Preface序

[From The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907-21).VOLUME XV. Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I; Chapter V. Philosophers and Divines, 1720-1789. § 6. John Woolman by Woodbridge Riley]【选自《剑桥英美文学史》十八卷本（一九〇七至一九二一年），第十五卷《殖民地与革命时期文学；早期民族文学》第一部，第五章《哲学家与神学家，一七二〇至一七八九》，第六节伍德布里奇·赖利撰《约翰·伍尔曼》。】

A similar fate befell the last of our colonial thinkers, John Woolman (1720-1772), the Quaker, a sort of provincial Piers Plowman, whose visions of reform were far ahead of his day. In his Journal, the humble tailor of New Jersey takes up, in order, the evils of war and of lotteries, of negro slavery and excessive labour, of the selling of rum to the Indians, of cruelty to animals. Moreover, like the visions of the Plowman, Woolman’s work might be called a contribution to the history of English mysticism. Whittier described the Journal as “a classic of the inner life”; Channing, as “beyond comparison the sweetest and purest autobiography in the language”; while Charles Lamb urged his readers to get the writings of Woolman “by heart.”我们殖民地思想家中的最后一位约翰·伍尔曼（一七二〇至一七七二），这位贵格会信徒，也遭遇了类似的命运。他有点像一个地方性的“农夫皮尔斯”，改革的眼光远远超出自己的时代。在《日记》中，这位新泽西卑微的裁缝依次讨论战争和彩票的罪恶、黑人奴隶制和过度劳动的罪恶、向印第安人出售朗姆酒的罪恶，以及虐待动物的罪恶。 而且，正像《农夫皮尔斯》的异象一样，伍尔曼的作品也可以说是英国神秘主义史的一项贡献。惠蒂尔称这部《日记》为“内在生活的经典”；钱宁称其为“英语中无与伦比的最甜美、最纯净的自传”；查尔斯·兰姆则劝读者把伍尔曼的著作“熟记于心”。

These writings are in marked contrast to the controversial spirit of their time. They avoid entangling alliances with either the old or new divinity, and have little to do with the endless quarrels between Calvinists and Arminians. In place of doctrine and formal creed come “silent frames” and the exercises of the interior or hidden life. The contrast is like that portrayed by Woolman himself when he said that “while many parts of the world groaned under the heavy calamities of war, our habitation remains quiet, and our land fruitful.”这些著作同当时的论争精神形成鲜明对照。它们避免同旧神学或新神学结成纠缠不清的联盟，也很少涉及加尔文派与阿民念派之间无休止的争吵。取代教义和正式信条的，是“静默的心境”以及内在或隐秘生命的操练。伍尔曼本人曾说：“当世界许多地方在战争的沉重灾难下呻吟时，我们的居所仍然安宁，我们的土地仍然丰饶。”这种对比正像他这句话所描绘的那样。

In Woolman, then, we have the fruits of quietism as contrasted with the fruits of controversy. Duties rather than doctrine are emphasized, and all with that air of innocent simplicity held so desirable by the Society of Friends. Because of his candour and his fervour, Woolman might be called a socialist unconscious of his socialism, except for the fact that his efforts were exerted in a private capacity, and that he offended not even those with whom he laboured-soldiers, slave owners, dealers in goods which were to be looked upon as contraband to Christianity. He accomplished his results upon the Quaker principle of natural sensibility. In marked contrast to the Calvinist principle of the depravity of the human heart, he argues upon the possibilities of the human mind towards good:— “that as the mind was moved, by an inward principle, to love God as an invisible, incomprehensible being; by the same principle it was moved to love Him in all His manifestations in the visible world.” (Journal, p.9.)因此，在伍尔曼身上，我们看到的是静默主义的果实，而非论争的果实。他强调的是责任而不是教义，而且一切都带着教友会极为看重的天真朴素气息。由于他的坦诚和热忱，伍尔曼也许可以称为一个并不知道自己是社会主义者的社会主义者；不过，他的努力都是以私人身份展开的，而且即使是他所劝导的人，如士兵、奴隶主、经营那些应被视为有违基督教精神货物的商人，也没有被他冒犯。 他取得成效，依靠的是贵格会所谓天然感受力的原则。与加尔文派关于人心败坏的原则形成鲜明对照的是，他依据人心向善的可能性进行论证：“正如心灵受一种内在原则感动，去爱上帝这位不可见、不可测的存在；它也受同一原则感动，在可见世界中上帝的一切显现里爱他。”（《日记》，第九页。）

