My list of virtues contain’d at first but twelve; but a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud; that my pride show’d itself frequently in conversation; that I was not content with being in the right when discussing any point, but was overbearing, and rather insolent, of which he convinc’d me by mentioning several instances; I determined endeavouring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or folly among the rest, and I added Humility to my list) giving an extensive meaning to the word.
我的品德项目起初只包括十二条，但是一个教友会的朋友很亲切地告诉我说，人们一般都认为我很自大，我的自大又常在谈话中显露出来，我在讨论任何问题时总不满足于证明我是正确的，而且还傲慢自大，有点盛气凌人。关于这一点他举了几个实例使我信服。我决心尽可能地在克服其他缺点的同时，努力克服这种坏习惯或愚行，所以我在单子上加了谦虚一项，并使这词具有广泛的涵义。
In this piece it was my design to explain and enforce this doctrine, that vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful, the nature of man alone considered; that it was, therefore, every one’s interest to be virtuous who wish’d to be happy even in this world; and I should, from this circumstance (there being always in the world a number of rich merchants, nobility, states, and princes, who have need of honest instruments for the management of their affairs, and such being so rare), have endeavored to convince young persons that no qualities were so likely to make a poor man’s fortune as those of probity and integrity.
在这部作品中，我本想解释和应用这样一个原则，就是：假如光考虑到人性的话，那么不道德行为之所以有害，并不是因为它们是被禁止的，而它们之所以被禁止正是由于它们有害。因此，做一个有德行的人，即使他希望在今生得到快乐的话，也是于他有益的，从这种情况看来（因为世界上经常有一些富商、贵族和亲王需要诚实的仆人去管理他们的事务，而这种诚实人又很罕见），我本想努力使年轻人相信，世界上没有其他品质能像诚实廉洁一样地可能使一个穷小子发财。
I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it. I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fix’d opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc., and I adopted, instead of them, I conceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be so or so; or it so appears to me at present. When another asserted something that I thought an error, I deny’d myself the pleasure of ontradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appear’d or seem’d to me some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the conversations I engag’d in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I propos’d my opinions procur’d them a readier recep tion and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail’d with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right.
我不敢夸口在养成谦虚习惯方面，在实际上我有多大的成就，但在外表上我却有了不少进展。我经常禁止我自己说出一切直接与别人的意见相左的和一切过分自信的话，我甚至按照我们“密社”的老规矩不许我自己使用英语中一切表明肯定见解的单词或辞句，例如“一定地”、“无疑地”等等。相反的，我采用了“我想象”、“我料想”，或是“我猜想一件事情是如此如此”，或是“现在在我看来好像是…”。当别人表示一个我认为是错误的意见时，我并不粗暴地驳斥他的主张，立刻指出他提案中某些荒谬悖理的地方，我放弃了这样驳斥时所给我的快慰。在回答时我开始指出在某些情况下他的看法是正确的，但在当前的情况下在我看来或是好像有些不同，云云。不久我发现了这种改变方式方法的好处，我跟别人的谈话比以前融洽了。由于我谦逊地提出了我自己的见解，这些意见反而更容易为人所接受，更少引起人们的反驳。当我发现我错了的时候，我也不至于过分地懊丧；当我是对的时候，我也更能说服别人放弃他们的错误，接受我的意见。
And this mode, which I at first put on with some violence to natural inclination, became at length so easy, and so habitual to me, that perhaps for these fifty years past no one has ever heard a dogmatical expression escape me. And to this habit (after my character of integrity) I think it principally owing that I had early so much weight with my fellow-citizens when I proposed new institutions, or alterations in the old, and so much influence in public councils when I became a member; for I was but a bad speaker, never eloquent, subject to much hesitation in my choice of words, hardly correct in language, and yet I generally carried my points.
这种做法，起初我觉得很别扭，后来终于变得那么容易，对我那么自然，我想可能在过去五十年中没有人曾经听我说过一句武断的话。在我早年，当我提议建立新的制度或是修改旧的制度时，我的意见之所以被人重视，我后来成为议员，我之所以在议会中有那么大的影响，我想这主要当归功于这种种谦逊的习惯（撇开我的诚实廉洁品德不讲的话）；因为我不善辞令，从来不是一个能说善辩的人，讲话疙里疙瘩，常有语病，但是尽管如此，我的主张一般仍然得到人们的支持。
In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.
其实，在我们天生的各种感情中，恐怕没有一样比骄傲更难以驯服的了。尽管你把它改头换面，跟它拼命，把它打入十八层地狱，把它镇压下去，尽管你尽量地把它压制克服，你还是消灭不了它，它还会不时地钻出头来显露原形。可能就在这本自传里你会常常遇见它；因为即使我能想象我已经完全克服了骄傲这一缺点，可能我又会因我的谦虚而感到自豪了。
[Thus far written at Passy, 1741.]
以上一七八四年写于巴夕。
[“I am now about to write at home, August, 1788, but can not have the help expected from my papers, many of them being lost in the war. I have, however, found the following.”]
一七八八年八月，现在我在家里，快要动笔了，但是我的许多笔记在战争中遗失了，因此我不能像我期望的那样从笔记中找到材料。但是我终究找到了下面这一部分。
Observations on my reading history, in Library, May 19th, 1731.
一七三一年五月十九日我在图书馆读历史时的感想。
HAVING mentioned a great and extensive project which I had conceiv’d, it seems proper that some account should be here given of that project and its object. Its first rise in my mind appears in the following little paper, accidentally preserv’d, viz.:
既然我提到我曾经想出了一个巨大而广泛的计划，那么我想我应当在这里叙述一下那个计划产生的经过和它的目标。下面这个偶然被保存下来的小小文件说明了它是怎样在我头脑中发生的。那文件就是：
“That the great affairs of the world, the wars, revolutions, etc., are carried on and affected by parties.
政党推进和影响世界大事、战争、革命等等。
“That the different views of these different parties occasion all confusion.
这些不同政党的不同见解却引起了极大的混乱。
“That the view of these parties is their present general interest, or what they take to be such.
这些政党的见解代表着他们当前的利益或是它们认为是它们当前的利益。
“That while a party is carrying on a general design, each man has his particular private interest in view.
当一个政党在执行一个大计划时，党内每一个成员的心目中都有他自己独特的个人利益。
“That as soon as a party has gain’d its general point, each member becomes intent upon his particular interest; which, thwarting others, breaks that party into divisions, and occasions more confusion.
在政党达到了它的大的目标以后，每一个成员就一心一意地要求得到他自己的利益了。这些个人的利益错综复杂，相互矛盾，把一个政党分成许多派别，结果引起了更大的混乱。
Revolving this project in my mind, as to be undertaken hereafter, when my circumstances should afford me the necessary leisure, I put down from time to time, on pieces of paper, such thoughts as occurr’d to me respecting it. Most of these are lost; but I find one purporting to be the substance of an intended creed) containing, as I thought, the essentials of every known religion, and being free of every thing that might shock the professors of any religion. It is express’d in these words, viz.:
我打算在今后当我有必要的空闲时，来从事这一工作。但在筹划这一计划时，我不时地把我想到有关的思想记在纸上。这些笔记大部分都遗失了，但是我找到一个原拟作为教条草案要旨的文件，其中包含当时我认为是各种教派的精髓，它摒弃了一切足以引起任何教派信徒反对的东西。原文如下：
“I at present think that whoever attempts this aright, and is well qualified, can not fail of pleasing God, and of meeting with success. B. F.”
