培根
文 |成小秦，作者投稿
英国诗人蒲伯（Alexander Pope）曾评赞英伦两位科学家：牛顿和培根。
蒲伯盛赞牛顿（Isaac Newton）：自然及自然律隐于黑夜；主说：“让牛顿出世！”于是，万物皆光明。（Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night; God said 'Let Newton be' and all was light.）对培根（Francis Bacon）则有褒有贬：“人世间最智慧、最出色、最卑劣者。”（The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.）
培根（Francis Bacon，1561 - 1626年），英国文艺复兴时期（1500-1660）伟大哲学家、历史学家、文学家，现代科学之父，“启蒙运动先驱中，培根精神遗泽绵长，启迪人类四百年，以了解所处自然以及自身，使人类不断自我进步。”（Among the Enlightenment founders, his spirit is the one that most endures. It informs us across four centuries that we must understand nature both around us and within ourselves, in order to set humanity on the course of self-improvement.ConsiliencebyE.O. Wilson）
罗素（Bertrand Russell）《西方哲学史》（A History of Western Philosophy）卷三 近代哲学（Book Three Modern Philosophy）第一篇从文艺复兴到休谟（Part I From the Renaissance to Hume）第七章论及培根（CHAPTER VII Francis Bacon）：
Bacon's most important book, The Advancement of Learning, is in many ways remarkably modern. He is commonly regarded as the originator of the saying "Knowledge is power," and though he may have had predecessors who said the same thing, he said it with new emphasis. The whole basis of his philosophy was practical: to give mankind mastery over the forces of nature by means of scientific discoveries and inventions. He held that philosophy should be kept separate from theology, not intimately blended with it as in scholasticism. He accepted orthodox religion; he was not the man to quarrel with the government on such a matter. But while he thought that reason could show the existence of God, he regarded everything else in theology as known only by revelation. Indeed he held that the triumph of faith is greatest when to the unaided reason a dogma appears most absurd. Philosophy, however, should depend only upon reason. He was thus an advocate of the doctrine of "double truth," that of reason and that of revelation. This doctrine had been preached by certain Averroists in the thirteenth century, but had been condemned by the Church. The "triumph of faith" was, for the orthodox, a dangerous device. Bayle, in the late seventeenth century, made ironical use of it, setting forth at great length all that reason could say against some orthodox belief, and then concluding "so much the greater is the triumph of faith in nevertheless believing." How far Bacon's orthodoxy was sincere it is impossible to know.
参考译文：培根力作《崇学论》在诸多方面极具现代感，据说，首创格言“知识就是力量”；此前或有人所说略同，但培根却标新，其哲学根基具实用性：借助科学发现与发明，使人类制驭自然力量。培根主张，哲学应与神学分离，而不应如经院哲学那样糅杂神学。培根信奉正统宗教；从不因此与政府争辩，然而，虽认为理性足以证神存在，但将神学其余一切看作仅凭启示才能认知。当然，培根以为，信念得胜极其伟大，仅凭理性，教理尽显荒谬。然而，哲学只应凭理性，因而，培根倡导“双重真理”，即理性真理与启示真理。十三世纪，某些阿威罗伊派宣传这一学说，但遭教会谴责。对正统教派而言，“信念得胜”说危险。十七世纪晚期，贝勒（Bayle）曾讥讽此说，详述理性驳斥某些正统信念，然后断定：“得胜信念愈发伟大，信仰依旧。”至于培根正统信仰多么真诚，则无从知晓。
培根以拉丁文著《新工具》（Novum Organum），1620年出版；19世纪，四个英文全译本面世：
伍德（William Wood）英译本（1831年），自1733年出版的第一部全译本；
伍德（William Wood）和迪维（Joseph Devey）英译本，Devey释（1844年）；
基钦（G. W. Kitchin）英译本（1855年）；
斯佩丁（James Spedding）、爱理斯（Robert Leslie Ellis）和希思（Douglas Denon Heath）英译本（1858年）
商务印书馆《新工具》（汉译世界学术名著丛书），许宝骙先生根据1858年Spedding、Ellis和Heath英译本翻译。为比较起见，所引各段附William Wood，Joseph Devey 1844年英译本，从中可见，各英译本迥异，再转汉译，不知是否培根原意？
