三〇 、讀The New Machiavelli

（九月七日）

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

韋氏生一八六六年，今年四十九歲，為當(dāng)代文學(xué)巨子之一。著書甚富；所著皆富于理想，不獨(dú)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(shí)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 attempt immediately to 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(dāng)養(yǎng)理智謙遜之作風(fēng)。試圖一經(jīng)策劃、安排即可告成功，此乃治國安邦之痼疾。牧師、學(xué)派、謀士、領(lǐng)袖總是在不經(jīng)意中犯下想當(dāng)然之錯(cuò)誤，設(shè)想他們可以設(shè)計(jì)出人類全部之目標(biāo)與未來，清晰明確，一勞永逸——或者，至少可以完全設(shè)計(jì)出其中確定之部分；他們以此種假設(shè)為基礎(chǔ)，憑己之力去從事立法、建國之工作。在經(jīng)歷了現(xiàn)實(shí)生活之錯(cuò)綜復(fù)雜、冷酷無情和難以捉摸之后，他們便大搞教條、迫害、鍛煉、修剪、秘密訓(xùn)導(dǎo)，和種種過于自信的愚蠢活動(dòng)。當(dāng)他們熱衷于某些善良意向時(shí)，他們會(huì)毫不猶豫地掩蓋事實(shí)真相，鉗制思想，扼殺騷動(dòng)之首創(chuàng)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，而是致力于發(fā)展必要之精神生活（個(gè)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，而是專心致志于打基礎(chǔ)。

汝知道，吾十幾歲時(shí)，就萌發(fā)了為人類設(shè)計(jì)、建造城巿和港口之念頭；吾在三十四五歲時(shí)就打消了此念頭，只想致力于人類思維之總過程，為其添磚加瓦。這是一個(gè)無所畏懼的，批判的，生氣勃勃的過程。一旦時(shí)機(jī)成熟，它將賦予城市、港口、空氣、幸福以及一切，以一定的規(guī)模，一定的質(zhì)量，一定的模樣，而完全不是一時(shí)心血來潮所想象的那樣。

第306—308頁

特權(quán)和法律之約束不是自由唯一之?dāng)橙恕Ｒ粋€(gè)人若是沒有文化、缺乏教養(yǎng)、營養(yǎng)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(jià)值。一個(gè)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——他愿意用一切別的自由來換取求生之自由。

第253頁

根據(jù)公認(rèn)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(xiàn)愛心，那么，必須讓他離群索居。倘若不這么做，那么，我們必須準(zhǔn)備好一種空前的、戀人般的寬容態(tài)度。