目前我认为假如一个有资望的人能够正确地试办这样一个党，他必然能蒙上帝的喜悦，一定会成功的。本·富兰克林
“There seems to me at present to be great occasion for raising a United Party for Virtue, by forming the virtuous and good men of all nations into a regular body, to be govern’d by suitable good and wise rules, which good and wise men may probably be more unanimous in their obedience to, than common people are to common laws.
在我看来目前很有必要把各国有德行而又善良的人组织成一个正规的团体，定名为“联合道德党”，党员要服从妥善、合适而又明智的党章。这些善良而明智的人，若与普通人遵守普通法律相比，当更能自觉自愿地遵守党章了。
“That few in public affairs act from a meer view of the good of their country, whatever they may pretend; and, tho’ their actings bring real good to their country, yet men primarily considered that their own and their country’s interest was united, and did not act from a principle of benevolence.
不管他们口头上怎么说，政界中人的行动很少是光从国家利益这一目的出发的。尽管他们的行为是于他们国家真正有益的，但是人们仍然只是从个人利益和国家利益分不开这一角度出发的，而并不是出于尽忠报国的至诚。
“That fewer still, in public affairs, act with a view to the good of mankind.
在政界中为人类的利益服务的人那更是凤毛麟角了。
“That he ought to be worshiped by adoration, prayer, and thanksgiving.
人应当用崇拜、祈祷和感恩来敬拜上帝。
“But that the most acceptable service of God is doing good to man.
但是上帝最喜悦的服役是对人行善。
“That the soul is immortal.
灵魂不灭。
“That he governs the world by his providence.
上帝运用天道统治全世界。
“That there is one God, who made all things.
天地间有一个创造万物的主宰。
“And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice either here or hereafter.”
不论是在今世或来世，上帝必赏善罚恶。
My ideas at that time were, that the sect should be begun and spread at first among young and single men only; that each person to be initiated should not only declare his assent to such creed, but should have exercised himself with the thirteen weeks’ examination and practice of the virtues) as in the before-mention’d model; that the existence of such a society should he kept a secret, till it was become considerable, to prevent solicitations for the admission of improper persons, but that the members should each of them search among his acquaintance for ingenuous, well-disposed youths, to whom, with prudent caution, the scheme should be grad ually communicated; that the members should engage to afford their advice, assistance, and support to each other in promoting one another’s interests, business, and advancement in life; that, for distinction, we should be call’d The Society of the Free and Easy: free, as being, by the general practice and habit of the virtues, free from the dominion of vice; and particularly by the practice of industry and frugality, free from debt, which exposes a man to confinement, and a species of slavery to his creditors.
当时我对这一教团有下面的一些主张：在初期它应当只在年轻的单身汉中间开始传布，每一个入教的信徒不但要宣布接受这些教条，而且应当按照前述方式对于那些美德经过十三个星期的考查与实践。这一教团的存在应当暂时保密，直到信徒增加到相当人数时为止，以防止坏人申请入教，但是信徒们应当在友人中物色智力颖悟、性情温和的青年，逐步地审慎地告诉他们关于这一教团的计划。信徒们应当保证在各人的利益、事业和上进中相互劝告、协助和支持。这一教派将定名为“自由和富裕人会”。所谓自由，系指由于普遍地养成了实践美德的习惯以后人们能脱离罪恶的统治而言，特别是指在养成了勤俭美德之后人们可以避免负债，负债使人有遭受拘禁和成为债主奴隶的危险。
This is as much as I can now recollect of the project, except that I communicated it in part to two young men, who adopted it with some enthusiasm; but my then narrow circumstances, and the necessity I was under of sticking close to my business, occasion’d my postponing the further prosecution of it at that time; and my multifarious occupations, public and private, induc’d me to continue postponing, so that it has been omitted till I have no longer strength or activity left sufficient for such an enterprise; tho’ I am still of opinion that it was a practicable scheme, and might have been very useful, by forming a great number of good citizens; and I was not discourag’d by the seeming magnitude of the undertaking, as I have always thought that one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes, and accomplish great affairs among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting off all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention, makes the execution of that same plan his sole study and business.
关于这一计划我现在所能记忆的仅仅就是这一点了，我记得我曾经把一部分的计划告诉过两个年轻人，他们相当热烈地赞成这样做。但是由于我当时境遇困难，必须孜孜兀兀地从事业务操作，因此当时我不得不把这计划的进一步执行留待后日，以后由于千头万绪的公私事务羁身，使我一再延期，直到后来我已没有足够的精力和活动力来从事于这样的一种事业了，虽然迄今我还以为这是一个切实可行的计划，如果能够把许多好公民组织起来，可能是一件十分有益的事。同时我也没有被这件事外表上的艰巨吓倒，因为我一向以为一个有相当才能的人可以造成巨大的变革，可以在人世间成就伟大的事业，假如他首先拟订一个良好的计划，摒绝一切足以分散他注意力的娱乐和其他工作，把执行计划作为他唯一的对象和工作。
In 1732 I first publish’d my Almanack, under the name of Richard Saunders; it was continu’d by me about twenty-five years, commonly call’d Poor Richard’s Almanac. I endeavor’d to make it both entertaining and useful, and it accordingly came to be in such demand, that I reap’d considerable profit from it, vending annually near ten thousand. And observing that it was generally read, scarce any neighborhood in the province being without it, I consider’d it as a proper vehicle for conveying instruction among the common people, who bought scarcely any other books; I therefore filled all the little spaces that occurr’d between the remarkable days in the calendar with proverbial sentences, chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue; it being more difficult for a man in want, to act always honestly, as, to use here one of those proverbs, it is hard for an empty sack to stand up-right.
在一七三二年我第一次用了理查·桑德斯的名字出版了我的历书。我继续出版了约有二十五年之久，通常称为《可怜的理查的历书》。我设法使它既有趣又有用，因此它风行一时，使我从中获利不少，每年销售量几达一万册之巨。我看到大多数人都读这本书，在宾夕法尼亚州几乎每几家中都有一本，我就认为这是在普通人民中间进行教育的一种适当工具。这些人几乎就只买这本书。因此我把成语箴言印在历书中重要的日子之间的空白中。这些成语箴言主要教人把勤俭作为发财致富因而获得美德的手段，因为要一个穷人经久不变地诚实廉洁是比较困难的，在这里引用一句成语来说吧，因为“一只空袋子是不容易站得笔直的”。
These proverbs, which contained the wisdom of many ages and nations, I assembled and form’d into a connected discourse prefix’d to the Almanack of 1757, as the harangue of a wise old man to the people attending an auction. The bringing all these scatter’d counsels thus into a focus enabled them to make greater impression. The piece, being universally approved, was copied in all the newspapers of the Continent; reprinted in Britain on a broad side, to be stuck up in houses; two translations were made of it in French, and great numbers bought by the clergy and gentry, to distribute gratis among their poor parishioners and tenants. In Pennsylvania, as it discouraged useless expense in foreign superfluities, some thought it had its share of influence in producing that growing plenty of money which was observable for several years after its publication.
