为什么是达尔文？我的另类翻译之旅 108

为什么是达尔文？我的另类翻译之旅 108
【絮语】
这是一篇达尔文小传。
达尔文小传主要素材来源于达尔文自己写的两本书。
一本是《达尔文回忆录：我的思想和性格发展的回忆录》（Recollections of the Development of my Mind and Character）。这是达尔文为他家人写的一本书。有关达尔文的传记，有很多版本，有一些版本包括他的书信，而且，有删有补。
比如，他的儿子弗朗西斯·达尔文在编辑他的《生活与书信》时，就删除了对上帝和基督教的批判性内容；
而被遗漏的段落后来由达尔文的孙女诺拉·巴洛 (Nora Barlow)在 1958 年的版本中修复，以纪念《物种起源》出版 100 周年。
另外一本是《“小猎犬号”航海记》。
尽管《物种起源》是达尔⽂最负盛名的扛鼎之作，《小猎⽝号航海记》却是青年达尔文的成名之作，以至于达尔文晚年提起此书时，依然津津乐道、情有独钟，自称是他著述生涯喜得的“头胎”（the first born），在其所有著作中视为至爱而自珍。
颇有意思的是，该书最初（1839年5月）问世时，是四卷本官方考察报告中的第三卷，第一、二卷则出自菲茨罗伊船长之手，而第四卷是冗长的，与前三卷相关的注释与附录。
达尔文所著第三卷的原书名是《菲茨罗伊船⻓领航小猎犬号战舰环球之旅期间所访各国的博物学与地质学研究日志》（Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage round the world of
H.M.S. Beagle under the command of Captain FitzRoy, R.N.）。
由于达尔文《小猎犬号航海记》中不仅记载了所访各国的博物学新知，⽽且描述了那里的地理风貌、风土人情以及达尔文本人的心路历程，这本书语言生动活泼、读来引人入胜，无疑是这套书中最为出彩的⼀卷，出版后即刻获得巨大成功。
鉴于此，该套书的出版商看准并抓住了商机，未经达尔⽂同意，便将第三卷抽出来，改用《小猎犬号航海记》这⼀书名，于同年晚些时候出版了单行本，以满号维多利亚时代的英国⼈对位于天涯海⾓的治外领地的好奇心。
果不其然，《小猎犬号航海记》迅速成了畅销书，达尔⽂也因此而一举成名。
值得一提的是，达尔⽂对出版商未经其允许而出版此书，事后也没有付给他版税的做法，从未予以追究。
如果有朋友想读这两本书的话，我这有简中电子版。
【翻译】
以下几页呈上的查尔斯·达尔文（Charles Darwin）传记与他的《物种起源》（The Origin of Species）目录，摘自《西方世界经典名著》第 49 卷（册）。
除了《物种起源》，这一卷也包含有《人类的由来》（The Origin of Species），在这部书中，达尔文将他的普遍化理论，即在《物种起源》中阐释的理论，应用在人类演化这个令人困惑课题上。
相对于但丁，快速地阅读达尔文传记——在五、六分钟之内——然后速读或预读《物种起源》的目录，阅读时间请不要超过十分钟。
查尔斯·达尔文（Charles Darwin）
1809-1882
对于导致他“作为一个科学人的成功”，在评价其特性时，查尔斯·达尔文在他极其谦逊的自传中写道：“因为这也许有可能引起我的孩子们的兴趣，”并追溯到他早在青少年时期“强烈渴望理解与解释”他观察到的任何现象。
他的童年梦想与自然历史方面令人难以置信的发现相关；他对同学吹牛，说他能够通过使用某种染色液体浇灌，使得同一种植物开出指定颜色的花朵。
他的父亲，一位非常成功的医师，对他第二个儿子与众不同的兴趣，以及他在巴特勒博士（Dr. Butler）日间学校的古典课程上的平庸表现，多少有一点迷惑不解；他因此决定把达尔文送到爱丁堡（Ediburgh）学习医学。
在爱丁堡，达尔文在潮汐坑里收集动物，与纽黑文（Newhaven）渔民一起用渔网捕捞牡蛎以获得标本，并有两项小发现，他将其写进论文，拿到普林尼亚学会（Plinian Society）上宣读。
他在学习医学上并没有付出非常“艰苦的努力”。
老达尔文医生带有几分粗暴地要求达尔文选择以教士作为职业。
乡村教士生活对年轻的达尔文具有一定吸引力，由此，在他对涉及“所有教会的教义”信念的怀疑减轻了之后，他在剑桥开始了新的职业生涯。
然而，他发现无法压制自己的科学志趣，并成为了一位狂热的昆虫学家（entomologist），尤其专注于收集甲虫；看到自己一个稀有标本发表在史蒂芬（Stephen）的《不列颠昆虫图集》（Illustrations of British Insects）上，他深感满意。
与在爱丁堡时一样，与科学界人士的密切往来，让他兴奋不已。正是剑桥的植物学教授，J. S. 亨斯罗（J. S. Henslow），安排达尔文作为自然学家（naturalist）在政府考察船，“小猎犬号”（H. M. S. Beagle），任职。
从 1831 年到 1836 年，“小猎犬号”在南部水域航行。
莱尔（Sir Charles Lyell ）在《地质学原理》（Principles of Geology）中，阐释了他在自然进程造成变化方面的研究发现，给达尔文自己有关佛得角群岛（Cape Verde Islands）地质结构的观察指明了方向。
他也对珊瑚礁作了大量考察，并注意到在大陆上的动物与毗邻大陆的那些岛屿上的动物之间的关系，以及活着动物与同一物种动物的遗骸化石之间关系。
达尔文将“小猎犬号”的航海描述为“迄今为止我生命中最为重要的事件”。除了使得他成为他那个时代最合格的自然学家之一，该次航行还让他形成了“努力勤勉且专注的习惯”。
