卷一·第六章　敬神正出于星学；苏格拉底以德克服星性

VI.

第六章

[1] Hence, as for your claim that through us it can come about that men are called away from the worship of the gods and from religion by a profane madness of mind, because we say that all our actions are brought about by the divine courses of the stars, you are mistaken: you think the opposite of the truth and dissent from true reason. For it is we who cause the gods to be feared, we who cause them to be worshipped, we who show their divine power and majesty, when we say that all our actions are governed by their divine motions.

〔一〕所以，至于你声称：因为我们说我们的一切行为都由星辰神圣的运行促成，人们就可能经由我们而被一种亵渎的心智狂乱从敬拜诸神、从宗教那里唤走——你错了：你想的与真相相反，背离了真正的理性。因为正是我们使诸神受人敬畏，正是我们使诸神受人敬拜，正是我们显明了他们神圣的力量与威严，当我们说我们的一切行为都由他们神圣的运动所治理时。

[2] Let us therefore worship the gods, whose origin has joined itself to us through the perennial motion of the stars, and let the human race always look up to their majesty with suppliant veneration; let us call upon the gods as suppliants and religiously pay the vows we have promised to the deities, so that, once the divinity of our soul has been strengthened, we may in some measure resist the violent decree of the stars and their powers.

〔二〕所以，让我们敬拜诸神吧，他们的来源借着星辰永续的运动与我们结合在一起；让人类永远以恳求的崇敬仰望他们的威严；让我们恳切地呼求诸神，虔敬地偿还我们向神灵许下的誓愿，好让我们灵魂的神性得到加强之后，能在某种程度上抵抗星辰的强暴判定和它们的权能。

[3] That we ought to do this was taught by Socrates, a man of divine wisdom; for when a certain man told him about his character and his desires, which he had inferred by a similar method, Socrates said: "They are as you say; I recognize it, I admit it"; and so that most prudent man uncovered what was hidden by a ready confession. "But all these things," he said, "I have overcome by the authority of prudence and the virtues, and whatever vice my body had from its depraved composition, the divinity of my soul, well conscious of itself, has tempered."

〔三〕我们应当这样做，是一位具有神圣智慧的人苏格拉底教导的；因为当某人用类似的方法推断出他的性情与欲望，并告诉他时，苏格拉底说：“正如你所说；我承认，我认了。”这位极明智的人就这样以爽快的认账揭开了隐藏的东西。他又说：“但这一切，我都凭明智与德行的权威克服了；我的身体因其败坏的构成而带有的任何恶习，我那对自己了然于心的灵魂的神性都已调和了。”

[4] Here we are given to understand that what we suffer belongs to the stars, which goad us with certain inciting fires, but that our resistance belongs to the divinity of the soul. As for the laws by which the sins of men are punished with severe restraint, most prudent antiquity rightly established them; for through them it brought help to the struggling soul, so that by means of them the power of the divine mind might purge the pernicious vices of the body.

〔四〕这里我们被告知：我们所承受的，属于星辰，它们用某些煽动的火驱策我们；而我们的抵抗，属于灵魂的神性。至于那些以严厉的约束惩罚人类罪过的律法，极明智的古人设立它们是对的；因为古人借着律法给奋争中的灵魂带来帮助，好让神圣心智的力量凭借律法，涤除身体那有害的恶习。