伏尔泰 中国 孔子和书籍

西方人也许会感到羞耻，为什么一定要去遥远的东方寻找一位智者，他朴实无华、不虚伪，在我们这个庸俗时代到来之前六百年，在当时整个北方都不懂文字，希腊人才刚刚开始以智慧脱颖而出，他教会人们如何幸福地生活？

这位智者就是孔子，作为立法者，他从不想欺骗人们。自他之后，全世界还有什么比这更美好的行为准则呢？

“治国如治家；只有以身作则，才能把家庭治理好。

“美德应该是农夫和君主的共同特质。

“尽心尽力预防犯罪，以减轻惩罚犯罪的麻烦。

“在贤王尧和徐的统治下，中国人是善良的；在贤王邕和楚的统治下，中国人是邪恶的。

“善待他人如同善待自己。

“爱所有的人；但要珍惜诚实的人。忘记伤害，永远不要善良。

“我见过不善于学习的人，但我从未见过不善于美德的人。”

让我们承认，没有哪位立法者能宣称对人类更有用的真理。

By what fatality, shameful maybe for the Western peoples, is it necessary to go to the far Orient to find a wise man who is simple, unostentatious, free from imposture, who taught men to live happily six hundred years before our vulgar era, at a time when the whole of the North was ignorant of the usage of letters, and when the Greeks were barely beginning to distinguish themselves by their wisdom?

This wise man is Confucius, who being legislator never[Pg 238] wanted to deceive men. What more beautiful rule of conduct has ever been given since him in the whole world?

"Rule a state as you rule a family; one can only govern one's family well by setting the example.

"Virtue should be common to both husbandman and monarch.

"Apply thyself to the trouble of preventing crimes in order to lessen the trouble of punishing them.

"Under the good kings Yao and Xu the Chinese were good; under the bad kings Kie and Chu they were wicked.

"Do to others as to thyself.

"Love all men; but cherish honest people. Forget injuries, and never kindnesses.

"I have seen men incapable of study; I have never seen them incapable of virtue."

Let us admit that there is no legislator who has proclaimed truths more useful to the human race.

在印刷术发明之前，书籍比宝石更稀有、更昂贵。在查理曼大帝之前，蛮族国家几乎没有书籍，从查理曼大帝到绰号“智者”的法国国王查理五世，从查理大帝到弗朗索瓦一世，书籍极其匮乏。

只有阿拉伯人拥有从公元 8 世纪到 13 世纪的书籍。

当我们还不会读写时，中国就充满了书籍。

从西庇阿时代到蛮族入侵，罗马帝国大量雇用抄写员。

希腊人在阿明塔斯、菲利普和亚历山大时代大量从事抄写工作；他们继续从事这种手艺，尤其是在亚历山大。

这种手艺有点不知感恩。商人总是给作者和抄写员很低的报酬。抄写员需要两年的辛勤劳动才能将圣经很好地抄写在牛皮纸上。用希腊语和拉丁语正确地抄写奥利金、亚历山大的克莱门特和所有其他被称为“教父”的作者的作品需要多少时间和多少努力。

Before the admirable invention of printing, books were rarer and more expensive than precious stones. Almost no books among the barbarian nations until Charlemagne, and from him to the French king Charles V., surnamed "the wise"; and from this Charles right to François Ier, there is an extreme dearth.

The Arabs alone had books from the eighth century of our era to the thirteenth.

China was filled with them when we did not know how to read or write.

Copyists were much employed in the Roman Empire from the time of the Scipios up to the inundation of the barbarians.

The Greeks occupied themselves much in transcribing towards the time of Amyntas, Philip and Alexander; they continued this craft especially in Alexandria.

This craft is somewhat ungrateful. The merchants always paid the authors and the copyists very badly. It took two years of assiduous labour for a copyist to transcribe the Bible well on vellum. What time and what trouble for copying correctly in Greek and Latin the works of Origen, of Clement of Alexandria, and of all those other authors called "fathers."

伏尔泰的哲学词典

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18569/18569-h/18569-h.htm

哲学家，热爱智慧，也就是说热爱真理。所有哲学家都具有这种双重性格；古代没有一位哲学家不给人类树立美德的榜样和道德真理的教训。他们都曾设法欺骗人类关于自然哲学；但自然哲学对于生活指导来说是如此的微不足道，以至于哲学家们不需要它。学习自然法则的一部分需要几个世纪的时间。一天的时间足以让一个聪明人学会做人的职责。

哲学家并不热情；他不把自己当作先知；他不说他受到了神的启发。因此，我不会把古代的查拉图斯特拉、赫尔墨斯、古代的奥菲斯或迦勒底、波斯、叙利亚、埃及和希腊等国所吹嘘的任何立法者归为哲学家。那些自称是神的孩子的人是骗子的始祖；如果他们用谎言来教导真理，那他们就不配教导真理；他们不是哲学家；他们充其量只是非常谨慎的骗子。