就儿子这种新的坚定目标，老达尔文博士有所提及，他在第一次看到这次航行后的达尔文时，评说道：“咄咄怪事！他的头型都变了。”
回来之后，达尔文在伦敦安家，开始了整理与记录观察成果的工作。
他成为莱尔的密友，莱尔是英格兰地质学家领袖，后来又与霍克（Hooler）成为密友，霍克是一位杰出的植物学家。
在 1839 年，达尔文与他的舅表姐，爱玛·韦奇伍德结婚，到了 1842 年末，因为达尔文长期病痛，全家搬到达温宅（Down），他的余生都隐居在这里。
在伦敦的六年间，他整理航行笔记准备撰写《小猎犬号航海记》（Journal），并出版了他的详尽研究档案《珊瑚礁》（Coral Reefs）。
接下来的八年都专注于藤壶（barnacles）的艰苦分类工作，目的是准备他有关该主题的四卷本著作。
“我很震惊，”他写给霍克的信中说，“所有物种的每一部分都存在一些细微变化。”
在经过这一期间针对单一物种的详尽工作之后，达尔文觉得可以着手主攻物种变异问题了，这一问题他已经苦思冥想了许多年。
在“小猎犬号”航海期间，大量事实渐渐明朗，达尔文认为“唯一能够给出的解释，只能是假设物种逐渐改变的”。
后来，在回到英格兰之后，他收集了所有他能够找到的资料，“涉及到关于家养条件下，任何方式的植物与动物变异（variation）”。
他很快认识到“选择是人类成功的基石（keystone）。
但是，选择是怎样才能适用于自然状态下生存的生物体，在一段时间内却还是一个待解之谜”。
一天，当他阅读马尔萨斯（Malthus）《论人口》（On Population）时，突然灵光一现，在生存斗争（struggle for existence）中——这种情况他在所有地方都观察到了——“在这些自然条件下，有利的变异应该有被保存的趋势，而无利的吝惜则应该有被消灭的趋势。这样的结果，应该会引起新物种的形成。因此，最后，我终于获得了一个用来指导工作的理论”。
他将这个理论透露给了霍克和莱尔，他们力劝他将这个观点写出来发表。
但是，达尔文工作很慎重；在 1858 年夏，他收到了一篇寄自华莱士（A. R. Wallace）的论文，此人在摩鹿加群岛的特马特（Temate in the Moluccas），论文中的理论正好与他的理论不谋而合，而此时他计划中的书才完成一半。
他将这进退两难窘境提交给了霍克和莱尔，在信中他写道：“你们的话——我可能会被人领先，说对了，惩罚来了。”
他们两人的决定是把他以前年度书信中的理论摘录，与华莱士的论文一起发表，这部联合作品被标题为：论物种形成变异之趋势，以及通过自然选择方式的物种与永续变异（On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection）。
一年以后，在 1859 年 11 月 24 日，《物种起源》发表。 1,250 本完整第一版在出版当天就抢购一空。
这本书引发了论战风暴，在牛津（Oxford）的不列颠学会（British Association）的一次会议上达到高潮，在那里发生了赫胥黎（T. H. Huxley）与威尔伯福斯主教（Bishop Wilberforce）之间的著名口水战。
达尔文，在他激烈地回应一位敌手后，转辗难眠，于是接受了莱尔的建议，避开争吵以节省“时间与精力（time and temper）”。
然而，他的工作仍然紧紧围绕着这个课题。他将《物种起源》第一章中的素材扩写为一本书，即《家养状况下植物与动物的变异》（Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication ，1868）。
在《人类的由来与性选择》（The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex ，1871）中，达尔文实现了他在《物种起源》中的表述，即“关于人类起源及其历史的昭示”。
《人和动物的情感表达》（Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals ，1872）提供了一种现象的自然解释，这现象似乎很难以某种方式接受演化（evolution）论。
达尔文最后的著作涉及到植物的形态、变迁、以及受精。
达尔文在达温宅的生活，特别适合保持他精力充沛，并针对他的活力给了恰当的秩序。
由于他持续的病痛，他的妻子煞费苦心地“让他避开所有可以避免的烦扰”。近四十年来，他一直遵守相同的作息规律，
他的日子被仔细地划分为锻炼和轻度阅读的间歇，在这种平衡之下，使他能够最充分地利用他用于工作的四个小时。
同样，他的科学阅读和实验也是以最严格经济的方式安排的。
甚至他与工作无关的智识生活方面，正如他所说的，也变得“萎缩 ”了，他对这一事实感到遗憾，认为这是“幸福丧失”。他所做的这种非科学性阅读纯粹是为了放松，他认为“应该通过一项法律”来禁止小说的不愉快结局。
对于他的妻子和七个孩子，他的态度是如此不同寻常地“深情且愉悦”，以至于他的儿子，弗朗西斯，惊叹于他能 “在我们这样一个持重沉稳的民族中”保持这种态度。
当他于 1882 年 4 月 19 日去世时，他的家人希望将他安葬在达温宅；但公众却觉得他应该安葬在威斯敏斯特大教堂（Westminster Abbey），于是他被安放在艾萨克·牛顿爵士旁边。
【英文原文】
