卷一·第四至五章　此学虽难而可知；同族之人相貌各异

IV.

第四章

[1] As for the fact that some try to deter us from this pursuit by pointing to the difficulty of the science, I gladly embrace it. For these truly are arduous and difficult matters, which the soul, hampered by the earthly snares of filth, cannot easily grasp by a simple method of inquiry, even though it is itself formed from the fiery immortality of the divine.

〔一〕至于有些人指出这门学问的困难，想借此吓退我们不去研习，这一点我欣然接受。因为这些确实是艰深困难的事，灵魂受着污秽的尘世罗网所牵绊，凭简单的探究方法难以轻易把握，尽管灵魂本身是由神圣者那火的不朽所造成的。

[2] For the soul's divinity, which is sustained by everlasting motion, suffers a certain temporary loss of its divinity once it has been enclosed in an earthly body, since its force and substance are dulled by union and fellowship with the earthly body and by the continual dissolution of mortality. Hence it comes about that everything that pertains to the investigation of the divine arts is always handed down to us through difficult learning.

〔二〕因为灵魂的神性靠永恒的运动维持，一旦被关进尘世的身体，就要暂时失去一部分神性，因为它的力量与实质，被与尘世身体的结合与交谊、被可朽之物不断的消解所磨钝了。因此之故，凡属探究神圣技艺的一切，总是要通过艰难的学习传给我们。

[3] Therefore, since we have gladly and readily agreed on this point, showing why divine things are discerned only through difficult inquiry, he too must necessarily admit that the soul, which is immortal, once it has been separated from the vices and lusts of the earthly body and, keeping the awareness of its origin and seed, has recognized the force of its own majesty, easily attains, through the divine searching of the mind, everything that is thought difficult and arduous.

〔三〕所以，既然我们在这一点上欣然而爽快地同意了，说明了为什么神圣之事只有通过艰难的探究才能辨明，他也就必然要承认：灵魂既是不朽的，一旦脱离了尘世身体的恶习与欲念，保持着对自己来源与种子的觉知，认出了自身威严的力量，就能凭心智那神圣的探寻，轻易达到一切被认为困难艰深的东西。

[4] Tell me: who saw in the sky the course of the sea? Who struck the spark of hidden fire from the friction of stones? Who came to know the powers of herbs? To whom has the whole nature of the divine both shown and revealed itself, if not to the soul, which came forth from the celestial fire and was sent down to rule and govern earthly frailty?

〔四〕告诉我：是谁在天上看见了海路？是谁从石头的摩擦中击出了隐藏的火？是谁认识了草药的力量？整个神圣者的本性，除了向灵魂，还向谁显示、揭示过自己？灵魂出于天上的火，被派下来统治、管理尘世的脆弱。

[5] It was the soul that handed down the method of this science and its calculations; it showed the courses, retrogradations, stations, associations, increases, risings, and settings of the Sun and the Moon and of the other stars, which we call wandering and the Greeks call planets; and, placed in the frailty of the earthly body, through a brief recollection of its own majesty, it did not learn all these things in order to hand them down, but recognized them.

〔五〕是灵魂传下了这门学问的方法和它的计算；是它揭示了太阳、月亮以及其他星辰——我们称之为游星、希腊人称之为行星——的运行、逆行、留、结伴、增长、升起与沉没；它虽置身于尘世身体的脆弱之中，却凭着对自身威严的短暂回忆，并不是为了传授而学会了这一切，而是认出了它们。

[6] See: it is known and discovered in which sign the star of Saturn rejoices, and when its cold grows warm with the kindling of another's heat; see: we gather its motion and course for each single day and hour; we even predict when, having been retrograde, it returns to its former station; when the neighboring light of the Sun, with the regal authority of its majesty, stirs up the sluggish courses of its slowness; when the heat of the Sun, having departed from it, grants it the quiet power of slow motion; and after how long a time it arrives again, with sluggish effort, at the same degree of the sign from which it had once withdrawn.

〔六〕看：人们已经知道并发现了，土星之星在哪个星座里喜乐，什么时候它的寒冷因别人的热力之温而变暖；看：我们推算出它每一天、每一小时的运动和运行；我们甚至预言它在逆行之后，什么时候回到先前的留；什么时候太阳那邻近的光以它威严的王者权威，催动它那慢吞吞的迟缓行程；什么时候太阳的热离它而去，给它缓行的宁静之力；以及要过多长时间，它才又以迟缓的努力，回到它当初离开的那个星座的同一度。

[7] These things are perceived in the star of Jupiter as well, by the same and like method; for although in a shorter span of time, it too runs through the twelve signs with a similar motion. Mars, too, whom you see blood-red with the fiery heat of his flashes and terrible with the menacing glitter of his light: see, when he has come to Saturn, or even to Saturn's house, his fires are tempered by the nature of another's cold; and although the courses of this star are swifter, they too are perceived by the same method.

〔七〕在木星之星身上，人们也用同样相似的方法看出这些事；因为它虽然所用的时间较短，也以相似的运动走遍十二星座。还有火星，你看他因闪光的火热而血红，因光芒那威吓的闪烁而可怖：看，当他来到土星那里，或者甚至来到土星的庙，他的火就被另一颗星的寒冷本性所调和；这颗星的行程虽然较快，人们也用同样的方法看出它的运行。

[8] The daily attendance of Venus and Mercury, too, has been shown to us; for these stars run about the orb of the Sun at a short interval, either keeping pace with it or following it, or else one star, following behind, yields to the other the office of going before. We know when they appear to us in an evening rising and when in a morning rising, when they lie hidden, concealed by the orb of the Sun, and when, freed from the brilliance of its rays, they shine out in their own clear splendor.

〔八〕金星与水星每天的随侍，也已向我们显明；因为这两颗星在太阳的球体周围以很短的间隔奔行，或与它并行，或跟随它，或是一颗星在后面跟着，把走在前面的职分让给另一颗。我们知道它们什么时候以昏升向我们显现，什么时候以晨升显现，什么时候被太阳的球体遮住而隐没不见，什么时候摆脱了它光线的光辉，以自己清亮的光彩闪耀出来。

[9] What do you think of the course of the Moon? We tell when she nourishes the losses of her worn-down orb with her customary replenishments, and when, impoverished of light, she acknowledges the loss of her own majesty. For when she has come near the Sun, whether waxing or waning, she lowers the rays of her light as if in reverence to the Sun, so that, adorned again with her brother's fires once she has completed the longer stages of her course, she may carry about, reborn, the ornaments of her brilliant splendor and her renewed light.

〔九〕你们以为月亮的运行如何？我们说得出她什么时候以惯常的补充去滋养她那磨损的球体的亏缺，什么时候光亮匮乏，承认失去了自己的威严。因为当她靠近太阳时，不论是盈长还是亏缺，她都放低自己光的光芒，仿佛是向太阳致敬，好在走完她行程较长的路段之后，再以兄长的火重新装点自己，重生般地带着她那灿烂光辉与更新之光的装饰四处巡行。

[10] See, we learn another and greater thing, which, when it happens, always throws ignorant people into monstrous fear: when the Sun at midday, obstructed by the rays of the Moon as if by some barrier, denies to all mortals the brilliant light of its splendor (to speak of a more recent instance, the keen attention of the astrologers predicted to all people that this would happen in the consulship of Optatus and Paulinus); and again when the Moon, overshadowed by the regions of the earth's heights, fails in a similar manner, which we have often seen happen in the serenity of a clear night.

