胡適留學日記卷七四九、毛萊子爵

卷七四九、毛萊子爵

　　（十二月六日）

　　韋蓮司女士以英人毛萊（John Morley）之《姑息論》（On Compromise1874）相假，讀之不忍釋手，至晨二時半始畢。手抄數節（參看本卷第二六則）：

　　It is essential to theself-respectof every one with the least love of truth, that he should be free to express his opinions on every occasion where silence would be taken for an assent which he does not really give. Still more unquestionably, he should be free from any obligation to foreswear himself either directly, as by false professions, or by implication, as when he attends services, public or private, which are to him the symbol of superstition and were spiritual phantasmagoria. The vindication of this simple right of living one's life honestly can hardly demand any heroic virtue. A little of thestraight forwardnesswhich men are accustomed to call manly is the only quality that is needed.

　　—Morley:On Compromise. p. 141.

　　There is no advantage nor honest delight in influence if it is only to be exerted in the sphere of secondary objects, and at the cost of the objects which ought to be foremost in the eyes of serious people. In truth the men who have done most for the world have taken very little heed of influence. They have sought light, and left their influence to fare as it may list.

　　—ibid. pp. 150—151.

　　And what is this smile of the world, to win which we are bidden to sacrifice our moral manhood; this frown of the world, whose terrors are more awful than the withering up of truth and the slow going out of light within the souls of us? Consider the triviality of life and conversation and purpose in the bulk of those whose approval is held out for our prize and the mark of our calling. Let us measure the empire over them of prejudice unadulterated by a single element of rationality, and let us weigh the huge burden of custom, unrelieved by a single leavening particle of fresh thought. Then how pitiful a thing seems the approval or disapproval of these creatures of the conventions of the hour, as one figures the merciless vastness of the universe of matter sweeping us headlong thru viewless space; as one hears the wail of misery that is for ever ascending to the deaf gods; as one counts the little tale of the years that separate us from eternal silence. In the light of these things a man should surely dare to live his life with little heed of the common speech upon him or his life, only caring that his days may be full of reality, and his conversation of truthspeaking and wholeness.

　　—ibid. pp. 151—152.

　　"After US, the deluge", is not any worse than "After us, the millennium." Those who make no sacrifice to avert the deluge, and those who make none to hasten the millennium, are on the same moral level.

　　A principle, if it be sound, represents one of the larger expediencies. To abandon that for the sake of some seeming expediency of the hour, is to sacrifice the greater good for the less… Nothing is so sure to impoverish an epoch, to deprive conduct of nobleness, and character of elevation.

　　—ibid. p. 203.

　　〔中譯〕

　　在沉默就會被認為默許的場合下，一個人應當有表達自己觀點的自由，這對每一個起碼的熱愛真理的人的自尊而言，是至關重要的。同樣，更毫無疑問的是，他應當有不發偽誓的自由，無論是直接地發偽誓，還是間接含蓄地發偽誓，就像他公開地或私下地參加宗教儀式那樣，而這些儀式對他來說是一種迷信的象徵，也曾是一種精神的幻覺。一個人誠實正直生活的簡單權利無需用英雄美德來為其辯護，而僅只需用一點人們習慣稱之為男子漢氣概的坦率這種品質，就足以解釋了。

　　——毛萊：《姑息論》第141頁

　　影響力如果僅僅作用於次要的對象上則毫無益處和真正的樂趣。而且它還付出了失去主要對象的代價，這些對象在嚴肅的人們看來是至關重要的。事實上，為社會貢獻最大的人是極少去注意其影響力的。他們尋找光明，卻毫不留意他們的影響力。

　　——毛萊：《姑息論》第150—151頁

　　那麼世界贊許的是什麼？為了贏得它，我們不得不犧牲我們的勇氣。世界批評的是什麼？它的可怕遠勝過真理的破滅和靈魂之光的慢慢熄滅。我們平日瑣碎的生活、言談和動機，不過是為了博得人們的讚揚和注意。讓我們來衡量這個不帶半點理性的偏見世界，讓我們來稱量陳腐的思想習俗帶給我們的巨大重負，去想像那從看不見的空間向我們橫掃過來的宇宙物質，想想它那冷酷無情的浩瀚，聽聽那苦難的悲號；耳聾的眾神對之永遠是充耳不聞，屈指數數那將我們與永恆的沉寂分開的短暫歲月，那麼對於習俗的屈從又是多麼的微不足道！以此觀之，一個人的確應該敢於不顧公眾對他的褒貶而生活。他只在意他的生活是否充滿真實，他是否完全說真話。

　　——毛萊：《姑息論》第151—152頁

　　「我死之後，哪管洪水滔天」不比「我死之後，再來盛世千年」更糟。那些沒有做出犧牲去力挽狂瀾的人與沒有盡力去促進千年盛世的人是處在同一道德水平上的。

　　一個原則，即使是正確的，也代表著一種更大的私利打算。為了眼前某種看來也是私利的緣故而放棄這個原則，就等於是舍大善而取小善……沒有什麼東西可以使時代枯竭，可以剝奪高尚行為和崇高德性。

　　——毛萊：《姑息論》第203頁

　　毛萊今為子爵，乃英國文章泰斗。其人亦理想家，生平持世界和平主義。此次戰事之起，英政府主戰，毛萊居內閣不能止之，遂與工党閣員John Burn同時引退，蓋能不以祿位而犧牲其主義者也。

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