英語聽書《白鯨記》第700期

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It is a German conceit, that the vertebrae are absolutely undeveloped skulls. But the curious external resemblance, I take it the Germans were not the first men to perceive. A foreign friend once pointed it out to me, in the skeleton of a foe he had slain, and with the vertebrae of which he was inlaying, in a sort of basso-relieve, the beaked prow of his canoe. Now, I consider that the phrenologists have omitted an important thing in not pushing their investigations from the cerebellum through the spinal canal. For I believe that much of a man's character will be found betokened in his backbone. I would rather feel your spine than your skull, whoever you are. A thin joist of a spine never yet upheld a full and noble soul. I rejoice in my spine, as in the firm audacious staff of that flag which I fling half out to the world.

據(jù)說德國人就狂妄地認為，脊骨絕對是發(fā)育不足的腦殼。但是，就外表的奇似說來，我卻認為，德國人在這方面，并不是首先發(fā)現(xiàn)的人物。有一回，有位外國朋友就從一個被他殺死了的敵人的骷髏中，指給我看那背脊骨，他把那脊骨以一種半浮雕的式樣，嵌鑲在他的獨木舟的尖船頭上。這里，我認為骨相學家們還遺漏了一件大事，他們還沒有從小腦而進一步調查研究一下脊髓管。因為，我相信一個人的性格，大都可以從他的背脊骨中找到暗示。不管你是誰，我倒要摸摸你的脊骨，而不愿意摸你的腦殼。從來就沒有一根細小的支柱似的脊骨，撐得住一個完整而高貴的靈魂。我不禁為我的脊骨而大感高興，為那使我上半身挺立起來的、堅定而旁若無人的旗桿大感高興。

Apply this spinal branch of phrenology to the Sperm Whale. His cranial cavity is continuous with the first neck-vertebra; and in that vertebra the bottom of the spinal canal will measure ten inches across, being eight in height, and of a triangular figure with the base downwards. As it passes through the remaining vertebrae the canal tapers in size, but for a considerable distance remains of large capacity.

我們把這種骨相學的脊骨派觀點應用到抹香鯨上。它那腦蓋窩是跟第一根頸脊骨相連的；在那根脊骨中，把它的脊髓管的末端量起來橫達十英寸，高八英寸，而且還有一個底朝下的三角形。當它通過其余的脊骨時，脊管的末梢便逐漸變細，不過，還是有相當長的一段是很粗的。