
There are hypocrites of wealth and greatness, as well as of
religion and virtue; and a vain man is as apt to pretend to be
what he is not, in the one way, as a cunning man is in the other.
He assumes the equipage and splendid way of living of his
superiors, without considering that whatever may be praise-worthy
in any of these, derives its whole merit and propriety from its
suitableness to that situation and fortune which both require and
can easily support the expence. Many a poor man places his glory
in being thought rich, without considering that the duties (if
one may call such follies by so very venerable a name) which that
reputation imposes upon him, must soon reduce him to beggary, and
render his situation still more unlike that of those whom he
admires and imitates, than it had been originally.
由于我们有仰慕和模仿富翁伟人的倾向，他们才得以树立并引领所谓的时尚。他们的服装成为时装，他们的语言成为时髦语，他们的神态举止成为时尚仪表。就连他们的劣迹蠢行都带有时尚色彩；对于导致他们名誉受损、档次遭贬的品质，大多人都以模仿和类似为荣。虚荣浮夸之徒动辄流露出放荡恣肆的时髦神态，其实对于这些，他们在内心中并不赞同，但也许并不真的为此感到内疚。他们渴望因为自己并不认为值得赞赏的东西而得到赞许，他们为那些并非时尚但有时却私下坚持的美德感到惭愧，为那些暗自有几分真心敬意的美德感到内疚。世间既存在腰缠万贯、声名显赫的伪君子，也存在笃信宗教、不无勇气的伪君子；一个愚蠢自负之徒以某种方式掩饰原形，如同一个狡诈无赖之辈以另一种方式伪装假相。他只凭空猜想优于己者的服饰与生活方式，并不考虑这些人值得赞许的一切都来自与地位和财富状况相称的美德与仪态，而维护各自的地位与财富需要开支，但他们担负得起。很多穷人都因为被认为是富人而感到荣耀，但不考虑那种荣耀赋予他们的义务（如果人们可以将如此崇高的称谓赋予这种蠢行）必定会很快就使其沦为乞丐，并使其地位越发不如原来那样接近自己所敬仰与模仿的人。
8．
To attain to this envied situation, the candidates for
fortune too frequently abandon the paths of virtue; for
unhappily, the road which leads to the one, and that which leads
to the other, lie sometimes in very opposite directions. But the
ambitious man flatters himself that, in the splendid situation to
which he advances, he will have so many means of commanding the
respect and admiration of mankind, and will be enabled to act
with such superior propriety and grace, that the lustre of his
future conduct will entirely cover, or efface, the foulness of
the steps by which he arrived at that elevation. In many
governments the candidates for the highest stations are above the
law; and, if they can attain the object of their ambition, they
have no fear of being called to account for the means by which
they acquired it. They often endeavour, therefore, not only by
fraud and falsehood, the ordinary and vulgar arts of intrigue and
cabal; but sometimes by the perpetration of the most enormous
crimes, by murder and assassination, by rebellion and civil war,
to supplant and destroy those who oppose or stand in the way of
their greatness. They more frequently miscarry than succeed; and
commonly gain nothing but the disgraceful punishment which is due
to their crimes. But, though they should be so lucky as to attain
that wished-for greatness, they are always most miserably
disappointed in the happiness which they expect to enjoy in it.
It is not ease or pleasure, but always honour, of one kind or
another, though frequently an honour very ill understood, that
the ambitious man really pursues. But the honour of his exalted
station appears, both in his own eyes and in those of other
people, polluted and defiled by the baseness of the means through
which he rose to it. Though by the profusion of every liberal
expence; though by excessive indulgence in every profligate
pleasure, the wretched, but usual, resource of ruined characters;
though by the hurry of public business, or by the prouder and
more dazzling tumult of war, he may endeavour to efface, both
from his own memory and from that of other people, the
remembrance of what he has done; that remembrance never fails to
pursue him. He invokes in vain the dark and dismal powers of
forgetfulness and oblivion. He remembers himself what he has
done, and that remembrance tells him that other people must
likewise remember it. Amidst all the gaudy pomp of the most
ostentatious greatness; amidst the venal and vile adulation of
the great and of the learned; amidst the more innocent, though
more foolish, acclamations of the common people; amidst all the
pride of conquest and the triumph of successful war, he is still
secretly pursued by the avenging furies of shame and remorse;
and, while glory seems to surround him on all sides, he himself,
in his own imagination, sees black and foul infamy fast pursuing
him, and every moment ready to overtake him from behind. Even the
great Caesar, though he had the magnanimity to dismiss his
guards, could not dismiss his suspicions. The remembrance of
Pharsalia still haunted and pursued him. When, at the request of
the senate, he had the generosity to pardon Marcellus, he told
that assembly, that he was not unaware of the designs which were
carrying on against his life; but that, as he had lived long
enough both for nature and for glory, he was contented to die,
and therefore despised all conspiracies. He had, perhaps, lived
long enough for nature. But the man who felt himself the object
of such deadly resentment, from those whose favour he wished to
gain, and whom he still wished to consider as his friends, had
certainly lived too long for real glory; or for all the happiness
which he could ever hope to enjoy in the love and esteem of his
equals.
