LESSON 118 ORIGIN OF PROPERTY
第一百一十八课 财产的起源
In the beginning of the world, we are informed by Holy Writ, the all-bountiful Creator gave to man dominion over all the earth,
在创世之初,《圣经》告诉我们,万能的造物主赋予人统领世间的权力,
and "over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."
“统领海洋中的鱼,空中的飞禽,大地上生长的所有生命”。
This is the only true and solid foundation of man's dominion over external things,
这是人统领外在世界唯一真实和牢固的基础。
whatever airy, metaphysical notions may have been started by fanciful writers upon this subject.
不论如何空灵和形而上学的观念,也许都始于那些想象力丰富的作者开始对这个主题的玄想。
The earth, therefore, and all things therein, are the general property of all mankind,
因此,除了其他生命以外,地球上的一切都是所有人类的普通财产,
exclusive of other beings, from the immediate gift of the Creator.
源于造物主的直接馈赠。
And while the earth continued bare of inhabitants, it is reasonable to suppose that all was in common among them,
在地球继续光秃秃,适宜人类居住时,合理的推测是所有人能够在其中共存,
and that everyone took from the public stock, to his own use, such things as his immediate necessities required.
大家的生活用品皆来自于公共物品,包括他的直接必需品。
These general notions of property were then sufficient to answer all the purposes of human life;
关于财产的这些普通观念,足以满足人类生活的所有需要;
and might, perhaps, still have answered them,
也许还能满足他们,
had it been possible for mankind to have remained in a state of primeval simplicity, in which "all things were common to him."
对人类而言如果处于一种原始朴素状态是可能的话,那么在这种状态里“所有的一切都应该具有遍在性”。
Not that this communion of goods seems ever to have been applicable, even in the earliest ages, to aught but the substance of the thing;
对任何事物而言,即使在人类生活最早期,物品的这种交流也并非一定是适当的,
nor could it be extended to the use of it.
更不消说扩展到对物品的使用了。