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《我的知识之路》第三章 教育的最后阶段 自学的初级阶段

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2020年08月11日

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CHAPTER III Last Stage Of Education, And First Of Self-Education

第三章 教育的最后阶段 自学的初级阶段

For the first year or two after my visit to France, I continued my old studies, with the addition of some new ones. When I returned, my father was just finishing for the press his Elements of Political Economy, and he made me perform an exercise on the manuscript, which Mr. Bentham practised on all his own writings, making what he called "marginal contents;" a short abstract of every paragraph, to enable the writer more easily to judge of, and improve, the order of the ideas, and the general character of the exposition. Soon after, my father put into my hands Condillac's Traité des Sensations, and the logical and metaphysical volumes of his Cours d'Etudes; the first (notwithstanding the superficial resemblance between Condillac's psychological system and my father's) quite as much for a warning as for an example. I am not sure whether it was in this winter or the next that I first read a history of the French Revolution. I learnt with astonishment, that the principles of democracy, then apparently in so insignificant and hopeless a minority everywhere in Europe, had borne all before them in France thirty years earlier, and had been the creed of the nation. As may be supposed from this, I had previously a very vague idea of that great commotion. I knew only that the French had thrown off the absolute monarchy of Louis XIV and XV, had put the King and Queen to death, guillotined many persons, one of whom was Lavoisier1, and had ultimately fallen under the despotism of Bonaparte2. From this time, as was natural, the subject took an immense hold of my feelings. It allied itself with all my juvenile aspirations to the character of a democratic champion. What had happened so lately, seemed as if it might easily happen again: and the most transcendent glory I was capable of conceiving, was that of figuring, successful or unsuccessful, as a Girondist3 in an English Convention.

从法国回来后的头一两年,我继续以前的学习,另外加了一些新东西。我回来的时候,父亲刚好为出版社写完了《政治经济学要义》,他让我在手稿上做一种练习,边沁先生在他自己的所有作品上都这么做,即写他所谓的“旁注”。就是给每段写很短的摘要,让作者能够更容易评判,并改善观点的条理性和阐述的总体特征。之后不久,父亲就让我读孔狄亚克的《感觉论》,还有他的《过程研究》的逻辑学卷和哲学卷;第一本书(尽管孔狄亚克和父亲的心理学体系表面上看起来类似)是个榜样,同样也是种告诫。我不记得到底是这一年还是第二年的冬天,我第一次读了法国大革命这段历史。我很吃惊地意识到,当时在全欧洲显然只有不足为道且毫无希望的少数人接受的民主原则,早在三十年前的法国就已经出现,而且成为这个国家的纲领。由此可以推断出,对那次伟大的起义,我先前只有很模糊的概念。我只知道,法国人推翻了路易十四和路易十五的独裁专政,杀死了国王和王后,把很多人处斩,其中还有拉瓦锡,但最终陷入波拿巴的专制统治。从这时起,这个主题很自然地大大占据了我的感情,并且与我年少时期有志于成为一名民主斗士的抱负紧紧联系在了一起。大革命的年代并不遥远,似乎很容易再次发生。我能够设想的至高无上的荣誉,就是在英国国民大会上扮演吉伦特党员的角色,不管成功与否。

During the winter of 1821—2, Mr. John Austin, with whom at the time of my visit to France my father had but lately become acquainted, kindly allowed me to read Roman law with him. My father, notwithstanding his abhorrence of the chaos of barbarism called English Law, had turned his thoughts towards the bar as on the whole less ineligible for me than any other profession: and these readings with Mr. Austin, who had made Bentham's best ideas his own, and added much to them from other sources and from his own mind, were not only a valuable introduction to legal studies, but an important portion of general education. With Mr. Austin I read Heineccius on the Institutes, his Roman Antiquities, and part of his exposition of the Pandects; to which was added a considerable portion of Blackstone. It was at the commencement of these studies that my father, as a needful accompaniment to them, put into my hands Bentham's principal speculations, as interpreted to the Continent, and indeed to all the world, by Dumont, in the Traité de Législation. The reading of this book was an epoch in my life; one of the turning points in my mental history.

1821年的冬天,在我去法国的时候,父亲刚刚结识的约翰.奥斯丁先生亲切地邀我和他一起读罗马法律。父亲尽管憎恨英国法律的混乱、愚昧,但也开始考虑让我向律师界发展,总体上来说,比起其他专业,我更有能力从事法律工作。奥斯丁先生汲取了边沁最精华的思想,并添加上很多别人和自己的见解。和他一起读书,不仅在法律学习的入门上很有价值,而且是我整个教育中非常重要的一部分。和奥斯丁先生一起,我读了海内克丘斯的《法学概要》和《罗马古代制度》以及他对《罗马法典》阐述的一部分,还要加上布莱克斯通的很大一部分著述。就在这些学习刚开始的时候,父亲让我读《立法论》,学习边沁主要思想,作为对它们的必要补充。杜蒙在这本书中向欧洲大陆,乃至整个世界阐释了边沁的思想。读这本书开创了我人生的一个新纪元,是我思想发展历程的转折点之一。

