爱华网A New Birth of Reason
理性的新生
Whydo some public figures who were famous in their own time become part ofa nation’s historical memory, while others fade away or are confinedto what is called “niche fame” on the Internet? Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899), knownin the last quarter of the 19th century as the Great Agnostic, once possessedreal fame as one of the two most important champions of reason andsecular government in American history—the other being Thomas Paine. Indeed, one of Ingersoll’slasting accomplishments as the preeminent American orator of his era was therevival of Paine, the preeminent publicist of the American Revolution, inthe historical memory and imagination of the nation.
1. publicfigures：公众人物
2. fadeaway：谈出
3. confinedto：局限于，“止步”于，停滞在
4. nichefame：小有名气，微不足道
5. champions：斗士
6. reasonand secular government：理性的和平民化的政府，http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularism
7. GreatAgnostic：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G._Ingersoll
8. ThomasPaine：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine
9. therevival of Paine：复兴潘恩的理念，THOMAS PAINE By Robert G.Ingersoll，详见http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38101?msg=welcome_stranger
为什么某一些个人生涯中声名卓著的公众人物，成为了那个国家历史印记的一部分，而其他（个人生涯同样声名卓著的公众人物），要么“淡出”了（公众的视野）了，要么“止步”于互联网上的“小有名气”。罗伯特格林英格索尔【Robert Green Ingersoll】，19世纪末期众所周知的 “Great Agnostic”【大不可知论者】，就曾以，美国历史上呼吁理性和平民化政府的运动中，最为重要的两位斗士之一而实至名归---另一位是Thomas Paine【托马斯潘恩】。事实上，英格索尔作为他那个时代首屈一指的美国演说家，他永不磨灭的成就之一，是复兴潘恩的理念，那位在美国历史印记和影像中，大革命时期独一无二的公众活动家的理念。
Ingersoll emerged as the leading figure in whathistorians of American secularism consider the golden age offreethought—an era whenimmigration, industrialization, and science, especially Charles Darwin’s theoryof evolution by means of natural selection, were challenging both religiousorthodoxy and the supposedly simpler values of the nation’s ruralAnglo-Saxon past. Thatthings were never really so simple was the message Ingersoll repeatedlyconveyed as he spoke before more of his countrymen than even elected publicleaders, including presidents, did at a time when lectures were both aform of mass entertainment and a vital source of information.
1. theleading figure：引领潮流的人物
2. thegolden age of freethought：自由思想的黄金时代，详见http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Freethought
3. secularism：世俗主义，平民化
4. religiousorthodoxy：宗教信条，传统信义
5. supposedly：不难想象的
6. simply：平凡
英格索尔，以一位引领潮流的人物，出现在美国世俗主义历史学家公认的自由思想黄金时代----那个时期，移民，工业化，科学，特别是Charles Darwin【查尔斯达尔文】的自然选择进化理论，对宗教信条和不难想象的美国过去的安格鲁萨克逊式淳朴生活下的简单价值观，发出了质疑。从未像如今一样平凡的，是英格索尔反复传递的信息，面对着更多的乡下听众，即便是公选的党派领袖，包括总统都不及，在那个演说既是一种大众消遣，又是一种重要信息来源的时代。
Traveling acrossthe continent when most Americans did not, he spread his message not only tourban audiences but also to those who had ridden miles on horseback to hear himspeak in towns set down on the prairies of the Midwest and the rangelandsof the Southwest. Between 1875 and his death in 1899,Ingersoll spoke in every state except Mississippi, North Carolina, andOklahoma.
1. setdown：居住，栖身
2. prairies：美国中部草丛丰茂的地区，大草原
3. rangeland：牧场
奔波于美国大陆的他，在大多数美国人都不必（到处奔波的）时代，不仅向城市里的听众们，还要向那些居住在中西部大草原和西南部牧场，骑马数英里赶到镇子听他讲话的人们，传递信息。从1875年到他死的1899年，英格索尔在每一个州都演说过，除了密西西比，北卡罗莱纳，阿克拉荷马。
Known as RobertInjuresoul to his clerical enemies, he raised the issue of what rolereligion ought to play in the public life of the American nation for the firsttime since the writing of the Constitution, when the Foundersdeliberately left out any acknowledgment of a deity as the source ofgovernmental power. In one of his most popular lectures,titled “Individuality,” Ingersoll said of Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and BenjaminFranklin:
1. RobertInjuresoul：教士对头送他的绰号
2. clerical：教士，牧师
3. Founders，Founding fathers：奠基者，元勋，参见http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States
4. Deity：自然神论，参见http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism
5. leftout：遗漏，排除
6. Constitution：（美国）宪法，参见http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution
他的教士对头们眼中的“RobertInjuresoul【译者注：对头送的绰号】”，自从奠基者们把宪法编纂完毕，（而且）在他们有意“遗漏”掉了任何把某个神作为执政权力来源的条文的情形下，（一百年后）首次，把宗教在美国人的公众生活中应当扮演什么样角色的难题，抛了出来。在英格索尔的最为受人欢迎的演说之一，“每个人”中，他说到了Paine【潘恩】，Thomas Jefferson【托马斯杰弗森】，Benjamin Franklin【本杰明富兰克林】：
They knew that toput God in the Constitution was to put man out. They knew that therecognition of a Deity would be seized upon by fanatics and zealotsas a pretext for destroying the liberty of thought. They knew the terrible history of thechurch too well to place in her keeping, or in the keeping of her God, thesacred rights of man. They intended that all should have the right to worship,or not to worship; that our laws should make no distinction on accountof creed. They intended to found and frame a government for man, and forman alone. They wished to preservethe individuality and liberty of all; to prevent the few from governing themany, and the many from persecuting and destroying the few.
1. put… out：成为不便（麻烦）的源头。
2. fanatic，zealot：盲信者，狂热者
3. intend：期望，想要（他人理解），褒义。
4. terrible：恐怖，血腥
5. creed：（宗教）信条，信仰
6. preserve：保留，保护
他们明白，把上帝放进宪法，就会成为每个人麻烦的源头。他们清楚，承认某个神的地位将会被盲信者和狂热者揪住，成为（他们）破坏思想自由的借口。他们深知教廷的恐怖历史，已不能把神圣的人权置于宗教的庇护，或是由宗教的神来庇护。他们期望（别人理解），所有人都有信仰的自由，或是不信仰的自由；即我们的法律不应因信仰而分别处置。他们想要奠定和塑造一个平民化的政府，而且只是为了平民。他们希望保护每个人和所有人的自由，来防止少数人统治多数人以及多数人迫害和伤害少数人。
To the questionthat retains its politically divisive power to this day—whether theUnited States was founded as a Christian nation—Ingersoll answered an emphaticno. The marvel of the Framers, he argued in an orationdelivered on July 4, 1876, in his hometown of Peoria, Illinois, was that theyestablished “the first secular government that was ever founded in this world”at a time when every government in Europe was still based on union betweenchurch and state. “Recollect that,” Ingersoll admonished hisaudience. “The first secular government; the first government that said everychurch has exactly the same rights and no more; every religion has the samerights, and no more. In other words, our fathers were the first men whohad the sense, had the genius, to know that no church should be allowed to havea sword.” A governmentthat had “retired the gods from politics,” Ingersoll declared with decidedlypremature optimism on America’s 100th birthday, was a necessary conditionof progress.
1. politicallydivisive power：政治上的分化力量
2. marvel：踌躇，犹豫
3. Framers：（美国历史上）制宪者，参见http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framers
4. ourfathers：开国元勋
5. condition：条件，代价
6. Individuality：http://infidels.org/search.html
美国是否创立为一个基督教国家，对于这个把其在政治上的分化力量，保持到当今的问题，英格索尔回以了一个强烈的“No”。制宪者们的踌躇，在他于1876年7月4日他的家乡伊利诺伊州皮奥利亚的一次演说中，英格索尔做出了诠释，是（因为）他们建立了“第一个平民化的政府，有史以来的第一个”，在欧洲所有政权依然立足于教会和国家联手的时代。“好好想想这一点，”英格索尔提醒着在场的听众。“第一个平民化的政府；第一个宣称每一种宗教都拥有完全相同的权利而再无其他权利的政府；每一种信仰都拥有同样的权利，再无其他权利。换句话说，我们的开国元勋们是第一批觉察到，而且有胆魄相信，任何教会都不应该被赋予伤害他人的‘圣剑’”。一个（敢于）“让众神从政治中退出”的政权，是继续前行的必然条件，英格索尔坚定的超前乐观态度，在美利坚合众国100岁生日当天的演说上，表露无遗。
To 19th-century freethinkers, as to their 18th-centurypredecessors, intellectual and material progress went hand in hand withabandonment of superstition, and strong ties between government andreligion amounted to state-endorsed superstition. Born decades before cities wereilluminated by electricity, before the role of bacteria in the transmission ofdisease was understood, before Darwin’s revolutionary insight that humans weredescended from lower animals was fully accepted even within the scientificcommunity, Ingersoll was the most outspoken and influential voice in a movementthat was to forge a secular intellectual bridge into the 20th century for manyof his countrymen.