Novum Organum Preface（《新工具》序言）
Those who have taken upon them to lay down the law of nature as a thing already searched out and understood, whether they have spoken in simple assurance or professional affectation, have therein done philosophy and the sciences great injury. For as they have been successful in inducing belief, so they have been effective in quenching and stopping inquiry; and have done more harm by spoiling and putting an end to other men's efforts than good by their own.（Novum Organum Prefacetranslated by Spedding，Ellis，and Heath1858）
They who have presumed to dogmatize on nature, as on some well investigated subject, either from self-conceit or arrogance, and in the professorial style, have inflicted the greatest injury on philosophy and learning. For they have tended to stifle and interrupt inquiry exactly in proportion as they have prevailed in bringing others to their opinion: and their own activity has not counterbalanced the mischief they have occasioned by corrupting and destroying that of others.（translated by Wood and Devey1844）
商务印书馆《新工具》译文：有些人自认把自然界的法则作为已被搜寻出来和已被了解明白的东西来加以规定，无论是出于简单化的保证的口吻，或者是出于职业化的矫饰的说法，都会给哲学以及各门科学带来很大的损害。因为，他们这样做固然能够成功地引得人们相信，却也同样有效地压熄了和停止了人们的探讨；而破坏和截断他人努力这一点的害处是多于他们自己努力所获得的好处的。
评析：译文冗赘，如“有些人自认把自然界的法则作为已被搜寻出来和已被了解明白的东西来加以规定，”其中，两次用“被”，“的”，还有俗字“东西”等，均应删汰。
培根《新工具》推崇归纳法，而自认为优于亚里斯多德三段论。“培根思考所有调查研究法，认为最佳者为归纳法，收集大量事实并发现模式。为确保最大客观性，必须化除成见。培根宣示学科金字塔，塔基为自然科学，其上为物理并将其归入，形而上学位于顶端，诠释以下所有，虽说人类尚无法掌握其能力及形式。” （By reflecting on all possible methods of investigation available to his imagination, he concluded that the best among them is induction, which is the gathering of large numbers of facts and the detection of patterns. In order to obtain maximum objectivity, we must entertain only a minimum of preconceptions. Bacon proclaimed a pyramid of disciplines, with natural history forming the base, physics above and subsuming it, and metaphysics at the peak, explaining everything below–though perhaps in powers and forms beyond the grasp of man.ConsiliencebyE.O. Wilson）
罗素（Bertrand Russell）《西方哲学史》（A History of Western Philosophy）论及培根（CHAPTER VII Francis Bacon）《新工具》所涉“幻象”：
One of the most famous parts of Bacon's philosophy is his enumeration of what he calls "idols," by which he means bad habits of mind that cause people to fall into error. Of these he enumerates five kinds. "Idols of the tribe" are those that are inherent in human nature; he mentions in particular the habit of expecting more order in natural phenomena than is actually to be found. "Idols of the cave" are personal prejudices, characteristic of the particular investigator. "Idols of the market-place" are those that have to do with the tyranny of words and the difficulty of escaping from their influence over our minds. "Idols of the theatre" are those that have to do with received systems of thought; of these, naturally Aristotle and the scholastics afforded him the most noteworthy instances. Lastly there are "idols of the schools," which consist in thinking that some blind rule (such as the syllogism) can take the place of judgement in investigation.
