在已探知的星球中,唯地球有人類。人類社會(huì)和自然界構(gòu)成了這顆星球的整個(gè)世界。人類來(lái)源于自然,依賴于自然,不斷地探索自然,了解自己從何而來(lái),向何而去?為什么在這萬(wàn)物共生的自然界脫穎而出,成為這個(gè)世界的主宰?又怎樣與這個(gè)世界大家庭和睦相處,適應(yīng)客觀發(fā)展?……只有了解過(guò)去,才能更好地認(rèn)識(shí)現(xiàn)在;懂得了過(guò)去和現(xiàn)在,才能主動(dòng)地面對(duì)未來(lái)。歷史是最好的教科書(shū),在《地球簡(jiǎn)史》《人類簡(jiǎn)史》《時(shí)間簡(jiǎn)史》等紛紛面世的當(dāng)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(wàn)字的曠世巨著,開(kāi)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(dòng)物到人類,……天、地、生、人,無(wú)所不包,海、陸、空,面面俱到,是一部記述自然的百科全書(shū)。
書(shū)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(duì)人和生物的論述更是生動(dòng)形象,豐富多彩。從生命的起源、器官的發(fā)育、青春期的特點(diǎn),到機(jī)能的退化,直至死亡,把人類生息繁衍的過(guò)程講得有聲有色。對(duì)生物,特別是動(dòng)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(zhǎng)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(niǎo)、獸,花、草、樹(shù)、木,樣樣俱全,活靈活現(xiàn),既有理性,又有情趣,好像無(wú)論哪種野性的動(dòng)物都可以成為人類的寵物和朋友。法國(guó)著名思想家盧梭是這樣評(píng)價(jià)的:“布封以異常平靜而又悠然自得的語(yǔ)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(yán)與靈性。他具有那個(gè)世紀(jì)最美的文筆!
萬(wàn)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(yíng)養(yǎng),得到啟示。讀這類名著,既能增長(zhǎng)知識(shí),豐富閱歷,又能賞心悅目,閑情逸致。即使歷史已過(guò)去了幾百年,社會(huì)發(fā)生了巨變,也未失去這部歷史巨著的價(jià)值和魅力。這就是一部不朽之作的歷史地位。布封在書(shū)中提出“物種可變”和“進(jìn)化”的思想,被生物進(jìn)化論創(chuàng)始人達(dá)爾文稱為“以現(xiàn)代科學(xué)眼光對(duì)待這個(gè)問(wèn)題的第一人”。
哲語(yǔ)說(shuō),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(guó),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(shí)就先于牛頓發(fā)現(xiàn)了二項(xiàng)式定理;26歲成為法蘭西科學(xué)院機(jī)械部的助理研究員,翻譯并出版了英國(guó)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(shū)房”的總管;1753年成為法蘭西科學(xué)院院士。他用40年的時(shí)間寫(xiě)出了長(zhǎng)達(dá)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(shū)一出版,就轟動(dòng)了歐洲的學(xué)術(shù)界,各國(guó)很快有了譯本。1777年,法國(guó)政府給布封建了一座銅像,上面寫(xiě)著:“獻(xiàn)給和大自然一樣偉大的天才!边@是對(duì)布封的崇高評(píng)價(jià)。
《自然史》原著為法文,這里出版的是英國(guó)學(xué)者James Smith Barr在1797-1807年翻譯的英文版10卷冊(cè),選取的是原著中最精華的部分。發(fā)行這樣的英文版高級(jí)作品、高級(jí)讀物,就像外文書(shū)籍、外文刊物一樣,自然面對(duì)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(shí)又能自然而然地提高英文素養(yǎng)和寫(xiě)作水平。在廣大知識(shí)分子外語(yǔ)水平普遍提高的今天,這樣的科學(xué)傳播形式也許會(huì)受到越來(lái)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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