It is as certain as the knowledge of antiquity4 can well be, that Socratic love was not an infamous5 passion. It is the word “love” which has deceived the world. Those called the lovers of a young man were precisely6 such as among us are called the minions7 of our princes — honorable youths attached to the education of a child of distinction, partaking of the same studies and the same military exercises — a warlike and correct custom, which has been perverted8 into nocturnal feasts and midnight orgies.
The company of lovers instituted by Laius was an invincible9 troop of young warriors10, bound by oath each to preserve the life of any other at the expense of his own. Ancient discipline never exhibited anything more fine.
Sextus Empiricus and others have boldly affirmed that this vice11 was recommended by the laws of Persia. Let them cite the text of such a law; let them exhibit the code of the Persians; and if such an abomination be even found there, still I would disbelieve it, and maintain that the thing was not true, because it is impossible. No; it is not in human nature to make a law which contradicts and outrages12 nature itself — a law which would annihilate13 mankind, if it were literally14 observed. Moreover, I will show you the ancient law of the Persians as given in the “Sadder.” It says, in article or gate 9, that the greatest sin must not be committed. It is in vain that a modern writer seeks to justify15 Sextus Empiricus and pederasty. The laws of Zoroaster, with which he is unacquainted, incontrovertibly prove that this vice was never recommended to the Persians. It might as well be said that it is recommended to the Turks. They boldly practise it, but their laws condemn16 it.
How many persons have mistaken shameful17 practices, which are only tolerated in a country, for its laws. Sextus Empiricus, who doubted everything, should have doubted this piece of jurisprudence. If he had lived in our days, and witnessed the proceedings18 of two or three young Jesuits with their pupils, would he have been justified19 in the assertion that such practices were permitted by the institutes of Ignatius Loyola?
It will be permitted to me here to allude20 to the Socratic love of the reverend father Polycarp, a Carmelite, who was driven away from the small town of Gex in 1771, in which place he taught religion and Latin to about a dozen scholars. He was at once their confessor, tutor, and something more. Few have had more occupations, spiritual and temporal. All was discovered; and he retired21 into Switzerland, a country very distant from Greece.
The monks22 charged with the education of youth have always exhibited a little of this tendency, which is a necessary consequence of the celibacy23 to which the poor men are condemned24.
This vice was so common at Rome that it was impossible to punish a crime which almost every one committed. Octavius Augustus, that murderer, debauchee, and coward, who exiled Ovid, thought it right in Virgil to sing the charms of Alexis. Horace, his other poetical25 favorite, constructed small odes on Ligurinus; and this same Horace, who praised Augustus for reforming manners, speak in his satires26 in much the same way of both boys and girls. Yet the ancient law “Scantinia,” which forbade pederasty, always existed, and was put in force by the emperor Philip, who drove away from Rome the boys who made a profession of it. If, however, Rome had witty27 and licentious28 students, like Petronius, it had also such preceptors as Quintilian; and attend to the precautions he lays down in his chapter of “The Preceptor,” in order to preserve the purity of early youth. “Cavendum non solum crimine turpitudinis, sed etiam suspicione.” We must not only beware of a shameful crime but even of the suspicion of it. To conclude, I firmly believe that no civilized29 nation ever existed which made formal laws against morals.
Observations by Another Hand.
We may be permitted to make a few additional reflections on an odious30 and disgusting subject, which however, unfortunately, forms a part of the history of opinions and manners.
This offence may be traced to the remotest periods of civilization. Greek and Roman history in particular allows us not to doubt it. It was common before people formed regular societies, and were governed by written laws.
The latter fact is the reason that the laws have treated it with so much indulgence. Severe laws cannot be proposed to a free people against a vice, whatever it may be, which is common and habitual31. For a long time many of the German nations had written laws which admitted of composition and murder. Solon contented32 himself with forbidding these odious practices between the citizens and slaves. The Athenians might perceive the policy of this interdiction33, and submit to it; especially as it operated against the slaves only, and was enacted34 to prevent them from corrupting35 the young free men. Fathers of families, however lax their morals, had no motive36 to oppose it.
