《道德情操论》第一卷(第二篇 5章)

打印 被阅读次数

 

第二篇 论不同激情的得体度

 

Introduction

 

 

 

1

    The propriety of every passion excited by objects peculiarly

related to ourselves, the pitch which the spectator can go along

with, must lie, it is evident, in a certain mediocrity. If the

passion is too high, or if it is too low, he cannot enter into

it. Grief and resentment for private misfortunes and injuries may

easily, for example, be too high, and in the greater part of

mankind they are so. They may likewise, though this more rarely

happens, be too low. We denominate the excess, weakness and fury:

and we call the defect stupidity, insensibility, and want of

spirit. We can enter into neither of them, but are astonished and

confounded to see them.

 

与我们有特殊关系的客体所激发的每一种激情都有一个得体度,亦即旁观者所能赞同的限度,这一限度显然存在于某种适中的程度里。如果这种激情过于强烈,或过于微弱,旁观者都不能加以体谅。比如,因个人遭受的不幸和伤害所产生的悲痛与怨恨可能很容易过于强烈,对于大多数人来说都是如此。同样,这种激情也可能过于微弱,虽然这种情况罕有发生。我们将过度称之为软弱或暴怒,将不足称之为愚钝、麻木和冷漠无情。对这两种情况,除了感到惊愕和茫然相向之外,我们都不能体谅。

 

2.

 

    This mediocrity, however, in which the point of propriety

consists, is different in different passions. It is high in some,

and low in others. There are some passions which it is indecent

to express very strongly, even upon those occasions, in which it

is acknowledged that we cannot avoid feeling them in the highest

degree. And there are others of which the strongest expressions

are upon many occasions extremely graceful, even though the

passions themselves do not, perhaps, arise so necessarily. The

first are those passions with which, for certain reasons, there

is little or no sympathy: the second are those with which, for

other reasons, there is the greatest. And if we consider all the

different passions of human nature, we shall find that they are

regarded as decent, or indecent, just in proportion as mankind

are more or less disposed to sympathize with them.

 

然而,得体点所赖以存在的适中度因不同激情而异,在一些激情中高些,而在另外一些激情中则低些。有些激情不宜表达得非常强烈,即便人们公认,在一些情况下我们不可避免地会强烈地感受到这些激情,也不例外。而另外一些激情,在许多情况下即便表达得非常强烈也可能显得极其得体,即便这些激情并非一定会产生。第一种,就是那些由于某些原因很少或根本不能得到同情的激情;第二种,就是那些由于其他原因能够获得极大的同情的激情。如果我们对人性中所有不同的激情加以考察,就会发现它们被看成得体或不得体,而这正与人们对其所倾注的同情心之多少互成比例。

 

 

Chap. I

 

Of the Passions which take their origin from the body

 

第一章  源于躯体的激情

 

1

 

    1It is indecent to express any strong degree of those

passions which arise from a certain situation or disposition of

the body; because the company, not being in the same disposition,

cannot be expected to sympathize with them. Violent hunger, for

example, though upon many occasions not only natural, but

unavoidable, is always indecent, and to eat voraciously is

universally regarded as a piece of ill manners. There is,

however, some degree of sympathy, even with hunger. It is

agreeable to see our companions eat with a good appetite, and all

expressions of loathing are offensive. The disposition of body

which is habitual to a man in health, makes his stomach easily

keep time, if I may be allowed so coarse an expression, with the

one, and not with the other. We can sympathize with the distress

it in the which excessive hunger occasions when we read the

description of journal of a siege, or of a sea voyage. We imagine

ourselves in the situation of the sufferers, and thence readily

conceive the grief, the fear and consternation, which must

necessarily distract them. We feel, ourselves, some degree of

those passions, and therefore sympathize with them: but as we do

not grow hungry by reading the description, we cannot properly,

even in this case, be said to sympathize with their hunger.

 

   对于那些源于躯体某一特定状况或意向的激情,表达得非常强烈就显得不得体,因为并非处于相同状况的同伴不会对其产生同情心。以强烈的饥饿感为例,虽然在许多情况下不仅属于自然流露,而且不可避免,但总体来讲却很不得体,暴饮暴食,狼吞虎咽普遍被认为是一种失态之举。不过,即便如此,人们对强烈的饥饿感毕竟依然存有某些谅解之心。看到同伴食欲大振,尽享口福,这本是乐事一桩,但如果对此表示厌恶,那就会不可理喻,令人不满。如果我可以使用如下的粗俗表达方式,我就会说,一个健康人所习以为常的躯体意向,很容易使他的食欲和一个人相符,却和另外一个人相左。我们从被困日记或航海日志上读到关于极度饥饿的描述时,就会以悲伤的心情加以同情。我们通过想象将自己置身于受难者所处的境况之下,就很容易构想出令受难者大吃其苦的悲伤、恐惧与惊惶。在某种程度上,我们对那些激情感同身受,因而加以体谅,不过,因为我们读到上述描述时并不会真地产生饥饿感,因此,即便在这种情况下,我们也许都不能被认为是体谅他们的饥饿。

 

2

 

    It is the same case with the passion by which Nature unites

the two sexes. Though naturally the most furious of all the

passions, all strong expressions of it are upon every occasion

indecent, even between persons in whom its most complete

indulgence is acknowledged by all laws, both human and divine, to

be perfectly innocent. There seems, however, to be some degree of

sympathy even with this passion. To talk to a woman as we would

to a man is improper: it is expected that their company should

inspire us with more gaiety, more pleasantry, and more attention;

and an intire insensibility to the fair sex, renders a man

contemptible in some measure even to the men.

 

造物主借以将两性结合在一起的那种情欲亦复如此。所有那些激情,即便强烈至极,也属自然表露,但如果在每一种场合都去强烈地表达,那就是不得体,即便在一些人们之间,纵横恣肆的表达完全被人神共制的法律法规承认是丝毫无罪的,也不可以。不过,即便对于这种激情,也似乎春在某种程度的体谅。像对一个男人那样去和一个女人交谈,这是不得体的:和女人为伴,人们期望应该会从她们那里得到更多的快乐、诙谐以及关注,从而备受鼓舞;对女性全然麻木不仁,不仅会令一个男人自卑,而且在某种程度上讲,所有的男人也会对他鄙夷不屑。

 

3

 

    Such is our aversion for all the appetites which take their

origin from the body: all strong expressions of them are

loathsome and disagreeable. According to some ancient

philosophers, these are the passions which we share in common

with the brutes, and which having no connexion with the

characteristical qualities of human nature, are upon that account

beneath its dignity. But there are many other passions which we

share in common with the brutes, such as resentment, natural

affection, even gratitude, which do not, upon that account,

appear to be so brutal. The true cause of the peculiar disgust

which we conceive for the appetites of the body when we see them

in other men, is that we cannot enter into them. To the person

himself who feels them, as soon as they are gratified, the object

that excited them ceases to be agreeable: even its presence often

becomes offensive to him; he looks round to no purpose for the

charm which transported him the moment before, and he can now as

little enter into his own passion as another person. When we have

dined, we order the covers to be removed; and we should treat in

the same manner the objects of the most ardent and passionate

desires, if they were the objects of no other passions but those

which take their origin from the body.

 

   这就是我们对源于躯体的所有欲望所表现出的厌恶之情:强烈地表达所有这些欲望都令人生厌,令人不快。根据一些古大哲学家的见解,这些都是我们和野兽共同具备的激情,和人性的独特的品格没有联系,正因为如此,它们都有损于尊严。然而,有许多激情是我们与野兽共同具备的,比如怨怒、自然情感、甚至包括感激之情,也正因为如此,它们才不显得太野蛮。当我们从别人身上看到那些源于躯体的欲望时就会心生厌恶,而这种特殊的厌恶之情产生的真实原因,就是我们不能体谅它们对于感觉到这种欲望的人来说,一旦这些欲望得到满足,产生激情的客体就不再令人愉悦;即便仅仅是这种客体的出现都会令他不快。他环顾四周,毫无目标地寻找片刻之前还令其激情四溢的魅力,然而他对它的体谅之情已经和外人一样淡薄了。吃过饭我们就会撤掉餐具。如果激发炽热欲望的客体除了源于躯体的那些本能愿望之外再不能激发其它激情,我们就会以同样方式来对待。

 

4

 

    In the command of those appetites of the body consists that

virtue which is properly called temperance. To restrain them

within those bounds, which regard to health and fortune

prescribes, is the part of prudence. But to confine them within

those limits, which grace, which propriety, which delicacy, and

modesty require, is the office of temperance.

 

被恰如其分地称之为节制的美德就存在于对躯体欲望的掌控之中。把它们控制在为健康和财富所限定的范围之内,这是谨慎的职能。但是将它们控制在理性、得体、儒雅及恭谨所需的限度之内,则是节制的功能。

 

5

 

    2. It is for the same reason that to cry out with bodily

pain, how intolerable soever, appears always unmanly and

unbecoming. There is, however, a good deal of sympathy even with

bodily pain. If, as has already been observed, I see a stroke

aimed, and just ready to fall upon the leg, or arm, of another

person, I naturally shrink and draw back my own leg, or my own

arm: and when it does fall, I feel it in some measure, and am

hurt by it as well as the sufferer. My hurt, however, is, no

doubt, excessively slight, and, upon that account, if he makes

any violent out-cry, as I cannot go along with him, I never fail

to despise him. And this is the case of all the passions which

take their origin from the body: they excite either no sympathy

at all, or such a degree of it, as is altogether disproportioned

to the violence of what is felt by the sufferer.

