評論
打印
Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic, and then as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch Presbyterian. Next a Turk; a Greek Christian; a Methodist from Arkansas; a Buddhist from China. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away two whole days. When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and plaids and bones and flesh——not a specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.
然后，我在另一只籠子里關了一個愛爾蘭天主教徒，在他似乎馴服時又關進了一個蘇格蘭長老會教友，接著又加進了一個土耳其穆斯林，一個希臘正教教徒，一個來自阿肯色州的循道宗教徒，一個來自中國的佛 教徒，最后關進一個來自沃平的救世軍上校。隨后，我離開兩天。等我回來記錄結果時，關著高級動物的籠子里平安無事，可是另一個籠子里卻是一片恐怖的狼藉，骨肉四散，只剩下沾滿血污的穆斯林頭巾和蘇格蘭人的彩格呢披風等碎物——沒有一個實驗對象還活著這些理性動物就某一宗教理論的細節而糾纏不休，一直爭執到了天上的法庭。
And so I find that we have descended and degenerated, from some far ancestor—some microscopic atom wandering at its pleasure between the mighty horizons of a drop of water perhaps—insect by insect, animal by animal, reptile by reptile, down the long highway of perfect innocence, till we have reached the bottom stage of development—namable as the Human Being. Below us—nothing.
因此，我發現我們的遠古祖先也許最初是某個小小的原子，怡然自得地漫游在一滴水構成的廣袤空間里，然后逐步退化、墮落，由一種昆蟲到另一種昆蟲，一種動物到另一種動物，一種爬行動物到另一種爬行動物，經過漫長的道路，最后不知不覺地到了動物演變的最低階段——被稱作人類的階段，而在我們之下，別無他物。
