《我的知識之路》第二章 少年時期的思想影響父親的性格和觀點

CHAPTER II Moral Influences In Early Youth, My Father's Character And Opinions

第二章 少年時期的思想影響父親的性格和觀點

In my education, as in that of every one, the moral influences, which are so much more important than all others, are also the most complicated, and the most difficult to specify with any approach to completeness. Without attempting the hopeless task of detailing the circumstances by which, in this respect, my early character may have been shaped, I shall confine myself to a few leading points, which form an indispensable part of any true account of my education.

和任何人一樣，在我的教育中，精神影響比其他影響重要得多，也是最復雜、最難以用任何方法全面說明的。去詳細說明塑造我年少時性格的環(huán)境大概是什么樣的，根本是不可能完成的任務，我將只列舉一些最重要的事件，它們在任何關于我的教育的真實記述中，都是不可缺少的一部分。

I was brought up from the first without any religious belief, in the ordinary acceptation of the term. My father, educated in the creed of Scotch Presbyterianism, had by his own studies and reflexions been early led to reject not only the belief in Revelation, but the foundations of what is commonly called Natural Religion. I have heard him say, that the turning point of his mind on the subject was reading Butler1's Analog y2. That work, of which he always continued to speak with respect, kept him, as he said, for some considerable time, a believer in the divine authority of Christianity; by proving to him, that whatever are the difficulties in believing that the Old and New Testaments proceed from, or record the acts of, a perfectly wise and good being, the same and still greater difficulties stand in the way of the belief, that a being of such a character can have been the Maker of the universe. He considered Butler's argument as conclusive against the only opponents for whom it was intended. Those who admit an omnipotent as well as perfectly just and benevolent maker and ruler of such a world as this, can say little against Christianity but what can, with at least equal force, be retorted against themselves. Finding, therefore, no halting place in Deism, he remained in a state of perplexity, until, doubtless after many struggles, he yielded to the conviction, that, concerning the origin of things nothing whatever can be known. This is the only correct statement of his opinion; for dogmatic atheism he looked upon as absurd; as most of those, whom the world has considered Atheists, have always done. These particulars are important, because they show that my father's rejection of all that is called religious belief, was not, as many might suppose, primarily a matter of logic and evidence: the grounds of it were moral, still more than intellectual. He found it impossible to believe that a world so full of evil was the work of an Author combining infinite power with perfect goodness and righteousness. His intellect spurned the subtleties by which men attempt to blind themselves to this open contradiction. The Sab?an, or Manich?an theory of a Good and an Evil Principle, struggling against each other for the government of the universe, he would not have equally condemned; and I have heard him express surprise, that no one revived it in our time. He would have regarded it as a mere hypothesis; but he would have ascribed to it no depraving influence. As it was, his aversion to religion, in the sense usually attached to the term, was of the same kind with that of Lucretius3: he regarded it with the feelings due not to a mere mental delusion, but to a great moral evil. He looked upon it as the greatest enemy of morality: first, by setting up factitious excellences,— belief in creeds, devotional feelings, and ceremonies, not connected with the good of humankind,—and causing these to be accepted as substitutes for genuine virtues: but above all, by radically vitiating the standard of morals; making it consist in doing the will of a being, on whom it lavishes indeed all the phrases of adulation, but whom in sober truth it depicts as eminently hateful. I have a hundred times heard him say, that all ages and nations have represented their gods as wicked, in a constantly increasing progression, that mankind have gone on adding trait after trait till they reached the most perfect conception of wickedness which the human mind could devise, and have called this God, and prostrated themselves before it. This neplus ultra of wickedness he considered to be embodied in what is commonly presented to mankind as the creed of Christianity. Think (he used to say) of a being who would make a Hell—who would create the human race with the infallible foreknowledge, and therefore with the intention, that the great majority of them were to be consigned to horrible and everlasting torment. The time, I believe, is drawing near when this dreadful conception of an object of worship will be no longer identified with Christianity; and when all persons, with any sense of moral good and evil, will look upon it with the same indignation with which my father regarded it. My father was as well aware as any one that Christians do not, in general, undergo the demoralizing consequences which seem inherent in such a creed, in the manner or to the extent which might have been expected from it. The same slovenliness of thought, and subjection of the reason to fears, wishes, and affections, which enable them to accept a theory involving a contradiction in terms, prevents them from perceiving the logical consequences of the theory. Such is the facility with which mankind believe at one and the same time things inconsistent with one another, and so few are those who draw from what they receive as truths, any consequences but those recommended to them by their feelings, that multitudes have held the undoubting belief in an Omnipotent Author of Hell, and have nevertheless identified that being with the best conception they were able to form of perfect goodness. Their worship was not paid to the demon which such a Being as they imagined would really be, but to their own ideal of excellence. The evil is, that such a belief keeps the ideal wretchedly low; and opposes the most obstinate resistance to all thought which has a tendency to raise it higher. Believers shrink from every train of ideas which would lead the mind to a clear conception and an elevated standard of excellence, because they feel (even when they do not distinctly see) that such a standard would conflict with many of the dispensations of nature, and with much of what they are accustomed to consider as the Christian creed. And thus morality continues a matter of blind tradition, with no consistent principle, nor even any consistent feeling, to guide it.