 

   2.正是出于同样的道理,躯体痛苦无论如何难以忍受,大喊大叫总是显得懦弱失体。不过对躯体痛苦依然有很多理由值得体谅。正如早已说过的那样,如果我看到有人瞄准另一个人的腿部或手臂意欲猛击,或已经准备朝那些部位猛击时,我自然而然地也会蜷缩并收回自己的腿部或手臂;而一旦真的打到那里,我自己在某种程度上也会感同身受,也会像挨打者一样受到伤害。不过我所受到的伤害无疑只是微乎其微。正因为如此,如果那个人为之大呼小叫,我就无法体谅他,更有甚至,还会鄙视他。

 

6

 

    It is quite otherwise with those passions which take their

origin from the imagination. The frame of my body can be but

little affected by the alterations which are brought about upon

that of my companion: but my imagination is more ductile, and

more readily assumes, if I may say so, the shape and

configuration of the imaginations of those with whom I am

familiar. A disappointment in love, or ambition, will, upon this

account, call forth more sympathy than the greatest bodily evil.

Those passions arise altogether from the imagination. The person

who has lost his whole fortune, if he is in health, feels nothing

in his body. What he suffers is from the imagination only, which

represents to him the loss of his dignity, neglect from his

friends, contempt from his enemies, dependance, want, and misery,

coming fast upon him; and we sympathize with him more strongly

upon this account, because our imaginations can more readily

mould themselves upon his imagination, than our bodies can mould

themselves upon his body.

 

   而源于想象的激情则当别论。我的躯体也可能受到同伴躯体变化的影响,但那只是微乎其微:不过对于我所熟悉的人,我的想象会更具伸缩力,也更加容易设想,如果我能这样说的话,他们那些想象的形式及内容。正因为如此,与躯体所受到的哪怕是最大的伤害相比,失恋或信心受挫则将会引发更多的同情心。那些激情完全来自想象。一个丧失全部财产的人,如果身体健康,那他的躯体就不会因此而产生任何感觉。他的痛苦只是来源于想象,这些想象展现给他的是人格的丧失,朋友的鄙夷,敌人的蔑视,依赖情绪,贫困匮乏,以及痛苦悲惨的景象,所有这一切都会迅速地朝他一股脑地袭来。

 

7.

 

    The loss of a leg may generally be regarded as a more real

calamity than the loss of a mistress. It would be a ridiculous

tragedy, however, of which the catastrophe was to turn upon a

loss of that kind. A misfortune of the other kind, how frivolous

soever it may appear to be, has given occasion to many a fine

one.

 

   与丧偶相比,缺失一条腿一般来讲可能被认为是一种更为真切的灾难。但是,如果一出以灾难为题材的悲剧以前一种损失为内容,那将是非常荒唐可笑的。而以另一种损失为内容,无论它的意义多么微不足道,也能打造许多精彩的悲剧。

 

8

 

    Nothing is so soon forgot as pain. The moment it is gone the

whole agony of it is over, and the thought of it can no longer

give us any sort of disturbance. We ourselves cannot then enter

into the anxiety and anguish which we had before conceived. An

unguarded word from a friend will occasion a more durable

uneasiness. The agony which this creates is by no means over with

the word. What at first disturbs us is not the object of the

senses, but the idea of the imagination. As it is an idea,

therefore, which occasions our uneasiness, till time and other

accidents have in some measure effaced it from our memory, the

imagination continues to fret and rankle within, from the thought

of it.

 

  没有什么东西能像疼痛这样被遗忘得如此之快。疼痛一过,痛苦立即消失,此时再想起它,已不再能令我们心烦意乱。于是,我们连自己此前产生的焦虑与苦恼都已无法理解。朋友一句失慎之言就能产生久久挥之不去的烦恼。由此产生的苦恼绝然不会随这句话的完结而消失。起初令我们苦恼的并非是感觉到的客体,而是想象中的概念。这种令人烦恼的概念,除了随时间的推移,或在某种程度上被其它事情从我们的记忆中消除之前,都将继续令我们一想到它就心生烦恼与怨恨。

 

9

 

    Pain never calls forth any very lively sympathy unless it is

accompanied with danger. We sympathize with the fear, though not

with the agony of the sufferer. Fear, however, is a passion

derived altogether from the imagination, which represents, with

an uncertainty and fluctuation that increases our anxiety, not

what we really feel, but what we may hereafter possibly suffer.

The gout or the tooth-ach, though exquisitely painful, excite

very little sympathy; more dangerous diseases, though accompanied

with very little pain, excite the highest.

 

   疼痛,除了伴随危险之外,根本无法引发强烈的同情心。虽然我们不同情受苦者的痛苦,但却同情他由此产生的恐惧。然而恐惧只是一种完全源于想象的激情,由于一种能加剧我们焦虑的不确定性和波动性,它所表达出的并不是我们真正感受到的东西,而是此后可能亲身遭遇的东西。痛风或牙疼,虽然痛苦之极,但它们激发的同情心却微乎其微;而比它们更加危险的疾病,虽然伴随着很少的疼痛,但却能激发极其强烈的同情心。

 

10

 

    Some people faint and grow sick at the sight of a chirurgical

operation, and that bodily pain which is occasioned by tearing

the flesh, seems, in them, to excite the most excessive sympathy.

We conceive in a much more lively and distinct manner the pain

which proceeds from an external cause, than we do that which

arises from an internal disorder. I can scarce form an idea of

the agonies of my neighbour when he is tortured with the gout, or

the stone; but I have the clearest conception of what he must

suffer from an incision, a wound, or a fracture. The chief cause,

however, why such objects produce such violent effects upon us,

is their novelty. One who has been witness to a dozen

dissections, and as many amputations, sees, ever after, all

operations of this kind with great indifference, and often with

perfect insensibility. Though we have read or seen represented

more than five hundred tragedies, we shall seldom feel so entire

an abatement of our sensibility to the objects which they

represent to us.

 

   一些人看到外科动手术就头晕恶心,撕扯皮肉引发的肉体痛苦似乎就能在他们的心中引发极其强烈的同情心。疼痛,既有源于外因者,亦有源于内部机能紊乱者,我们对这二者加以想象时所采取的方式,前者要比后者生动清晰得多。一位邻居罹患痛风或者结石症,我们很少能就他的痛苦产生一种概念;然而对他因剖腹、受伤、骨折而遭受的痛苦,我却能极其清晰地形成一个概念。然而,这种客体之所以能对我们产生如此强烈效应的主要原因就是它的新奇。对剖腹与截肢屡见不鲜者,其后再见到所有此类手术时,则会漠然视之,乃至极度地麻木不仁。我们读过或见过的悲剧即便不止五百,但我们却很少能够感到自己对悲剧展现给我们的客体,竟然如此这般地冷酷无情。

 

11

 

    In some of the Greek tragedies there is an attempt to excite

compassion, by the representation of the agonies of bodily pain.

Philoctetes cries out and faints from the extremity of his

sufferings. Hippolytus and Hercules are both introduced as

expiring under the severest tortures, which, it seems, even the

fortitude of Hercules was incapable of supporting. In all these

cases, however, it is not the pain which interests us, but some

other circumstances. It is not the sore foot, but the solitude,

of Philoctetes which affects us, and diffuses over that charming

tragedy, that romantic wildness, which is so agreeable to the

imagination. The agonies of Hercules and Hippolytus are

interesting only because we foresee that death is to be the

consequence. If those heroes were to recover, we should think the

representation of their sufferings perfectly ridiculous. What a

tragedy would that be of which the distress consisted in a colic.

Yet no pain is more exquisite. These attempts to excite

compassion by the representation of bodily pain, may be regarded

as among the greatest breaches of decorum of which the Greek

theatre has set the example.

 

   希腊的一些悲剧,总是企图通过对肉体疼痛引发的痛苦加以描述,来激发怜悯之心。菲罗克忒忒斯由于极度的痛苦而大喊大叫,因而昏厥过去。而希波吕托斯及海格立斯则双双被描述成身遭极度痛苦,但表现依然令人鼓舞,而这种痛苦,似乎连海格立斯的刚毅都难以支撑。然而,在所有这些情况下,令我们感兴趣的并不是疼痛,而是其它一些情况。不是那只疼痛的脚,而是菲罗克忒忒斯的寂寞孤独,才令我们深受感动,才始终弥漫浸淫着这出魅力无穷的悲剧及其浪漫粗犷的情怀之中,也才与想象如此吻合。希波吕托斯及海格立斯的痛苦之所以趣味盎然,只是因为我们预见到死亡是必然结局。如果那些英雄已经复活,我们就会认为对他们痛苦所进行的描述可谓荒唐至极。浸淫在一阵心绞痛才能引发的忧伤之中,这算什么悲剧!然而,没有再比这更加剧烈的疼痛了。可以说,那些凭借描述肉体痛苦来激发同情心的企图,与被希腊戏剧树立为榜样的那些道德规范全然背道而驰。

 

(注释:菲罗克忒忒斯、希波吕托斯、海格立斯:希腊传说中的人物,在特洛伊战争中扮演重要角色。)

 

12

 

    The little sympathy which we feel with bodily pain is the

foundation of the propriety of constancy and patience in enduring

it. The man, who under the severest tortures allows no weakness

to escape him, vents no groan, gives way to no passion which we

do not entirely enter into, commands our highest admiration. His

firmness enables him to keep time with our indifference and

insensibility. We admire and entirely go along with the

magnanimous effort which he makes for this purpose. We approve of

his behaviour, and from our experience of the common weakness of

human nature, we are surprised, and wonder how he should be able

to act so as to deserve approbation. Approbation, mixed and

animated by wonder and surprise, constitutes the sentiment which

is properly called admiration, of which, applause is the natural

expression, as has already been observed.

