<p class="ql-block">轉(zhuǎn)自老石猴（QQ日志）</p><p class="ql-block">2013-8-23 9:41</p><p class="ql-block">論遍及萬物的善行</p><p class="ql-block">亞當(dāng)·斯密</p><p class="ql-block"> 雖然我們有效的善良行為很少超出自己國家的社會范圍，我們的好意卻沒有什么界限，茫茫世界上的一切生物都可能成為我們好意的對象。我們想象不出，有任何單純而有知覺的生物，我們不衷心企盼他們的幸福，當(dāng)我們設(shè)身處地地想象他們的不幸時，我們并不感到厭惡。而想到有害的（雖然也是有知覺的）生物，我們自然而然地產(chǎn)生憎恨；但在這種情況下，實際上是由于我們擁有普施萬物的仁慈，我們才對它懷有惡意。這是我們對另外一些單純而有知覺的生物因為它的惡意而遭受的不幸感到同情的結(jié)果。</p> <p class="ql-block"> 有些人不完全相信，那個偉大、仁慈以及智慧的神的直接關(guān)懷和保護(hù)著世界上的所有的居民—無論最卑賤的還是最高貴的—這個神指導(dǎo)著人類本性的全部行為；而且，神本身具有無法改變的美德，他每時每刻都注意在行動中給人們帶來盡可能大的幸福。所以無論這種遍及萬物的善行如何高尚和慷慨，對這樣的人來說只能是不可靠的幸福來源。而且，對這種遍及萬物的善行來說，這樣的人懷疑這個世界并沒有一個主宰，必然是所有感想中最令人感傷的；因為以此推論，他會認(rèn)為，充塞于人所未知的、廣大無限的空間的，只是無窮的苦難和不幸，此外什么也沒有。一切極端幸運的燦爛光輝，也不能驅(qū)散這種陰影，從而想象出來的事物必然會因上述十分可怕悲觀的想法而黯然失色；一個有智慧和有美德的人的愉快情緒，不會因為任何折磨人的不幸所產(chǎn)生的憂傷而消除，他之所以擁有這種愉快的情緒，肯定是由于他習(xí)慣性地完全相信上述悲觀看法的對立面的真實性。</p> <p class="ql-block"> 有智慧有美德的人愿意在一切時候犧牲自己的私人利益來換取他那階層或社會團(tuán)體的公共利益。他也愿意在一切時候，犧牲自己所屬階層或社會團(tuán)體的局部利益，以換取國家或君權(quán)更大的利益。然而，他得同樣樂意為了全世界更大的利益，為了上帝主管和領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的一切有知覺和有理智的生物的更大利益，去犧牲上述一切次要的利益。如果習(xí)慣和虔誠的信念使他深切感到，這個仁慈和具有無上智慧的神，他所管理的范圍并不包括對普天下的幸福來說是沒有必要的局部的邪惡，那么，他就必須認(rèn)為，他自己、他的朋友、他所屬的社會團(tuán)體或者他的國家可能經(jīng)歷的一切災(zāi)難，都是世界繁榮必需的，從而他們會比較甘心地承受這些災(zāi)難，而且如果他能夠了解事物之間的一切聯(lián)系和依賴關(guān)系，他自己應(yīng)當(dāng)由衷地和虔誠地愿意承受災(zāi)難。</p> <p class="ql-block"> 如此高尚的順從宇宙?zhèn)ゴ笾髟椎囊庵?，似乎沒有超出人類天性所能接受的范圍。優(yōu)秀軍人們熱愛和信賴自己的將領(lǐng)，相比沒有困難和艱險的地方，他們更樂意開赴毫無生還希望的作戰(zhàn)地點。在向沒有危險的地方行軍的途中，他們心里的想法只是單調(diào)沉悶的、平常的責(zé)任感；在向沒有生還希望的地方行軍的途中，他們會認(rèn)為，自己正在做的，是人類所能作出的最高尚的行為。他們知道，如果不是為了軍隊的安全和戰(zhàn)爭的勝利，他們的將軍決不會命令他們開赴此處。為了一個很大的機(jī)體的幸福，他們心甘情愿地犧牲自己微不足道的血肉之軀。他們出發(fā)時深情地向自己的同伴道別，祝愿他們幸福和成功，他們不僅是俯首帖耳地從命，而常常發(fā)出滿懷喜悅的歡呼，前往那個指定的作戰(zhàn)地點，盡管在那里他們必死無疑，但是他們知道自己會獲得輝煌和榮耀。宇宙的最大的管理者所得到的信任和愛戴，比任何一只軍隊的指揮者，都更為充分、更為強(qiáng)烈、更為狂熱。一個有理智的人，無論是面對最重大的國家的災(zāi)禍還是個人的災(zāi)難，都應(yīng)當(dāng)這樣考慮：他自己、他的朋友們和同胞們，不過是在宇宙的最大管理者的命令下，前往世上這個凄慘的場所；對整個世界的幸福來說，如果這不是必要的，那么宇宙最大的管理者就不會給他們下達(dá)這樣的命令；他們的責(zé)任是，不僅要乖乖地聽從這種指揮，而且要盡力懷著樂意和愉快的心情來接受它。一個優(yōu)秀的軍人時刻準(zhǔn)備去做的事情，一個有理智的人確實應(yīng)當(dāng)也能夠做到。</p> <p class="ql-block"> 自古以來，人類極其崇敬地思索的全部對象，就是神的意念，它以仁慈和智慧設(shè)計制造出了宇宙這架龐大的機(jī)器，不斷地為人類創(chuàng)造盡可能多的幸福。在這種思索面前，其他所有的想法必然顯得平庸。我們相信，傾注心力進(jìn)行這種崇高的思考的人，很少不受到我們極大的尊敬；并且雖然他把一生都只用來作這種思索，但是，我們對他的虔誠和敬意，常常比我們對國家最勤勉和最有益的官員的敬意還要深刻。針對這個問題所作的冥思，給馬庫斯·安東尼努斯的品質(zhì)帶來的贊美，或許比他公正、溫和而仁慈的統(tǒng)治期間處理的一切事物所得到的贊美都更為廣泛。</p> <p class="ql-block"> 可是，管理宇宙這個巨大的機(jī)體，關(guān)心一切有知覺的生物的普遍幸福，是神的職責(zé)，而不是人的職責(zé)。人們對自己的幸福、對他的家庭、朋友和國家的幸福的關(guān)心，被限定在一個很小的范圍之內(nèi)，但是，這個范圍與他個人微弱的能力和理解更加適合。忙于思考更為高尚的事情，決不能成為忽略較小事情的理由；而且一個人不能使自己受到這樣一種指責(zé)，據(jù)說這就是阿維狄烏斯·卡修斯用來反對馬庫斯·安東尼努斯的說法：他忽略了羅馬帝國的繁榮昌盛，而只是忙于哲學(xué)推理和思考整個世界的繁榮昌盛。盡管這個指責(zé)可能不公正，但是愛沉思的哲學(xué)家最高尚的思考，也幾乎無法補(bǔ)償對最瑣屑的現(xiàn)實責(zé)任的忽略。</p><p class="ql-block">（節(jié)選）</p> <p class="ql-block">Of Universal Benevolence</p><p class="ql-block">By Adam Smith</p><p class="ql-block">Though our effectual good offices can very seldom be extended to any wider society than that of our own country; our good-will is circumscribed by no boundary, but may embrace the immensity of the universe. We can not form the idea of any innocent and sensible being, whose happiness we should not desire, or to whose misery, when distinctly brought home to the imagination, we should not have some degree of aversion. The idea of a mischievous, though sensible, being, indeed, naturally provokes our hatred; but the ill-will which, in this case, we bear to it, is really the effect of our universal benevolence. It is the effect of the sympathy which we feel with the misery and resentment of those other innocent and sensible beings, whose happiness is disturbed by its malice.