My previous education had been, in a certain sense, already a course of Benthamism4. The Benthamic standard of "the greatest happiness" was that which I had always been taught to apply; I was even familiar with an abstract discussion of it, forming an episode in an unpublished dialogue on Government, written by my father on the Platonic model. Yet in the first pages of Bentham it burst upon me with all the force of novelty. What thus impressed me was the chapter in which Bentham passed judgment on the common modes of reasoning in morals and legislation, deduced from phrases like "law of nature," "right reason," "the moral sense," "natural rectitude," and the like, and characterized them as dogmatism in disguise, imposing its sentiments upon others under cover of sounding expressions which convey no reason for the sentiment, but set up the sentiment as its own reason. It had not struck me before, that Bentham's principle put an end to all this. The feeling rushed upon me, that all previous moralists were superseded, and that here indeed was the commencement of a new era in thought. This impression was strengthened by the manner in which Bentham put into scientific form the application of the happiness principle to the morality of actions, by analysing the various classes and orders of their consequences. But what struck me at that time most of all, was the Classification of Offences; which is much more clear, compact, and imposing, in Dumont's rédaction than in the original work of Bentham from which it was taken. Logic and the dialectics of Plato, which had formed so large a part of my previous training, had given me a strong relish for accurate classification. This taste had been strengthened and enlightened by the study of botany, on the principles of what is called the Natural Method, which I had taken up with great zeal, though only as an amusement, during my stay in France; and when I found scientific classification applied to the great and complex subject of Punishable Acts, under the guidance of the ethical principle of Pleasurable and Painful Consequences, followed out in the method of detail introduced into these subjects by Bentham, I felt taken up to an eminence from which I could survey a vast mental domain, and see stretching out into the distance intellectual results beyond all computation. As I proceeded further, there seemed to be added to this intellectual clearness, the most inspiring prospects of practical improvement in human affairs. To Bentham's general views of the construction of a body of law I was not altogether a stranger, having read with attention that admirable compendium, my father's article "Jurisprudence": but I had read it with little profit, and scarcely any interest, no doubt from its extremely general and abstract character, and also because it concerned the form more than the substance of the corpus juris, the logic rather than the ethics of law. But Bentham's subject was Legislation, of which Jurisprudence is only the formal part: and at every page he seemed to open a clearer and broader conception of what human opinions and institutions ought to be, how they might be made what they ought to be, and how far removed from it they now are. When I laid down the last volume of the Traité I had become a different being. The "principle of utility" understood as Bentham understood it, and applied in the manner in which he applied it through these three volumes, fell exactly into its place as the keystone which held together the detached and fragmentary component parts of my knowledge and beliefs. It gave unity to my conceptions of things. I now had opinions; a creed, a doctrine, a philosophy; in one among the best senses of the word, a religion; the inculcation and diffusion of which could be made the principal outward purpose of a life. And I had a grand conception laid before me of changes to be effected in the condition of mankind through that doctrine. The Traité de Législation wound up with what was to me a most impressive picture of human life as it would be made by such opinions and such laws as were recommended in the treatise. The anticipations of practicable improvement were studiously moderate, deprecating and discountenancing as reveries of vague enthusiasm many things which will one day seem so natural to human beings, that injustice will probably be done to those who once thought them chimerical. But, in my state of mind, this appearance of superiority to illusion added to the effect which Bentham's doctrines produced on me, by heightening the impression of mental power. And the vista of improvement which he did open was sufficiently large and brilliant to light up my life, as well as to give a definite shape to my aspirations.

从某种意义上讲,我之前的教育,学的就已经是功利主义了。我一直被教导着去应用“最大幸福”的功利主义标准。我甚至熟悉关于功利主义的一次抽象讨论,是父亲未发表的《论政府》对话中的一段,讨论的是柏拉图模式。然而,边沁书中的前几页,充满了新奇的力量,让我眼前一亮。像这样让我印象深刻的是边沁评价道德和立法中的一般推理方式的那一章。这种推理是从“自然法则”“正确推理”“是非感”以及“天赋公正”之类的语句中推断出来的,边沁认为它们是伪装的教条主义,以空洞的口号当幌子,把观点强加到别人身上,但这些口号根本没有为这种观点传达理由,反而把观点本身当作理由。我之前从未想到过边沁的原则会结束所有这一切。我突然感觉到,以前的所有伦理学家都被他取代了,而在这儿,思想上的一个新纪元真正开始了。边沁把幸福原则应用于道德行为,通过分析各种类型的后果和它们的次序,使这一应用以科学的形式呈现出来,这种方式进一步加强了我的那种感觉。但是,当时最让我惊讶的是《犯罪分类》,而杜蒙以边沁的原作为基础写的《犯罪分类》(修订本),要比原作要清楚、简洁得多,让人印象深刻。柏拉图的逻辑学和辩证法,在我之前的训练中占据了相当大的比重,让我对精确分类非常感兴趣。这种爱好,由于依据自然方法的一些原则学习植物学而得以加强和启迪。我在法国暂住的时候,就满腔热情地开始运用自然方法,尽管只是作为一种消遣。当我发现,在快乐与痛苦的后果这一道德原则的指导下,把科学的分类应用于伟大、复杂的主题——该罚的行为,按照边沁引入这些主题的具体方法贯彻执行时,我觉得被提升到一种能俯瞰广阔的精神领域的高度,还能展望到无法估算的智力成果。随着探讨继续深入,在这种智力清晰之外,我似乎还看到了最鼓舞人心的人类事务切实进步的前景。边沁对于构建立法体系的总体思想,我并不十分陌生,因为我认真地读过父亲的文章《法理学》,这是篇极好的概论。但是,我没有多少收获,也几乎完全不感兴趣,无疑因为它太概括,太抽象,也因为它更关注民法的形式而非实质,逻辑而非法律伦理。但是,边沁的主题是立法,法理学只是其中的形式方面。人的观念和制度应该是什么样的,如何让它们变成该有的样子,以及现在它们都偏离了多少,在每一页上,他似乎都让这些概念更加清楚和明朗。当我放下《立法论》的最后一卷时,我已经脱胎换骨了。边沁所理解和应用的“功利原则”,就和在这三卷书中理解和应用的方式一样,它恰到好处地成为了把我的知识和信念中支离破碎的部分整合起来的基础。它把我对事物的概念统一起来。我现在有了主张;有了信条、学说和哲学体系;有了宗教,取宗教一词的最佳意义;有了可向他人灌输并传播的东西,由此可订立人生主要的外在目标。而且,在我面前有了一个宏大的设想,就是用那个学说改变人类的境遇。在我看来,《立法论》的结尾,描绘了人类生活最感人的画卷,用论文中建议的那些观点和法律就能创造出这样的生活。它对切实可行的进步的预期是谨慎、适度的,轻视并反对很多将来有一天对人类来说会很自然的事情,觉得那是由茫然的热情产生的幻想,但对那些曾认为它们异想天开的人来说,不公正可能会在他们身上发生。但是,在我的思想状态中,这种高于幻想的想象,通过加深精神力量的影响,强化了边沁的学说对我产生的影响。他向我展现的改良的前景,宏大而壮美,足以点燃我的人生,明确我的抱负。

After this I read, from time to time, the most important of the other works of Bentham which had then seen the light, either as written by himself or as edited by Dumont. This was my private reading: while, under my father's direction, my studies were carried into the higher branches of analytic psychology. I now read Locke5's Essay, and wrote out an account of it, consisting of a complete abstract of every chapter, with such remarks as occurred to me: which was read by, or (I think) to, my father, and discussed throughout. I performed the same process with Helvetius6 De l'Esprit, which I read of my own choice. This preparation of abstracts, subject to my father's censorship, was of great service to me, by compelling precision in conceiving and expressing psychological doctrines, whether accepted as truths or only regarded as the opinions of others. After Helvetius, my father made me study what he deemed the really master-production in the philosophy of mind, Hartley's Observations on Man. This book, though it did not, like the Traité de Législation, give a new colour to my existence, made a very similar impression on me in regard to its immediate subject. Hartley's explanation, incomplete as in many points it is, of the more complex mental phenomena by the law of association, commended itself to me at once as a real analysis, and made me feel by contrast the insufficiency of the merely verbal generalizations of Condillac, and even of the instructive gropings and feelings about for psychological explanations, of Locke. It was at this very time that my father commenced writing his Analysis of the Mind, which carried Hartley's mode of explaining the mental phenomena to so much greater length and depth. He could only command the concentration of thought necessary for this work, during the complete leisure of his holiday of a month or six weeks annually; and he commenced it in the summer of 1822, in the first holiday he passed at Dorking; in which neighbourhood, from that time to the end of his life, with the exception of two years, he lived, as far as his official duties permitted, for six months of every year. He worked at the Analysis during several successive vacations, up to the year 1829 when it was published, and allowed me to read the manuscript, portion by portion, as it advanced. The other principal English writers on mental philosophy I read as I felt inclined, particularly Berkeley7, Hume's Essays, Reid8, Dugald Stewart9 and Brown on Cause and Effect. Brown's Lectures I did not read until two or three years later, nor at that time had my father himself read them.

