Micrographia: The Preface

It is the great prerogative of Mankind above other Creatures, that we are not only able to behold the works of Nature, or barely to sustein our lives by them, but we have also the power of considering, comparing, altering, assisting, and improving them to various uses. And as this is the peculiar priviledge of humane Nature in general, so is it capable of being so far advanced by the helps of Art, and Experience, as to make some Men excel others in their Observations, and Deductions, almost as much as they do Beasts. By the addition of such artificial Instruments and methods, there may be, in some manner, a reparation made for the mischiefs, and imperfection, mankind has drawn upon it self, by negligence, and intemperance, and a wilful and superstitious deserting the Prescripts and Rules of Nature, whereby every man, both from a deriv’d corruption, innate and born with him, and from his breeding and converse with men, is very subject to slip into all sorts of errors.

人类胜过其他生灵的一大特权在于：我们不仅能观看自然的造化，或者仅仅靠它们维持生命，而且有能力对它们加以考察、比较、改变、辅助和改进，使之派上种种用场。这是一般人性所特有的特权；同样，借助技艺和经验，它还能大大增进，以致有些人在观察和推理上胜过别人，几乎就像人胜过禽兽一样。添上这样一些人造的仪器和方法，人类因疏忽、放纵，因任性而迷信地背弃自然的规条与法则而给自己招来的祸害与缺陷，或许可以在某种程度上得到弥补；正因为这些，每个人——既由于与生俱来、代代相传的败坏，也由于他所受的教养和与人的交往——都很容易陷入种种谬误。

The only way which now remains for us to recover some degree of those former perfections, seems to be, by rectifying the operations of the Sense, the Memory, and Reason, since upon the evidence, the strength, the integrity, and the right correspondence of all these, all the light, by which our actions are to be guided is to be renewed, and all our command over things is to be establisht.

如今我们要恢复几分往昔的完美，剩下的唯一途径，似乎就是矫正感官、记忆和理性的运作；因为指引我们行动的一切光亮，都要靠这三者的明证、力量、完好以及彼此间正确的呼应来重新点燃，我们对万物的一切支配力，也要靠它们来确立。

It is therefore most worthy of our consideration, to recollect their several defects, that so we may the better understand how to supply them, and by what assistances we may inlarge their power, and secure them in performing their particular duties.

因此最值得我们考虑的，是逐一回顾它们各自的缺陷，以便更好地懂得如何弥补，懂得借助什么可以扩大它们的能力，并保证它们履行各自的职责。

As for the actions of our Senses, we cannot but observe them to be in many particulars much outdone by those of other Creatures, and when at best, to be far short of the perfection they seem capable of: And these infirmities of the Senses arise from a double cause, either from the disproportion of the Object to the Organ, whereby an infinite number of things can never enter into them, or else from error in the Perception, that many things, which come within their reach, are not received in a right manner.

至于我们感官的活动，我们不能不注意到，它们在许多方面都远不如其他生灵的感官，即使在最好的状态下，也离它们看似可以达到的完美相去甚远。感官的这些弱点出自双重原因：要么是对象与器官不相称，使得无数事物永远无法进入感官；要么是知觉出了差错，使得许多进入感官范围的事物没有被正确地接收。

The like frailties are to be found in the Memory; we often let many things slip away from us, which deserve to be retain’d, and of those which we treasure up, a great part is either frivolous or false; and if good, and substantial, either in tract of time obliterated, or at best so overwhelmed and buried under more frothy notions, that when there is need of them, they are in vain sought for.

记忆也有类似的弱点：许多值得保留的东西，我们常常任它们溜走；而我们珍藏起来的那些，很大一部分要么琐屑，要么虚假；即使是好的、实在的东西，也要么随着时间的推移被抹去，要么至多被更多浮沫般的念头淹没、掩埋，等到需要时，怎么找也找不到。

The two main foundations being so deceivable, it is no wonder, that all the succeeding works which we build upon them, of arguing, concluding, defining, judging, and all the other degrees of Reason, are lyable to the same imperfection, being, at best, either vain, or uncertain: So that the errors of the understanding are answerable to the two other, being defective both in the quantity and goodness of its knowledge; for the limits, to which our thoughts are confin’d, are small in respect of the vast extent of Nature it self; some parts of it are too large to be comprehended, and some too little to be perceived. And from thence it must follow, that not having a full sensation of the Object, we must be very lame and imperfect in our conceptions about it, and in all the proportions which we build upon it; hence, we often take the shadow of things for the substance, small appearances for good similitudes, similitudes for definitions; and even many of those, which we think, to be the most solid definitions, are rather expressions of our own misguided apprehensions then of the true nature of the things themselves.