这些成语箴言包含着来自许多国家各个时代的智慧，我把它们收集在一起写成一篇连续的文章，作为一个聪明的老头子对拍卖场上的人所发表的一篇演说，我把它放在一七五七年历书的卷首。把这些分散的格言这样地集中在一个焦点上就使它们能够产生一个更深刻的印象。这篇文章受到普遍的赞扬，所有美洲的报纸都转载它，在英国人们用巨幅纸张翻印，预备贴在家里。它有两个法文译本。传教士和地主们大量订购，免费赠送给贫苦的教友和佃农。在宾夕法尼亚，因为它反对把钱财浪费在外国奢侈品上，在它问世以后的几年中，市场上的货币不断地增多了，有人认为它对财富的增加是起着一定的作用的。
I considered my newspaper, also, as another means of communicating instruction, and in that view frequently reprinted in it extracts from the Spectator, and other moral writers; and sometimes publish’d little pieces of my own, which had been first compos’d for reading in our Junto. Of these are a Socratic dialogue, tending to prove that, whatever might be his parts and abilities, a vicious man could not properly be called a man of sense; and a discourse on self-denial, showing that virtue was not secure till its practice became a habitude, and was free from the opposition of contrary inclinations. These may be found in the papers about the beginning Of 1735.
我的报纸我认为也是进行教育的一种手段，因此我常在报上转载《旁观者》或其他有关伦理道德的文章的摘要。有时候我也发表一些我自己的短文，它们原先是为了在“密社”中讨论而撰写的。我的文章中有一篇是用苏格拉底的对话体写成的，旨在证明一个坏人，不管他的资质和才能如何，不能真正称为一个明达的人。另一篇论自制克己，指出在培养某种品德时，要直到该种美德已经成为习惯，而且不受与它相反的性癖的干扰时才算牢固。这些文章大约可以在一七三五年初的报上找到。
In the conduct of my newspaper, I carefully excluded all libelling and personal abuse, which is of late years become so disgraceful to our country. Whenever I was solicited to insert anything of that kind, and the writers pleaded, as they generally did, the liberty of the press, and that a newspaper was like a stagecoach, in which any one who would pay had a right to a place, my answer was, that I would print the piece separately if desired, and the author might have as many copies as he pleased to distribute himself, but that I would not take upon me to spread his detraction; and that, having contracted with my subscribers to furnish them with what might be either useful or entertaining, I could not fill their papers with private altercation, in which they had no concern, without doing them manifest injustice.
在编辑我的报纸的过程中，我小心地避免登载一切诽谤性的和带有人身攻击意味的文章，这种诽谤和污蔑近年来成为我国莫大的耻辱。当人们要求我刊登这一类的东西时，作者一般总是替自己辩解说，我们有出版自由，报纸有如公共马车，任何人愿意出钱都可以在上面占一个位置。我的回答是：假如他愿意，我可以替他单独印行，由他自己去散发，他需要多少份我都可以办到。但是我不愿承担替他散播毁谤的责任；既然我跟我的订户订了合同承担义务向他们提供一些有益或是有趣的东西，那我就不能在他们的报纸上刊登与他们无关的私人口角。假如我这样做，那显然是对他们不公道的。
Now, many of our printers make no scruple of gratifying the malice of individuals by false accusations of the fairest characters among ourselves, augmenting animosity even to the producing of duels; and are, moreover, so indiscreet as to print scurrilous reflections on the government of neighboring states, and even on the conduct of our best national allies, which may be attended with the most pernicious consequences. These things I mention as a caution to young printers, and that they may be encouraged not to pollute their presses and disgrace their profession by such infamous practices, but refuse steadily, as they may see by my example that such a course of conduct will not, on the whole, be injurious to their interests.
目前在我国的报纸发行人中间有许多人，为了满足个别人士发泄怨恨的要求，毫不犹豫无事生非地污蔑毁谤我们中间一些品德最优秀的人，挑拨是非，甚至引起决斗。此外，有些报纸甚至轻举妄动到刊登文章，对邻国政府或者甚至我们最好的盟国的措施进行下流粗鄙的污蔑，这种举动可能会引起最严重的后果的。我提起这些事情，是为了告诫年轻的报纸发行人，劝告他们不要沾染这种恶习，污辱他们的报纸而使他们的职业蒙受耻辱。他们应当坚决地拒绝这种要求，因为他们可以从我的例子中看出：这种方针，从整体来看，是不会与他们的利益相违背的。
In 1733 I sent one of my journeymen to Charleston, South Carolina, where a printer was wanting. I furnish’d him with a press and letters, on an agreement of partnership, by which I was to receive one-third of the profits of the business, paying one-third of the expense. He was a man of learning, and honest but ignorant in matters of account; and, tho’ he sometimes made me remittances, I could get no account from him, nor any satisfactory state of our partnership while he lived. On his decease, the business was continued by his widow, who, being born and bred in Holland, where, as I have been inform’d, the knowledge of accounts makes a part of female education, she not only sent me as clear a state as she could find of the transactions past, but continued to account with the greatest regularity and exactness every quarter afterwards, and managed the business with such success, that she not only brought up reputably a family of children, but, at the expiration of the term, was able to purchase of me the printing-house, and establish her son in it.
一七三三年我派遣我的一个职工到南卡罗来纳州的查理斯敦去，那里需要一家印刷铺。我供给了他一架印刷机和一些铅字，跟他订了一个合伙合同，我将获得三分之一的盈利，担负三分之一的开支。他是一个有学问的人，诚实廉洁，但不懂会计。所以虽然有时候他汇款给我，我总不能从他那里取得会计报告，在他生前我也不能取得关于我们合伙情况的一个令人满意的报告。在他死后，他的寡妇继续管理印刷所的事务。她在荷兰生长；据说在那里，簿记是妇女教育的一部分。她不但对以往的收支作了一个尽可能清楚的报告，并且以后每季按时继续寄来十分精确的报告，她管理业务是如此成功，她不但把一家孩子都养育成人，颇有令誉，而且在合伙期满以后，能够把印刷铺从我手里买了过去，叫她的儿子去经营业务。
I mention this affair chiefly for the sake of recommending that branch of education for our young females, as likely to be of more use to them and their children, in case of widowhood, than either music or dancing, by preserving them from losses by imposition of crafty men, and enabling them to continue, perhaps, a profitable mercantile house, with establish’d correspondence, till a son is grown up fit to undertake and go on with it, to the lasting advantage and enriching of the family.
我提这件事，主要是为了向我们的年轻妇女们推荐这门学科，万一结婚后守了寡，簿记大概会比音乐或跳舞对她们本人或她们的子女更有用，它使她们不至于受坏人的欺骗而遭受损失，或许使她们能够靠着已经建立起来的通信关系继续管理一家赚钱的商店，直到她们的儿子长大后能够经营和继续事业时为止，这样对于家庭既有益又有利。
About the year 1734 there arrived among us from Ireland a young Presbyterian preacher, named Hemphill, who delivered with a good voice, and apparently extempore, most excellent discourses, which drew together considerable numbers of different persuasion, who join’d in admiring them. Among the rest, I became one of his constant hearers, his sermons pleasing me, as they had little of the dogmatical kind, but inculcated strongly the practice of virtue, or what in the religious stile are called good works. Those, however, of our congregation, who considered themselves as orthodox Presbyterians, disapprov’d his doctrine, and were join’d by most of the old clergy, who arraign’d him of heterodoxy before the synod, in order to have him silenc’d. I became his zealous partisan, and contributed all I could to raise a party in his favour, and we combated for him a while with some hopes of success. There was much scribbling pro and con upon the occasion; and finding that, tho’ an elegant preacher, he was but a poor writer, I lent him my pen and wrote for him two or three pamphlets, and one piece in the Gazette of April, 1735. Those pamphlets, as is generally the case with controversial writings, tho’ eagerly read at the time, were soon out of vogue, and I question whether a single copy of them now exists.
