导读：托马斯·亨利·赫胥黎（1825—1895），1825年5月25日出生在英国一个教师的家庭，英国著名博物学家，达尔文进化论最杰出的代表。早年的赫胥黎因为家境贫寒而过早的离开了学校，但他凭借自己的勤奋，靠自学考进了医学院。1845年，赫胥黎在伦敦大学获得了医学学位。毕业后，他曾作为随船的外科医生去澳大利亚旅行。也许是因为职业的缘故，赫胥黎酷爱博物学，并坚信只有事实才可以作为说明问题的证据。他是第一个提出人类起源问题的学者。本篇为赫胥黎极具代表性的演讲。
I beg leave to thank you for the extremely kind and appreciative manner in which you have received the toast of Science. It is the more grateful to me to hear that toast proposed in an assembly of this kind, because I have noticed of late years a great and growing tendency among those who were once jestingly said to have been born in a pre-scientific age to look upon science as an invading and aggressive force, which if it had its own way would oust from the universe all other pursuit. I think there are many persons who look upon this new birth of our times as a sort of monster rising out of the sea of modern thought with the purpose of devouring the Andromeda of art. And now and then a Perseus, equipped with the shoes of swiftness of the ready writer, with the cap of invisibility of the editorial article, and it may be with the Medusa head of vituperation, shows himself ready to try conclusions with the scientific dragon.
请允许我感谢诸位极其友好、极有眼光地听取了为科学而作的祝酒辞。在今天这样的会上听到这篇祝酒辞，更使我感激不已。因为近年来我注意到，在那些被戏称为生于前科学时代的人当中，出现了一种日益强大的、把科学视为一股侵略势力的倾向。他们以为，如果科学要想随心所欲的话，就会把其他行业逐出宇宙。我想，现在有许多人都认为当代的这个新生事物是一头从现代思潮的海洋中冒出来的怪兽，它想要吞噬艺术的安德罗墨达。于是，一位珀尔修斯就会不时出现。他脚登写作快手的“追风靴”，头戴重要评论的“隐形盔”，也许还长着装满谩骂之词的“美杜莎脑袋”，摆出了欲与科学之龙决胜负的架势。
- 拓展学习：小词详解 | devour
Sir, I hope that Perseus will think better of it; first, for his own sake, because the creature is hard of head, strong of jaw, and for some time past has shown a great capacity for going over and through whatever comes in his way: and secondly, for the sake of justice, for I assure you, of my own personal knowledge that if left alone, the creature is a very debonair and gentle monster. As for the Andromeda of art, he has the tenderest respect for that lady, and desires nothing more than to see her happily settled and annually producing a flock of such charming children as those we see about us.
诸位，我希望这位珀尔修斯三思。首先要为自己着想。因为怪兽的头很坚硬，颚也很强壮，而且一段时间以来，它在冲破任何羁绊方面已大显身手。其次要为公正着想。因为我向诸位担保，依本人之愚见，如果不去惹这头怪兽的话，本来是非常温文尔雅的。至于艺术的安德罗墨达，他对那位女士非常敬慕，而且别无他求，只盼她幸福地安家落户，年年生育一大群招人喜爱的儿女，就像我们在自己周围所看到的孩子们那样。
- 拓展学习：熟词僻义 | 当 tender 不再温柔
But putting parables aside, I am unable to understand how any one with knowledge of mankind can imagine that the growth of science can threaten the development of art in any of its forms. If I understand the matter at all, science and art are the obverse and reverse of Nature's medal; the one expressing the eternal order of things, in terms of feeling, the other in terms of thought. When men no longer love nor hate; when suffering causes no pity, and the tale of great deeds ceases to thrill, when the lily of the field shall seem no longer more beautifully arrayed than Solomon in all his glory, and the awe has vanished from the snow-capped peak and deep ravine, then indeed science may have the world to itself, but it will not be because the monster has devoured art, but because one side of human nature is dead, and because men have lost the half of their ancient and present attributes.
但是，撇开上述比喻不谈，我实在弄不懂，一个具有人类知识的人，怎么能认为科学的进步竟会威胁到任何艺术形式的发展。如果我对此还不是门外汉的话，我以为，科学和艺术乃是自然这枚圣牌的正反面。一个是用感情来表达事物的永恒秩序，另一个则是用思想。当人们不再有爱恨之心；当苦难不再引起同情，丰功伟绩不再动人地传唱；当田野里的百合花不能再与全盛时期的所罗门媲美，雪峰和深渊不再使人惊叹，到那时，科学确实有可能占据世界，但这不是因为怪物吞噬了艺术，而是因为人类天性的一个方面已经死亡，因为人类丢掉了古往今来所拥有的那一半天性。