这两大基础既然如此靠不住，那么我们建于其上的一切后续工作——论证、推断、定义、判断以及理性的其他各个层级——同样难免不完美，也就不足为奇了；它们至多不是虚妄，就是不确定。所以，知性的错误与另外两者的错误相对应，在知识的数量和品质上都有欠缺；因为我们的思想所受的局限，与自然本身的浩瀚相比实在太小：自然的有些部分太大，无法把握，有些又太小，无法察觉。由此必然得出：既然对于对象没有充分的感觉，我们对它的概念，以及我们在此之上建立的一切比例关系，必定是非常跛脚、非常不完美的。于是我们常常把事物的影子当成实体，把细微的表象当成可靠的相似，把相似当成定义；甚至许多我们认为最坚实的定义，与其说表达了事物本身的真实本性，不如说表达了我们自己被误导的理解。

The effects of these imperfections are manifested in different ways, according to the temper and disposition of the several minds of men, some they incline to gross ignorance and stupidity, and others to a presumptuous imposing on other mens Opinions, and a confident dogmatizing on matters, whereof there is no assurance to be given.

这些缺陷的后果，依各人心性和禀赋的不同而以不同的方式表现出来：有些人因此倾向于粗陋的无知与愚钝，另一些人则倾向于把自己的意见专横地强加于人，在根本无法给出保证的事情上自信地下断语。

Thus all the uncertainty, and mistakes of humane actions, proceed either from the narrowness and wandring of our Senses, from the slipperiness or delusion of our Memory, from the confinement or rashness of our Understanding, so that ’tis no wonder, that our power over natural causes and effects is so slowly improv’d, seeing we are not only to contend with the obscurity and difficulty of the things whereon we work and think, but even the forces of our own minds conspire to betray us.

因此，人类行为的一切不确定与过错，要么出自我们感官的狭隘与游移，要么出自记忆的滑脱与欺瞒，要么出自知性的局限与轻率；所以，我们支配自然因果的能力长进得如此缓慢，也就不足为奇了——因为我们不仅要与我们所施工、所思考的事物的晦暗与艰难相抗，甚至连我们自己心灵的力量也合谋来出卖我们。

These being the dangers in the process of humane Reason, the remedies of them all can only proceed from the real, the mechanical, the experimental Philosophy, which has this advantage over the Philosophy of discourse and disputation, that whereas that chiefly aims at the subtilty of its Deductions and Conclusions, without much regard to the first ground-work, which ought to be well laid on the Sense and Memory; so this intends the right ordering of them all, and the making them serviceable to each other.

这些既是人类理性在推进途中的危险，那么对它们的一切补救，只能来自实在的、机械的、实验的哲学。这种哲学比那种讲论与争辩的哲学有一个优势：后者主要追求推论与结论的精巧，却不大顾及最初的根基，而这根基本应牢牢地奠定在感官和记忆之上；前者则力求把这一切都安排得当，使它们彼此效力。

The first thing to be undertaken in this weighty work, is a watchfulness over the failings and an inlargement of the dominion, of the Senses.

在这项重大的工作中，首先要着手的，是警惕感官的缺失，并扩大感官的疆域。

To which end it is requisite, first, That there should be a scrupulous choice, and a strict examination, of the reality, constancy, and certainty of the Particulars that we admit: This is the first rise whereon truth is to begin, and here the most severe, and most impartial diligence, must be imployed; the storing up of all, without any regard to evidence or use, will only tend to darkness and confusion. We must not therefore esteem the riches of our Philosophical treasure by the number only, but chiefly by the weight; the most vulgar Instances are not to be neglected, but above all, the most instructive are to be entertain’d; the footsteps of Nature are to be trac’d, not only in her ordinary course, but when she seems to be put to her shifts, to make many doublings and turnings, and to use some kind of art in indeavouring to avoid our discovery.