 

     我们对肉体疼痛所表现的那点同情心,正是我们在忍受它们过程中能够恰如其分地表现出坚毅与耐心的基础。一个备受折磨的人,他决不允许自己表现得懦弱,决不会呻吟一声,对于自己无法完全进入状况的激情决不会流露半点,如此之举完全能够赢得我们的高度钦佩。他的坚定不移使他与我们的冷漠无情与麻木不仁并行不悖。我们完全赞赏和体谅他为了这一目标而做出的那种宽宏大度的努力。我们赞同他的行为,而且出于我们对人性共同弱点的体验,我们感到惊讶,不知他为何竟然能够通过行动来获得认可。这种认可,交织着诧异与惊叹,就构成了那种被恰如其分地称之为赞美的情感,如前所述,喝彩就是赞美的自然表达形式。

 

 

 

Chap. II

 

Of those Passions which take their origin from a particular turn

or habit of the Imagination

第二章  论源于想象的某种特殊倾向或习惯的激情

 

 

1

 

 

    Even of the passions derived from the imagination, those

which take their origin from a peculiar turn or habit it has

acquired, though they may be acknowledged to be perfectly

natural, are, however, but little sympathized with. The

imaginations of mankind, not having acquired that particular

turn, cannot enter into them; and such passions, though they may

be allowed to be almost unavoidable in some part of life, are

always, in some measure, ridiculous. This is the case with that

strong attachment which naturally grows up between two persons of

different sexes, who have long fixed their thoughts upon one

another. Our imagination not having run in the same channel with

that of the lover, we cannot enter into the eagerness of his

emotions. If our friend has been injured, we readily sympathize

with his resentment, and grow angry with the very person with

whom he is angry. If he has received a benefit, we readily enter

into his gratitude, and have a very high sense of the merit of

his benefactor. But if he is in love, though we may think his

passion just as reasonable as any of the kind, yet we never think

ourselves bound to conceive a passion of the same kind, and for

the same person for whom he has conceived it. The passion appears

to every body, but the man who feels it, entirely disproportioned

to the value of the object; and love, though it is pardoned in a

certain age because we know it is natural, is always laughed at,

because we cannot enter into it. All serious and strong

expressions of it appear ridiculous to a third person; and though

a lover may be good company to his mistress, he is so to nobody

else. He himself is sensible of this; and as long as he continues

in his sober senses, endeavours to treat his own passion with

raillery and ridicule. It is the only style in which we care to

hear of it; because it is the only style in which we ourselves

are disposed to talk of it. We grow weary of the grave, pedantic,

and long-sentenced love of Cowley and Petrarca, who never have

done with exaggerating the violence of their attachments; but the

gaiety of Ovid, and the gallantry of Horace, are always

agreeable.

 

 

即便是那些源于想象的激情,即源于想象所需的某种倾向或习惯的那些激情,虽然它们可能被公认为是最自然不过的,但却只能引起很少的同情心。人类的想象并不需要这种所必需的倾向,因此无法体谅那些激情;这种激情,虽然在生活的某些部分里,它们可能是无法避免的,但或多或少总显得十分可笑。长久以来心心相印的两位异性之间自然养成的强烈依恋感也是这种情况。我们的想象与恋人的想象在其发展过程中并非遵循相同的轨迹,因此我们就无法体谅恋人如饥似渴的激情。如果我们的朋友受到伤害,我们就很自然地体谅他的怨恨之情,而且也去怨恨他所怨恨的人。如果他得到了恩惠,我们自然就会体谅他的感激之情,而且还能深深体会到他恩人的美德。然而,如果他坠入爱河,虽然我们可能会认为他的激情像所有此类激情一样理所当然,但我们根本不会认为自己也必定会怀有一种相同的激情,对他所钟情的人也不会这样做。除了能感觉到这种激情的人之外,对于每个人来说,这种激情似乎和客体的价值完全成反比;而恋情,虽然在一定的年龄段是可以原谅的,因为我们认为这是完全自然的,但是由于我们无法加以体谅,因此他却总会引人发笑。对恋情表达得过于认真强烈,对第三者来显得非常荒唐;虽然一位恋人对他的女友可能是最佳伙伴,但是对别人并非如此。他本人对此非常清楚;因此只要他能保持这种清醒的意识,他就能克制自己的那种激情。这就是我们乐于听到的唯一一种表达方式,因为我们自己谈论它的时候,也采取这种方式。考利以及佩特拉克爱情诗迂腐、沉闷,句式冗长,我们对它们早已读之生厌,但这二位却从来也没有停止对其依恋之情做夸夸其谈的描述;但是奥维德的作品简洁明快,而贺拉斯的作品粗犷豪迈,二者总是如此赏心悦目。

 

2

 

    But though we feel no proper sympathy with an attachment of

this kind, though we never approach even in imagination towards

conceiving a passion for that particular person, yet as we either

have conceived, or may be disposed to conceive, passions of the

same kind, we readily enter into those high hopes of happiness

which are proposed from its gratification, as well as into that

exquisite distress which is feared from its disappointment. It

interests us not as a passion, but as a situation that gives

occasion to other passions which interest us; to hope, to fear,

and to distress of every kind: in the same manner as in a

description of a sea voyage, it is not the hunger which interests

us, but the distress which that hunger occasions. Though we do

not properly enter into the attachment of the lover, we readily

go along with those expectations of romantic happiness which he

derives from it. We feel how natural it is for the mind, in a

certain situation, relaxed with indolence, and fatigued with the

violence of desire, to long for serenity and quiet, to hope to

find them in the gratification of that passion which distracts

it, and to frame to itself the idea of that life of pastoral

tranquillity and retirement which the elegant, the tender, and

the passionate Tibullus takes so much pleasure in describing; a

life like what the poets describe in the Fortunate Islands, a

life of friendship, liberty, and repose; free from labour, and

from care, and from all the turbulent passions which attend them.

Even scenes of this kind interest us most, when they are painted

rather as what is hoped, than as what is enjoyed. The grossness

of that passion, which mixes with, and is, perhaps, the

foundation of love, disappears when its gratification is far off

and at a distance; but renders the whole offensive, when

described as what is immediately possessed. The happy passion,

upon this account, interests us much less than the fearful and

the melancholy. We tremble for whatever can disappoint such

natural and agreeable hopes: and thus enter into all the anxiety,

and concern, and distress of the lover.

 

虽然我们对这种依恋不会产生适当的同情之心,虽然我们在想象中也不会对那个特殊的人怀有某种激情,但是因为我们已经,或者有意怀有类似的激情,我们就会易于体谅他那些关于能从激情的满足中获得喜悦的强烈愿望,也会体谅他可能因无法得到满足而引起的极度痛苦。令我们感兴趣的并非某种激情本身,而是那些能够产生令我们感兴趣的其它激情的环境,诸如希望、恐惧以及各种各样的痛苦:犹如一则航海日志所描述的那样,令我们感兴趣的并非饥饿本身,而是饥饿引发的痛苦。虽然我们不会适当体谅那位情人的依恋之情,但却易于体谅他对依恋之情引发幸福感的殷切期盼。我们认为,一颗在某种特定情况下,因怠惰慵懒而松懈的心灵,因欲望如火而疲惫的心灵,自然会期盼宁静与安逸,并期盼在焚心的欲望得以实现中真正寻找到这种宁静与安逸;自然会在心中勾画那种由儒雅、温柔和热情的提布卢斯兴致盎然描绘的生活,即一种宁静隐逸的田园生活;勾画一种酷似诗人在《幸福岛》中所描绘的生活,即一种充满友谊、自由和恬静的生活;摆脱辛劳,免于忧虑,并摆脱应运而生的那些令人心神不宁的激情。即使那些场景勾画得只像所希望的,并不像真正亲历的那样,它们依然会吸引我们。在激情与爱情的基础互相交织,或者也许激情本身就已经是爱情基础的情况下,当这种激情的实现遥遥无期或相距甚远时,它就会烟消云散,而当这种激情的实现象描述的那样一蹴而就,手到擒来的时候,它就会令人生厌。正因为如此,与恐惧和忧郁的激情相比,欢乐的激情远不如它们吸引人。我们会因为那些令自然而愉悦的希望化为泡影的东西而战栗,因此才会体谅所有的焦虑、关注、以及恋人的忧郁愁苦。

 

3.

 

    Hence it is, that, in some modern tragedies and romances,

this passion appears so wonderfully interesting. It is not so

much the love of Castalio and Monimia which attaches us in the

Orphan, as the distress which that love occasions. The author who

should introduce two lovers, in a scene of perfect security,

expressing their mutual fondness for one another, would excite

laughter, and not sympathy. If a scene of this kind is ever

admitted into a tragedy, it is always, in some measure, improper,

and is endured, not from any sympathy with the passion that is

expressed in it, but from concern for the dangers and

difficulties with which the audience foresee that its

gratification is likely to be attended.

 

因此,在一些现代悲剧和喜剧中,这种激情才具有如此惊人的魅力。在悲剧《孤儿》中,令我们震感的与其说是卡斯塔里埃和莫尼米娅的爱情,倒不如说是那种炽热爱情所引发的悲情。剧作家竟然向我们介绍两位在绝然安全的场景中互倾衷肠的恋人,结果引发的只是哄堂大笑,而不是怜悯之心。如果这种场景被植入一出悲剧之中,从某种程度上讲,那就总是欠妥,而这种做法之所以能够被忍受,并不是因为剧中表达的激情能够引发观众的怜悯之心,而是因为观众能够预见并关切那种激情得到满足时可能伴随而来的危难。

 

 

4.   

 

   The reserve which the laws of society impose upon the fair

sex, with regard to this weakness, renders it more peculiarly

distressful in them, and, upon that very account, more deeply

interesting. We are charmed with the love of Phaedra, as it is

expressed in the French tragedy of that name, notwithstanding all

the extravagance and guilt which attend it. That very

extravagance and guilt may be said, in some measure, to recommend

it to us. Her fear, her shame, her remorse, her horror, her

despair, become thereby more natural and interesting. All the

secondary passions, if I may be allowed to call them so, which

arise from the situation of love, become necessarily more furious

and violent; and it is with these secondary passions only that we

can properly be said to sympathize.

