在已探知的星球中,唯地球有人類。人類社會和自然界構(gòu)成了這顆星球的整個世界。人類來源于自然,依賴于自然,不斷地探索自然,了解自己從何而來,向何而去?為什么在這萬物共生的自然界脫穎而出,成為這個世界的主宰?又怎樣與這個世界大家庭和睦相處,適應(yīng)客觀發(fā)展?……只有了解過去,才能更好地認識現(xiàn)在;懂得了過去和現(xiàn)在,才能主動地面對未來。歷史是最好的教科書,在《地球簡史》《人類簡史》《時間簡史》等紛紛面世的當代,人們不由地把目光又投向260多年前就誕生了的《自然史》,這部洋洋數(shù)百萬字的曠世巨著,開辟了科學(xué)史作的先河,它從行星到地球,從空氣到海洋,從動物到人類,……天、地、生、人,無所不包,海、陸、空,面面俱到,是一部記述自然的百科全書。
書中全面論述了地球理論和地球歷史,展現(xiàn)了風(fēng)、火、水、潮、雷、震(地震)、光、熱等各種自然現(xiàn)象;對人和生物的論述更是生動形象,豐富多彩。從生命的起源、器官的發(fā)育、青春期的特點,到機能的退化,直至死亡,把人類生息繁衍的過程講得有聲有色。對生物,特別是動物的描繪投下了重重筆墨,占據(jù)了大量篇幅,天上飛的,地上長的,野生的,馴養(yǎng)的,食肉的,食草的,大到熊、馬,小至鼠、兔,畜、禽,鳥、獸,花、草、樹、木,樣樣俱全,活靈活現(xiàn),既有理性,又有情趣,好像無論哪種野性的動物都可以成為人類的寵物和朋友。法國著名思想家盧梭是這樣評價的:“布封以異常平靜而又悠然自得的語言歌頌了自然界中所有的重要物品,呈現(xiàn)出造物者的尊嚴與靈性。他具有那個世紀最美的文筆!
萬物皆有道,自然最奇妙。幾乎所有涉及自然的事物都可以從《自然史》汲取營養(yǎng),得到啟示。讀這類名著,既能增長知識,豐富閱歷,又能賞心悅目,閑情逸致。即使歷史已過去了幾百年,社會發(fā)生了巨變,也未失去這部歷史巨著的價值和魅力。這就是一部不朽之作的歷史地位。布封在書中提出“物種可變”和“進化”的思想,被生物進化論創(chuàng)始人達爾文稱為“以現(xiàn)代科學(xué)眼光對待這個問題的第一人”。
哲語說,文如其人!蹲匀皇贰返淖髡卟挤,全名喬治,路易,勒克萊爾.布封(Georges-Louis Leclerc,Comtede Buffon,1707-1788),如同他的不朽著作一樣,也有一部不尋常的經(jīng)歷。他生于法國,自幼喜好自然科學(xué),特別是數(shù)學(xué)。1728年法律專業(yè)畢業(yè)后,又學(xué)了兩年醫(yī)學(xué)。20歲時就先于牛頓發(fā)現(xiàn)了二項式定理;26歲成為法蘭西科學(xué)院機械部的助理研究員,翻譯并出版了英國博物學(xué)者海爾斯的著作《植物生理與空氣分析》和牛頓的《微積分術(shù)》;1739年,32歲的他轉(zhuǎn)為法蘭西科學(xué)院數(shù)學(xué)部的副研究員,并被任命為“巴黎皇家植物園及御書房”的總管;1753年成為法蘭西科學(xué)院院士。他用40年的時間寫出了長達36卷的《自然史》,后又由他的學(xué)生整理出版了8卷,共44卷。此書一出版,就轟動了歐洲的學(xué)術(shù)界,各國很快有了譯本。1777年,法國政府給布封建了一座銅像,上面寫著:“獻給和大自然一樣偉大的天才。”這是對布封的崇高評價。
《自然史》原著為法文,這里出版的是英國學(xué)者James Smith Barr在1797-1807年翻譯的英文版10卷冊,選取的是原著中最精華的部分。發(fā)行這樣的英文版高級作品、高級讀物,就像外文書籍、外文刊物一樣,自然面對的也是高水平的讀者和館藏者,希望他們既可以接近原汁原味地欣賞原著,感受自然的魅力,受到自然科學(xué)和文學(xué)藝術(shù)的熏陶,同時又能自然而然地提高英文素養(yǎng)和寫作水平。在廣大知識分子外語水平普遍提高的今天,這樣的科學(xué)傳播形式也許會受到越來越多讀者的青睞。
《Natural History(4 自然史第4卷)》:
Though the Tartar blood is intermixed, on one side with that of the Chinese, and on the other with that of the Oriental Russians, yet there is sufficient characteristics of the race remaining to suppose them of one common stock. Among the Muscovites are numbers, whose form of visage and body bear a strong resemblance to those of the Tartars. The Chinese are totally different in their dispositions, manners, and customs. The Tartars are naturally fierce, warlike, and addicted to the chace, inured to fatigue, fond of independence, and to a degree of brutality uncivilized. Altogether opposite are the manners of the Chinese; they are effeminate, pacific, indolent, superstitious, slavish, and full of ceremony and compliment. In their features, and form, however, there is so striking a resemblance, as to leave a doubt whether they did not spring from the same race.
Some travellers tell us, that the Chinese are large and fat, their limbs well formed, their faces broad and round, their eyes small, eye-brows large, their eye-lids turned upwards, and their noses short and fiat; that upon the chin they have very little beard, and upon each lip not more than seven or eight tufts of hair. Those who inhabit the southern provinces are more brown and tawny than those in the northern; that in colour they resemble the natives of Mauritania, or the more swarthy Spaniards; but those in the middle provinces are as fair as the Germans.
