卷一·第三章　论星占亦有益

In somewhat summary fashion it has been shown how prognostication by astronomical means is possible, and that it can go no further than what happens in the ambient and the consequences to man from such causes — that is, it concerns the original endowments of faculties and activities of soul and body, their occasional diseases, their endurance for a long or a short time, and, besides, all external circumstances that have a directive and natural connection with the original gifts of nature, such as property and marriage in the case of the body and honour and dignities in that of the soul, and finally what befalls them from time to time.

前面已经较为概括地说明了：星占预言如何可能，以及它所能及的不超出周天中发生的事、和这些原因给人带来的后果——也就是说，它关乎灵魂与身体的能力与活动的原初禀赋，它们偶尔的疾病，它们能持续长久还是短暂；此外，还有一切与这些天生禀赋有着主导性、自然性联系的外在境遇，例如就身体而言的财产与婚姻，就灵魂而言的荣誉与尊位；最后，还有它们时时遭遇的事。

The remaining part of our project would be to inquire briefly as to its usefulness, first distinguishing how and with what end in view we shall take the meaning of the word usefulness. For if we look to the goods of the soul, what could be more conducive to well-being, pleasure, and in general satisfaction than this kind of forecast, by which we gain full view of things human and divine? And if we look to bodily goods, such knowledge, better than anything else, would perceive what is fitting and expedient for the capabilities of each temperament.

我们计划中剩下的部分，是简要探讨它的用处；先要分辨：我们以什么方式、着眼于什么目的，来理解“用处”这个词的意思。如果着眼于灵魂之善，还有什么比这种预知更能促进安乐、愉悦和总体上的满足呢？借着它，我们得以通观人事与神事。如果着眼于身体之善，这种知识比其他任何东西都更能看出，什么适合、什么有益于每种气质的能力。

But if it does not aid in the acquisition of riches, fame, and the like, we shall be able to say the same of all philosophy, for it does not provide any of these things as far as its own powers are concerned. We should not, however, for that reason be justified in condemning either philosophy or this art, disregarding its greater advantages.

但如果说它无助于获取财富、名声之类，那么对一切哲学我们也可以这样说，因为就哲学自身的能力而言，这些东西它一样也不提供。然而，我们并不能因此就有理由谴责哲学或这门技艺，而无视它更大的益处。

To a general examination it would appear that those who find fault with the uselessness of prognostication have no regard for the most important matters, but only for this — that foreknowledge of events that will happen in any case is superfluous; this, too, quite unreservedly and without due discrimination.

总体看来，那些指责预言无用的人，并不顾及最重要的事，只着眼于这一点：对无论如何都会发生的事预先知道，是多余的；而且他们说这话时毫无保留，也不加应有的分辨。

For, in the first place, we should consider that even with events that will necessarily take place their unexpectedness is very apt to cause excessive panic and delirious joy, while foreknowledge accustoms and calms the soul by experience of distant events as though they were present, and prepares it to greet with calm and steadiness whatever comes.

因为，首先我们应当想到：即使是必然发生的事，它的出乎意料也极易引起过度的惊慌与狂喜；而预知则让灵魂把遥远的事当作眼前之事来经历，使它习惯、使它平静，并使它准备好以平静和沉稳迎接一切到来之事。

A second reason is that we should not believe that separate events attend mankind as the result of the heavenly cause as if they had been originally ordained for each person by some irrevocable divine command and destined to take place by necessity without the possibility of any other cause whatever interfering.

第二个理由是：我们不应相信，降临到人类身上的各个事件出自天上的原因，就好像它们起初便由某道不可撤回的神圣命令为每个人规定好，注定必然发生，而不可能有任何其他原因介入。

Rather is it true that the movement of the heavenly bodies, to be sure, is eternally performed in accordance with divine, unchangeable destiny, while the change of earthly things is subject to a natural and mutable fate, and in drawing its first causes from above it is governed by chance and natural sequence.

真实的情形毋宁是：天体的运动，诚然永远依照神圣而不可改变的天命进行；地上事物的变化，则受制于一种自然而可变的命运，它虽从上天取得其最初的原因，却受偶然与自然次序的支配。

Moreover, some things happen to mankind through more general circumstances and not as the result of an individual's own natural propensities — for example, when men perish in multitudes by conflagration or pestilence or cataclysms, through monstrous and inescapable changes in the ambient, for the lesser cause always yields to the greater and stronger; other occurrences, however, accord with the individual's own natural temperament through minor and fortuitous antipathies of the ambient.