我從一開始接受的是沒有任何宗教信仰的教育——按照大家對宗教信仰的普遍理解來說。我父親受教于蘇格蘭長老會的教義，但他很早就通過自己的研究和反思，不僅拋棄了對《啟示錄》的信仰，還反對通常所謂的自然宗教的基本原則。我聽他說過，他對這個問題的思想轉折點，是讀了巴特勒的《宗教類推》。談起這部著作的時候，他總是充滿敬意，說此書曾讓他在相當長的一段時間內相信基督教的神圣權威。這部書向他證明，不管要相信《舊約》和《新約》是源自一個極其英明善良的人，或者是他行為的記錄有多少困難，更具挑戰(zhàn)意義的還在于要相信有這種性格的人是宇宙的造物主。他認為巴特勒的論證確鑿，足以駁倒這本書針對的唯一對手。那些承認上帝萬能、公正、善良，承認上帝是這個世界的創(chuàng)造者和統(tǒng)治者的人們，不能說反對基督教的話。如果說了，那么這些話可以帶著至少同樣的說服力，用來反駁他們自己。因此，他找不出自然神論中的缺陷，這讓他一直很困惑。毫無疑問，經過多次掙扎后，他讓步了，深信關于萬物的起源這個問題，一切都不可知。這是對他的觀點唯一正確的表述，因為他認為武斷的無神論很荒誕，就像那些被稱作無神論者的人，大部分人做的事情也很荒誕。這些細節(jié)很重要，因為它們表明了父親反對所有這些所謂的宗教信仰，并不像很多人可能認為的那樣，主要是因為邏輯和證據(jù)的問題，他反對的根據(jù)是道德上的，要高于智力層面。他覺得無法相信一個充滿罪惡的世界，是兼有無窮力量、完美善良和正義的造物主的作品。人們試圖蒙蔽自己以接受這種明顯的矛盾，但他的智慧讓他唾棄這種微妙的努力。然而他不會同樣譴責塞伯伊人或摩尼教的理論，這些理論認為善惡互相爭奪對宇宙的支配。我聽他說過，他很吃驚為什么在我們這個時代，沒有人重振善惡原則。他會認為善惡原則只是個假設，但他不會把它歸為讓人墮落的力量。事實上，他對宗教（按照這個詞的通常含義）的反感，和盧克萊修一樣：他對宗教的厭惡不是因為它不過是一種精神欺騙，而是因為宗教是一種強大的道德罪惡。他認為宗教是道德的最大敵人：首先，通過構建虛偽的美德——宗教的教義、虔誠的情感和宗教儀式，這些都與人類的美德沒有關系——讓它們取代真正的美德，為人接受；但最重要的，是通過從根本上損害道德的標準，讓這個標準服從于一個人的意志，這個人得到了所有慷慨的奉承話。但是，冷靜看待事實的話，這個人又被刻畫得極其可恨。我聽他說過一百次，說所有時代、所有國家都把他們的上帝描繪得很邪惡，而且總是越來越邪惡。人類不停地給邪惡添加一個又一個的特征，直到符合他們的大腦對邪惡最完美的設想，并把這稱為上帝，拜倒在它面前。他認為，這種登峰造極的邪惡，體現(xiàn)在通常呈現(xiàn)于人類面前的基督教教義里。（他經常說）設想一下一個會創(chuàng)造地獄的人——由于他擁有著絕對的先知，因此在創(chuàng)造人類時他就帶著這種目的，即絕大多數(shù)要經受可怕、恒久的折磨。我相信，這種可怕的膜拜對象的觀念，很快將不再和基督教劃上等號。有任何道德善惡意識的人，也會像我父親一樣，帶著同樣的義憤看待它。父親也和所有人一樣清楚，不論是從人們原先預想的方式還是程度上來說，基督徒總體上并沒有受到這種教義似乎固有的腐化道德的影響。思想懶散，理智屈從于恐懼、愿望和情感的支配，讓他們接受了這樣一個自相矛盾的理論，也讓他們無從理解這個理論的邏輯結論。這就是人類的能力，能夠同時相信自相矛盾的事物，很少有人從他們當作真理接受的東西中得出推論，而只是汲取自己的感覺喜歡的東西。因此，大眾堅信存在萬能的地獄創(chuàng)造者，然而又把那個人看成是他們能夠設想出來的完美仁慈的化身。他們想象的那個人其實是個魔鬼，他們崇拜的并不是這個魔鬼，而是他們自己對于美德的理想。不幸的是，這樣的信仰，使得這種理想很可憐，很卑下，它頑固地抵制所有希望提升這種理想的想法。任何會讓他們的頭腦對美德產生明確概念以及更高標準的一連串的觀點，信徒們都不愿意相信，因為他們覺得（即使在他們沒有看清楚的時候）這樣一個標準會和造物主的很多安排相沖突，和他們習慣接受的基督教的很多教義相沖突。因此，道德一直都是一種盲目的傳統(tǒng)，沒有一貫的原則，也沒有一貫的感情去引導它。

It would have been wholly inconsistent with my father's ideas of duty, to allow me to acquire impressions contrary to his convictions and feelings respecting religion: and he impressed upon me from the first, that the manner in which the world came into existence was a subject on which nothing was known: that the question, "Who made me?" cannot be answered, because we have no experience or authentic information from which to answer it; and that any answer only throws the difficulty a step further back, since the question immediately presents itself, "Who made God?" He, at the same time, took care that I should be acquainted with what had been thought by mankind on these impenetrable problems. I have mentioned at how early an age he made me a reader of ecclesiastical history; and he taught me to take the strongest interest in the Reformation, as the great and decisive contest against priestly tyranny for liberty of thought.

如果允許我獲得和父親相反的宗教信念和感情的話，那就會與他的責任觀完全矛盾。所以從一開始，他就讓我深深記住，對于世界產生的方式這個問題，人們還一無所知。“誰創(chuàng)造了我？”這個問題無法解答，因為我們沒有回答它所需的經驗或真實的信息。任何答案只會讓困難更進一步，因為下一個問題馬上就出現(xiàn)了，“誰創(chuàng)造了上帝？”同時，他確保我應該熟悉人類對這些令人費解的問題做過的思考。我曾提到過，在我那么小的時候，他就讓我讀教會史，他教我對宗教改革產生最強烈的興趣，認同它是與傳教士專制作斗爭，是爭取思想自由的決定性的偉大戰(zhàn)斗。

I am thus one of the very few examples, in this country, of one who has, not thrown off religious belief, but never had it: I grew up in a negative state with regard to it. I looked upon the modern exactly as I did upon the ancient religion, as something which in no way concerned me. It did not seem to me more strange that English people should believe what I did not, than that the men whom I read of in Herodotus4 should have done so. History had made the variety of opinions among mankind a fact familiar to me, and this was but a prolongation of that fact. This point in my early education had, however, incidentally one bad consequence deserving notice. In giving me an opinion contrary to that of the world, my father thought it necessary to give it as one which could not prudently be avowed to the world. This lesson of keeping my thoughts to myself, at that early age, was attended with some moral disadvantages; though my limited intercourse with strangers, especially such as were likely to speak to me on religion, prevented me from being placed in the alternative of avowal or hypocrisy. I remember two occasions in my boyhood, on which I felt myself in this alternative, and in both cases I avowed my disbelief and defended it. My opponents were boys, considerably older than myself: one of them I certainly staggered at the time, but the subject was never renewed between us: the other who was surprised and somewhat shocked, did his best to convince me for some time, without effect.

