There is more ado to interpret interpretations than to interpret things, and more books upon books than upon any other subject; we do nothing but comment upon one another. Every place swarms with commentaries; of authors there is great scarcity. Is it not the principal and most reputed knowledge of our later ages to understand the learned? Is it not the common and final end of all studies? Our opinions are grafted upon one another; the first serves as a stock to the second, the second to the third, and so forth; thus step by step we climb the ladder, whence it comes to pass that he who is mounted highest has often more honour than merit, for he is got up but an inch upon the shoulders of the last, but one.
Now, the laws keep up their credit, not for being just, but because they are laws; it is the mystic foundation of their authority; they have no other, and it well answers their purpose. They are often made by fools, still oftener by men who, out of hatred to equality, fail in equity, but always by men, vain and irresolute authors. There is nothing so much, nor so grossly, nor so ordinarily faulty, as the laws. Whoever obeys them because they are just, does not justly obey them as he ought. What fruit then soever we may extract from experience, that will little advantage our institution, which we draw from foreign examples, if we make so little profit of that we have of our own, which is more familiar to us, and,doubtless, sufficient to instruct us in that whereof we have need.
对注释进行解释,比对事物进行解释更加费力;以书为主题的书,比其他主题的书还要多一一我们总是在互相进行着诠释。每个领城都泛滥着注释，而优秀的作家却奇缺。几个世纪以来,最主要、最了不起的学问，不正是对学问的理解吗?增长学识难道不是所有学间共同和最终的目标吗?我们的观点总是被互相嫁接:第一个观点就是第二个观点的支架，第二个又是第三个的支架，以此类推。我们就这样一步一步地爬上了学问的梯子。由此便出现了这样的情形:爬得最高的人,他所赢得的声望往往高于他的功绩,因为他只不过是踩在最后一个人的肩上,向上爬了一小步而已。
法律之所以能保持声望，并不在于自身的正确性,而是因为它们是法律。这就是法律具有权威性的奥秘所在,对于法律的作用而言,再没有比这更恰当的诠释了。法律通常都是由蠢人制定的,更为常见的制定者是内心因仇恨平等而缺乏公正的人,而那些目空一切却又优柔寡断的人也总在不断地创造着法律。再没有比法律更漏洞百出的事物了。任何因公正而遵守法律的人,往往在他应该遵守的时候而违犯了法律。无论我们从经验中吸取哪些教训，如果不善加利用的话一一我们对自己的经验会更为熟悉，无疑能够更有效地引导我们做自己需要做的事一一从外国案例中获得的宝贵经验就很难对我国的法律体系有所助益。
In this universality, I suffer myself to be ignorantly and negligently led by the general law of the world: I shall know it well enough when I feel it; my learning cannot make it alter its course; it will not change itself for me; it is folly to hope it, and a greater folly to concern one's self about it, seeing it is necessarily alike public and common. The goodness and capacity of the governor ought absolutely to discharge us of all care of the government: philosophical inquisitions and contemplations serve for no other use but to increase our curiosity. The philosophers; with great reason, send us back to the rules of nature; but they have nothing to do with so sublime a knowledge; they falsify them, and present us her face painted with too high and too adulterate a complexion, whence spring so many different pictures of so uniform a subject. As she has given us feet to walk with, so has she given us prudence to guide us in life: not so ingenious, robust, and pompous a prudence as that of their invention; but yet one that is easy, quiet, and salutary, and that very well performs what the other promises, in him who has the good luck to know how to employ it sincerely and regularly, that is to say, according to nature. The most simply to commit one's self to nature is to do it most wisely. Oh, what a soft, easy, and wholesome pillow is ignorance and incuriosity, where-on to repose a well-ordered head!
在这个具有普遍性的问题上,我以无知而又漫不经心的态度,受控于世上的一般规律。我会在察觉到这种规律的时候,去很好地了解它。但因学识所限,我无法使之发生任何改变;规律也不可能因为我而自行发生变化。对普遍规律发生变化的期望,是荒唐可笑的,为此而忧心挂怀更是愚不可及;不过，了解它的相似性、普遍性、共通性则是必要的。统治者应以善心和能力彻底消除我们对政府的顾虑。哲学探究和冥思苦想只能增加我们的好奇心。哲学家们引领我们回归到自然规律自然合情合理,但了解自然规律并不需要特别高深的学识。哲学家们伪造了自然规律,将呈现在我们面前的自然色彩描绘得过于浓重,失去了真实性,从而被同一事物的多重面貌所迷惑。正如自然赋予我们双脚是用于走路一样，她赋予我们智慧也是为了指引我们如何去生活，这种智慧并不像哲学家们期望的智慧那样具有独创性且盛气凌人，而是随和、恬静而有益的。对于有幸懂得如何真诚而有规律地利用自然的人,也就是能够顺应自然规律的人来说,哲学家期望的智慧能够做到的事情,自然赋予我们的智慧会做得更好。使自己适应自然的最简单的方法,就是理性地遵循自然规律。啊,无知与无好奇心是一个聪明的头脑用来休息的多么柔软、舒适而有益健康的靠枕啊!
I had rather understand myself well in myself, than in Cicero. Of the experience I have of myself, I find enough to make me wise, if I were but a good scholar. whoever will call to mind the excess of his past anger, and to what a degree that fever transported him, will see the deformity of this passion better than in Aristotle, and conceive a more just hatred against it; whoever will remember the ills he has undergone, those that have threatened him, and the light occasions that have removed him from one state to another, will by that prepare himself for future changes, and the knowledge of his condition. The life of Caesar has no greater example for us than our own: though popular and of command, it is still a life subject to all human accidents. Let us but listen to it; we apply to ourselves all whereof we have principal need; whoever shall call to memory how many and many times he has been mistaken in his own judgment, is he not a great fool if he does not ever after suspect it? When I find myself convinced, by the reason of another, of a false opinion, I do not so much learn what he has said to me that is new and the particular ignorance - that would be no great acquisition- as, in general, I learn my own debility and the treachery of my understanding, whence I extract the reformation of the whole mass. In all my other errors I do the same, and find from this rule great utility to life.
我宁愿依靠自己来了解自己,也不愿意依靠西塞罗。我发现,只要我善于学习,我自身的经验便会赋予我足够的智慧。无论是谁,只要他能回想起自己过去过激的债怒,以及自己是如何受这种暴怒的情绪支配的,他就会比亚里士多德更加清楚地意识到它的丑恶性,也能更加有效地抵制这种情绪;无论是谁,只要他能记得自己曾经历过的痛苦、威胁过他的艰险,以及曾使他的情绪发生变化的微妙原因,他就有极强的心理素质,以迎接未来及处境的变化。恺撒的一生给我们的经验，并不比我们自己的经验多。平民百姓也好,帝王将相也罢，所有的人一生中都会遇到许多不测。让我们牢记这些话吧,这都是我们最需要的。如果有人因自己曾多次判断失误,便开始怀疑自己,再也不相信自己的判断力,那他岂不是愚蠢至极?当我发现别人使我相信了一个错误的观点时，我不会清楚地记得他对我讲了些什么，也不记得我当时的无知表现一那么，这个错误的观点就不会对我造成什么影响;通常,我只记得自己在理解力上的薄弱和偏差,从而找到改进的办法。在对待自己所犯的其他错误时，我也是这样做的,我发现这个方法对生活大有神益。
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