每日听写9.28-10.2初级人类与动物汇总

The chief difference between man and the other animals consists in this,
人类与动物区别在于：
that the former has reason, whereas the latter have only instinct;
前者具有理性，而后者唯有本能，
but, in order to understand what we mean by the terms reason and instinct,
不过为了弄清我们所说的理性与本能的定义，
it will be necessary to mention three things in which the difference very distinctly appears.
在此，有必要阐述三点人与动物之间的显见差异。
Let us first, to bring the parties as nearly on a level as possible, consider man in a savage state,
首先，让我们将人类与动物尽可能置于同一范畴比较，
wholly occupied, like the beasts of the field, in providing for the wants of his animal nature;
与兽类雷同，完全处于野蛮状态下的人类，就动物生存性需要而言，人类与动物无异；
and here the first distinction that appears between them is the use of implements.
这里，人类与动物关键差异在于工具的使用。
When the savage provides himself with a hut or a wigwam for shelter, or that he may store up his provisions,
当原始人出于自身考虑，搭建茅舍或者棚屋以遮风避雨，甚至存贮食物，
he does no more than is done by the rabbit, the beaver, the bee, and birds of every species.
其实，人类行为绝非具有超越野兔、海狸、蜜蜂或任何鸟类的本能意义。
But the man can not make any progress in this work without tools;
如果没有工具，在原始生存环境下，人类不会获取任何进步；
he must provide himself with an ax even before he can cut down a tree for its timber;
当原始人为获取木头而砍伐树木前，他必须准备刀斧之类工具；
whereas these animals form their burrows, their cells, or their nests, with no other tools than those with which nature has provided them.
而动物打算挖建洞穴、筑造蜂巢、或垒搭鸟窝，无法利用自然界物件造出可供自己使用的工具。
In cultivating the ground, also, man can do nothing without a spade or a plow;
如果没有木锹或铧犁，人类无法耕作或翻整土地；
nor can he reap what he has sown till he has shaped an implement with which to cut down his harvest.
甚而无法收获播种的庄稼，除非他事先做出某种可以收割庄稼的工具。
But the inferior animals provide for themselves and their young without any of these things.
然而，低级动物无法为自己或后代制造任何劳动工具。
Now for the second distinction. Man, in all his operations, makes mistakes; animals make none.
现在，我们来谈谈第二个差异。就人类行为举止而言，凡夫俗子错误在所难免；
Did you ever hear of such a thing as a bird sitting on a twig lamenting over her half-finished nest and puzzling her little head to know how to complete it?
而动物不会犯错误。你是否听说栖息树枝上的小鸟哀叹自己尚未完工的巢穴，或是不知所措怎样将巢穴建好？
Or did you ever see the cells of a beehive in clumsy, irregular shapes,
你是否观察过那些拙笨、不规则的蜂房巢室，
or observe anything like a discussion in the little community, as if there were a difference of opinion among the architects?
是否留意在筑造蜂巢时，蜜蜂群体成员存在不同意见从而进行讨论？
The lower animals are even better physicians than we are;
与人类相比，低级动物不愧是更好的医生。
for when they are ill, they will, many of them, seek out some particular herb, which they do not, use as food,
动物生病时，它们大多寻找某些特殊药草，这类药草并非食用，
and which possesses a medicinal quality exactly suited to the complaint;
而是专门用作治病养伤，并且确实具有某种药物疗效；
whereas, the whole college of physicians will dispute for a century about the virtues of a single drug.
相反，就医用疗效来说，哪怕一种药物，整个医学院专家医生们完全可以喋喋不休地辩论上百年。
Man undertakes nothing in which he is not more or less puzzled;
人类做事总喜欢瞻前顾后，
and must try numberless experiments before he can bring his undertakings to anything like perfection;
他必须无数次躬身亲为，试图将事情做到近乎完善，
even the simplest operations of domestic life are not well performed without some experience;
然而，哪怕最简单的家庭生活缺乏实践，他亦无法做到称心如意。
and the term of man's life is half wasted before he has done with his mistakes and begins to profit by his lessons.
人类初涉某一事物，错误过失在所难免，每每开始从自身经验教训里终有所得，他的人生时光早已挥霍过半。
The third distinction is that animals make no improvements;
人类与动物的第三点差异在于：动物本身绝不存在任何改进或进步；
while the knowledge, and skill, and the success of man are perpetually on the increase.
而人类知识、技能以及成功终将不断地推进自己完善。
Animals, in all their operations, follow the first impulse of nature or that instinct which God has implanted in them.
大凡动物的行为举止，不过遵循生物的最初欲望或上帝嵌入生物的不同本能需求。
In all they do undertake, therefore, their works are more perfect and regular than those of man.
因此，不管它们从事任何事情，其结果总会比人类所做的更为有序完美。
But man, having been endowed with the faculty of thinking or reasoning about what he does,
然而，由于其行为举止被赋予思考与推理的能力,
is enabled by patience and industry to correct the mistakes into which he at first falls, and to go on constantly improving.
人类通过耐心勤奋可以纠正最初错误，并且不断地加以调整。
A bird's nest is, indeed, a perfect structure;
的确，一只鸟窝构造完美，
yet the nest of a swallow of the nineteenth century is not at all more commodious or elegant than those that were built amid the rafters of Noah's ark.
但十九世纪燕子的巢穴完全不会比用椽木建造的诺亚方舟更为舒适漂亮。
But if we compare the wigwam of the savage with the temples and palaces of ancient Greece and Rome,
不过，当我们将原始人窝棚与古希腊或古罗马的庙宇宫殿进行比较，
we then shall see to what man's mistakes, rectified and improved upon, conduct him.
我们不难看出，一个持续绵延的纠偏改进过程，引导人类走向完美。
When the vast sun shall veil his golden light
当庞大太阳收敛金色阳光，
Deep in the gloom of everlasting night;
世界进入永恒无边的黑夜，
When wild, destructive flames shall wrap the skies,
毁灭火焰呼啸着卷过天空，
When ruin triumphs, and when nature dies;
到处在坍塌，自然走向濒亡，
Man shall alone the wreck of worlds survive;
目睹无数星体纷纷坠落消逝，
'Mid falling spheres, immortal man shall live.
人类在宇宙残骸中孤独伫立。