这之后,我时不时地读边沁其他问世作品中最重要的一些,有的是他自己写的,有的是杜蒙编辑的。这是我的个人阅读,另外,在父亲的指导下,我的学习进入到分析心理学的更高分支。我现在读了洛克的《随笔》,并写了报告,包括每一章的完整摘要,加上我想到的评论。父亲读了报告后,或者(我认为)我读给他听了之后,就从头到尾讨论一遍。我以同样的方式读了爱尔维修《论精神》,这本书是我自选的。在父亲的督导之下准备这些摘要对我特别有用,因为在思考和表达心理学学说时,不管是视其为真理还是仅认为是别人的观点,都必须精确。读完爱尔维修之后,父亲让我攻读哈特利的《对人的观察》,他认为这是精神心理学领域真正的大师级作品。这本书,尽管不像《立法论》那样给我的生活增添新的色彩,但是它的主题,也给我留下了类似的深刻印象。哈特利运用联系法解释更为复杂的精神现象,虽然在很多地方都不全面,但作为真正的分析,马上就引起了我的兴趣,让我通过对比感觉到,孔狄亚克仅仅拘泥于文字归纳的不足,甚至洛克在阐释心理学时有益的探索和感想也有不足。就在这时,父亲开始着手写《精神分析》,用的是哈特利的精神现象阐述模式,但更全面,更深刻。他只能在每年一个月或者六个星期的假期里,完全闲着的时候,才能集中必需的精力做这项工作。他是1822年夏天开始写的,那是他第一次在多金度假。从那时起到他去世,除了有两年之外,只要职责允许,他每年都在那个地方住上半年。连续好几个假期,他都用来写《精神分析》,直到1829年发表。随着他的进展,他允许我逐步地读该书的手稿。精神心理学领域的其他主要英语作家的作品,我只读了我喜欢的,尤其是贝克莱、休谟的《随笔》、里德、杜格尔德.斯图尔特以及布朗的《因果论》。两三年后我才读布朗的《演讲集》,当时连我父亲也没有读过。

Among the works read in the course of this year, which contributed materially to my development, I ought to mention a book (written on the foundation of some of Bentham's manuscripts and published under the pseudonyme of Philip Beauchamp) entitled Analysis of the Influence of Natural Religion on the Temporal Happiness of Mankind. This was an examination not of the truth, but of the usefulness of religious belief, in the most general sense, apart from the peculiarities of any special Revelation; which, of all the parts of the discussion concerning religion, is the most important in this age, in which real belief in any religious doctrine is feeble and precarious, but the opinion of its necessity for moral and social purposes almost universal; and when those who reject revelation, very generally take refuge in an optimistic Deism, a worship of the order of Nature, and the supposed course of Providence, at least as full of contradictions, and perverting to the moral sentiments, as any of the forms of Christianity, if only it is as completely realized. Yet, very little, with any claim to a philosophical character, has been written by sceptics against the usefulness of this form of belief. The volume bearing the name of Philip Beauchamp had this for its special object. Having been shewn to my father in manuscript, it was put into my hands by him, and I made a marginal analysis of it as I had done of the Elements of Political Economy. Next to the Traité de Législation, it was one of the books which by the searching character of its analysis produced the greatest effect upon me. On reading it lately after an interval of many years, I find it to have some of the defects as well as the merits of the Benthamic modes of thought, and to contain, as I now think, many weak arguments, but with a great overbalance of sound ones, and much good material for a more completely philosophic and conclusive treatment of the subject.

这一年间,我读了一些对我的发展有实质性作用的著作,这当中我应该提到一本书,名为《自然宗教对人类现世幸福影响的分析》(以边沁的一些手稿为基础写的,用菲利浦.比彻姆的笔名出版)。这本书不是检验最普遍意义上的宗教信仰的真伪,而是检验它是否有用,以及是否有任何特别的《启示录》的特性。这本书中所有和宗教有关的讨论,都是这个时代最重要的,在这个时代,对任何宗教教义的真正信仰都是无益的,靠不住的。但是认为宗教对实现道德和社会目标是必要的几乎是一个普遍认可的观点。那些拒绝神的启示的人,一般都寻求乐观的自然神论作庇护,即崇拜大自然的秩序和天道,这至少与任何形式的基督教一样充满矛盾,并堕落成道德情感,只是没有被完全认识到。然而,怀疑这种形式信仰有用的人,只写了很少称得上带有任何哲学性质的作品。以菲利普.比彻姆的名义写的书,就以此为特定目标。父亲看过手稿后,把它交给我,我在页边缘上作了分析,就像读《政治经济学要义》的时候一样。这本书分析很透彻,是继《立法论》之后对我产生最大影响的书籍之一。很多年后重读这本书的时候,我发现了它功利主义思考模式的一些缺点和优点,我现在觉得,它也有很多缺乏说服力的论证,但是也有很多合理的论证和好材料,可以用来对这个主题进行更全面的哲理性和总结性的处理。

I have now, I believe, mentioned all the books which had any considerable effect on my early mental development. From this point I began to carry on my intellectual cultivation by writing still more than by reading. In the summer of 1822 I wrote my first argumentative essay. I remember very little about it, except that it was an attack on what I regarded as the aristocratic prejudice, that the rich were, or were likely to be, superior in moral qualities to the poor. My performance was entirely argumentative, without any of the declamation which the subject would admit of, and might be expected to suggest to a young writer. In that department however I was, and remained, very inapt. Dry argument was the only thing I could manage, or willingly attempted; though passively I was very susceptible to the effect of all composition, whether in the form of poetry or oratory, which appealed to the feelings on any basis of reason. My father, who knew nothing of this essay until it was finished, was well satisfied, and as I learnt from others, even pleased with it; but, perhaps from a desire to promote the exercise of other mental faculties than the purely logical, he advised me to make my next exercise in composition one of the oratorical kind: on which suggestion, availing myself of my familiarity with Greek history and ideas and with the Athenian orators, I wrote two speeches, one an accusation, the other a defence of Pericles10, on a supposed impeachment for not marching out to fight the Lacedemonians on their invasion of Attica. After this I continued to write papers on subjects often very much beyond my capacity, but with great benefit both from the exercise itself, and from the discussions which it led to with my father.

