双语阅读：:论世界的变迁
以下是店铺整理的情感类英语美文欣赏： 论世界的变迁 ,希望对你有所启发。
Of Vicissitude Of Things
论世界的变迁
SOLOMON saith, There is no new thing upon the earth. So that as Plato had an imagination,That all knowledge was but remembrance; so Solomon giveth his ntence, That all novelty isbut oblivion. Whereby you may e, that the river of Lethe runneth as well above ground asbelow.
所罗门说：“地球上没有新事物”。甚至，柏拉图这样遐想：“一切知识都只是旧事物的记忆”;所罗门也说过几乎同样的话：“一切新事物都只是旧事物的遗忘”。由此可见，“冥河”或“忘川”，不仅存在于地府，而且存在人间。
There is an abstru astrologer that saith, If it were not for two things that are constant (the
one is, that the fixed stars ever stand a like distance one from another, and never come nearertogether, nor go further asunder; the other, that the diurnal motion perpetually keepeth time),no individual would last one moment. Certain it is, that the mat-ter is in a perpetual flux, andnever at a stay. The great winding-sheets, that bury all things in ob-livion, are two; deluges andearthquakes. As for conflagrations and great droughts, they do not merely dispeople anddestroy. Phaeton's car went but a day. And the three years' drought in the time of Elias, wasbut particular, and left people alive.
世界有两样东西是永恒的：其一、位置固定的星体之间距离永远不变，既不靠近，也不离开;其二、它们每日的运动永远遵守时间。有一位玄妙的星占家就说过：“要是没有两样永恒的事物，那就没有什么个体存在于瞬间”。万物肯定处于永恒的流动中，从不停止。洪水和地震是席卷或埋葬一切事物的两块大的收尸布。至于火灾和大旱，它们并不总是摧毁人类。法厄的车只走一天;而伊利亚时代的三年旱灾是特殊现象，而且还是有人活下来。至于西印度常见的因雷电而引起的大火，烧毁的面积很有限。
但需要进一步指出，在洪水和地震所造成的两种破坏中，劫后余生者通常是无知的山村野民，他们对过去一无所知，遗忘殆尽，那里好像没有留下一个幸存者。
As for the great burnings by lightnings, which are often in the West Indies, they are butnarrow. But in the other two destructions, by deluge and earth-quake, it is further to benoted, that the remnant of people which hap to be rerved, are commonly ignorant andmountainous people, that can give no account of the time past; so that the oblivion is all one,as if none had been left. If you consider well of the people of the West Indies, it is very probablethat they are a newer or a younger peo-ple, than the people of the Old World. And it is muchmore likely, that the destruction that hath heretofore been there, was not by earthquakes (asthe Egyptian priest told Solon concerning the island of Atlantis, that it was swallowed by anearthquake), but rather that it was desolated by a particular deluge. For earthquakes areldom in tho parts. But on the other side, they have such pouring rivers, as the rivers ofAsia and Africk and Europe, are but brooks to them. Their Andes, like-wi, or mountains, arefar higher than tho with us; whereby it ems, that the remnants of gen-eration of men,were in such a particular deluge saved. As for the obrvation that Machiavel hath, that thejealousy of cts, doth much extinguish the memory of things; traducing Gregory the Great,that he did what in him lay, to extinguish a
ll heathen antiquities; I do not find that tho zealsdo any great effects, nor last long; as it ap-peared in the succession of Sabinian, who didrevive the former antiquities. The vicissitude of mutations in the superior globe, are no fitmatter for this prent argument.