 

   正是看准这一弱点,社会法律便强加给女性诸多清规戒律,而这便使得爱情对女性来说尤为痛苦难当,也真是因为如此,也才显得魅力无穷。菲德拉的爱情故事,正如在法国同名悲剧中表现的那样,虽然那种爱情最终也引发出放纵和罪过,但依然使我们深深陶醉其中。从某种意义上来讲,也正是这些放纵和罪过才使她的爱情深扣我们的心弦。她的畏惧、她的羞愧、她的悔恨、她的惊恐、她的失望,也才变得越发纯真自然和别具情致。一切源于爱情背景的次生激情,如果允许我如此定义的话,都必然变得更加狂热劲爆;确切地讲,我们所体谅的也仅仅是这些次生激情。

 

 

5

 

    Of all the passions, however, which are so extravagantly

disproportioned to the value of their objects, love is the only

one that appears, even to the weakest minds, to have any thing in

it that is either graceful or agreeable. In itself, first of all,

though it may be ridiculous, it is not naturally odious; and

though its consequences are often fatal and dreadful, its

intentions are seldom mischievous. And then, though there is

little propriety in the passion itself, there is a good deal in

some of those which always accompany it. There is in love a

strong mixture of humanity, generosity, kindness, friendship,

esteem; passions with which, of all others, for reasons which

shall be explained immediately, we have the greatest propensity

to sympathize, even notwithstanding we are sensible that they

are, in some measure, excessive. The sympathy which we feel with

them, renders the passion which they accompany less disagreeable,

and supports it in our imagination, notwithstanding all the vices

which commonly go along with it; though in the one sex it

necessarily leads to the last ruin and infamy; and though in the

other, where it is apprehended to be least fatal, it is almost

always attended with an incapacity for labour, a neglect of duty,

a contempt of fame, and even of common reputation.

Notwithstanding all this, the degree of sensibility and

generosity with which it is supposed to be accompanied, renders

it to many the object of vanity and they are fond of appearing

capable of feeling what would do them no honour if they had

really felt it.

 

然而,在所有那些与客体价值观如此比例失调的激情中,看来只有爱情才蕴含那些既卓尔不群,又赏心悦目的东西,即便对于意志最薄弱者亦复如此。首先,爱情本身可能十分荒唐,但并非一定令人生厌;虽然结果往往十分不幸和恐怖,但其出发点却很少居心叵测。虽然这种激情很少能表现得十分得体,但在表现那些次生激情时,却显得十分得体。在爱情中存在一种仁慈、慷慨、善良、友好、恭敬无所不包的、极其强烈的复合型激情;因为一些随后即将加以阐述的理由,我们就会有意对所有其他人怀有的上述激情加以体谅同情,尽管我们已经意识到,那些激情或多或少有些夸张过分。我们对这些激情所产生的同情,就会使那种伴随而来的次生激情少一些不快之感,从而不会顾及一般都会随之而生的恶端,进而在我们的想象中对其同情备至,体谅有加;虽然在男女双方的某一方,这种次生激情必然会导致最终的身败名裂;虽然人们认为另一方很少会受到致命伤害,伴随而来的几乎总是千篇一律的无能渎职与寡廉鲜耻。不过,虽然如此,伴随次生激情而来的可能依然有一丝良知尚存,而反过来,正是借助于这一丝良知,次生激情才造就出如此之多虚荣浮夸之徒,其实有一些东西,如果他们真的能感受到,并不会给他们带来任何光彩,但他们却偏偏乐于表现出一幅多愁善感的面孔。

 

6

 

    It is for a reason of the same kind, that a certain reserve

is necessary when we talk of our own friends, our own studies,

our own professions. All these are objects which we cannot expect

should interest our companions in the same degree in which they

interest us. And it is for want of this reserve, that the one

half of mankind make bad company to the other. A philosopher is

company to a philosopher, only. the member of a club, to his own

little knot of companions.

 

   正是由于一种相同的原因,当我们论及自己的朋友、自己的学习、自己的职业时,某种特定的节制不可或缺。所有这些客体,我们都不能指望他们会像吸引我们那样,也以相同的程度吸引我们的同伴。而且正是由于缺乏这种限制,人类的一半与另一半的交往欠佳。一位哲学家只能与一位哲学家交往,某个俱乐部的成员与他人交往,也仅囿于自己同伴的小圈子。

 

 

 

 

Chap. III  Of the unsocial Passions

 

 

第三章 恶性激情

 

 

1

 

    There is another set of passions, which, though derived from

the imagination, yet before we can enter into them, or regard

them as graceful or becoming, must always be brought down to a

pitch much lower than that to which undisciplined nature would

raise them. These are, hatred and resentment, with all their

different modifications. With regard to all such passions, our

sympathy is divided between the person who feels them, and the

person who is the object of them. The interests of these two are

directly opposite. What our sympathy with the person who feels

them would prompt us to wish for, our fellow-feeling with the

other would lead us to fear. As they are both men, we are

concerned for both, and our fear for what the one may suffer,

damps our resentment for what the other has suffered. Our

sympathy, therefore, with the man who has received the

provocation, necessarily falls short of the passion which

naturally animates him, not only upon account of those general

causes which render all sympathetic passions inferior to the

original ones, but upon account of that particular cause which is

peculiar to itself, our opposite sympathy with another person.

Before resentment, therefore, can become graceful and agreeable,

it must be more humbled and brought down below that pitch to

which it would naturally rise, than almost any other passion.

 

   另外有些激情,虽然也源于想象,然而我们尚未加以体谅,或视其为合情合理,就总是已经降低水准,远远低于被率真的天性激发时的程度。不同程度的仇恨与怨怒即是一例。对于凡此种种的激情,我们所给予的同情被两种人所分享,即:能够感觉到这些激情的人以及怀有这些激情的客体人。两者引发的关注点截然不同。同情前者会促使我们希望他们对后者表示担忧;同情后者则会导致我们自己直接对后者表示担忧。二者都是人,我们对他们都关心,我们对一个受苦者可能吃到的苦头表示担忧,会抑制我们对另外一个受苦者已经吃到的苦头的怨怒。因此,我们对被激怒者的同情就缺乏被激怒时自然产生的激情,这不仅因为一般原因,即:导致所有其情可悯的激情低于原发程度,也因为另外一种特殊原因,即:导致我们对另外一个人给予迥然相异的同情。因此,与其它任何一种激情相比,怨怒之情在变得合情合理之前必定早已更加缩水,远远低于自然产生时的程度。

 

2

 

    Mankind, at the same time, have a very strong sense of the

injuries that are done to another. The villain, in a tragedy or

romance, is as much the object of our indignation, as the hero is

that of our sympathy and affection. We detest Iago as much as we

esteem Othello; and delight as much in the punishment of the one,

as we are grieved at the distress of the other. But though

mankind have so strong a fellow-feeling with the injuries that

are done to their brethren, they do not always resent them the

more that the sufferer appears to resent them. Upon most

occasions, the greater his patience, his mildness, his humanity,

provided it does not appear that he wants spirit, or that fear

was the motive of his forbearance, the higher their resentment

against the person who injured him. The amiableness of the

character exasperates their sense of the atrocity of the injury.

 

  与此同时,人类对他人所受伤害具有一种强烈的感知力。悲剧或浪漫剧中的恶人,如同英雄是我们表达同情之心及钟爱之情的客体人一样,也是我们表示义愤的客体人。我们厌恶伊阿古,如同我们敬重奥赛罗;因其中一人受到惩罚而感到的喜悦,如同因另一人的痛苦感到的悲痛。人类虽然对自己兄弟遭受的伤害具有强烈的同情之心,然而对此的怨恨之情,则远远不如受苦者本人。在绝大多数情况下,受苦者越忍耐、越温和,越宽容,只要看上去他并不缺乏勇气,那种恐惧也并不是他忍耐的目的,人们对伤害他的人怨恨也就越深。人性温和的一面加大人们对伤害的感知力。

 

3

    Those passions, however, are regarded as necessary parts of

the character of human nature. A person becomes contemptible who

tamely sits still, and submits to insults, without attempting

either to repel or to revenge them. We cannot enter into his

indifference and insensibility. we call his behaviour

mean-spiritedness, and are as really provoked by it as by the

insolence of his adversary. Even the mob are enraged to see any

man submit patiently to affronts and ill usage. They desire to

see this insolence resented, and resented by the person who

suffers from it. They cry to him with fury, to defend, or to

revenge himself. If his indignation rouses at last, they heartily

applaud, and sympathize with it. It enlivens their own

indignation against his enemy, whom they rejoice to see him

attack in his turn, and are as really gratified by his revenge,

provided it is not immoderate, as if the injury had been done to

themselves.

 

   然而那些激情被看作是人类天性不可或缺的组成部分。一个人整日里郁闷静坐,忍辱负重,既不抵制,也不复仇,就会变得为人所不齿。我们不能体谅他的冷漠无情和麻木不仁。我们将他的行为称作精神萎靡,他的卑微愚钝如同其对手的目空一切一样,着实令我们怒火中烧。即便草根平民,见到有人俯首帖耳地忍受凌辱与虐待也会义愤填膺。他们希望看到这种凌辱与虐待的恶行受到抵制,而且是受到深受其害者的抵制。他们会愤慨地向他大声疾呼,叫他自卫与复仇。如果他的怒火最后终于被点燃,他们就由衷地赞赏并给予同情。这也激发他们自己对他的敌人表示愤慨,他们会高兴地看到终于轮到他来回击自己的敌人,只要他的行动合理,就像这种痛苦已经被施加给他们一样,他们就真的会为他的复仇行为感到满足。

 

4

 

