The Lowest Animal
By Mark Twain.
广陵散古琴曲
I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the lower animals (so-called), and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals; since it now ems plain to me that the theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals. （有一点是很简单的，那就是达尔文进化论应该让位给一种全新的更正确的理论，这种全新的更正确的理论被称为“人是由高等动物退化而来。”）
In proceeding toward this unpleasant conclusion I have not guesd or speculated or conjectured, but have ud what is commonly called the scientific method. That is to say, I have subjected every postulate that prented itlf to the crucial test of actual experiment, and have adopted it or rejected it according to the result. （也就是说，我把所有出现的假设都付诸实地实验，进行严格测试，然后根据结果进行取舍。前生缘）Thus I verified and establishe
d each step of my cour in its turn before advancing to the next. The experiments were made in the London Zoological Gardens, and covered many months of painstaking and fatiguing work.
Before particularizing any of the experiments, I wish to state one or two things, which em to more properly belong in this place than further along. This is in the interest of clearness. The masd experiments established to my satisfaction certain generalizations, to wit:
1. That the human race is of one distinct species. It exhibits slight variations (in color, stature, mental caliber, and so on) due to climate, environment, and so forth; but it is a species by itlf, and not to be confounded with any other.
乌贼怎么处理干净2. 努力上进的诗句That the quadrupeds are a distinct family, also. This family exhibits variations (in color, size, food preferences, and so on; but it is a family by itlf). (德与法人类这种四肢动物也是一个独立的科属。本科属虽然在肤色、身高、智力等方面呈现出轻微的变异，但人类自己就是一个物种，不能喝其他物种混为一谈。)十大里番
3. That the other families (the birds, the fishes, the incts, the reptiles, etc.) are more or less distinct, also. They are in the procession. They are links in the chain, which stretches down from the higher animals to man at the bottom. （各种物种依次排列，形成自高到低的顺序链，人类居最后。）
Some of my experiments were quite curious. In the cour of my reading I had come across a ca where, many years ago, some hunters on our Great Plains organized a buffalo hunt for the entertainment of an English earl. They had charming sport. They killed venty-two of tho great animals; and ate part of one of them and left the venty-one to rot. In order to determine the difference between an anaconda and an earl (if any) I caud ven young calves to be turned into the anaconda’s cage. The grateful reptile immediately crushed one of them and swallowed it, then lay back satisfied. It showed no further interest in the calves, and no disposition to harm them. I tried this experiment with other anacondas; always with the same result. The fact stood proven that the difference between an earl and an anaconda is that the earl is cruel and the anaconda isn’t; and that the earl wantonly destroys what he has no u for, but the anaco
nda doesn’t. This emed to suggest that the anaconda was not descended from the earl. It also emed to suggest that the earl was descended from the anaconda, and had lost a good deal in the transition. （这似乎说明，蟒蛇不是伯爵的后代，伯爵才是蟒蛇的后代，而且在变异过程中伯爵丢失了蟒蛇的许多特性。）
我为你着迷I was aware that many men who have accumulated more millions of money than they can ever u have shown a rabid hunger for more, and have not scrupled to （肆无忌惮地）cheat the ignorant and the helpless out of their poor rvings in order to partially appea that appetite. I furnished a hundred different kinds of wild and tame animals the opportunity to accumulate vast stores of food, but none of them would do it. The squirrels and bees and certain birds made accumulations, but stopped when they had gathered a winter s supply, and could not be persuaded to add to it either honestly or by chicane. In order to bolster up a tottering reputation the ant pretended to store up supplies, but I was not deceived. I know the ant. The experiments convinced me that there is this difference between man and the higher animals: he is avaricious and mirly; they are not.
In the cour of my experiments I convinced mylf that among the animals man is the only one that harbors insults and injuries, broods over them, waits till a chance offers, then takes revenge. （唯独人类欺辱他人、居心叵测，伺机打击报复。）The passion of revenge is unknown to the higher animals.
Roosters keep harems, but it is by connt of their concubines; therefore no wrong is done. Men keep harems but it is by brute force, privileged by atrocious laws, which the other x was allowed no hand in making. In this matter man occupies a far lower place than the rooster.
Cats are loo in their morals, but not consciously so. Man, in his descent from the cat, has brought the cats looness with him but has left the unconsciousness behind (the saving grace which excus the cat). The cat is innocent, man is not.
Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity (the are strictly confined to man); he invented them. Among the higher animals there is no trace of them. They hide nothing; they are not ashamed. Man, with his soiled mind, covers himlf. He will not even enter a drawing roo
m with his breast and back naked, so alive are he and his mates to indecent suggestion. Man is The Animal that Laughs. But so does the monkey, as Mr. Darwin pointed out; and so does the Australian bird that is called the laughing jackass. No! Man is the Animal that Blushes. He is the only one that does it or has occasion to. （人类是会脸红的动物，唯独人类会脸红——或有理由脸红）
