Of Moderation
As if we had an infectious touch, we, by our manner of handling, corrupt things that in themselves are laudable and good: we may grasp virtue so that it becomes vicious, if we embrace it too stringently and with too violent a desire. Those who say, there is never any excess in virtue, forasmuch as it is not virtue when it once becomes excess, only play upon words:
The wise man is no longer wise, the just man no longer just, if he seek to carry his love for wisdom or virtue beyond that which is necessary.
--- Horace
论适度
我们的触摸似乎带有传染性,原本美好的东西一经我们碰触,就会被腐蚀，变得丑恶。如果我们怀着过分强烈的欲望将美德紧拥怀中，美德也会在我们的怀抱中变为邪恶。有些人说，美德是绝不会过分的,因为一旦过分，便不是美德了。他们会说出这样的双关语:
过分的行善积德,会使智者变成疯子,使君子变成小人。
——贺拉斯
This is a subtle consideration of philosophy. A man may both be too much in love with virtue, and be excessive in a just action. Holy Writ agrees with this, Be not wiser than you should, but be soberly wise. I have known a great man, prejudice the opinion men had of his devotion, by pretending to be devout beyond all examples of others of his condition. I love temperate and moderate natures. An immoderate zeal, even to that which is good, even though it does not offend, astonishes me, and puts me to study what name to give it. Neither the mother of Pausanias,who was the first instructor of her son's process, and threw the first stone towards his death, nor Posthumius the dictator, who put his son to death, whom the ardour of youth had successfully pushed upon the enemy a little more advanced than the rest of his squadron, do appear to me so much just as strange; and I should neither advise nor like to follow so savage a virtue, and that costs so dear.
这里蕴含着很微妙的哲理。一个人向善之心会过度,行义之举也会过分。《圣经》里也有这样的警句:不可以过分明智，而应保持适度明智。我曾认识一位大人物，他为了使自己显得比同辈们更加虔诚，,却损害了同辈们的利益。我喜欢温和适中的性格。过分热情地求好向善,即使不令我反感，至少也让我惊讶,真不知道应该如何评价这种行为。保萨尼亚斯的母亲最先下令处死自己的儿子，并向他的尸体掷下第一块石头;独栽者卜斯杜谬斯将儿子处以死刑,只因他凭着年少气盛,稍先于其余的部队冲向敌军。在我看来,这两个人简直不可理喻。像这种野蛮残忍、代价高昂的美德,我既不去提倡,也不会效仿。
The archer that shoots over, misses as much as he that falls short, and it is equally troublesome to my sight, to look up at a great light, and to look down into a dark abyss. Callicles in Plato says, that the extremity of philosophy is hurtful, and advises not to dive into it beyond the limits of profit; that, taken moderately, it is pleasant and useful; but that in the end it renders a man brutish and vicious, a contemner of religion and the common laws, an enemy to civil conversation, and all human pleasures, incapable of all public administration, unft either to assist others or to relieve himself, and a fit object for all sorts of injuries and affronts. He says true; for in its excess, it enslaves our natural freedom, and by an impertinent subtlety, leads us out of the fair and beaten way that nature has traced for us.
脱靶的射手与力度不够而没射到靶的射手一样,都没有成功;突然迎向强光与骤然进人黑暗之中一样,都会令人头晕目眩。加利克勒斯曾在柏拉图的对话集里谈到过,极端的超脱对人是有害的,并提出忠告,让人不可沉溺于超脱而越过对人有益的界限。他说,适度的超脱会令人愉悦,且有益于人,但超脱到最后,却会使一个人的性情变得乖僻、丑恶,使人蔑视宗教和法律,憎恶与人交谈,厌烦人间的欢乐,丧失了从事公务的能力,既不能援助别人,也无法解救自己,只配遭人唾弃。他说得非常有道理,因为过度的超脱会束缚我们天性的自由，并故弄玄虚地引领我们偏离出大自然为我们开辟的美好道路。
The love we bear to our wives is very lawful, and yet theology thinks fit to curb and restrain it. As I remember, I have read in one place of St. Thomas Aquinas, where he condemns marriages within any of the forbidden degrees, for this reason, amongst others, that there is some danger, lest the friendship a man bears to such a woman, should be immoderate; for if the conjugal affection be full and perfect between them, as it ought to be, and that it be over and above surcharged with that of kindred too, there is no doubt, but such an addition will carry the husband beyond the bounds of reason. Those sciences that regulate the manners of men, divinity and philosophy, will have their say in everything; there is no action so private and secret that can escape their inspection and jurisdiction. They are best taught who are best able to control and curb their own liberty.
丈夫疼爱妻子是非常正当的,但神学主张应保持适度。我记得在托马斯・阿奎那断所写的谴责近亲结婚的文字中曾看到过这样一个理由:对近亲结婚的妻子的疼爱是不适当的、危险的,因为如果夫妻间的爱已经达到了应有的完满程度,亲情又为其锦上添花,毫无疑问,这份额外的情感将会使丈夫越出理性的界限。那些规范男子品行的科学,例如神学和哲学,体现在一切事物之中,没有任何私人的、秘密的行为能够逃脱它们的洞察和评判。最能控制和约束自己的随意性的人,是最有教养的人。
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