如果你研究西印度人，他们很可能比先人进步和年轻。(注7)那里的破坏也不像是由于地震造成，(如埃及祭司对梭伦说的：“大西岛被地震吞没。”)其荒芜的现状更像是由于特大的洪水。因为这些地区很少地震。但另一方面，这些地区有如此浩瀚的水域，非亚洲、非洲和欧洲那样的大江大河可比，后者只如同一条条小溪。安第斯山之类山脉也比我们这里的高得多;看来那一代人的幸存者是靠着这些高山才在如此特殊的洪水中获救。至于马奇维尔的看法，我不敢苟同;他说什么宗派之间的嫉妒导致大量文物的遗忘，甚至污蔑格利葛里教皇尽力毁掉了异教的一切古迹;但我看不出教皇这种宗教狂热能起多大作用，而且也没有维持多久;看来萨比尼安即位后就恢复了这些古迹。天体运动的变化完全不适合在本文讨论。
It may be, Plato's great year, if the world should last so long, would have some effect; not inrenew-ing the state of like individuals (for that is the fume of tho, that conceive thecelestial bodies have more accurate influences upon the things below, than indeed t
heyhave), but in gross. Comets, out of question, have likewi power and effect, over the grossand mass of things; but they are rather gazed upon, and waited upon in their journey, thanwily obrved in their effects; specially in, their respective effects; that is, what kind ofcomet, for magnitude, color, version of the beams, plac-ing in the reign of heaven, or lasting,produceth what kind of effects.
如果世界会持续存在很长时间，那么柏拉图的“大年说”可能有所应验——但不是在某些个人身上(因为这些人狂言，天体对他们的外在环境具有明显的影响)，而是对整个地球体，慧星对事物的整体与质量无疑具有这种类威力或作用;但人们更多地注视与期待慧星的运行过程，却较少聪明地观察慧星的作用，如何种慧星产生何种作用，特别是慧星的大小、颜色、光线的变化、在天上的位置、持续的时间等有关方面。
There is a toy which I have heard, and I would not have it given over, but waited upon a little.They say it is obrved in the Low Countries (I know not in what part) that every five and thirtyyears, the same kind and suit of years and weath-ers come about again; as great frosts, greatwet, great droughts, warm winters, summers with little heat, and the like;
and they call it thePrime. It is a thing I do the rather mention, becau, comput-ing backwards, I have found someconcurrence.
至今还可以听到有人闲聊，但引起了我的注意，他们说低地三国(我不知道是哪一部分)发现这样的情况：每隔三十五年，重来一次同样的年景和天气;如大的冰冻，大的潮湿，大的旱灾，温暖的冬天，不热的夏天，诸如此类;——他们称之为轮回(或译“周而复始”)的“顶点”。我之所以愿意提及此事，是因为我也计算出这种巧合。
But to leave the points of nature, and to come to men. The greatest vicissitude of thingsamongst men, is the vicissitude of cts and religions. For tho orbs rule in men's minds most.The true re-ligion is built upon the rock; the rest are tosd, upon the waves of time. To speak,therefore, of the caus of new cts; and to give some counl con-cerning them, as far asthe weakness of human judgment can give stay, to so great revolutions.
还是离开自然回到人间。宗教及其宗派导致人世间的变迁;因为这些“天体”主宰人心。真正的宗教坚如磐石，其他的宗教风雨飘摇(或直译：真正的宗教建立在礁石上，其他的宗教在
时代的风浪里颠簸)。因此，尽管对于这样伟大的变革，人的理智显得单薄无力，但我不揣冒昧，讨论一下新宗教产生的原因，并提出一些相关的建议。
When the religion formerly received, is rent by discords; and when the holiness of theprofessors of religion, is decayed and full of scandal; and withal the times be stupid, ignorant,and bar-barous; you may doubt the springing up of a new ct; if then also, there should ariany extrava-gant and strange spirit, to make himlf author thereof. All which points held, whenMahomet published his law. If a new ct have not two prop-erties, fear it not; for it will notspread. The one is the supplanting, or the opposing, of authority es-tablished; for nothing ismore popular than that. The other is the giving licen to pleasures, and a voluptuous life. Foras for speculative heresies (such as were in ancient times the Arians, and now the Armenians),though they work mightily upon men's wits, yet they do not produce any great al-terations instates; except it be by the help of civil occasions. There be three manner of plantations of newcts. By the power of signs and miracles; by the eloquence, and wisdom, of speech andpersua-sion; and by the sword. For martyrdoms, I reckon them amongst miracles; becauthey em to ex-ceed the stre
ngth of human nature: and I may do the like, of superlative andadmirable holiness of life. Surely there is no better way, to stop the rising of new cts andschisms, than to reform abus; to compound the smaller differences; to proceed mildly, andnot with sanguinary percutions; and rather to take off the principal authors by win-ning andadvancing them, than to enrage them by violence and bitterness.