再者，有些事落到人类身上，是出于较普遍的情势，而非出于个人自身的天性倾向——例如，人们因周天中巨大而无法逃避的变化，在大火、瘟疫或洪灾中成批死去，因为较小的原因总要让位于较大、较强的原因；另一些遭遇，则是经由周天中细小而偶然的不合，与个人自身的天生气质相应而发生。

For if these distinctions are thus made, it is clear that both in general and in particular whatever events depend upon a first cause, which is irresistible and more powerful than anything that opposes it, must by all means take place; on the contrary, of events that are not of this character, those which are provided with resistant forces are easily averted, while those that are not follow the primary natural causes, to be sure, but this is due to ignorance and not to the necessity of almighty power.

因为，若这样加以区分，就很清楚：无论在普遍还是个别的层面，凡是取决于某个不可抗拒、比一切与之对抗者都更强大的首因的事件，都必定会发生；反之，不属此类的事件中，配有抵抗之力的，容易避开；没有配上的，诚然会随原初的自然之因而发生，但这是出于无知，而不是出于全能之力的必然。

One might observe this same thing happening in all events whatsoever that have natural causes. For even of stones, plants, and animals, and also of wounds, mishaps, and sicknesses, some are of such a nature as to act of necessity, others only if no opposing thing interferes. One should therefore believe that physical philosophers predict what is to befall men with foreknowledge of this character and do not approach their task under false impressions; for certain things, because their effective causes are numerous and powerful, are inevitable, but others for the opposite reason may be averted.

在一切有自然原因的事件中，都可以看到同样的情形。因为即使是石头、植物和动物，以及创伤、灾祸和疾病，有些的本性是必然起作用，另一些则只在没有对立之物干预时才起作用。因此应当相信，自然哲学家正是以这种性质的预知，来预言人将遭遇的事，而不是带着错误的印象从事其工作；因为某些事由于其起作用的原因众多而强大，是不可避免的，另一些则由于相反的理由，可以避开。

Similarly those physicians who can recognize ailments know beforehand those which are always fatal and those which admit of aid. In the case of events that may be modified we must give heed to the astrologer, when, for example, he says that to such and such a temperament, with such and such a character of the ambient, if the fundamental proportions increase or decrease, such and such an affection will result.

同样，能辨识病症的医生，事先就知道哪些病总是致命，哪些可以施救。对于可以改变的事件，我们必须留意星占家的话，例如他说：对于某种气质，在周天具有某种性质时，若基本的比例增加或减少，就会产生某种病症。

Similarly we must believe the physician, when he says that this sore will spread or cause putrefaction, and the miner, for instance, that the lodestone attracts iron; just as each of these, if left to itself through ignorance of the opposing forces, will inevitably develop as its original nature compels, but neither will the sore cause spreading or putrefaction if it receives preventive treatment, nor will the lodestone attract the iron if it is rubbed with garlic; and these very deterrent measures also have their resisting power naturally and by fate; so also in the other cases, if further happenings to men are not known, or if they are known and the remedies are not applied, they will by all means follow the course of primary nature; but if they are recognized ahead of time and remedies are provided, again quite in accord with nature and fate, they either do not occur at all or are rendered less severe.

同样，医生说这个疮会蔓延或导致溃烂时，我们必须相信他；矿工说，例如，磁石会吸铁时，我们也必须相信他。正如这两者若因不知道对抗的力量而听其自然，都必然会按其原本的本性发展；然而疮若得到预防性的治疗，就不会蔓延或溃烂，磁石若用大蒜擦过，就不会吸铁；而这些阻遏的手段，其抵抗之力本身也是出于自然、出于命运的；其他情形也是如此：人将要遭遇的事若不被知晓，或虽被知晓却没有施以补救，就必定会顺着原初本性的进程发展；但若被事先认出、并备好补救——这同样完全合乎自然与命运——它们要么根本不发生，要么变得不那么严重。

And in general, since such power is the same whether applied to things regarded universally or particularly, one would wonder why all believe in the efficacy of prediction in universal matters, and in its usefulness for guarding one's interests (for most people admit that they have foreknowledge of the seasons, of the significance of the constellations, and of the phases of the moon, and take great forethought for safeguarding themselves, always contriving cooling agents against summer and the means of warmth against winter, and in general preparing their own natures with moderation as a goal; furthermore, to ensure the safety of the seasons and of their sailings they watch the significance of the fixed stars, and, for the beginning of breeding and sowing, the aspects of the moon's light at its full, and no one ever condemns such practices either as impossible or useless); but, on the other hand, as regards particular matters and those depending upon the mixture of the other qualities — such as predictions of more or less, of cold or of heat, and of the individual temperament — some people believe neither that foreknowledge is still possible nor that precautions can be taken in most instances.

