“人类以前就是……”他犹豫了，血往面颊上涌，“胎生的。”

　　"Quite right." The Director nodded approvingly.

　　“很对。”主任赞许地点点头。

　　"And when the babies were decanted …"

　　“那时在婴儿换瓶的时候……”

　　"'Born,'" came the correction.

　　“出生’的时候。”他受到纠正。

　　"Well, then they were the parents–I mean, not the babies, of course; the other ones."

　　“晤……他们是父母生出来的——我的意思是，不是现在的婴儿，当然，而是那时的。”

　　The poor boy was overwhelmed with confusion.

　　可怜的孩子语无伦次了。

　　"In brief," the Director summed up, "the parents were the father and the mother."

　　“简而言之，”主任总结道，“那时生孩子的就是爸爸和妈妈。”

　　The smut that was really science fell with a crash into the boys' eye-avoiding silence.

　　这话实际上是把真正科学的污物猛然向孩子们羞得不敢抬头的沉默砸过去。

　　"Mother," he repeated loudly rubbing in the science; and, leaning back in his chair, "These," he said gravely, "are unpleasant facts; I know it. But then most historical facts are unpleasant."

　　“妈妈，”他往椅子后面一靠，大声重复着，把科学硬揉进他们的脑子，“这些都是不愉快的事实，我明白。不过大部分的历史事实都是不愉快的。”

　　He returned to Little Reuben–to Little Reuben, in whose room, one evening, by an oversight,

　　主任回头又说起了小鲁本——小鲁本。有天晚上

　　his father and mother (crash, crash!) happened to leave the radio turned on.

　　小鲁本的爸爸（一砸！）和妈妈（二砸！）不小心忘了关掉小鲁本房里的收音机。

　　("For you must remember that in those days of gross viviparous reproduction, children were always brought up by their parents and not in State Conditioning Centres.")

　　（因为，你必须记住，在那野蛮的胎生繁殖时代，孩子们都是在爸爸（又砸！）和妈妈（再砸！）身边长大，而不是在国家的条件设置中心长大的。）

　　While the child was asleep, a broadcast programme from London suddenly started to come through;

　　在那孩子睡着的时候，伦敦的广播节目突然开始了。

　　and the next morning, to the astonishment of his crash and crash (the more daring of the boys ventured to grin at one another), Little Reuben woke up repeating word for word a long lecture by that curious old writer.

　　第二天早上令他的砸和砸（较为胆大的孩子竞偷偷彼此望着傻笑起来）大为吃惊的是，小鲁本醒过来时竟能一字不差地背诵一个奇怪的老作家的长篇说教。

　　("one of the very few whose works have been permitted to come down to us"), George Bernard Shaw,

　　那是少数几个被允许把作品留给我们的老作家之一，名叫乔治悄伯纳。

　　who was speaking, according to a well-authenticated tradition, about his own genius.

　　他正按照一种经过考证确实存在过的传统讲述着自己的天才。

　　To Little Reuben's wink and snigger, this lecture was, of course, perfectly incomprehensible and,

　　那些话当然是完全听不懂的，小鲁本背诵时者挤眉弄眼，格格地笑着。

　　imagining that their child had suddenly gone mad, they sent for a doctor.

　　他们以为孩子发了疯，急忙请来了医生。

　　He, fortunately, understood English, recognized the discourse as that which Shaw had broadcasted the previous evening,

　　幸好医生懂得英语，听出了那就是肖伯纳头天晚上广播的那段话。

　　realized the significance of what had happened, and sent a letter to the medical press about it.

　　医生明白此事的意义，便写信给医学刊物报告了。

　　"The principle of sleep-teaching, or hypnop.dia, had been discovered." The D.H.C. made an impressive pause.

　　“于是发现了睡眠教育法，或称‘眠教’的原则。”主任故意停顿了一下，引人注意。

　　The principle had been discovered; but many, many years were to elapse before that principle was usefully applied.

　　原则倒是发现了，但把它运用于有利的实践却是许多许多年以后的事。

　　"The case of Little Reuben occurred only twenty-three years after Our Ford's first T-Model was put on the market." (Here the Director made a sign of the T on his stomach and all the students reverently followed suit.) "And yet …"

　　“小鲁本的病例早在我主福帝的T型车推上市场以后不过二十三年就发生了，”（说到这里主任在肚子上画了个T字。所有的学生也虔诚地照画。）可是……”

　　Furiously the students scribbled. "Hypnop.dia, first used officially in A.F. 214. Why not before? Two reasons. (a) …"

　　学生们拼命地记着。“睡眠教育，福帝二一四年正式使用。为什么不在以前使用？理由有二。……”

　　"These early experimenters," the D.H.C. was saying, "were on the wrong track. They thought that hypnop.dia could be made an instrument of intellectual education …"

　　“这些早期的实验者，”主任说道，“走错了路，把睡眠教育当做了智力培养的手段……”