The biography of Charles Darwin and the table of contents of his The Origin of Species that appear on the following pages are taken from Volume 49 of Great Books of the Western World. Besides The Origin of Species, that volume also contains The Descent of Man, in which Darwin applied his general theory, as expounded in the Origin, to the puzzling question of the evolution of the human species.
As in the case of Dante, read the biography of Darwin quickly—in five or six minutes—and then skim or pre-read the table of contents of The Origin of Species, devoting no more than ten minutes to the task. 
Charles Darwin
1809–1882 
In evaluating the qualities that accounted for his “success as a man of science,” Charles Darwin in his modest autobiography, written “because it might possibly interest my children,” traces from his early youth “the strongest desire to understand and explain” whatever he observed. His childhood fantasies were concerned with fabulous discoveries in natural history; to his schoolmates he boasted that he could produce variously colored flowers of the same plant by watering them with certain colored fluids. 
His father, a highly successful physician, was somewhat puzzled by the singular interest of his second son as well as by his undistinguished career in the classical curriculum of Dr. Butler’s day school; he accordingly decided to send him to Edinburgh to study medicine. At Edinburgh Darwin collected animals in tidal pools, trawled for oysters with Newhaven fishermen to obtain specimens, and made two small discoveries which he incorporated in papers read before the Plinian Society. He put forth no very “strenuous effort” to learn medicine. 
With some asperity, Dr. Darwin proposed the vocation of clergyman as an alternative. The life of a country clergyman appealed to young Darwin, and, after quieting his doubts concerning his belief in “all the dogmas of the Church,” he began this new career at Cambridge. He proved unable, however, to repress his scientific interests and developed into an ardent entomologist, particularly devoted to collecting beetles; he had the satisfaction of seeing one of his rare specimens published in Stephen’s Illustrations of British Insects. As at Edinburgh, he enjoyed many stimulating associations with men of science. It was a professor of botany at Cambridge, J. S. Henslow, who arranged for his appointment as naturalist on the government ship, H. M. S. Beagle. 