The severity of the manners of women in Greece, the use of public baths, and the passion for games in which men appeared altogether naked, fostered this turpitude37, notwithstanding the progress of society and morals. Lycurgus, by allowing more liberty to the women, and by certain other institutions, succeeded in rendering38 this vice less common in Sparta than in the other towns of Greece.
When the manners of a people become less rustic39, as they improve in arts, luxury, and riches, if they retain their former vices40, they at least endeavor to veil them. Christian41 morality, by attaching shame to connections between unmarried people, by rendering marriage indissoluble, and proscribing42 concubinage by ecclesiastical censures43, has rendered adultery common. Every sort of voluptuousness44 having been equally made sinful, that species is naturally preferred which is necessarily the most secret; and thus, by a singular contradiction, absolute crimes are often made more frequent, more tolerated, and less shameful in public opinion, than simple weaknesses. When the western nations began a course of refinement45, they sought to conceal46 adultery under the veil of what is called gallantry. Then men loudly avowed47 a passion in which it was presumed the women did not share. The lovers dared demand nothing; and it was only after more than ten years of pure love, of combats and victories at tournaments that a cavalier might hope to discover a moment of weakness in the object of his adoration48. There remains49 a sufficient number of records of these times to convince us that the state of manners fostered this species of hypocrisy50. It was similar among the Greeks, when they had become polished. Connections between males were not shameful; young people united themselves to each other by oaths, but it was to live and die for their country. It was usual for a person of ripe age to attach himself to a young man in a state of adolescence51, ostensibly to form, instruct, and guide him; and the passion which mingled52 in these friendships was a sort of love — but still innocent love. Such was the veil with which public decency53 concealed54 vices which general opinion tolerated.
In short, in the same manner as chivalric55 gallantry is often made a theme for eulogy56 in modern society, as proper to elevate the soul and inspire courage, was it common among the Greeks to eulogize that love which attached citizens to each other.
Plato said that the Thebans acted laudably in adopting it, because it was necessary to polish their manners, supply greater energy to their souls and to their spirits, which were benumbed by the nature of their climate. We perceive by this, that a virtuous57 friendship alone was treated of by Plato. Thus, when a Christian prince proclaimed a tournament, at which every one appeared in the colors of his mistress, it was with the laudable intention of exciting emulation58 among its knights59, and to soften60 manners; it was not adultery, but gallantry, that he would encourage within his dominions61. In Athens, according to Plato, they set bounds to their toleration. In monarchical62 states, it was politic63 to prevent these attachments64 between men, but in republics they materially tended to prevent the double establishment of tyranny. In the sacrifice of a citizen, a tyrant65 knew not whose vengeance66 he might arm against himself, and was liable, without ceasing, to witness conspiracies67 grow out of the resolutions which this ambiguous affection produced among men.
In the meantime, in spite of ideas so remote from our sentiments and manners, this practice was regarded as very shameful among the Greeks, every time it was exhibited without the excuse of friendship or political ties. When Philip of Macedon saw extended on the field of battle of Ch?ronea, the soldiers who composed the sacred battalion68 or band of friends at Thebes, all killed in the ranks in which they had combated: “I will never believe,” he exclaimed, “that such brave men have committed or suffered anything shameful.” This expression from a man himself soiled with this infamy69 furnishes an indisputable proof of the general opinion of Greece.
At Rome, this opinion was still stronger. Many Greek heroes, regarded as virtuous men, have been supposed addicted70 to the vice; but among the Romans it was never attributed to any of those characters in whom great virtue71 was acknowledged. It only seems, that with these two nations no idea of crime or even dishonor was attached to it unless carried to excess, which renders even a passion for women disgraceful. Pederasty is rare among us, and would be unknown, but for the defects of public education.
Montesquieu pretends that it prevails in certain Mahometan nations, in consequence of the facility of possessing women. In our opinion, for “facility” we should read “difficulty.”
