Causes Are People
?苏珊·科布斯 / Susan Cobbs
It has not been easy for me to meet this assignment. In the first place, I am not a very articulate person, and then one has so many beliefs, changing and fragmented and transitory beliefs—besides the ones most central to our lives. I have tried hard to pull out and put into words my most central beliefs. I hope that what I say won’t sound either too simple or too pious.
I know that it is my deep and fixed conviction that man has within him the force of good and the power to translate that force into life. For me, this means a pattern of life that makes personal relationships more important. A pattern that makes more beautiful and attractive the personal virtues: courage, humility, selflessness and love. I used to smile at my mother because the tears came so readily to her eyes when she heard or read of some incident that called out these virtues. I don’t smile any more because I find I have become more and more responsive in the same inconvenient way to the same kind of story.
And so I believe that I both can and must work to achieve the good that is in me. The words of Socrates keep coming back to me: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” By examination we can discover what is our good, and we can realize that knowledge of good means its achievement. I know that such self-examination has never been easy—Plato maintained that it was the soul’s eternal search. It seems to me peculiarly difficult now. In a period of such rapid material expansion and such wide spread conflicts, black and white have become gray and will not easily separate.
There is a belief which follows this. If I have the potential of the good life within me and the compulsion to express it, then it is a power and compulsion common to all men. What I must have for myself to conduct my search, all men must have: freedom of choice, faith in the power and the beneficent qualities of truth. What frightens me most today is the denial of these rights, because this can only come from the denial of what seems to me the essential nature of man. For if my conviction holds, man is more important than anything he has created and our great task is to bring back again into a subordinate position the monstrous superstructures of our society.
I hope this way of reducing our problems to the human equation is not simply an evasion of them. I don’t believe it is. For most of us it is the only area in which we can work: the human area—with ourselves, with the people we touch, and through these two by vicarious understanding, with mankind. I believe this is the safest starting point. I watch young people these days wrestling with our mighty problems. They are much more concerned with them and involved in them than my generation of students ever was. They are deeply aware of the words “equality” and “justice”. In their great desire to right wrong they are prone to forget that causes are people, that nothing matters more than people. They need to add to their crusades the warmer and more affecting virtues of compassion and love. And here again come those personal virtues that bring tears to the eyes.
One further word, I believe that the power of good within us is real and comes there from a source outside and beyond ourselves. Otherwise, I could not put my trust so firmly in it.
对我来说，完成这个任务实在是一件难事。首先，我并非能言善辩之人；再者，一个人除了最主要的生活信仰之外，还会有多种信仰，比如变化的、零碎的以及短暂的信仰。我试着尽力说明自己最主要的生活信仰。但愿我的言辞不会过于简单或过于虔诚。
我了解，每个人心中都拥有善的力量，并且能够将这种力量付诸生活，这便是我最深且最坚定的信仰。对我来说，它意味着一种能够使人际关系变得更重要的生活模式。勇气、谦恭、无私与关爱，这些美德在这种方式下会变得更美丽、感人。母亲一听到或读到有关美德的故事便会感动得热泪盈眶，过去我常为此而笑话她。然而现在，我不会再笑她了，因为我发现自己对同类故事的反应也愈加强烈，并且同样不合时宜。
因而，我相信，我能够也必须为表达内心的善良付诸行动。“未经受过审视的人生不值得去生活。”苏格拉底的这句话常常会出现在我的脑海中。经过审视，我们能发现自己的善良所在，就能明白善良意味着赢得了成就的道理。我明白，这样的自省并非易事——柏拉图认为这是灵魂永恒的追求。如今我觉得，自省尤为艰难，特别是在当今这个物欲急速膨胀、冲突四起、黑白混淆难辨的时代。
紧随而来的一种信仰便是，如果我拥有行善一生的内在潜力以及表现它的冲动，那人人都能拥有这种潜力与冲动了。选择的自由，对这种潜力及能造福人类的真理的信仰，是我在追求过程中必须具备的自身条件，也是人人都必须拥有的。如今，否认这些权利是我最为害怕的，因为归根结底，对它们的否认就是对我所理解的基本人性的否认。如果我的信仰具有十足的把握，那么比起人所创造的任何事物，人更为重要，而将社会庞大的上层建筑重置于附属地位便是我们伟大的职责。
但愿将我们的问题归结为人类共同问题的方式，并不是对它们的一种逃避。我不相信这是一种逃避。因为它是我们多数人与自己，与接触的人合作，以及通过对两者的间接理解而与整个人类合作的唯一领域。我相信，这是最可靠的起点。这些日子以来，我看到年轻人正努力解决我们存在的重大问题。比起我们那一代学生，他们更关注这些问题，也更积极地参与。他们深刻意识到“平等”和“公正”两词的内涵。他们热切地希望能够匡正人世，但却易于忘记事业即人，没有什么比人更重要。他们应当将同情、爱等更感人的美德赋予这些运动。那些让人热泪盈眶的美德，在这里再次出现。
还有一句话：我相信，我们内心所拥有的善良的力量，源自我们身外。不然，我心中的信仰不会如此坚定。
1. I know that it is my_______and fixed conviction that man has within him the_______of good and the power to translate_______force into life. For me, this_______a pattern of life that makes personal relationships_______ important.
2. I hope this_______of reducing our problems to the human equation is_______simply an evasion of them. I don’t_______it is. For most of us it is the only area in_______we can work: the human area—with ourselves, with the_______we touch, and through these two_______vicarious understanding, with mankind.
1. 我了解，每个人心中都拥有善的力量，并且能够将这种力量付诸生活，这便是我最深且最坚定的信仰。
2. 我试着尽力说明自己最主要的生活信仰。
3. 我的言辞不会过于简单或过于虔诚。
1. Mills used to depend on wind power or water power.
used to do：过去常常
2. People seem to long more for the steady life.
seem to：似乎……