参考译文：培根哲学最出名者是列举所谓“幻象”，系指让人陷于谬误心理恶习。培根列举五种幻象。“种族幻象”属人性固有；特别提及习惯，是期望自然现象有超乎实际的秩序。“洞窟幻象”指个别调查者所持个人偏见。“市场幻象”关乎话语苛刻，以及难以摆脱其阴影。“剧场幻象”涉及公认思想体系；当然，亚里士多德及经院哲学家给予其特例。最后是“学派幻象”，坚信某些漠视证据教条（如三段论）在研究中能替代判断。
《新工具》第一卷第四十二则（Novum Organum Book One XLII）论及“洞穴偶像”：
TheIdolsof the Cave are the idols of the individual man. For everyone (besides the errors common to human nature in general) has a cave or den of his own, which refracts and discolors the light of nature, owing either to his own proper and peculiar nature; or to his education and conversation with others; or to the reading of books, and the authority of those whom he esteems and admires; or to the differences of impressions, accordingly as they take place in a mind preoccupied and predisposed or in a mind indifferent and settled; or the like.（Novum Organum Book One42 translated by Spedding，Ellis，and Heath1858）
XLII.The idols of the den are those of each individual; for everybody (in addition to the errors common to the race of man) has his own individual den or cavern, which intercepts and corrupts the light of nature, either from his own peculiar and singular disposition, or from his education and intercourse with others, or from his reading, and the authority acquired by those whom he reverences and admires, or from the different impressions produced on the mind, as it happens to be preoccupied and predisposed, or equable and tranquil, and the like; （translated by Wood and Devey1844）
商务印书馆《新工具》译文：洞穴假象是各个人的假象。因为每一个人（除普遍人性所共有的错误外，都各有其自己的洞穴，使自然之光屈折和变色。这个洞穴的形成，或是由于这人自己固有的独特的本性，或是由于他所受的教育和与别人的交往；或是由于他阅读一些书籍而对其权威性发生崇敬和赞美；又或者是由于各种感印，这些感印又是依人心之不同（如有的人是“心怀成见”和“胸有成竹”，有的人则是“漠然无所动于中”）而作用各异的；以及类此等等。
评析：培根工于文辞，行文精心选词甚至造词，拉丁文迻英文，四个英译本分梳义理，用词各异，再从英文转译中文，其难度之大，可以想见。科学名著新词甚多，或旧词新用，英文词义多歧，而中文专词专用，难以尽表英文词义内涵，“新理踵出，名目纷繁，索之中文，渺不可得，即有牵合，终嫌参差，译者遇此，独有自具衡量，即义定名。”（严复《天演论·译例言》）因此，严复先生慨叹：“一名之立，旬月踟蹰”。如有条件，参照培根拉丁文原著，深究英文术语内涵，译文或更贴近原意。
许宝骙先生译《新工具》并加注释，下了功夫。这里，仅就此段某些词义商榷如下：
培根为表述创新理念，自创拉丁词Idola specus，英译Idols of the Cave。许译idol为“假象”。查Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles，idol释义为：“An image or similitude of a deity or divinity, used as an object of worship; applied to those used by pagans, whence, in scriptural language, = ‘false god’. Applied polemically to any material object of adoration in a Christian Church 1545.”中文词典释为：偶像；幻象；假神；谬见（fallacy）等。培根使用这一术语，论述逻辑和现代科学方法，认为幻象“源自各人身心独具本性；亦源自教育、习惯，以及出于偶然。”（The Idols of the Cave take their rise in the peculiar constitution, mental or bodily, of each individual; and also in education, habit, and accident.LIII）
...... acaveordenof his own - cave译为“洞穴”，而den有“兽穴”、“窝”、“窟”等意，培根在两词之间加or，意在区分，不宜并译为“洞穴”。William Wood、Joseph Devey1844年版英译：...... his own individualdenorcavern。cavern译“大山洞”、“深凹”、“大洞穴”等。
许宝骙毕业于哲学系，译《新工具》多选用哲学术语，用词多为早期白话文，然而，从科学角度言，有些术语翻译似有探讨之处，例如：
