胡適留學日記卷十一三〇、讀The New Machiavelli

卷十一三〇、讀The New Machiavelli

　　（九月七日）

　　讀韋兒斯（Herbert George Wells）名著The New Machiavelli（《新馬基雅維裡》）。

　　韋氏生一八六六年，今年四十九歲，為當代文學鉅子之一。著書甚富；所著皆富於理想，不獨以文勝也。

　　The New Machiavelli為政治小說，讀之增益吾之英倫政界之知識不少。

　　書中頗多名言，擷其一二：

　　In the development of intellectual modesty lies the growth of statesmanship. It has been chronic mistake of statecraft and all organizing spirits to attemptimmediatelyto scheme and arrange and achieve. Priests, schools of thought, political schemers, leaders of men have alwayg slipped into the error of assuming that they can think out the whole—or at any rate completely think out definite parts—of the purpose and future of men, clearly and finally; they have set themselves to legislate and construct on that assumption, and experiencing the perplexing obduracy and evasions of reality, they have taken to dogma, persecution, training, pruning, secretive education, and all the stupidities of self-sufficient energy. In the passion of their good intentions they have not hesitated to conceal fact, suppress thought, crush disturbing initiatives and apparently detrimental desires…

　　He (the statesman) wants no longer to "fix up," as people say, human affairs, but to devote his forces to the development of that needed intellectual life (the "mental hinterland" both in the individual and in the race) without which all his shallow attempts at fixing up are futile. He ceases to build on the sands, and sets himself to gather foundations.

　　You see, I began in my teens by wanting to plan and build cities and harbors for mankind; I ended in the middle thirties by desiring only to serve and increase a general process of thought, a process fearless, critical, realspirited, that would in its own time give cities, harbors, air, happiness, everything at a scale and quality and in a light altogether beyond the matchstriking imaginations of a contemporary mind. —pp. 306—8

　　Privilege and legal restrictions are not the only enemies of liberty. An uneducated, underbred, and underfed propertyless man is a man who has lost the possibility of liberty. There's no liberty worth a rap for him. A man who is swimming hopelessly for life wants nothing but the liberty to get out of the water; he'll give every other liberty for it—until he gets out. —p. 253

　　On the basis of the accepted codes the jealous people are right, and the liberal-minded ones are playing with fire. If people are not to love, then they must be kept apart. If they are not to be kept apart, then we must prepare for an unprecedented toleration of lovers.

　　〔中譯〕

　　欲長治國之才，當養理智謙遜之作風。試圖一經策劃、安排即可告成功，此乃治國安邦之痼疾。牧師、學派、謀士、領袖總是在不經意中犯下想當然之錯誤，設想他們可以設計出人類全部之目標與未來，清晰明確，一勞永逸——或者，至少可以完全設計出其中確定之部分；他們以此種假設為基礎，憑己之力去從事立法、建國之工作。在經歷了現實生活之錯綜複雜、冷酷無情和難以捉摸之後，他們便大搞教條、迫害、鍛煉、修剪、秘密訓導，和種種過於自信的愚蠢活動。當他們熱衷於某些善良意向時，他們會毫不猶豫地掩蓋事實真相，鉗制思想，扼殺騷動之首創精神，抑制明顯有害之欲望……

　　他（政治家）打算不再去「整頓」人事，如人們所言，而是致力於發展必要之精神生活（個人和民族之「精神腹地」）；倘若沒有這種精神生活，他在整頓人事方面所做的全部膚淺之嘗試將徒勞無益。他不再在沙灘上建造房屋，而是專心致志於打基礎。

　　汝知道，吾十幾歲時，就萌發了為人類設計、建造城巿和港口之念頭；吾在三十四五歲時就打消了此念頭，只想致力於人類思維之總過程，為其添磚加瓦。這是一個無所畏懼的，批判的，生氣勃勃的過程。一旦時機成熟，它將賦予城市、港口、空氣、幸福以及一切，以一定的規模，一定的質量，一定的模樣，而完全不是一時心血來潮所想像的那樣。

　　第306—308頁

　　特權和法律之約束不是自由唯一之敵人。一個人若是沒有文化、缺乏教養、營養不良、一貧如洗，他便失去自由之可能性。對他來說，自由毫無價值。一個在水中做垂死掙扎之人，他唯一想得到的自由，就是出水上岸；在他上岸之前——他願意用一切別的自由來換取求生之自由。

　　第253頁

　　根據公認之法則，生性嫉妒之人有理，而心胸寬廣之人則是在玩火。倘若有人不獻愛心，那麼，必須讓他離群索居。倘若不這麼做，那麼，我們必須準備好一種空前的、戀人般的寬容態度。

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