评论
打印
The Damned Human Race
可恶的人类
Mark Twain
马克•吐温
I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the "lower animals," and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals and to name it the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.
我一直在研究“低级动物”的特点和性情，并将其与人的特点和性情相比较。我发现其结果令我羞愧难当，因为它迫使我宣布不再忠信达尔文“人是从低级动物进化而来”的理论，而将其更名为“人是从高级动物退化而来的”。
In proceeding toward this unpleasant conclusion I have not guessed or speculated or conjectured, but have used what is commonly called the scientific method. That is to say, I have subjected every postulate that presented itself to the crucial test of actual experiment, and have adopted it or rejected it according to the result. These experiments were made in the London Zoological Gardens, and covered many months of painstaking and fatiguing work.
在得出这一令人不快的结论的过程中，我没有进行猜测、推断或者揣测，而是运用了人们通常所说的科学方法。也就是说，对于出现的每一种假设，我都通过实验进行了严格检测，并依据实验结果采纳或者否定了这一假设。这些实验都是在伦敦动物园进行的，为此我历时数月，不辞辛劳。