refracts译为“屈折”，据商务印书馆1984年版《词源》解：【屈折】弯曲。《庄子·骈拇》：“屈折礼乐，呴俞仁义。”释文：“谓屈折支体为礼乐也。”文言文中常释为“贬抑”、“曲折”，早期白话文中，虽用于形容光照三菱镜，光线改变方向，但“屈折”易生歧义，而译“折射”更精确。William Wood、Joseph Devey1844年版译intercept，“截断”意。
impression译“感印”，此处译“印象”似更好，因“象”字有“性状”、“样子”等含义，与偶像、幻象呼应。
《新工具》第一卷第五十六则：
There are found some minds given to an extreme admiration of antiquity, others to an extreme love and appetite for novelty; but few so duly tempered that they can hold the mean, neither carping at what has been well laid down by the ancients, nor despising what is well introduced by the moderns. This, however, turns to the great injury of the sciences and philosophy, since these affectations of antiquity and novelty are the humors of partisans rather than judgments; and truth is to be sought for not in the felicity of any age, which is an unstable thing, but in the light of nature and experience, which is eternal. These factions therefore must be abjured, and care must be taken that the intellect be not hurried by
them into assent. （Novum Organum Book One56 translated by Spedding，Ellis，and Heath1858）
LVI.Some dispositions evince an unbounded admiration of antiquity, others eagerly embrace novelty, and but few can preserve the just medium, so as neither to tear up what the ancients have correctly laid down, nor to despise the just innovations of the moderns. But this is very prejudicial to the sciences and philosophy, and instead of a correct judgment we have but the factions of the ancients and moderns. Truth is not to be sought in the good fortune of any particular conjuncture of time, which is uncertain, but in the light of nature and experience, which is eternal. Such factions, therefore, are to be abjured, and the understanding must not allow them to hurry it on to assent. （translated by Wood and Devey1844）
商务印书馆《新工具》译文：还可看到，有的心极端地崇古，有的心则如饥如渴地爱新；求其秉性有当，允执厥中，既不吹求古人之所制定，也不鄙薄近人之所倡导，那是很少的了。这种情形是要转为有大害于科学和哲学的；因为，这种对于古和新的矫情实是一种党人的情调，算不得什么判断；并且真理也不能求之于什么年代的降福 --那是不经久的东西，而只能求之于自然和经验的光亮 -- 这才是永恒的。因此，我们必须誓绝这些党争，必须小心勿让智力为它们所促而贸然有所赞同。
评析：迻译科学名著，信、达而外，应求文体一致。“允执厥中”与“那是很少的了”，“那是不经久的东西”，一雅一俗，用在同一句中，反差太大。“允执厥中”是尧授舜，舜授禹的话。朱熹释《中庸》言：“...... 其见于经，则‘允执厥中’者，尧之所以授舜也；‘人心惟危，道心惟微，惟精惟一，允执厥中’者，舜之所以授禹也。”（《中庸章句》序）语言学家周秉钧将“允执厥中”释为“诚实保持着中道”，似未尽其精义。此外，原文中无破折号，汉译用破折号，反而阻碍语流。
《新工具》第二卷第七则：
And after all, this is but a small part of the work of discovering the true Configuration in the compound body; which Configuration is a thing far more subtle and exact, and such as the operation of fire rather confounds than brings out and makes distinct.（Novum OrganumBook Two 7 VII translated by Spedding，Ellis，and Heath1858）
VII.Besides, it is, after all, but a small part of the labor of discovering the real conformation in the compound, which is so subtile and nice, that it is rather confused and lost by the operation of the fire, than discovered and brought to light.（translated by Wood and Devey1844）