西方人也许会感到羞耻，为什么一定要去遥远的东方寻找一位智者，他朴实无华、不虚伪，在我们这个庸俗时代到来之前六百年，在当时整个北方都不懂文字，希腊人才刚刚开始以智慧脱颖而出，他教会人们如何幸福地生活？

这位智者就是孔子，作为立法者，他从不想欺骗人们。自他之后，全世界还有什么比这更美好的行为准则呢？

“治国如治家；只有以身作则，才能把家庭治理好。

“美德应该是农夫和君主的共同特质。

“尽心尽力预防犯罪，以减轻惩罚犯罪的麻烦。

“在贤王尧和徐的统治下，中国人是善良的；在贤王邕和楚的统治下，中国人是邪恶的。

“善待他人如同善待自己。

“爱所有的人；但要珍惜诚实的人。忘记伤害，永远不要善良。

“我见过不善于学习的人，但我从未见过不善于美德的人。”

让我们承认，没有哪位立法者能宣称对人类更有用的真理。

从那时起，许多希腊哲学家都教授了同样纯粹的道德哲学。如果他们把自己限制在空洞的自然哲学体系中，他们的名字今天只会被嘲笑。如果他们仍然受到尊重，那是因为他们是正义的，并且他们教导人们如此。

读过柏拉图的某些段落，尤其是扎留库斯法律的精彩开篇，人们就会在心中感受到对光荣和慷慨行为的热爱。罗马人有西塞罗，也许只有他才能抵得上希腊所有的哲学家。在他之后出现了更值得尊敬的人，但人们几乎无法效仿他们：被奴役的埃皮克泰德、王位上的安东尼和朱利安。

我们当中的哪一个公民会像朱利安、安东尼和马库斯·奥勒留一样，放弃我们松弛而柔弱的生活中所有的美味？谁会像他们一样睡在地上？谁会把自己的节俭强加给自己？谁会像他们一样，赤脚、光着头走在军队的最前面，一会儿暴露在烈日下，一会儿暴露在白霜下？谁会像他们一样控制他们的所有激情？我们中间有虔诚的人，但智者在哪里？坚定、公正和宽容的灵魂在哪里？

法国有过学者，除了蒙田，其他人都曾遭受迫害。我认为，我们本性恶毒到极点，就是想压迫那些想要纠正它的哲学家。

我完全理解一个教派的狂热分子屠杀另一个教派的狂热分子，方济各会憎恨多米尼加人，一个糟糕的艺术家会密谋毁掉一个超越他的人；但聪明的查伦应该受到失去生命的威胁，博学慷慨的拉穆斯应该被暗杀，笛卡尔应该被迫逃往荷兰以躲避无知者的愤怒，伽桑狄应该被迫多次撤退到迪涅，远离巴黎的诽谤；这些事是一个民族永远的耻辱。

书籍

你们鄙视书籍，你们的一生都沉浸在虚荣的野心、对快乐或懒惰的追求中；但想想看，除了野蛮种族之外，整个已知的宇宙都只受书籍的统治。整个非洲，直到埃塞俄比亚和尼日尔，都服从《古兰经》，在《福音书》的统治下摇摇欲坠。中国受孔子的道德书统治；印度的大部分地区受《韦达经》的统治。波斯几个世纪以来一直受《查拉图斯特拉》之一的书统治。

如果你有一场诉讼，你的财产、你的荣誉、你的生命甚至取决于你从未读过的书的解读。

罗伯特魔鬼、艾蒙的四个儿子、奥夫勒先生的想象，也都是书；但书和人一样；极少数人发挥着重要作用，其余的人则混杂在人群中。

谁在文明国家领导人类？那些懂得如何读书写字的人。你既不认识希波克拉底，也不认识布尔哈夫，也不认识西德纳姆；但你把你的身体交给了那些读过他们的人。你把你的灵魂交给了那些拿钱读圣经的人，尽管他们中没有五十个人认真地把圣经读完整本。

书籍统治着世界，以至于今天在西庇阿和卡托斯城里发号施令的人希望他们的法律书籍只属于他们；这是他们的权杖；他们规定，未经明确许可，他们的臣民阅读书籍是一种大不敬的罪行。在其他国家，未经特许证，禁止以书面形式思考。