至此,对我早期的智力发展有任何重要影响的书籍,我相信已经都提到了。从这时起,与读书相比,我开始主要通过写作来继续进行智力培养。1822年夏天,我写了第一篇议论文。我已经不怎么记得这篇文章了,只记得它是抨击我理解的贵族化偏见,即认为富人在道德素质上高于穷人,或者很可能高于穷人。我所写的完全是在论证,没有任何慷慨陈词,这种主题其实是允许激辩的,而且年轻作者可能也会被建议这么做。然而,我在这方面一直不擅长。朴素的论证是我唯一能把握的,或者说乐意尝试的。然而,我很容易被动地受到在理性的基础上打动人心的文学作品的影响,不管是诗歌还是演说。直到我写完之后,父亲才知道有这篇文章,他非常满意,而且,我还从别人那里听说,他甚至非常高兴。但是,可能他希望我提高其他智力能力,而不仅仅是逻辑能力,所以,建议我接下来练习写一篇演说类的文章。对于这个建议,我利用自己熟悉希腊历史和思想以及雅典演说家这个优势,写了两篇演说,一篇是谴责伯里克利,另一篇是为他辩护,假设他由于没有出兵攻打入侵阿提卡的斯巴达人而遭到了指责。这之后,我继续写一些主题经常大大超出我能力的论文,但是,不管是从练习本身,还是从由此而与父亲进行的讨论中,我都收获颇多。

I had now also begun to converse, on general subjects, with the instructed men with whom I came in contact: and the opportunities of such contact naturally became more numerous. The two friends of my father from whom I derived most, and with whom I most associated, were Mr. Grote11 and Mr. John Austin. The acquaintance of both with my father was recent, but had ripened rapidly into intimacy. Mr. Grote was introduced to my father by Mr. Ricardo, I think in 1819, (being then about twenty-five years old), and sought assiduously his society and conversation. Already a highly instructed man, he was yet, by the side of my father, a tyro in the great subjects of human opinion; but he rapidly seized on my father's best ideas; and in the department of political opinion he made himself known as early as 1820, by a pamphlet in defence of Radical Reform, in reply to a celebrated article by Sir James Mackintosh, then lately published in the Edinburgh Review. Mr. Grote's father, the banker, was, I believe, a thorough Tory, and his mother intensely Evangelical; so that for his liberal opinions he was in no way indebted to home influences. But, unlike most persons who have the prospect of being rich by inheritance, he had, though actively engaged in the business of banking, devoted a great portion of time to philosophic studies; and his intimacy with my father did much to decide the character of the next stage in his mental progress. Him I often visited, and my conversations with him on political, moral, and philosophical subjects gave me, in addition to much valuable instruction, all the pleasure and benefit of sympathetic communion with a man of the high intellectual and moral eminence which his life and writings have since manifested to the world.

此时,我也已经开始与接触到的博学者讨论一般性的问题,这种接触的机会也自然变得更频繁起来。从父亲的两个朋友,格罗特先生和约翰.奥斯丁先生那里,我收获最多,与他们的交往也最多。他们和我父亲都认识不久,但他们的关系很快就由认识变为熟识了。格罗特先生是李嘉图先生介绍给父亲认识的,我想是在1819年(那时他差不多25岁),他一心寻求与父亲交往。尽管他已经是个非常博学的人了,但在父亲面前,对于人类观点这样重大的主题,他仍是个初学者;但是,他能很快地抓住父亲思想的精华。在政治观点方面,早在1820年,他就因为答复詹姆斯.麦金托什爵士的著名论文,写了篇为“激进改革”辩护的论文而为人所知,这篇论文最近发表在《爱丁堡评论》上。格罗特先生的父亲是个银行家,我认为是个十足的保守派,他的母亲是个虔诚的基督教福音派教徒,所以他的自由观点绝非来自家庭的影响。但是,和大多数将来能够靠继承遗产而富有的人不同,他虽然积极参与银行业务,但还是把自己的很大一部分时间投入到了哲学研究中。他和我父亲的熟识,在很大程度上决定了他思想发展下一阶段的特点。我经常拜访他,和他探讨政治、道德和哲学话题,除了很宝贵的指导外,与他这样一个智力过人、道德高尚的人意气相投地交流,还给我带来了很多快乐和益处。他过人的思想和高尚的道德,从那时起,已经通过他的生活和作品展现在了世人面前。

Mr. Austin, who was four or five years older than Mr. Grote, was the eldest son of a retired miller in Suffolk, who had made money by contracts during the war, and who must have been a man of remarkable qualities, as I infer from the fact that all his sons were of more than common ability and all eminently gentlemen. The one with whom we are now concerned, and whose writings on jurisprudence have made him celebrated, was for some time in the army, and served in Sicily under Lord William Bentinck. After the peace he sold his commission and studied for the bar, to which he had been called for some time before my father knew him. He was not, like Mr. Grote, to any extent, a pupil of my father, but he had attained, by reading and thought, a considerable number of the same opinions, modified by his own very decided individuality of character. He was a man of great intellectual powers which in conversation appeared at their very best; from the vigour and richness of expression with which, under the excitement of discussion, he was accustomed to maintain some view or other of most general subjects; and from an appearance of not only strong, but deliberate and collected will; mixed with a certain bitterness, partly derived from temperament, and partly from the general cast of his feelings and reflections. The dissatisfaction with life and the world, felt more or less in the present state of society and intellect by every discerning and highly conscientious mind, gave in his case a rather melancholy tinge to the character, very natural to those whose passive moral susceptibilities are more than proportioned to their active energies. For it must be said, that the strength of will of which his manner seemed to give such strong assurance, expended itself principally in manner. With great zeal for human improvement, a strong sense of duty, and capacities and acquirements the extent of which is proved by the writings he has left, he hardly ever completed any intellectual task of magnitude. He had so high a standard of what ought to be done, so exaggerated a sense of deficiencies in his own performances, and was so unable to content himself with the amount of elaboration sufficient for the occasion and the purpose, that he not only spoiled much of his work for ordinary use by overlabouring it, but spent so much time and exertion in superfluous study and thought, that when his task ought to have been completed, he had generally worked himself into an illness, without having half finished what he undertook. From this mental infirmity (of which he is not the sole example among the accomplished and able men whom I have known), combined with liability to frequent attacks of disabling though not dangerous ill-health, he accomplished, through life, little in comparison with what he seemed capable of; but what he did produce is held in the very highest estimation by the most competent judges; and, like Coleridge12, he might plead as a set-off that he had been to many persons, through his conversation, a source not only of much instruction but of great elevation of character. On me his influence was most salutary. It was moral in the best sense. He took a sincere and kind interest in me, far beyond what could have been expected towards a mere youth from a man of his age, standing, and what seemed austerity of character. There was in his conversation and demeanour a tone of highmindedness which did not show itself so much, if the quality existed as much, in any of the other persons with whom at that time I associated. My intercourse with him was the more beneficial, owing to his being of a different mental type from all other intellectual men whom I frequented, and he from the first set himself decidedly against the prejudices and narrownesses which are almost sure to be found in a young man formed by a particular mode of thought or a particular social circle.