    But though the utility of those passions to the individual,

by rendering it dangerous to insult or injure him, be

acknowledged; and though their utility to the public, as the

guardians of justice, and of the equality of its administration,

be not less considerable, as shall be shewn hereafter; yet there

is still something disagreeable in the passions themselves, which

makes the appearance of them in other men the natural object of

our aversion. The expression of anger towards any body present,

if it exceeds a bare intimation that we are sensible of his ill

usage, is regarded not only as an insult to that particular

person, but as a rudeness to the whole company. Respect for them

ought to have restrained us from giving way to so boisterous and

offensive an emotion. It is the remote effects of these passions

which are agreeable; the immediate effects are mischief to the

person against whom they are directed. But it is the immediate,

and not the remote effects of objects which render them agreeable

or disagreeable to the imagination. A prison is certainly more

useful to the public than a palace; and the person who founds the

one is generally directed by a much juster spirit of patriotism,

than he who builds the other. But the immediate effects of a

prison, the confinement of the wretches shut up in it, are

disagreeable; and the imagination either does not take time to

trace out the remote ones, or sees them at too great a distance

to be much affected by them. A prison, therefore, will always be

a disagreeable object; and the fitter it is for the purpose for

which it was intended, it will be the more so. A palace, on the

contrary, will always be agreeable; yet its remote effects may

often be inconvenient to the public. It may serve to promote

luxury, and set the example of the dissolution of manners. Its

immediate effects, however, the conveniency, the pleasure, and

the gaiety of the people who live in it, being all agreeable, and

suggesting to the imagination a thousand agreeable ideas, that

faculty generally rests upon them, and seldom goes further in

tracing its more distant consequences. Trophies of the

instruments of music or of agriculture, imitated in painting or

in stucco, make a common and an agreeable ornament of our halls

and dining-rooms. A trophy of the same kind, composed of the

instruments of surgery, of dissecting and amputation-knives, of

saws for cutting the bones, of trepanning instruments, etc. would

be absurd and shocking. Instruments of surgery, however, are

always more finely polished, and generally more nicely adapted to

the purposes for which they are intended, than instruments of

agriculture. The remote effects of them too, the health of the

patient, is agreeable; yet as the immediate effect of them is

pain and suffering, the sight of them always displeases us.

Instruments of war are agreeable, though their immediate effect

may seem to be in the same manner pain and suffering. But then it

is the pain and suffering of our enemies, with whom we have no

sympathy. With regard to us, they are immediately connected with

the agreeable ideas of courage, victory, and honour. They are

themselves, therefore, supposed to make one of the noblest parts

of dress, and the imitation of them one of the finest ornaments

of architecture. It is the same case with the qualities of the

mind. The ancient stoics were of opinion, that as the world was

governed by the all-ruling providence of a wise, powerful, and

good God, every single event ought to be regarded, as making a

necessary part of the plan of the universe, and as tending to

promote the general order and happiness of the whole: that the

vices and follies of mankind, therefore, made as necessary a part

of this plan as their wisdom or their virtue; and by that eternal

art which educes good from ill, were made to tend equally to the

prosperity and perfection of the great system of nature. No

speculation of this kind, however, how deeply soever it might be

rooted in the mind, could diminish our natural abhorrence for

vice, whose immediate effects are so destructive, and whose

remote ones are too distant to be traced by the imagination.

 

4

 

   但是,虽然人们承认那些激情对个人发挥的作用,就体现在它将使他面临受辱和伤害的危险;虽然对公众发挥的作用,正如随后所说,就像捍卫正义和追求平等那样,并非不太重要,然而,激情本身依然存在一些令人不快的因素,一旦表现在别人身上就会令我们生厌。无论对谁表示愤怒,如果超出我们感觉他能忍耐虐待的最低限度,那就被认为不仅是在羞辱那个特殊的人,而且也是在对全体同伴动粗。如果尊重同伴,我们就要克制自己,不要为如此狂暴无礼的情感大开绿灯。正是这些激情的间接效果才令人愉快;而直接效果则是对它们所直指针对的那个人造成伤害。然而,对于人们的想象来说,使这些激情变得令人愉快,抑或令人不快的,正是它们对客体产生的直接效果,而非间接效果。与一座宫殿相比,一座监狱对公众的用途更甚;与宫殿创建者相比,监狱创建者一般为一种比前者更加公正的爱国主义精神所驱使。然而,一座监狱对于囚禁其中的不幸者来讲是一种限制,其直接效果令人不快;人们既不会通过想象花时间探索监狱的间接效果,也不会看到与自己太疏远的不幸者受到监狱间接效果的影响。因此一座监狱永远令人不快;它与自身的预期目标越相符,也就越令人不快。相反,一座宫殿永远令人愉快;然而其间接效果也许经常会造成公众的烦扰。宫殿可能催生奢华,并树立伤风败俗的先例。然而其直接效果,诸如生活其中者的舒适、惬意及华美,全然是令人愉快的,并且向人们的想象暗示成百上千令人愉快的想法,宫殿的成员总是躺在这些想法上睡大觉,罕有再继续向前,探索更加邈远的后果。彩绘或水泥制作的乐器或农具纪念品,会成为我们厅堂及餐厅的一种普通,然而赏心悦目的装饰品。如果用同类材料制造这样一套纪念品,其中包括外科器械、解剖刀、截肢刀、断骨锯、环钻器等,则是荒唐之极,令人震惊的。不过与农具相比,手术器械却总是更精细光滑,一般来讲也总是最符合其预期目标的。其间接效果,即患者的健康,也是令人愉快的,但是因为其直接效果是痛苦与折磨,因此见到它们就会令我们不快。作战武器令人愉快,虽然其直接效果也许显得同样痛苦与折磨。然而那是我们毫不同情的敌人所遭受的痛苦与折磨。至于我们,其直接效果却与勇气、胜利及荣誉之类令人愉悦的思想直接相联。于是,它们就可能成为服装最华贵的部分,其仿制品可能成为建筑物最佳饰物。人之思想品质亦然。古代斯多葛哲学派认为,世界被一位聪明绝顶、威力无穷、慈悲为怀的神灵,以一种全天候统治的天意所管制,每一件事都应被视为宇宙计划不可或缺的一部分,而且旨在促进整个世界的总体秩序与幸福:人类的愚昧与罪过,就像聪明与美德一样,也必然会被安排成为这一计划的一部分;凭借从邪恶中引发美好的永久性技艺,促进自然界伟大的体系之繁荣与完美。类似的推测无论多么深入人心,也不能缓解我们对罪恶行径油然而生的憎恶,这些罪恶行径的直接效果破坏力如此巨大,而其间接效果则太过遥远,根本无法凭借想象对其加以追踪探索。

 

5

 

    It is the same case with those passions we have been just now

considering. Their immediate effects are so disagreeable, that

even when they are most justly provoked, there is still something

about them which disgusts us. These, therefore, are the only

passions of which the expressions, as I formerly observed, do not

dispose and prepare us to sympathize with them, before we are

informed of the cause which excites them. The plaintive voice of

misery, when heard at a distance, will not allow us to be

indifferent about the person from whom it comes. As soon as it

strikes our ear, it interests us in his fortune, and, if

continued, forces us almost involuntarily to fly to his

assistance. The sight of a smiling countenance, in the same

manner, elevates even the pensive into that gay and airy mood,

which disposes him to sympathize with, and share the joy which it

expresses; and he feels his heart, which with thought and care

was before that shrunk and depressed, instantly expanded and

elated. But it is quite otherwise with the expressions of hatred

and resentment. The hoarse, boisterous, and discordant voice of

anger, when heard at a distance, inspires us either with fear or

aversion. We do not fly towards it, as to one who cries out with

pain and agony. Women, and men of weak nerves, tremble and are

overcome with fear, though sensible that themselves are not the

objects of the anger. They conceive fear, however, by putting

themselves in the situation of the person who is so. Even those

of stouter hearts are disturbed; not indeed enough to make them

afraid, but enough to make them angry; for anger is the passion

which they would feel in the situation of the other person. It is

the same case with hatred. Mere expressions of spite inspire it

against nobody, but the man who uses them. Both these passions

are by nature the objects of our aversion. Their disagreeable and

boisterous appearance never excites, never prepares, and often

disturbs our sympathy. Grief does not more powerfully engage and

attract us to the person in whom we observe it, than these, while

we are ignorant of their cause, disgust and detach us from him.

It was, it seems, the intention of Nature, that those rougher and

more unamiable emotions, which drive men from one another, should

be less easily and more rarely communicated.

 

   我们刚刚论及的那些激情也是如此。它们的直接效果十分令人不快,它们即使被极其正当地表达出来,也依然有些东西令我们厌恶。因此正如我在前面说的那样,它们就仅仅是这样的激情,即:我们了解其产生原因之前,是不会给予同情的。悲惨痛苦引发的呼号,即便从远处听到,也不允许我们对呼号者漠然视之。这种呼号一旦刺激我们的听觉,就会吸引我们关注他的命运,更有甚者,还会迫使我们几乎很不情愿地火速前往救助。同样,他见到一张笑脸,甚至就会使他的情绪从郁闷转化为喜悦,进而使他体谅并分享这种表情带来的欢乐;他会感觉从前那颗因忧思万种,愁绪千重而紧缩幽闭的心扉,旋即豁然开朗,心花怒放。然而仇恨与怨怒的表情则当别论。声嘶力竭、暴戾狂躁的怒吼声,从远处听起来,只能引起我们的恐惧与反感。我们不会像对待因痛苦折磨而哭喊的人那样也飞速前往。女人及懦弱的男人虽然明知自己并非发泄愤怒的对象,但却因恐惧而战栗。他们会将自己置身于那个惊恐万状者的处境当中,对恐惧加以想象。即便铁石心肠的人也会受到触动;这的确不足以令他们感到害怕,但却足以令他们愤怒;因为愤怒就是他们置身他人处境时所能感觉到的激情。仇恨也是如此。仅仅表达怨恨就足以使怀恨在心者本人遭到敌视。从本质来讲,这两种激情都是我们厌恶的对象。令人不快的狂躁粗俗之举过去不会,将来也不会激发我们的同情,相反却往往会损害同情之心。悲伤令我们关注悲伤者,怨恨则令我们毫不顾及原因地厌恶和背离怨恨者,而前者的力度远远不敌后者。这看来是上天的意志,那些粗暴低俗、狂躁无礼的情感理应造成人与人之间的隔离,因此互相交流绝非易事,且罕有成功者。

 

 

6

 

    When music imitates the modulations of grief or joy, it

either actually inspires us with those passions, or at least puts

us in the mood which disposes us to conceive them. But when it

imitates the notes of anger, it inspires us with fear. Joy,

grief, love, admiration, devotion, are all of them passions which

are naturally musical. Their natural tones are all soft, clear,

and melodious; and they naturally express themselves in periods

which are distinguished by regular pauses, and which upon that

account are easily adapted to the regular returns of the

correspondent airs of a tune. The voice of anger, on the

contrary, and of all the passions which are akin to it, is harsh

and discordant. Its periods too are all irregular, sometimes very

long, and sometimes very short, and distinguished by no regular

pauses. It is with difficulty, therefore, that music can imitate

any of those passions; and the music which does imitate them is

not the most agreeable. A whole entertainment may consist,

without any impropriety, of the imitation of the social and

agreeable passions. It would be a strange entertainment which

consisted altogether of the imitations of hatred and resentment.

