社会主义下人的灵魂（六）

It will be a marvellous thing – the true personality of man – when we see it. It will grow naturally and simply, flowerlike, or as a tree grows. It will not be at discord. It will never argue or dispute. It will not prove things. It will know everything. And yet it will not busy itself about knowledge. It will have wisdom. Its value will not be measured by material things. It will have nothing. And yet it will have everything, and whatever one takes from it, it will still have, so rich will it be. It will not be always meddling with others, or asking them to be like itself. It will love them because they will be different. And yet while it will not meddle with others, it will help all, as a beautiful thing helps us, by being what it is. The personality of man will be very wonderful. It will be as wonderful as the personality of a child.

我们所看到的真实人性将是超凡脱俗的。它自然地生长，像花或是树那样生长，没有不和，没有争吵。它知晓万物，也毋需证明。它富有智慧，却不因拥有知识而忙碌，它的价值不可估量。它一无所有，它也拥有一切。无论从它身上获取多少，它都不会枯竭。它是如此的富饶，它从不干涉他人，也不渴求他人的喜爱。它热爱人类，热爱人类的不同。尽管它并不干涉，它却会帮助人类，就像美好的事物帮助我们的那样，它成就了自身。人类的本性将会趋于完美，像孩童那般纯真的完美。

In its development it will be assisted by Christianity, if men desire that; but if men do not desire that, it will develop none the less surely. For it will not worry itself about the past, nor care whether things happened or did not happen. Nor will it admit any laws but its own laws; nor any authority but its own authority. Yet it will love those who sought to intensify it, and speak often of them. And of these Christ was one.

在人性的发展过程中，若是人们渴求基督的帮助，那么基督就会帮助它。但即使人们不希望基督帮忙，它依然将正常的发展。因为它无需担心自己的过去，也不用在意那些发生了或者是没发生的事情。它不用承认任何的教条，因为它有自己的规则；它无惧任何的权威，因为它自己就是权威。它爱戴那些试图帮助它的人，而基督也曾是其中之一。

‘Know thyself’ was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, ‘Be thyself’ shall be written. And the message of Christ to man was simply ‘Be thyself.’ That is the secret of Christ.

“Know yourself”这句话被篆刻在旧世界的大门上。而在新世界的入口，我们应当写上“Be yourself”。基督传达给人类的信息就是“Be yourself”，这是他的秘诀。

When Jesus talks about the poor he simply means personalities, just as when he talks about the rich he simply means people who have not developed their personalities. Jesus moved in a community that allowed the accumulation of private property just as ours does, and the gospel that he preached was not that in such a community it is an advantage for a man to live on scanty, unwholesome food, to wear ragged, unwholesome clothes, to sleep in horrid, unwholesome dwellings, and a disadvantage for a man to live under healthy, pleasant, and decent conditions. Such a view would have been wrong there and then, and would, of course, be still more wrong now and in England; for as man moves northward the material necessities of life become of more vital importance, and our society is infinitely more complex, and displays far greater extremes of luxury and pauperism than any society of the antique world. What Jesus meant, was this. He said to man, ‘You have a wonderful personality. Develop it. Be yourself. Don’t imagine that your perfection lies in accumulating or possessing external things. Your affection is inside of you. If only you could realise that, you would not want to be rich. Ordinary riches can be stolen from a man. Real riches cannot. In the treasury-house of your soul, there are infinitely precious things, that may not be taken from you. And so, try to so shape your life that external things will not harm you. And try also to get rid of personal property. It involves sordid preoccupation, endless industry, continual wrong. Personal property hinders Individualism at every step.’ It is to be noted that Jesus never says that impoverished people are necessarily good, or wealthy people necessarily bad. That would not have been true. Wealthy people are, as a class, better than impoverished people, more moral, more intellectual, more well-behaved. There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else. That is the misery of being poor.

当耶稣谈及穷人时，他着重讲了人性，而当他谈及富人时，他说富人没有人性。耶稣来到一个像我们今天这样，允许积累私人财产的社会，而那里没有他传道的福音。人们过着饥饿，衣衫褴褛，没有住所的生活，那里没有安全，没有快乐，没有美好。这个说法在当时不被认可，而在今天的英格兰社会更是大错特错。如果人们向北迁徙，他们就会发现那里对物质必要性的需求更加严重，社会也复杂的得多，贫富差距也比任何一个古代的社会更大。耶稣所言意味如此：他对人们说道，你有优越的人格，去发扬它，成为你自身。不要幻想完美是建立在所谓的积攒外物上，你的影响力就在你的体内，而只要你认识到这一点，就不会去追求财富。财富会被偷窃，而真正的富有却不会。在你的灵魂中，那些真正珍贵的事物，是永远拿不走的。所以啊，去塑造你的生活吧，不要让外物妨碍你。试着远离私人财产，那之中包含着肮脏的成见，无尽的烦扰和不断的谬误。时时刻刻，个人财产都在妨碍着个人主义。值得注意的是，耶稣并没有说穷人就一定是好的而富人就一定是坏的，他并没有这个意思。富人阶级，比起穷人，他们更有道德，更聪明，行为举止也更得体。在这个社会中，只有一个阶级对钱的渴望胜过富人，那就是贫民。他们想不到其他美好的东西，而这也正是穷人的悲哀。