商务印书馆《新工具》译文：究竟来说，就着发现复合物体之中的真正结构这一工作来说，这种解剖乃不过是其中很小的一个部分；而那真正的结构却是一个精微得多、细密得多的事物，若单凭火练这一类的动作，那是只有把它弄乱而不会把它揭出并弄清楚的。
评析：学术著述翻译，最忌文体混杂，尤其应避免使用粗陋鄙俚语，如“把它弄乱而不会把它揭出并弄清楚的”。培根是哲学家、科学家和文学家，翻译《新工具》，应以优美文笔传达其意，否则，国人会误以为哲人是粗人。
《论语·雍也篇》论君子“质”与“文”，钱穆先生释“朴也”及“华饰也”；杨伯峻先生释“朴实”与“文采”。刘勰以“质”与“文”评论文章：“非采而何？...... 文附质也。...... 质待文也。”（《文心雕龙·情采》) 后世常用这一理念评判文字，译界有人以为，“文”多用于文学作品，而“质”必见于科学著作。然而，许多科学家兼文学家，科学名著之所以传世，非独科学卓见，还因斐然成章，文质并重。
《新工具》第一卷第四十二则（Novum OrganumBook One XLII），培根论所谓“洞穴偶像”，谈及spirit： So that thespiritof man (according as it is meted out to different individuals) is in fact a thing variable and full of perturbation, and governed as it were by chance. Whence it was well observed by Heraclitus that men look for sciences in their own lesser worlds, and not in the greater or common world.（Novum Organum Book One 42translated by James Spedding，Ellis and Heath1858）
商务印书馆《新工具》译文：人的元精（照各个不同的人所秉受而得的样子）实际上是一种易变多扰的东西，又似为机运所统治着。因此，赫拉克利泰（Heraclitus）曾经说得好，人们追求科学总是求诸他们自己的小天地，而不是求诸公共的大天地。
附1844年Wood及Devey此段英译，以比较培根《新工具》不同英译：So that the spirit of man (according to its several dispositions), is variable, confused, and as it were actuated by chance; and Heraclitus said well that men search for knowledge in lesser worlds, and not in the greater or common world.（Novum Organumanslated by Wood and Devey1844）
许宝骙译《新工具》并加注释，但译文文体及“信、达、雅”，仍须探讨。这里，仅就句中spirit（元精）词义商榷如下：“元精”一名始见干丹书，《古文参同契》载：“元气之积厚而精英者，称为元精。”汉王充《论衡·超奇》：“天禀元气，人受元精。”“元精”旧指天地之精气。
董仲舒《春秋繁露》同类相动第五十七论及阴阳之气：天将阴雨，人之病，故为之先动，是阴相应而起也。天将欲阴雨，又使人欲睡卧者，阴气也。有忧亦使人卧者，是阴相求也；有喜者使人不欲卧者，是阳相索也。水得夜益长数分，东风而酒湛溢。病者至夜而疾益甚，鸡至几明皆鸣而相薄，其气益精。故阳益阳，而阴益阴，阴阳之气因可以类相益损也。
《梦溪笔谈》卷七“象数”一 134：医家有五运六气之术，大则候天地之变，寒暑风雨，水旱暝蝗，率皆有法，小则人之众疾，亦随气运盛衰，今人不知所用，而胶于定法，故其术皆不验。假令厥阴用事，其气多风，民病湿泄，岂溥天之下皆多风，溥天之民皆病湿泄邪？至于一邑之间，而旸雨有不同者，此气运安在？
培根《新工具》第一卷第五十则，第二卷第七则和第四十则分别论及spirit，似指人体内之物或质，包含在“可触（有形）体内”或“肉身内”，生有毛孔、通道、脉络和细胞，在第四十则各段，举例详述spirit可释放，同化、消化，自我繁殖。
Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles释spirit：“The animating or vital principle in man (and animal); that which gives life to the physical organism, in contrast to its purely material elements; the breath of life.”根据这一中古英语释义，spirit似应译“元气”（原气）或“精气”，即王充所说：“人之所以生者，精气也。”（《论衡·论死》），虽说“元气”与“精气”有所区别，再商榷。
此外，与spirit 并用的essence也值得深究。essence在中古英语释为entity；an element distinct from the four elements，即实体；有别于四大元素【“行”】（水、火、土、风）。
欧洲文艺复兴时，“现代化学之父”巴希尔·法兰廷（Basil Valentine）著托名之作《锑凯旋车》（Currus Triumphalis Antimonii by Basil Valentine 1604），沿袭帕拉塞尔苏斯（Paracelsus）三要素概念，详论锑和锑盐之药用价值，记述锑之化合物制备过程和方法。在这本化学专著，法兰廷也提及spirit和tangible essence，培根是否受其影响，也未可知：
...... because of a certain Mercurial volatile Matter still predominant in them; which volatile Spirit is the Cause why other things, which are in man, are expelled ......