在有些国家，思想纯粹被视为商业对象。在那里，人类思维活动的价值仅为每张两苏。

在另一个国家，用书解释自己的自由是最不可侵犯的特权之一。你可以随意印刷任何你想印刷的东西，如果你过度滥用你的自然权利，就会被打上污点或受到惩罚。

在印刷术发明之前，书籍比宝石更稀有、更昂贵。在查理曼大帝之前，蛮族国家几乎没有书籍，从查理曼大帝到绰号“智者”的法国国王查理五世，从查理大帝到弗朗索瓦一世，书籍极其匮乏。

只有阿拉伯人拥有从公元 8 世纪到 13 世纪的书籍。

当我们还不会读写时，中国就充满了书籍。

从西庇阿时代到蛮族入侵，罗马帝国大量雇用抄写员。

希腊人在阿明塔斯、菲利普和亚历山大时代大量从事抄写工作；他们继续从事这种手艺，尤其是在亚历山大。

这种手艺有点不知感恩。商人总是给作者和抄写员很低的报酬。抄写员需要两年的辛勤劳动才能将圣经很好地抄写在牛皮纸上。用希腊语和拉丁语正确地抄写奥利金、亚历山大的克莱门特和所有其他被称为“教父”的作者的作品需要多少时间和多少努力。

荷马的诗歌长期以来鲜为人知，以至于皮西斯特拉图是第一个整理它们的人，他在雅典将它们抄录下来，大约在我们使用的时代之前五百年。

[第 59 页]今天，整个东方可能还没有十几本《韦达摩经》和《阿维斯塔经》。

1700 年，除了弥撒书和喝白兰地的老人家里的几本《圣经》外，你在整个俄罗斯都找不到一本书。

今天人们抱怨书太多了：但读者不应该抱怨；补救措施很简单；没有什么能强迫他们读书。作者也不再抱怨了。那些制造人群的人不应该哭喊他们被压垮了。尽管书的数量巨大，但读书的人却很少！如果一个人读得有收获，他会看到普通人每天都在为可悲的愚蠢行为而牺牲自己。

尽管有不必要地增加生命力的法则，但书籍的增加是人们用书籍制造其他书籍；正是用几卷已经印刷好的书，编造了一部新的法国或西班牙历史，而没有添加任何新内容。所有的字典都是用字典编出来的；几乎所有的新地理书都是地理书的翻版。圣托马斯的总结产生了两千本厚厚的神学著作；同样的一群小虫子咬坏了母亲，也咬坏了孩子。

Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18569/18569-h/18569-h.htm

Philosopher, lover of wisdom, that is to say, of truth. All philosophers have had this dual character; there is not one in antiquity who has not given mankind examples of virtue and lessons in moral truths. They have all contrived to be deceived about natural philosophy; but natural philosophy is so little necessary for the conduct of life, that the philosophers had no need of it. It has taken centuries to learn a part of nature's laws. One day was sufficient for a wise man to learn the duties of man.

The philosopher is not enthusiastic; he does not set himself up as a prophet; he does not say that he is inspired by the gods. Thus I shall not put in the rank of philosophers either the ancient Zarathustra, or Hermes, or the ancient Orpheus, or any of those legislators of whom the nations of Chaldea, Persia, Syria, Egypt and Greece boasted. Those who styled themselves children of the gods were the fathers of imposture; and if they used lies for the teaching of truths, they were unworthy of teaching them; they were not philosophers; they were at best very prudent liars.

By what fatality, shameful maybe for the Western peoples, is it necessary to go to the far Orient to find a wise man who is simple, unostentatious, free from imposture, who taught men to live happily six hundred years before our vulgar era, at a time when the whole of the North was ignorant of the usage of letters, and when the Greeks were barely beginning to distinguish themselves by their wisdom?

This wise man is Confucius, who being legislator never[Pg 238] wanted to deceive men. What more beautiful rule of conduct has ever been given since him in the whole world?

"Rule a state as you rule a family; one can only govern one's family well by setting the example.

"Virtue should be common to both husbandman and monarch.

"Apply thyself to the trouble of preventing crimes in order to lessen the trouble of punishing them.

"Under the good kings Yao and Xu the Chinese were good; under the bad kings Kie and Chu they were wicked.

"Do to others as to thyself.

"Love all men; but cherish honest people. Forget injuries, and never kindnesses.

"I have seen men incapable of study; I have never seen them incapable of virtue."

Let us admit that there is no legislator who has proclaimed truths more useful to the human race.

A host of Greek philosophers have since taught an equally pure moral philosophy. If they had limited themselves to their empty systems of natural philosophy, their names would be pronounced to-day in mockery only. If they are still respected, it is because they were just and that they taught men to be so.

One cannot read certain passages of Plato, and notably the admirable exordium of the laws of Zaleucus, without feeling in one's heart the love of honourable and generous actions. The Romans have their Cicero, who alone is worth perhaps all the philosophers of Greece. After him come men still more worthy of respect, but whom one almost despairs of imitating; Epictetus in bondage, the Antonines and the Julians on the throne.

