On Motes and Beams

 

　　It is curious that our own offenses should seem so much less heinous than the offenses of others. I suppose the reason is that we know all the circumstances that have occasioned them and so manage to excuse in ourselves what we cannot excuse in others. We turn our attention away from our own defects, and when we are forced by untoward events to consider them, find it easy to condone them. For all I know we are right to do this; they are part of us and we must accept the good and bad in ourselves together.

 

　　But when we come to judge others, it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them, but by an image that we have formed of ourselves fro which we have left out everything that offends our vanity or would discredit us in the eyes of the world. To take a trivial instance: how scornful we are when we catch someone out telling a lie; but who can say that he has never told not one, but a hundred?

 

　　There is not much to choose between men. They are all a hotchpotch of greatness and littleness, of virtue and vice, of nobility and baseness. Some have more strength of character, or more opportunity, and so in one direction or another give their instincts freer play, but potentially they are the same. For my part, I do not think I am any better or any worse than most people, but I know that if I set down every action in my life and every thought that has crossed my mind, the world would consider me a monster of depravity. The knowledge that these reveries are common to all men should inspire one with tolerance to oneself as well as to others. It is well also if they enable us to look upon our fellows, even the most eminent and respectable, with humor, and if they lead us to take ourselves not too seriously.

 

　　譯文：

 

　　微塵與棟梁

 

　　讓人奇怪的是，和別人的過錯比起來，我們自身的過錯往往不是那樣的可惡。我想，其原因應該是我們知曉一切導致自己犯錯的情況，因此能夠設法諒解自己的錯誤，而別人的錯誤卻不能諒解。我們對自己的缺點不甚關注，即便是深陷困境而不得不正視它們的時候，我們也會很容易就寬恕自己。據我所知，我們這樣做是正確的。缺點是我們自身的一部分，我們必須接納自己的好和壞。

 

　　但是當我們評判別人的時候，情況就不同了。我們不是通過真實的自我來評判別人，而是用一種自我形象來評判，這種自我形象完全摒棄了在任何世人眼中會傷害到自己的虛榮或者體面的東西。舉一個小例子來說：當覺察到別人說謊時，我們是多么地蔑視他啊!但是，誰能夠說自從未說過謊?可能還不止一百次呢。

 

　　人和人之間沒什么大的差別。他們皆是偉大與渺小，善良與邪惡，高尚與低俗的混合體。有的人性格比較堅毅，機會也比較多，因而達個或那個方面，能夠更自由地發揮自己的稟賦，但是人類的潛能卻都是相同的。至于我自己，我認為自己并不比大多數人更好或者更差，但是我知道，假如我記下我生命中每一次舉動和每一個掠過我腦海的想法的話，世界就會將我視為一個邪惡的怪物。每個人都會有這樣的怪念頭，這樣的認識應當能夠啟發我們寬容自己，也寬容他人。同時，假如因此我們得以用幽默的態度看待他人，即使是天下最優秀最令人尊敬的人，而且假如我們也因此不把自己看得過于重要，那是很有裨益的。