Armed with this gentle logic, he began to set down, not his programme of reforms, but a recital of certain “heavenly openings” in respect to the care and providence of the Almighty over his creatures. The first of those creatures for whom Woolman was concerned was a slave. Here there arose a conflict between the logic of compassion and the logic of commerce, for when his employer obliged him to write a bill of sale for a poor negro woman, he was much afflicted in mind. As was his wont, Woolman now began to gather reasons for his feeling of uneasiness. That which was against conscience he now finds to be against logical conviction, especially when in a journey to the Southern provinces he meets with slave owners. To their arguments in favour of fetching negroes from Africa for slaves because of the wretchedness occasioned by their intestine wars, he replies that liberty is the natural right of all men equally. But this general principle— a commonplace of the age of reason— is not so effective as one more particular:带着这种温和的逻辑，他开始写下的并不是改革纲领，而是关于全能者对其造物的看顾和眷顾的若干“天启式开启”。伍尔曼最先关切的造物之一，是一名奴隶。于是，怜悯的逻辑同商业的逻辑发生了冲突；因为当他的雇主要他为一名贫苦黑人妇女写卖契时，他心中十分痛苦。 按他的习惯，伍尔曼开始为自己的不安寻找理由。凡是违背良心的，他如今发现也违背理性的确信，尤其当他在前往南方各省的旅途中遇见奴隶主时，更是如此。对于他们主张从非洲买来黑人为奴，是因为非洲内部战争造成了悲惨处境，他回答说，自由是所有人平等享有的自然权利。可是，这个普遍原则，虽是理性时代的常识，却不如下面这个更具体的论证有效：

There is great odds on what principle we act. If compassion on the Africans, in regard to their domestic trouble, were the real motives of our purchasing them, that spirit of tenderness being attended to, would incite us to use them kindly. But to say they live unhappy in Africa is far from being an argument in our favour; our real views in purchasing them are to advance ourselves, and, while our buying captives taken in war animates those parties to push on the war and increase desolation amongst them, we too are putting upon our shoulders a burthensome stone, a burden that will grow heavier and heavier till times change in a way disagreeable to us. (Journal, p. 60.)我们依据什么原则行事，差别极大。如果我们购买非洲人，真正动机是怜悯他们在本土所受的灾难，那么只要听从这种温柔精神，它就会促使我们善待他们。可是说他们在非洲生活不幸，远不能成为有利于我们的论据；我们购买他们的真实目的，是为了增进自己的利益。并且，当我们购买战争俘虏，激励那些党派继续推动战争、在他们中间增加荒凉时，我们也正把一块沉重的石头放在自己肩上；这负担会越来越重，直到时代以我们所不愿见的方式改变为止。（《日记》，第六十页。）

Upon this argument, presented with a kindly shrewdness, many of Woolman’s slave-owning hearers looked serious. It was a prophency of the irrepressible conflict between slaveholders and free-holders, and that over a century before that conflict came. So the prospect of a road lying open to degeneracy in some parts of this newly settled land of America, now drove Woolman to publish, and at his own expense, Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes Recommended to the Professors of Christianity of every Denomination (1754-62). The author is troubled with a weight of distress because, instead of the spirit of meekness, gentleness, and heavenly wisdom, a spirit of fierceness and a love of dominion too generally prevails. Yet it is not criticism, but compassion, that furnishes Woolman with his strongest lever against that great building “raised by degrees, from small beginnings in error.” In a series of indirect questions, the logician of the heart brings the matter home. Drawing upon contemporary accounts of the slave trade, he argues in this fashion:伍尔曼以善意而精明的方式提出这一论证，使许多蓄奴的听众神情严肃起来。这是对奴隶主与自由民之间那场不可遏止冲突的预言，而且比那场冲突早了一个多世纪。因此，当他看见这片新近定居的美洲土地上某些地方似乎有一条通向堕落的道路敞开时，便促使他自费出版了《关于蓄养黑人问题的若干思考，荐予各教派基督信徒》（一七五四至一七六二）。 作者心中承受着沉重的忧伤，因为温柔、谦和和属天智慧的精神并没有占上风，凶猛之气和支配欲却太普遍地盛行。然而，为伍尔曼提供反对那座“由错误中的微小开端逐渐筑起”的巨大建筑的最有力杠杆的，并不是批判，而是怜悯。通过一连串间接的问题，这位心灵的逻辑家把问题带回人们身边。他借用当时关于奴隶贸易的记述，这样论证：