 

   乐器模仿悲伤或欢乐的情调时,实际上就会使我们产生那些激情,或至少能将我们置于一种激励自己对那些激情加以想象的情绪中。然而当音乐模仿愤怒的情调时,则会令我们恐惧。欢乐、悲伤、爱慕、赞美、忠诚,都属于自然音乐型的激情。其自然情调温柔清晰、赏心悦耳;它们都在一些以规则停顿区别开来的乐段中自然而然地自我表达,正是因为如此,也才易于适应某一主题相应曲调的规则性重复与再现。相反,愤怒之声以及所有那些类似愤怒的激情,都是刺耳而不谐调的。其乐段也全然不规则,有时很长,有时很短,并非以规则的停顿相区分。因此,音乐很难模仿那些激情中的任何一种;而模仿那些激情的音乐也并非最令人愉悦。一次完美的演奏,在没有任何不得体的情况下,可能就是在模仿那些有利于交际的愉悦激情。如果全部模仿仇恨及怨怒,那将是一次稀奇古怪的演奏。

 

7

 

    If those passions are disagreeable to the spectator, they are

not less so to the person who feels them. Hatred and anger are

the greatest poison to the happiness of a good mind. There is, in

the very feeling of those passions, something harsh, jarring, and

convulsive, something that tears and distracts the breast, and is

altogether destructive of that composure and tranquillity of mind

which is so necessary to happiness, and which is best promoted by

the contrary passions of gratitude and love. It is not the value

of what they lose by the perfidy and ingratitude of those they

live with, which the generous and humane are most apt to regret.

Whatever they may have lost, they can generally be very happy

without it. What most disturbs them is the idea of perfidy and

ingratitude exercised towards themselves; and the discordant and

disagreeable passions which this excites, constitute, in their

own opinion, the chief part of the injury which they suffer.

 

 

   如果那些激情对旁观者来说是令人不快的,它们对身有其感者来说也并非不全然如此。对于一个正常人的快乐,仇恨与愤怒其毒最烈。正是在对那些激情的感受中,存在某些粗鲁、刺耳、惊悚的东西,存在某些撕心裂胆、令人心烦意乱的东西,也正是这种感受才全然破坏了快乐所不可或缺的镇静与安宁,而镇静与安宁则又是与之迥然相异的感激与大爱催生的最佳产物。同伴的背信弃义与忘恩负义,常使宽宏大度、心地善良者蒙受损失,然而最令他们懊恼的并非损失之物的价值。无论他们丧失什么,一般来讲依然可以在没有这些东西的情况下非常快乐。他们认为,最令他们烦恼的就是想到别人对他们的背信弃义和忘恩负义;而由此产生的不和谐不愉快的激情就构成他们所受伤害的主要部份。

 

8

 

    How many things are requisite to render the gratification of

resentment completely agreeable, and to make the spectator

thoroughly sympathize with our revenge? The provocation must

first of all be such that we should become contemptible, and be

exposed to perpetual insults, if we did not, in some measure,

resent it. Smaller offences are always better neglected; nor is

there any thing more despicable than that froward and captious

humour which takes fire upon every slight occasion of quarrel. We

should resent more from a sense of the propriety of resentment,

from a sense that mankind expect and require it of us, than

because we feel in ourselves the furies of that disagreeable

passion. There is no passion, of which the human mind is capable,

concerning whose justness we ought to be so doubtful, concerning

whose indulgence we ought so carefully to consult our natural

sense of propriety, or so diligently to consider what will be the

sentiments of the cool and impartial spectator. Magnanimity, or a

regard to maintain our own rank and dignity in society, is the

only motive which can ennoble the expressions of this

disagreeable passion. This motive must characterize our whole

stile and deportment. These must be plain, open, and direct;

determined without positiveness, and elevated without insolence;

not only free from petulance and low scurrility, but generous,

candid, and full of all proper regards, even for the person who

has offended us. It must appear, in short, from our whole manner,

without our labouring affectedly to express it, that passion has

not extinguished our humanity; and that if we yield to the

dictates of revenge, it is with reluctance, from necessity, and

in consequence of great and repeated provocations. When

resentment is guarded and qualified in this manner, it may be

admitted to be even generous and noble.

 

   欲使怨恨之情全然被人理解,欲使报复行为完全为旁观者所同情,我们究竟需要做些什么呢?首先,怨恨之情要达到这样一种程度,即:如果不表示某种程度的怨恨,我们就应该遭到他人的蔑视,更有甚至还会面对永久的羞辱。对轻度的冒犯最好不要耿耿于怀;世界上没有任何东西比点火就着、刚愎自用的脾气更可鄙。我们应该以得体为原则,以世人需要为标准,而不应根据自己感觉到的不快来表示怨恨。在人们所能想象到的激情中,只有怨恨的正当性最应该受到质疑,只有怨恨的纵情发泄最应该以是否得体为尺度加以仔细衡量,也最应该认真考虑冷静而公正的旁观者,想想他们的怨恨之情究竟如何。只有以宽仁大度为动机,只有考虑如何保持我们自己在社会上的地位及尊严,才能在表达这种激情时提高档次。这种动机必定体现我们气质风度的特点。这种表达必须平易近人、开门见山;不含消极因素,不露傲慢痕迹;既不河东狮吼,亦无污言秽语,代之而来的只是宽仁平正,直言相告,体贴入微,即便对于冒犯我们的人,亦应如此。简而言之,诸如此类的表现,全然由我们自身的风度所致,绝无矫揉造作的刀斧之痕,看上去既显得激情虽已酣畅淋漓地表达净尽,但仁慈之心依然未泯;又显得我们如果屈从报复之心的驱使,那只是出于自然的无奈之举,只是他人雷霆之怒频发不已导致的结果。如果怨恨之情被如此这般地加以防范与限制,它甚至可能被认定为宽仁与高尚也未可知。

 

 

 

Chap. IV  Of the social Passions

 

第四章 论良性激情

 

1

 

    As it is a divided sympathy which renders the whole set of

passions just now mentioned, upon most occasions, so ungraceful

and disagreeable; so there is another set opposite to these,

which a redoubled sympathy renders almost always peculiarly

agreeable and becoming. Generosity, humanity, kindness,

compassion, mutual friendship and esteem, all the social and

benevolent affections, when expressed in the countenance or

behaviour, even towards those who are not peculiarly connected

with ourselves, please the indifferent spectator upon almost

every occasion. His sympathy with the person who feels those

passions, exactly coincides with his concern for the person who

is the object of them. The interest, which, as a man, he is

obliged to take in the happiness of this last, enlivens his

fellow-feeling with the sentiments of the other, whose emotions

are employed about the same object. We have always, therefore,

the strongest disposition to sympathize with the benevolent

affections. They appear in every respect agreeable to us. We

enter into the satisfaction both of the person who feels them,

and of the person who is the object of them. For as to be the

object of hatred and indignation gives more pain than all the

evil which a brave man can fear from his enemies; so there is a

satisfaction in the consciousness of being beloved, which, to a

person of delicacy and sensibility, is of more importance to

happiness, than all the advantage which he can expect to derive

from it. What character is so detestable as that of one who takes

pleasure to sow dissension among friends, and to turn their most

tender love into mortal hatred? Yet wherein does the atrocity of

this so much abhorred injury consist? Is it in depriving them of

the frivolous good offices, which, had their friendship

continued, they might have expected from one another? It is in

depriving them of that friendship itself, in robbing them of each

other's affections, from which both derived so much satisfaction;

it is in disturbing the harmony of their hearts, and putting an

end to that happy commerce which had before subsisted between

them. These affections, that harmony, this commerce, are felt,

not only by the tender and the delicate, but by the rudest vulgar

of mankind, to be of more importance to happiness than all the

little services which could be expected to flow from them.