我因此成為這個國家中并非拋卻了宗教信仰，而是從來就沒有過宗教信仰的人之一。我成長于一個對宗教持否定態(tài)度的環(huán)境中。我看待現(xiàn)代宗教和古代宗教的方式完全一樣，認為它們與我完全無關。對我來說，英國人信仰我不信的東西，就像我讀希羅多德的書，看到里面的人和我的信仰不同一樣，不足為奇。讀歷史讓我熟知人類中間存在多種觀點的事實，這只不過是這個事實的延伸。然而，我早年教育中的這一點也附帶有一個不好的結果，值得注意。父親認為，教給我與世人相反的觀點有必要謹慎，不向世人公開這個觀點。在那么小的時候就教我不告訴別人自己的思想，是有一些道德上的不利的。雖然我和陌生人的交往有限，尤其是與那些有可能和我談論宗教的人，這使我不會置身于要么說實話，要么虛偽的選擇之中。我記得，童年時我有兩次處在這種選擇中，這兩次我都宣布了自己的懷疑，并為之辯護。我的對手是一些比我大很多的男孩子，我的言辭顯然使得其中一個當時很慌亂，但是我們再也沒有繼續(xù)這個話題。另一個感到很吃驚，甚至有些震驚，他努力勸說了我一陣子，讓我相信他，但是沒用。

The great advance in liberty of discussion, which is one of the most important differences between the present time and that of my childhood, has greatly altered the moralities of this question; and I think that few men of my father's intellect and public spirit, holding with such intensity of moral conviction as he did, unpopular opinions on religion, or on any other of the great subjects of thought, would now either practise or inculcate the withholding of them from the world, unless in the cases, becoming fewer every day, in which frankness on these subjects would either risk the loss of means of subsistence, or would amount to exclusion from some sphere of usefulness peculiarly suitable to the capacities of the individual. On religion in particular the time appears to me to have come, when it is the duty of all who being qualified in point of knowledge, have on mature consideration satisfied themselves that the current opinions are not only false but hurtful, to make their dissent known; at least, if they are among those whose station or reputation, gives their opinion a chance of being attended to. Such an avowal would put an end, at once and for ever, to the vulgar prejudice, that what is called, very improperly, unbelief, is connected with any bad qualities either of mind or heart. The world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornaments—of those most distinguished even in popular estimation for wisdom and virtue—are complete sceptics in religion; many of them refraining from avowal, less from personal considerations, than from a conscientious, though now in my opinion a most mistaken apprehension, lest by speaking out what would tend to weaken existing beliefs, and by consequence (as they suppose) existing restraints, they should do harm instead of good.

討論自由現(xiàn)在有了很大進步，這是和我童年時最重要的區(qū)別之一，它大大改變了討論這個問題所涉及的道德性。我認為，現(xiàn)在很少有具備和我父親一樣的智力和公德心，以強烈的道德信念堅持不受歡迎的宗教觀點或其他偉大思想的人，不會把他們的這些想法公諸于世，或者反復勸導他人不要這樣做。除非有這樣的情況，而且這種情況越來越少，那就是坦白對這些問題的看法，要么會有失去謀生手段的危險，要么會被特別適合個人能力發(fā)揮的有益的領域排除在外。尤其在宗教問題上，我認為所有知識上過硬，經過深思熟慮后認為目前的觀點不僅錯誤，而且有害的人，都有義務表達自己的異議，而這樣的時刻已經到來了。至少那些有地位或有名譽，能讓自己的觀點有機會被人注意到的人，都有義務這么做。這樣的聲明會立刻結束，并永遠結束那種庸俗的偏見，即認為無信仰（非常不恰當?shù)慕蟹ǎ┡c頭腦或者心靈中的什么壞品質有關。如果世人知道最為世界增光添彩的人當中——即那些哪怕用通俗標準評價他們的智慧和美德，也是最卓越的人當中——有多大比例是徹底的宗教懷疑論者的話，會非常的震驚，他們中很多人克制自己不作聲明，絕不是基于個人的考慮，而是本著在我目前看來十分錯誤的一種負責任的憂思，唯恐說出來會削弱現(xiàn)有的信仰，進而（像他們所認為的）削弱現(xiàn)有的約束，這樣一來反而有害無益。

Of unbelievers (so called) as well as of believers, there are many species, including almost every variety of moral type. But the best among them, as no one who has had opportunities of really knowing them will hesitate to affirm (believers rarely have that opportunity), are more genuinely religious, in the best sense of the word religion, than those who exclusively arrogate to themselves the title. The liberality of the age, or in other words the weakening of the obstinate prejudice which makes men unable to see what is before their eyes because it is contrary to their expectations, has caused it to be very commonly admitted that a Deist may be truly religious: but if religion stands for any graces of character and not for mere dogma, the assertion may equally be made of many whose belief is far short of Deism. Though they may think the proof incomplete that the universe is a work of design, and though they assuredly disbelieve that it can have an Author and Governor who is absolute in power as well as perfect in goodness, they have that which constitutes the principal worth of all religions whatever, an ideal conception of a Perfect Being, to which they habitually refer as the guide of their conscience; and this ideal of Good is usually far nearer to perfection than the objective Deity of those, who think themselves obliged to find absolute goodness in the author of a world so crowded with suffering and so deformed by injustice as ours.

（所謂的）異教徒和信徒都有很多種，幾乎涵蓋了眾多道德類型中的每一種。但是，任何真正有機會了解這其中最優(yōu)秀者的人（信徒很少有這樣的機會），都會毫不猶豫地肯定，這些人比那些把頭銜硬加到自己頭上，而把別人排除在外的人，更真誠地信仰宗教，從宗教這個詞的最佳意義上來講是這樣。時代的開明，或者換句話說，曾讓人們不見眼前之物——因為與他們的預期相反——的頑固偏見的削弱，使得人們普遍承認自然神論信仰者可能確實很虔誠。但是，如果宗教代表任何品質中的魅力，而不僅是教條的話，那么對于很多信仰完全達不到自然神論的人，也可以斷言他們很虔誠。盡管他們可能認為，宇宙是設計的作品這種說法證據(jù)不足，盡管他們確實懷疑宇宙中存在一個擁有絕對權力，同時又是至善至美的創(chuàng)世者兼統(tǒng)治者，但是對于完美的存在，他們有一個理想的設想，這個設想構成了所有宗教的主要價值，他們通常稱之為是非之心的指引。這種完美的善遠比客觀的神更接近完美，相信客觀的神的人認為他們必須在創(chuàng)世者身上找到絕對的善，可是這個造物主的世界跟我們的世界一樣，充滿苦難，因為不公正而畸形。

My father's moral convictions, wholly dissevered from religion, were very much of the character of those of the Greek philosophers; and were delivered with the force and decision which characterized all that came from him. Even at the very early age at which I read with him the Memorabilia of Xenophon, I imbibed from that work and from his comments a deep respect for the character of Socrates; who stood in my mind as a model of ideal excellence: and I well remember how my father at that time impressed upon me the lesson of the "Choice of Hercules." At a somewhat later period the lofty moral standard exhibited in the writings of Plato operated upon me with great force. My father's moral inculcations were at all times mainly those of the "Socratici viri"; justice, temperance (to which he gave a very extended application), veracity, perseverance, readiness to encounter pain and especially labour; regard for the public good; estimation of persons according to their merits, and of things according to their intrinsic usefulness; a life of exertion, in contradiction to one of self-indulgent ease and sloth. These and other moralities he conveyed in brief sentences, uttered as occasion arose, of grave exhortation, or stern reprobation and contempt.

