I find by experience, that there is a good deal to be said between the flights and emotions of the soul or a resolute and constant habit; and very well perceive that there is nothing we may not do, nay, even to the surpassing the Divinity itself, says a certain person, forasmuch as it is more to render a man's self impassible by his own study and industry, than to be so by his natural condition; and even to be able to conjoin to man's imbecility and frailty a God-like resolution and assurance; but it is by fits and starts; and in the lives of those heroes of times past there are sometimes miraculous impulses, and that seem infinitely to exceed our natural force; but they are indeed only impulses: and it is hard to believe, that these so elevated qualities in a man can so thoroughly tinct and imbue the soul that they should become ordinary, and, as it were, natural in him. It accidentally happens even to us, who are but abortive births of men, sometimes
to launch our souls, when roused by the discourses or examples of others, much beyond their ordinary stretch; but it is a kind of passion which pushes and agitates them, and in some sort ravishes them from themselves: but, this perturbation once overcome, we see that they insensibly flag and slacken of themselves, if not to the lowest degree, at least so as to be no more the same; insomuch as that upon every trivial occasion, the losing of a bird, or the breaking, of a glass, we suffer ourselves to be moved little less than one of the common people. I am of opinion, that order, moderation, and constancy excepted, all things are to be done by a man that is very imperfect and defective in general. Therefore it is, say the Sages, that to make a right judgment of a man, you are chiefly to pry into his common actions, and surprise him in his everyday habit.
凭经验而论,突如其来的冲动或决定，与经久不变的习惯决不能等量齐观。我强烈地感觉到,我们无所不能，不仅如此,就像有人所说的那样,我们的力量甚至可以超越神力。因为此时的我们已经非同寻常，不再是原来的自己了;我们甚至还可以借助神圣的决心和信心来弥补我们的脆弱和无能。然而，这样的情形并不是经常发生的。那些古代英雄在他们的一生中,会做出许多令人惊奇的事情,但实际上,它们都源于内心的冲动,很难相信一个人的心灵能够永远处于这种超凡人圣的状态,以至那样的奇事对他来说仿佛变得再寻常、再自然不过了。我们都是凡夫俗子,当我们被精彩的演说或榜样的力量激励时,我们的内心就会产生一种抑制不住的冲动。但这只是一种激情在刺激和扰乱我们的心灵,使其暂时失去自控能力,一旦这股冲动被克服,我们就会看到自己的心灵缓缓地松弛下来,即便不是完全放松,也已不是之前的状态了。此时的我们就又成了凡夫俗子，每一件小事,例如一只鸟死了,或一只杯子碎了,都会使我们的心为之一动。在我看来,对一个不完美的人来说，除了沉着、节制和坚忍之外,大体上什么事都能够做到。因此,哲人们说,要想对一个人做出正确的判断,应多观察他平时的举动,要出其不意地了解他的日常习惯。
Pyrrho, he who erected so pleasant a knowledge upon ignorance, endeavoured, as all the rest who were really philosophers did, to make his life correspond with his doctrine. And because he maintained the imbecility of human judgment to be so extreme as to be incapable of any choice or inclination, and would have it perpetually wavering and suspended, considering and receiving all things as indifferent, it is said, that he always comforted himself after the same manner and countenance: if he had begun a discourse, he would always end what he had to say, though the person he was speaking to had gone away: if he walked, he never stopped for any impediment that stood in his way, being preserved from precipices, collision with carts, and other like accidents, by the care of his friends: for, to fear or to avoid anything, had been to shock his own propositions, which deprived the senses themselves of all election and certainty. Sometimes he
suffered incision and cauteries with so great constancy as never to be seen so much as to wince. It is something to bring the soul to these imaginations; it is more to join the effects, and yet not impossible; but to conjoin them with such perseverance and constancy as to make them habitual, is certainly, in attempts so remote from the common usage, almost incredible to be done. Therefore it was, that being sometime taken in his house sharply scolding with his sister, and being reргоached that he therein transgressed his own rules of indifference: "What!" said he, " must this bit of a woman also serve for a testimony to my rules?" Another time, being seen to defend himself against a dog: "It is," said he, "very hard totally to put off man; and we must endeavour and force ourselves to resist and encounter things, first by effects, but at least by reason and argument.
皮浪在未知的领域建立了一种饶有趣味的学说，实际上他像所有真正的哲学家一样,也在竭尽全力使自己的生活与自己的学说保持一致。他认为，人天生都不具备超强的判断力,不可能对事物做出任何抉择或有倾向性的决断,而且在考虑和接受事物的时候，会永远抱持着犹疑不定的态度。据说,他举止的神态始终保持不变;在他的演说开始后,即使听众都纷纷离去,他也总是把话讲完;他在走路的时候,遇到任何障碍也不会停下脚步,因此他的朋友们必须随时保护他，以防他掉下悬崖、撞上马车或发生其他意外。因为在他看来,感觉并不可靠，也不能使人作出正确的选择，所以害怕或躲避任何事物，都是与他的主张背道而驰的。有时,他会故意割破皮肤或烙伤自己,以考验自己的忍耐力是否顽强。这些事在心里想想就已经不易了,要付诸行动就更加困难。然而,这也并非是不可能做到的,但坚持不懈地使这些异乎寻常的做法成为日常习惯,却是不可思议的。正因如此,当他在家中严厉地斥责他的妹妹时，人们便指责他违背了自己对一切都无所谓的原则,但他却说:“怎么,难道还要让这个微不足道的女人为我的原则作证吗?”还有一次,有人看到他为了自卫,在和一条狗搏斗，,对此,他说:“对一切都漠然视之是不可能的,我们必须要竭尽全力并强迫自己同一切作斗争,其最主要的就是付诸行动,即使不这样，至少也要通过理智和言论表现出来。
Amongst our other controversies, that of "Fatum" has also crept in; and to tie things to come, and even our own wills, to a certain and inevitable necessity, we are yet upon this argument of time past: "Since God foresees that all things shall so fall out, as doubtless He does, it must then necessarily follow, that they must so fall out": to which our masters reply: "that the seeing anything come to pass, as we do, and as God Himself also does (for all things being present with him, He rather sees, than foresees), is not to compel an event: that is, we see because things do fall out, but things do not fall out because we see: events cause knowledge, but knowledge does not cause events. That which we see happen, does happen; but it might have happened otherwise: and God, in the catalogue of the causes of events which He has in His prescience, has also those which we call accidental and voluntary, depending upon the liberty. He has given our free will, and knows that we do amiss because we would do so."
在其他的论述中，关于“命运”的讨论有很多。我们仍然坚持从前的一个论点,将未来的事物及我们的意愿系于某种不可避免的必然性上:“既然上帝预见了所有事物的发生一-这一点是毫无疑问的,那么,它们就必然依照上帝所见，一定会发生。”对此,我们的神学家们回答说:“就像上帝所做的那样，我们看见即将发生的事物都是在自然的状态下发生的(因为万事万物都呈现在他的眼前,与其说他预见,不如说他看见),而非强迫所致,也就是说,我们之所以察觉到事物发生的过程,是因为这是一种必然性,并不是以我们的察觉为目的。先有事物的存在,才有认知的过程,而不是先有后者,再有前者。我们所看见的发生的事,的确发生了;但它也可能以另外一种形式发生。在上帝预见到的事物发生的缘由中,也理所当然地包含着我们所谓的偶然或自愿的缘由。上帝赋予了我们自由的意志,他知道,我们之所以没有去做,只是因为我们不愿意去做。”
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