_{LESSON 112}

_{OBJECTS AND LIMITS OF SCIENCE}

_{科学的目标和局限}

Robert Charles Winthrop, 1809-1894, was a descendant of John Winthrop, the first Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. He was born in Boston, studied at the public Latin School, graduated at Harvard in 1828, and studied law with Daniel Webster. Possessing an ample fortune, he made little effort to practice his profession. In 1834 he was elected to the Legislature of his native state, and was reelected five times; three years he was Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1840 he was chosen to Congress, and sat as Representative for ten years. In 1847 he was chosen Speaker of the House. He also served a short time in the Senate. His published writings are chiefly in the form of addresses and speeches; they are easy, finished, and scholarly. As a speaker, Mr. Winthrop was ready, full-voiced, and self-possessed.

There are fields enough for the wildest and most extravagant theorizings, within man’s own appropriate domain, without overleaping the barriers which separate things human and divine. Indeed, I have often thought that modern science had afforded a most opportune and providential safety valve for the intellectual curiosity and ambition of man, at a moment when the progress of education, invention, and liberty had roused and stimulated him to a pitch of such unprecedented eagerness and ardor. Astronomy, Chemistry, and, more than all, Geology, with their incidental branches of study, have opened an inexhaustible field for investigation and speculation. Here, by the aid of modern instruments and modern modes of analysis, the most ardent and earnest spirits may find ample room and verge enough for their insatiate activity and audacious enterprise, and may pursue their course not only without the slightest danger of doing mischief to others, but with the certainty of promoting the great end of scientific truth.

Let them lift their vast reflectors or refractors to the skies, and detect new planets in their hiding places. Let them waylay the fugitive comets in their flight, and compel them to disclose the precise period of their orbits, and to give bonds for their punctual return. Let them drag out reluctant satellites from “their habitual concealments.” Let them resolve the unresolvable nebulae of Orion or Andromeda. They need not fear. The sky will not fall, nor a single star be shaken from its sphere.

Let them perfect and elaborate their marvelous processes of making the light and the lightning their ministers, for putting “a pencil of rays” into the hand of art, and providing tongues of fire for the communication of intelligence. Let them foretell the path of the whirlwind, and calculate the orbit of the storm. Let them hang out their gigantic pendulums, and make the earth do the work of describing and measuring her own motions. Let them annihilate human pain, and literally “charm ache with air, and agony with ether.” The blessing of God will attend all their toils, and the gratitude of man will await all their triumphs.

Let them dig down into the bowels of the earth. Let them rive asunder the massive rocks, and unfold the history of creation as it lies written on the pages of their piled up strata. Let them gather up the fossil fragments of a lost Fauna, reproducing the ancient forms which inhabited the land or the seas, bringing them together. bone to his bone, till Leviathan and Behemoth stand before us in bodily presence and in their full proportions, and we almost tremble lest these dry bones should live again! Let them put nature to the rack, and torture her, in all her forms, to the betrayal of her inmost secrets and confidences. They need not forbear. The foundations of the round world have been laid so strong that they can not be moved.

But let them not think by searching to find out God. Let them not dream of understanding the Almighty to perfection. Let them not dare to apply their tests and solvents, their modes of analysis or their terms of definition, to the secrets of the spiritual kingdom. Let them spare the foundations of faith. Let them be satisfied with what is revealed of the mysteries of the Divine Nature. Let them not break through the bounds to gaze after the Invisible.

【中文阅读】

在人自己适当的范围内，有些领域足以进行最疯狂和放肆的推理，而不必超越将人和神区分开的障碍。诚然，我经常想为满足智力上的好奇心和人类的野心，近代科学提供了最多的机会和幸运的安全阀，恰值教育过程、发明创新和自由已经唤醒并激起人们投入前所未有的渴望和激情。天文学、化学，尤其是地质学，以及它们的分支学科，为调查和思考开启了永不枯竭的领域。在此，借助于近现代科学仪器和分析模式，那些最热情和给予莫大渴望的研究者会为满足他们永不知足的活力与敢于冒险的创新精神，找到足够的广博空间和边界，他们追求的事业不但对别人一点伤害的危险也没有，而且肯定会推动科学真理伟大目标的实现。

让他们将反射器和折射望远镜发射到天空吧，去探测在隐秘地方藏着的新行星。让他们驾着飞船拦截转瞬即逝的彗星，促使他们揭开这些天体运行轨道的精确周期，并准时将它们收回。让他们从“一贯的隐匿处”把倔强的卫星拉出来。让他们解决猎户星座或仙女座不确定的星云问题，他们无需畏惧。天不会塌下来，没有一个星球会从气层摇晃着跌落下来。

让他们完善和详细阐述它们制造光和激发政府长官激情的神奇过程，将“铅笔线条”转变为化腐朽为神奇的手，为智慧的交流提供热情的话语。让他们预测龙卷风的行进路线，算出暴风雨的轨道。让他们将巨大的钟摆悬起来，使地球做描绘未来胜景的事情，并测量出自己的运动轨迹。让他们彻底根除人类的痛苦，确实做到 “用空气来控制疼痛，用乙醚来使巨大的病痛麻醉”。上帝的赐福也会照顾到他们所有的辛勤劳动，受惠的人们感激地等待他们胜利凯旋。

让他们下到地球的最深处，让他们将巨大岩石化为碎片，揭开写在岩层上的创世史。让他们搜集起消失的动物群的化石，复制出寄居陆地或海洋里的古代物种，将它们的骨头拼接到一起，直到列维坦和巨兽那庞大的身躯站在我们面前，我们几乎颤颤发抖，唯恐这些干瘪的骨头复生！让他们将大自然推到拷问台前，以她所有的形式来折磨她，直到她埋藏得最深的秘密和隐私和盘托出。他们不必克制自己，这个圆圆的世界的基础非常坚实牢固，不会被挪开。

让他们不要考虑寻求上帝的帮助，让他们不要梦想弄明白完美的万能，让他们不会贸然将他们的实验和溶剂，将他们的分析方式或对术语的界定应用于探索精神王国的奥秘。让他们不要伤害真理的基础，让他们满足于揭示神性的神秘，让他们在隐身后不要打破与凝视的纽带。