父親的道德信念與宗教毫無關系，而在很大程度上和一些希臘哲學家相同。表達信念時體現(xiàn)出來的力量和果斷，也是他所有作品的特征。在我非常小的時候，我和他一起讀了色諾芬的《回憶蘇格拉底》，即使那時，從這部著作和父親的評論中，我已經對蘇格拉底的品格敬佩萬分。他在我頭腦中是完美杰出的化身：我清楚地記得那時父親如何讓我銘記《赫拉克勒斯的選擇》這一課。在稍后的一段時期里，柏拉圖的作品中呈現(xiàn)出來的高尚的道德標準，對我產生了極大影響。一直以來父親給我的道德教誨主要是“蘇格拉底的追隨者”所提倡的：正直、節(jié)制（這個詞，他用得很廣泛）、誠實、堅定、樂于承受痛苦，尤其是辛苦的勞動；關心公共福利；以品質評價人物，以內在的可用性評價事物；一生努力，而非自我放縱、松懈和懶惰。一有機會他就用簡潔的語句，或嚴肅告誡，或嚴厲斥責和輕蔑，來表達這些和其他道德規(guī)范。

But though direct moral teaching does much, indirect does more; and the effect my father produced on my character, did not depend solely on what he said or did with that direct object, but also, and still more, on what manner of man he was.

盡管直接的道德教育作用很大，但是間接的作用更大。父親對我的性格的影響，不僅取決于他為了達成這個直接目標的所言所行，而且更多地取決于他是一個什么樣的人。

In his views of life he partook of the character of the Stoic5, the Epicurean6, and the Cynic7, not in the modern but the ancient sense of the word. In his personal qualities the Stoic predominated. His standard of morals was Epicurean, inasmuch as it was utilitarian, taking as the exclusive test of right and wrong, the tendency of actions to produce pleasure or pain. But he had (and this was the Cynic element) scarcely any belief in pleasure; at least in his later years, of which alone, on this point, I can speak confidently. He was not insensible to pleasures; but he deemed very few of them worth the price which, at least in the present state of society, must be paid for them. The greater number of miscarriages in life, he considered to be attributable to the overvaluing of pleasures. Accordingly, temperance, in the large sense intended by the Greek philosophers—stopping short at the point of moderation in all indulgences—was with him, as with them, almost the central point of educational precept. His inculcations of this virtue fill a large place in my childish remembrances. He thought human life a poor thing at best, after the freshness of youth and of unsatisfied curiosity had gone by. This was a topic on which he did not often speak, especially, it may be supposed, in the presence of young persons: but when he did, it was with an air of settled and profound conviction. He would sometimes say, that if life were made what it might be, by good government and good education, it would be worth having: but he never spoke with anything like enthusiasm even of that possibility. He never varied in rating intellectual enjoyments above all others, even in value as pleasure, independently of their ulterior benefits. The pleasures of the benevolent affections he placed high in the scale; and used to say, that he had never known a happy old man, except those who were able to live over again in the pleasures of the young. For passionate emotions of all sorts, and for everything which has been said or written in exaltation of them, he professed the greatest contempt. He regarded them as a form of madness. "The intense" was with him a byeword of scornful disapprobation. He regarded as an aberration of the moral standard of modern times, compared with that of the ancients, the great stress laid upon feeling. Feelings, as such, he considered to be no proper subjects of praise or blame. Right and wrong, good and bad, he regarded as qualities solely of conduct—of acts and omissions; there being no feeling which may not lead, and does not frequently lead, either to good or to bad actions: conscience itself, the very desire to act right, often leading people to act wrong. Consistently carrying out the doctrine, that the object of praise and blame should be the discouragement of wrong conduct and the encouragement of right, he refused to let his praise or blame be influenced by the motive of the agent. He blamed as severely what he thought a bad action, when the motive was a feeling of duty, as if the agents had been consciously evil doers. He would not have accepted as a plea in mitigation for inquisitors, that they sincerely believed burning heretics to be an obligation of conscience. But though he did not allow honesty of purpose to soften his disapprobation of actions, it had its full effect on his estimation of characters. No one prized conscientiousness and rectitude of intention more highly, or was more incapable of valuing any person in whom he did not feel assurance of it. But he disliked people quite as much for any other deficiency, provided he thought it equally likely to make them act ill. He disliked, for instance, a fanatic in any bad cause, as much or more than one who adopted the same cause from self-interest, because he thought him even more likely to be practically mischievous. And thus, his aversion to many intellectual errors, or what he regarded as such, partook, in a certain sense, of the character of a moral feeling. All this is merely saying that he, in a degree once common, but now very unusual, threw his feelings into his opinions; which truly it is difficult to understand how any one, who possesses much of both, can fail to do. None but those who do not care about opinions, will confound it with intolerance. Those who, having opinions which they hold to be immensely important, and the contraries to be prodigiously hurtful, have any deep regard for the general good, will necessarily dislike, as a class and in the abstract, those who think wrong what they think right, and right what they think wrong: though they need not therefore be, nor was my father, insensible to good qualities in an opponent, nor governed in their estimation of individuals by one general presumption, instead of by the whole of their character. I grant that an earnest person, being no more infallible than other men, is liable to dislike people on account of opinions which do not merit dislike; but if he neither himself does them any ill office, nor connives at its being done by others, he is not intolerant: and the forbearance, which flows from a conscientious sense of the importance to mankind of the equal freedom of all opinions, is the only tolerance which is commendable, or, to the highest moral order of minds, possible.