约在一七三四年一个叫做韩泼希的年轻传教士从爱尔兰跑到我们这里来了。他声音洪亮，而且讲起道来，显然未经准备也能讲得天花乱坠，他的说教吸引了相当数量属于不同教派的人在一起，他们同声赞美他。我跟其他人在一起，经常去听他讲道；我喜欢听他的说教，因为他不作教条式的阐述，而是热烈地劝人为善或是用宗教术语来讲所谓积功德。但是我们会众中有一些自命为正统派长老会信徒的人，他们反对他的看法；大多数年长的教牧师都参加了这一派，并且向长老会的宗教议会提出控告，指责他为异端，想要禁止他传教。我成为他热烈的拥护者，并且尽我的力量协助他把拥护他的人组织起来，我们为他战斗了一个时期，我们倒颇有胜利的希望哩！双方都在这时候进行了不少笔战。我发现虽然他是一个极能干的传教士，他的文章却写得不行，因此我替他执笔，代他写了两三本小册子和一篇一七三五年四月在《公报》发表的论文。这些小册子，像普通其他争论性的文章一样，虽然当时风行一时，事后却很快地无人问津了。我猜想恐怕现在连一本也找不到了。
During the contest an unlucky occurrence hurt his cause exceedingly. One of our adversaries having heard him preach a sermon that was much admired, thought he had somewhere read the sermon before, or at least a part of it. On search he found that part quoted at length, in one of the British Reviews, from a discourse of Dr. Foster’s. This detection gave many of our party disgust, who accordingly abandoned his cause, and occasion’d our more speedy discomfiture in the synod. I stuck by him, however, as I rather approv’d his giving us good sermons compos’d by others, than bad ones of his own manufacture, tho’ the latter was the practice of our common teachers. He afterward acknowledg’d to me that none of those he preach’d were his own; adding, that his memory was such as enabled him to retain and repeat any sermon after one reading only. On our defeat, he left us in search elsewhere of better fortune, and I quitted the congregation, never joining it after, tho’ I continu’d many years my subscription for the support of its ministers.
在论争中发生了一件不幸的事件，大大地损害了他的事业。我们的敌方中有一个人，在听他讲完了一篇大受人们赞美的讲道以后，觉得他以前在什么地方读到过，或是至少一部分曾经见过。经过搜索以后，他在一本英国的评论中找到了那段说教的详细引文，原来这是从浮士德博士的讲道文中引来的，这一发现使我们当中许多人看不起他，因此不再支持他了，这样就使我们在宗教议会中的斗争很快地失败了。但是我始终支持他，因为我宁可听他念别人写的优秀的讲道文，而不愿听他自己杜撰的恶劣的说教，虽然我们普通的传教士都是自己写讲道文的。以后他向我坦白说他的说教全都不是他自己写的，他还说他的记忆力很强，任何讲道文一经过目，他就能背诵不忘。我们被击溃以后，他就离开了我们，到别处去碰运气去了，我也离开了这一会众，以后再也不加入这一教会了，虽然我继续捐献维持这一教会的牧师达许多年之久。
I had begun in 1733 to study languages; I soon made myself so much a master of the French as to be able to read the books with ease. I then undertook the Italian. An acquaintance, who was also learning it, us’d often to tempt me to play chess with him. Finding this took up too much of the time I had to spare for study, I at length refus’d to play any more, unless on this condition, that the victor in every game should have a right to impose a task, either in parts of the grammar to be got by heart, or in translations, etc., which tasks the vanquish’d was to perform upon honour, before our next meeting. As we play’d pretty equally, we thus beat one another into that language. I afterwards with a little painstaking, acquir’d as much of the Spanish as to read their books also.
在一七三三年我开始学习外国语了。不久我获得了足够的法语知识，使我能够顺利地阅读法语书籍。接着我学习意大利语。我有一个朋友，当时也在学意大利语，他常常怂恿我和他下棋。当我发现下棋过多地占用了我原定学习的时间时，我终于拒绝再跟他下棋了，除非在这样的一个条件之下，那就是：每盘棋的胜利者有权指定一种作业，不论是语法部分的背诵或是翻译，失败的一方要保证在我们下次会晤之前做好作业。因为我们的棋艺不相上下，这样我们就相互地把意大利语灌输到各人的头脑中去了。以后我花了一点苦功去学西班牙语，我也获得了阅读西班牙语书籍所需要的知识。
I have already mention’d that I had only one year’s instruction in a Latin school, and that when very young, after which I neglected that language entirely. But, when I had attained an acquaintance with the French, Italian, and Spanish, I was surpriz’d to find, on looking over a Latin Testament, that I understood so much more of that language than I had imagined, which encouraged me to apply myself again to the study of it, and I met with more success, as those preceding languages had greatly smooth’d my way.
我在上文中已经提过，我在幼年时曾在拉丁学校中学过一年拉丁文，以后我就完全把它置之脑后了。但是当我熟悉了法语、意大利语和西班牙语以后，翻阅一本拉丁文《圣经》时，我出乎意料地发现，我所懂得的拉丁文远较我想象的为多，这就鼓励了我再去专心学习拉丁文，我的收获很大，因为以前学过的几种语言替我大大地铺平了道路。
From these circumstances, I have thought that there is some inconsistency in our common mode of teaching languages. We are told that it is proper to begin first with the Latin, and, having acquir’d that, it will be more easy to attain those modern languages which are deriv’d from it; and yet we do not begin with the Greek, in order more easily to acquire the Latin. It is true that, if you can clamber and get to the top of a staircase without using the steps, you will more easily gain them in descending; but certainly, if you begin with the lowest you will with more ease ascend to the top; and I would therefore offer it to the consideration of those who superintend the education of our youth, whether, since many of those who begin with the Latin quit the same after spending some years without having made any great proficiency, and what they have learnt becomes almost useless, so that their time has been lost, it would not have been better to have begun with the French, proceeding to the Italian, etc.; for, tho’, after spending the same time, they should quit the study of languages and never arrive at the Latin, they would, however, have acquired another tongue or two, that, being in modern use, might be serviceable to them in common life.
从这种情况看来，我认为我们普通教外国语的方式有些不合理的地方。有人说我们应当先从拉丁文开始，在学会了拉丁文以后，再学习由拉丁文演变出来的现代语言就容易得多了。但是为了更顺利地学习拉丁文，我们却为什么不从希腊文学起呢？当然，假如你能不用台阶而攀登到顶点，然后在下来时就更容易走了。但是无疑地，假如你先从最低的梯级开始，那就更容易达到顶点了。有许多人学拉丁文，学了几年后就毫无成绩地把它丢弃了，他们过去所学的几乎完全无用，因此他们的光陰是白花了。既然如此，我请主管我们青年教育的当局考虑是否应当先从法语开始，然后学意大利语等等，因为即使在学习了同样的年数以后，他们不再学习外国语因而从未达到学拉丁文的阶段，但是到那时他们已经学会了一种或两种外国语，因为这些是现代通用的语言，所以它们可以在日常生活中有用。
In returning, I call’d at Newport to see my brother, then settled there with his printing-house. Our former differences were forgotten, and our meeting was very cordial and affectionate. He was fast declining in his health, and requested of me that, in case of his death, which he apprehended not far distant, I would take home his son, then but ten years of age, and bring him up to the printing business. This I accordingly perform’d, sending him a few years to school before I took him into the office. His mother carried on the business till he was grown up, when I assisted him with an assortment of new types, those of his father being in a manner worn out. Thus it was that I made my brother ample amends for the service I had depriv’d him of by leaving him so early.