</p> <p class="ql-block">This universal benevolence, how noble and generous so ever, can be the source of no solid happiness to any man who is not thoroughly convinced that all the inhabitants of the universe, the meanest as well as the greatest, are under the immediate care and protection of thatgreat, benevolent, and all-wise Being, who directs all the movements of nature;and who is determined, by his own unalterable perfections, to maintain in it, at all times, the greatest possible quantity of happiness. To this universal benevolence, on the country, the very suspicion of a fatherless world must be the most melancholy of all reflections; from the thought that all the unknown regions of infinite and incomprehensible space may be filled with nothing but endless misery and wretchedness. All the splendour of the highest prosperity can never enlighten the gloom with which so dreadful an idea must necessarily over-shadow the imagination; nor, in a wise and virtuous man, can all the sorrow of the most afflicting adversity ever dry up the joy which necessarily springs from the habitual and thorough conviction of the contrary system.</p> <p class="ql-block">The wise and virtuous man is at all times willing that his own private interest should be sacrificed to the public interest of his own particular order or society. He is at all times willing, too, that the interest of this order or society should be sacrificed to the greater interest of the state or sovereignty, of which it is only a subordinate part. He should, therefore, be equally willing that all those inferior interests should be sacrificed to greater interest of the universe, to the interest of that great society of all sensible and intelligent beings, of which God himself is the immediate administrator and director. If he is deeply impressed with the habitual and through conviction that this benevolent and all-wise Being can admit into the system of his government, no partial evil which is not necessary for the universal good, he must consider all them is fortunes which may befall himself, his friends, his society, or his country, as necessary for the prosperity of the universe, and therefore as what he ought, not only to submit to with resignation, but as what himself, if he had known all the connexions and dependencies of things, ought sincerely and devoutly to have wished for.</p> <p class="ql-block">Nor does this magnanimous resignation to the will of the great Director of universe, seem in any respect beyond the reach of human nature. Good soldiers, who both love and trust their general, frequently march with more gaiety and alacrity to the forlorn station, from which they never expect to return, than they would to one where there was neither difficulty nor danger. In marching to the latter, they could feel no other sentiment than that of the dullness of ordinary duty: in marching to the