他的人生觀兼有斯多葛學派、伊壁鳩魯學派和犬儒學派（取這個詞的古代意義，不是現(xiàn)代意義）的特點。他的個人品質主要體現(xiàn)了斯多葛學派的特點。他的道德標準是伊壁鳩魯學派的，因為它是實用主義的，以行動產生苦樂的傾向作為檢驗對錯的唯一標準。但是，他很少相信快樂（這是犬儒學派的成分），單單在這點上，我可以很有信心地說，至少在他的晚年如此。他并非對快樂毫無感覺，但是他認為，與必須付出的代價相比，很少有快樂是值得爭取的，至少在社會的目前狀態(tài)下是這樣。他認為，生活中更多的失敗，可以歸因于對快樂的過高估計。相應的，希臘哲學家們廣義上所指的節(jié)制，即不逾越任何嗜好的適度范圍，在父親和這些哲學家們看來，幾乎是教育規(guī)則的核心要點。他關于這種美德的諄諄教誨，占據(jù)了我童年記憶的很大一部分。他認為，在青春的鮮活和永不知足的好奇心消失之后，人類的生命充其量也就是個可憐的東西。這個話題他很少提起，尤其是年輕人在場的時候。但是，當他果真提起的時候，會帶著一副深信不疑的神態(tài)。他有時會說，如果人生像設想的那樣，能得到很好的管理和教育，那么人生還值得擁有。但是，即便是在談這種可能時，他也從沒帶上半點熱情。他一直都視智力享受高于其他任何享受，從未改變，即使以它們帶來的快樂作為衡量價值的標準，而不顧其隱含的益處。他把仁愛的感情產生快樂的等級定得很高。他經常說，除了那些能夠重溫年輕時快樂的人，他從來不認識其他快樂的老人。對于所有激昂的情緒，和所有為了贊美它們所說、所寫的東西，他都極度藐視，認為它們是愚蠢的行為。對他來說，“強烈”只是輕蔑之非難的代名詞。他認為，與古人的道德標準相比，給感情施加重壓偏離了現(xiàn)代的道德標準。照這樣，他認為感情也不是贊揚和責備的合適對象。他認為對與錯，善與惡，純屬行為的特性——行為包括進行了的行動和疏忽了的行動。沒有任何感情不會導致，或者不會經常導致或好或壞的舉動：最渴望做對的良心本身，卻經常讓人犯錯。贊揚和責備的目的應該是阻止錯誤行為，鼓勵正確行為，他始終如一地貫徹這個信條，不讓行為人的動機影響到他的贊揚和責備。如果他認為一種行為是壞的，即使是出于一種責任感，他同樣會嚴厲地指責，好像行為人有意做壞事一樣。他不會因為宗教法官確實相信燒死異教徒是他們良心上的責任，就接受以此作為減輕他們罪狀的申訴。盡管他不會因為意圖坦率而減輕對行為的指責，但這在很大程度上影響到他對品質的評價。誰也不像他那樣看重意圖的認真和正直，也不像他那樣，絕不能夠看重任何他無法確信是否具有這樣品質的人。但是，他同樣不喜歡具備其他缺點的人，只要他認為這些缺點可能同樣會讓他們做壞事。比如，他討厭任何邪惡運動中的狂熱分子，覺得他們和那些因一己私利而發(fā)動這一運動的人一樣可惡，甚至更可惡，因為他覺得前者破壞力更大。因此，他對很多智力上的錯誤，或者他認為是這種錯誤的厭惡，在某種意義上，帶有道德感情的特征。所有這些不過是說，他的見解當中帶有感情成分，他這樣做的程度曾經很一般，但是現(xiàn)在很不尋常。確實，那些同時擁有豐富感情和見解的人竟然做不到這一點，是很令人費解的。只有那些不在乎見解的人才會將其與偏狹混為一談。那些堅持認為自己的觀點非常重要，相反的觀點非常有害，且深切關心大眾福利的人，必然會討厭把他們認為對的當作錯的，把他們認為錯的當成對的人，而這些被厭惡的人在理論上成為了一類人。但是他們，我父親也是，不需要因此忽視對手的良好品質，對個體的評價也不會局限于一個籠統(tǒng)的假定，而要看其品格的全部。我承認，一個真誠、不比別人少犯錯誤的人，很容易由于不值得討厭的見解而討厭別人。但是，如果他本人并沒有詆毀這些人，又不縱容別人這樣做，那么他就算寬容的。審慎地意識到平等自由地發(fā)表各種見解對人類的意義，源自于這種意識的容忍。這才是唯一值得稱贊的，才是人類思想最高道德標準所能達到的寬容。

It will be admitted, that a man of the opinions, and the character, above described, was likely to leave a strong moral impression on any mind principally formed by him, and that his moral teaching was not likely to err on the side of laxity or indulgence. The element which was chiefly deficient in his moral relation to his children, was that of tenderness. I do not believe that this deficiency lay in his own nature. I believe him to have had much more feeling than he habitually showed, and much greater capacities of feeling than were ever developed. He resembled most Englishmen in being ashamed of the signs of feeling, and, by the absence of demonstration, starving the feelings themselves. If we consider further that he was in the trying position of sole teacher, and add to this that his temper was constitutionally irritable, it is impossible not to feel true pity for a father who did, and strove to do, so much for his children, who would have so valued their affection, yet who must have been constantly feeling that fear of him was drying it up at its source. This was no longer the case, later in life and with his younger children. They loved him tenderly: and if I cannot say so much of myself, I was always loyally devoted to him. As regards my own education, I hesitate to pronounce whether I was more a loser or gainer by his severity. It was not such as to prevent me from having a happy childhood. And I do not believe, that boys can be induced to apply themselves with vigour, and what is so much more difficult, perseverance, to dry and irksome studies, by the sole force of persuasion and soft words. Much must be done, and much must be learnt, by children, for which rigid discipline, and known liability to punishment, are indispensable as means. It is, no doubt, a very laudable effort, in modern teaching, to render as much as possible of what the young are required to learn, easy and interesting to them. But when this principle is pushed to the length of not requiring them to learn anything but what has been made easy and interesting, one of the chief objects of education is sacrificed. I rejoice in the decline of the old brutal and tyrannical system of teaching, which however did succeed in enforcing habits of application; but the new, as it seems to me, is training up a race of men who will be incapable of doing anything which is disagreeable to them. I do not, then, believe that fear, as an element in education, can be dispensed with; but I am sure that it ought not to be the main element; and when it predominates so much as to preclude love and confidence on the part of the child to those who should be the unreservedly trusted advisers of after years, and perhaps to seal up the fountains of frank and spontaneous communicativeness in the child's nature, it is an evil for which a large abatement must be made from the benefits, moral and intellectual, which may flow from any other part of the education.

應該承認，擁有上述觀點和品質的人，很可能會給所有主要由他塑造的頭腦留下深刻的道德印象，他的道德教學，不大可能會犯粗心或放縱的錯誤。他與孩子的道德關系中，缺乏的主要因素是親切。我不認為他的天性中有這種缺陷。我相信，他的感情要比平常展示出來的豐富得多，而他情感的能力也比成長過程中所形成的大很多。他和大多數(shù)英國男人一樣，為表露出感情而感到羞愧，但不表露的話，感情也就枯萎了。如果我們考慮得更深入一些，作為唯一的教師，他處在這樣一個需要耐性的位置上，加上他的脾氣本來就很急躁，雖然他曾為自己的孩子們做過，并努力地去做了那么多事，而他原本也會非常珍視他們對自己的愛，然而他一定經常感覺到，對他的害怕使得這種感情從源頭上就枯竭了，這讓我們無法不覺得這樣的一位父親真的很可憐。后來，與他更年幼的孩子們在一起時，就不是這樣了。他們很體貼，很愛他。即使我不能說自己多么愛他的話，但也可以說總是對他很忠心，很孝順。至于我自己的教育，我不敢斷言，他的嚴格到底使我成為了失敗者還是成功者。它并未阻止我擁有快樂的童年。但我也不相信只憑勸說和溫言軟語，就能促使男孩子們充滿活力，并堅持不懈地（后者更為困難）投入到單調乏味、令人厭煩的學習中去。孩子們有很多事必須要做，很多東西必須要學，為此，嚴格的訓練和讓他們知道有可能受到懲罰，是不可或缺的手段。無疑，在現(xiàn)代教育中，盡量把要求年輕人學習的東西變得簡單有趣是一個非常值得稱贊的做法。但是，如果這個原則發(fā)展到只要求他們學習已變得簡單有趣的東西的話，教育的一個主要目標就被埋沒掉了。對于嚴酷、專制的舊教學體系的衰落，我感到很高興，但它在培養(yǎng)勤奮學習這方面卻很成功。而在我看來，新體系正在訓練這樣一批人，他們沒有能力做任何不合意的事情。因此，我認為，敬畏作為教育中的一個因素，是不能省卻的；但是我敢肯定，敬畏不應該是最主要的因素；如果它占支配地位，以至于阻斷了孩子對他多年來應該無條件信任的老師的愛和信心，或者封住了孩子本性中率直、自發(fā)交流的源泉，那就是不幸了，而從教育的任何其他部分中產生的道德和智力上的受益，必然會因此而大打折扣。