 

 

    因为这是一种被一分为二的同情之心,它能催生上述一系列激情,如上所述,在多数情况下,这些激情粗野失雅,令人不快;因此也存在另外一系列与之相反的激情,那是一种强力同情心,它几乎总能催生特别令人愉悦得体的激情。宽宏大度、仁慈善良、悲天悯人,相互友好尊重,无一不是仁慈乐善的良性情感,当这种情感或通过一颦一笑,或通过一举一动,向即便与我们没有特殊关联的人表达时,几乎在每一种场合都能取悦于本来漠不关心的旁观者。作为第三者的这位旁观者,他对怀有激情者给予的同情,全然与他对接受激情者给予的关心谐调一致。作为一个人,他势必对后者的快乐表示关注,而这种关注就能促使他去同情这个不仅具有怨恨之情,而且怨恨目标也与自己相同的人。因此我们对于充满慈善之心的情感最能给予同情。这种情感从各个方面看都令我们愉快。无论是怀有这种情感的人,还是这种情感的受惠者,只要他们对这种情感的需要得到满足,我们都给予同情。成为仇恨和愤怒的发泄对象令人痛苦不堪,一位勇士害怕被敌人的恶行伤害也很痛苦,但是二者相比,前者更甚;因此人们才有被他人所爱的意识,这种意识对于脆弱敏感者的快乐与否来说很重要,对于他期待能从快乐中获得的好处来说也很重要,然而两者相比,前者更甚。有人乐于在朋友中间挑拨离间,转爱为仇,普天之下还有什么样的品行比这种人的更可憎?这种害人不浅的恶行究竟存在何处呢?在一些风气本不太好的办公室内,如果友谊继续存在,朋友之间尚可期盼友好相处,如果连硕果仅存的这点友谊都要剥夺,上述恶行的可恶之处是否就存在于此呢?它就在于破坏朋友之间的友谊,就在于伤害彼此之间的情感,本来从这种情感中朋友之间都可获得某种满足感;就在于扰乱人们内心的宁静,在于扼杀朋友之间以往那种快乐的交往。这些情感,那种和谐,这种交往,不仅性情温和,情感细腻的人能感觉到,即便性情粗暴低俗的人也能感觉到。这些情感对于幸福快乐本身来说十分重要,对于从幸福快乐中可望获得的些微好处来说也很重要,但二者的重要性相较之下,前者甚于后者。

 

 

2

 

    The sentiment of love is, in itself, agreeable to the person

who feels it. It sooths and composes the breast, seems to favour

the vital motions, and to promote the healthful state of the

human constitution; and it is rendered still more delightful by

the consciousness of the gratitude and satisfaction which it must

excite in him who is the object of it. Their mutual regard

renders them happy in one another, and sympathy, with this mutual

regard, makes them agreeable to every other person. With what

pleasure do we look upon a family, through the whole of which

reign mutual love and esteem, where the parents and children are

companions for one another, without any other difference than

what is made by respectful affection on the one side, and kind

indulgence on the other. where freedom and fondness, mutual

raillery and mutual kindness, show that no opposition of interest

divides the brothers, nor any rivalship of favour sets the

sisters at variance, and where every thing presents us with the

idea of peace, cheerfulness, harmony, and contentment? On the

contrary, how uneasy are we made when we go into a house in which

jarring contention sets one half of those who dwell in it against

the other; where amidst affected smoothness and complaisance,

suspicious looks and sudden starts of passion betray the mutual

jealousies which burn within them, and which are every moment

ready to burst out through all the restraints which the presence

of the company imposes?

 

   大爱之情本身对于能够感知它的人来说是相当开心的。它能舒缓情绪,慰藉心灵,似乎对生命活力颇有助益,并能促进人体健康;作为大爱之情的客体人,在他心中必然产生的感激与满足意识使他变得更加快乐。他们之间的互相关心,能使彼此都快乐,而互相同情,再加上互相关心,就能使他们与其他任何人达成一致。当我们看到这样一个家庭时,该有多么高兴啊!整个家庭都浸淫在相亲相爱,互相尊重之中,父母子女宛如伙伴,一方颇富尊敬之情,另一方充满慈爱之心,彼敬此爱,毫不逊色;自由深情,相互友善,既不因争利而致兄弟反目,亦不因争宠而致姊妹失和,这里的一切都向我们呈现一种宁静、欢乐、祥和、满意的理念。相反,当我们步入这样一个家庭时,又该多么不安啊!令人不快的口水战,致使居住在这里的人半数之间互相敌视;一个个虚情假意,圆滑狡诈,自鸣得意,目中无人;猜忌的神态以及突发的激情,无不使内心深处燃烧的妒火暴露无遗,而且随时都会突破对方在场所所强加给他们的约束,因而一触即发。

 

3

 

    Those amiable passions, even when they are acknowledged to be

excessive, are never regarded with aversion. There is something

agreeable even in the weakness of friendship and humanity. The

too tender mother, the too indulgent father, the too generous and

affectionate friend, may sometimes, perhaps, on account of the

softness of their natures, be looked upon with a species of pity,

in which, however, there is a mixture of love, but can never be

regarded with hatred and aversion, nor even with contempt, unless

by the most brutal and worthless of mankind. It is always with

concern, with sympathy and kindness, that we blame them for the

extravagance of their attachment. There is a helplessness in the

character of extreme humanity which more than any thing interests

our pity. There is nothing in itself which renders it either

ungraceful or disagreeable. We only regret that it is unfit for

the world, because the world is unworthy of it, and because it

must expose the person who is endowed with it as a prey to the

perfidy and ingratitude of insinuating falsehood, and to a

thousand pains and uneasinesses, which, of all men, he the least

deserves to feel, and which generally too he is, of all men, the

least capable of supporting. It is quite otherwise with hatred

and resentment. Too violent a propensity to those detestable

passions, renders a person the object of universal dread and

abhorrence, who, like a wild beast, ought, we think, to be hunted

out of all civil society.

 

 

   那些亲切友好的激情,即使有时被认为过火,但决不会令人反感。即便在友谊与博爱呈现出弱点时也不乏令人愉悦的东西。温柔过度的母亲,溺爱过度的父亲,慷慨过度、太重情感的朋友,有时也许会因为性格懦弱而备受怜悯,而怜悯之中则存在一种爱的混合物,但这些弱点,除非遇到粗俗卑鄙之徒,否则决然不会引起他人的仇恨与厌恶,甚至蔑视。 我们责备他们的过度依恋之情时,总是不乏关切之心、怜悯之情,以及仁慈之意。极度仁慈比任何事物都能引发我们的怜悯,然而这种性格中却也存在一种无能与无助。极度仁慈本身并不存在任何有失高雅或令人不快的因素。我们只是由于它与这个世界格格不入而深感遗憾,因为这个世界不值得对其施以极度仁慈之心,因为极度仁慈必定把饱含这种情感的人作为牺牲品,推向虚情假意、谄媚卑鄙之徒背信弃义、忘恩负义的陷阱,推向极度痛苦与不安的深渊,而在所有人当中,他最不应该遭此磨难,而且在所有人当中,一般来讲,他也是最不能忍受这种磨难的。而仇恨和怨怒则截然相反。对那些令人厌恶的激情毫无节制,动辄发泄一通就会使一个人变成人们普遍畏惧与憎恶的对象,我们认为他就像一头野兽,应该从整个文明社会中被驱除出去。

 

 

Chap. V  Of the selfish Passions

 

第五章  论自私的激情

 

 

1

 

    Besides those two opposite sets of passions, the social and

unsocial, there is another which holds a sort of middle place

between them; is never either so graceful as is sometimes the one

set, nor is ever so odious as is sometimes the other. Grief and

joy, when conceived upon account of our own private good or bad

fortune, constitute this third set of passions. Even when

excessive, they are never so disagreeable as excessive

resentment, because no opposite sympathy can ever interest us

against them: and when most suitable to their objects, they are

never so agreeable as impartial humanity and just benevolence;

because no double sympathy can ever interest us for them. There

is, however, this difference between grief and joy, that we are

generally most disposed to sympathize with small joys and great

sorrows. The man who, by some sudden revolution of fortune, is

lifted up all at once into a condition of life, greatly above

what he had formerly lived in, may be assured that the

congratulations of his best friends are not all of them perfectly

sincere. An upstart, though of the greatest merit, is generally

disagreeable, and a sentiment of envy commonly prevents us from

heartily sympathizing with his joy. If he has any judgment, he is

sensible of this, and instead of appearing to be elated with his

good fortune, he endeavours, as much as he can, to smother his

joy, and keep down that elevation of mind with which his new

circumstances naturally inspire him. He affects the same

plainness of dress, and the same modesty of behaviour, which

became him in his former station. He redoubles his attention to

his old friends, and endeavours more than ever to be humble,

assiduous, and complaisant. And this is the behaviour which in

his situation we most approve of; because we expect, it seems,

that he should have more sympathy with our envy and aversion to

his happiness, than we have with his happiness. It is seldom that

with all this he succeeds. We suspect the sincerity of his

humility, and he grows weary of this constraint. In a little

time, therefore, he generally leaves all his old friends behind

him, some of the meanest of them excepted, who may, perhaps,

condescend to become his dependents: nor does he always acquire

any new ones; the pride of his new connections is as much

affronted at finding him their equal, as that of his old ones had

been by his becoming their superior: and it requires the most

obstinate and persevering modesty to atone for this mortification

to either. He generally grows weary too soon, and is provoked, by

the sullen and suspicious pride of the one, and by the saucy

contempt of the other, to treat the first with neglect, and the

second with petulance, till at last he grows habitually insolent,

and forfeits the esteem of all. If the chief part of human

happiness arises from the consciousness of being beloved, as I

believe it does, those sudden changes of fortune seldom

contribute much to happiness. He is happiest who advances more

gradually to greatness, whom the public destines to every step of

his preferment long before he arrives at it, in whom, upon that

account, when it comes, it can excite no extravagant joy, and

with regard to whom it cannot reasonably create either any

jealousy in those he overtakes, or any envy in those he leaves

behind.