在归途中，我到新港去看我的哥哥，他这时已经把他的印刷铺搬到那里去了。我们过去的旧嫌已经冰释了，我们的会晤是十分热烈和恳挚的。他的健康正在很快的衰退中。他请求我在他死后（他恐怕他的死期不远了），把他当时仅十岁的儿子领到我家里来，使习印刷业。这个我照办了，我先送他上学校读了几年书，然后叫他学印刷业。他母亲继续经营印刷所的业务，直到他成年时为止。他成人后，我送给他一套新铅字，因为他父亲的铅字有点磨损了。这样我充分地赔偿了我哥哥由于我提早离开他所受的损失。
After ten years’ absence from Boston, and having become easy in my circumstances, I made a journey thither to visit my relations, which I could not sooner well afford.
我离开波士顿已经十年了，现在我的生活也优裕了，因此我到波士顿去旅行了一趟，去探访我的亲戚，在这以前我没有充裕的财力来做这样的旅行。
In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.
在一七三六年我的一个儿子，一个四岁的很好看的孩子，因感染了天花而夭折了。我在一个长时期内十分痛心地悔恨，并且到现在我还后悔我没有事先替他种痘。我提这件事是为了那些不替孩子们种痘的父母。他们以为万一孩子因种痘而死，他们将永远不能饶恕他们自己。但是我的实例表明不种痘也同样有危险，因此他们理应选择一条危险较少的道路。
Our club, the Junto, was found so useful, and afforded such satisfaction to the members, that several were desirous of introducing their friends, which could not well be done without exceeding what we had settled as a convenient number, viz., twelve. We had from the beginning made it a rule to keep our institution a secret, which was pretty well observ’d; the intention was to avoid applications of improper persons for admittance, some of whom, perhaps, we might find it difficult to refuse. I was one of those who were against any addition to our number, but, instead of it, made in writing a proposal, that every member separately should endeavor to form a subordinate club, with the same rules respecting queries, etc., and without informing them of the connection with the Junto. The advantages proposed were, the improvement of so many more young citizens by the use of our institutions; our better acquaintance with the general sentiments of the inhabitants on any occasion, as the Junto member might propose what queries we should desire, and was to report to the Junto what pass’d in his separate club; the promotion of our particular interests in business by more extensive recommendation, and the increase of our influence in public affairs, and our power of doing good by spreading thro’ the several clubs the sentiments of the Junto.
我们的社团（密社）成为一个非常有益的组织，它使会员们觉得十分满意，有些会员就想介绍他们的朋友来入会，但是假如这样做，那就会超过我们早先决定的适当限额，那就是，十二人。从开头我们的社团一向就是秘密的，这一点我们都信守不渝。这样做是为了免得坏人来申请入会，其中有些人可能会使我们觉得难以拒绝的。我就是反对放宽限额的人之一，但是为了不放宽限额，我作了一个书面建议，提议每个会员应该分头设法组织一个附属社团，拟订相同的讨论规则，但是不泄露它与密社的联系。我指出这个办法的优点是：更多的青年公民可以利用我们的社团获得提高，在任何时候我们可以更好地了解一般居民的意见，因为密社的社员可以在分社中提出我们讨论研究的题目，并且把各分社讨论的经过向密社报告；通过更广泛的推荐和介绍，我们可以增进我们各人事业上的利益；我们可以把密社的主张和看法散播到分社中去，这样可以加强我们的政治影响和我们为社会服务的力量。
My first promotion was my being chosen, in 1736, clerk of the General Assembly. The choice was made that year without opposition; but the year following, when I was again propos’d (the choice, like that of the members, being annual), a new member made a long speech against me, in order to favour some other candidate. I was, however, chosen, which was the more agreeable to me, as, besides the pay for the immediate service as clerk, the place gave me a better opportunity of keeping up an interest among the members, which secur’d to me the business of printing the votes, laws, paper money, and other occasional jobbs for the public, that, on the whole, were very profitable.
一七三六年我当选为州议会秘书，这是我生平第一次获得升迁。那年我倒是一致通过了，但在第二年，当我的名字又一次提出来时（秘书的任期，跟议员的任期一样，是一年），一个新议员，为了赞助另一个候选人，发表了一篇长篇演说反对我。但是我还是当选了。我自然很高兴，因为除了秘书职位本身的薪给以外，这个职位使我有很好的机会与议员们维持联系，这种关系又替我招揽了印刷选举票、法律、纸币和其他零星的公家生意。这些生意，大体说来，利润是很厚的。
The project was approv’d, and every member undertook to form his club, but they did not all succeed. Five or six only were compleated, which were called by different names, as the Vine, the Union, the Band, etc. They were useful to themselves, and afforded us a good deal of amusement, information, and instruction, besides answering, in some considerable degree, our views of influencing the public opinion on particular occasions, of which I shall give some instances in course of time as they happened.
这个计划是通过了，每一个社员就着手组织他的社团，但是并不是所有人都成功的，只有五六个分社组织了起来，它们的名称五花八门，像“葛藤社”、“协会”、“群社”等。它们不但对社员自己有益，而且给了我们不少的消遣、消息和教益，同时在相当大的程度上符合了我们原先的期望，在某些特殊的事件上影响了公众的舆论，我以后在适当的时候还要举出一些这类的实例。
I therefore did not like the opposition of this new member, who was a gentleman of fortune and education, with talents that were likely to give him, in time, great influence in the House, which, indeed, afterwards happened. I did not, however, aim at gaining his favour by paying any servile respect to him, but, after some time, took this other method. Having heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce and curious book, I wrote a note to him, expressing my desire of perusing that book, and requesting he would do me the favour of lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I return’d it in about a week with another note, expressing strongly my sense of the favour. When we next met in the House, he spoke to me (which he had never done before), and with great civility; and he ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends, and our friendship continued to his death. This is another instance of the truth of an old maxim I had learned, which says, “He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.” And it shows how much more profitable it is prudently to remove, than to resent, return, and continue inimical proceedings.
我不喜欢这位新议员反对我，因为他不但是个财主，受过教育，而且很能干，过一些时候他很可能成为议会中一个很有势力的人。后来事实果然如此。但是我不打算卑躬屈膝地去奉承他，以期获得他的青睐；过了一段时间我却采用了另一个方法。我听说他的藏书中有一本稀有的珍本书，我就写了一张便条给他，表示我很想看那本书，希望他能借给我看几天。他立刻把它寄来了，大约过了一星期我把书送还给他，附了一张便条，热烈地表示我的谢忱。当下一次我们在议会中见面时，他跟我招呼了（他以前从不如此），而且十分殷勤有礼。从此以后，他在任何时候总是愿意帮我的忙，因此我们成为知己的朋友，我们的友谊一直持续到他死为止。这又一次证明了我从前听到的一句古老的格言是对的。这句格言说：“假如一个人帮了你一次忙，那么以后他会比受过你恩惠的人更乐意帮助你。”同时，这件事也表明了与其怨恨、报复和延长私人间的冤仇，倒还不如审慎地把它消除更为有益。
In 1737, Colonel Spotswood, late governor of Virginia, and then postmaster-general, being dissatisfied with the conduct of his deputy at Philadelphia, respecting some negligence in rendering, and inexactitude of his accounts, took from him the commission and offered it to me. I accepted it readily, and found it of great advantage; for, tho’ the salary was small, it facilitated the correspondence that improv’d my newspaper, increas’d the number demanded, as well as the advertisements to be inserted, so that it came to afford me a considerable income. My old competitor’s newspaper declin’d proportionably, and I was satisfy’d without retaliating his refusal, while postmaster, to permit my papers being carried by the riders. Thus he suffer’d greatly from his neglect in due accounting; and I mention it as a lesson to those young men who may be employ’d in managing affairs for others, that they should always render accounts, and make remittances, with great clearness and punctuality.