〔十〕看，我们还学到另一件更大的事，它一旦发生，总是把无知的人投入可怕的恐惧：太阳在正午被月亮的光线像被某种屏障挡住，不让一切凡人得到它灿烂的光辉（举一个较近的例子，星占家敏锐的注意力曾向所有的人预言，这件事将在奥普塔图斯与保利努斯任执政官那年发生）；还有，月亮被大地高处的区域遮蔽，以类似的方式亏蚀，这是我们在晴朗夜晚的澄明中常常看到发生的。

[11] All these things the talent of the astrologers has gathered, and by skillful calculation it has thoroughly learned the secrets of the divine arrangement. And so I should like you, whoever you are, to answer my question: which do you think more difficult? To discover the courses of the stars, which I have just set out as discovered, stars that are carried now through the height, now through the breadth, now through the depth; that join themselves now to the regions and winds of the south, now to those of the north; that now withdraw, now are hidden, now move with a direct course, now with a retrograde one, now halt in stationary slowness, and so confound the attention of inquirers by the variety of their course? Or, once the courses of the stars have been discovered, to determine afterwards what their mixture and their rays bring about throughout the whole expanse of the earth?

〔十一〕这一切，星占家的才智都已搜集起来，凭着巧妙的计算，彻底学会了神圣安排的奥秘。所以我希望你，不管你是谁，回答我的问题：你认为哪一件更难？是发现星辰的运行——就是我刚才陈述为已被发现的那些运行，星辰时而穿过高处，时而穿过宽处，时而穿过深处；时而与南方的区域和风相连，时而与北方的相连；时而退去，时而隐没，时而顺行，时而逆行，时而以留的迟缓停住，以它们运行的多变扰乱探究者的注意？还是在星辰的运行已被发现之后，再去确定它们的混合与光线在整个大地的广袤上造成了什么？

[12] For you, who are compelled by the very truth of reason to agree that we discovered these courses of the stars by the continual observation of calculation, must necessarily agree that, once the course of the stars has been discovered, we can afterwards easily see their functions and their power. For the things we approach raw and untaught, with the inconstancy of trepidation, are always difficult and arduous, and we cannot attain by an easy method anything that prior instruction has not handed down to us.

〔十二〕因为你既然被理性本身的真实逼着同意，我们是凭计算的持续观测发现了星辰的这些运行，你就必然要同意：星辰的运行一旦发现，我们随后就能轻易看出它们的职能与力量。因为我们生疏未学、怀着摇摆的惶恐去接近的东西，总是困难艰深的；凡是先前的教导没有传给我们的东西，我们都不能凭简便的方法达到。

[13] Thus we learn the first signs of the letters with a certain disdainful reluctance; thus, set on an unknown road, we almost give out at the first steps; you see how those first learning to calculate bend their fingers with slow movement; the man you see giving out in swimming from frequent fear of going under, after a little while, strengthened by the constant motion of his arms, glides over the topmost foam of the waves and holds himself up with easy, light agility; for we run through all these things, that is, letters, calculation, music, and the other things we learn, by an easy method once settled training has grasped the path from its first beginning.

〔十三〕所以，我们学最初的字母符号时，总带着几分厌烦的不情愿；所以，走上一条陌生的路，最初几步我们几乎就走不动了；你看那些初学计算的人，手指弯得多么迟缓；你看那个学游泳的人，因常怕沉下去而力竭，过不多久，靠双臂不停的划动而有了力气，就滑行在波浪最上面的泡沫上，以轻松灵巧的敏捷托住自己；因为这一切，就是字母、计算、音乐以及其他我们所学的东西，一旦稳定的训练从最初的起点把握了路径，我们就能凭简便的方法通晓。

[14] Therefore, since it is agreed that it was more difficult to discover the courses of the stars than to determine what they do (for there is no doubt about the discovery of their course, which we show to those who wish to learn, first by calculation and then by the very sight of the eyes), why do you assail a science whose whole substance you strengthen by agreeing to its principles and to a part of it?

