25Januaryянваря · 25-е января
Есть знания, необходимые каждому человеку. Пока человек не усвоил этих знаний, все другие знания будут во вред ему.
There is knowledge that we all need. Until we have made this knowledge our own, all other knowledge will do us harm.
1. Сократ постоянно указывал своим ученикам на то, что при правильно поставленном образовании в каждой науке надо доходить только до известного предела, который не следует переступать. По геометрии, говорил он, достаточно знать настолько, чтобы при случае быть в силах правильно измерить кусок земли, который продаешь или покупаешь, или чтоб разделить на части наследство, или чтоб суметь распределить работу рабочим. «Это так легко, — говорил он, — что при небольшом старании не будешь затрудняться ни над каким измерением, хотя бы пришлось размерять всю землю». Но он не одобрял увлечения большими трудностями в этой науке, и хотя сам лично знал их, но говорил, что они могут занять всю жизнь человека и отвлечь его от других полезных наук, тогда как они ни к чему не нужны. По астрономии он находил желательным знать настолько, чтоб по небесным приметам узнавать часы ночи, дни месяца и времена года, уметь не потерять дорогу, держать направление в море и сменять сторожей. «Эта наука настолько легка, — прибавлял он, — что она доступна всякому охотнику, всем мореплавателям, вообще всякому, кто хочет сколько-нибудь ею заняться». Но доходить в ней до того, чтоб изучать различные орбиты, описываемые небесными телами, высчитывать величину планет и звезд, их отдаленность от земли, их движения и изменения, — это он крайне осуждал, потому что не видел в таких занятиях никакой пользы. Он был такого низкого мнения о них не по неведению, так как сам изучил эти науки, а потому, что не хотел, чтоб на излишние занятия тратилось время и силы, которые могли быть употреблены на самое нужное человеку: на его нравственное совершенствование.
1. Socrates constantly pointed out to his pupils that in a rightly ordered education one should go in each science only up to a certain limit, which ought not to be overstepped. Of geometry, he said, it is enough to know so much as to be able, when occasion arises, to measure correctly a piece of land you are selling or buying, or to divide an inheritance into shares, or to be able to apportion work among laborers. “This is so easy,” he said, “that with a little effort you will not be at a loss over any measurement, even if you had to measure the whole earth.” But he did not approve of being carried away by the great difficulties of this science, and although he himself knew them, he said that they could take up a man’s whole life and draw him away from other useful sciences, whereas they serve no purpose at all. Of astronomy he thought it desirable to know so much as to tell from the signs in the sky the hours of the night, the days of the month, and the seasons of the year, to be able to keep from losing your way, to hold your course at sea, and to change the watch. “This science is so easy,” he added, “that it is within reach of every hunter, of all seafarers, and in general of anyone who cares to give it any attention.” But to go so far in it as to study the various orbits described by the heavenly bodies, to calculate the size of the planets and stars, their distance from the earth, their motions and changes — this he strongly condemned, because he saw no use in such pursuits. He held so low an opinion of them not from ignorance, since he had studied these sciences himself, but because he did not want time and strength to be spent on superfluous pursuits when they could be applied to what man needs most: his moral perfecting.
From Memorabilia · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedThe other useful studies these pursuits crowd out become “what man needs most: his moral perfecting.”
Original · Ancient Greek… ἐδίδασκε δὲ καὶ μέχρι ὅτου δέοι ἔμπειρον εἶναι ἑκάστου πράγματος τὸν ὀρθῶς πεπαιδευμένον. αὐτίκα γεωμετρίαν μέχρι μὲν τούτου ἔφη δεῖν μανθάνειν, ἕως ἱκανός τις γένοιτο, εἴ ποτε δεήσειε, γῆν μέτρῳ ὀρθῶς ἢ παραλαβεῖν ἢ παραδοῦναι ἢ διανεῖμαι ἢ ἔργον ἀποδείξασθαι· οὕτω δὲ τοῦτο ῥᾴδιον εἶναι μαθεῖν ὥστε τὸν προσέχοντα τὸν νοῦν τῇ μετρήσει ἅμα τήν τε γῆν ὁπόση ἐστὶν εἰδέναι καὶ ὡς μετρεῖται ἐπιστάμενον ἀπιέναι.
… τὸ δὲ μέχρι τῶν δυσσυνέτων διαγραμμάτων γεωμετρίαν μανθάνειν ἀπεδοκίμαζεν. ὅ τι μὲν γὰρ ὠφελοίη ταῦτα, οὐκ ἔφη ὁρᾶν· καίτοι οὐκ ἄπειρός γε αὐτῶν ἦν· ἔφη δὲ ταῦτα ἱκανὰ εἶναι ἀνθρώπου βίον κατατρίβειν καὶ ἄλλων πολλῶν τε καὶ ὠφελίμων μαθημάτων ἀποκωλύειν.
