Well, are the John Dashwoods hypocrites? It depends upon our definition of hypocrisy. The young man could not see his evil impulses as they gathered force and gained on him. And even his wife, though a worse character, is also self-deceived. She reflects that old Mr. Dashwood may have been out of his mind at his death. She thinks of her own little boy—and surely a mother ought to think of her own child. She has muddled herself so completely that in one sentence she can refuse the ladies the income that would enable them to keep a carriage and in the next can say that they will not be keeping a carriage and so will have no expenses. No doubt men and women in other lands can muddle themselves, too, yet the state of mind of Mr. and Mrs. John Dashwood seems to me typical of England. They are slow—they take time even to do wrong; whereas people in other lands do wrong quickly.
那么，約翰·達什伍德家的人是偽君子嗎？這要取決于我們對于虛偽的定義。當他積蓄力量并逐漸向好的意圖努力時，這個年輕人不會意識到他邪惡的沖動。甚至他那性格更加糟糕的妻子也是自欺欺人的。她認為老達什伍德先生在臨死前一定是瘋了。她只想著自己的兒子，當然母親想著自己的孩子是天經地義的。她的頭腦一片混亂，總之一句話她可以拒絕支付讓女士們雇車的錢，而后她便可以說她們不愿意雇車，自然無須支付任何費用。誠然其他國家的人也會犯糊涂，然而約翰·達什伍德的思維狀態是典型的英國人的思維方式。英國人頭腦遲鈍，甚至犯錯誤也需要一段時間，而其他國家的人則迅速犯錯。
There are national faults as there are national diseases, and perhaps one can draw a parallel between them. It has always impressed me that the national diseases of England should be cancer and consumption—slow, insidious, pretending to be something else; while the diseases proper to the South should be cholera and plague, which strike at a man when he is perfectly well and may leave him a corpse by evening. Mr. and Mrs. John Dashwood are moral consumptives. They collapse gradually without realizing what the disease is. There is nothing dramatic or violent about their sin. You cannot call them villains.
民族缺陷如同民族疾病一樣是存在的，也許可以把二者等同起來。我一直在想英國的民族疾病應該是癌癥和癆病發展緩慢、隱伏危害、容易被誤診，而南部常見的疾病應該是霍亂和瘟疫，它們會使一個健壯的人在一天之內遭遇死亡。約翰達什伍德夫婦應該患有道德癆病，他們在未察覺患病的情況下日漸崩潰。既然他們的罪惡不是夸張的或猛烈的，你便不能稱他們為惡棍。
Here is the place to glance at some of the other charges that have been brought against the English as a nation. They have, for instance, been accused of treachery cruelty, and fanaticism. In these charges have never been able to see the least point, because treachery and cruelty are conscious sins. The man knows he is doing wrong, and does it deliberately, like Tartuffe or lago. He betrays his friend because he wishes to. He tortures his prisoners because he enjoys seeing the blood flow. He worships the Devil because he prefers evil to good. From villainies such as these the average Englishman is free. His character, which prevents his rising to certain heights, also prevents him from sinking to these depths. Because he doesn't produce mystics he doesn't produce villains either; he gives the world no prophets, but no anarchists, no fanatics—religious or political.
下面來談論一下對英國人的其他指控。比如，英國人被指控狡詐、殘忍與狂熱。我認為這些指責是名不副實的，因為狡詐和殘忍是有意識的罪惡。人們知道自己做錯了，仍然一意孤行，就像達爾杜弗或者伊阿古一樣，他出賣朋友因為他喜歡如此；折磨犯人，因為他喜歡看見流血；他向惡魔頂禮膜拜，因為他喜歡惡而不喜歡善。普通的英國人沒有這樣的惡行。他的性格會阻礙他上升到一定的高度，同時也不會讓他墮落到如此糟糕的地步。正因為普通的英國人不會成為神秘主義者，因此他們也不會成為惡棍；他們既不為世界造就預言家，也不給世界帶來無政府主義或者宗教與政治的狂熱分子。
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