在一七三七年施保茨乌上校（弗吉尼亚的前任州长，当时的邮务总局局长）因不满意费城邮务代办在处理账册方面的疏忽失职和账目不明，把他革了职，就提议叫我继任。我欣然接受了，后来发现这个职位对我大有裨益，因为虽然它的薪给很小，但是它便利了信件的来往，间接改进了报纸，因而增加了它的发行数，同时也招徕了更多的广告，结果是这一职位大大地增加了我的收入。作为我多年劲敌的那家报纸却相应地衰落了，我对他在当邮务代办期间不允许骑师递送我的报纸的举动不采取报复手段，因为我已经心满意足了。这样，他因不注意适当的簿记术而受累无穷。我提起这件事作为对年轻人的一个教训，他们若是将来替别人办事，他们就应当永远把账册弄得清清楚楚，而且要规规矩矩地把款额上缴。假如能够做到这个地步，那么一个人的品德就成为他最有力的推荐书，能够替他谋得新的职位和招徕更多的生意。
The character of observing such a conduct is the most powerful of all recommendations to new employments and increase of business.
现在我开始把我的思想稍稍转到公共性质的事务上去了。
I began now to turn my thoughts a little to public affairs, beginning, however, with small matters. The city watch was one of the first things that I conceiv’d to want regulation. It was managed by the constables of the respective wards in turn; the constable warned a number of housekeepers to attend him for the night. Those who chose never to attend paid him six shillings a year to be excus’d, which was suppos’d to be for hiring substitutes, but was, in reality, much more than was necessary for that purpose, and made the constableship a place of profit; and the constable, for a little drink, often got such ragamuffins about him as a watch, that respectable housekeepers did not choose to mix with. Walking the rounds, too, was often neglected, and most of the nights spent in tippling. I thereupon wrote a paper, to be read in Junto, representing these irregularities, but insisting more particularly on the inequality of this six-shilling tax of the constables, respecting the circumstances of those who paid it, since a poor widow housekeeper, all whose property to be guarded by the watch did not perhaps exceed the value of fifty pounds, paid as much as the wealthiest merchant, who had thousands of pounds worth of goods in his stores.
但是我从小事着手。费城的巡夜制度是我认为亟须加以整顿的事项之一。防夜原由各区的警官轮流负责，警官预先通知若干户主在夜里跟他去巡夜，那些不愿意去巡夜的人每年出资六先令，就可以免去这项差役。这笔钱原定是用来雇用替代人的，但是却大大地超过了实际的需要，这就使得警官这一职位成为一个肥缺。警官们常常收罗一些乞丐无赖，给他们喝一点酒，就叫他们一起去巡夜，但是有相当地位的户主却不愿与他们为伍。巡夜工作也常常被忽略了，大多数的夜晚是在喝酒中度过的。因此我写了一篇论文，准备在密社宣读，指出这些不正常的情形，特别强调警察在课税时不问纳税人的经济情况，一律征收六先令，因而造成了不平等，因为一个穷苦的寡妇户主的全部需要保护的财产也许不超过五十镑的价值，而她所付的巡夜税却和一个仓库中贮藏着价值几千镑货物的大富商完全一样。
On the whole, I proposed as a more effectual watch, the hiring of proper men to serve constantly in that business; and as a more equitable way of supporting the charge the levying a tax that should be proportion’d to the property. This idea, being approv’d by the Junto, was communicated to the other clubs, but as arising in each of them; and though the plan was not immediately carried into execution, yet, by preparing the minds of people for the change, it paved the way for the law obtained a few years after, when the members of our clubs were grown into more influence.
从整体来讲，我提出了一个较有效的巡夜制度，那就是雇用适当的人经常从事巡夜工作；我也提出一个较公平的摊派巡夜费用的办法，就是按照财产的比例课税。经过密社的同意以后，这一计划就传到各分社去，作为各分社自己提出的一个计划，虽然这一计划并没有立刻实行，但是我们在人们的思想上替这一变革做了准备，替几年后通过的那条法律铺平了道路。当那条法律通过时，我们社员的社会地位已经日渐重要了。
About this time I wrote a paper (first to be read in Junto, but it was afterward publish’d) on the different accidents and carelessnesses by which houses were set on fire, with cautions against them, and means proposed of avoiding them. This was much spoken of as a useful piece, and gave rise to a project, which soon followed it, of forming a company for the more ready extinguishing of fires, and mutual assistance in removing and securing the goods when in danger. Associates in this scheme were presently found, amounting to thirty. Our articles of agreement oblig’d every member to keep always in good order, and fit for use, a certain number of leather buckets, with strong bags and baskets (for packing and transporting of goods), which were to be brought to every fire; and we agreed to meet once a month and spend a social evening together, in discoursing and communicating such ideas as occurred to us upon the subject of fires, as might be useful in our conduct on such occasions.
大概就在这时候我写了一篇论文（先在密社宣读，但后来却发表了），论及酿成火灾的各种疏忽和事故和防火须知，并劝人小心火烛。大家认为这是一篇有益的文章，因此，为了迅速扑灭火灾以及在发生危险时相互协助搬运和保管货物起见，就产生了组织消防队的一个计划。不久就有三十人愿意参加这一组织。根据我们的合同，每一队员必须经常保持一定数量适用的皮水桶和结实的袋囊和筐子（以便装运货物）；一有火灾就必须把它们运到现场。我们决定每月开一次联欢晚会，讨论和交换我们想到的有关防火的看法，这种知识在发生火灾时或许对我们有用。
The utility of this institution soon appeared, and many more desiring to be admitted than we thought convenient for one company, they were advised to form another, which was accordingly done; and this went on, one new company being formed after another, till they became so numerous as to include most of the inhabitants who were men of property; and now, at the time of my writing this, tho’ upward of fifty years since its establishment, that which I first formed, called the Union Fire Company, still subsists and flourishes, tho’ the first members are all deceas’d but myself and one, who is older by a year than I am. The small fines that have been paid by members for absence at the monthly meetings have been apply’d to the purchase of fire-engines, ladders, fire-hooks, and other useful implements for each company, so that I question whether there is a city in the world better provided with the means of putting a stop to beginning conflagrations; and, in fact, since these institutions, the city has never lost by fire more than one or two houses at a time, and the flames have often been extinguished before the house in which they began has been half consumed.