… ἐκέλευε δὲ καὶ ἀστρολογίας ἐμπείρους γίγνεσθαι, καὶ ταύτης μέντοι μέχρι τοῦ νυκτός τε ὥραν καὶ μηνὸς καὶ ἐνιαυτοῦ δύνασθαι γιγνώσκειν ἕνεκα πορείας τε καὶ πλοῦ καὶ φυλακῆς, …
… καὶ ταῦτα δὲ ῥᾴδια εἶναι μαθεῖν παρά τε νυκτοθηρῶν καὶ κυβερνητῶν καὶ ἄλλων πολλῶν οἷς ἐπιμελὲς ταῦτα εἰδέναι.
… τὸ δὲ μέχρι τούτου ἀστρονομίαν μανθάνειν, μέχρι τοῦ καὶ τὰ μὴ ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ περιφορᾷ ὄντα, καὶ τοὺς πλάνητάς τε καὶ ἀσταθμήτους ἀστέρας γνῶναι, καὶ τὰς ἀποστάσεις αὐτῶν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς καὶ τὰς περιόδους καὶ τὰς αἰτίας αὐτῶν ζητοῦντας κατατρίβεσθαι, ἰσχυρῶς ἀπέτρεπεν. ὠφέλειαν μὲν γὰρ οὐδεμίαν οὐδʼ ἐν τούτοις ἔφη ὁρᾶν· καίτοι οὐδὲ τούτων γε ἀνήκοος ἦν· ἔφη δὲ καὶ ταῦτα ἱκανὰ εἶναι κατατρίβειν ἀνθρώπου βίον καὶ πολλῶν καὶ ὠφελίμων ἀποκωλύειν.
Source text: raw.githubusercontent.comIn English · H. G. Dakyns, 1897To take geometry as an instance: Every one (he would say) ought to be taught geometry so far, at any rate, as to be able, if necessary, to take over or part with a piece of land, or to divide it up or assign a portion of it for cultivation, …
But he was unable to approve of the pursuit of geometry up to the point at which it became a study of unintelligible diagrams.
These things, he would say, were enough to wear out a man's life, and to hinder him from many other more useful studies.
Every one should know enough of the science to be able to discover the hour of the night or the season of the month or year, for the purposes of travel by land or sea--the march, the voyage, and the regulations of the watch; …
As to pushing the study of astronomy so far as to include a knowledge of the movements of bodies outside our own orbit, whether planets or stars of eccentric movement, …
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Memorabilia, IV.7.2–5.
Close, section by section, until the last sentence. Socrates taught how far the rightly educated man should know each subject; geometry enough to take over, hand on, or divide land, or to assign work ("распределить работу рабочим" renders ἔργον ἀποδείξασθαι); astronomy enough to tell the hour of night, the day of the month, and the season for travel, voyages, and the watch, which night hunters and pilots know. He discouraged geometry as far as the hard diagrams and astronomy as far as the planets' orbits, distances, and periods: he knew them himself, and held they could wear out a life. Three changes: "you will not be at a loss over any measurement, even if you had to measure the whole earth" misreads τὴν γῆν ὁπόση ἐστίν (how large the plot of land is); the size of the planets and stars is added, and their "periods and causes" become "their motions and changes"; and Xenophon's "many other useful studies" becomes "what man needs most: his moral perfection". The intermediary was not found; the passage is not in the Thoughts of Wise Men or in Ramage's Greek selection.
2. Горе ученым, которые собирают знания, горе самодовольным философам, ненасытимым исследователям. Эти дурные богачи ежедневно празднуют на своих умственных пирах, тогда как Лазарь непрестанно голодает. Люди эти наполнены тем, чтó есть ничто, потому что это пустое знание не содействует ни внутреннему, ни общественному совершенствованию.
2. Woe to the learned who gather knowledge, woe to the self-satisfied philosophers, the insatiable investigators. These wicked rich men feast every day at their banquets of the mind, while Lazarus goes hungry without ceasing. These people are filled with what is nothing, because this empty knowledge furthers neither inner nor social perfecting.
From Letter to the duc de Chevreuse, «Contre l'esprit subtil et minutieux» · reworded by Tolstoy .
What changedKnowledge that does not promote “the interior life, which consists wholly in the love of God” becomes knowledge that furthers “neither inner nor social perfecting.”
