On the Method of Zadig: Essay #1 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition" — Page 9

他被人类理性的骄傲所蒙蔽，忽视了魔法学问中已有定论的法则；

Swollen with the pride of human reason, he had ignored the established canons of magian lore;

他仅凭世俗的常识，自称能引领人们对自然获得比魔法智慧更深刻的洞见，

and, trusting to what after all was mere carnal common sense, he professed to lead men to a deeper insight into nature than magian wisdom,

而魔法智慧以其对一切平凡事物的崇高对立，从未达到那样的境界。

with all its lofty antagonism to everything common, had ever reached.

事实上，扎迪格全部论证的基础，不过是一个粗陋的常识性假设——

What, in fact, lay at the foundation of all Zadig's argument but the coarse commonplace assumption,

这个假设是我们日常生活中每一个行为的基础：我们可以从结果推断出产生该结果的原因的先在存在。

upon which every act of our daily lives is based, that we may conclude from an effect to the pre-existence of a cause competent to produce that effect?

那些足迹与狗和马留下的痕迹完全相同；因此它们是这类动物作为原因所产生的结果。

The tracks were exactly like those which dogs and horses leave; therefore they were the effects of such animals as causes.

狗的足迹前爪两侧的痕迹，与长耳朵拖曳所留下的痕迹完全吻合；因此狗的长耳朵就是这些痕迹的原因——如此类推。

The marks at the sides of the fore-prints of the dog track were exactly such as would be produced by long trailing ears; therefore the dog's long ears were the causes of these marks--and so on.

没有什么比这更显得俗不可耐，更有悖于那种从崇高神秘的前提推演出宏大难解的结论的威严体系——那才是魔法师内心所向往的。

Nothing can be more hopelessly vulgar, more unlike the majestic development of a system of grandly unintelligible conclusions from sublimely inconceivable premisses such as delights the magian heart.

事实上，扎迪格的方法不过是全人类共同的方法。

In fact, Zadig's method was nothing but the method of all mankind.

那些回溯性的预言，其细节之精确令人叹为观止，远超扎迪格的推断，对于那些观察过游牧民族日常生活的人来说，早已司空见惯。

Retrospective prophecies, far more astonishing for their minute accuracy than those of Zadig, are familiar to those who have watched the daily life of nomadic people.