第 2 节
作者:莫莫言      更新:2022-08-21 16:32      字数:9322
  allusion     to   the   present    war。    To    have    entered     further   into   political
  questions   would   have   been   improper   in   the   place   where   those   Lectures
  were delivered:        but I cannot refrain from saying here something more on
  this   matter;   and that;   first;   because   all   political   questions   have   their   real
  root in moral and spiritual ones; and not (as too many fancy) in questions
  merely relating to the balance of power or commercial economy; and are
  (the   world   being   under   the   guidance   of   a   spiritual;   and   not   a   physical
  Being) finally decided on those spiritual grounds; and according to the just
  laws of the kingdom of God; and; therefore; the future political horoscope
  of the East depends entirely on the present spiritual state of its inhabitants;
  and of us who have (and rightly) taken up their cause; in short; on many of
  those   questions   on   which   I   have   touched   in   these   Lectures:        and   next;
  because   I   feel   bound;   in   justice   to   myself;   to   guard   against   any   mistake
  about   my   meaning   or   supposition   that   I   consider   the   Turkish   empire   a
  righteous thing; or one likely to stand much longer on the face of God's
  earth。
  The     Turkish    empire;    as   it  now   exists;   seems     to  me   an   altogether
  unrighteous and worthless thing。              It stands no longer upon the assertion
  of the great truth of Islam; but on the merest brute force and oppression。
  It has long since lost the only excuse which one race can have for holding
  another   in   subjection;   that   which   we   have   for   taking   on   ourselves   the
  tutelage   of    the   Hindoos;   and     which    Rome   had      for  its   tutelage   of  the
  Syrians and Egyptians; namely; the governing with tolerable justice those
  who      cannot    govern     themselves;      and    making      them    better    and   more
  prosperous people; by compelling them to submit to law。 I do not   know
  when   this   excuse   is   a   sufficient   one。    God   showed   that   it   was   so   for
  several centuries in the case of the Romans; God will show whether it is in
  the case of our Indian empire:            but this I say; that the Turkish empire has
  not even that excuse to plead; as is proved by the patent fact that the whole
  East;   the   very   garden   of   the   old   world;   has   become   a   desert   and   a   ruin
  under the upas…blight of their government。
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  As    for  the   regeneration     of   Turkey;    it  is  a  question    whether    the
  regeneration of any nation which has sunk; not into mere valiant savagery;
  but    into  effete   and   profligate    luxury;   is  possible。    Still   more    is  it  a
  question whether a regeneration can be effected; not by the rise of a new
  spiritual idea (as in the case of the Koreish); but simply by more perfect
  material appliances; and commercial prudence。                History gives no instance;
  it seems to me; of either case; and if our attempt to regenerate Greece by
  freeing it has been an utter failure; much more; it seems to me; would any
  such attempt fail in the case of the Turkish race。               For what can be done
  with a people which has lost the one great quality which was the tenure of
  its   existence;   its   military   skill? Let   any   one   read   the   accounts   of   the
  Turkish armies in the fifteenth; sixteenth; and seventeenth centuries; when
  they were the tutors and models of all Europe in the art of war; and then
  consider   the   fact   that   those   very   armies   require   now   to   be   officered   by
  foreign     adventurers;    in   order   to  make    them    capable    of  even    keeping
  together; and let him ask himself seriously; whether such a fall can ever be
  recovered。      When; in the age of Theodosius; and again in that of Justinian;
  the Roman armies had fallen into the same state; when the Italian legions
  required to be led by Stilicho the Vandal; and the Byzantine by Belisar the
  Sclav and Narses the Persian; the end of all things was at hand; and came;
  as it will come soon to Turkey。
  But if Turkey  deserves   to   fall;   and   must   fall;  it   must   not   fall   by  our
  treachery。     Its sins will surely be avenged upon it:            but wrong must not
  avenge wrong; or the penalty is only passed on from one sinner to another。
  Whatsoever element of good is left in the Turk; to that we must appeal as
  our   only   means;   if   not   of   saving   him;   still   of   helping   him   to   a   quiet
  euthanasia; and absorption into a worthier race of successors。                  He is said
  (I know not how truly) to have one virtue left; that of faithfulness to his
  word。     Only by showing him that we too abhor treachery and bad faith;
  can we either do him good; or take a safe standing…ground in our own peril。
  And   this   we  have  done;   and   for this   we  shall  be   rewarded。      But   this   is
  surely not all our duty。        Even if we should be able to make the civil and
  religious freedom of the Eastern Christians the price of our assistance to
  the Mussulman; the struggle will not be over; for Russia will still be what
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  she   has   always   been;   and   the   northern Anarch   will   be   checked;   only   to
  return to the contest with fiercer lust of aggrandisement; to enact the part
  of   a   new   Macedon;   against   a   new   Greece;   divided;   not   united;   by   the
  treacherous   bond   of   that   balance   of   power;   which   is   but   war   under   the
  guise of peace。 Europe needs a holier and more spiritual; and therefore a
  stronger union; than can be given by armed neutralities; and the so…called
  cause of order。        She needs such a bond as in the Elizabethan age united
  the   free   states   of   Europe   against   the Anarch   of   Spain;   and   delivered   the
  Western nations from a rising world…tyranny; which promised to be even
  more   hideous   than   the   elder   one   of   Rome。        If;   as   then;   England   shall
  proclaim herself the champion of freedom by acts; and not by words and
  paper;   she   may;   as   she   did   then;   defy   the   rulers   of   the   darkness   of   this
  world; for the God of Light will be with her。                But; as yet; it is impossible
  to look without sad forebodings upon the destiny of a war; begun upon the
  express understanding that evil shall be left triumphant throughout Europe;
  wheresoever that evil does not seem; to our own selfish short…sightedness;
  to   threaten     us  with    immediate      danger;    with    promises;     that   under    the
  hollow      name     of   the   Cause     of  Orderand       that   promise     made     by   a
  revolutionary Anarchthe wrongs of Italy; Hungary; Poland; Sweden; shall
  remain unredressed; and that Prussia and Austria; two tyrannies; the one
  far   more   false   and   hypocritical;   the   other   even   more   rotten   than   that   of
  Turkey;   shall;   if   they  will   but   observe   a   hollow   and   uncertain   neutrality
  (for   who   can   trust   the   liar   and   the   oppressor?)be   allowed   not   only   to
  keep their ill…gotten spoils; but even now to play into the hands of our foe;
  by guarding his Polish frontier for him; and keeping down the victims of
  his cruelty; under pretence of keeping down those of their own。
  It   is   true;   the   alternative   is   an   awful   one;   one   from  which   statesmen
  and nations may well shrink:             but it is a question; whether that alternative
  may not be forced upon us sooner or later; whether we must not from the
  first look it boldly in the face; as that which must be some day; and   for
  which we must   prepare; not cowardly;  and with cries   about God's   wrath
  and judgments against uswhich would be abject; were they not expressed
  in such second…hand stock…phrases as to make one altogether doubt their
  sincerity;    but   chivalrously;     and    with   awful    joy;  as   a  noble    calling;   an
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  honour put upon us by the God of Nations; who demands of us; as some
  small return for all His free bounties; that we should be; in this great crisis;
  the   champions   of   Freedom   and   of   Justice;   which   are   the   cause   of   God。
  At all events; we shall not escape our duty by being afraid of it; we shall
  not escape our duty by inventing to ourselves some other duty; and calling
  it   〃Order。〃   Elizabet