英语散文朗读经典（英语美文欣赏Scienceand）

Science and Art

科学和艺术

I beg leave to thank you for the extremely kind and appreciative manner in which you have received the toast of Science. It is the more grateful to me to hear that toast proposed in an assembly of this kind, because I have noticed of late years a great and growing tendency among those who were once jestingly said to have been born in a pre-scientific age to look upon science as an invading and aggressive force, which if it had its own way would oust from the universe all other pursuits. I think there are many persons who look upon this new birth of our times as a sort of monster rising out of the sea of modern thought with the purpose of devouring the Andromeda of art. And now and then a Perseus, equipped with the shoes of swiftness of the ready writer, with the cap of invisibility of the editorial article, and it may be with the Medusahead of vituperation, shows himself ready to try conclusions with the scientific dragon. Sir, I hope that Perseus will think better of it; first, for his own sake, because the creature is hard of head, strong of jaw, and for some time past has shown a great capacity for going over and through whatever comes in his way; and secondly, for the sake of justice, for I assure you, of my own personal knowledge that if left alone, the creature is a very debonair and gentle monster. As for the Andromeda of art, he has the tenderest respect for that lady, and desires nothing more than to see her happily settled and annually producing a flock of such charming children as those we see about us.

请允许我感谢各位以极其友好与欣赏的态度，听取了为科学 1而作的祝酒词。今天能在这样的会上听到这个祝酒辞，更 使我激动不已。因为近些年来我注意到，一种曰益强大的、将科 学视为一股侵略势力的倾向，已经出现在那些被戏称为生于前 科学时代的人们中间。他们以为，如果任由科学随心所欲的话， 就必会把其他行业从宇宙中清除出去。我想，现在有许多人都 认为这个当代的新生事物出自现代思潮的洪水猛兽，它想要吞 噬艺术之神安德洛墨达。于是，一位珀修斯就会时不时出现。 他脚蹬令人文思泉涌的“追风靴”，头戴重量级社评的“隐形 盔”，也许还长着装满谩骂之辞的“美杜莎之脑“，摆出了欲与科 学猛兽一决胜负的阵势。诸位，我希望这位珀修斯三思而后行。 首先，是要为自己着想。因为怪兽头坚颌硬，而且一段日子以 来，它在冲破任何障碍方面已经大显神威。其次，是要为公正着 想。因为我向诸位保证，据我看来，如果不去惹这头怪兽的话， 它是非常温文尔雅的。至于艺术之神安德洛墨达，它对那位女 士非常恭敬，而且别无他求，只盼望她幸福地安家落户，年年生育一大群惹人軎爱的儿女，就像我们在自己周围所看到的孩子们一般。

But putting parables aside, I am unable to understand how any one with a knowledge of mankind can imagine that the growth of science can threaten the development of art in any of its forms. If I understand the matter at all, science and art are the obverse and reverse of Nature's medal; the one expressing the external order of things, in terms of feeling, the other in terms of thought. When men no longer love nor hate; when suffering causes no pity, and the tale of great deeds ceases to thrill, when the lily of the field shall seem no longer more beautifully arrayed than Solomon in all his glory, and the awe has vanished from the snow-capped peak and deep ravine, then indeed science may have the world to itself, but it will not be because the monster has devoured the art, but because one side of human nature is dead, and because men have lost the half of their ancient and present attributes.

但是，如果撇开上述比喻不谈，我实在难以理解，一个具有 人类知识的人,怎么能够认为科学的进步竟会威胁到任何艺术 形式的发展。如果我理解不错的话,那么科学和艺术代表了自 然这枚圣牌的正反两面。一个是以感情来表达事物的永恒的秩 序，另一个则是以思想来表述。当人们心中不再有爱恨存在；当 苦难不再引起人们同情，英雄们的丰功伟绩不再激动人心；当田 野里的野百合不能再与至尊荣耀的所罗门相媲美，白雪皑皑的 山峰和深不可测的幽谷不再使人惊叹敬畏，到那时,科学确实有 可能独占整个世界,但这并不是因为科学怪兽吞噬了艺术,而应 归咎于人类天性的一个方面已经死去，人类丧失了古往今来所 拥有的天性的那一半。