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Your descendants will be even in a better position than you,
你们的后代甚至比你们处于更加有利的地位，
for they will learn what you think I think, and yet another intermediate will be added to the chain.
因为他们会学习你们想我是如何想的，这时就有另一个中间人增添到这条链子中来，
And in time” – his voice rose – “there will come a generation that had got beyond facts,
在适当时候，他的意见将勃然兴起——“总会有超越了事实、
beyond impressions, a generation absolutely colourless, a generation seraphically free, from taint of personality,
超越了印象的一代人要来，那是绝对不带色彩的一代人，是……快乐的、天使般的、完全没有个性的污点的一代人，
which will see the French Revolution not as it happened, nor as they would like it to have happened,
这一代人将会看到，法国大革命并不是像它所发生的那样，也不是像他们愿意它发生的那样，
but as it would have happened, had it taken place in the days of the Machine.”
而是像它可能会发生的那样——假定它是发生在大机器的时代的话。”
Tremendous applause greeted this lecture,
这篇演讲被报以剧烈的掌声，
which did but voice a feeling already latent in the minds of men – a feeling that terrestrial facts must be ignored,
它的确只是道出了已经潜在于人们头脑中的一种感识，这种感识是：地上的事实一定不要去理会，
and that the abolition of respirators was a positive gain.
呼吸保护器的取缔是一个肯定的胜利。
It was even suggested that air-ships should be abolished too.
甚至还有人提出就是飞艇也应当取缔。
This was not done, because air-ships had somehow worked themselves into the Machine”s system.
这是做不到的，因为飞艇已经使它们自己或多或少纳入大机器的系统之内，
But year by year they were used less, and mentioned less by thoughtful men.
但是年复一年它们会较少使用，而又有思想的人们也会较少提到它们。
The second great development was the re-establishment of religion.
第二项伟大的改进是宗教的重建。
This, too, had been voiced in the celebrated lecture.
这一点也在一些著名的演说里呼吁过。
No one could mistake the reverent tone in which the peroration had concluded, and it awakened a responsive echo in the heart of each.
没有人会误解在那种虔敬语气中所总结出的主要梗概，而且它在每个人的心里唤起一种反响。
Those who had long worshipped silently, now began to talk.
那些早已默默崇拜着的人，现在开始讲话了。
They described the strange feeling of peace that came over them when they handled the Book of the Machine,
他们描述说，每当他们运用大机器的那本大书时，他们便立刻浑身感到那种奇异的恬静，
the pleasure that it was to repeat certain numerals out of it, however little meaning those numerals conveyed to the outward ear,
他们的快事就是一再反复重述大书中的某些数字，虽然那些数字对听者传达不出什么意义。
the ecstasy of touching a button, however unimportant, or of ringing an electric bell, however superfluously.
他们描述了按一个电钮时的狂喜，虽然这个电钮并不重要。他们还描述了使电铃响起来时的狂喜，尽管让它响着是多余的。
“The Machine,” they exclaimed, “feeds us and clothes us and houses us;
“那大机器，”他们感叹地说，“供给我们吃，供给我们衣服穿，供给我们房子住，
through it we speak to one another, through it we see one another, in it we have our being.
通过大机器，我们彼此交谈，通过它我们彼此相见，我们在它里面享有我们的生存。
The Machine is the friend of ideas and the enemy of superstition: the Machine is omnipotent, eternal; blessed is the Machine.”
大机器是思想意念的朋友，是迷信的敌人；大机器是万能的，永远长存的，大机器是神圣的。”
And before long this allocution was printed on the first page of the Book,
没有多久，这篇训谕就印在大书的首页上面了，
and in subsequent editions the ritual swelled into a complicated system of praise and prayer.
在其后的版本里，仪礼便扩大化成为为歌颂和祈祷的一个复杂体系。
The word “religion” was sedulously avoided, and in theory the Machine was still the creation and the implement of man.
“宗教”这个词却始终是避而不用的，并且在理论上，大机器仍然是人的创造和工具。
but in practice all, save a few retrogrades, worshipped it as divine.
但在实际上，除了少数几个倒退人物以外，一切人都把它当作神明来崇拜。
Nor was it worshipped in unity.
大机器倒也不是以统一的形式受到崇拜的。
One believer would be chiefly impressed by the blue optic plates, through which he saw other believers;
某个信徒之所以获得深刻的印象，可能主要是由于那个蓝光盘，通过它，他可以看见别的信徒们，
another by the mending apparatus, which sinful Kuno had compared to worms; another by the lifts, another by the Book.
另一个信徒可能是由于修理机，罪恶的基诺曾把那些修理机比做一些虫；另外别的信徒是由于升降机，还有的信徒是由于那本大书。
And each would pray to this or to that, and ask it to intercede for him with the Machine as a whole.
而每一个人都会向这个或向那个祈祷，祈求它代他向作为整体的大机器说情。
