二 名译欣赏：天演论

【原文】

Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays

Prolegomena

Thomas Henry Huxley

It may be safely assumed that,two thousand years ago,before Caesar set foot in southern Britain,the whole country-side visible from the windows of the room in which I write,was in what is called “the state of nature.” Except,it may be,by raising a few sepulchral mounds,such as those which still,here and there,break the flowing contours of the downs,man's hands had made no mark upon it；and the thin veil of vegetation which overspread the broad-backed heights and the shelving sides of the coombs was unaffected by his industry. The native grasses and weeds,the scattered patches of gorse,contended with one another for the possession of the scanty surface soil；they fought against the droughts of summer,the frosts of winter,and the furious gales which swept,with unbroken force,now from the Atlantic,and now from the North Sea,at all times of the year；they filled up,as they best might,the gaps made in their ranks by all sorts of underground and overground animal ravagers. One year with another,an average population,the floating balance of the unceasing struggle for existence among the indigenous plants,maintained itself. It is as little to be doubted,that an essentially similar state of nature prevailed,in this region,for many thousand years before the coming of Caesar；and there is no assignable reason for denying that it might continue to exist through an equally prolonged futurity,except for the intervention of man.

Reckoned by our customary standards of duration,the native vegetation,like the“everlasting hills” which it clothes,seems a type of permanence. The little Amarella Gentians,which abound in some places today,are the descendants of those that were trodden underfoot,by the prehistoric savages who have left their flint tools,about,here and there；and they followed ancestors which,in the climate of the glacial epoch,probably flourished better than they do now. Compared with the long past of this humble plant,all the history of civilized men is but an episode.

Yet nothing is more certain than that,measured by the liberal scale of time-keeping of the universe,this present state of nature,however it may seem to have gone and to go on for ever,is but a fleeting phase of her infinite variety；merely the last of the series of changes which the earth's surface has undergone in the course of the millions of years of its existence. Turn back a square foot of the thin turf,and the solid foundation of the land,exposed in cliffs of chalk five hundred feet high on the adjacent shore,yields full assurance of a time when the sea covered the site of the “everlasting hills”；and when the vegetation of what land lay nearest,was as different from the present Flora of the Sussex downs,as that of Central Africa now is. No less certain is it that,between the time during which the chalk was formed and that at which the original turf came into existence,thousands of centuries elapsed,in the course of which,the state of nature of the ages during which the chalk was deposited,passed into that which now is,by changes so slow that,in the coming and going of the generations of men,had such witnessed them,the contemporary,conditions would have seemed to be unchanging and unchangeable.

But it is also certain that,before the deposition of the chalk,a vastly longer period had elapsed；throughout which it is easy to follow the traces of the same process of ceaseless modification and of the internecine struggle for existence of living things；and that even when we can get no further back,it is not because there is any reason to think we have reached the beginning,but because the trail of the most ancient life remains hidden,or has become obliterated.

Thus that state of nature of the world of plants which we began by considering,is far from possessing the attribute of permanence. Rather its very essence is impermanence. It may have lasted twenty or thirty thousand years,it may last for twenty or thirty thousand years more,without obvious change；but,as surely as it has followed upon a very different state,so it will be followed by an equally different condition. That which endures is not one or another association of living forms,but the process of which the cosmos is the product,and of which these are among the transitory expressions. And in the living world,one of the most characteristic features of this cosmic process is the struggle for existence,the competition of each with all,the result of which is the selection,that is to say,the survival of those forms which,on the whole,are best adapted,to the conditions which at any period obtain；and which are,therefore,in that respect,and only in that respect,the fittest. The acme reached by the cosmic process in the vegetation of the downs is seen in the turf,with its weeds and gorse. Under the conditions,they have come out of the struggle victorious；and,by surviving,have proved that they are the fittest to survive.

【译文1】

天演论·上

导言一 察 变

严 复 译

赫胥黎独处一室之中，在英伦之南，背山而面野。槛外诸境，历历如在几下。乃悬想二千年前，当罗马大将恺彻未到时，此间有何景物。计惟有天造草昧，人功未施，其借征人境者，不过几处荒坟，散见坡陀起伏间。而灌木丛林，蒙茸山麓，未经删治如今者，则无疑也。怒生之草，交加之藤，势如争长相雄。各据一抔壤土，夏与畏日争，冬与严霜争，四时之内，飘风怒吹，或西发西洋，或东起北海，旁午交扇，无时而息。上有鸟兽之践啄，下有蚁蝝之啮伤，憔悴孤虚，旋生旋灭，菀枯顷刻，莫可究详。是离离者亦各尽天能，以自存种族而已。数亩之内，战事炽然。强者后亡，弱者先绝。年年岁岁，偏有留遗，未知始自何年，更不知止于何代。苟人事不施于其间，则莽莽榛榛，长此互相吞并，混逐蔓延而已，而诘之者谁耶？