要赢得这一令人艳羡的地位，追求财富者经常会放弃通往美德之路，因为很遗憾，通向财富之路，有时则与通向美德之路截然相反。不过野心勃勃的人不仅自认为在他能获得进取的显赫地位中，他将有很多方式可以帮助他博得人们的尊敬与钦佩，能够使自己的行为极其得体儒雅，而且他将来光彩夺目的表现，将会完全掩盖或忘却当初为达到那一高峰所迈出每一步时的越轨表现。在许多政府中，高位的追求者都凌驾于法律之上；只要能够满足自己的野心，他们不怕因自己采取的手段遭指责。于是他们经常使出浑身解数，不仅欺瞒诈骗，弄虚作假，阴谋诡计，结党营私，有时还不惜违法犯罪，谋杀行刺，及至叛乱内战，更有甚者，对反对者以及在他们通往辉煌之路上当道而立者更是无所不用其极，排斥打击，置之死地而后快。他们往往失败多于成功；由于自己的罪恶行径，通常都是除身败名裂，严遭惩罚之外一无所获。不过也有例外，他们有时竟然幸运至极，如愿以偿，显赫地位，唾手可得。但即便如此，他们也总是在沉湎于梦寐以求的欢乐时极端痛苦与失望。野心勃勃的人所真正追求的绝非安逸或快乐，而总是这种或那种的荣耀，虽然这种荣耀经常为人所误解。然而高位为其赢得的荣耀，无论在他自己眼中，还是在他人眼中早已因为缺乏赢得高位所采取的手段而被亵渎与玷污。虽然他们试图通过挥金如土、骄奢淫逸这些腐败堕落分子惯用的卑鄙伎俩，通过繁忙的公务，通过天翻地覆、令人目眩的战争，把对自己过去所作所为的记忆从自己和他人的脑海中抹掉，但是这种记忆却从来没有停止对他的纠缠。他们徒劳无益地求助于能遗忘过去的邪恶而神秘的力量。他记得自己的所作所为，那种记忆告诉他别人也同样记得。他在显赫地位展现的虚浮奢华中，在对大人物和智者展现的阿谀谄媚中，在普通人越天真越愚蠢的欢呼喝彩中，在战争胜利后作为征服者与胜利者的骄傲中，他依然被羞辱悔恨、报仇雪恨、怒火中烧之类的复杂情感诡秘地纠缠着；就在荣耀似乎已将他全面包围的时候，他自己却通过他本人的想象，看到幽暗丑陋的魔影对他穷追不舍，而且时时刻刻都准备超越他。即便是凯撒大帝，虽然宽宏大量，能够解除卫队，但却依然无法解除疑虑。对法赛利亚的记忆仍旧萦绕在他的脑际。当他在元老院的请求之下大度地赦免了马尔塞卢斯的时候，他告诉元老院，他对正在实施的针对他的夺命阴谋并非不知；然而，他已为神祗与荣耀足享天年，因此即便死亡也会心满意足，从而蔑视一切阴谋诡计。他也许为神祗早已足寿。然而，他感到自己早已成为希望给予他恩惠的人仇恨的目标，成为他依然希望当成朋友的人仇恨的目标，对于他来说，为了赢得真正的荣耀，或许还为了能从与他地位相当者的爱与尊敬中获得快乐，的确活得太久了。