From 1831 to 1836 the Beagle voyaged in Southern waters. Lyell’s researches into the changes wrought by natural processes, set forth in Principles of Geology, gave direction to Darwin’s own observations of the geological structure of the Cape Verde Islands. He also made extensive examinations of coral reefs and noted the relations of animals on the mainland to those of the adjacent islands,  as well as the relation of living animals to the fossil remains of the same species. 
Darwin described the voyage of the Beagle as “by far the most important event in my life.” Besides making him one of the best qualified naturalists of his day, it developed in him the “habit of energetic industry and of concentrated attention.” This new purposefulness on the part of his son was succinctly noted by Dr. Darwin, who remarked upon first seeing him after the voyage: “Why, the shape of his head is quite altered.” 
After his return, Darwin settled in London and began the task of organizing and recording his observations. He became a close friend of Lyell, the leading English geologist, and later of Hooker, an outstanding botanist. In 1839 he married his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, and toward the end of 1842, because of Darwin’s chronic ill-health, the family moved to Down, where he lived in seclusion for the rest of his days. During the six years in London, he prepared his Journal from the notes of the voyage and published his carefully documented study of Coral Reefs. 
The next eight years were spent in the laborious classification of barnacles for his four-volume work on that subject. “I have been struck,” he wrote to Hooker, “with the variability of every part in some slight degree of every species.” After this period of detailed work with a single species, Darwin felt prepared to attack the problem of the modification of species which he had been pondering for many years. 
A number of facts had come to light during the voyage of the Beagle that Darwin felt “could only be explained on the supposition that species gradually become modified.” Later, after his return to England, he had collected all the material he could find which “bore in any way on the variation of plants and animals under domestication.” He soon perceived “that selection was the keystone of man’s success. But how selection could be applied to organisms living in a state of nature remained for some time a mystery.” One day, while reading Malthus on Population, it suddenly occurred to him how, in the struggle for existence, which he had everywhere observed, “ favorable variations would tend to be preserved and unfavorable ones to be destroyed. The result would be the formation of a new species. Here then I had at last a theory by which to work.” 
He confided this theory to Hooker and Lyell, who urged him to write out his views for publication. But Darwin worked deliberately; he was only half through his projected book, when in the summer of 1858, he received an essay from A. R. Wallace at Temate in the Moluccas, containing exactly the same theory as his own. Darwin submitted his dilemma to Hooker and Lyell, to whom he wrote: “Your words have come true with a vengeance—that I should be forestalled.” It was their decision to publish an abstract of his theory from a letter of the previous year together with Wallace’s essay, the joint work being entitled: On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection. 
A year later, on November 24, 1859, The Origin of Species appeared. The entire first edition of 1,250 copies was sold on the day of publication. A storm of controversy arose over the book, reaching its height at a meeting of the British Association at Oxford, where the celebrated verbal duel between T. H. Huxley and Bishop Wilberforce took place. Darwin, who could not sleep when he answered an antagonist harshly, took Lyell’s advice and saved both “time and temper” by avoiding the fray. 
In his work, however, he stayed close to his thesis. He expanded the material of the first chapter of the Origin into a book, Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication (1868). In The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), Darwin fulfilled his statement in the Origin that “light would be thrown on the origin of man and his history.” The Expression of the Emotions (1872) offered a natural explanation of phenomena which appeared to be a difficulty in the way of acceptance of evolution. His last works were concerned with the form, movement, and fertilization of plants. 
Darwin’s existence at Down was peculiarly adapted to preserve his energy and give direct order to his activity. Because of his continual ill-health, his wife took pains “to shield him from every avoidable annoyance.” He observed the same routine for nearly forty years, his days being carefully parcelled into intervals of exercise and light reading in such proportions that he could utilize to his fullest capacity the four hours he devoted to work. His scientific reading and experimentation, as well, were organized with the most rigorous economy. Even the phases of his intellectual life non-essential to his work became, as he put it, “atrophied,” a fact which he regretted as “a loss of happiness.” Such non-scientific reading as he did was purely for relaxation, and he thought that “a law ought to be passed” against unhappy endings to novels. 
With his wife and seven children his manner was so unusually “affectionate and delighful” that his son, Francis, marvelled that he could preserve it “with such an undemonstrative race as we are.” When he died on April 19, 1882, his family wanted him to be buried at Down; public feeling decreed that he should be interred in Westminster Abbey, where he was laid beside Sir Isaac Newton.