During this first period of my life, the habitual frequenters of my father's house were limited to a very few persons, most of them little known to the world, but whom personal worth, and more or less of congeniality with at least his political opinions (not so frequently to be met with then as since) inclined him to cultivate; and his conversations with them I listened to with interest and instruction. My being an habitual inmate of my father's study made me acquainted with the dearest of his friends, David Ricardo, who by his benevolent countenance, and kindliness of manner, was very attractive to young persons, and who after I became a student of political economy, invited me to his house and to walk with him in order to converse on the subject. I was a more frequent visitor (from about 1817 or 1818) to Mr. Hume, who, born in the same part of Scotland as my father, and having been, I rather think, a younger schoolfellow or college companion of his, had on returning from India renewed their youthful acquaintance, and who coming like many others greatly under the influence of my father's intellect and energy of character, was induced partly by that influence to go into Parliament, and there adopt the line of conduct which has given him an honorable place in the history of his country. Of Mr. Bentham I saw much more, owing to the close intimacy which existed between him and my father. I do not know how soon after my father's first arrival in England they became acquainted. But my father was the earliest Englishman of any great mark, who thoroughly understood, and in the main adopted, Bentham's general views of ethics, government, and law: and this was a natural foundation for sympathy between them, and made them familiar companions in a period of Bentham's life during which he admitted much fewer visitors than was the case subsequently. At this time Mr. Bentham passed some part of every year at Barrow Green House, in a beautiful part of the Surrey hills, a few miles from Godstone, and there I each summer accompanied my father in a long visit. In 1813 Mr. Bentham, my father, and I made an excursion, which included Oxford, Bath and Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, and Portsmouth. In this journey I saw many things which were instructive to me, and acquired my first taste for natural scenery, in the elementary form of fondness for a "view." In the succeeding winter we moved into a house very near Mr. Bentham's, which my father rented from him, in Queen Square, Westminster. From 1814 to 1817 Mr. Bentham lived during half of each year at Ford Abbey, in Somersetshire (or rather in a part of Devonshire surrounded by Somersetshire), which intervals I had the advantage of passing at that place. This sojourn was, I think, an important circumstance in my education. Nothing contributes more to nourish elevation of sentiments in a people, than the large and free character of their habitations. The middleage architecture, the baronial hall, and the spacious and lofty rooms, of this fine old place, so unlike the mean and cramped externals of English middle class life, gave the sentiment of a larger and freer existence, and were to me a sort of poetic cultivation, aided also by the character of the grounds in which the Abbey stood; which were riant and secluded, umbrageous, and full of the sound of falling waters.

在我人生初期的這段時間里，父親家里的常客很少，大部分不為世人所知。但由于他們的品格高尚，以及或多或少與他意氣相投，至少在政治觀點上互相投合(因為那時這樣的人不如后來常見)，父親樂于與他們結交，他們的交談總是讓我興致盎然而又深受啟迪。我總是呆在父親的書房里，因此和他最親密的朋友大衛(wèi).李嘉圖很熟，他面容和藹，舉止親切，對年輕人很有吸引力，我開始學政治經濟學后，他邀請我到他家里，和他一起散步，以便討論這個主題。（大概從1817年或1818年開始）我最常拜訪的是休姆先生，他和父親在蘇格蘭的同一個地區(qū)出生，我倒覺得他是父親的小學校友或者大學時的朋友，從印度回來后，他們重拾年輕時的友誼，和很多人一樣，父親智力和性格中的活力對他影響很大。這種影響，也是促使他進入議會的部分原因，他在議會里行事所采取的路線方針，使他在自己國家的歷史上獲得了值得尊敬的地位。至于邊沁先生，我見得更多，因為他和父親關系非常親密。我不知道父親第一次來英格蘭后多久他們就熟悉了。但是，父親是第一個完全理解并大體上采納邊沁關于道德規(guī)范、政府和法律之總體觀點的英國要人。這是他們之間產生共鳴的天然基礎，使父親成為邊沁那段人生中接待的為數(shù)不多的訪客之一，后來邊沁接待的訪客多了不少。當時，邊沁先生每年都會有一陣子在巴羅格林豪斯度過，那是戈德斯通幾英里外薩里山上一個很漂亮的地方，我每年夏天都花很長時間陪著父親在那里作客。1813年，邊沁先生、父親和我一起遠足，游覽了牛津、巴思、布里斯托爾、?？巳?、普利茅斯和樸次茅斯。在這次旅行中，我看到了很多對我有啟發(fā)的東西，第一次領略了自然風光，不過是以對“景色”的喜愛這種初級的形式。同一年冬天，我們搬到離邊沁家很近的一所房子里，是父親從他那里租來的，在威斯敏斯特的女王廣場。從1814年到1817年，邊沁先生每年有一半的時間住在薩默塞特郡（或者說在被薩默塞特郡環(huán)繞著的德文郡）的福特修道院，我間或有幸在那兒小住。我想，這次逗留在我的教育中是很重要的一次經歷。寬敞、自由的生活環(huán)境，比任何東西都更有助于提升一個民族的情操。這個精致、古老的地方有中世紀的建筑、莊嚴堂皇的禮堂、寬敞高聳的房間，跟鄙陋、狹隘的英國中產階級的生活很不一樣，給人一種萬物更大、更自由的感覺，加之修道院所處庭院的特征，都給我一種詩意的陶冶。這地方風景賞心悅目，幽靜隱蔽，綠樹成陰，水聲潺潺。

