I have dealt at length with my teachers because this was my introduction to the nature of what is commonly called thought. Through them I discovered that thought is often full of unconscious prejudice, ignorance, and hypocrisy. It will lecture on disinterested purity while its neck is being remorselessly twisted toward a skirt. Technically, it is about as proficient as most businessmen's golf, as honest as most politician's intentions, or - to come near my own preoccupation - as coherent as most books that get written. It is what I came to call grade-three thinking, though more properly, it is feeling, rather than thought.
我要对我的老师们进行详细的分析是为了介绍一下通常被称为思想的本质。通过他们我发现思考通常是充满了无意识的偏见、无知和虚伪的。在训诫无私的纯真的时候它的脖子却为了短裙而执意扭曲。从技术上而言，它娴熟如同商人玩高尔夫，诚实如同政客的意图，或者 ——更接近我自己的领域—— 有条理如同大多数写出来的书。这就是后来被我称作第三等级的思考，虽然事实上称它为感觉更为恰当。
True, often there is a kind of innocence in prejudices, but in those days I viewed grade-three thinking with an intolerant contempt and an incautious mockery. I delighted to confront a pious lady who hated the Germans with the proposition that we should love our enemies. She taught me a great truth in dealing with grade-three thinkers; because of her, I no longer dismiss lightly a mental process which for nine-tenths of the population is the nearest they will ever get to thought. They have immense solidarity. We had better respect them, for we are outnumbered and surrounded. A crowd of grade-three thinkers, all shouting the same thing, all warming their hands at the fire of their own prejudices, will not thank you for pointing out the contradictions in their beliefs. Man is a gregarious animal, and enjoys agreement as cows will graze all the same way on the side of a hill. 诚然，偏见里是有无辜的成分，但是在那时我对第三等级的思考的态度是毫不宽容的蔑视和不假思索的嘲笑。我以驳斥一位憎恨德国人却主张爱我们的敌人的虔诚女士为乐。她让我懂得了和第三等级思考者打交道的一个重大的真理。因为她，我不再轻易地拒绝百分之九十的人可能经历过的精神过程。他们高度地 团结一致。我们最好尊重他们，因为我们处于他们的包围之中，势单力薄。一大堆第三等级的思考者，众口一词，籍着自己的偏见温暖双手，他们是不会感激你指出他们信仰中的矛盾的。人是一种爱群居的动物，就象牛喜欢沿着山坡的同一条道路吃草一样喜爱共识。
Grade-two thinking is the detection of contradictions. I reached grade two when I trapped the poor, pious lady. Grade-two thinkers do not stampede easily, though often they fall into the other fault and lag behind. Grade-two thinking is a withdrawal, with eyes and ears open. It became my hobby and brought satisfaction and loneliness in either hand. For grade-two thinking destroys without having the power to create. It set me watching the crowds cheering His Majesty the King and asking myself what all the fuss was about, without giving me anything positive to put in the place of that heady patriotism. But there were compensations. To hear people justify their habit of hunting foxes and tearing them to pieces by claiming that the foxes like it. To hear our Prime Minister talk about the great benefit we conferred on India by jailing people like Pandit Nehru and Gandhi. To hear American politicians talk about peace in one sentence and refuse to join the League of Nations in the next. Yes, there were moments of delight. 第二个等级的思考是对于矛盾的觉察。难倒那位可怜而虔诚的老太太的时候我达到了这个层次。第二等级的思考者虽然常常回会犯另一个错，落在后面，但他们不会轻易地被吓倒。第
二等级思考是一种警醒状态下的退缩。这种思考成为我的嗜好，给我带来满足干的同时也带来孤独感。因为第二等级思考具有破坏却没有创造的能力。它让我在冷眼看着人群为国王陛下欢呼的时候觉得这样的喧嚣不知所谓，却没有提供什么可以替代这样强烈爱国精神。但是这样的思考还是有好处的。听人们以狐狸喜欢这样的待遇为理由为他们捕猎狐狸，把它们撕成碎片的习惯辩护，我们的女首相谈论通过逮捕尼赫鲁和甘地这样的人跟印度协商的好处，美国政客们可以刚谈完和平转身就拒绝加入国际联盟的时候，是的，还是有令人高兴的时刻的。
But I was growing toward adolescence and had to admit that Mr. Houghton was not the only one with an irresistible spring in his neck. I, too, felt the compulsive hand of nature and began to find that pointing out contradiction could be costly as well as fun. There was Ruth, for example, a serious and attractive girl. I was an atheist at the time. Grade-two thinking is a menace to religion and knocks down sects like skittles. I put myself in a position to be converted by her with an hypocrisy worthy of grade three. She was a Methodist - or at least, her parents were, and Ruth had to follow suit. But, alas, instead of relying on the Holy Spirit to convert me, Ruth was foolish enough to open her pretty mouth in argument. She claimed that the Bible (King James Version) was literally inspired. I countered by saying that the Catholics believed in the literal inspiration of Saint Jerome's Vulgate, and the two books were different. Argument flagged.
