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                                    How to Avoid Foolish Opinions:
    To avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind is prone, no superhuman genius is required. A few simple rules will keep you, not from all errors, but from silly errors. lf the matter is one that can be settled by observation, make the observation yourself. Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted. He did not do so because he thought he knew. Thinking that you know when in fact you don't is a fatal mistake, to which we are all prone. I believe myself that hedgehogs eat black beetles, because I have been told that they do; but if I were writing a book on the habits of hedgehogs, I should not commit myself until I had seen one enjoying this unappetizing diet.
       Aristotle, however, was less cautious. Ancient and medieval authors knew all about unicorns and salamanders; not one of them thought it necessary to avoid dogmatic statements about them because he had never seen one of them.
       Many matters, however, are less easily brought to the test of experience. If, like most of mankind, you have passionate convictions on many such matters, there are ways in which you can make yourself aware of your own bias. lf an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If someone maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction. The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic,
    because in arithmetic there is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion. So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your
guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.
    如何避免愚蠢的见解 要避免人们易于产生的各种愚蠢的见解，并不需要非凡的天才。立几条简单的规则，即使不能使你避免全部错误，也能避免糊涂的谬见。如果问题可以通过观察得到解决的话，就请你亲自观察吧。亚里斯多德认为女人的牙齿比男人要少些；本来无须费事，只要请亚里斯多德夫人张开嘴巴，让他来数一数，他是可以不犯这一错误的、但他没有这样做，因为他认为自己是知道的。认为知道而事实上并不知道，是一个致命的错误，我们都容易犯这种错误。我本人是相信刺猬吃黑甲虫的，因为人们是这样告诉我的；但是，如果我来写一本关于刺猬习性的书，我非得等看到一只刺猬享受这种倒胃口的食物之后才肯动笔。然而，亚里斯多德却不够谨慎。古代和中世纪的作家们谈起独角兽和火蛇来如数家珍；他们谁都没有见过这类动物，可是他们中没有一个人认为因此有必要避免对这些动物作武断的阐述。
    有许多事情却是不那么容易用经验来检验的。如果，像世上大多数人那样，你迷信很多这样的事情，那么还是有很多办法可以使你意识到自己的偏见的。如果有一种与你相反的见解使你恼怒，那就是一种迹象，说明你潜意识里认识到你不像平日那样有充分的理智进行思考。倘若有人坚持二加二得五，或者冰岛位于赤道，你会感到遗憾，而不会恼怒，除非你对于算术或地理知之甚少，以致他的见解动摇了你的相反的信念。最激烈的争论是关于那些双方都没有充分根据的问题。“迫害”使用于神学，不用于算术，因为在算术中有学问，而在神学中只有见解。所以，每当发现你自己对一种不同的见解生气的时候，你要警惕。经过检查你可能会发现，你的信念与事实的根据相距甚远。

《嘉丽妹妹》裘柱常节译
    When a gir leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two
things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she
rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of the and becomes worse.
Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility.
    The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smallerand more human tempter. There are large forces which allure with allthe soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human. Thegleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive ligh ina wooing and fescinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomphshed by forces wholly superman. A the of sound, a roar of life, a vast array of human hives, appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms. Withou a counsellor at hand to whisper cauhous interpretations, what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded ear! Unrecognized for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens, then perverts the simpler human perceptions. (Theodore Dreiser: sister Carrie)

[译文］
    一个18岁的姑娘离家出门，她的遭遇不外乎两种。不是碰到好人相助而好起来，就是迅即接受花花世界的道德标准而堕落下去。在这样的环境里，要保持中间状态是不可能的。大都市里到处是狡诈的骗局，其程度并不差于比它小得多的装着人样的诱惑者。有的力量巨大，会像修养到家的人那样用激情来骗人上当。万点灯火的闪耀和乞爱挑情的眼波，就影响人的道德而言，具有同样的魔力。天真未凿的心灵，多半是由压根儿超出于人力之上的力量所败坏的。喧嚣的市声、沸腾的生活、鳞次和比的楼房，用暧昧的言词叩击着受惊的心弦。倘使没有个有阅历的人在旁边，给她低声指点迷津，真不知这一切会把多少谎言妄语灌入这不知警惕的人的耳里呢！由于不明这花花世界的真相，它的美景就像音乐一般，往往会使一些头脑简单的人的知觉放松，然后削弱，然后堕入歧途。

[赏析］
    这段译文流畅自然，不但忠实地再现了原文的内容，而且保持了节奏明快、平易洗炼的语言风格，表现了译者娴熟的翻译技巧。首先，句法处理得当。如，A gush…a touch…pathetic sigh三个并列的名词短语译成三个并列的分句，符合汉语惯用动词
的习惯；自and the threads which bound...broken的切分拆译，及时果断，不然，语句就会显得冗长拖沓。其次，译文不拘于源语语言形式，善于从原作的艺术意境出发，在必要的时候，创造性地选择妥贴的译语语言形式，Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind...和There are large forced which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human 两个句子的译文就是很好的例子。第三，遣词生动，译笔深刻，不仅意思准确，而且意味隽永，如“柔丝”、“花花世界”、“天真未凿”、“鳞次栉比”、“指点迷津”“谎言妄语”等。