为此，首先必须对我们所采纳的各项具体事实严加挑选，并严格检验它们的真实性、恒常性和确定性：这是真理开始的第一个起点，在这里必须运用最严厉、最公正的勤勉；不顾证据、不问用处地什么都收藏起来，只会导致黑暗与混乱。因此，我们不可单凭数量来估量我们哲学宝藏的财富，而主要应凭分量；最平常的例子不可忽视，但最富启发的例子尤其要接纳；要追踪自然的足迹，不仅在她寻常的进程中，也要在她仿佛被逼得无计可施、迂回折返、像是使出某种手段竭力躲避我们发现的时候。

The next care to be taken, in respect of the Senses, is a supplying of their infirmities with Instruments, and, as it were, the adding of artificial Organs to the natural; this in one of them has been of late years accomplisht with prodigious benefit to all sorts of useful knowledge, by the invention of Optical Glasses. By the means of Telescopes, there is nothing so far distant but may be represented to our view; and by the help of Microscopes, there is nothing so small, as to escape our inquiry; hence there is a new visible World discovered to the understanding. By this means the Heavens are open’d, and a vast number of new Stars, and new Motions, and new Productions appear in them, to which all the antient Astronomers were utterly Strangers. By this the Earth it self, which lyes so neer us, under our feet, shews quite a new thing to us, and in every little particle of its matter; we now behold almost as great a variety of Creatures, as we were able before to reckon up in the whole Universe it self.

在感官方面，下一件要留心的事，是用仪器弥补它们的弱点，可以说就是在天然的器官之上再添加人造的器官。在其中一种感官上，这件事近年来已经借光学镜片的发明而实现了，给各种有用的知识带来了惊人的益处。借助望远镜，再远的东西都可以呈现在我们眼前；借助显微镜，再小的东西也逃不过我们的探究；于是，一个新的可见世界向理解力敞开了。凭借这种手段，天空被打开了，其中出现了大量新的星辰、新的运动、新的造物，这些都是古代天文学家全然陌生的。凭借这种手段，就连离我们这么近、就在我们脚下的大地，也向我们显出全新的面貌；在它物质的每一个微小颗粒里，我们如今看到的生灵种类之繁多，几乎同我们从前在整个宇宙中所能数出的一样多。

In this kind I here present to the World my imperfect Indeavours; which though they shall prove no other way considerable, yet, I hope, they may be in some measure useful to the main Design of a reformation in Philosophy, if it be only by shewing, that there is not so much requir’d towards it, any strength of Imagination, or exactness of Method, or depth of Contemplation (though the addition of these, where they can be had, must needs produce a much more perfect composure) as a sincere Hand, and a faithful Eye, to examine, and to record, the things themselves as they appear.

我在这里向世人献上我不完美的努力；即使它们在别的方面都不足道，我仍希望它们能在某种程度上有益于哲学革新这一宏大的计划——哪怕只是表明：这项革新所需要的，与其说是想象的力量、方法的精密或沉思的深度（当然，凡能兼有这些之处，必定能成就一部完美得多的作品），不如说是一只真诚的手和一双忠实的眼睛，去察看、去记录事物本身显现出来的样子。

And I beg my Reader, to let me take the boldness to assure him, that in this present condition of knowledge, a man so qualified, as I have indeavoured to be, only with resolution, and integrity, and plain intentions of imploying his Senses aright, may venture to compare the reality and the usefulness of his services, towards the true Philosophy, with those of other men, that are of much stronger, and more acute speculations, that shall not make use of the same method by the Senses.

我恳请读者允许我冒昧地向他保证：在当前的知识状况下，一个人只要具备我所努力具备的那些品质——只要有决心、有正直，并且一心想正确地运用自己的感官——就可以拿他对真正哲学所作贡献的真实与有用，去同另一些人相比；那些人的思辨远比他有力、远比他敏锐，却不肯借助感官使用同样的方法。

The truth is, the Science of Nature has been already too long made only a work of the Brain and the Fancy: It is now high time that it should return to the plainness and soundness of Observations on material and obvious things. It is said of great Empires, That the best way to preserve them from decay, is to bring them back to the first Principles, and Arts, on which they did begin. The same is undoubtedly true in Philosophy, that by wandring far away into invisible Notions, has almost quite destroy’d it self, and it can never be recovered, or continued, but by returning into the same sensible paths, in which it did at first proceed.

实情是，自然科学被当作单纯的头脑与幻想的工作，已经太久了。现在正是时候，让它回到对物质的、显而易见的事物所作的朴素而扎实的观察上来。有人说，对于伟大的帝国，防止它衰败的最好办法，是把它带回到它当初赖以建立的那些最初的原则与技艺。哲学无疑也是如此：它游荡到太远的地方，进入种种看不见的概念，几乎把自己完全毁掉了；要恢复它、延续它，唯有回到它最初所走的那些可感知的道路上来。

If therefore the Reader expects from me any infallible Deductions, or certainty of Axioms, I am to say for my self, that those stronger Works of Wit and Imagination are above my weak Abilities; or if they had not been so, I would not have made use of them in this present Subject before me: Whenever he finds that I have ventur’d at any small Conjectures, at the causes of the things that I have observed, I beseech him to look upon them only as doubtful Problems, and uncertain ghesses, and not as unquestionable Conclusions, or matters of unconfutable Science; I have produced nothing here, with intent to bind his understanding to an implicit consent; I am so far from that, that I desire him, not absolutely to rely upon these Observations of my eyes, if he finds them contradicted by the future Ocular Experiments of sober and impartial Discoverers.