1. gohand in hand：伴随着，相伴着
2. superstition：迷信
3. state-endorsedsuperstition：各个州“合法”的迷信，各个州“默许”的迷信
4. amountto：等同于，换成了
5. revolutionary：革命性，颠覆性
6. movement：运动，潮流
就19世纪自由思想者们（的境况而言），与他们18世纪先辈的相比，科学进步和物质增长并肩前行，迷信被随之抛弃，（同时，）政府和宗教的紧密联合变幻成了州立的“合法”迷信。在城市被电灯照亮之前，在疾病传播中细菌的媒介作用被理解之前，在达尔文的颠覆性洞见“人类是低级动物的后代”刚刚被科学家团体被完全接受之前，出生的英格索尔，是最敢于说话，最具影响力的声音，在那场注定会为他的“乡下”听众们，树立起一道通向20世纪，平民化的知识桥梁的历史潮流中。
The golden age of freethought,which stretched roughly from 1875 until the beginning of the First World War,divided Americans in much the same fashion, and over many of the same issues,as have the culture wars of the past three decades. Theargument over the proper role of religion in civil government was (and is) onlya subsidiary of the larger question of whether the claims of supposedlyrevealed religion deserve any particular respect or deference in a pluralisticsociety. The other cultural issues that divided Americans inIngersoll’s time are equally familiar and include evolution, race, immigration,women’s rights, sexual behavior, freedom of artistic expression, and vastdisparities in wealth. Inthe 19th century, however, the issues were newer, as was the science bolsteringthe secular side of the arguments, and the forces of religious orthodoxy werestronger.
1. freethought：自由思想（反对宗教和传统信条，不同于Free Will）
2. culturewars：文化冲突（1920年，文化领域价值观上的冲突）
3. plurasticsociety：多元化社会
4. supposedlyrevealed religion：已然存在的宗教信义，信仰。
5. deference：尊重，顺应
自由思想的黄金时代，始于大致的1875年，截至第一次世界大战爆发，就像过去30年来“文化战争”【译者注：作者所处的时代】（的结果）一样，在与其争端相似的众多难题上，把美国人分化开来。争论宗教在文明开化政府中的适宜职能，对于多元化社会中已然存在的宗教信义值不值得给予特殊的重视或是顺应来说，过去，（和现在，）都不过是那个大问题中的一个分支问题。在英格索尔时代，将美国人分化开来的其他文化难题，也都似曾相识，进化论，种族，移民，妇女权利，性行为，艺术表达的自由和惊人的贫富悬殊。只是，在19世纪，随着科学进步逐步支撑起了争端中平民化的这一侧，同时恪守宗教信义的势力还很强大的时期，这些都算是新问题。
The overarching question in Ingersoll’s time was whetherany of these issues could or should be resolved by appeals to divine authority.To this Ingersoll also said no, spreading the gospel(though he would never have called it that) of reason,science, and humanism to audiences across the country. It is not an overstatement to say that Ingersolldevoted his life to freethought, the lovely term that first appeared in Englandin the late 17th century and was meant to convey devotion to a way of lookingat the world based on observation, rather than on ancient “sacred”writings by men who believed that the sun revolved around the earth.
1. theGospel：福音书（圣经）
2. observation：科学观测，科学事实
在英格索尔所处的时代，首要问题是，这些难题能不能，或者说应不应该诉诸于“神受权力”来解决。对此，英格索尔依然是“No”，绝不以“福音书【圣经】”（尽管他永远不会那样说出来）的名义，向他在各地的听众，传播理性，科学和人文的“福音”。如果说，英格索尔把一生都献给了自由思想，一点都不过分。自由思想，这个温馨的用语，最初出现在了17世纪晚期的英国，被认为是传播“投身于根据科学观测来看待这个世界的方式，而非根据那些认为太阳绕着地球转的人们的古老‘神圣’典籍的方式”。
Ingersoll’sinfluence derived in part from his fulfillment of an American archetype—theself-made, self-educated man who, by his own diligence and pursuit ofknowledge, rises to fame and fortune. The sonof an unsuccessful Presbyterian minister who never managed to remainattached to one congregation for very long, Ingersoll grew up poor. Like his hero Abraham Lincoln,he had little formal education. Also like Lincoln, he was admitted to thebar not after studying at one of the nation’s few law schools but by readingthe law—learning his trade, and the history and philosophy of thelaw, in an attorney’s office. By the time of Ingersoll’s death, his kindof self-made American achiever—whether in law, scholarship, government, thearts, or business—was already on the way to extinction. Ingersoll spoke out of a past in whichself-education was the only route to learning for those not born to money, onbehalf of an American future in which education, certainly if freethinkers hadtheir way, would be available to all.
1. fulfillment：完成，兑现
2. archetype：原型，雏形
3. self-made：自力更生而取得成功的人
4. Prebyterianminister：长老教牧师
5. Congregation：宗教派系
6. Tothe bar：出庭辩护
英格索尔的影响力，一定程度上源于，他自己兑现了一个美国式（奋斗的）原型---一个通过自己奋斗和自学走向功成名就的美国人，凭着自己的勤奋和对知识的渴求而取得名誉和财富的美国人。他作为，一个从未能够长期依附于某个宗教派系的不成功的Presbyterian minister【长老教牧师】的儿子，成长地很艰辛。像他的英雄亚伯拉罕林肯一样，他只接受过很少的正统教育。还和林肯一样的是，他并非能够在国家中为数不多的某个法学院完成学业之后，而是在一家律师事务所，领悟了法学之后---弄清楚自己的法律事务，法学的历史及其背后哲理之后，才被获准出庭辩护。直到英格索尔死的时候，像他这样自力更生而功成名就者---无论是在法律界，学术界，政坛，艺术界和商业界中，早已濒临绝迹。英格索尔，来自自学是出身贫寒者唯一学习途径的过去的声音，为了美国的未来而疾呼着，倘若自由思想者们得其所愿，教育必然会向所有人敞开大门。
Despitea schedule so demanding that he occasionally lost his voice, Ingersoll filledhis audiences with energy and enthusiasm as he walked around the stage, usuallyspeaking from memory. Described by one 20th-century biographer as the BabeRuth of the podium, Ingersoll weighed more than 200 pounds—adisproportionate share of them concentrated in his abdomen—by his 40s. Hisportliness impelled the_Oakland Daily Evening Tribune_ to note that, in anothercentury, the amount of fat in the Great Agnostic’s body would have produced a“spectacular auto da fé.”
1. theBabe Ruth of the podium：演讲台上的“Babe Ruth（棒球手）”
2. OaklandDaily Evening Tribune：奥克兰每晚论坛
3. spectacularauto da fé.：火刑（布鲁诺被烧死的那种吧）
尽管在紧密的演说安排下，英格索尔会偶尔失声，随着他绕着演讲台，从通常事先记住的内容说起，就能把能量和热情带给听众们。（按照）一位20世纪传记作家的描述，英格索尔就是演讲台上的“Baby Ruth”，他的体重超过了200磅---极不匀称的集中在了腹部---在他不到40岁时。他的大腹便便，激起了Oakland Daily Evening Tribune【奥克兰每晚论坛】的一番戏虐，在另一个世纪，“the Great Agnostic”身上的肥肉，将会制造出一场壮观的火刑。
Inhis lecture “The Gods,” Ingersoll proclaimed,
在他的“众神们”演说中，英格索尔公开说道，
We are not endeavoring to chain thefuture, but to free the present. We are not forging fetters for our children,but we are breaking those our fathers made for us. We are the advocates ofinquiry, of investigation and thought. This of itself, is an admission that we are not perfectlysatisfied with all our conclusions. Philosophy has not the egotism of faith.