According to Dampier and others, the Chinese are not all fat and bulky, but they consider being so as an ornament to the human figure. In speaking of the island of St. John, on the coast of China, the former says, that the inhabitants are tall, erect, and little encumbered with fat; that their countenances are long, and their foreheads high; their eyes little, their nose tolerably large, and raised in the middle; their mouths of a moderate size, their lips rather thin, their complexion ash-colour, and their hair black; that they have naturally little beard, and even that they pluck out, leaving only a few hairs upon the chinand upper lip.
According to Le Gentil, the Chinese have nothing disagreeable in their countenance, especially in the northern provinces. In the southern ones, when necessarily much exposed to the sun, they are swarthy. That in general their eyes are small and of an oval form, their nose short, their bodies thick, and their stature of a middling height; he assures us that the women do every thing in their power to make their eyes appear little and oblong, that for this purpose it is a constant practice with young girls, instructed by their mothers, forcibly to extend their eye-lids. This, with the addition of a fiat nose, ears long, large, open, and pendent, is accounted complete beauty. He adds, their complexion is delicate, their lips of a fine vermilion, their mouths well proportioned, their hair very black, but that chewing beetle blackens their teeth, and by the use of paint they so greatly injure their skin, that before the age of thirty they have all the appearance of old age.
Palafox assures us that the Chinese are more fair than the oriental Tartars; that they have also less beards, but that in every other respect their visages are nearly the same. It is very uncommon, he says, to see blue eyes either in China or in the Philippine islands; and when seen, it is in Europeans, or in those of European parents.
Inigo de Biervillas asserts, that the women of China are better made than the men. Of the latter, he says, their visages are large and complexions rather yellow; their noses broad, and generally compressed, and their bodies are of a thickness greatly resembling that of a Hollander. The women, on the contrary, though they are generally rather fat than otherwise, are however of a free and easy shape; their complexion and skin are admirable; and their eyes are incomparably fine; but from the great pains taken to compress it in their infancy, there are few to be seen of whose nose the shape is even tolerable.
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