但是，当我渐渐长大，进入青春期以后，我不得不承认豪顿先生不是唯一一个无法抗拒脖子里的发条的人。我也一样感觉到了强大的自然之手的力量，开始发现指出矛盾有可能代价昂贵，也可能是有趣的。比如说，曾经有个严肃而迷人的姑娘，她的名字叫露丝。那个时候我是一个无神论者。第二等级的思考对于宗教来说是一种威胁，象九柱游戏里的小柱一样把宗教流派各个击破。我象个第三等级的思考者一样假惺惺地任由她改变我的信仰。她是一个卫理会会派教徒 —— 至少，她父母是，因此而露丝也得是。但是，呵呵，露丝没有用圣灵的精神来转化我，而是愚蠢地用她可爱的小嘴试图说服我。她声称圣经（詹姆士国王版）逐字逐句都是得到启示而来的。我反驳说天主教徒信仰圣杰罗姆的拉丁文圣经，而这两本书是不同的。于是争论结果出来了(改为:争论顿时卡壳了)。
At last she remarked that there were an awful lot of Methodists and they couldn't be wrong, could they - not all those millions? That was too easy, said I restively (for the nearer you were to Ruth, the nicer she was to be near to) since there were more Roman Catholics than Methodists anyway; and they couldn't be wrong, could they - not all those hundreds of millions? An awful flicker of doubt appeared in her eyes. I slid my arm round her waist and murmured breathlessly that if we were counting heads, the Buddhists were the boys for my money. But Ruth has really wanted to do me good, because I was so nice. The combination of my arm and those countless Buddhists was too much for her.
最后她说有那么多卫理会会派教徒，他们不可能是错的，几百万的人都错了，可能吗？这太简单了，我倔强地说（你越接近露丝，她就越好接近），罗马天主教徒也为数众多，他们也不可能是错的，他们有几亿人，可能都错了吗？她眼中扑闪着疑虑。我伸手揽过她的腰屏住呼吸低声说，如果算人数，我该捐钱给佛教徒。露丝的确是为我好，因为我人这么好。但是我的手臂加上那些数不胜数的佛教徒实在让她无法忍受了。
That night her father visited my father and left, red-cheeked and indignant. I was given the third degree to find out what had happened. It was lucky we were both of us only fourteen. I lost Ruth
and gained an undeserved reputation as a potential libertine.
那天晚上，她父亲来拜访我父亲，走的时候一副面红耳赤，义愤填膺的样子。我为发生过的事情受到了盘问。幸好我们当时都才十四岁。我失去了露丝，却冤枉地担上了准浪子的名声。
So grade-two thinking could be dangerous. It was in this knowledge, at the age of fifteen, that I remember making a comment from the heights of grade two, on the limitations of grade three. One evening I found myself alone in the school hall, preparing it for a party. The door of the headmaster's study was open. I went in. The headmaster had ceased to thump Rodin's Thinker down on the desk as an example to the young. Perhaps he had not found any more candidates, but the statuettes were still there, glimmering and gathering dust on top of the cupboard. I stood on a chair and rearranged them. I stood Venus in her bathtowel on the filing cabinet, so that now the top drawer caught its breath in a gasp of sexy excitement. \the edge of the cupboard so that he looked down at the bath towel and waited for it to slip. 所以第二等级思考可能会是危险的。我记得我是在十五岁的时候了解到了这一点后从第二等级的高度对第三等级的局限性作出了一番评论。一天晚上，我一个人来到学校的礼堂为一个聚会做准备。校长室的门是开着的。我走了进去。校长已经不再把洛丁的思考者重重地板在桌上作为年轻人的榜样了。也许是因为他没有找到更多的侯选者，那些雕像还在老地方，在那橱柜顶上白晃晃的落满尘埃。我站在一把椅子上把他们进行了重新的排列。我把披着浴巾的维纳斯放在档案橱柜上，这样顶层抽屉就接住了她在性感的骚动中发出的喘息：“A-ah!”那个怪异的思考者，我把它放到了橱柜边缘，这样他好象在朝下盯着那条浴巾，等待着它掉下来。
Grade-two thinking, though it filled life with fun and excitement, did not make for content. To find out the deficiencies of our elders bolsters the young ego but does not make for personal security. I found that grade two was not only the power to point out contradictions. It took the swimmer some distance from the shore and left him there, out of his depth. I decided that Pontius Pilate was a typical grade-two thinker. \that is used always as the end of an argument instead of the beginning. There is still a higher grade of thought which says, \ 第二等级思考虽然让生活充满了乐趣和兴奋，却无法令人满足。寻找比我们年长的人的缺陷助长了年轻的自我，却无法让人觉得安全。我发现第二等级不仅是指出矛盾的力量。它带着游泳者离开岸游了一段距离，然后把他留在那里，束手无策。我判定本丢.彼拉多就是典型的第二等级思考者。“什么是真理？”他问道，一种十分常见却总出现在争论的末尾而不是开头的第二等级思考。还有更高一级的思索问过“什么是真理？”后就开始去寻找它。