我们不再去尽力束缚住未来，而是努力解除现在的枷锁。我们不会给我们的孩子戴上脚镣，而是会打破父辈们带给我们的桎梏。我们是探寻，研究和思考的推行者。这本身，我们还不完全满足于我们现有的结论，就是一项使命。哲学不应像信仰那样“自我”。
Asked by a newspaper reporter in Kansas City whether heenjoyed lecturing, the ebullient Ingersoll replied, “Of course I enjoylecturing. It is a great pleasure to drive the fiend of fear out of the heartsof men women and children. It is a positive joy to put out the fires of hell.”
当被一位Kansas City的报纸记者问及是否很享受演说的过程，英格索尔热情洋溢地回答道，“当然了，驱除男人，妇女和孩子们心中的恐惧恶魔，是一种巨大的荣幸。扑灭地狱的烈火是一种很有成就感的享受。”
The lasting absence of public consensus on the properbalance between religion and secularism in American life could easily be usedto support the argument that Ingersoll’s current obscurity is richly deserved. He certainly did not put to restthe issue of whether the United States was founded as a Christian nation, withall of the attendant controversies about the proper role of religion in publicinstitutions and rituals. Yet the persistent tension and inflamedemotion surrounding these issues ought to enhance rather than diminish theGreat Agnostic’s stature. Intellectual history is a relay race, not a100-yard dash. Ingersollwas one of those indispensable people who keep an alternative version ofhistory alive. Such men and women are vital to the real story andidentity of a nation, because, in their absence, public consensus about thepast would be totally controlled by those who wish to recreate the country’smythic origins in their own image. This includes both Founder worshippers who seethe passionate, risk-taking leaders of the Revolution as figures on a marblefrieze and anti-intellectual ideologues who think that too much education is adangerous thing.
公共舆论对美国人的生活在宗教和平民化之间适当把控的长期缺乏，很容易被用来证明英格索尔当时的含糊不清是非常有必要的。当然，他也没有给美国是否创立为一个基督教国家的难题，以及随之而来的，源于宗教在公共机构和公共仪式中的适当职能的各种争议，画上句号。可是，围绕这些纷争的持久矛盾和过激情绪，应该是巩固了，而不是削弱了“the Great Agnostic”的历史地位。文明开化的历史（更像）是接力赛跑，并非一百码冲刺。英格索尔属于那种不可或缺的人物，那些把历史的另外一种版本【译者注：真实版本】保留下来的人物。这样的男儿和女子，对一个国家的真实历史和认同是至关重要的，因为，倘若没有了他们（她们），对历史的公共舆论，将会被那些妄图用他们自己的臆想来虚构出这个国家神秘起源的人们完全控制。在这些人里边，包括元勋的崇拜者们，那些把大革命时期充满激情，敢于冒险的领袖们仅仅当成雕像上人物形象的崇拜者们，和那些反对文明开化的意识形态狂们，在后者看来，受教育太多，着实是一件危险的事情。
To understandIngersoll’s importance, only look at a partial list of distinguished Americansof his own generation who were influenced by his arguments and, even moreimportant, the younger admirers who lived into the 20th century, makingcritical contributions to American politics, science, business, and law andbecoming leaders on behalf of civil liberties and international humanrights.
想要了解英格索尔的重要作用，只要看看与他处于同一时代受他演说影响的杰出人士和更为重要的年轻崇拜者们的部分清单，其中的年轻崇拜者们活到了20世纪，对美国政治，科学，商业，和法律做出了重大贡献，而且成为了代表着文明自由和国际人权的先驱。
The list of these luminaries includes Clara Barton,Clarence Darrow, Luther Burbank, Eugene V. Debs, Frederick Douglass, W. C.Fields, H. L. Mencken, Robert M. La Follette, Andrew Carnegie, Margaret Sanger,Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Thomas Edison, and myfavorite Ingersoll fan of all, “Wahoo Sam” Crawford, baseball’s outstandingpower hitter throughout the first two decades of the 20th century. (ForCrawford’s memories of Ingersoll, seeThe Glory of Their Times,LawrenceS. Ritter’s classic oral history of the early days of baseball.)
那一长串的杰出人士，包括Clara Barton【克莱尔巴顿】，Clarence Darrow【克莱伦斯丹诺】，Luther Burbank【卢瑟伯班克】，Eugene V.Debs【尤金 V 德布斯】，W.C. Fields【W.C.菲尔兹】，H.L. Mencken【H.L.门肯】，Robert M. La Follette【罗伯特M.拉法拉蒂】，Andrew Carnegie【安德鲁卡耐基】，Margaret Sanger【玛格丽特山格】，Elizabeth Cady Stanton【伊丽莎白凯迪斯坦顿】，Mark Twain【马克吐温】，Walt Whitman【沃尔特惠特曼】，Thomas Edison【托马斯爱迪生】，还有我最喜欢的英格索尔粉丝，“Wahoo Sam”Crawford【山姆克劳福德】，那位20世纪头20年内最杰出的棒球强力击打手。（克劳福德对英格索尔的回忆，详见The Glory of Their Times，Lawrence S.Ritter的早期棒球的经典口述史料）
Ingersoll’s appeal as a freethinker cut across political and class boundaries. He was aRepublican who upheld the gold standard and traveled in socialcircles that included business titans like Carnegie. Yet his closest friends andfervent admirers also included champions of labor such as Debs, who wouldgarner more than a million votes as the Socialist candidate for president in1920, and La Follette of Wisconsin, the leader of the Progressive movementuntil his death in 1925. “Ingersoll had a tremendous influence on me,”La Follette recalled years after his friend’s death. “He liberated mymind. Freedom was what he preached; he wanted the shackles offeverywhere. He wanted me to think boldly about all things. … He was a rare,bold, heroic figure.”
作为一位自由思想者，英格索尔的魅力，超越了政治和阶层的界限。他是一位执掌黄金标准的共和党人，现身于各个社会阶层，包括像卡耐基这样的商业巨头（的圈子）。在他最亲密的伙伴和狂热的崇拜者之中，也有争取工人权益的斗士，比如德布斯，那位在1920年总统竞选中能争取到超过100万张选票的社会党候选人，和那位到英格索尔1925年死之前一直是Progressive movement【译者注：进步运动】领袖的威斯康辛州的拉法拉蒂。“英格索尔对我产生巨大的影响，”拉法拉蒂在英格索尔死后数年回忆时说道，“他解放了我的头脑。自由是他一直在呼吁的；他想要解除掉所有人在思想上（受到的）束缚。他希望我大胆的思考所有事情。。。他是一位罕见的，敢做敢为的英雄人物。”
Ingersoll gave up a promising career in politics topursue his campaign against religious orthodoxy and for the separation ofchurch and state. As part of his mission, he elucidated Darwin’s theoryof evolution for millions of Americans who might otherwise have heard about thegreat scientific insight of their age only through the attacks of biblicalliteralists.
1. Biblicalliteralists：圣经字面主义者
英格索尔放弃了在政坛上前途远大的事业，以一己之力置身于反对宗教束缚和分离宗教与政府的活动中。他自身使命的一部分，便是向数百万美国人澄清了达尔文的进化论，否则他们只能从圣经字面主义者对进化论的攻击中，听说他们那个时期（产生的）伟大科学见解。
As contemporarynewspaper accounts make clear, Ingersoll was a master at reaching people whowere either indifferent or downright hostile to his antireligious views. When he appeared for the first time in medium-sizedcities where orthodox religious influence was strong, Ingersoll’s reputation asa heretic often held down the size of the audience. That was never true the secondtime the Great Agnostic spoke; the eloquent contrarian won anaudience by word of mouth and through the local newspapers. Once the press conveyed theentertainment value of Ingersoll’s talks, tickets became a prize for scalpers.In Iowa, the _Mason City Republican_reported that most of those attending an1885 Ingersoll lecture were orthodox religious believers who neverthelessappreciated Ingersoll’s wit at the expense of their own faith. “Foreordination laughs jostledfreewill smiles,” the reporter recalled. “Baptist cachinnations floated out to join apostolicroars, and there was a grand unison of orthodox cheers for the mostunorthodox jokes.”
1. Eloquentcontrarian：令人信服的独到观点
2. Baptist：浸信会，浸礼会
3. Apostolic：使徒（基督教？）
同时期的报纸报道清楚的说明了一点，在与那些对他的反宗教观点不冷不热或是明确反对的人们初次接触时，英格索尔就是个大师。当他首次出现在一个宗教势力很强的中型城镇时，英格索尔的“异教徒恶名”，往往就会吸引一批人赶到演说现场。而第二次，再也不会像第一次那样（靠着异教徒的恶名）。令人信服的独到观点，让他在口口相传中和当地报纸（的渲染下），赢得了（众多的）听众。一次，媒体调侃了他的演说的娱乐价值，入场券竟然成了对黄牛们的“奖励”。在爱荷华州，Mason City Republican【梅森市共和党人报】报道说，在英格索尔1885年的某次演说中，到场的大多数都是宗教信条的信奉者。他们却（不约而同）的感慨到英格索尔的睿智，（一时间）失掉了他们自己的信仰。“宿命论者的笑声‘碰撞着’自由意志者的微笑”，那个报道人根据回忆（继续写道），“Baptist【译者注：浸信会信徒们】的大笑与apostolic【译者注：使徒们】的大笑汇流到一起，前所未有的齐奏出现了，都在为最为无视宗教信条的笑话雀跃欢呼。
When Ingersoll was at the height of his career, mostnewspapers still followed the hoary yet informative journalistic customof reporting applause and laughter in summaries of speeches. Sometimes papers withorthodoxly religious owners ran headlines reflecting the publisher’sdisapproval over articles detailing the audience’s enjoyment of the speech.So, for example,The New York Timesplaced a headline above anaccount of Ingersoll’s lectures at Booth’s Theater in 1880 announcing,“The Great Infidel Preacher Roundly Hissed”—but the article revealed that thehisses inside the hall were less frequent than those of the representatives ofthe American Bible Society, who were handing out copies of the King JamesVersion outside the theater. Newspaperquotations from Ingersoll’s speeches would be punctuated by “GreatLaughter” and “Laughter,” which followed Ingersoll’s description of the haphazardfounding of the Church of England after Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragonto marry Anne Boleyn. “For a while the new religion was regulated bylaw,” Ingersoll remarked, “and afterward God was compelled to study acts ofParliament to find out whether a man might be saved or not. [Laughter.]”
1. AmericanBible Society：美国圣经社团
在英格索尔的事业顶峰时期，大多数报社依然遵从着古老，而信息丰富的报道惯例，在演说的总结段落中，如实反映观众们的掌声和笑语。有时候，“虔诚”的宗教人士旗下的报社，会刊登出报纸头条的文章，以示其发行者，对那些翔实描述听众们对演说的喜爱的文章的不满。就有了，比如，The New York Times【纽约时报】就英格索尔于1880年在Booth剧院演说的一篇报道，上了一篇头条“The Great InfidelPreacher【译者注：英格索尔的另一绰号】遭到了嘘声”---但该头条也说了，演说场内的嘘声，比起那些在剧院外分发King James版圣经的，美国圣经社团的代表们遭受的嘘声，算是少见多了。报纸上对英格索尔演说词句的引用，往往用醒目的“Greater Laughter”和“Laughter”字样，紧跟着英格索尔对英格兰教会在Henry VIII【亨利八世】休了Catherine of Aragon【卡瑟琳娜阿拉贡】，与Anne Boleyn【安妮博基】结婚之后的“离奇”发现的叙述。“For a whilethe new religion was regulated by law”, Ingersoll remarked, “and God was compelled to study acts of Parliament to find outwhether a man might be saved or not. Laughter.”【报刊引用译文：“一度，新教会的成立受到了法律的监管，”英格索尔评论道，“自那以后，上帝就被迫去钻研国会立法程序，来搞清楚某个人能不能被救赎。”】
Most satire involving contemporary events travels poorlyover time, but it is not difficult to understand, after reading the basic textsof Ingersoll’s lectures, why his audiences would have been charmed by hisgood-natured jabs. In“Some Mistakes of Moses,” also translated into Yiddish for theedification of skeptical, nonobservant Jewish immigrants who were arriving inAmerica in unprecedented numbers along with their more devout coreligionistsfrom Russia and Eastern Europe, Ingersoll took on the Old Testament asthe source of all Western monotheism. He mocked the theories of awell-known Protestant theologian who, having half-digested Darwin,suggested that the serpent that deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruitwas probably a humanoid ape with the gift of speech. To the innocent Eve, theape looked like an ordinary man (albeit a very hairy one); ergo, she wasreceptive to his suggestions. Subsequently, the talking ape was punished forhis role in instigating original sin by being deprived of speech and condemnedhenceforth to the “chattering of monkeys.”
1. Protestanttheologian：神学家
大多数对时事的辛辣讽刺，会随着时间流逝，慢慢被人们忘却。但是，只要读过英格索尔演说的手稿，就不难理解，为什么他的听众会倾倒于他的善意嘲弄。在“Some Mistakes of Moses【译者注：摩西的一些错误】”中---它还被翻译成Yiddish【译者注：意第胥语】，被用来教育那些充满疑心且不履行教义，并以前所未有的数量，与其他更为虔诚的俄国和东欧犹太信徒们一起涌入美国的犹太移民们---他“攻击”了，处于所有西方宗教源头的the Old Testament【旧约圣经】。（在其中，）英格索尔嘲弄了一位众所周知的神学家的理论。那位神学家，对达尔文理论一知半解，就认为欺骗夏娃吃下禁果的那条蛇，很有可能是一条拥有人类语言能力的“人样”大猩猩。在纯真的夏娃看来，大猩猩看上去像个正常人（尽管毛发非常浓密）；于是，她就轻易的接受了“他”的建议。后来，“会说话的大猩猩”，因其在诱发夏娃的原罪中（扮演的）角色而受到惩罚，被剥夺了说人话的能力，还被判定，从此以后变成“乱叫的猴子”。
Ingersollhad his own take on this tortuous theological speculation:
对于这个扭曲的神学“猜想”，英格索尔有自己的见解。
Here then is the “connecting link”between man and the lower creation. The serpent was simply an orang-outang that spoke Hebrew with thegreatest ease, and had the outward appearance of a perfect gentleman, seductivein manner, plausible, polite, and most admirably calculated to deceive.It never did seem reasonable to me that a long, cold and disgusting snake withan apple in its mouth could deceive anybody; and I am glad, even at this latedate to know that the something that persuaded Eve to taste the forbidden fruitwas, at least, in the shape of a man.
人与低等动物之间的“关联之处”，（本该）是这里。那条蛇，不过是一只红毛猩猩，却能轻而易举说出希伯来语，另外还拥有一副完美绅士的外在模样，极具魅力的神态，风度翩翩，礼貌，以及不禁让人佩服的算计。从来，我都不觉得合理，一条长长的让人作呕的蛇，嘴里还含着一个苹果，能欺骗的了谁；我很宽慰，即便是这么晚才明白，那劝说夏娃去尝尝禁果的，至少是一副人的模样吧。
A man who combinedreason with humor, who drew audiences looking for entertainment along withenlightenment, was much more dangerous than someone disposed to harangueaudiences with the conviction that they were simply _wrong_about what they hadbeen taught since birth. Everyone whopaid to hear Ingersoll speak knew that he or she would go away with the memoryof good laughs to accompany unsettling new thoughts.
