卷一·序言与第一章　献书缘起与论敌的来势

BOOK I

卷一

PREFACE.

序言

[1] Long ago, Mavortius, our pride and glory, I promised that I would dedicate these little books to you; but for a long while a wavering diffidence held me back and, with doubtful trepidation, called me away from this undertaking of writing, since the frailty of my talent supposed that it could know nothing of the kind that it would judge worthy of your ears.

〔一〕马沃尔提乌斯，我们的骄傲与光荣，很久以前我就许诺要把这几卷小书献给你；但一种摇摆不定的羞怯长久拖住了我，又以疑惧之心把我从这番写作的事业上唤回，因为我才力单薄，自以为不可能懂得什么配得上你耳朵的东西。

[2] For when you held the fasces of the province of Campania, by the merit of which administration you are ennobled with the highest dignity of honor, I came to meet you, worn out by the rigor of the winter frosts and by the hardships of a long journey. There you strove to relieve the feebleness of my weary and exhausted body with the faithful and most devoted remedies of friendship.

〔二〕那时你执掌坎帕尼亚行省的束棒，因治理那里的功绩，你得享最高的荣誉与尊位；我被冬天严霜的酷烈和长途跋涉的艰辛折磨得精疲力竭，前去与你相会。在那里，你用友谊那忠实而极其虔敬的调养，竭力缓解我疲惫衰竭的身体的虚弱。

[3] And so, when health, restored by your comforts and cures, had brought me back to my former state, we recalled our past doings to each other and, bringing them back to memory, wove together varied and honorable stories in conversation.

〔三〕于是，当健康因你的慰藉与医治而恢复，把我带回从前的状态时，我们彼此回想过去的经历，把往事唤回记忆，在交谈里编织出种种体面而多样的故事。

[4] After we had talked over our careers and our advancements, you questioned me, as you remember, about the situation of the whole of Sicily, where I live and where I was born, and you sought a true and reasoned explanation of everything the old stories have handed down: what Scylla is meant to be, and what Charybdis; what is the turbulent confusion of the waves that rush together in the strait, which seas, though divided and separate, join at a fixed time and interval of hours in a contrary collision of their waters; what the fires do that burst forth from the summit of Etna, what their nature is or their substance, and from what source such great conflagrations issue and breathe forth without loss to the mountain; what kind of lake it is that is pointed out near the bed of the river Symaethus, called Palicus, which, ever foul with a livid thickness, darkens with leaden foam and, shrill with the roaring union of its waters, hisses out a piercing murmur.

〔四〕我们谈过了各自的仕途与升迁之后，你还记得，你向我询问我所居住、也是我出生之地的整个西西里的形势，要我对古老传说流传下来的一切，给出真实而有道理的解释：斯库拉是什么，卡律布狄斯又是什么；海峡里相撞的波涛那汹涌的混乱是什么，那些彼此分开、互不相连的海，怎样在固定的时辰与间隔里，以水流的逆向冲撞汇合在一起；从埃特纳山顶喷发的火焰有什么作用，它们的本性或实质是什么，如此巨大的大火从什么源头生出、喷吐出来，山却毫无损耗；还有那个在西迈托斯河河床附近指给人看、名叫帕利库斯的湖是怎样一个湖，它永远浑浊，带着青灰的稠厚，泛着铅色的泡沫而发黑，又因水流相交的轰鸣而尖响，嘶嘶地吐出刺耳的低吼。

[5] Recalling and inquiring with me into all the other things, too, that Attic and Roman letters had handed down to you from the first stage of your life concerning the marvels of the province of Sicily, you at last turned the course of your talk and discourse to the sphere of Archimedes, displaying to me the wisdom and learning of your divine intellect: what those nine spheres do; what the five zones do, which are colored by different kinds of nature; what the twelve signs do; what the everlasting wandering of the five planets effects; what the daily course and the yearly return of the Sun effect; what the swift motion of the Moon and the continual waxing and waning of her light effect; through how many revolutions, too, that Greater Year, as they call it, is completed, which restores these five planets, and the Moon and the Sun as well, to their places and starting points, and which is concluded in a cycle of one thousand four hundred and sixty-one years; what principle produces the Milky Way, and what the eclipses of the Sun and Moon; why the whirling rotation of the sky never carries the northern stars of the Bears down to the west and brings them back to the east; what part of the earth lies under the north wind, and what under the south; what principle keeps the earth itself, set in the middle, suspended in a balanced equilibrium; how far the Ocean, which some call the Atlantic sea, encloses the expanse of the earth like an island in the surrounding flow of its waters.

〔五〕你又同我一起回想、追问雅典与罗马的典籍从你人生最初的阶段起就传给你的、关于西西里行省种种奇观的其他一切事情；最后你把谈话与议论的方向转到阿基米德的天球上，向我展示你神妙才智的明达与学识：那九重天球有什么作用；那五带有什么作用，它们因性质不同而染上不同的颜色；十二星座有什么作用；五颗行星永不停息的游走成就什么；太阳每天的运行与每年的回归成就什么；月亮的快速运动和她光的不断盈亏成就什么；还有人们所说的那个「大年」，要经过多少次旋转才能完成，它使这五颗行星以及月亮和太阳都回到各自的位置与起点，以一千四百六十一年为一周而告终结；什么道理造成银河，什么道理造成日食与月食；为什么天的旋转从不把北方的两熊星座带到西方沉没，再带回东方；地上哪一部分在北风之下，哪一部分在南风之下；什么道理使大地本身居于正中，以平衡的均势悬在空中；那被有些人称为大西洋的大洋，以环流的海水把大地的广袤像一座岛那样围住，究竟围到多远。

[6] When all these things were being taught to me by you, Mavortius, ornament of good men, with the easy mastery of your demonstration, I too dared, with the rashness of ill-considered speech, to put something forward: I promised you that I would publish whatever the ancient sages of Egypt, those divine men, and the wise men of Babylon have handed down to us, through the teaching of their divine doctrine, about the force and the powers of the stars.

〔六〕马沃尔提乌斯，善人的光彩，当你以从容娴熟的讲解把这一切教给我时，我也凭着一番未加思量的言辞的鲁莽，大胆提出了一件事：我向你许诺，要把埃及古代的贤人、那些神圣的人，以及巴比伦的智者，借他们神圣学说的教导传给我们的关于星辰之力与诸般权能的一切，公之于世。

[7] I was therefore, as I myself know, rash in this promise, and, to speak the truth with you, I often reproached myself with severe rebuke and wished, if it were allowed, to take back my promise; but the encouragement of your words lifted up my trepidation and compelled me to take up what I had often abandoned in despair. For when the serene and venerable judgment of our lord and emperor Constantine Augustus had entrusted to you the government of the whole East, you let no occasion pass without demanding of me what I had promised you in an ill-considered pledge.

〔七〕所以，正如我自己知道的，我在这个诺言上是鲁莽的；跟你说实话，我常常严厉地责备自己，巴不得在许可的情况下收回诺言；可是你话语的鼓励振起了我的惶恐，逼着我着手做那件我常因绝望而放弃的事。因为当我们的主上、皇帝君士坦丁·奥古斯都那安详而可敬的裁断把整个东方的治理托付给你时，你没有放过任何一个时机，总要向我索取我在一时轻率的保证里许给你的东西。

[8] And so to you, proconsul and consul ordinarius designate, I render what was promised, praying and begging your pardon, that the weight and grace of finished eloquence, grand treatments, or weighty and firm judgments may not be demanded in these books by the verdict of your learning and eloquence. In me there is a slender talent and a meager style and, as must truly be confessed, a very modest knowledge of mathesis [text uncertain]. And although all these things troubled me with despair of various kinds, I nevertheless undertook the labor of writing, so that, though I stood bound by arduous and most difficult promises, I should not disappoint the most learned judgment of your wisdom, Lollianus.

〔八〕因此，你这位行省总督、当选的正任执政官，我现在把许诺之物交给你，并且祈求你的宽恕：请不要凭你的学识与雄辩来裁断，在这几卷书里要求完美文辞的分量与风采、宏大的论述，或是庄重而坚实的见解。我的才力单薄，文笔浅陋，而且必须老实承认，我对数学的认识也十分有限〔原文疑有讹误〕。虽然这一切以种种绝望扰乱我，我还是承担起写作的劳苦，为的是：我既已被这些艰巨至极的诺言所束缚，就不该辜负你那智慧的、极其博学的判断，洛利亚努斯。

I.

第一章

[1] Standing, then, in the entrance hall of my discourse and at the very first beginnings of the work, I must do nothing else than answer those who try to undermine the whole force of mathesis with many kinds of argument, and who think that with their opinions and disputations they can shatter all philosophy and divine knowledge by the authority of lofty speech. These people, as I judge and as the facts themselves prove, are driven not by any weakness or falsehood in the doctrine itself but by a zeal for contradiction, so that things certain and defined, which we discern not only with the mind and reason but behold with the keenness and judgment of our very eyes, are resisted by arguments of combative license.