I owed another of the fortunate circumstances in my education, a year's residence in France, to Mr. Bentham's brother, General Sir Samuel Bentham. I had seen Sir Samuel Bentham and his family at their house near Gosport in the course of the tour already mentioned (he being then Superintendant of the Dockyard at Portsmouth) and during a stay of a few days which they made at Ford Abbey shortly after the peace, before going to live on the Continent. In 1820 they invited me for a six months visit to them in the South of France, which their kindness ultimately prolonged to nearly a twelvemonth. Sir Samuel Bentham, though of a character of mind different from that of his illustrious brother, was a man of very considerable attainments and general powers, with a decided genius for mechanical art. His wife, a daughter of the celebrated chemist Dr. Fordyce, was a woman of strong will and decided character, much general knowledge, and great practical good sense of the Edgeworth8 kind: she was the ruling spirit of the household, as she deserved, and was well qualified, to be. Their family consisted of one son (the eminent botanist) and three daughters, the youngest about two years my senior. I am indebted to them for much and various instruction, and for an almost parental interest in my welfare. When I first joined them, in May 1820, they occupied the Château of Pompignan (still belonging to a descendant of Voltaire's enemy) on the heights overlooking the plain of the Garonne between Montauban and Toulouse. I accompanied them in an excursion to the Pyrenees, including a stay of some duration at Bagnères de Bigorre, a journey to Pau, Bayonne, and Bagnères de Luchon, and an ascent of the Pic du Midi de Bigorre. This first introduction to the highest order of mountain scenery made the deepest impression on me, and gave a colour to my tastes through life. In October we proceeded by the beautiful mountain route of Castres and St. Pons, from Toulouse to Montpellier, in which last neighbourhood Sir Samuel had just bought the estate of Restinclière, near the foot of the singular mountain of St. Loup. During this residence in France I acquired a familiar knowledge of the French language, and acquaintance with the ordinary French literature; I took lessons in various bodily exercises, in none of which however I made any proficiency; and at Montpellier I attended the excellent winter courses of lectures at the Faculté des Sciences, those of M. Anglada on chemistry, of M. Provençal on zoology, and of a very accomplished representative of the eighteenth century metaphysics, M. Gergonne, on logic, under the name of Philosophy of the Sciences. I also went through a course of the higher mathematics under the private tuition of M. Lenthéric, a professor at the Lycée of Montpellier. But the greatest, perhaps, of the many advantages which I owed to this episode in my education, was that of having breathed for a whole year the free and genial atmosphere of Continental life. This advantage was not the less real though I could not then estimate, nor even consciously feel it. Having so little experience of English life, and the few people I knew being mostly such as had public objects, of a large and personally disinterested kind, at heart, I was ignorant of the low moral tone of what, in England, is called society; the habit of, not indeed professing, but taking for granted in every mode of implication, that conduct is of course always directed towards low and petty objects; the absence of high feelings which manifests itself by sneering depreciation of all demonstrations of them, and by general abstinence (except among a few of the stricter religionists) from professing any high principles of action at all, except in those preordained cases in which such profession is put on as part of the costume and formalities of the occasion. I could not then know or estimate the difference between this manner of existence, and that of a people like the French, whose faults, if equally real, are at all events different; among whom sentiments, which by comparison at least may be called elevated, are the current coin of human intercourse, both in books and in private life; and though often evaporating in profession, are yet kept alive in the nation at large by constant exercise, and stimulated by sympathy, so as to form a living and active part of the existence of great numbers of persons, and to be recognized and understood by all. Neither could I then appreciate the general culture of the understanding, which results from the habitual exercise of the feelings, and is thus carried down into the most uneducated classes of several countries on the Continent, in a degree not equalled in England among the so called educated, except where an unusual tenderness of conscience leads to a habitual exercise of the intellect on questions of right and wrong. I did not know the way in which, among the ordinary English, the absence of interest in things of an unselfish kind, except occasionally in a special thing here and there, and the habit of not speaking to others, nor much even to themselves, about the things in which they do feel interest, causes both their feelings and their intellectual faculties to remain undeveloped, or develop themselves only in some single and very limited direction; reducing them, considered as spiritual beings, to a kind of negative existence. All these things I did not perceive till long afterwards; but I even then felt, though without stating it clearly to myself, the contrast between the frank sociability and amiability of French personal intercourse, and the English mode of existence in which everybody acts as if everybody else (with few, or no, exceptions) was either an enemy or a bore. In France, it is true, the bad as well as the good points both of individual and of national character come more to the surface, and break out more fearlessly in ordinary intercourse, than in England: but the general habit of the people is to show, as well as to expect, friendly feeling in every one towards every other, wherever there is not some positive cause for the opposite. In England it is only of the best bred people, in the upper or upper middle ranks, that anything like this can be said.