一位把幽默融于说理，能够给想着讨个乐子的听众们带来些启示的演说者，比起那些只会用“确凿”的说辞，（告诉听众）他们自小被别人教给的东西都是错误的，来“唬住”听众们的说客，要危险的多。每一位付钱听他演说的听众都明白，他们（她们）会带着充满欢声笑语的回忆离开演说场，和一些“让人纠结”的新思想。
He told hisaudiences that when he first readOn the Origin of Species(1859)and became acquainted with Darwin’s theory of evolution, his initial reactionwas to think about “how terrible this will be upon the nobility of the OldWorld. Think of their being forced to tracetheir ancestry back to the duke Orang Outang, or the princess Chimpanzee.” Thissentence demonstrates what a brilliant orator he was, here taking advantage ofAmerican hostility to Old World and especially British aristocracy—hostilitythat was still very much alive in the 19th century. He used the American disdainfor unearned hereditary privilege (which, then as now, did notnecessarily extend to inherited wealth) to make the idea of descent fromlower animals more accessible and less threatening. “I read aboutrudimentary bones and muscles,” he confided. “I was told that everybodyhad rudimentary muscles extending from the ear into the cheek. I asked, ‘Whatare they?’ I was told … ‘They are the muscles with which your ancestors used toflap their ears.’ I do notnow so much wonder that we once had them as that we have outgrown them.”
1. Britisharistocracy：英国上层贵族
（一次，）他把自己第一次读到On theOrigin of Species【物种起源 (1859)】，到后来熟悉了达尔文进化论之后的最初反应，讲给听众。（当时，）他一下子就想到，“这对‘旧世界’的那些贵族们，是多么恐怖的一件事情。想想看，他们不得不把他们的先祖追溯到长尾巴猴子伯爵，或是大猩猩女王。”一句话就表明了他是一位多么敏锐的演说家，借助着美洲人对‘旧世界’的仇恨，特别是对英国的上层贵族的仇恨---这种敌对情绪在19世纪依然非常活跃。他，利用美洲人对不劳而获的世袭特权的蔑视（那种蔑视，和如今一样，并未蔓延到那些继承而来的财富），把这个由低等动物进化而来的观点，讲得浅显易懂，不再那么吓人。“在我读到原始骨骼和肌肉的时候，”他坦率的说起（自己的感受）。“书里告诉我，所有原始人都有从耳朵延伸到下巴的原始肌肉。我就问了，‘它们（究竟）是什么？’书里接着告诉我…‘那是我们的祖先用来前后活动耳朵的肌肉。’现在，我就不再对‘我们都曾有过这些肌肉’像‘我们已经把它们进化掉了’那样好奇了。”
Although Ingersollopposed organized religion in general, his specific targets were believers andclerics who wanted to impose their convictions on their fellow citizens andstifle inquiry that challenged faith. If hecould not quite convince his audiences that all religion was superstitiousmyth, he did convince many to seek out a form of religion that admitted theinsights of contemporary science or non-mythological history. Ingersoll himselfwas not much interested in debating abstract theological or philosophicalquestions, although he did so occasionally with reform-minded believers likehis good friend Henry Ward Beecher, the best-known clerical orator of the late19th century and a leader of liberalizing forces within AmericanProtestantism. Ingersollwas, however, interested in creating a bridge between the world of secularfreethought, for which he spoke so eloquently, and religions, including ReformJudaism and liberal Protestant denominations, that were willing to make roomfor secular knowledge. (Unitarians had done this in the 18th century inresponse to Enlightenment political thought and geological discoveries thatposed the first solid scientific challenge to the biblical precept that theEarth was only 4,000 years old.) Ingersoll considered “moderate” religiousbelievers if not allies, then a vanguard that, by rejecting biblicalliteralism, would unintentionally cast doubt on all religion.
1. AmericanProtestantism：美国基督新教
2. ReformJudaism：犹太教改革派
3. LiberalProtestant：基督新教自由派
4. Enlightment：启蒙时代
5. Secularknowledge：宗教之外的知识
6. biblicalliteralism：圣经字面主义，圣经直译主义（wiki?）
虽然英格索尔总体上反对宗教组织化，但他针对的目标，只是某些信教者和教会人士，那些想要把他们自己“确信无疑”的观点强加给他们的下属，并压制那些质疑他们信仰的疑问的宗教人士。尽管，他没能让他的听众都很相信，所有的宗教都是虚构的神话，但他说服了很多人，去追寻某种接纳当时的科学见解，或是没有神话色彩的历史的宗教。英格索尔自己，对辩驳抽象的神学或哲学问题，也没有太大兴趣，尽管他偶尔会与某些怀有革新想法的信教者切磋，比如他的好朋友Henry Ward Beecher【亨利沃德比切尔】，那位19世纪晚期最出名教会演说家，同时还是美国基督新教中宗教自由化的领袖。总之，英格索尔（真正）感兴趣的是，在平民化自由思想的世界，也就是他一直在大声疾呼的，和宗教之间（包括犹太教改革派以及新教自由派，所有那些愿意为宗教之外的知识预留出一份空间的教会，）架设起一座桥梁。（唯一神教，曾经在18世纪做出此举，来顺应启蒙时代的政治观点和地理大发现，因为它们对认为地球只有4000年历史的圣经箴言，构成了第一次来自科学界的，实实在在的挑战。）英格索尔，并没有认为“温和”的宗教信徒就是他的同盟，但倘若他们对圣经字面主义非常排斥的话，他们就会成为无意中对任何宗教都要怀疑的先锋。
Though dubbed the Great Agnostic, Ingersoll himself madeno distinction between atheists and agnostics. In 1885, he was asked by aninterviewer for a Philadelphia newspaper, “Don’t you think the belief of theAgnostic is more satisfactory to the believer that that of the Atheist?” Hereplied succinctly,
1. Atheist：无神论者，对神不敬者（历史名词）
2. Agnostic：不可知论者
虽然英格索尔被“授予”了“The GreatAgnostic”的名号，但他自己并不对无神论者和不可知论者加以区分。1885年，他被一家费城报社的采访者问道，“你认为，信奉不可知论会让无神论信徒更为满意，是这样吧？”他简短的回答道，
The Agnostic is an Atheist. TheAtheist is an Agnostic. The Agnostic says: “I do not know, but I do not believethere is any god.” The Atheist says the same. The orthodox Christian says heknows there is a God, but we know that he does not know. The Atheist [too]cannot know that God does not exist.
不可知论者就是无神论者。无神论者也是不可知论者。不可知论者说：“我不清楚，但我不相信存在着什么神。”无神论者的说法也如出一辙。正统的基督教（总）说他们相信那里有个神，但我们知道他们并不清楚（那个神是否存在）。无神论者也没法搞清楚，神是不存在的。
This critical point has always been a source of confusionand willful distortion in American religious discourse, in large measurebecause the wordatheisthas a much harsher sound than thewordagnostic.
这关键的一点，在美国宗教的传播中，一直是含混不清和恶意歪曲的源头，很大程度上，是因为atheist比agnostic有种让人更不舒服的发音。
Ingersoll also pointed out that the labels “atheist” and“infidel” had generally been applied as epithets to anyone, religious or not,who refused to accept biblical stories that were scientifically impossible.Among those included were the devout Quaker, suffragist, and abolitionistLucretia Mott and Thomas Paine, who was also called a Judas, reptile, hog, maddog, souse, louse, and arch-beast by his religiously orthodox contemporaries.
英格索尔还指出，“atheist【无神论者】”和“infidel【异教徒】”的标签，总是被当作绰号，“贴到”某个人身上，无关乎信教与否，只要他（她）不接受圣经中的故事，即便这些故事在科学上根本没法解释。那些人当中，有虔诚的Quaker【教友派】，妇女参政派，废奴主义者Lucretia Mott和Thomas Paine【托马斯潘恩】，那位还被同时期狂热的宗教信徒们称之为Judas【犹大】，reptile【爬行动物】，hog【豕】，mad dog【疯狗】，souse【酒鬼】，louse【虱子】以及arch-beast【最邪恶的野兽】的潘恩。
Had he done nothing else, Ingersoll’s lifelong effort torestore Thomas Paine’s reputation should have earned him a permanent place in Americanintellectual history. InTheodore Roosevelt’s 1898 biography of the Federalist politicianGouverneur Morris, Paine was dismissed as a “filthy little atheist … thatapparently esteems a bladder of dirty water as the proper weapon with which toassail Christianity.” (Morris, as it happens, was PresidentGeorge Washington’s minister to France in 1793, when Paine was arrested for hisopposition to the execution of Louis XVI. A fierce critic of Paine’s religious and economic views,Morris misled the French with the assertion that the new United Statesgovernment did not recognize the British-born Paine’s American citizenship.At the same time, Morris told Washington—who, though he too disliked Paine’seconomic radicalism, recognized his debt to the author of the “Crisis”papers—that everything was being done to obtain Paine’s release. Only when James Monroe, afreethinker, succeeded Morris in Paris did the American government applypressure to obtain Paine’s freedom. He had spent nine months in solitaryconfinement and nearly died of an ulcer.)