Which is the citizen among us who would deprive himself, like Julian, Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius, of all the delicacies of our flabby and effeminate lives? who would sleep as they did on the ground? who would impose on himself their frugality? who, as they did, would march barefoot and bareheaded at the head of the armies, exposed now to the heat of the sun, now to the hoar-frost? who would command[Pg 239] all their passions as they did? There are pious men among us; but where are the wise men? where are the resolute, just and tolerant souls?

There have been philosophers of the study in France; and all, except Montaigne, have been persecuted. It is, I think, the last degree of the malignity of our nature, to wish to oppress these very philosophers who would correct it.

I quite understand that the fanatics of one sect slaughter the enthusiasts of another sect, that the Franciscans hate the Dominicans, and that a bad artist intrigues to ruin one who surpasses him; but that the wise Charron should have been threatened with the loss of his life, that the learned and generous Ramus should have been assassinated, that Descartes should have been forced to flee to Holland to escape the fury of the ignorant, that Gassendi should have been obliged to withdraw several times to Digne, far from the calumnies of Paris; these things are a nation's eternal shame.

Books

You despise them, books, you whose whole life is plunged in the vanities of ambition and in the search for pleasure or in idleness; but think that the whole of the known universe, with the exception of the savage races is governed by books alone. The whole of Africa right to Ethiopia and Nigritia obeys the book of the Alcoran, after having staggered under the book of the Gospel. China is ruled by the moral book of Confucius; a greater part of India by the book of the Veidam. Persia was governed for centuries by the books of one of the Zarathustras.

If you have a law-suit, your goods, your honour, your life even depends on the interpretation of a book which you never read.

Robert the Devil, the Four Sons of Aymon, the Imaginings of Mr. Oufle, are books also; but it is with books as with men; the very small number play a great part, the rest are mingled in the crowd.

Who leads the human race in civilized countries? those who know how to read and write. You do not know either Hippocrates, Boerhaave or Sydenham; but you put your body in the hands of those who have read them. You abandon your soul to those who are paid to read the Bible, although there are not fifty among them who have read it in its entirety with care.

To such an extent do books govern the world, that those who command to-day in the city of the Scipios and the Catos have desired that the books of their law should be only for them; it is their sceptre; they have made it a crime[Pg 58] of lèse-majesté for their subjects to look there without express permission. In other countries it has been forbidden to think in writing without letters patent.

There are nations among whom thought is regarded purely as an object of commerce. The operations of the human mind are valued there only at two sous the sheet.

In another country, the liberty of explaining oneself by books is one of the most inviolable prerogatives. Print all that you like under pain of boring or of being punished if you abuse too considerably your natural right.

Before the admirable invention of printing, books were rarer and more expensive than precious stones. Almost no books among the barbarian nations until Charlemagne, and from him to the French king Charles V., surnamed "the wise"; and from this Charles right to François Ier, there is an extreme dearth.

The Arabs alone had books from the eighth century of our era to the thirteenth.

China was filled with them when we did not know how to read or write.

Copyists were much employed in the Roman Empire from the time of the Scipios up to the inundation of the barbarians.

The Greeks occupied themselves much in transcribing towards the time of Amyntas, Philip and Alexander; they continued this craft especially in Alexandria.

This craft is somewhat ungrateful. The merchants always paid the authors and the copyists very badly. It took two years of assiduous labour for a copyist to transcribe the Bible well on vellum. What time and what trouble for copying correctly in Greek and Latin the works of Origen, of Clement of Alexandria, and of all those other authors called "fathers."

The poems of Homer were long so little known that Pisistratus was the first who put them in order, and who had them transcribed in Athens, about five hundred years before the era of which we are making use.

[Pg 59]To-day there are not perhaps a dozen copies of the Veidam and the Zend-Avesta in the whole of the East.

You would not have found a single book in the whole of Russia in 1700, with the exception of Missals and a few Bibles in the homes of aged men drunk on brandy.

To-day people complain of a surfeit: but it is not for readers to complain; the remedy is easy; nothing forces them to read. It is not any the more for authors to complain. Those who make the crowd must not cry that they are being crushed. Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! and if one read profitably, one would see the deplorable follies to which the common people offer themselves as prey every day.

What multiplies books, despite the law of not multiplying beings unnecessarily, is that with books one makes others; it is with several volumes already printed that a new history of France or Spain is fabricated, without adding anything new. All dictionaries are made with dictionaries; almost all new geography books are repetitions of geography books. The Summation of St. Thomas has produced two thousand fat volumes of theology; and the same family of little worms that have gnawed the mother, gnaw likewise the children.