胡适留学日记卷十一三〇、读The New Machiavelli

卷十一三〇、读The New Machiavelli

　　（九月七日）

　　读韦儿斯（Herbert George Wells）名著The New Machiavelli（《新马基雅维里》）。

　　韦氏生一八六六年，今年四十九岁，为当代文学巨子之一。著书甚富；所著皆富于理想，不独以文胜也。

　　The New Machiavelli为政治小说，读之增益吾之英伦政界之知识不少。

　　书中颇多名言，撷其一二：

　　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.

　　〔中译〕

　　欲长治国之才，当养理智谦逊之作风。试图一经策划、安排即可告成功，此乃治国安邦之痼疾。牧师、学派、谋士、领袖总是在不经意中犯下想当然之错误，设想他们可以设计出人类全部之目标与未来，清晰明确，一劳永逸——或者，至少可以完全设计出其中确定之部分；他们以此种假设为基础，凭己之力去从事立法、建国之工作。在经历了现实生活之错综复杂、冷酷无情和难以捉摸之后，他们便大搞教条、迫害、锻炼、修剪、秘密训导，和种种过于自信的愚蠢活动。当他们热衷于某些善良意向时，他们会毫不犹豫地掩盖事实真相，钳制思想，扼杀骚动之首创精神，抑制明显有害之欲望……

　　他（政治家）打算不再去“整顿”人事，如人们所言，而是致力于发展必要之精神生活（个人和民族之“精神腹地”）；倘若没有这种精神生活，他在整顿人事方面所做的全部肤浅之尝试将徒劳无益。他不再在沙滩上建造房屋，而是专心致志于打基础。

　　汝知道，吾十几岁时，就萌发了为人类设计、建造城巿和港口之念头；吾在三十四五岁时就打消了此念头，只想致力于人类思维之总过程，为其添砖加瓦。这是一个无所畏惧的，批判的，生气勃勃的过程。一旦时机成熟，它将赋予城市、港口、空气、幸福以及一切，以一定的规模，一定的质量，一定的模样，而完全不是一时心血来潮所想象的那样。

　　第306—308页

　　特权和法律之约束不是自由唯一之敌人。一个人若是没有文化、缺乏教养、营养不良、一贫如洗，他便失去自由之可能性。对他来说，自由毫无价值。一个在水中做垂死挣扎之人，他唯一想得到的自由，就是出水上岸；在他上岸之前——他愿意用一切别的自由来换取求生之自由。

　　第253页

　　根据公认之法则，生性嫉妒之人有理，而心胸宽广之人则是在玩火。倘若有人不献爱心，那么，必须让他离群索居。倘若不这么做，那么，我们必须准备好一种空前的、恋人般的宽容态度。

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