1. Americanintellectual history：美国思想史
2. Christianity：基督教
3. Federalist：联邦党成员
4. GouerneurMorris：开国元勋之一，美国宪法执笔人
即使他（再）没做什么事情，（仅凭着）英格索尔为恢复托马斯潘恩的声誉而做出的毕生努力，就应该为他在美国思想史上赢得一个永久的位置。在Theodore Roosevelt【西奥多罗斯福】的1898年传记中对联邦党政客Gouerneur Morris【古韦纳尔 莫里斯】的回忆里，潘恩被赶出法国议会时，被看成了一个“卑鄙渺小的无神论者…，（竟然）还‘明目张胆的’想着把一杯脏水当作武器，来‘攻击’基督教。”（1793年，在潘恩因为反对处死Louis XVI【路易16】而被收押之时，时逢Morris担任着乔治华盛顿的法国大使。（当时，）潘恩的宗教和财政观点正遭受着猛烈的批评，而Morris（却）用一份声明误导了法国政府，声明中宣称，新的美国政府不承认出生在英国的潘恩的美国公民身份。于此同时，Morris还告知华盛顿---尽管他也不喜欢潘恩在财政上的激进观点，但承认自己亏欠着小册子“Crisis”的作者---获取潘恩自由的所有努力，都做了。幸亏James Monroe【詹姆斯门罗】，同样一位自由思想者，后来继任了Morris在巴黎的位置，以美国政府的名义施压，潘恩才得以重获自由。那时候，潘恩已经在单独押禁【译者注：实为死牢，还躲过了一次死刑】中过了9个月，差一点死于溃疡。）
In this cultural climate, Ingersoll subtitled hisstandard lecture about Paine, “With His Name Left Out, the History of LibertyCannot Be Written.” Hemade it one of his missions not only to remind citizens in America’s secondcentury of Paine’s indispensable rhetorical contributions to the revolutionarycause, but also to link those ideals to Paine’s fierce defense of liberty ofconscience and the separation of church and state.
1. Liberty of conscience：不受宗教影响的道德准则
在当时的那种时局氛围下，英格索尔给自己标准的演说稿加上了关于潘恩的副标题，“With His Name Left Out，the History ofLiberty Cannot Be Written.【译者注：缺少了他的名字，自由的历史将无法书写。】”他把这个当成了他的一项任务，不但用来提醒美国（立国以来）第二个世纪的公民，潘恩对大革命缘由，无可取代的宣传鼓舞作用，而且把那些自由的理念与潘恩无情地支持着自主的道德准则和分离宗教与政府，关联到一起。
Ingersoll achieved only partial success in his attempt toreturn Paine to the American historical canon. Paine’s name is much better known than Ingersoll’s in theUnited States mainly because his role as the chief polemicist for theRevolution can be described for the consumption of schoolchildrenwithout mentioning his later accomplishments as a scourge of organized religionand a radical economic thinker. The Paine who wrote “These are the timesthat try men’s souls” in the darkest hour for General Washington’s army is arecognizable name to a considerable number of Americans in the 21st century. But the Paine who wrote_The Ageof Reason_ (1794)—which put forth the heretical idea that the sacred books ofall religions were written by human beings, not by any deity—is nearly asobscure as Ingersoll to Americans with little knowledge about the secular sideof their history.
把潘恩重新列入美国历史上最有影响力的思想家和作家的努力，英格索尔只是取得了部分的成功。（如今，）潘恩的名字比英格索尔这个名字，在美国更为为人所知，主要是因为，他在美国大革命中扮演的首席辩论家的角色，能够在学生读物中详细介绍，也不用提及他后来作为一位控诉宗教组织化的先锋和一名激进的财政思考者的成就。潘恩，在华盛顿将军的部队处于最黑暗的时刻写下了“These are times that try men’s soul【译者注：考验每个人灵魂的时刻】”的潘恩，是一位相当多21世纪美国人认得出的名字。然而，撰写了“The Age of Reason【理性时代】”的潘恩，那位在书中提出‘所有宗教的神圣典籍都是由人写的，并非某个神’的“异教徒”观点的潘恩，在那些对美国历史中，平民化方面所知甚少的美国人眼里，差不多和英格索尔一样模糊。
Ingersoll’scollected works amount to 12 volumes, consisting mainly of his speeches,supplemented by interviews and essays written for contemporary periodicals liketheNorth American Review. Some20th-century scholars argued that the ephemeral nature of oratory was the mainreason for Ingersoll’s historical eclipse—a supposition comparable to the ideathat there is no statue of Paine in the U.S. Capitol because Paine never heldpublic office. It seems likelier, however, that both men have beenunderappreciated because of their staunch and outspoken opposition toorganized religion and any entanglement of religion and government. Paine—who was not an atheist buta deist, with religious views closely resembling those of Washington, JohnAdams, and Thomas Jefferson (the last being the only one of the first threepresidents to defend his old friend after publication ofThe Age ofReason)—never recovered from the damage to his American reputationinflicted by the book he had written in France.
英格索尔的著作合集有12卷，大多是他的演说稿，辅以为当时的期刊比如North American Review撰写的访谈和散文。某些20世纪的学者认为，演讲时间非常有限的本质，是英格索尔在历史上的作用被忽视的主要原因---这种推测类似于，美国国会中没有潘恩的塑像，是因为潘恩从未有过自己的办公室。然而，更有可能的是，两个人都没有得到应有的尊重，就因为他们口无遮拦地，坚定地反对宗教组织化以及把宗教与政府搅和在一起。潘恩---他并非是一个无神论者，而是一个自然神论者，其宗教观点非常类似于华盛顿，约翰亚当斯，以及托马斯杰弗森他们的宗教观点（最后一位，是头三任总统中唯一支持他的老朋友【潘恩】的总统，在《理性时代》公开出版之后）---，就再也没能，从他在巴黎写成的著作对其在美国的声誉（形成）的损伤中，恢复过来。
He had been allowed to return home on an American ship byPresident Jefferson in 1802—an act for which Jefferson was sharply criticizedby the Federalist press. But Paine was destitute when he died inGreenwich Village in 1809, and even the Quakers—whose religion was one of thefew he admired—refused to allow him to be buried in one of their cemeteries. The anniversary of his death,marked at the time by a private burial ceremony with no family to mourn him,was observed only within the shrinking early-19th-century freethoughtcommunity.
1802年，潘恩被杰弗森总统特批，乘坐一艘美国的船只返回美国---这一举动【译者注：行政法案】，致使杰弗森受到了联邦人士媒体的尖锐批评。在潘恩于1809年死于格林威治村时，他已是贫困潦倒，甚至他那些教友派的朋友---他们的信仰是他为数不多的，所羡慕的宗教之一---都拒绝把他安葬在他们的某处墓地。他的葬礼，在当时是极为罕见的私人葬礼仪式，（竟然）没有家庭成员来哀悼，只有成员锐减的19世纪早期自由思想者社团的几个人，目睹了葬礼的过程。
Unlike Paine, Ingersoll did not die alone and unmourned,but with his wife, Eva, at his side in their bedroom, after he had consumed atypically large breakfast. He probably died of a heart attack. He also did much betterfinancially during his lifetime than Paine because he commanded high fees forboth his legal services and his speeches—regardless of whether his audienceswere scandalized or uplifted by the content. That Ingersoll made a goodliving out of questioning religion particularly enraged his opponents. Thisview is encapsulated in a cartoon, published in the satirical magazinePuckin1880, showing Ingersoll beating the Bible with a stick labeled “atheism” ascoins fall out of the holy book into the orator’s briefcase.
