托尔斯泰(Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1910年),俄国著名小说家、剧作家和思想家,也是非暴力的无政府主义者和教育改革家。托尔斯泰于19世纪末和20世纪初的创作将俄国的现实主义文学推向高峰,为举世公认的世界最伟大的作家之一,代表作有《战争与和平》、《复活》和《安娜?卡列尼娜》等,此外还创作了大量的童话,被称为是“最清醒的现实主义”的“天才艺术家”。托尔斯泰的作品对旧俄时代的政治、法律、教会等方面进行了广泛、深刻的批判,生动再现了广大民众的苦难与反抗,高尔基评价说:“不认识托尔斯泰者,不可能认识俄罗斯。”
昆西(Thomas De Quincey,1785-1859年),英国散文家,有“少有的英语文体大师”之誉。题材涉及文学、哲学、神学等领域,尤其以《忏悔录:一个英国瘾君子的自白》一书而闻名。
目錄:
Contents:
Confession ...................................................................................1
Confessions of an english opium-eater:
Being an extraCt from the life of a sCholar...........................77
內容試閱:
Iwas baptIzed and brought up in the Orthodox Christian faith. I was taught it in childhood and throughout my boyhood and youth. but when I abandoned the second course of the university at the age of eighteen I no longer believed any of the things I had been taught.
Judging by certain memories,I never seriously believed them,but had merely relied on what I was taught and on what was professed by the grown-up people around me,and that reliance was very unstable.
I remember that before I was eleven a grammar school pupil,Vladimir Milyutin long since dead,visited us one sunday and announced as the latest novelty a discovery made at his school. this discovery was that there is no God and that all we are taught about Him is a mere invention this was in 1838. I remember how interested my elder brothers were in this information. they called me to their council and we all,I remember,became very animated,and accepted it as something very interesting and quite possible.
I remember also that when my elder brother,dmitriy,who was then at the university,suddenly,in the passionate way natural to him,devoted himself to religion and began to attend all the Church services, to fast and to lead a pure and moral life,we all—even our elders—unceasingly held him up to ridicule and for some unknown reason called him “Noah”. I remember that Musin-pushkin,the then Curator of Kazan University,when inviting us to dance at his home,ironically persuaded my brother who was declining the invitation by the argument that even david danced before the ark. I sympathized with these jokes made by my elders,and drew from them the conclusion that though it is necessary to learn the catechism and go to church,one must not take such things too seriously. I remember also that I read Voltaire when I was very young,and that his raillery, far from shocking me, amused me very much.
My lapse from faith occurred as is usual among people on our level of education. In most cases,I think,it happens thus:a man lives like everybody else,on the basis of principles not merely having nothing in common with religious doctrine,but generally opposed to it;religious doctrine does not play a part in life,in intercourse with others it is never encountered,and in a man’s own life he never has to reckon with it. Religious doctrine is professed far away from life and independently of it. If it is encountered,it is only as an external phenomenon disconnected from life.
Then as now, it was and is quite impossible to judge by a man’s life and conduct whether he is a believer or not. If there be a difference between a man who publicly professes orthodoxy and one who denies it,the difference is not in favor of the former. then as now,the public profession and confession of orthodoxy was chiefly met with among people who were dull and cruel and who considered themselves very important. ability,honesty,reliability,good-nature and moral conduct, were often met with among unbelievers.
The schools teach the catechism and send the pupils to church,and government officials must produce certificates of having received communion. but a man of our circle who has finished his education and is not in the government service may even now and formerly it was still easier for him to do so live for ten or twenty years without once remembering that he is living among Christians and is himself reckoned a member of the orthodox Christian Church.
So that, now as formerly, religious doctrine,accepted on trust and supported by external pressure,thaws away gradually
Under the influence of knowledge and experience of life which conflict with it,and a man very often lives on,imagining that he still holds intact the religious doctrine imparted to him in childhood whereas in fact not a trace of it remains.