奥斯丁先生比格罗特先生大四五岁,是萨福克郡一个退休磨坊主的长子。在战争中,这位父亲靠承包赚了不少钱,我推断他肯定是个品质出众的人,因为他的儿子能力都不一般,都是优秀的绅士。我们现在关注的这位,因他的法学作品而著名,他曾经有一段时间从军,在威廉·本廷克勋爵的麾下,在西西里服过役。战争结束后,他卖了军衔,开始学习法律,父亲认识他之前,他就已经当了一段时间的律师了。他和格罗特先生不一样,根本不是我父亲的学生,而是通过阅读和思考,获得了很多和我父亲相同的观点,辅之以他性格中坚定的个性。他这个人才智突出,通过对话最能展现出来。在讨论得很兴奋的时候,他惯于用有力、华美的言辞,坚持非常普通的主题中的某个观点。他的外貌表现出的不仅是强硬,而且还有谨慎和冷静的意志,也夹杂着某种尖酸,部分源于性格,部分源于他的情感和思索的总体特征。每一个有判断力、非常负责的思想家,在目前的社会和智力状态下,都或多或少感觉到对生活和世界不满,而在他这儿这种不满让他的性格带上相当忧郁的色彩,这对于消极的道德情感压倒积极活力的人来说,是很自然的现象。因为必须承认,他的风格似乎强有力地证明了他的意志力,然而,他的意志力也仅止于其风格。他非常热心人类的进步,有很强的责任感,还有他留下来的那些作品,足以证明他的能力和成就的水平,但他几乎从没完成任何有重大意义的智力作品。对于应该做的事情,他的标准如此之高,总觉得自己的表现有缺点,不满足于对情形和意图而言已经足够的详尽阐述,以至于不仅对很多用途普通的工作太过细心却损毁了它们,而且还把很多时间和精力花在多余的研究和思考上。因此,当他的任务需要完成的时候,他通常已经积劳成疾了,而工作一半都没有完成。由于这种心理弱点(在我认识的有成就和有才干的人当中,他并不是唯一的例子),加上经常生病(这些病虽然不致命,但也损害身体能力),与他看起来能做到的相比,他一生的成就很小。但是,对于他确实创作出来的东西,最称职的鉴定人也会给予他非常高的评价。和柯尔律治一样,他可以为自己辩护,说通过交谈他不仅为许多人提供了很多指导,还大大提升了他们的品质。他对我的影响非常有益。那是最佳意义上的道德影响。他对我的关心很诚挚友善,一个寻常的年轻人很难想象从像他这种年龄、地位以及看似性格严厉的人那里获得这种关心。他的言谈和举止中有一种高尚的风格,在当时我所认识的人当中,即使有人有同样的品质,也不会像在他身上展现出来的那么多。从与他的交往当中,我收益更多,因为他和我经常拜访的知识分子都不是一个思想类型的。而且,对于仅由一种思想模式或者一种社会圈子塑造的年轻人几乎必然会有的偏见和狭隘,他从一开始就果断地反对。

His younger brother, Charles Austin, of whom at this time and for the next year or two I saw much, had also a great effect on me, though of a very different description. He was but a few years older than myself, and had then just left the University, where he had shone with great éclat as a man of intellect and a brilliant orator and converser. The effect he produced on his Cambridge contemporaries deserves to be accounted an historical event; for to it may in part be traced the tendency towards Liberalism in general, and the Benthamic and politico-economic form of it in particular, which showed itself in a portion of the more active-minded young men of the higher classes from this time to 1830. The Union Debating Society, at that time at the height of its reputation, was an arena where what were then thought extreme opinions, in politics and philosophy, were weekly asserted, face to face with their opposites, before audiences consisting of the élite of the Cambridge youth: and though many persons afterwards of more or less note, (of whom Lord Macaulay is the most celebrated), gained their first oratorical laurels in those debates, the really influential mind among these intellectual gladiators was Charles Austin. He continued, after leaving the University, to be, by his conversation and personal ascendancy, a leader among the same class of young men who had been his associates there; and he attached me among others to his car. Through him I became acquainted with Macaulay13, Hyde and Charles Villiers, Strutt (now Lord Belper), Romilly (now Lord Romilly and Master of the Rolls), and various others who subsequently figured in literature or politics, and among whom I heard discussions on many topics, as yet to a certain degree new to me. The influence of Charles Austin over me differed from that of the persons I have hitherto mentioned, in being not the influence of a man over a boy, but that of an elder contemporary. It was through him that I first felt myself, not a pupil under teachers, but a man among men. He was the first person of intellect whom I met on a ground of equality, though as yet much his inferior on that common ground. He was a man who never failed to impress greatly those with whom he came in contact, even when their opinions were the very reverse of his. The impression he gave was that of boundless strength, together with talents which, combined with such apparent force of will and character, seemed capable of dominating the world. Those who knew him, whether friendly to him or not, always anticipated that he would play a conspicuous part in public life. It is seldom that men produce so great an immediate effect by speech, unless they, in some degree, lay themselves out for it; and he did this in no ordinary degree. He loved to strike, and even to startle. He knew that decision is the greatest element of effect, and he uttered his opinions with all the decision he could throw into them, never so well pleased as when he astonished any one by their audacity. Very unlike his brother, who made war against the narrower interpretations and applications of the principles they both professed, he on the contrary, presented the Benthamic doctrines in the most startling form of which they were susceptible, exaggerating everything in them which tended to consequences offensive to any one's preconceived feelings. All which, he defended with such verve and vivacity, and carried off by a manner so agreeable as well as forcible, that he always either came off victor, or divided the honours of the field. It is my belief that much of the notion popularly entertained of the tenets and sentiments of what are called Benthamites or Utilitarians had its origin in paradoxes thrown out by Charles Austin. It must be said, however, that his example was followed, haud passibus aequis, by younger proselytes, and that to outrer whatever was by anybody considered offensive in the doctrines and maxims of Benthamism, became at one time the badge of a small coterie of youths. All of these who had anything in them, myself among others, quickly outgrew this boyish vanity; and those who had not, became tired of differing from other people, and gave up both the good and the bad part of the heterodox opinions they had for some time professed.

