Of Truth

What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them, as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labor, which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural, though corrupt love, of the lie itself. One of the later school of the Grecians, examineth the matter, and is at a stand, to think what should be in it, that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell; this same truth, is a naked, and open day-light, that doth not show the masks, and mummeries, and triumphs, of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond, or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds, of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?

“真理是什么？”彼拉多戏谑地问了一句，却不肯停下来等一个回答。确实有这样的人，喜欢飘忽不定，把确立一种信念看作束缚；他们在思想上和在行动上一样，都要标榜自由意志。那一派哲学家虽然已经消亡，却仍有一些好发议论的才子与他们一脉相承，只是血管里的血已不如古人那样充沛。然而，使谎言受人青睐的，不只是寻找真理的艰难与辛劳，也不只是真理一旦找到便会约束人的思想；而是人对谎言本身怀有一种天生的、虽然败坏的爱好。希腊后期学派中有一位曾探究此事，并为之困惑：人为什么会爱谎言？这些谎言既不像诗人的谎言那样带来乐趣，也不像商人的谎言那样带来好处，人们爱它，只是为了谎言本身。我也说不清。这真理好比赤裸敞亮的白昼，照出世间的假面、哑剧与盛典，远不如烛光照得那样堂皇、那样精巧。真理的身价或许可比珍珠，在白日下最显光彩；却抬不到钻石或红玉的身价，那些宝石要在变幻的光线下才最好看。掺进一点谎言，总能添些快意。有谁会怀疑：倘若从人心中拿走虚妄的见解、讨好的希望、错误的估价、随心所欲的想象，以及诸如此类的东西，许多人的心灵就会只剩下一些干瘪可怜的东西，满是忧郁与不适，连自己也不喜欢？

One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum daemonum, because it filleth the imagination; and yet, it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt; such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved judgments, and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last, was the light of reason; and his sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First he breathed light, upon the face of the matter or chaos; then he breathed light, into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light, into the face of his chosen. The poet, that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure, to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure, to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below; so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling, or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.

有一位教父十分严厉，把诗称作“魔鬼之酒”（vinum daemonum），因为它让想象充满了东西；可是诗里有的，不过是谎言的影子。为害的并不是从心中掠过的谎言，而是沉入心底、在那里安顿下来的谎言，就是前面说的那一种。不论这些事在人们败坏的判断与情感中如何，只有真理能评判它自己，而真理教导我们：探求真理，就是向它求爱；认识真理，就是与它同在；相信真理，就是享有它；这三者是人性的至善。在创世的那几日里，上帝最先造出的是感官之光，最后造出的是理性之光；此后他在安息日的工作，便是以他的灵来照亮。他先把光吹在物质或混沌的面上，又把光吹进人的面孔，至今仍把光吹入、注入他所拣选之人的面容。有一位诗人为一个原本不如其他学派的学派增了光彩，他说得极好：站在岸上，看海上的船只颠簸，是一种快乐；站在城堡的窗前，看下面的一场战斗和其中的种种变故，也是一种快乐；但什么快乐都比不上站在真理的高地上（那是一座无人能够俯压的山，山上的空气永远清朗宁静），俯看下面山谷里的谬误、迷途、雾霭与风暴；只是看的时候，总要怀着怜悯，而不是自满或骄傲。的确，一个人的心若能在仁爱中运行，在天意中安歇，以真理为轴而转动，那便是人间的天堂。

To pass from theological, and philosophical truth, to the truth of civil business; it will be acknowledged, even by those that practise it not, that clear, and round dealing, is the honor of man's nature; and that mixture of falsehood, is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. For these winding, and crooked courses, are the goings of the serpent; which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice, that doth so cover a man with shame, as to be found false and perfidious. And therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge? Saith he, If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man. Surely the wickedness of falsehood, and breach of faith, cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal, to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men; it being foretold, that when Christ cometh, he shall not find faith upon the earth.

从神学和哲学的真理，转到世俗事务中的真实：即使是不这样做的人也会承认，光明正大、坦率直接的处事，是人性的荣耀；而掺杂虚假，就像在金币银币里掺进合金，也许能让金属更好加工，却降低了它的成色。因为这些迂回曲折的路数，正是蛇的行径；蛇卑贱地用肚腹爬行，而不是用脚走路。没有哪一种恶行，比被人发现虚伪、背信更叫人蒙羞。所以蒙田说得妙。他探问：为什么“说谎”这个字眼是如此的耻辱、如此可憎的指控？他说：仔细掂量，说一个人撒谎，就等于说他对上帝大胆，对人却怯懦。因为谎言敢于面对上帝，却在人面前畏缩。虚伪与背信之恶，再没有比这更深重的说法了：它将是最后的钟声，召来上帝对世世代代之人的审判；因为经上预言，基督再来的时候，在地上找不到信实。