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No, the progress of the last six hundred years would not have been possible without the existence of cities. I shall, therefore, have to make this chapter a little longer than many of the others. It is too important to be reduced to three or four pages, devoted to mere political events.The ancient world of Egypt and Babylonia and Assyria had been a world of cities. Greece had been a country of City-States. The history of Phoenicia was the history of two cities called Sidon and Tyre. The Roman Empire was the "hinterland" of a single town. Writing, art, science, astronomy, architecture, literature, the theatre-the list is endless-have all been products of the city.
不过，如果不是因为城市的存在，过去六百年来的进步将是完全不可能的。因此，我将用比其它各章稍长一点的篇幅来谈论这个问题。它太重要了，不可能像对待单纯的政治时间那样，用三四页文字便概括了。古代的埃及、巴比伦、亚述都是以城市为中心的世界。古希腊则完全是由许多小城邦组成的国家。而腓尼基的历史几乎就是西顿和提尔这两个城市的历史。再看看伟大的罗马帝国，它辽阔的行省无非是罗马这个城市的"腹地"。书写、艺术、科学、天文学、建筑学、文学--这是一个可以无穷开列的名单，它们全都属于城市的产物。
For almost four thousand years the wooden bee-hive which we call a town had been the workshop of the world. Then came the great migrations. The Roman Empire was destroyed. The cities were burned down and Europe once more became a land of pastures and little agricultural villages. During the Dark Ages the fields of civilisation had lain fallow.
在整整四千年的漫长岁月里，我们称为城市的这个木制蜂房，其间居住着大量像工蜂一样生活劳碌的人群，它一直就是世界的大作坊，它出产商品，推动文明，催化文学与艺术。可随后就到了日尔曼人大迁移的时代。他们灭亡了灿烂一时的罗马帝国，一个劲地焚毁他们并不理解的城市，使欧洲再度成为一块由草原和小村庄构成的土地。在这段黑暗愚昧的岁月，欧洲文明进入了休耕期。
The Crusades had prepared the soil for a new crop. It was time for the harvest, but the fruit was plucked by the burghers of the free cities.
十字军东征为文明的重新播种准备好了适合的土壤。快到收获的季节了，但果实却被自由城市的自由民抢先一步摘走。
I have told you the story of the castles and the monasteries, with their heavy stone enclosures-the homes of the knights and the monks, who guarded men's bodies and their souls.
我曾经给你们讲过关于城堡与修道院的故事。在它们高大沉重的石墙后面，居住着骑士和他的朋友僧侣，一个负责照顾人们的肉体，一个则悉心看护着人们的灵魂。
