評論
打印
LESSON 16 Man and the industrial arts
第十六課 人類和工業藝術
As industrial creatures, we often look like wretched copyists of animals far beneath us in the scale of organization; and we seem to confess as much by the names which we give them. The mason-wasp, the carpenter-bee, the mining caterpillars, the quarrying sea-slugs, execute their work in a way which we cannot rival or excel. The bird is an exquisite architect; the beaver a most skilful bridge-builder; the silk-worm the most beautiful of weavers; the spider the best of net-makers. Each is a perfect craftsman, and each has his tools always at hand.
人類作為工業生物，卻像是那些在組織規模上無法與人類匹敵的動物們的可悲模仿者，而人類似乎也認識到了這一點，從他們對其它生物的稱呼上便可體現。工黃蜂、木蜂、采礦毛蟲，采石海參，它們勞作的方式是人類無法匹敵和超越的。鳥兒是精巧的建造工；河貍是最嫻熟的架橋工；蠶是最美的織工；蜘蛛則是最棒的制網工；每種生物都有自己獨家的手藝活兒，而且還有可隨身攜帶的工具。
Those wise creatures, I believe, have minds like our own, to the extent that they have minds, and are not mere living machines, swayed by a blind instinct; but their most wonderful works imply neither invention, contrivance, nor volition, but only a placid, pleasant, easily rendered obedience to instincts which reign without rivals, and justify their despotic rule by the infallible happiness which they secure. It has cost none of these ingenious artists any intellectual effort to learn its craft, for God gave it to each perfect in the beginning; and, within the circle to which they apply, the rules which guide their work are infallible, and know no variation.
我相信這些聰慧的生物都有如同人類一樣的思考能力，它們并不只是簡單的活著的機器，它們有自己的想法，行動完全受本能支配。不過，它們最出色的勞作不是發明創造，也不是意志力，而是一種沉著的、欣然的、略帶渲染的對本能的服從，這種本能無需競爭，它們用自己收獲到的實實在在的幸福來證明自己專制統治的合理性。而且，這些獨創性非凡的藝術家們生來就技藝超群，它們無需任何額外的智力輔助，因為上帝在創世之時就將這些賜予了它們。此外，它們的圈子里有著特定的規矩，這些規矩是絕對適應并且一成不變的。
To those creatures, however, the Author of all has given, not only infallible rules for their work, but unfaltering faith in them. Labour is for them not a doubt, but a certainty. Duty is the same thing as happiness. They never grow weary of life, and death never surprises them; and they are less to be likened to us than to perfect self-repairing machines, which swiftly raise our admiration from themselves to Him who made and who sustains them.
然而，造物主不僅為這些生物制定了勞作規矩，還為它們灌輸了堅定的信念。對它們來說沒有為什么勞作，只有必須勞作，履行職責就如同獲取了幸福。它們從不厭倦生活，也不驚訝于死亡。比起將它們比作人來，它們更像是毫無瑕疵的自我修復機器，而這促使人類對上帝的敬佩感油然而生，因為是上帝創造了它們，是上帝維持了它們的生命。