当时以及接下来的一两年里,我经常见到他的弟弟查尔斯.奥斯丁,他对我的影响也很大,尽管类型很不相同。他比我只大几岁,那时刚大学毕业。在大学里,他光芒四射,是位有识之士、才华横溢的演讲家和谈话专家。他对剑桥同辈们产生的影响堪称具有历史性意义。因为通常意义上的自由主义风潮,尤其是它的功利主义和政治经济学形式,可以部分追溯到此。从这时起到1830年,这种风潮在一部分上层社会思想较活跃的年轻人中展现出来。联合辩论协会当时正处于名声鼎盛时期,在这个活动场所里,当时被认为很极端的政治和哲学观点每星期都会被拿来和对手面对面地辩论,而观众里有剑桥的年轻精英。虽然很多后来或多或少有些名望的人(其中,麦考利勋爵是最著名的),是在这些辩论中首次摘得演说的桂冠,但这些高智商的辩论者中,真正有影响力的还是查尔斯.奥斯丁。离开大学后,他的谈话技巧和个人魅力使得他仍然是大学里与他熟识那一阶层年轻人的领袖。他让我和别人一起,加入了他的行列。通过他,我结识了麦考利、海德、查尔斯.维利尔斯,斯特拉特(现在是贝尔珀勋爵)和罗米利(现在是罗米利勋爵,上诉院保管案卷的法官),还有很多后来因文学或政治而出名的人。我听到他们讨论很多话题,在某种程度上来说,我对这些话题还不熟悉。查尔斯.奥斯丁对我的影响跟我迄今为止提到的其他人不一样,不是成年人对小孩子的影响,而是年龄稍长的同代人的影响。通过他,我第一次感觉到自己不是老师的小学生,而是成人中的一员。他是我见到的第一个高智商的平辈人,我们是平等的,虽然在这平等的基础上我比他逊色很多。他会给任何与他接触过的人留下深刻印象,即使他们的观点与他完全相反。他给人的印象是有无穷的力量和才干,结合他显而易见的意志和性格的力量,似乎能主宰世界。那些熟悉他的人,不管对他是否友好,都预料他会在公众生活中发挥显著作用。很少有人能通过演说产生这么大的直接影响,除非他们在某种程度上是精心准备了而且用了功的。他喜欢给人留下深刻印象,甚至让人震惊。他知道,果断是效果的最大因素,他表达观点时,尽力把所有果断融入其中。他最高兴的时候,就是他的观点因为大胆创新而让人大吃一惊的时候。他和哥哥很不一样,他哥哥坚决反对过于狭隘地解释和应用两人都公开承认的原则,恰恰相反,他以功利主义学说所能承受的最惊人的方式阐述这一学说,夸大学说中任何倾向于冒犯人们原有情感的东西。他充满活力地为这一切辩护,以令人愉快又有说服力的态度应付局面,因此他经常成为胜者,或者分享胜者的荣誉。我坚信,流行的边沁主义者或功利主义者的原则和看法中的很多观念,都源于查尔斯.奥斯丁提出的看似矛盾而实际可能正确的说法。然而,必须承认,改变了信仰的年轻人步履蹒跚地仿效他的做法,夸大功利主义教条和准则中所有大家都认为有冒犯性的东西,曾有一段时间这成为了一个小圈子年轻人的标志。那些有些天分的人,包括我自己,很快就抛弃了这种孩子气的虚荣心;而没有天分的人,逐渐厌倦了与别人唱反调,放弃了他们坚持过一段时间的非主流观点,不管是好的还是坏的部分。

It was in the winter of 1822—3 that I formed the plan of a little society, to be composed of young men agreeing in fundamental principles— acknowledging Utility as their standard in ethics and politics, and a certain number of the principal corollaries drawn from it in the philosophy I had accepted—and meeting once a fortnight to read essays and discuss questions conformably to the premises thus agreed on. The fact would hardly be worth mentioning, but for the circumstance, that the name I gave to the society I had planned was the Utilitarian Society. It was the first time that any one had taken the title of Utilitarian; and the term made its way into the language, from this humble source. I did not invent the word, but found it in one of Galt's novels, the Annals of the Parish, in which the Scotch clergyman, of whom the book is a supposed autobiography, is represented as warning his parishioners not to leave the Gospel and become utilitarians. With a boy's fondness for a name and a banner I seized on the word, and for some years called myself and others by it as a sectarian appellation; and it came to be occasionally used by some others holding the opinions which it was intended to designate. As those opinions attracted more notice, the term was repeated by strangers and opponents, and got into rather common use just about the time when those who had originally assumed it, laid down that along with other sectarian characteristics. The Society so called consisted at first of no more than three members, one of whom, being Mr. Bentham's amanuensis, obtained for us permission to hold our meetings in his house. The number never, I think, reached ten, and the society was broken up in 1826. It had thus an existence of about three years and a half. The chief effect of it as regards myself, over and above the benefit of practice in oral discussion, was that of bringing me in contact with several young men at that time less advanced than myself, among whom, as they professed the same opinions, I was for some time a sort of leader, and had considerable influence on their mental progress. Any young man of education who fell in my way, and whose opinions were not incompatible with those of the Society, I endeavoured to press into its service; and some others I probably should never have known, had they not joined it. Those of the members who became my intimate companions—no one of whom was in any sense of the word a disciple, but all of them independent thinkers on their own basis —were William Eyton Tooke, son of the eminent political economist, a young man of singular worth both moral and intellectual, lost to the world by an early death; his friend William Ellis, an original thinker in the field of political economy, now honorably known by his apostolic exertions for the improvement of education; George Graham, afterwards an official assignee of the Bankruptcy Court, a thinker of originality and power on almost all abstract subjects; and (from the time when he came first to England to study for the bar in 1824 or 1825) a man who has made considerably more noise in the world than any of these, John Arthur Roebuck.