总之，既然这种力量无论用于被视为普遍的事物还是个别的事物，都是同一种力量，人们就会奇怪：为什么所有人都相信预言在普遍之事上的效力，以及它在保护自身利益上的用处（因为多数人承认自己预先知道季节、星群的意义和月亮的盈亏，并为保护自己而深谋远虑，总是设法备好清凉之物以对付夏天、取暖之物以对付冬天，一般说来，还以适度为目标来调养自己的本性；此外，为了季节与航行的安全，他们留意恒星的意义；为了配种与播种的开端，他们留意满月时月光的相位；从来没有人指责这些做法不可能或无用）；可是另一方面，对于个别之事、以及取决于其他诸性质之混合的事——例如预言多些还是少些、冷还是热，以及个人的气质——有些人却既不相信预知仍然可能，也不相信在多数情形下能够预先防备。

And yet, since it is obvious that, if we happen to have cooled ourselves against heat in general, we shall suffer less from it, similar measures can prove effective against particular forces which increase this particular temperament to a disproportionate amount of heat. For the cause of this error is the difficulty and unfamiliarity of particular prognostication, a reason which in most other situations as well brings about disbelief.

然而，既然显而易见：如果我们事先针对一般的炎热让自己清凉下来，受热之苦就会少些；那么，类似的手段对那些使某一特定气质热得失了比例的特定力量，也能证明有效。因为这种错误的原因，在于个别预言的困难与生疏；在其他大多数情形中，这个原因同样会引起不信。

And since for the most part the resisting faculty is not coupled with the prognostic, because so perfect a disposition is rare, and since the force of nature takes its course without hindrance when the primary natures are concerned, an opinion has been produced that absolutely all future events are inevitable and unescapable.

又因为抵抗之能多半没有与预知之能结合在一起——如此完善的禀赋十分罕见——而且当涉及原初本性时，自然之力便畅行无阻，于是产生了一种看法：将来的一切事件都绝对不可避免、无法逃脱。

But, I think, just as with prognostication, even if it be not entirely infallible, at least its possibilities have appeared worthy of the highest regard, so too in the case of a defensive practice, even though it does not furnish a remedy for everything, its authority in some instances at least, however few or unimportant, should be welcomed and prized and regarded as profitable in no ordinary sense.

但我认为，正如预言即使并非完全无误，至少它的可能已显得值得最高的重视；同样，防护之术即使不能为一切提供补救，它至少在某些情形中的效力——无论多么少、多么不重要——也应当受到欢迎与珍视，被视为非同寻常地有益。

Recognizing, apparently, that these things are so, those who have most advanced this faculty of the art, the Egyptians, have entirely united medicine with astronomical prediction. For they would never have devised certain means of averting or warding off or remedying the universal and particular conditions that come or are present by reason of the ambient, if they had had any idea that the future cannot be moved and changed.

看来正是认识到事情是这样，把这门技艺的这种能力推进得最远的埃及人，才把医术与星占预言完全结合起来。因为，倘若他们认为将来不可动摇、不可改变，就绝不会设计出某些手段，来避开、抵御或补救因周天而将要到来或已经存在的普遍与个别的状况。

But as it is, they place the faculty of resisting by orderly natural means in second rank to the decrees of fate, and have yoked to the possibility of prognostication its useful and beneficial faculty, through what they call their iatromathematical systems (medical astrology), in order that by means of astronomy they may succeed in learning the qualities of the underlying temperatures, the events that will occur in the future because of the ambient, and their special causes, on the ground that without this knowledge any measures of aid ought for the most part to fail, because the same ones are not fitted for all bodies or diseases; and, on the other hand, by means of medicine, through their knowledge of what is properly sympathetic or antipathetic in each case, they proceed, as far as possible, to take precautionary measures against impending illness and to prescribe infallible treatment for existing disease.

但事实上，他们把以有序的自然手段加以抵抗的能力，放在命运的裁定之下、居第二位，并借着他们所谓的医星术（医疗星占），把预言有用、有益的能力，与预言的可能连在一起：好让他们借助天文之学，得知所涉诸气质的性质、将来因周天而发生的事件，以及这些事件的特殊原因——理由是，没有这种知识，任何援助之法多半都会失败，因为同样的办法并不适合所有的身体或疾病；另一方面，他们又借助医术，凭着对每种情形中何者相感、何者相斥的认识，尽可能地对将临的疾病采取预防措施，并对现有的疾病开出万无一失的治疗。

Let this be, to this point, our summarily stated preliminary sketch. We shall now conduct our discussion after the manner of an introduction, beginning with the character of each of the heavenly bodies with respect to its active power, in agreement with the physical observations attached to them by the ancients, and in the first place the powers of the planets, sun, and moon.

到此为止，就让这些作为我们概括陈述的初步纲要吧。现在我们将按照入门书的体例展开讨论，从每个天体就其作用之力而言的特性说起，与古人附于它们的自然观察相一致；首先讲行星、太阳和月亮的力量。