在我接受的教育中，還有一次幸運的經歷，就是在巴黎住了一年，這要感謝邊沁先生的兄弟，將軍塞繆爾.邊沁爵士。在上面提到的游歷中，在戈斯波特附近塞繆爾.邊沁爵士的家里，我已經見過他和他的家人（他當時是樸次茅斯造船廠的主管），戰(zhàn)爭結束后不久，他們在福特修道院逗留的幾天里也見過面，之后他們去歐洲大陸居住。1820年，他們邀請我去法國南部的家里住了六個月，結果，由于他們和藹可親，我最終幾乎住了一年。盡管塞繆爾.邊沁爵士思考的方式和他杰出的兄弟不一樣，但他也有著相當?shù)某删秃途C合能力，在機械技術上的天分尤為突出。他的妻子，是著名化學家福代斯博士的女兒，她意志堅強，性格果敢，頗有見識，有著和埃奇沃思一樣務實、優(yōu)秀的辨別力。她是這個家的主導人物，這是她應得的，她也非常稱職。他們家有一個兒子（是著名的植物學家），三個女兒，最小的差不多比我大兩歲。我很感激他們給了我多方面的大量指導，而且像父母一樣關心我。1820年5月，我剛到他們家的時候，他們住在波皮南別墅（當時還屬于伏爾泰仇敵的一個后裔），在高處俯瞰蒙托邦和圖盧茲之間的加龍河平原。我和他們一起去比利牛斯山脈遠足，期間在巴涅爾德比戈爾逗留了一陣子，和他們一起到波城、巴約訥和巴涅爾德呂雄旅行，還攀登了南比戈爾峰。這是我第一次接觸最壯美的高山景色，給我留下了最深刻的印象，使我平生的品位變得亮麗多彩。10月份，我們繼續(xù)從圖盧茲出發(fā)，沿著卡斯特爾和圣蓬斯美麗的山路去蒙彼利埃，塞繆爾爵士剛在蒙彼利埃附近買下了雷斯汀克里爾的房產，位于圣盧普一座孤山的山腳下。在法國居住的這段時間，我熟悉了法語，也熟悉了一般的法國文學。我上了很多種體育課，然而，沒有一門很精通。在蒙彼利埃，我去聽了科學院非常好的冬季講座，有安格拉達先生講的化學，有普羅旺薩爾先生講的動物學，還有18世紀形而上學杰出的代表人物熱爾戈納先生講的邏輯學，題目是《科學的哲理》。我還在蒙彼利埃大學的朗泰里克教授的單獨指導下，學完了高等數(shù)學的課程。但是在這段時間的教育中，最為有利的條件可能要算呼吸了一整年歐洲大陸生活中自由、宜人的空氣了。盡管我當時還不能估計，甚至不能清楚地感覺到這個優(yōu)勢，但它卻是真實存在的。我對英國生活體驗甚少，認識的極少的幾個人，也大都是投身公共事業(yè),寬厚、無私的那種人，我在內心深處并不知道英國所謂的社會的粗俗道德風氣。雖然沒人公開宣稱行為的目標當然總是趨于俗氣、卑微，但是種種跡象都暗示了人們習慣于認為這理所當然。缺乏高尚的情感，表現(xiàn)為輕蔑地貶低所有高尚情感的展現(xiàn)，人們還拒絕公開承認任何高尚的行為準則（除了少數(shù)篤信宗教的人），除非在那些預定的場合，在那種情形下這種宣稱被當作服飾和禮節(jié)的一部分。我當時還無法了解或評價這種生存方式與法國人生存方式的不同之處，法國人的錯誤即使同樣真實，也完全不同。通過對比可以發(fā)現(xiàn)，法國人的情感至少可以說是高尚的，在他們當中，不管是在文學作品還是在個人生活里，情感都是人們交往的通行貨幣。盡管情感會隨著表白而消散，但是由于人們經常表達情感，在這個國度情感總體上還是保持鮮活的，并且還受到同情心的激勵，以至于成了大多數(shù)人生活中充滿生機活力的一部分，并為所有人接受和理解。我那時也不能領會這種理解背后的普通文化，它源自于經常運用情感，并如此傳播到歐洲大陸好幾個國家受教育最少的階層中，在某種程度上，所謂的受過良好教育的英國人是不能與之相比的，除了那些責任心非常敏感，因此會經常用智力思考對與錯的問題的人。普通英國人對無私的事情不感興趣，除了偶然這兒或那兒的某些特別的事情，而對自己確實感興趣的事情，他們也習慣于不和別人交談，甚至都不怎么和自己交流，我不知道這些是如何使他們的感情和智力的本領都得不到發(fā)展的，或者是發(fā)展的方向很單一，很有限，并使他們這些被認為是有靈魂的生命退化成了一種消極的存在。所有這一切，我都是很久以后才認識到的。但即使那時，盡管我沒有清楚地對自己說出來，我也已經感覺到兩個國家的區(qū)別，法國人交往時坦蕩親切，而在英國人的生活方式中，每個人都表現(xiàn)得好像別人（很少有例外或者根本沒有）是敵人或討厭的人一樣。與英國相比，法國人以及法國國家的性格，不管好的還是不好的地方，確實更易顯于表面，在平常的交往中更毫無顧忌地顯露出來。但是，只要沒有確切的理由對人不友好，法國人的一般習慣是表現(xiàn)出每個人對其他所有人的友好，也期望獲得這種感情。在英國，只有在上等或者中上等階層教養(yǎng)最好的人那里，才能出現(xiàn)這類的事情。

In my way through Paris, both going and returning, I passed some time in the house of M. Say, the eminent political economist, who was a friend and correspondent of my father, having become acquainted with him on a visit to England a year or two after the peace. He was a man of the later period of the French Revolution—a fine specimen of the best kind of French republican, one of those who had never bent the knee to Bonaparte though courted by him to do so; a truly upright, brave, and enlightened man. He lived a quiet and studious life, made happy by warm affections, public and private. He was acquainted with many of the chiefs of the Liberal party, and I saw various noteworthy persons while staying at his house; among whom I have pleasure in the recollection of having once seen Saint-Simon, not yet the founder either of a philosophy or a religion, and considered only as a clever original. The chief fruit which I carried away from the society I saw, was a strong and permanent interest in Continental Liberalism, of which I ever afterwards kept myself au courant, as much as of English politics: a thing not at all usual in those days with Englishmen, and which had a very salutary influence on my development, keeping me free from the error always prevalent in England, and from which even my father with all his superiority to prejudice was not exempt, of judging universal questions by a merely English standard. After passing a few weeks at Caen9 with an old friend of my father's, I returned to England in July 1821; and my education resumed its ordinary course.

在我往返巴黎的途中，我都在著名政治經濟學家塞伊先生的家里逗留一陣子，他是我父親的朋友，兩人寫信交流，他在戰(zhàn)爭結束后一兩年的一次英國之行中結識了父親。他屬于法國大革命后期的那種人——是最優(yōu)秀的法國共和黨人的范例；是從來沒有向波拿巴稱臣的人之一，盡管拿破侖曾誘惑他這么做；是一個真正誠實、勇敢、開明的人。他生活很安詳，他很勤奮，由于個人和公眾的熱烈愛戴而感到幸福。他和自由黨的很多首領很熟，住在他家的時候，我見到過很多顯要人物。我很愉快地記得在這些人當中，我見過一次圣西門，他當時還不是一門哲學或一種信仰的創(chuàng)始人，僅被認為是個聰明的怪人。我從自己看到的這個社會里得到的主要成果，就是對大陸自由主義強烈、持久的興趣。這之后，我一直讓自己對大陸自由主義的了解像對英國政治的了解一樣與時俱進。當時，大陸自由主義在英國人當中很不常見，對我的發(fā)展產生了非常有利的影響，讓我遠離在英國總是很盛行的錯誤，和僅用英國的標準來評判普遍性問題的做法，這是連我父親這樣一個不受偏見影響的人都避免不了。我在卡昂，父親的一個老友那里呆了幾個星期后，于1821年7月回到英國，我的教育又像往常一樣繼續(xù)下去。

(1) 約瑟夫·巴特勒（1692—1752），英國圣公會會督、神學家。

(2)《宗教類推》，又名《自然宗教與啟示宗教之類比》。

(3) 盧克萊修（約公元前94—前55），古羅馬哲學家和詩人。

(4) 希羅多德（約公元前485—前425），希臘歷史學家，所著《歷史》系西方第一部歷史著作。

(5) 斯多葛學派，公元前3世紀由芝諾創(chuàng)立。

(6) 伊壁鳩魯學派，公元前307年由伊壁鳩魯創(chuàng)立。

(7) 犬儒學派，古希臘的一個哲學學派，由蘇格拉底的學生安提西尼創(chuàng)立。

(8) 瑪麗亞·埃奇沃思（1767—1849），英裔愛爾蘭作家，以寫兒童故事和反映愛爾蘭生活及風土人情的小說著稱。

(9) 卡昂，法國北部城市，臨奧恩河，靠近英吉利海峽。