1822年冬天,我制定了建立一个小型学会的计划。这个学会由认同基本原则的年轻人组成,即认可效用为他们道德规范和政治观点的标准,认可我所接受的哲学从效用中得出的一些主要推论。我们两星期进行一次活动,读文章,并讨论与由此达成的前提一致的问题。如果不是一个细节,我打算给学会起名叫功利主义者学会这件事就根本不值一提。这是第一次有人用功利主义者这个名称,这个词就从这种不起眼的渠道进入了英语。它不是我发明的,我是从高尔特的一部小说《教区年鉴》中看到的,这本书假托一名苏格兰牧师的自传。在小说中,他警告自己教区的居民不要放弃福音,而要变成功利主义者。出于男孩子对名字和标语的喜好,我采纳了这个词,有几年,用它作为一个派别的称号来称呼自己和其他一些人。偶尔,持有这个词本来所指含义的一些人也会用它。随着那些观点吸引了更多注意力,这一术语被陌生人和反对者不断重复,就在倡导者放弃它和其他一些派系特征时,这个词反而应用得相当普遍了。这个所谓的学会最初仅有三名成员,其中一个是边沁先生的文书,为我们获得许可在边沁家里开会。我想人数从来没达到十个。学会于1826年解散,因此,它存在了大约三年半。对我来说,除了练习口头讨论这个好处之外,它对我的主要作用是让我接触到好几个当时水平不如我的年轻人,由于他们承认相同的观点,在他们中间,我有一段时间算是个领导者,对他们的智力进步产生了很大影响。任何我所遇见的、受过教育的年轻人,只要观点与学会不冲突,我都会尽力争取让他加入学会;还有一些人,要不是加入了学会的话,我可能永远都不会认识。那些变成我亲密朋友的会员——没有一个是任何意义上的信徒,而全都是基于各自知识基础而进行独立思考的思想家——包括威廉.艾顿.图克,他是一位著名政治经济学家的儿子,是位道德上和智力上都有非凡优点的年轻人,可惜英年早逝。他的朋友威廉.埃利斯,是政治经济学领域内一位有创造性的思想家,现在由于为教育进步做使徒般的努力而出名,受人尊敬;乔治.格雷厄姆,后来成了破产法庭的官方代理人,是位在几乎所有抽象主题上都有创意、有能力的思想家;还有一位(从1824年或1825年,他最初到英国学习法律开始),他在这个世界发出的声音比上述所有人都要多,他就是约翰·阿瑟·罗巴克。

In May, 1823, my professional occupation and status for the next thirty-five years of my life, were decided by my father's obtaining for me an appointment from the East India Company, in the office of the Examiner of India Correspondence, immediately under himself. I was appointed in the usual manner, at the bottom of the list of clerks, to rise, at least in the first instance, by seniority; but with the understanding that I should be employed from the beginning in preparing drafts of despatches, and be thus trained up as a successor to those who then filled the higher departments of the office. My drafts of course required, for some time, much revision from my immediate superiors, but I soon became well acquainted with the business, and by my father's instructions and the general growth of my own powers, I was in a few years qualified to be, and practically was, the chief conductor of the correspondence with India in one of the leading departments, that of the Native States. This continued to be my official duty until I was appointed Examiner, only two years before the time when the abolition of the East India Company as a political body determined my retirement. I do not know any one of the occupations by which a subsistence can now be gained, more suitable than such as this to any one who, not being in independent circumstances, desires to devote a part of the twenty-four hours to private intellectual pursuits. Writing for the press, cannot be recommended as a permanent resource to any one qualified to accomplish anything in the higher departments of literature or thought: not only on account of the uncertainty of this means of livelihood, especially if the writer has a conscience, and will not consent to serve any opinions except his own; but also because the writings by which one can live, are not the writings which themselves live, and are never those in which the writer does his best. Books destined to form future thinkers take too much time to write, and when written come, in general, too slowly into notice and repute, to be relied on for subsistence. Those who have to support themselves by their pen must depend on literary drudgery, or at best on writings addressed to the multitude; and can employ in the pursuits of their own choice, only such time as they can spare from those of necessity; which is generally less than the leisure allowed by office occupations, while the effect on the mind is far more enervating and fatiguing. For my own part I have, through life, found office duties an actual rest from the other mental occupations which I have carried on simultaneously with them. They were sufficiently intellectual not to be a distasteful drudgery, without being such as to cause any strain upon the mental powers of a person used to abstract thought, or to the labour of careful literary composition. The drawbacks, for every mode of life has its drawbacks, were not, however, unfelt by me. I cared little for the loss of the chances of riches and honours held out by some of the professions, particularly the bar, which had been, as I have already said, the profession thought of for me. But I was not indifferent to exclusion from Parliament, and public life: and I felt very sensibly the more immediate unpleasantness of confinement to London; the holiday allowed by India-House practice not exceeding a month in the year, while my taste was strong for a country life, and my sojourn in France had left behind it an ardent desire of travelling. But though these tastes could not be freely indulged, they were at no time entirely sacrificed. I passed most Sundays, throughout the year, in the country, taking long rural walks on that day even when residing in London. The month's holiday was, for a few years, passed at my father's house in the country: afterwards a part or the whole was spent in tours, chiefly pedestrian, with some one or more of the young men who were my chosen companions; and, at a later period, in longer journeys or excursions, alone or with other friends. France, Belgium, and Rhenish Germany were within easy reach of the annual holiday: and two longer absences, one of three, the other of six months, under medical advice, added Switzerland, the Tyrol, and, Italy to my list. Fortunately, also, both these journeys occurred rather early, so as to give the benefit and charm of the remembrance to a large portion of life.

1823年5月,父亲为我在东印度公司印度通信检察署谋了一个职位,在他的直接领导之下,我接下来三十五年的职业生涯和地位都因此确定了。我以通常程序被录用,排在职员名单的最后面,升职要靠资历,至少在起初的时候是这样。但是我知道自己从一开始就要准备做起草公务急报的工作,这样可以得到充分的锻炼,以便接替当时这个办事处更重要部门的职员。有一段时间,我的草稿当然需要我的直接上司进行很多修正,但是,我很快就熟悉了业务。由于父亲的指导,加上自己能力的总体提升,没过几年,我就能胜任土邦某个主要部门里面与英属印度通信的总指挥的工作了,而且实际上就在做这个工作。被任命为检查官之前,这一直都是我的正式职务,就在我被任命为检查官两年后,东印度公司作为政治实体被废除,这决定了我必须退休。对于一个经济上不独立,又渴望把二十四小时的一部分时间用于个人智力追求的人来说,我不知道还有比这个谋生的工作更合适的选择了。对于一个有能力在文学或思想这些更高领域有所成就的人来说,为出版社写稿,不是可取的永久性办法,不仅因为这种谋生手段的不确定性,尤其是如果这个作家有良心,除了自己的观点之外,不会为了别人的观点而写作。还因为,让人能够赚钱谋生的那些作品本身没有生命力,也永远不是作者倾注全力的作品。一本书,如果注定能造就未来思想家,就必定要花很长时间来写,写完后,通常要过很长时间才能被人注意,并得到荣誉,因此无法作为赖以生存的手段。那些靠写作谋生的人必须依靠做文学苦力,最好写通俗作品。只能从必须花费的时间之外抽出一点时间用于追求自己的梦想,这点时间一般比公职容许的闲暇少,然而,却远远更让人头脑倦怠、疲劳。对我来说,整个一生中,我发现公职实际上是我同时进行其他脑力劳动的调剂。公职也需要一些智力,足以不让人觉得是讨厌的苦差事,而且,还不会给习惯于抽象思考,或者努力进行细心文学创作者的智力带来任何压力。然而,我也不是没有感觉到它的缺点,因为任何生活方式都有缺点。我不在乎失去某些职业有机会获得的财产和荣誉,尤其是律师工作,我已经说过,父亲曾为我考虑过这个职业。但是,我却无法不在乎被议会和公共生活排除在外,而且被限制在伦敦,会让我很明显地感觉到更直接的不快。东印度公司的惯例是每年允许的假期不超过一个月,然而,我很想过乡村生活,并且,在法国的逗留让我强烈渴望旅行。尽管不能毫无顾忌地沉迷于我的这些喜好,但它们也绝没有因为工作而全部被忽略掉。一年中的大部分星期天,我都是在乡下度过的,在乡间进行长时间散步。即使住在伦敦的时候,也是如此。在这每年一个月的假期中,有几年,我是在父亲乡下的房子里度过的。后来,一部分或整个假期都在旅行,主要是和一个或更多我选好的年轻同伴一起步行。再后来,在较远的旅行或远足中,我是自己一个人或者和其他朋友一起去的。法国、比利时和德国莱茵河由于离得近是每年假期都可能会去的地方。根据医生建议,我有了两个较长的假期,一次是三个月,另一次六个月,分别去了瑞士、蒂罗尔和意大利。幸运的是,这两次旅行都是在相当年轻的时候去的,让我大半生都有陶醉、有益的回忆。