But these grade-one thinkers were few and far between. They did not visit my grammar school in the flesh though they were there in books. I aspired to them partly because I was ambitious and partly because I now saw my hobby as an unsatisfactory thing if it went no further. If you set out to climb a mountain, however high you climb, you have failed if you cannot reach the top. 但这些第一等级思考者是十分罕见的。他们没有亲自来我的文法学校但却藏在书籍里。我向往他们是因为我雄心勃勃，因为我现在发现自己的嗜好如果不能更进一步就不能令人满意。如果你出发去爬山，不论你爬了多高，只要没到顶就不算成功。
I did meet an undeniably grade one thinker in my first year at Oxford. I was looking over a small
bridge in Magdalen Deer Park, and a tiny mustached and hatted figure came and stood by my side. He was a German who had just fled from the Nazis to Oxford as a temporary refuge. His name was Einstein.
在牛津读大学一年级的时候我就真的碰到过一个第一等级的思考者。当时我在麦格德林鹿公园的一座小桥上往下看。一个小个子蓄着胡子戴着帽子的人走过来站到我身边。他是从纳粹德国逃到牛津来暂时避难的，他的名字是爱因斯坦。
But Professor Einstein knew no English at that time and I knew only two words of German. I beamed at him, trying wordlessly to convey by my bearing all the affection and respect that the English felt for him. It is possible - and I have to make the admission - that I felt here were two grade-one thinkers standing side by side; yet I doubt if my face conveyed more than a formless awe. I would have given my Greek and Latin and French and a good slice of my English for enough German to communicate. But we were divided; he was as inscrutable as my headmaster. For perhaps five minutes we stood together on the bridge, undeniable grade-one thinker and breathless aspirant. With true greatness, Professor Einstein realized that any contact was better than none. He pointed to a trout wavering in midstream. He spoke: \
但那个时候爱因斯坦教授还不懂英文，而我只知道德文的几个单词。我向他微笑，想以这样无声的方式向他传达所有英国人对他的友爱和尊敬。有可能——我得承认——我觉得此刻是两个第一等级思考者肩并肩站着。然而我怀疑我的表情所传达的不仅仅是一种无形的敬畏。我愿意用我懂得的希腊语、拉丁文、法语和大部分的英语来换取足够的德语来跟他交流。可是我们却咫尺天涯，他象我的校长一样不可理解。我们一块在桥上站了大约五分钟，不可否认是作为一个第一等级思考者和心情激动的景仰者。真不愧是伟人，爱因斯坦教授意识到任何联系都比没有好。指着河里游动着的一条鲑鱼。 他说：“鱼。”
My brain reeled. Here I was, mingling with the great, and yet helpless as the veriest grade-three thinker. Desperately I sought for some sign by which I might convey that I, too, revered pure reason. I nodded vehemently. In a brilliant flash I used up half of my German vocabulary. \Ja. Ja.\
我的头脑一阵晕眩。我在这里，和伟人并肩，却和真正的第三等级思考者一样无助。我拼命想作出点表示，告诉他我也一样尊重纯粹的推理。我不住地点头。然后忽然灵光乍现，我用掉了我一半的德语词汇说道“鱼，是的，是的。”
For perhaps another five minutes we stood side by side. Then Professor Einstein, his whole figure still conveying good will and amiability, drifted away out of sight.
我们肩并肩站了大约五分钟。然后爱因斯坦教授飘然而去, 身形间仍然洋溢着善意和亲切。
I, too, would be a grade-one thinker. I was irrelevant at the best of times. Political and religious systems, social customs, loyalties and traditions, they all came tumbling down like so many rotten apples off a tree. This was a fine hobby and a sensible substitute for cricket, since you could play it all the year round. I came up in the end with what must always remain the justification for grade-one thinking, its sign, seal, and charter. I devised a coherent system for living. It was a
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