原创 《Tolerance》英汉对照翻译

《

Tolerance

》

by E.M. Forster

Surely

the

only

sound

foundation

for

a

civilization

is

a

sound

state

of

mind.

Architects,

contractors, international commissioners, marketing boards, broadcasting corporations will never,

by themselves, build a new world. They must be inspired by the proper spirit in the people for

whom they are working.

What, though, is the proper spirit? There must be a sound state of mind before diplomacy or

economics or trade conferences can function. But what state of mind is sound? Here we may be

different. Most people, when asked what spiritual quality is needed to rebuild another civilization,

will reply

series of cataclysms which is threatening to destroy us will be checked.

Respectfully but firmly, I disagree. Love is a great force in private life; it is indeed the greatest

of all things. But love in public affairs does not work. It has been tried again and again: by the

Christian civilizations of the Middle Ages, and also by the French Revolution, a secular movement

which reasserted the Brotherhood of Man. And it has always failed. The idea that nations should

love

one

another

or

that

a

person

in

Portugal

should

love

an

unknown

person

in

Peru

---it

is

absurd, unreal, and dangerous. It leads us into perilous and vague sentimentalism.

is needed,

love what we know personally. And we cannot know much. In public affairs, in the rebuilding of

civilization, something much less dramatic and emotional is needed, namely, tolerance. Tolerance

is a very dull virtue. It is boring. Unlike love, it has always had bad press. It is negative. It means

merely putting up with people, being able to stand things. No one has ever written an ode to

tolerance, or raised a statue to her. Yet this is the quality which will most be needed after the war.

This is the state of mind we are looking for. This is the only force which will enable different races

and classes and interests to settle down together to the work of reconstruction

The world is full of people--- appallingly full; it has never been so full before, and they are all

tumbling over each other. Most of these people one doesn't know and some of them one doesn't

like; doesn't like the color of their skins, say, or the shape of their noses, or the way they blow

them or don't blow them, or the way they talk, or their fondness of jazz or their dislike of jazz,

and so on. Well, what is one to do? There are two solutions. One is the Nazi solution. If you don't

like them, kill them, banish them, segregate them, and strut up and down proclaiming that you

are

the

salt

of

the

earth.

The

other

way

is

less

thrilling,

but

is

on

the

whole

the

way

of

the

democracies, and I prefer it. If you don't like people, put up with them as well as you can. Don't

try to love them. You can't, and you'll only strain yourself. But try to tolerate them. On the basis

of

that

tolerance

a

civilized

future

may

be

built.

Certainly

I

see

no

other

foundation

for

the

postwar world.

For

what

it

will

most

need

is

the

negative

virtues:

not

being

huffy,

touchy,

irritable,