英之南野，黄芩之种为多，此自未有记载以前，革衣石斧之民，所采撷践踏者，兹之所见，其苗裔耳。邃古之前，坤枢未转，英伦诸岛乃属冰天雪海之区，此物能寒，法当较今尤茂。此区区一小草耳，若迹其祖始，远及洪荒，则三古以还年代方之，犹瀼渴之水，比诸大江，不啻小支而已。故事有决无可疑者，则天道变化，不主故常是已。

特自皇古迄今，为变盖渐，浅人不察，遂有天地不变之言。实则今兹所见，乃自不可穷诘之变动而来。京垓年岁之中，每每员舆正不知几移几换而成此最后之奇。且继今以往，陵谷变迁，又属可知之事，此地学不刊之说也。假其惊怖斯言，则索证正不在远。试向立足处所，掘地深逾寻丈，将逢蜃灰，以是（蜃灰），知其地之古必为海。盖蜃灰为物，乃蠃蚌脱壳积叠而成。若用显镜察之，其掩旋尚多完具者。使是地不前为海，此恒河沙数蠃蚌者胡从来乎？沧海扬尘，非诞说矣。且地学之家，历验各种僵石，知动植庶品，率皆递有变迁，特为变至微，其迁极渐。即假吾人彭、聃之寿，而亦由暂观久，潜移弗知。是犹蟪蛄不识春秋，朝菌不知晦朔，遽以不变名之，真瞽说也。

故知不变一言，决非天运。而悠久成物之理，转在变动不居之中。是当前之所见，经廿年、卅年而革焉可也，更二万年、三万年而革亦可也。特据前事推将来，为变方长，未知所极而已。虽然天运变矣，而有不变者行乎其中。不变惟何？是名“天演”。

以天演为体，而其用有二：曰物竞，曰天择。此万物莫不然，而于有生之类为尤著。物竞者，物争自存也。以一物以与物物争，或存或亡，而其效则归于天择。天择者，物争焉而独存。则其存也，必有其所以存，必其所得于天之分，自致一己之能，与其所遭值之时与地，及凡周身以外之物力，有其相谋相剂者焉。夫而后独免于亡，而足以自立也。而自其效观之，若是物特为天之所厚而择焉以存也者，夫是之谓天择。天择者择于自然，虽择而莫之择，犹物竞之无所争，而实天下之至争也。斯宾塞尔曰：“天择者，存其最宜者也。”夫物既争存矣，而天又从其争之后而择之，一争一择，而变化之事出矣。

复案：物竞、天择二义，发于英人达尔文。达著《物种由来》一书，以考论世间动植物类所以繁殊之故。先是言生理者，皆主异物分造之说。近今百年格物诸家，稍疑古说之不可通，如法人兰麻克、爵弗来，德人方拔、万俾尔，英人威里士、格兰特、斯宾塞尔、倭恩、赫胥黎，皆生学名家，先后间出，目治手营，穷探审论，知有生之物，始于同，终于异，造物立其一本，以大力运之。而万类之所以底于如是者，咸其自己而已，无所谓创造者也。然其说未大行也，至咸丰九年，达氏书出，众论翕然。自兹厥后，欧、美二洲治生学者，大抵宗达氏。而矿事日辟，掘地开山，多得古禽兽遗蜕，其种已灭，为今所无。于是虫鱼禽互兽人之间，衔接迤演之物，日以渐密，而达氏之言乃愈有征。故赫胥黎谓，古者以大地为静居天中，而日月星辰，拱绕周流，以地为主；自歌白尼出，乃知地本行星，系日而运。古者以人类为首出庶物，肖天而生，与万物绝异；自达尔文出，知人为天演中一境，且演且进，来者方将，而教宗抟土之说，必不可信。盖自有歌白尼而后天学明，亦自有达尔文而后生理确也。斯宾塞尔者，与达同时，亦本天演著《天人会通论》，举天、地、人、形气、心性、动植之事而一贯之，其说尤为精辟宏富。其第一书开宗明义，集格致之大成，以发明天演之旨；第二书以天演言生学；第三书以天演言性灵；第四书以天演言群理；最后第五书，乃考道德之本源，明政教之条贯，而以保种进化之公例要术终焉。呜乎！欧洲自有生民以来，无此作也。斯宾氏迄今尚存，年七十有六矣。其全书于客岁始蒇事，所谓体大思精，殚毕生之力者也。达尔文生嘉庆十四年，卒于光绪八年壬午。赫胥黎于乙未夏化去，年七十也。