former, they feel that they are making the noblest exertion which it is possible for man to make. They know that their general would not have ordered them upon this station, had it not been necessary for the safety of army, for the success of the war. They cheerfully sacrifice their own little systems to the prosperity of a greater system. They take an affectionate leave of their comrades, to whom they wish all happiness and success; and march out, not only with submissive obedience, but often with shouts of the most joyful exultation, to that fatal, but splendid and honourable station to which they are appointed.No conductor of an army can deserve more unlimited trust, more ardent andzealous affection, that the great Conductor of the universe. In the greatest public as well as private disasters, a wise man ought to consider that he himself, his friends and countrymen, have only been ordered upon the forlorn station of the universe; that had it not been necessary for the good of the whole, they would not have been so ordered; and that it is their duty, not only with humble resignation to submit to this allotment, but to endeavour to embrace it with alacrity and joy. A wise man should surely be capable of doing what a good soldier holds himself at all times in readiness to do.</p> <p class="ql-block">The idea of that divine Being, whose benevolence and wisdom have, from all eternity, contrived and conducted the immense machine of the universe, so as at all times to produce the greatest possible quantity of happiness, is certainly of all the objects of human contemplation by far the most sublime. Every other thought necessarily appears mean in the comparison. The man whom we believe to be principally occupied in this sublime contemplation, seldom fails to be the object of our highest veneration; and though his life should be altogether contemplative, we often regard him with a sort of religious respect much superior to that with which we look upon the most active and useful servant of the common-wealth. The Meditations of Marcus Antoninus, which turn principally upon this subject, have contributed more, perhaps, to the general admiration of his character, than all the different transactions of his just, merciful, and beneficent reign.</p> <p class="ql-block">The administration of the great system of the universe, however, the care of the universal happiness of all rationaland sensible beings, is the business of God and not of man. To man is allotted a much humbler department, but one much more suitable to the weakness of his powers and to the narrowness of his comprehension; the care of his own happiness, of that of his family, his friends, and his country: that he is occupied in contemplating the more sublime, can never be an excuse for his neglecting the more humble department; and he must not expose himself to the charge which Avidius Cassius is said to have brought, perhaps unjustly, against Marcus Antoninus; that while he employed himself in philosophical speculations, and contemplated the prosperity of the universe, he neglected that of the Roman empire. The most sublime speculation of the contemplative philosopher can scarce compensate the neglect of the smallest active duty.</p><p class="ql-block">(Extract)</p>