Original · FrenchD'où je conclus: Malheur aux riches d'esprit, à ces savans qui entassent tant de connoissances , à ces philosophes sages en euxmêmes , aux esprits qui veulent tout pénétrer, et jouir de leurs lumières comme un avare de ses trésors ! Ce sont les mauvais riches de l'esprit qui font tous les jours des festins somptueux pendant que le pauvre Lazare souiï're en paix la faim.
On est plein sans le savoir , et plein de rien, car la plupart des connoissances acquises ne nous donnent aucune nourriture elfective pour la vie intérieure , qui est l'amour de Dieu.
Source text: archive.orgIn English · H. L. Sidney Lear, 1880Woe to the wealthy-minded, to the learned who heap up knowledge, to the self-satisfied philosopher, to the insatiable inquirer, who hoards his lights as a miser his treasure! These evil rich men are daily feasting on intellectual banquets, while Lazarus patiently suffers hunger.
Men are filled with what is nought, for such empty knowledge does not promote the interior life, which consists wholly in the love of God.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Letter to the duc de Chevreuse, «Contre l'esprit subtil et minutieux» (Correspondance avec le duc de Bourgogne, etc., letter XXIII), Œuvres complètes de Fénelon, vol. VII (Paris and Lille, 1850), p. 223; Sidney Lear's Spiritual Letters … Letters to Men (1880), letter LXIX, pp. 125–127.
Joined from two places in one letter and changed at the end. Tolstoy follows Sidney Lear's English rather than the French: 'the self-satisfied philosopher, the insatiable inquirer' (Fénelon: 'philosophers wise in their own eyes, minds that want to penetrate everything'), 'these evil rich men are daily feasting on intellectual banquets', 'men are filled with what is nought, for such empty knowledge does not promote'. He drops 'Woe to the wealthy-minded' and 'who hoards his lights as a miser his treasure'; Lazarus who 'patiently suffers hunger' (French 'souffre en paix la faim') 'goes hungry without ceasing'. The end changes in sense: knowledge that does not nourish 'the interior life, which is the love of God' becomes knowledge that serves 'neither inner nor social perfection'. The attribution to Fénelon is right.
Translation note. The rich man who “fared sumptuously every day” and the beggar Lazarus at his gate: Luke 16:19–21.
3. Отврати твое зрение от мира обмана и не доверяй своим чувствам, они лгут, но в тебе самом, во внеличном ищи вечного человека.
3. Turn your sight away from the world of deceit and do not trust your senses, they lie; but within yourself, in what is beyond the personal, seek the eternal man.
From The Voice of the Silence · shortened by Tolstoy .
Buddhist wisdom’s own wordsShun ignorance, and likewise shun illusion. Avert thy face from world deceptions ; mistrust thy senses, they are false. But within thy body — the shrine of thy sensations — seek in the Impersonal for the “ eternal man”
Source text: archive.orgTolstoy’s own version · «Мысли мудрых людей на каждый день»Бойся незнания, но еще больше бойся ложного знания. Отврати твое зрение от мира обмана и не доверяй своим чувствам, они лгут, но в тебе самом ищи во внеличном вечного человека.
Буддийская мудрость («Голос безмолвия»).
… восемь мыслей из «Голоса безмолвия» («Th. W.» 1903, № 4 Februar, S. 131—134)
Source text: tolstoy.ruDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. The Voice of the Silence (1889), Fragment I, The Voice of the Silence, Fragment I (the passage on Maya's realm and the 'eternal man').
Blavatsky's sentence, condensed: 'within thy body, the shrine of thy sensations' becomes 'in yourself', and the sequel ('and having sought him out, look inward: thou art Buddha') is dropped. The 1903 text began with 'Shun ignorance, and likewise shun illusion' (as 'fear ignorance, but fear false knowledge more'); the Circle drops it. Tolstoy translated from a German version in the Theosophischer Wegweiser, so his wording is at two removes from the English. The Jubilee editors' bracket [Дхаммапада] is wrong: the 1903 anthology names the source, and the passage is not in the Dhammapada. Ruling 1: Tolstoy condensed the English, so no printable.
Translation note. The Jubilee editors added “[Dhammapada]” to Tolstoy’s “Buddhist wisdom”; the passage is from Helena Blavatsky’s The Voice of the Silence, as Tolstoy’s own anthology of 1903 says, so her name stands in the brackets here.