【译文2】

进化论与伦理学

导 论

宋启林 等译

可以有把握地设想，2000年前，在恺撒尚未登陆英国南部时，如果从我写作的屋子往窗外看，整个原野还处在所谓的“自然状态”。或许只有几座隆起的坟茔，就像如今四处散落的坟堆那样，破坏了丘陵地带流畅的轮廓。除此之外，人类的双手再没有在这儿留下什么痕迹。覆盖在广阔高地和峡谷斜坡上那薄薄的植被，也没有受到人类劳作的影响。土生土长的牧草、杂草，还有散布其间的一丛丛金雀花，你争我夺，抢占着贫瘠的表层土壤。这些植物盛夏抗击干旱，寒冬抵御严霜，而且一年四季都要面对时而从太平洋、时而从北海刮来的狂风。此外，地下和地上的各种动物还常常进行骚扰，留下一片片空隙，有赖这些植物尽其所能加以填补。年复一年，它们保持着一种稳定的类群数量——也就是说，通过内部不断的生存斗争，它们之间形成了一种动态平衡。不容置疑，在恺撒到来之前的几千年里，这个地区保持着一种基本上相似的自然状态。如果人类不去干预，那么不得不承认，这种状态将在同样长远的岁月中继续存在下去。

用通常的时间标准来衡量，本土植被就像它所覆盖的“永恒山丘”一样，似乎将永远存在。今天在某些地方极为茂盛的小黄芩，就是那些到处留下燧石工具的史前野蛮人践踏过的小黄芩的后代。而且在冰川时期的气候条件下，小黄芩可能生长得比现在还要繁茂。这样低等的植物，历史已如此悠远，与之相比，整个人类文明史不过是短短的一段插曲。

可以完全肯定地说，若按宇宙计时的巨大尺度来衡量，目前的这种自然状态，尽管像是长期演变而来并似乎将永远持续下去，其实不过是大自然无穷变化中的昙花一现，不过是地球表面自诞生以来，在亿万年中历经一系列变化后的现存状态。在临近海岸边500英尺高的白垩峭壁上，翻开一平方英尺薄薄的草皮，坚固的地基就裸露出来了。因此，我们完全可以确信，有一段时期，海洋曾淹没了“永恒山丘”的所在地。那时，在离海洋最近的陆地上，植物种类与现在苏塞克斯丘陵上的植物种类有所不同，也与现在的中非地区的植物种类有所不同。还可以肯定的是，从白垩形成到原始草皮出现，其间历经了几千个世纪。在这个过程中，白垩沉积时代的自然状态逐渐演变成现在的自然状态，但是，由于变化非常缓慢，因而目睹这种变化的世世代代的人们，都觉得他们那一代的状况好像没有发生变化，也不会发生变化似的。

但也可以肯定，在白垩沉积之前，已度过了一段更为漫长的岁月。我们很容易发现，在这段漫长的岁月里，生物永无休止的变化过程和生物之间进行生存斗争的过程，都是有迹可寻的。我们不能回溯得更远，并不是因为有什么理由认为我们已回溯到混沌初始的时代，而是因为最古老的生物遗迹还未被发现或已经毁灭。

因此，我们现在开始考察的植物界的自然状态，远非具有永恒不变的属性。恰恰相反，自然状态的本质是暂时性。也许这种自然状态已存在了2万年或3万年，也许还将继续存在2万年或3万年，并且不发生任何明显的变化，但是正如可以确定它是从一个非常不同的状态演变而来，我们也能确定它必将向另一个非常不同的状态演变而去。能够持久存在的，不是生命状态这样或那样的结合，而是宇宙本身产生的过程，而生命状态的各种结合不过是昙花一现而已。在生物界，这种宇宙过程最典型的特征之一就是生存斗争，即每一个体和整个环境的竞争，其结果就是选择。也就是说，那些存活下来的生命形态，总体上最适应于某个时期存在的各种条件。因此，就这一点而言，也仅仅就这一点而言，它们是最适者。丘陵上的植被被宇宙过程推向顶点，结果就产生了夹杂着杂草和金雀花的草皮。在现有条件下，杂草和金雀花在斗争中胜出——它们能够存活下来，就证明它们是最适于生存的。