所以，如果读者期待从我这里得到什么绝无谬误的推论，或者确定无疑的公理，我得为自己说明：那些更有力的才智与想象的作品，超出了我微弱的能力；即使不是如此，我也不会在眼前这个题目上使用它们。每当读者发现我对所观察到的事物的原因冒昧作了一点小小的猜测，我恳求他只把这些看作可疑的问题、不确定的揣测，而不要看作无可置疑的结论或无法驳倒的学问。我在这里拿出的东西，没有一样是想要束缚他的理解、要他盲目同意的；我非但不这样想，反而希望他：如果日后有清醒而公正的发现者用亲眼所见的实验反驳了我这双眼睛的观察，就不要完全依赖它们。

As for my part, I have obtained my end, if these my small Labours shall be thought fit to take up some place in the large stock of natural Observations, which so many hands are busie in providing. If I have contributed the meanest foundations whereon others may raise nobler Superstructures, I am abundantly satisfied; and all my ambition is, that I may serve to the great Philosophers of this Age, as the makers and the grinders of my Glasses did to me; that I may prepare and furnish them with some Materials, which they may afterwards order and manage with better skill, and to far greater advantage.

至于我自己，如果我这些微小的劳作被认为配得上在大量的自然观察之中占一席之地——许多双手正忙着积累这些观察——我就达到了目的。如果我所提供的哪怕是最卑微的地基，能让别人在上面建起更高贵的上层建筑，我就十分满足了；我全部的抱负就是：我能为这个时代的伟大哲学家们效劳，就像那些制作、研磨我镜片的工匠为我效劳一样；我能为他们准备、提供一些材料，让他们日后以更高的技巧去整理、运用，得到大得多的益处。

The next remedies in this universal cure of the Mind are to be applied to the Memory, and they are to consist of such Directions as may inform us, what things are best to be stor’d up for our purpose, and which is the best way of so disposing them, that they may not only be kept in safety, but ready and convenient, to be at any time produc’d for use, as occasion shall require. But I will not here prevent my self in what I may say in another Discourse, wherein I shall make an attempt to propose some Considerations of the manner of compiling a Natural and Artificial History, and of so ranging and registring its Particulars into Philosophical Tables, as may make them most useful for the raising of Axioms and Theories.

在这场对心灵的普遍医治中，接下来的疗法要施用于记忆。它们应当包括这样一些指导：告诉我们哪些东西最值得为我们的目的而储存，以及怎样安排它们最好，使它们不仅保存得安全，而且随时可用、取用方便，一有需要就能拿出来。不过，我不想在这里抢先说出我在另一篇论述中可能要说的话；在那篇论述中，我将尝试提出一些考虑：如何编纂一部自然史与技艺史，又如何把其中的具体事项排列、登记成哲学表格，使之最有助于建立公理和理论。

The last indeed is the most hazardous Enterprize, and yet the most necessary; and that is, to take such care that the Judgment and the Reason of Man (which is the third Faculty to be repair’d and improv’d) should receive such assistance, as to avoid the dangers to which it is by nature most subject. The Imperfections, which I have already mention’d, to which it is lyable, do either belong to the extent, or the goodness of its knowledge; and here the difficulty is the greater, least that which may be thought a remedy for the one should prove destructive to the other, least by seeking to inlarge our Knowledge, we should render it weak and uncertain; and least by being too scrupulous and exact about every Circumstance of it, we should confine and streighten it too much.