〔一〕所以，我既站在这篇论述的门厅里，站在这部著作最初的开端，就不该做别的事，只该答复那些人：他们用多种多样的论辩企图动摇数学的全部力量，自以为凭着高妙言辞的权威，用他们的见解与辩论就能击碎一切哲学和神圣的知识。依我判断，事实本身也证明：驱使这些人的，不是这门学说本身有什么软弱或虚假，而是好辩之心，以致那些确定而明白的事——我们不但用心灵与理性辨识它们，还用自己眼睛的锐利与判断亲眼看到它们——竟遭到好斗的放肆论辩的抵制。

[2] For these men, with their excessively lofty and subtle disputations, taking their start first from the very responses of the astrologers, try to creep in, as if through a kind of tunnel, to undermine this entire science; yet the more vehemently they fight and the more they seek out ways of persuasion, the more vehemently and strongly they confirm the credibility of astrology.

〔二〕因为这些人以过分高深精微的辩论，先从星占家的答语本身入手，企图像钻一条地道似的爬进来，挖倒这整门学问；然而他们攻得越猛，越是寻找说服人的途径，就越猛烈、越有力地证实了星占之学的可信。

[3] For it would have no true substance if they did not strive against it with such great forces of argument. Nor is this to be wondered at, since we know how great a disagreement there is among them about the very nature of the gods, and with how many arguments in their disputations they try to overturn the whole power of the divine: some say that the gods do not exist; others define that they exist but take care of nothing; others that they both exist and undertake the care and governance of our affairs. And all of them are caught up in such variety and disagreement that it would be lengthy and beside the point, especially at this time, when I have undertaken a different work, to enumerate the opinions of each.

〔三〕因为倘若他们不用如此强大的论辩之力来与它相抗，它就不会有真实的实质。这也不足为奇，因为我们知道，他们彼此之间对于诸神本身的本性有多大的分歧，又用多少论辩的论据企图推翻神性的全部力量：有人说诸神不存在；有人断定诸神存在，却什么也不照管；还有人说诸神既存在，又承担照料与治理我们事务之责。他们全都陷在如此纷繁的分歧里，若要一一列举各人的见解，未免冗长而离题，尤其是在这个时候，我已着手的是另一件工作。

[4] For some assign shapes to the gods at their own pleasure and allot them places, establish seats for them as well, write a great deal about their deeds and their life, and declare that everything that has been made and established is ruled and governed by their will; others have said that the gods undertake nothing, care for nothing, and are free from every care of administration; and all of them bring forward something plausible that invites the minds of their hearers to easy belief.

〔四〕有人随意给诸神安上形貌，分配处所，还为他们设立座位，大写他们的事迹与生平，宣称一切已被造成、已被确立的东西，都由他们的意志统治管理；另一些人则说诸神什么也不经营、什么也不照管，摆脱了一切治理的操劳；而他们个个都拿出一点似乎可信的东西，引诱听者的心轻易地相信。

[5] As for what has been said about the immortality of the soul, the statements of the divine Plato and of the most acute and ardent Aristotle show themselves contrary to and at war with each other; and about good and evil, too, their opinions differ among themselves and keep shifting.

〔五〕至于关于灵魂不朽所说的话，那神圣的柏拉图与那极其敏锐而热烈的亚里士多德的言论，显出彼此相反、互相冲突；关于善与恶，他们的见解也彼此不同，而且变动不定。

[6] The exposition of these matters I think must now be passed over; for I have not entered into this kind of disputation, nor have I set my mind and purpose on refuting or confirming these things; I have touched on all of them briefly for this reason only: that the contentious fabrications of those who contradict might be laid open to all people, once their partisan zeal had been exposed.

〔六〕对这些事的阐述，我想现在必须略过；因为我并没有进入这一类的辩论，也没有把心思与打算放在驳斥或证实这些事上；我把这些事都简短地触及一下，只是为了一个缘故：一旦揭穿了那些反驳者的门户之见，他们那些好争的虚构就会摊开在所有人面前。

[7] It is my wish, then, to review what they say about mathesis, and my concern to touch briefly on everything they have said; for since I am going to explain the substance of mathesis and astrology, I ought not to linger too long over the works of others.

〔七〕所以，我的意思是检讨他们关于数学说了些什么，我所关心的是把他们说过的一切简短地提一提；因为我既要讲明数学与星占之学的实质，就不该在别人的著作上停留太久。