I am disposed to agree with what has been surmised by others, that the opportunity which my official position gave me of learning by personal observation the necessary conditions of the practical conduct of public affairs, has been of considerable value to me as a theoretical reformer of the opinions and institutions of my time. Not, indeed, that public business transacted on paper, to take effect on the other side of the globe, was of itself calculated to give much practical knowledge of life. But the occupation accustomed me to see and hear the difficulties of every course, and the means of obviating them, stated and discussed deliberately, with a view to execution; it gave me opportunities of perceiving when public measures, and other political facts, did not produce the effects which had been expected of them, and from what causes; above all, it was valuable to me by making me, in this portion of my activity, merely one wheel in a machine, the whole of which had to work together. As a speculative writer, I should have had no one to consult but myself, and should have encountered in my speculations none of the obstacles which would have started up whenever they came to be applied to practice. But as a Secretary conducting political correspondence, I could not issue an order or express an opinion, without satisfying various persons very unlike myself, that the thing was fit to be done. I was thus in a good position for finding out by practice the mode of putting a thought which gives it easiest admittance into minds not prepared for it by habit; while I became practically conversant with the difficulties of moving bodies of men, the necessities of compromise, the art of sacrificing the non-essential to preserve the essential. I learnt how to obtain the best I could, when I could not obtain everything; instead of being indignant or dispirited because I could not have entirely my own way, to be pleased and encouraged when I could have the smallest part of it; and when even that could not be, to bear with complete equanimity the being overruled altogether. I have found, through life, these acquisitions to be of the greatest possible importance for personal happiness, and they are also a very necessary condition for enabling any one, either as theorist or as practical man, to effect the greatest amount of good compatible with his opportunities.

我的公务职位让我有机会通过亲自观察,学习实际管理公共事务的必要条件,有人猜测,作为我那个时代观点和制度的理论改革家,这对我有很大价值,我愿意承认这一点。以书面形式办理,在地球另一端生效的公共事务,其本身并非适合提供生活中的很多实用知识。但是,这个职业让我习惯于看到、听到每一项事业里面的困难,以及消除困难的方法:它们被慎重地表达,讨论,并着眼于执行。它让我有机会觉察到,公共措施和其他政治行为在什么时候不能产生期待的结果,以及原因是什么。最重要的是,在我的这段工作中,它让我仅仅成为一台机器的一个轮子,而整台机器必须通力合作,这一点对我是很有价值的。作为思考型的作家,除了自己之外,我本来应该没有任何人可以请教,在思索中,本来应该碰不到任何把思考应用于实践都会突然出现的障碍。但是,作为管理政治通信的书记,我发布命令或表达观点时,必须让各种各样的,和我完全不同的人满意,觉得这件事适合实施才行。因此,我所处的有利位置能够让我通过实践找出方法,让不习惯接受某种想法的人,很容易地接受这个想法。同时,我在实践上熟悉了说服众人的困难,妥协的必要性,和牺牲不重要的以保护重要的处世艺术。我学会了在我不能获得一切的时候,要尽力得到最好的。如果不能随心所欲,我也不会愤怒或者沮丧。相反,即便能在很小的程度上这么做,我也会欢欣鼓舞。如果这也做不到,就泰然忍受被完全否决。纵观人生,我发现,这些收获对个人幸福来说,是最重要的,它们也是让任何人,无论是理论家还是实干家,利用机会实现最大利益的非常必要的条件。

(1) 安托万·洛朗·拉瓦锡(1743—1794),法国化学家,被认为是现代化学的奠基人。

(2) 波拿巴,是法国皇帝拿破仑的家族姓氏。

(3) 吉伦特派,法国大革命时期立法委员会和国民议会中的一个政治派系。

(4) 边沁主义,边沁提倡的功利主义学说。

(5) 约翰·洛克(1632—1704)英国哲学家。在《人类理智论》(1690年)中,他提出了经验论原则,他的《政府论两篇》(1690年)影响了《独立宣言》。

(6) 克劳德·阿德里安·爱尔维修(1715—1771),18世纪法国唯物主义者,主要著作有《论精神》《论人的理智能力和教育》。

(7) 乔治·贝克莱(1685—1753),爱尔兰主教、哲学家,其基本理论是反对托马斯.霍布斯的物质主义,认为存在是感知或被感知。其著作有《人类和知识原理》(1710年)等。

(8) 托马斯·里德(1710—1796),苏格兰哲学家,创立了共同意识的哲学。

(9) 杜格尔德·斯图尔特(1753—1828),英国哲学家,是常识学派的支持者。

(10) 伯里克利(约公元前495—前429),古雅典首领,因其推进了雅典民主制并下令建造巴台农神庙而著名。

(11) 乔治·格罗特(1794—1871),英国历史学家,以所著《希腊史》闻名。

(12) 塞缪尔·泰勒·柯尔律治(1772—1834),英国诗人、批评家、浪漫主义流派的倡导者。

(13) 托马斯·巴宾顿·麦考利(1800—1859),英国历史学家、作家和政治家,著作包括受欢迎的《英国史》(1849—1861年),为《爱丁堡评论》撰写的众多文章和一卷叙述诗集《古罗马之歌》(1842年)。


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