LESSON 96

INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES

发明与发现

John Caldwell Calhoun, 1782-1850. This great statesman, and champion of southern rights and opinions, was born in Abbeville District, South Carolina. In the line of both parents, he was of Irish Presbyterian descent. In youth he was very studious, and made the best use of such opportunities for education as the frontier settlement afforded. He graduated at Yale College in 1804, and studied law at Litchfield, Connecticut. In 1808 he was elected to the Legislature of South Carolina; and, three years later, he was chosen to the National House of Representatives. During the six years that he remained in the House, he took an active and prominent part in the stirring events of the time. In 1817 he was appointed Secretary of War, and held the office seven years. From 1825 to 1832 he was Vice President of the United States. He then resigned this office, and took his seat as senator from South Carolina. In 1844 President Tyler called him to his Cabinet as Secretary of State; and, in 1845, he returned to the Senate, where he remained till his death. During all his public life Mr. Calhoun was active and outspoken. His earnestness and logical force commanded the respect of those who differed most widely from him in opinion. He took the most advanced ground in favor of “State Rights,” and defended slavery as neither morally nor politically wrong. His foes generally conceded his honesty, and respected his ability; while his friends regarded him as little less than an oracle.

In private life Mr. Calhoun was highly esteemed and respected. His home was at “Fort Hill,” in the northwestern district of South Carolina; and here he spent all the time he could spare from his public duties, in the enjoyments of domestic life and in cultivating his plantation. In his home he was remarkable for kindness, cheerfulness, and sociability.

To comprehend more fully the force and bearing of public opinion, and to form a just estimate of the changes to which, aided by the press, it will probably lead, politically and socially, it will be necessary to consider it in connection with the causes that have given it an influence so great as to entitle it to be regarded as a new political element. They will, upon investigation, be found in the many discoveries and inventions made in the last few centuries.

All these have led to important results. Through the invention of the mariner’s compass, the globe has been circumnavigated and explored; and all who inhabit it, with but few exceptions, are brought within the sphere of an all-pervading commerce, which is daily diffusing over its surface the light and blessings of civilization.

Through that of the art of printing, the fruits of observation and reflection, of discoveries and inventions, with all the accumulated stores of previously acquired knowledge, are preserved and widely diffused. The application of gunpowder to the art of war has forever settled the long conflict for ascendency between civilization and barbarism, in favor of the former, and thereby guaranteed that, whatever knowledge is now accumulated, or may hereafter be added, shall never again be lost.

The numerous discoveries and inventions, chemical and mechanical, and the application of steam to machinery, have increased many fold the productive powers of labor and capital, and have thereby greatly increased the number who may devote themselves to study and improvement, and the amount of means necessary for commercial exchanges, especially between the more and the less advanced and civilized portions of the globe, to the great advantage of both, but particularly of the latter.

The application of steam to the purposes of travel and transportation, by land and water, has vastly increased the facility, cheapness, and rapidity of both: diffusing, with them, information and intelligence almost as quickly and as freely as if borne by the winds; while the electrical wires outstrip them in velocity, rivaling in rapidity even thought itself.

The joint effect of all this has been a great increase and diffusion of knowledge; and, with this, an impulse to progress and civilization heretofore unexampled in the history of the world, accompanied by a mental energy and activity unprecedented.

To all these causes, public opinion, and its organ, the press, owe their origin and great influence. Already they have attained a force in the more civilized portions of the globe sufficient to be felt by all governments, even the most absolute and despotic. But, as great as they now are, they have, as yet, attained nothing like their maximum force. It is probable that not one of the causes which have contributed to their formation and influence, has yet produced its full effect; while several of the most powerful have just begun to operate; and many others, probably of equal or even greater force, yet remain to be brought to light.

When the causes now in operation have produced their full effect, and inventions and discoveries shall have been exhausted—if that may ever be—they will give a force to public opinion, and cause changes, political and social, difficult to be anticipated. What will be their final bearing, time only can decide with any certainty.

That they will, however, greatly improve the condition of man ultimately, it would be impious to doubt; it would be to suppose that the all-wise and beneficent Being, the Creator of all, had so constituted man as that the employment of the high intellectual faculties with which He has been pleased to endow him, in order that he might develop the laws that control the great agents of the material world, and make them subservient to his use, would prove to him the cause of permanent evil, and not of permanent good.

【中文阅读】

为了更全面地理解当众发表意见需要具备的感染力和举止风度，对时局的变化做出正确的估计，为此要借助于媒体，而媒体也许在政治和社会层面上加以引导，因此有必要考虑到媒体与对它产生很大影响的起因之间存在关联，可以将其视为新的政治因素。通过调查，我们在最近几个世纪的许多发现和发明中可以看出端倪。

所有这些发现和发明已经产生重要成果。通过航海，罗盘的发明，人们能够环游地球，并进行探索。而地球上的所有居民几乎无一例外都被纳入到一个无所不在的商业圈里，而每日在地球表面扩散的是光明和文明的赐福。

通过印刷术，观察和思考以及发现和发明的成果，连同所有先前累积起来的知识，都得以保存下来并得到广泛传播。在战争中火药的应用使文明和野蛮之间展开的争夺优势地位的长期冲突一劳永逸地得以解决。文明得以昌盛，因此确保了现在任何知识都能得以积累，或许以后还会日益增加，这些文明成果绝对不会再次毁于一旦。

为数众多的发现和发明，不论化学还是机械领域，以及蒸汽机的应用，将生产力和赖以发展的资本提高数倍，而投身学习和自我完善的人数由此得以大幅度增加，尤其在发达和文明的区域之间进行商业交流的必要手段的数量，给两者带来很大的益处，特别是后者。

基于旅行和运输的目的，不论是陆路还是航运，蒸汽机的应用极大地提升了陆路和航运的便利与速度，先前高不可攀的成本得以大幅下降。四通八达，借助于陆路和航运，讯息和情报得以自由流通，迅速传递，仿佛御风而行一样。而电网在传递速度上比它们更快，其迅捷程度无出其右。

所有这些的共同作用使得知识得以迅速增加和传播，而知识作为进步和文明的推动力在以往的历史长河中是绝无仅有的，伴随而来的是人类心智机能和活力出现没有先例的巨大飞跃。

对于所有这些社会进步的滥觞，应该感谢公众舆论及其宣传工具，新闻媒体在最初的推波助澜中发挥巨大影响。这些社会进步在世界上更文明的地区已经形成一种力量，足以被所有政府所认识，哪怕是最专制独裁的政府也盖莫例外。但是，尽管现在社会实现巨大飞跃，然而尚未发挥最大程度的影响力。也许没有哪一种有助于它们形成和发挥影响的社会进步，能产生完美的结果。其中几种最有影响力的社会进步刚刚开始应用，许多其他的社会进步，也许具有同样甚至更大的影响力，尚不为世人所知。

当正在应用的社会进步开始产生完美的结果，而发现和发明将被耗尽时——如果在某个阶段出现这种情形——将会赋予公众舆论一种力量，导致社会和政治变革，这些都是难以预料的。它们终极是什么，只有时间能给出确切的答案。

然而，这些社会进步终将极大改善人类的生存条件，对此加以怀疑是没有信仰的表现。可以设想的所有睿智和仁慈的生命，万物之主，欣然赋予人们充分运用高级智力的能力，以便人们开发出能操控物资世界强大代理人的法则。使得人们听命于他，向他证明永恒的恶业，而不是永恒的善业。