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LESSON 16 Man and the industrial arts
第十六课 人类和工业艺术
As industrial creatures, we often look like wretched copyists of animals far beneath us in the scale of organization; and we seem to confess as much by the names which we give them. The mason-wasp, the carpenter-bee, the mining caterpillars, the quarrying sea-slugs, execute their work in a way which we cannot rival or excel. The bird is an exquisite architect; the beaver a most skilful bridge-builder; the silk-worm the most beautiful of weavers; the spider the best of net-makers. Each is a perfect craftsman, and each has his tools always at hand.
人类作为工业生物，却像是那些在组织规模上无法与人类匹敌的动物们的可悲模仿者，而人类似乎也认识到了这一点，从他们对其它生物的称呼上便可体现。工黄蜂、木蜂、采矿毛虫，采石海参，它们劳作的方式是人类无法匹敌和超越的。鸟儿是精巧的建造工；河狸是最娴熟的架桥工；蚕是最美的织工；蜘蛛则是最棒的制网工；每种生物都有自己独家的手艺活儿，而且还有可随身携带的工具。
Those wise creatures, I believe, have minds like our own, to the extent that they have minds, and are not mere living machines, swayed by a blind instinct; but their most wonderful works imply neither invention, contrivance, nor volition, but only a placid, pleasant, easily rendered obedience to instincts which reign without rivals, and justify their despotic rule by the infallible happiness which they secure. It has cost none of these ingenious artists any intellectual effort to learn its craft, for God gave it to each perfect in the beginning; and, within the circle to which they apply, the rules which guide their work are infallible, and know no variation.
我相信这些聪慧的生物都有如同人类一样的思考能力，它们并不只是简单的活着的机器，它们有自己的想法，行动完全受本能支配。不过，它们最出色的劳作不是发明创造，也不是意志力，而是一种沉着的、欣然的、略带渲染的对本能的服从，这种本能无需竞争，它们用自己收获到的实实在在的幸福来证明自己专制统治的合理性。而且，这些独创性非凡的艺术家们生来就技艺超群，它们无需任何额外的智力辅助，因为上帝在创世之时就将这些赐予了它们。此外，它们的圈子里有着特定的规矩，这些规矩是绝对适应并且一成不变的。
To those creatures, however, the Author of all has given, not only infallible rules for their work, but unfaltering faith in them. Labour is for them not a doubt, but a certainty. Duty is the same thing as happiness. They never grow weary of life, and death never surprises them; and they are less to be likened to us than to perfect self-repairing machines, which swiftly raise our admiration from themselves to Him who made and who sustains them.
然而，造物主不仅为这些生物制定了劳作规矩，还为它们灌输了坚定的信念。对它们来说没有为什么劳作，只有必须劳作，履行职责就如同获取了幸福。它们从不厌倦生活，也不惊讶于死亡。比起将它们比作人来，它们更像是毫无瑕疵的自我修复机器，而这促使人类对上帝的敬佩感油然而生，因为是上帝创造了它们，是上帝维持了它们的生命。