4. Опытные науки, когда ими занимаются ради них самих, разрабатывая их без руководящей философской мысли, подобны лицу без глаз. Они представляют одно из занятий, подходящих для средних способностей, лишенных, однако, высших дарований, которые были бы только помехой при этих кропотливых изысканиях. Люди с такими средними способностями сосредоточивают все свои силы и всё свое уменье на одном-единственном отграниченном научном поле, где они и могут поэтому достигнуть возможно полного знания, при условии совершенного невежества во всех других областях. Их можно сравнить с рабочими в часовых мастерских, из которых одни делают только колеса, другие — только пружины, третьи — только цепи.
4. The empirical sciences, when they are pursued for their own sake and worked at without a guiding philosophical thought, are like a face without eyes. They are one of the occupations suited to middling abilities, which lack, however, the higher gifts that would only be a hindrance in these painstaking researches. People of such middling abilities concentrate all their powers and all their skill on one single, bounded field of science, where they can therefore attain the fullest possible knowledge, on condition of complete ignorance in all other fields. They may be compared with the workmen in watchmakers’ shops, of whom some make only the wheels, others only the springs, and still others only the chains.
From Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, vol. II, ch. 12 · shortened by Tolstoy .
Original · GermanEmpiriſche Wiſſenſchaften, rein ihrer ſelbſt wegen und ohne philoſophiſche Tendenz betrieben, gleichen einem Antlitz ohne Augen. Sie ſind inzwiſchen eine paſſende Beſchäftigung für gute Kapaeitäten, denen jedoch die höchſten Fähigkeiten abgehen, welche auch eben den minutiöſen Forſchungen ſolcher Art hinder— lich ſeyn würden.
Solche koncentriren ihre ganze Kraft und ihr geſammtes Wiſſen auf ein einziges abgeſtecktes Feld, in welchem ſie daher, unter der Be⸗ dingung gänzlicher Unwiſſenheit in allem Uebrigen, die möglichſt vollſtändige Erkenntniß erlangen können; …
Dafür aber ſind Jene den Genfer Arbeitern zu vergleichen, deren Einer lauter Räder, der Andere lauter Federn, der Dritte lauter Ketten macht; …
Source text: archive.orgIn English · R. B. Haldane and J. Kemp, 1886Empirical sciences pursued purely for their own sake and without philosophical tendency are like a face without eyes. They are, however, a suitable occupation for men of good capacity who yet lack the highest faculties, which would even be a hindrance to minute investigations of such a kind.
Such men concentrate their whole power and their whole knowledge upon one limited field, in which, therefore, on condition of remaining in entire ignorance of everything else, they can attain to the most complete knowledge possible; …
Therefore the former may be compared to those Geneva workmen of whom one makes only wheels, another only springs, and a third only chains.
Source text: gutenberg.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, vol. II, ch. 12 (Zur Wissenschaftslehre), as excerpted in Frauenstädt, Lichtstrahlen aus seinen Werken (1862 ed.; Tolstoy had the 1891 ed.), Lichtstrahlen, extract cited "W. II, 141" (WWV II, ch. 12; Haldane-Kemp vol. II, ch. XII).
The Lichtstrahlen extract, closely, as far as the Geneva workmen; Tolstoy leaves out the philosopher who must survey every field, the philosopher as the watchmaker who makes a moving whole of the parts, and the comparison with the musicians of an orchestra and their conductor. Schopenhauer's "good capacities" lacking the highest faculties become "middling abilities", and the "Geneva workmen" become "workers in watch workshops".
5. Лучше знать немного правил жизни, чем выучиться многим бесполезным наукам. Правила жизни удержат тебя от злого, направят на доброе; знание же бесполезных наук только введет тебя в соблазн гордости и помешает тебе ясно понимать нужные тебе правила жизни.
5. It is better to know a few rules of life than to learn many useless sciences. The rules of life will keep you from evil, will direct you toward good; but the knowledge of useless sciences will only lead you into the temptation of pride and hinder you from clearly understanding the rules of life you need.
Translation note. The Jubilee text breaks the italics at the comma; the English sets the passage as one.
Бойся не незнания, а ложного знания. Лучше ничего не знать, чем считать правдой то, чтó неправда. Лучше ничего не знать про небо, чем думать, что оно твердое и на нем сидит бог. Но немного лучше и то, чтобы думать, что то, что нам видимо, как небо, есть бесконечное пространство: бесконечное пространство так же не точно, как и твердое небо.
Fear not ignorance, but false knowledge. It is better to know nothing than to take for truth what is untrue. It is better to know nothing about the sky than to think that it is solid and that God sits on it. But it is only a little better to think that what we see as the sky is infinite space: infinite space is just as inexact as a solid sky.
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