Should we consider ourselves present as spectators, when cruel negroes privately catch innocent children, who are employed in the fields; hear their lamentable cries, under the most terrifying apprehensions; or should we look upon it as happening in our own families, having our children carried off by savages, we must needs own, that such proceedings are contrary to the nature of Christianity. (Keeping of Negroes, p.317.)如果我们设想自己在场旁观，看见残忍的黑人私下抓捕正在田间劳作的无辜儿童，听见他们在极度恐惧中发出的悲惨哭声；或者，如果我们把这事看作发生在自己的家庭中，看见自己的孩子被野蛮人掳走，我们就必然承认，这样的行为同基督教的本性相违背。（《蓄养黑人问题》，第三一七页。）

In the light of such disclosures, Woolman might have attacked the accursed institution with directness and bitterness, but his method is ever indirect, ever indirect, ever imbued with a sweet reasonableness.在这些揭示面前，伍尔曼本可以直接而尖锐地攻击这个可诅咒的制度；但他的方法始终是间接的，始终浸润着一种甜美的合情合理。

“The English government,” he continues, “hath been commended by candid foreigners for the disuse of racks and tortures, so much practiced in some states; but this multiplying slaves now leads to it; for where people exact hard labour of others, without a suitable reward, and are resolved to continue in that way, severity to such who oppose them becomes the consequence… These things are contrary to the true order of kind providence. Admit that the first negro man and his wife did as much business as their master and mistress, and that the children of the slaves have done some more than their young masters… It follows, that in equity these negroes have a right to a part of this increase… Again, if we seriously consider that liberty is the right of innocent men; that the Almighty God is a refuge for the oppressed; that in reality we are indebted to them… to retain them in perpetual servitude, without present cause for it, will produce effects, in the event, more grievous than setting them free would do.” (Keeping of Negroes, p. 298.)他继续说：“英国政府曾因废弃某些国家大量使用的拷问和酷刑而受到公正外国人的称赞；可是如今奴隶日益增多，正会导向这些东西。因为凡有人要求别人辛苦劳动而不给相称报酬，并决意继续这样做，对反抗者施以严厉手段便成了结果……这些事情违背仁慈天意的真正秩序。 假定最初那个黑人男子和他的妻子，做的事情同他们的主人和主母一样多，而奴隶的子女又比他们的年轻主人多做了一些……那么按公平说，这些黑人就有权分享这一增益的一部分……再者，如果我们认真思考：自由是无辜之人的权利；全能上帝是受压迫者的避难所；事实上我们欠他们的债……若无当前正当理由却把他们永远留在奴役之中，最终产生的后果会比释放他们更为悲惨。”（《蓄养黑人问题》，第二九八页。）

And so in a final passage breathing the very spirit of the Society of Friends, the Quaker liberator presents the fundamental objection to the keeping of the poor blacks in servitude:于是，在最后一段充满教友会精神的文字中，这位贵格会解放者提出了反对使可怜黑人处于奴役状态的根本理由：

There is a principle, which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in different places and ages hath had different names; it is, however, pure and proceeds from God.— It is deep, and inward, confined to no forms of religion, nor excluded from any, where the heart stands in perfect sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root, and grows, of what nation soever, they become brethren. (Ibid., p. 325.)有一种纯净的原则，被安置在人心之中；在不同地方和时代，它有过不同名称；然而它是纯净的，并且出于上帝。它深沉而内在，不受任何宗教形式所拘限，也不被排斥在任何宗教形式之外，只要人的心处于完全真诚之中。无论在哪一个民族，只要这种原则在谁心中扎根并成长，他们就成为弟兄。（同上，第三二五页。）