消防队的效用不久就很明显了。愿意加入的人大大地超过了我们认为每队应有的适当限额。我们劝他们另外组织一队，他们就照办了。这样新的消防队一个接着一个不断地组织起来，直到后来它的数目十分众多，大多数有房产的居民都加入了。现在当我写本文时，我最初建立的叫做“联合消防队”的组织，虽然从开始到现在已经过了五十多年，它还存在着，还是很活跃，虽然第一批队员中，除了我和另外一位年纪较我长一岁的人以外，其余的人全都过世了。队员因不出席每月例会而缴纳的小额罚金就用来购置救火机、云梯和其他对消防队有用的器械。结果是我猜想世界上没有其他城市比费城更能迅速地制止刚开始的火灾的了。事实上，自从组织了这些消防队后，费城从未有过烧毁一两间住房以上的大火灾，通常在起火的房屋烧掉一半以前，火焰早经扑灭了。
In 1739 arrived among us from Ireland the Reverend Mr. Whitefield, who had made himself remarkable there as an itinerant preacher. He was at first permitted to preach in some of our churches; but the clergy, taking a dislike to him, soon refus’d him their pulpits, and he was oblig’d to preach in the fields. The multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his sermons were enormous, and it was matter of speculation to me, who was one of the number, to observe the extraordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers, and bow much they admir’d and respected him, notwithstanding his common abuse of them, by assuring them that they were naturally half beasts and half devils. It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seem’d as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro’ the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.
在一七三九年胡飞特牧师从爱尔兰跑到我们这里来了，他在爱尔兰是一个著名的巡回传教士。最初他们允许他在我们的一些教堂中说教，但是牧师们讨厌他，不久就不准他在他们的教堂里讲道了，所以他就不得不到旷野里去说教了。千千万万属于各种不同教派的人都去听他说教，我也是其中之一。我看到他的演说对他的听众具有非常巨大的影响，而且尽管他常常辱骂他们，说他们天生是一半畜生一半魔鬼，他们还是非常赞美他和尊敬他。我看了真有点想不透。他的说教使得我们居民的风俗习惯起了极大的变化，看了令人惊叹不止。他们原先认为宗教是无足重轻，可有可无的，现在看来好像整个世界是宗教迷了；每当夕陽西沉时，假如有人到城里各处一走，他会听到每条街上的各个家庭在唱赞美歌。
And it being found inconvenient to assemble in the open air, subject to its inclemencies, the building of a house to meet in was no sooner propos’d, and persons appointed to receive contributions, but sufficient sums were soon receiv’d to procure the ground and erect the building, which was one hundred feet long and seventy broad, about the size of Westminster Hall; and the work was carried on with such spirit as to be finished in a much shorter time than could have been expected. Both house and ground were vested in trustees, expressly for the use of any preacher of any religious persuasion who might desire to say something to the people at Philadelphia; the design in building not being to accommodate any particular sect, but the inhabitants in general; so that even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service.
因为露天集会要受天气的影响，很不方便，所以就有人提出了建造教堂的计划。这一计划一提出，接受捐款的人一经指定，马上就募集了足够的款项，作为购买地皮修建教堂的费用。这个教堂长一百英尺，宽七十英尺，面积大约与韦斯敏斯德堂相等。建筑工程是在一种热烈的气氛中进行的，它在出人意料之外地短促的时间内就完成了。全部房地产概归董事会管理，并且明文规定相信任何宗教的教士要对费城人民说教时，都可以使用该堂，因为该堂的修建原不是为了某一教派的方便，而是为了全体人民。所以即使君士坦丁堡的伊斯兰教徒要派一个传教士来向我们宣扬伊斯兰教，他也可以找到一个讲坛，听候他的使用。
I did not disapprove of the design, but, as Georgia was then destitute of materials and workmen, and it was proposed to send them from Philadelphia at a great expense, I thought it would have been better to have built the house here, and brought the children to it. This I advis’d; but he was resolute in his first project, rejected my counsel, and I therefore refus’d to contribute. I happened soon after to attend one of his sermons, in the course of which I perceived he intended to finish with a collection, and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me, I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers. Another stroke of his oratory made me asham’d of that, and determin’d me to give the silver; and he finish’d so admirably, that I empty’d my pocket wholly into the collector’s dish, gold and all. At this sermon there was also one of our club, who, being of my sentiments respecting the building in Georgia, and suspecting a collection might be intended, had, by precaution, emptied his pockets before he came from home. Towards the conclusion of the discourse, however, he felt a strong desire to give, and apply’d to a neighbour, who stood near him, to borrow some money for the purpose. The application was unfortunately [made] to perhaps the only man in the company who had the firmness not to be affected by the preacher. His answer was, “At any other time, Friend Hopkinson, I would lend to thee freely; but not now, for thee seems to be out of thy right senses.”
我并不反对这一计划，但是因为佐治亚在那时缺乏建筑材料和工人，有人提议花很多钱把材料和工人从费城运去，我就想假如把孤儿院建筑在这里，把小孩子接了来，不是更好吗？我向他提出这个建议，但是他坚持他原先的计划，不听我的劝告，因此我就拒绝捐款。不久以后我偶然有一次听他讲道，当时我看出他打算在讲道结束时收一次捐，我就暗地里下了个决心一个小钱也不给，这时我口袋中有少量的铜币，三四块银元，和五块金币。当他讲的时候，我开始软化了，我决定把铜币给他。接着他的三寸不烂之舌又使我感到惭愧，觉得铜币太少了，我就决心把银币给他，但是当他结束时他讲得如此动人，我把口袋里的钱如数倒入捐盘中，包括金币和其他一切。同时听道的还有我们密社的一个社员，他也像我一样不赞成在佐治亚修建孤儿院，他猜想也许要收捐，所以为了预防起见，他从家里出来之前把口袋里的钱全倒出了。但在讲道快结束时，他十分想捐点钱，他就请站在他附近的一个邻居借钱给他去献捐。但是不幸的是他的邻居也许是当时听众中唯一有坚强毅力不受传教士影响的人。他的回答是：“在任何其他时候，霍布金逊兄，您要借多少，我就借给你。但是现在不行，因为您好像神经错乱了。”
Mr. Whitefield, in leaving us, went preaching all the way thro’ the colonies to Georgia. The settlement of that province had lately been begun, but, instead of being made with hardy, industrious husbandmen, accustomed to labor, the only people fit for such an enterprise, it was with families of broken shop-keepers and other insolvent debtors, many of indolent and idle habits, taken out of the jails, who, being set down in the woods, unqualified for clearing land, and unable to endure the hardships of a new settlement, perished in numbers, leaving many helpless children unprovided for. The sight of their miserable situation inspir’d the benevolent heart of Mr. Whitefield with the idea of building an Orphan House there, in which they might be supported and educated. Returning northward, he preach’d up this charity, and made large collections, for his eloquence had a wonderful power over the hearts and purses of his hearers, of which I myself was an instance.
胡飞特先生在离开我们以后，他沿路布道经过各殖民地直到佐治亚。佐治亚的殖民刚开始不久，但是移居到那里去的不是习惯于苦干的刻苦耐劳的庄稼汉，唯一适宜于垦殖的人，而是一些破产的商人和他们的家属和其他破产的债务人，其中有许多人好吃懒做，才从监狱中释放出来；这些人住在森林里以后，因为不能胜任开垦砍伐工作，不能忍受一个新开垦地区的艰苦生活，大批地死亡了，留下了一大群孤苦无依的儿童。看到了这种悲惨的情况以后，胡飞特先生的仁心大受感动，就想要在那里开办一个孤儿院来抚养和教育这些孩子。在回到北方的归途中，他宣传推荐这一慈善事业，募集了大量的捐款，因为他的口才具有一种奇妙的力量，能使听众心悦诚服地慷慨解囊。我自己就是这样的一个例子。
Some of Mr. Whitefield’s enemies affected to suppose that he would apply these collections to his own private emolument; but I who was intimately acquainted with him (being employed in printing his Sermons and Journals, etc.), never had the least suspicion of his integrity, but am to this day decidedly of opinion that he was in all his conduct a perfectly honest man, and methinks my testimony in his favour ought to have the more weight, as we had no religious connection. He us’d, indeed, sometimes to pray for my conversion, but never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard. Ours was a mere civil friendship, sincere on both sides, and lasted to his death.