〔十四〕所以，既然大家公认，发现星辰的运行比确定它们的作用更难（因为对它们运行的发现已毫无疑问，我们先用计算、再用眼睛亲眼所见，向想学的人显示出来），那么，你既已同意了这门学问的原理和它的一部分，从而加强了它的全部实质，又为什么要攻击它呢？

V.

第五章

[1] It follows that we should discuss complexions and characters and refute this whole topic of slanderous inquiry with the true force of arguments, so that, once everything has been discussed and cleared away, we may come securely to the venerable secrets of the science itself.

〔一〕接下来，我们该讨论肤色与性情，用论证的真实力量驳倒这整个诽谤性探究的论题，好在一切都讨论清楚、扫除干净之后，安然进入这门学问本身那可敬的奥秘。

[2] "Why," he says, "are all people black in Ethiopia and fair in Germany, if the course of the stars bestows shapes and complexions on men through a varied mixture of rays?"

〔二〕他说：“倘若星辰的运行通过光线多样的混合赋予人形貌与肤色，那么为什么在埃塞俄比亚人人都黑，在日耳曼尼亚人人都白？”

[3] It would indeed have been proper for us to fight on this part of the question with copious oratory, so that cunning and slanderous fabrications might be overcome by the forces of counterfeit speech; but, relying on the forces of truth alone, I have restrained all eagerness for speaking, so that I may not carry the ears of the judges, captured by the enticements of copious oratory, by abundance of speech, and by the license of argumentation, over to the absurdities of false opinions.

〔三〕在问题的这一部分，我们本该用丰富的辞藻来交战，好让狡猾诽谤的捏造被伪饰言辞的力量所压倒；但我只倚靠真实的力量，克制了一切想要多说的热望，免得我用丰富辞藻的诱惑、言辞的充沛和论辩的放纵，把法官们被俘获的耳朵带到虚假意见的荒谬里去。

[4] And first I should like him to answer my question whether, among this very people in which we now live, all men have one and the same form, even though all have one nature.

〔四〕首先，我希望他回答我的问题：就在我们现在生活其中的这个民族里，是不是所有的人都只有同一个模样，尽管所有人都有同一种本性？

[5] I think he will say that all our fellow citizens are formed with a dissimilar variety of features and that not all have the same, similar form; and if he doubts it, which I do not think he does, let him look when the multitude of the whole people has gathered in one place, as is customary in theaters or assemblies, and turn the keenness and judgment of his eyes to the form of the whole crowd, and show me, if he can, even two people among so many thousands who appear to be formed with the same, similar lineaments of limb. Let fathers, children, and brothers come forward together: though the kinship of all of them is joined by blood, they are nonetheless seen to differ in the design of their forms; nor is anyone found so like another that his face does not differ in some part from the other's face.

〔五〕我想他会说，我们所有的同胞都被塑造得容貌各异、千差万别，并非都有相同相似的模样；如果他对此还有怀疑——我想他并不怀疑——就让他在全体民众聚在一处的时候去看看，比如在剧场或集会上常有的那样，把他眼睛的锐利与判断转向整个人群的模样，如果他能够，就指给我看：在那么多成千上万的人里，有哪怕两个人被塑造成四肢轮廓相同相似的样子。让父亲、子女和兄弟一起上前来：尽管他们全都由血缘结成亲属，却仍然看得出他们形貌的设计各不相同；也找不到谁与另一个人像到这种地步，以致他的脸在某一部分与另一人的脸毫无不同。

[6] Hence it is evident that the substance of our race, and the very form of the bare body alone, has been fashioned from the mixture of the four elements by the artistry of a provident deity, but that our complexions and forms, and our characters and habits as well, are distributed by nothing other than the perpetual motion of the stars' course.