最后一项确实是最冒险的事业，却也是最必要的：那就是留意让人的判断力和理性（这是需要修复和改进的第三种官能）得到这样的帮助，使它能避开它天生最容易陷入的危险。我已经提到过它容易有的那些缺陷，要么关乎其知识的范围，要么关乎其知识的品质；而这里的困难更大，因为唯恐被认为能医治其一的东西，反而毁了其二：唯恐我们在设法扩大知识的同时，使它变得薄弱而不确定；又唯恐我们对它的每一个细节过于拘谨、过于精确，以致把它限制得太死、束缚得太紧。

In both these the middle wayes are to be taken, nothing is to be omitted, and yet every thing to pass a mature deliberation: No Intelligence from Men of all Professions, and quarters of the World, to be slighted, and yet all to be so severely examin’d, that there remain no room for doubt or instability; much rigour in admitting, much strictness in comparing, and above all, much slowness in debating, and shyness in determining, is to be practised. The Understanding is to order all the inferiour services of the lower Faculties; but yet it is to do this only as a lawful Master, and not as a Tyrant. It must not incroach upon their Offices, nor take upon it self the employments which belong to either of them. It must watch the irregularities of the Senses, but it must not go before them, or prevent their information. It must examine, range, and dispose of the bank which is laid up in the Memory: but it must be sure to make distinction between the sober and well collected heap, and the extravagant Ideas, and mistaken Images, which there it may sometimes light upon. So many are the links, upon which the true Philosophy depends, of which, if any one be loose, or weak, the whole chain is in danger of being dissolv’d; it is to begin with the Hands and Eyes, and to proceed on through the Memory, to be continued by the Reason; nor is it to stop there, but to come about to the Hands and Eyes again, and so, by a continual passage round from one Faculty to another, it is to be maintained in life and strength, as much as the body of man is by the circulation of the blood through the several parts of the body, the Arms, the Feet, the Lungs, the Heart, and the Head.

在这两方面都应取中道：什么都不可遗漏，但每件事都要经过成熟的考虑。来自各行各业、世界各个角落的消息，都不可轻视，但又都要经过如此严格的审查，不留下任何可疑或不稳之处；接纳时要十分严格，比较时要十分严谨，尤其是讨论时要十分从容，下定论时要十分审慎。知性要统辖较低官能所做的一切下属工作；但它只应作为合法的主人来做这件事，而不应作为暴君。它不可侵犯它们的职守，也不可把属于它们的差事揽到自己身上。它必须监察感官的失常，但不可跑到感官前头，或抢在感官报告之前下结论。它必须审查、整理、处置储存在记忆中的那份积蓄；但它务必把清醒的、收集得当的储藏，同它有时在那里碰到的荒诞观念和错误影像区分开来。真正的哲学所依赖的环节是如此之多，其中只要有一环松动或薄弱，整条链子就有散开的危险。它要从手和眼开始，经过记忆向前推进，由理性继续下去；而且还不能停在那里，要再回到手和眼；这样，通过从一种官能到另一种官能不断地循环往复，它才得以保持生命与力量，就像人的身体靠血液在各部分——手臂、双脚、肺、心脏和头部——之间循环而保持生命与力量一样。

From hence the World may be assisted with variety of Inventions, new matter for Sciences may be collected, the old improv’d, and their rust rubb’d away; and as it is by the benefit of Senses that we receive all our Skill in the works of Nature, so they also may be wonderfully benefited by it, and may be guided to an easier and more exact performance of their Offices; ’tis not unlikely, but that we may find out wherein our Senses are deficient, and as easily find wayes of repairing them.

由此，世界可以得到种种发明的帮助，可以为各门科学收集新的材料，改进旧的，磨去它们的锈迹；正如我们在自然造化方面的一切技能都得益于感官，感官也可能因此而获得奇妙的益处，被引导去更容易、更精确地履行它们的职责；我们很有可能查明我们的感官在哪些地方有欠缺，并同样容易地找到修补它们的办法。

The Indeavours of Skilful men have been most conversant about the assistance of the Eye, and many noble Productions have followed upon it; and from hence we may conclude, that there is a way open’d for advancing the operations, not only of all the other Senses, but even of the Eye it self; that which has been already done ought not to content us, but rather to incourage us to proceed further, and to attempt greater things in the same and different wayes.

能工巧匠们的努力，最多是用在辅助眼睛上，随之而来的是许多高贵的成果；由此我们可以断定，已经有一条道路打开了，不仅可以增进其他一切感官的运作，甚至可以增进眼睛本身的运作。已经做成的事不应使我们满足，而应鼓励我们更进一步，以同样的和不同的方式去尝试更伟大的事情。

’Tis not unlikely, but that there may be yet invented several other helps for the eye, as much exceeding those already found, as those do the bare eye, such as by which we may perhaps be able to discover living Creatures in the Moon, or other Planets, the figures of the compounding Particles of matter, and the particular Schematisms and Textures of Bodies.

很有可能，还会发明出另外几种辅助眼睛的工具，它们胜过现有工具的程度，就像现有工具胜过肉眼一样；借助它们，我们或许能够发现月球或其他行星上的生物，物质的组成微粒的形状，以及物体特有的构型与纹理。