某些胡飞特先生的敌人故意宣称他会把这些捐款作为他自己的报酬，但是我跟他很熟（他常叫我替他印刷讲道文、日记等），我向来丝毫也不怀疑他的诚实廉洁，直到今天我坚决相信他在各种行动中是一个彻头彻尾的诚实人。我想我替他作证特别应当受人的重视，因为我们不属于同一的教派。的确，他曾经为我的改信而祈祷过，但是他从来没有理由相信他的祷告已蒙垂听因而感到快慰。我们的关系仅仅是一种世俗的友谊关系，双方都诚恳相处，这种友谊一直持续到他死为止。
The following instance will show something of the terms on which we stood. Upon one of his arrivals from England at Boston, he wrote to me that he should come soon to Philadelphia, but knew not where he could lodge when there, as he understood his old friend and host, Mr. Benezet, was removed to Germantown. My answer was, “You know my house; if you can make shift with its scanty accommodations, you will be most heartily welcome.” He reply’d, that if I made that kind offer for Christ’s sake, I should not miss of a reward. And I returned, “Don’t let me be mistaken; it was not for Christ’s sake, but for your sake.” One of our common acquaintance jocosely remark’d, that, knowing it to be the custom of the saints, when they received any favour, to shift the burden of the obligation from off their own shoulders, and place it in heaven, I had contriv’d to fix it on earth.
下面的事实多少说明我们之间的交情。有一次他从英国到了波士顿，他写信给我说他不久要到费城来，但是不知道在逗留费城期间他可以在什么地方住宿，因为他听说从前招待他住宿的老朋友贝内舍先生已经搬到日耳曼镇去了。我回答他说：“你知道我住的地方。假如你不嫌简陋的话，我们非常欢迎你来住。”他回答说假如你是看基督的面上愿意竭诚招待我，上帝一定会祝福酬劳你。我回答他说：“不要把我弄错了。我不是看基督的面上，是看你的面上。”我们的一个熟人开玩笑说，因为我知道圣徒们有一习惯，当他们受了人们款待的时候，总是把人情记在天上，不愿意说他们自己领了情，而我呢，却偏把它记在地上了。
The last time I saw Mr. Whitefield was in London, when he consulted me about his Orphan House concern, and his purpose of appropriating it to the establishment of a college.
上次我在伦敦遇见胡飞特先生时，他跟我谈起孤儿院房屋的问题，他说他打算把这些建筑用来开办一所大学。
He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his words and sentences so perfectly, that he might be heard and understood at a great distance, especially as his auditories, however numerous, observ’d the most exact silence. He preach’d one evening from the top of the Court-house steps, which are in the middle of Market-street, and on the west side of Second-street, which crosses it at right angles. Both streets were fill’d with his hearers to a considerable distance. Being among the hindmost in Market-street, I had the curiosity to learn how far he could be heard, by retiring backwards down the street towards the river; and I found his voice distinct till I came near Front-street, when some noise in that street obscur’d it. Imagining then a semi-circle, of which my distance should be the radius, and that it were fill’d with auditors, to each of whom I allow’d two square feet, I computed that he might well be heard by more than thirty thousand. This reconcil’d me to the newspaper accounts of his having preach’d to twenty-five thousand people in the fields, and to the antient histories of generals haranguing whole armies, of which I had sometimes doubted.
他讲话时声音洪亮清晰，每字每句的发音十分清晰，人们站在老远的地方也可以听得清楚他的话，特别是因为他的听众，不管人多么多，总是鸦雀无声地静听。有一天晚上他站在法院台阶上面说教，法院位于市场街中段和第二街西段（这两条街是成直角的）。这两条街上站满了人，直到相当远的地方。我站在市场街最后的地方，我想知道他的声音究竟可以听得多远，我一直向河边后退，我发现他的声音一直到离前街不远的地方还可以听得清楚，当我跑到前街时，街上的闹声才把它掩盖住了。当时我就想：假如以我的距离作一半圆形，当中站满了听众，假定每人占地两平方英尺，我算出三万以上的人都可以听到他的讲话。这时我才相信报纸的记载说他曾经在旷野里跟两万五千人讲道。在古代历史中记载着将军们向全军作大声疾呼的演说，过去我有时候怀疑，这时候我也相信了。
By hearing him often, I came to distinguish easily between sermons newly compos’d, and those which he had often preach’d in the course of his travels. His delivery of the latter was so improv’d by frequent repetitions that every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice, was so perfectly well turn’d and well plac’d, that, without being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleas’d with the discourse; a pleasure of much the same kind with that receiv’d from an excellent piece of musick. This is an advantage itinerant preachers have over those who are stationary, as the latter can not well improve their delivery of a sermon by so many rehearsals.
因为我经常听他讲道，我终于能够很容易地分清他刚写好的和那些在旅行中他已经讲过多次的说教。由于反复讲了很多次，他用后一类说教时，他的讲演就有了很大的改进，每个词的重音和每一句的重音放得十分恰当，声调抑扬顿挫，十分完美，即使一个人对于他的内容不感到兴趣，对于他的演讲也不能不感到愉快，这种愉快与听优美的音乐时所引起的快感大致相同。这是巡回传教士较固定的教牧师有利的地方，因为后者不能反复使用同样的一篇说教，来改进他讲演的声调和姿态。
His writing and printing from time to time gave great advantage to his enemies; unguarded expressions, and even erroneous opinions, delivered in preaching, might have been afterwards explain’d or qualifi’d by supposing others that might have accompani’d them, or they might have been deny’d; but litera scripta monet. Critics attack’d his writings violently, and with so much appearance of reason as to diminish the number of his votaries and prevent their encrease; so that I am of opinion if he had never written any thing, he would have left behind him a much more numerous and important sect, and his reputation might in that case have been still growing, even after his death, as there being nothing of his writing on which to found a censure and give him a lower character, his proselytes would be left at liberty to feign for him as great a variety of excellence as their enthusiastic admiration might wish him to have possessed.
他偶然发表的一些著作却大大地帮助了他的敌人。假如在讲道时一不留神说错了话或者甚至提出了错误的意见，以后还可以加以解释，或是因上下文的关系而对它的意义加以限制，或者直接加以否认；但是文字的证据是不能磨灭的。他的敌人猛烈地攻击了他的著作，看起来他们的批评好像十分有道理，这样他的信徒减少了，他们的人数也不再增长了。因此我认为假如他不曾发表什么文章，他留下的信徒一定会多得多，他建立的教派一定还会更重要，同时他的声誉即使在他死后也许还会不断增长，因为没有著作就没有根据，无从加以谴责或是毁谤，他的信徒们就可以任意想象他具有一连串的优秀品质，由于他们热烈地崇拜他，他们会希望他具有这些高贵品质的。
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