不像潘恩，英格索尔没有孤独死去，甚至于没人哀悼，在他照例吃完一顿丰盛的早餐之后，他死在卧室里，他的妻子夏娃也在旁边。他可能死于了心脏病突发。而且，他一生中，在赚钱上也比潘恩强得多，就因为他（总能）在法律服务中和演说中收取高额费用---不管他的听众是否“丑闻在身”【译者注：听取异端演说】，或是他们的热情被他的演说内容“点燃”了。靠着质疑宗教，英格索尔就生活地那么好，（格外地）惹恼了他的对手。这一看法，被“包装”成一幅漫画，发表在1880年的讽刺杂志Puck上，漫画里的英格索尔，用一根标着“无神论”的棍子敲打着圣经，钱币就从神圣的书里掉落到了演说者的手提箱里。
Ingersoll was better at making and spending money than hewas at saving it, and although he did not die in debt, he left nothing like afortune to his wife. He was fond of entertaining, and he and Eva gave legendaryparties in the succession of Manhattan townhouses where they lived forthe last 15 years of his life. He also gave away a good deal of money to freethought causes, the arts,and impecunious relatives and was, as he was the first to acknowledge, an ineptinvestor. In a letter to his brother John, he wrote, “I have a positive geniusfor losing money.”
比起英格索尔存钱的本领，英格索尔更善于赚钱和花钱，尽管他没有在负债中死去，但他也没有把什么像样的财产留给他的妻子。他喜欢款待朋友，他和他妻子在一连串紧挨着的曼哈顿豪宅里举行了（不少）奢华的聚会，也是在那里，他们度过了他最后的15年。他，还把不少钱分给了（有关）自由思想的活动，艺术以及那些贫穷的亲戚们，而且正如他自己一开始就意识到的，他是一位无能的投资者。在一封给他弟弟约翰的信中，他写道，“在流失钱财上，我有种少见的天赋。”
Ingersoll’s generosity elicited a disapproving tut-tutfrom theTimesin its obituary. “He earned great sums ofmoney, both as a lecturer and a lawyer, but he let them go like water,” thenewspaper reported. “It was his habit to keep money in his house in an opendrawer, to which any member of his family was free to go and take what waswanted.” Since all the members of Ingersoll’s immediate family were women, onesuspects that what really shocked the obituary writer was the recklessdispersal of cash to females.
1. tut-tut：一惊一咤
英格索尔的慷慨，引来了the Times【时代周刊】在讣告栏里对他的一番“非议”。“他一生赚了很多钱，既是一位演说家，又是一位律师，可他花钱像流水一样，”时代周刊（的讣文里）还写着。“把钱放在宅子里某个敞开的抽屉里，是他的习惯，任何家庭成员都能走近那个抽屉，并取走需要的数目。”想到英格索尔的直系家庭成员都是女性，有人（不禁）怀疑让讣告作者真正震惊的是，他毫不在意的把钱“丢给”女人。
Perhaps because of his refusal to play the role oftightfisted Victorian paterfamilias, Ingersoll by all accounts (including hisown and those of his wife and their two daughters) had had an extraordinarilyhappy marriage and family life. This abundance of creature comforts and domestic happiness did not sitwell with orthodox believers, who thought that the evil of questioning theexistence of God should be punished in both this life and the next.
也许，出于他不愿意扮演吝啬的Victorianpaterfamilias【维多利亚时期家长】的角色，（现存的）所有记载（包括他自己的，他妻子的以及他们的两个女儿的）都表明，英格索尔拥有过远超常人的美满婚姻和家庭生活。富足的物质享受和家庭幸福，让宗教信徒们难以接受，他们觉着，质疑上帝存在的罪恶，理应惩罚他的生活以及他下一代的生活。
Ingersoll’s collected works were published within a fewyears of his death by his brother-in-law C. P. Farrell, who owned the DresdenPublishing Company (named for Ingersoll’s birthplace in upstate New York). TheGreat Agnostic remained a well-known, frequently cited figure into the 1920s,not only because many of his friends and enemies remained alive but alsobecause his writings were still thought to be capable of corrupting Americanyouth.
英格索尔的著作合集，由他的连襟C.P.Farrel，Dresden Publishing Company公司的拥有人（出版社的名字，来源于英格索尔在纽约北部的出生地）在他死后几年内（陆续）发表。（由此，）“The Great Agnostic”作为众所周知，经常被提到的人物，一直延续到了1920年前后，这不仅仅是因为，他不少的朋友或是敌人都还健在，而且还因为，他的著作仍然被认为具有“腐蚀”美国年青人的威力。
The memory ofIngersoll faded swiftly, however, after the famous 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial,which pitted the leading spokesman for religious fundamentalism, WilliamJennings Bryan, against Clarence Darrow, the nation’s most famous criminallawyer and an equally famous agnostic, who had been strongly influenced byhearing Ingersoll’s speeches in the 1870s and 1880s. Bryan succeeded inobtaining the conviction of high school biology teacher John T. Scopes ongrounds of having violated a Tennessee law banning the teaching of evolution(although the verdict was reversed on appeal). But Darrow was thought tohave been the real winner and fundamentalism the real loser after Bryan wasforced to admit that even he did not take every word in the Bible literally.
1．religiousfundamentalism：原教旨主义（伊斯兰），基督教基要主义（基督教）
2．ScopesMonkey Trial：斯科普猴子审判
3．Fundamentalism：原教旨主义
对英格索尔的印记的消逝，逐渐快了起来，可那也是在著名的1925年Scopes Monkey Trial【思科普斯猴子审判】之后，那场把原教旨主义的带头发言人William Jennings Bryan，和当时全美国最出名的刑事律师，同时还是一位旗鼓相当的不可知论者，曾深受英格索尔于1870以及1880年间演说的影响的ClarenceDarrow，“拖进”同一个“坑”里的审判。依据高中老师John T.Scope违反了田纳西州法律中，一项禁止教授进化论的条款，Bryan成功的获取了对John T.Scope的指控（尽管那次裁决，后来在公众请求下被推翻）。可是，在Bryan被迫承认，甚至是他，也没有逐字理解圣经里的内容之后，Darrow被认为是真正的赢家，而基督教基要主义是真正的输家。
That admission and the trial itself attestedpowerfully to the accomplishments of the freethought movement in the late 19thcentury. The Tennessee lawforbidding the teaching of evolution would not have been deemednecessary by fundamentalist legislatures had evolution not made its way intohigh school biology textbooks by the early 20th century. Without an orator of Ingersoll’spersuasive powers to make fun of human pretensions about distinguished lineageand to humanize an idea that originally seemed so alien—the descent of man fromthe very creatures over whom God has supposedly given him dominion—who knowshow long it would have taken for Darwin’s scientific ideas to have made it intohigh school biology texts. In Ingersoll’s time, educated Americans knewthere were other pro-evolution and pro-science speakers—most notably ThomasHenry Huxley, Darwin’s friend and the most important international popularizerof the theory of evolution, and Herbert Spencer, the British philosopher whocoined the phrase “survival of the fittest” (often mistakenly attributed toDarwin). Spencer, who waseven more influential in the United States than in England—though he is rarelyread today—made the error of arguing that “survival of the fittest” could andshould be applied to man in a state of civilization, thereby justifying thevast Gilded Age gap between the rich and the poor.
Bryan的坦白和那场审判本身，都有力的见证了19世纪晚期自由思想运动的成果。如果不是，进化论（理论）没有在20世纪早期被（顺利）编排进了高中生物课本，神创论者也就不会觉得有必要在田纳西州立法通过禁止讲授进化论的条款。（倘若，）缺少了一位说服力犹如英格索尔的演说家，去挖苦人们对明显的族系差异的装腔作势，以及去人性化地（传播）那个起初看上去如此另类的见解---人类的子子孙孙，皆源于那个（共同的），却被上帝理所当然的赋予了权杖的猴子祖先---谁又能知道达尔文的科学理念，要花多长时间才能选入高中生物课本。在英格索尔时代，受过教育的美国人，都知道些大革命之前和科学普及之前的其他演说者---最广为人知的就是Thomas Henry Huxley【托马斯亨利赫胥黎】，他同时还是达尔文的朋友以及其进化论的最为重要的国际传播者，还有Herbert Spencer【赫尔伯特斯宾塞】，那位首创了“survival ofthe fittest【译者注：适者生存】”（常常被误认为是出自达尔文）格言的英国哲学家。Spencer【斯宾塞】，在美国拥有的影响力远超过其在英国的影响力的斯宾塞---可如今的人们已很少读到他的著作了---犯下了，认为“survival of the fittest【译者注：适者生存】”能够，而且也因该适用于文明开化国家中公民的错误，以此来“合理化”Gilded Age【镀金时代】富人和穷人之间惊人的贫富差距。
Although Spencer and Ingersoll were friends, Ingersolldid not make the social Darwinist mistake of believing that “tooth and claw”should be the rule in civilized societies. His rejection of social Darwinism—ata time when many freethinkers, to their discredit, shared the views ofconservative religious believers about the natural inferiority of the poor,immigrants, and blacks—raises Ingersoll above most of his contemporaries in American secular thought.Two distinct threads runthrough the history of American secularism, the first descending from thehumanism and egalitarianism of Paine and the second from 19th-century socialDarwinism through the 20th-century every-man- for-himself “objectivism” of AynRand. A true intellectual descendant of Paine, Ingersoll linked reasonand science to the success and survival of democracy, as the Enlightenmentdeists among the Founders did, and contended that the capacity for rationalthought existed among all races and social classes.