点击收听单词发音
1 platonic | |
adj.精神的;柏拉图(哲学)的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 unnatural | |
adj.不自然的;反常的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 license | |
n.执照,许可证,特许;v.许可,特许 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 antiquity | |
n.古老;高龄;古物,古迹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 infamous | |
adj.声名狼藉的,臭名昭著的,邪恶的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 precisely | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 minions | |
n.奴颜婢膝的仆从( minion的名词复数 );走狗;宠儿;受人崇拜者 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 perverted | |
adj.不正当的v.滥用( pervert的过去式和过去分词 );腐蚀;败坏;使堕落 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 invincible | |
adj.不可征服的,难以制服的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 warriors | |
武士,勇士,战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 outrages | |
引起…的义愤,激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 annihilate | |
v.使无效;毁灭;取消 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 literally | |
adv.照字面意义,逐字地;确实 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 justify | |
vt.证明…正当(或有理),为…辩护 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 condemn | |
vt.谴责,指责;宣判(罪犯),判刑 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 shameful | |
adj.可耻的,不道德的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 proceedings | |
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 justified | |
a.正当的,有理的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 allude | |
v.提及,暗指 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 monks | |
n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 celibacy | |
n.独身(主义) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 condemned | |
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 poetical | |
adj.似诗人的;诗一般的;韵文的;富有诗意的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 satires | |
讽刺,讥讽( satire的名词复数 ); 讽刺作品 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 witty | |
adj.机智的,风趣的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 licentious | |
adj.放纵的,淫乱的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 civilized | |
a.有教养的,文雅的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 odious | |
adj.可憎的,讨厌的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 habitual | |
adj.习惯性的;通常的,惯常的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 interdiction | |
n.禁止;封锁 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 enacted | |
制定(法律),通过(法案)( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 corrupting | |
(使)败坏( corrupt的现在分词 ); (使)腐化; 引起(计算机文件等的)错误; 破坏 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 motive | |
n.动机,目的;adv.发动的,运动的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 turpitude | |
n.可耻;邪恶 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 rendering | |
n.表现,描写 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 rustic | |
adj.乡村的,有乡村特色的;n.乡下人,乡巴佬 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 vices | |
缺陷( vice的名词复数 ); 恶习; 不道德行为; 台钳 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42 proscribing | |
v.正式宣布(某事物)有危险或被禁止( proscribe的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43 censures | |
v.指责,非难,谴责( censure的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
44 voluptuousness | |
n.风骚,体态丰满 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
45 refinement | |
n.文雅;高尚;精美;精制;精炼 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
46 conceal | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,隐蔽 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
47 avowed | |
adj.公开声明的,承认的v.公开声明,承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
48 adoration | |
n.爱慕,崇拜 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
49 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
50 hypocrisy | |
n.伪善,虚伪 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
51 adolescence | |
n.青春期,青少年 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
52 mingled | |
混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句: |
|
|
53 decency | |
n.体面,得体,合宜,正派,庄重 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
54 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
55 chivalric | |
有武士气概的,有武士风范的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
56 eulogy | |
n.颂词;颂扬 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
57 virtuous | |
adj.有品德的,善良的,贞洁的,有效力的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
58 emulation | |
n.竞争;仿效 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
59 knights | |
骑士; (中古时代的)武士( knight的名词复数 ); 骑士; 爵士; (国际象棋中)马 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
60 soften | |
v.(使)变柔软;(使)变柔和 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
61 dominions | |
统治权( dominion的名词复数 ); 领土; 疆土; 版图 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
62 monarchical | |
adj. 国王的,帝王的,君主的,拥护君主制的 =monarchic | |
参考例句: |
|
|
63 politic | |
adj.有智虑的;精明的;v.从政 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
64 attachments | |
n.(用电子邮件发送的)附件( attachment的名词复数 );附着;连接;附属物 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
65 tyrant | |
n.暴君,专制的君主,残暴的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
66 vengeance | |
n.报复,报仇,复仇 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
67 conspiracies | |
n.阴谋,密谋( conspiracy的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
68 battalion | |
n.营;部队;大队(的人) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
69 infamy | |
n.声名狼藉,出丑,恶行 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
70 addicted | |
adj.沉溺于....的,对...上瘾的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
71 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |