of adversity 论困厄

　　it was an high speech of seneca (after the manner of the stoics) that the good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired. bona rerum secudarum optabilia; adversarum mirabilia.

　　“幸运底好处是应当希望的;但是厄运底好处是应当惊奇叹赏的”，这是塞奈喀仿画廊派的高论。

　　certainly if miracles be the command over nature, they appear most in adversity. it is yet a higher speech of his than the other (much too high for a heathen): it is true greatness to have in one the fragility of a man and the security of a god. vere magnum habere fragilitaterm hominis securitatem da. this would have done better in poesy; where transcendencies are more allowed. and the poets indeed, have been busy with it; for it is, in effect, the thing which is figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which seemeth not to be without mystery; nay, and to have some approach to the state of a christian: that hercules when he went to unbind prometheus (by whom human nature is represented) sailed the length of the great ocean in an earthen pot or pitcher: lively describing christian resolution; that saileth, in the frail barque of the flesh, through the waves of the world.

　　无疑地，如果奇迹底意思是“超越自然”，那么奇迹多是在厄运中出现的。塞氏还有一句比这更高的话(这话由一个异教徒说出，几乎是太高了)：“一个人有凡人底脆弱而又有神仙底自在无忧，那就是真正的伟大”。这句话如果是一句诗，也许更好一点，因为在诗里头，高夸的说法，好象是更为可许似的。诗人们也真的常说这句话，因为这句话实际就是古诗人常述的那个奇谈中所表现的——而这个奇谈又似乎非无深义的;不特如此，它所描写的还很有点接近基督徒底情形呢——那就是当赫扣力斯去解放普罗密修斯的时候(普罗密修斯是象征人性的)他坐在一个瓦盆或瓦罐里渡过了大海。基督徒以血肉之躯的轻舟渡过世间底波涛的决心，这故事很生动地描写出来了。

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（实习编辑：高奕飞）