評論
打印
The Damned Human Race
可惡的人類
Mark Twain
馬克•吐溫
I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the "lower animals," and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals and to name it the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.
我一直在研究“低級動物”的特點和性情，并將其與人的特點和性情相比較。我發現其結果令我羞愧難當，因為它迫使我宣布不再忠信達爾文“人是從低級動物進化而來”的理論，而將其更名為“人是從高級動物退化而來的”。
In proceeding toward this unpleasant conclusion I have not guessed or speculated or conjectured, but have used what is commonly called the scientific method. That is to say, I have subjected every postulate that presented itself to the crucial test of actual experiment, and have adopted it or rejected it according to the result. These experiments were made in the London Zoological Gardens, and covered many months of painstaking and fatiguing work.
在得出這一令人不快的結論的過程中，我沒有進行猜測、推斷或者揣測，而是運用了人們通常所說的科學方法。也就是說，對于出現的每一種假設，我都通過實驗進行了嚴格檢測，并依據實驗結果采納或者否定了這一假設。這些實驗都是在倫敦動物園進行的，為此我歷時數月，不辭辛勞。
