友邻哲学旅人 E35 哲学的新工具（上）

And so he appeals to James I, showering upon him the flattery which he knew his Royal Highness loved to sip.
于是他向詹姆士一世救助，他知道这位国王喜欢听奉承话，便专拣他爱听的说。

伊丽莎白终生未育，由詹姆士接任。

James was a scholar as well as a monarch, prouder of his pen than of his sceptre or his sword; something might be expected of so literary and erudite a king.
詹姆士既是君主也是学者，他自豪于自己的文笔甚至超过了权杖与宝剑；他是一位知识渊博的统治者，因而值得对他寄予期待。

Bacon tells James that the plans he has sketched are "indeed opera basilica,"—kingly tasks—"towards which the endeavors of one man can be but as an image on a cross-road, which points out the way but cannot tread it."
培根告诉詹姆士，自己草拟的方案是真正的“帝王之业”。“所以这些努力的奋斗是一个人可以做到的，但是他的一个意向像是在一个十字路口，把方向指出来，但是走不了。”

詹姆士对宗教和人文事业是有巨大促进作用的。莎士比亚抬头在伊丽莎白时代，但真正达到顶峰是詹姆士一世时代，他给他的剧团发来衣服进宫演戏。

还把圣经重新编了一下，被誉为最好的版本。詹姆士版本。

Certainly these royal undertakings will involve expense; but "as the secretaries and spies of princes and states bring in bills for intelligence, so you must allow the spies and intelligencers of nature to bring in their bills if you would not be ignorant of many things worthy to be known. And if Alexander placed so large a treasure at Aristotle's command for the support of hunters, fowlers, fishers, and the like, in much more need do they stand of this beneficence who unfold the labyrinths of nature."
当然，完成这项伟业是要花钱的；“既然国王与国家雇佣的密探在获取情报时会交上账单，那就也应该允许探索自然奥秘的密探送上他们的账单，假如你不想忽视那些应该知道的事情的话。亚历山大曾向亚里士多德提供大量的资金，让他去取得猎户、渔民等人的支持，那这些善良的施予者慢慢揭开自然谜底的人，就更需要得到这样的捐助了。”

With such royal aid the Great Reconstruction can be completed in a few years; without it the task will require generations.
有了王室的资助，“伟大的复兴”便能在几年之内完成，不然它会耗去几代人的工夫。

you are too simple, sometime naive.

如果要入世就得左右逢源，长袖善舞。

What is refreshingly new in Bacon is the magnificent assurance with which he predicts the conquest of nature by man: "I stake all on the victory of art over nature in the race."
培根让人耳目一新之处在于他坚信人类必将征服自然：“我拿一切做赌注，担保人定胜天。”

That which men have done is "but an earnest of the things they shall do."
人们以前所做的一切“就是真诚要去做的事情。”

But why this great hope? Had not men been seeking truth, and exploring the paths of science, these two thousand years? Why should one hope now for such great success where so long a time had given so modest a result?
但是为什么会有这伟大的想法呢？既难道在过去的两千年里，人类没有在科学的道路上探索前进吗？为什么

过去那么长的时间只结出这么有限的果实，那我们还能对取得巨大成就抱有期望吗？

—Yes, Bacon answers; but what if the methods men have used have been wrong and useless? What if the road has been lost, and research has gone into by-paths ending in the air?
--是的，培根肯定道；倘若过去人们使用的方法是错误的呢？倘若人们以前迷失了方向，一直是在旁支小道上挣扎呢-最后一无所获？

We need a ruthless revolution in our methods of research and thought, in our system of science and logic; we need a new Organon, better than Aristotle's, fit for this larger world.
我们需要在科学与逻辑体系中、在研究与思维方法上进行一次彻底的革命；我们需要一个新工具，它比亚里士多德的更好，更适应这个更广阔的世界。

And so Bacon offers us his supreme book.
于是，培根向我们奉献出他最伟大的作品。

语言点

sip: vi （小口）喝，品尝

sceptre: n. 权杖

erudite: adj. 博学的

fowler: n. 专门猎鸟的猎人

labyrinth: n. 迷宫

stake: vt. 下赌注

by-path: n. 旁道

end in the air: n. 一无所获

ruthless: adj. 无情的

Organon: n. 工具论