〔六〕由此可见，我们这个种族的实质，以及单单赤裸身体的形状本身，是由一位有远见的神灵以其技艺，从四元素的混合中造成的；但我们的肤色与形貌，还有我们的性情与习惯，却不是由别的什么，而是由星辰运行的永恒运动分派的。

[7] For the stars have their own perception and a divine wisdom; for, by the pure conception of an animate divinity, they obey with untiring concord that supreme and ruling god who composed all things by the perpetual disposition of law in order to preserve the order of perennial procreation.

〔七〕因为星辰有它们自己的感知和一种神圣的智慧；因为它们凭着有灵神性的纯粹构想，以不倦的和谐服从那位至高的统治之神，他凭律法永恒的安排组成了万物，以保持永续繁衍的秩序。

[8] Nor is there any man so driven by the sacrilegious desperation of rashness as to say that wisdom exists on earth, where he sees all things to be mortal, but to determine, with obstinate animosity of mind, that there, where all things are adorned with the immortality of perpetuity, there is no wisdom, no reason, and no ordered providence.

〔八〕也没有哪一个人会被亵渎的鲁莽与绝望驱使到这种地步，竟说智慧存在于地上——他明明看见那里万物都是可朽的——却又以顽固的心中敌意断定，在那万物都以永恒的不朽为饰的地方，没有智慧，没有理性，也没有有序的天意。

[9] Who doubts that through these stars that divine soul is poured into earthly bodies by the necessity of a certain law, the soul to which descent is granted through the orb of the Sun, while ascent is prepared for it through the orb of the Moon?

〔九〕谁会怀疑，那神圣的灵魂正是通过这些星辰，按某种律法的必然，被注入尘世身体的？它被准许经由太阳的球体下降，又经由月亮的球体为它备好上升之路。

[10] For that divine mind and celestial soul, placed throughout the whole body of the world in the manner of a circle, and set now within, now without, rules and arranges all things; conceived by the generation of its own origin, it is perpetuated in fiery and everlasting motion in order to beget and preserve all things, nor does it lay aside this office through any weariness, so that by its perpetual and untiring mobility it sustains itself, the world, and everything that is within the world.

〔十〕因为那神圣的心智与天上的灵魂，以圆周的方式布满世界的全身，时而居于其内，时而居于其外，统治、安排着万物；它由自身来源的生成而被孕育，为了生养、保全万物，以火热而永恒的运动延续不绝，也从不因任何疲倦而放下这份职责，好以它永恒而不倦的运动，维持它自己、世界以及世界之内的一切。

[11] From this soul, these everlasting fires of the stars, which are formed in the shape of globular roundness and complete their circles and orbits with swift haste, being animated by the majesty of that divine mind, transfer a portion of soul to earthly bodies and borrow their spirit from those perpetual kindlings of the soul.

〔十一〕星辰这些永恒的火，被造成球形的浑圆，以迅疾的匆忙完成它们的圆周与轨道，它们由那神圣心智的威严赋予灵魂，便从这灵魂把一份灵魂转给尘世的身体，并从灵魂那些永恒的燃点借来它们的气息。

[12] In this way the immortal soul within us adorns the perishable frailty of the earthly body with confidence in its own majesty, so that it too in some measure answers to its author and origin, which, diffused through all living creatures begotten by earthly conception, causes them, animated by the divine kindling, to come alive through the perpetual propagation of generation. Therefore, since we are joined with the stars by a kind of kinship, we ought not to deprive them of their own powers by sacrilegious disputations, since by their daily courses we are both formed and created alike.

〔十二〕这样，我们里面那不朽的灵魂，以对自身威严的信心装点尘世身体那会朽坏的脆弱，使它也在某种程度上与它的创造者和来源相应；这灵魂遍布于一切由尘世受孕所生的生物之中，使它们因神圣的点燃而有了生气，借着生育的永恒延续而活起来。所以，既然我们与星辰由一种亲缘结合在一起，我们就不该用亵渎的辩论剥夺它们自身的力量，因为我们正是凭它们每天的运行，同样地被塑造、被创造出来的。