悲劇的誕生The Birth Of Tragedy 第93期:只崇奉一位裸體女神

There would be no science if it were concerned only with that one nude goddess and with nothing else.

如果科學只崇奉那一位裸體女神，而不顧其他神靈，世間也就不會有科學了。

For in that case her devotees would have to feel like men who wanted to dig a hole straight through the earth, assuming that each of them realized that even if he tried his utmost, his whole life long, he would only be able to dig a very small portion of this enormous depth, and even that would be filled in again before his own eyes by the labors of the next in line,

因爲，這樣一來，科學的信徒們就會覺得自己好象一個人要鑿穿大地。誰都知道，即使盡畢生的最大努力，也只能掘入深不可測的大地的皮層，而且後來者的發掘不難就在他眼前填滿了他所鑿的洞；

so a third person would seem to do well if he picked a new spot for his drilling efforts.

所以，如果第三者獨自選擇一個新地點來探鑿，那就顯得是聰明的做法了。

Now suppose someone proved convincingly that the goal of the antipodes cannot be reached in this direct manner: who would still wish to go on working in these old depths, unless he had learned meanwhile to be satisfied with finding precious stones or discovering laws of nature?

設使現在有人證明了對點是不能用這直接方法達到的，那末，誰還願意在這舊洞裏發掘下去呢，除非他尋得了珍寶，或者發現了自然規律，而還不知滿足。

Therefore Lessing, the most honest theoretical man, dared to announce that he cared more for the search after truth than for truth itself--and thus revealed the fundamental secret of science, to the astonishment, and indeed the anger, of the scientific community.

因此，最誠實的理論家萊森曾大膽自白，說他關心真理之探索甚於關心真理本身：這一語道破了科學的基本祕密，使得科學界爲之震驚，甚或爲之憤怒。