...... the Element of Fire, which resides in the Element of Air, is extracted from the Elementary Earth, and by Coagulation formally changed into a tangible Essence, in whichtangible Essence, (viz. whence Antimony is formally made) is found very much of Sulphur predominant, of Mercury not so much, and of Salt the least of all three; yet it assumes so much Salt, as it thence acquires an hard and immalleable Mass.（FromCurrus Triumphalis Antimonii）
据此，试译spirits为“精气”，tangible essence为“有形要素”：
...... Hence all the working of thespiritsenclosed in tangible bodies lies hid and unobserved of men ......（Novum Organum Book One 50translated by James Spedding，Ellis and Heath1858）
试译：因此，有形体内精气运行皆隐蔽且难以察觉。
For example, we must inquire what amount of spirit there is in every body, what of tangible essence; and of the spirit, whether it be copious and turgid, or meagre and scarce; whether it be fine or coarse, akin to air or to fire, brisk or sluggish, weak or strong, progressive or retrograde, interrupted or continuous, agreeing with external and surrounding objects or disagreeing, &c. In like manner we must inquire into the tangible essence (which admits of no fewer differences than the spirit), into its coats, its fibres, its kinds of texture. Moreover the disposition of the spirit throughout the corporeal frame, with its pores, passages, veins and cells, and the rudiments or first essays of the organised body, fall under the same investigation.（Novum Organum Book Two 7translated by James Spedding，Ellis and Heath1858）
商务印书馆《新工具》译文：举例来说，对于每一物体，我们必须探究其中元精有多少分量，可触本质又有多少分量。关于元精，我们还必须探究它是丰盈和浮胀的还是瘠瘦和稀微的；是精的还是粗的；是近于火的还是近于空气的；是矫捷的还是懒慢的；是强的还是弱的；是前进的还是后退的；是间断的还是连续不断的；同外面周围的东西是相一致的还是不相一致的；以及此类等等。关于可触本质（其中容有的差异也不少于在元精方面的），我们同样也要探究到它的外皮、纤维与组织种类。此外，通贯于这实在体架直至其肤孔、通道和脉络和细胞的元精的倾向，以及有机物体的初形或最初努力，这些亦都应加以同样的查究。
评析：“的的”不休，译文趋于口语，亦显烦冗。
试译：例如，吾人须探究每一物体精气含量，有形要素含量，以及精气充沛及膨胀，或瘦瘠和稀散，精细或粗糙，近似气或火，活泼或迟钝，虚弱或强壮，渐进或衰退，断续或持续，适合外界及周边物体，或与其相异，等等。吾人以同样方式探究有形要素（差异几与精气同）、其皮毛、纤维和肌理。此外，贯通躯体之精气性质，连同毛孔、通道、脉络和细胞，以及有机体雏形或初试，都以相同方式探查。
...... For example, it is obvious that air andspirit, and like bodies, which in their entire substance are rare and subtle, can neither be seen nor touched. Therefore in the investigation of bodies of this kind it is altogether necessary to resort to reductions.（Book Two 40）
试译：例如，空气和精气，以及类似物体，其整个本质稀疏且隐约，显然既不可见，亦不可触，因此，探查此类物体，亦须借助归纳法。