1. Egalitarianism：平等主义
尽管Spencer【斯宾塞】和英格索尔是朋友，英格索尔就没有犯下社会达尔文主义者的错误，去相信“tooth and claw【译者注：武装到牙齿，爪子（生命在于斗争）】”应该是文明社会下的法则。他对社会达尔文主义的排斥---在当时，不少自由思想家，不顾及有损声誉，取信了保守宗教人士们对穷人，移民和黑人的观点，这些人天生低人一等---让他在美国平民化的视野中，变得“卓尔不群”起来。在美国平民化的历史中，贯穿着两条截然不同的路线，第一条，是源于潘恩的人文主义和平等主义的路线，第二条，源于19世纪的社会达尔文主义，（后来）演变成了20世纪Ayn Rand【艾因兰德】的every-man-for-himself“客观主义”【译者注：理性的利己主义】。作为潘恩理念的传承之人，英格索尔把理性和科学，与民主的成功于延续联系到了一起，正如美国开国元勋中启蒙运动的自然神论者们所做的，和他们为之奋斗的，对理性思考的宽容存在于所有种族中和所有社会阶层中。
Ingersoll’s belief in the intellectual potentialof those at every level of society, coupled with his own modest origins, addedconsiderable weight to the message he delivered in small towns, where farmersand baseball players were likelier to show up than university professors. Herbert Spencer’s presentationscertainly would not have gone over as well in small frontier towns as they didin New York and Boston, given that audiences in less culturally sophisticatedareas might have suspected thattheywould not have survivedthe British philosopher’s social fitness test.
英格索尔对各个阶层人们的心智潜能的确信不疑，再加上他自己的平凡出身，为他在那些农民和棒球球员比大学教授更容易出现在演说现场的小镇中，所传递的“福音”，增添了相当的分量。Herbert Spencer的演说，在那些小镇的效果肯定不会，像在纽约和波士顿一样被听众们所接受。（不难想象，）民风不那么复杂的地区的听众们，很有可能担心，他们就没法在英国哲学家的社会适应性测试中存活下来。
Looking back onthe extraordinary decline in religious literalism that took place amongeducated Americans in the decades bracketing the turn of the century, it iseasy to see why fundamentalism was prematurely declared dead by many prominentAmerican intellectuals in the 1920s, just as the death of God would beprematurely reported in the 1960s. In 1931,the distinguished editor ofHarper’s_magazine, Frederick Lewis Allen,summed up the Scopes trial in his classic work of popular history, _OnlyYesterday,which has never been out of print. “Legislators might go onpassing anti-evolution laws,” Allen wrote, “and in the hinterlands the pious mightstill keep their religion locked in a science-proof compartment of their minds;but civilized opinion everywhere had regarded the Dayton trial withamazement and amusement, and the slow drift away from Fundamentalist certaintycontinued.”
1. religiousliteralism：宗教基要主义
回首看看，出现在世纪之交的几十年里，受过教育的美国人中间，宗教基要主义的骤然衰落，就很容易想明白，为什么宗教基要派被美国众多的杰出知识分子在1920年前后就预先判了“死刑”，就像上帝的消亡将在1960年前后（发生）被提前告知世人一样。1931年，特立独行的Harper杂志编辑，Frederick Lewis Allen，在他的通俗历史经典著作“只是在昨天”中，在那本从未绝版过的书中，总结回顾了Scopes审判。“立法者，可能会继续批准反-进化论法案，”Allen写道，“在某个偏远地区，虔诚的信徒也许依然会，把他们的信仰禁锢在他们大脑中某个与科学隔绝的空间；可是，每一个地方观念开化的人们早已在惊奇和喜悦中看待着Dayton审判，（同时，人们）缓慢的远离宗教基要主义者的确信不疑，还在继续。”
1. theDayton trial：同Scopes Monkey Trial，斯科普猴子审判
That is how thingslooked at the beginning of the Great Depression in the offices of prestigiousmagazines in New York and Boston, and that is how they would continue to lookto secular intellectuals well into the 1980s. The mistaken conclusion that “science-proof” thinking would simplydisappear in the enlightened 20th century was the main factor in Ingersoll’sdisappearance from the consciousness of American intellectuals in thegeneration after his death. Ingersoll’sarguments would come to seem not provocative or dangerous but irrelevant tomost (the gigantic exception being Richard Hofstadter) in the generation ofhistorians who came of age during the Depression and the Second WorldWar and who, like Allen, considered fundamentalism no more than an interestingrelic of ages past.
这些就是纽约和波士顿的知名杂志，在GreatDepression【大萧条】初期对（当时）平民化运动的状况的看法，同时也是他们将会如何继续关注平民知识分子，直至 1980年前后。“science-proof【译者注：与科学隔绝】”的思维方式将会在令人振奋的20世纪中自然消失的错误结论，是英格索尔从在他之后的一代美国知识分子的视野中消失的主要因素。英格索尔的观点，（并非）看上去不再那么激进或是危险，而是与那些在大萧条和第二次世界大战中成长起来的一代历史学家，大多不甚相干（罕见的例外是Richard Hofstadter【理查德霍夫施塔特】），比如Allen【艾伦】，他认为宗教基要主义不过是一种有趣的历史遗留物。
In an editorial published on July 22, 1899—the day afterthe Great Agnostic’s death—The New York Timestook care to denounceIngersoll’s views about religion but acknowledged that his principled refusalto mute his antireligious views meant that he “never took that place in thesocial, the professional, or the public life of his country to which by his talentshe would otherwise have been eminently entitled.” Every major newspaperin the country shared this view.
在1899年7月22日发表的一篇社论中---英格索尔死后的第一天---The New York Times【纽约时报】小心翼翼地“谴责”了英格索尔对宗教的看法，但坦承他一贯的拒绝“捂住”他的反宗教观点意味着他“在老百姓，精英的心目中，乃至这个国家的公众生活中，将永远不会取得那个位置，然而以他的才份，他本来会被无可置疑地授予那个位置。”美国的每一家主流报纸，都持有相同的观点。
Edgar W. Howe, publisher ofThe Atchison DailyGlobein Kansas, assessed Ingersoll’s legacy more positively in amemorial editorial that spoke for freethinkers in the American heartland:
Edgar W. Home，堪萨斯的新闻发布机构The Atchison Daily Globe，以一篇追忆型社论，为了美国人“思想家园”中的自由思想者，更为积极的评价了英格索尔的遗产。
The death of Robert G. Ingersollremoved one of America’s greatest citizens. It is not popular to admireIngersoll but his brilliancy, his integrity and patriotism cannot be doubted.Had not Ingersoll been frank enough to express his opinion on religion he wouldhave been President of the United States. Hypocrisy in religion pays. Therewill come a time when public men may speak their honest convictions in religionwithout being maligned by the ignorant and superstitious, but not yet.
英格索尔的逝去，让我们少了一位美国历史上最为伟大的公民。也许欣赏英格索尔的人不是很多，但我们不应怀疑他的才智，忠诚和爱国之心。倘若英格索尔没有“坦诚”的宣扬他的宗教观点，他必然是这个国家的总统。他本可以在宗教态度上虚伪一点。那必将迎来一个时代，公众人物能够说出他们对宗教最真实的看法，也不会受到无知者和迷信者的中伤，然而他却没有。
Susan Jacoby is the author of the forthcomingTheGreat Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought, fromwhich this essay is adapted, as well asFreethinkers:A History of American Secularismand 10 other books.
