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autobiography and selected essays-第11章

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theology and state affairs; to discourse and consider of

philosophical enquiries。〃  But our 〃Mathematick〃 is one which

Newton would have to go to school to learn; our 〃Staticks;

Mechanicks; Magneticks; Chymicks; and Natural Experiments〃

constitute a mass of physical and chemical knowledge; a glimpse at

which would compensate Galileo '32' for the doings of a score of

inquisitorial cardinals; our 〃Physick〃 and 〃Anatomy〃 have embraced

such infinite varieties of beings; have laid open such new worlds

in time and space; have grappled; not unsuccessfully; with such

complex problems; that the eyes of Vesalius '33' and of Harvey '34'

might be dazzled by the sight of the tree that has grown out of

their grain of mustard seed。



The fact is perhaps rather too much; than too little; forced upon

one's notice; nowadays; that all this marvellous intellectual

growth has a no less wonderful expression in practical life; and

that; in this respect; if in no other; the movement symbolised by

the progress of the Royal Society stands without a parallel

in the history of mankind。



A series of volumes as bulky as the 〃Transactions of the Royal

Society〃 might possibly be filled with the subtle speculations '35'

of the Schoolmen;'36' not improbably; the obtaining a mastery over

the products of mediaeval thought might necessitate an even greater

expenditure of time and of energy than the acquirement of the 〃New

Philosophy〃; but though such work engrossed the best intellects of

Europe for a longer time than has elapsed since the great fire; its

effects were 〃writ in water;〃'37' so far as our social state is

concerned。



On the other hand; if the noble first President of the Royal

Society could revisit the upper air and once more gladden his eyes

with a sight of the familiar mace; he would find himself in the

midst of a material civilisation more different from that of his

day; than that of the seventeenth was from that of the first

century。  And if Lord Brouncker's '38' native sagacity had not

deserted his ghost; he would need no long reflection to discover

that all these great ships; these railways; these telegraphs; these

factories; these printing…presses; without which the whole fabric

of modern English society would collapse into a mass of stagnant

and starving pauperism;that all these pillars of our State are

but the ripples and the bubbles upon the surface of that great

spiritual stream; the springs of which only; he and his fellows

were privileged to see; and seeing; to recognise as that which it

behoved them above all things to keep pure and undefiled。



It may not be too great a flight of imagination to conceive our

noble revenant '39' not forgetful of the great troubles of his own day;

and anxious to know how often London had been burned down since his

time and how often the plague had carried off its thousands。  He

would have to learn that; although London contains tenfold the

inflammable matter that it did in 1666; though; not content with

filling our rooms with woodwork and light draperies; we must needs

lead inflammable and explosive gases into every corner of our

streets and houses; we never allow even a street to burn down。  And

if he asked how this had come about; we should have to explain that

the improvement of natural knowledge has furnished us with dozens

of machines for throwing water upon fires; any one of which would

have furnished the ingenious Mr。 Hooke; the first 〃curator and

experimenter〃 of the Royal Society; with ample materials for

discourse before half a dozen meetings of that body; and that; to

say truth; except for the progress of natural knowledge; we should

not have been able to make even the tools by which these machines

are constructed。  And; further; it would be necessary to add; that

although severe fires sometimes occur and inflict great damage; the

loss is very generally compensated by societies; the operations of

which have been rendered possible only by the progress of natural

knowledge in the direction of mathematics; and the accumulation of

wealth in virtue of other natural knowledge。



But the plague?  My Lord Brouncker's observation would not; I fear;

lead him to think that Englishmen of the nineteenth century are

purer in life; or more fervent in religious faith; than the

generation which could produce a Boyle;'40' an Evelyn;'41' and

a Milton。  He might find the mud of society at the bottom; instead

of at the top; but I fear that the sum total would be as deserving

of swift judgment as at the time of the Restoration。'42'  And it

would be our duty to explain once more; and this time not without

shame; that we have no reason to believe that it is the improvement

of our faith; nor that of our morals; which keeps the plague from

our city; but; again; that it is the improvement of our natural

knowledge。



We have learned that pestilences will only take up their abode

among those who have prepared unswept and ungarnished residences

for them。  Their cities must have narrow; unwatered streets; foul

with accumulated garbage。  Their houses must be ill…drained; ill…

lighted; ill…ventilated。  Their subjects must be ill…washed; ill…

fed; ill…clothed。  The London of 1665 was such a city。  The cities

of the East; where plague has an enduring dwelling; are such

cities。  We; in later times; have learned somewhat of Nature; and

partly obey her。  Because of this partial improvement of our

natural knowledge and of that fractional obedience; we have no

plague; because that knowledge is still very imperfect and that

obedience yet incomplete; typhoid is our companion and cholera our

visitor。  But it is not presumptuous to express the belief that;

when our knowledge is more complete and our obedience the

expression of our knowledge; London will count her centuries of

freedom from typhoid and cholera; as she now gratefully reckons her

two hundred years of ignorance of that plague which swooped upon

her thrice in the first half of the seventeenth century。



Surely; there is nothing in these explanations which is not fully

borne out by the facts?  Surely; the principles involved in them

are now admitted among the fixed beliefs of all thinking men?

Surely; it is true that our countrymen are less subject to fire;

famine; pestilence; and all the evils which result from a want of

command over and due anticipation of the course of Nature; than

were the countrymen of Milton; and health; wealth; and well…being

are more abundant with us than with them?  But no less certainly is

the difference due to the improvement of our knowledge of Nature;

and the extent to which that improved knowledge has been

incorporated with the household words of men; and has supplied the

springs of their daily actions。



Granting for a moment; then; the truth of that which the

depreciators of natural knowledge are so fond of urging; that its

improvement can only add to the resources of our material

civilisation; admitting it to be possible that the founders of the

Royal Society themselves looked for not other reward than this; I

cannot confess that I was guilty of exaggeration when I hinted;

that to him who had the gift of distinguishing between prominent

events and important events; the origin of a combined effort on the

part of mankind to improve natural knowledge might have loomed

larger than the Plague and have outshone the glare of the Fire; as

a something fraught with a wealth of beneficence to mankind; in

comparison with which the damage done by those ghastly evils would

shrink into insignificance。



It is very certain that for every victim slain by the plague;

hundreds of mankind exist and find a fair share of happiness in the

world by the aid of the spinning jenny。  And the great fire; at its

worst; could not have burned the supply of coal; the daily working

of which; in the bowels of the earth; made possible by the steam

pump; gives rise to an amount of wealth to which the

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