 

   除那两种截然相反的激情之外,即:良性激情与恶性激情,还有另外一类,它处于那二者之间;它既不像其中一种有时表现得那样文质彬彬,也不像另外一种有时表现得那样令人厌恶。悲痛和快乐,当它们是因为我们自己交好运或交恶运而产生时,就催生出这第三种激情。即使有时有些过分,也决然不会像过度的怨怒那样令人不快,因为没有与之相反的同情心来促使我们去抵制它们;这种激情与客体最吻合时,也不会像公正的仁道和正当的善行那样令人愉快。不过,在悲痛与快乐之间却存在这样的差异,一般来讲我们最倾向于同情小乐与大悲。有时一个人会因命运的突转而旋即改善自己的生活状况,而且要远远高于它从前的生活水平。这种人可以肯定地说,来自最佳朋友的祝贺也并非全然出自真心。一个暴发户,虽然算是取得巨大成功,但一般来讲却并不会令人愉快,因为通常都会有一种嫉妒心阻挠我们真心实意地分享他的快乐。如果他具有判断力,他就会觉察到这一点,从而不去张扬自己走运之后状况的提升,而是极力抑制自己的喜悦,低调表现自己被新环境所自然提升的好心情。他就会装模作样地穿着适合从前状况的朴素衣服,保持适合从前状况的谦虚态度。他还会加倍地关注老朋友,竭尽全力表现得比以前更加谦卑、勤勉、殷勤。就他的状况而言,这就是我们最赞成的行为;因为我们似乎在期待他应该更加体谅我们对他的快乐表现嫉妒和反感,而不是分享。对所有这些,他很难面面俱到。我们他仁慈表现的真诚性产生怀疑,而他对自己心不由己的压抑则感到厌倦。 因此,他很快就会把全部老友置之脑后,不过其中一些极其卑鄙的小人除外,因为他们也许会堕落成他的扈从;但他也不会总能交到新友,因为新友一旦发现他的地位与自己不相上下,就会感到脸面尽失,这就像老友因为地位不如他同样感到尊严大失一样。只有顽强持久的谦虚态度,才能弥合因对这二者屈尊就辱而造成的心灵创伤。一般来讲,他很快就会心生厌倦,前者满腹狐疑的冷漠傲慢令其漠然置之,后者粗俗无礼的轻蔑鄙视令其恼羞成怒,久而久之,习以为常,最后连他自己都变得孤傲无礼,从而失去所有人的尊敬。正如我所认为的那样,如果人类的幸福主要来源于对被人所爱的认知,命运的骤变就很少会对它发挥很大作用。这样的人才是最幸福的。他的发达是从小到大,循序渐进,最终达到极致,甚至在他达到极致之前很久,公众就已经认定他的命运会芝麻开花节节高。正因为如此,好运来临不会使他大喜过望,而且既不会引起被他超前者的嫉妒,也不会引起被他抛后者的羡慕。

 

2

 

    Mankind, however, more readily sympathize with those smaller

joys which flow from less important causes. It is decent to be

humble amidst great prosperity; but we can scarce express too

much satisfaction in all the little occurrences of common life,

in the company with which we spent the evening last night, in the

entertainment that was set before us, in what was said and what

was done, in all the little incidents of the present

conversation, and in all those frivolous nothings which fill up

the void of human life. Nothing is more graceful than habitual

cheerfulness, which is always founded upon a peculiar relish for

all the little pleasures which common occurrences afford. We

readily sympathize with it: it inspires us with the same joy, and

makes every trifle turn up to us in the same agreeable aspect in

which it presents itself to the person endowed with this happy

disposition. Hence it is that youth, the season of gaiety, so

easily engages our affections. That propensity to joy which seems

even to animate the bloom, and to sparkle from the eyes of youth

and beauty, though in a person of the same sex, exalts, even the

aged, to a more joyous mood than ordinary. They forget, for a

time, their infirmities, and abandon themselves to those

agreeable ideas and emotions to which they have long been

strangers, but which, when the presence of so much happiness

recalls them to their breast, take their place there, like old

acquaintance, from whom they are sorry to have ever been parted,

and whom they embrace more heartily upon account of this long

separation.

 

 

   然而人们更愿意同情那些并非十分重要的原因所引起的小喜小乐。大功告成却谦逊有加,此乃得体之举;但在日常生活的细琐小事中,在昨夜与同伴共度良宵过程中,在观赏娱乐表演过程中,在以往的一言一行中,在我们现在所谈及的所有小事中,在填补人生空白的所有那些微不足道的琐屑事情中,无论把愉悦之情表现得多么酣畅淋漓也不为过。没有什么能比惯常的欢愉更优雅,它总是建立在一种由平凡琐事蕴含的些微乐趣所营造的特殊况味基础之上。我们乐于分享这份雅致的惯常性欢愉:它会使我们生发同样的快乐,把桩桩琐事以令人愉悦的面貌向我们展示,而它也正是以这种相同的面貌向具有这种欢乐气质的人进行自我展示的。因此,青春这段快乐的时光,最易令人激情澎湃。欢乐的倾向,似能摧得鲜花怒放,致使年轻美丽的眼睛熠熠生辉,即使同一性别的人,乃至老态龙钟的人也能超乎寻常地乐不可支。有时他们会暂时忘记自己的疾病,使自己沉醉于那些早已陌生的愉悦思想与情感之中,然而当如此之多的欢乐亮相时,就会将那些愉悦的思想和情感重新召回他们的心中,并像老友一般在那里扎根,他们为与老友分别感到遗憾,也因为长期分离而更加诚挚地与他们相拥。

 

3

 

    It is quite otherwise with grief. Small vexations excite no

sympathy, but deep affliction calls forth the greatest. The man

who is made uneasy by every little disagreeable incident, who is

hurt if either the cook or the butler have failed in the least

article of their duty, who feels every defect in the highest

ceremonial of politeness, whether it be shewn to himself or to

any other person, who takes it amiss that his intimate friend did

not bid him good-morrow when they met in the forenoon, and that

his brother hummed a tune all the time he himself was telling a

story; who is put out of humour by the badness of the weather

when in the country, by the badness of the roads when upon a

journey, and by the want of company, and dulness of all public

diversions when in town; such a person, I say, though he should

have some reason, will seldom meet with much sympathy. Joy is a

pleasant emotion, and we gladly abandon ourselves to it upon the

slightest occasion. We readily, therefore, sympathize with it in

others, whenever we are not prejudiced by envy. But grief is

painful, and the mind, even when it is our own misfortune,

naturally resists and recoils from it. We would endeavour either

not to conceive it at all, or to shake it off as soon as we have

conceived it. Our aversion to grief will not, indeed, always

hinder us from conceiving it in our own case upon very trifling

occasions, but it constantly prevents us from sympathizing with

it in others when excited by the like frivolous causes: for our

sympathetic passions are always less irresistible than our

original ones. There is, besides, a malice in mankind, which not

only prevents all sympathy with little uneasinesses, but renders

them in some measure diverting. Hence the delight which we all

take in raillery, and in the small vexation which we observe in

our companion, when he is pushed, and urged, and teased upon all

sides. Men of the most ordinary good-breeding dissemble the pain

which any little incident may give them; and those who are more

thoroughly formed to society, turn, of their own accord, all such

incidents into raillery, as they know their companions will do

for them. The habit which a man, who lives in the world, has

acquired of considering how every thing that concerns himself

will appear to others, makes those frivolous calamities turn up

in the same ridiculous light to him, in which he knows they will

certainly be considered by them.

 

   悲痛则当别论。小痛不能激发同情,但是大悲却能激发最大的同情。一个人可以因微小的不快感到心神不安;如果厨师或管家不能尽职尽责,他也会伤心;最高礼仪中的不足之处,无论显现在他的面前,或显现在其它任何人的面前,他也会感觉到;如果上午他和密友见面时,密友不向他道早安,如果他在讲故事的时候,他的兄弟一直在哼小调,他就会认为这些都是失礼之举;当他在乡村时,他会因气候的恶劣完全失去幽默感,在旅游时,他会因道路的糟糕感到大煞风景,在城里时,他会因缺乏同伴,以及娱乐的乏味感到幽默尽失;这样一个人,我认为,虽然他本该有一些充足的理由,但是他也很少能博得大量同情。高兴是一种愉快的情绪,只要有一点机会也会沉湎其中。因此,只要我们不因嫉妒产生偏见,就容易同情他人愉快的情绪。然而悲伤是痛苦的,即便是因为我们自己的不幸而产生,也会从心里加以抵制和回避。我们总是尽量不去设想悲伤,或者一旦设想出来也要极力摆脱。不过,由于某种罕见的原因要对它加以设想时,我们对它的反感却并非总能对我们加以阻挠,然而当别人也因类似原因产生悲伤情绪时,它却不断地阻碍我们对其产生同情心:因为我们对他人的怜悯之情,不如天性那样难以抵制。此外,人性中还有一种怨恨之情,不仅阻挠我们对些少许的不安情绪给予同情,而且还阻挠发生某种程度的转移。因此我们能从善意的调侃中获得乐趣,从看到同伴被各方催逼、胁迫、奚落时产生的小小烦恼中获得喜悦。修养良好的普通的人对细琐小事可能带给他们的痛苦采取掩饰态度,而谙于事故的人则乐于主动将小事转化为善意的调侃,因为他们知道即便不主动这样做,同伴们也会这样做。生活在这个世界上的人,惯于思考与己相关的事在别人眼里会是什么样子,于是他就会认为,他所遭遇的小灾小难在别人看来一定荒唐可笑,而他知道同伴们一定会这样看的。

 

4

 

    Our sympathy, on the contrary, with deep distress, is very

strong and very sincere. It is unnecessary to give an instance.

We weep even at the feigned representation of a tragedy. If you

labour, therefore, under any signal calamity, if by some

extraordinary misfortune you are fallen into poverty, into

diseases, into disgrace and disappointment; even though your own

fault may have been, in part, the occasion, yet you may generally

depend upon the sincerest sympathy of all your friends, and, as

far as interest and honour will permit, upon their kindest

assistance too. But if your misfortune is not of this dreadful

kind, if you have only been a little baulked in your ambition, if

you have only been jilted by your mistress, or are only

hen-pecked by your wife, lay your account with the raillery of

all your acquaintance.

 

   相反,对大灾大难给予的同情却情真意切。这无须例证加以说明。我们甚至为一出悲剧虚假的剧情唏嘘落泪。因此,如果你在巨大的灾难中备受煎熬,如果你因遭遇超级厄运而变得一贫如洗,变得百病缠身,变得声名狼藉和心如死灰,即使从某种角度看你是咎由自取,一般来讲,你可能依然会指望朋友的真诚同情,而一旦利益名声不受影响,你甚至还会期待他们善意的援助。然而,如果你的不幸并非如此可怕,如果你只是在立志方面受到小的挫折,如果你只是被妻子抛弃,或者仅仅是遭受妻管严,那你就等着朋友来奚落调侃吧。

 

 

 

 

Section III

 

Of the Effects of Prosperity and Adversity upon the Judgment of

Mankind with regard to the Propriety of Action; and why it is

more easy to obtain their Aprobation in the one state than in the

other

登录后才可评论.