赫姆霍尔兹笑了。“那你现在为什么不是在一个岛上呢？”

　　"Because, finally, I preferred this," the Controller answered.

　　“因为我最终选择了这儿，”总统回答，

　　I was given the choice:to be sent to an island, where I could have got on with my pure science,

　　他们曾经给过我选择：是被送到一个岛子上去继续搞我的纯科学，

　　or to be taken on to the Controllers' Council with the prospect of succeeding in due course to an actual Controllership.

　　还是进入总统委员会——其远景是在适当的时候继任总统。

　　I chose this and let the science go. After a little silence,

　　我选择了这个，放弃了科学

　　Sometimes,he added, I rather regret the science. Happiness is a hard master–particularly other people's happiness.

　　有时候，他说，我为放弃了科学感到遗憾。幸福是一个很难服侍的老板——特别是别人的幸福。

　　A much harder master, if one isn't conditioned to accept it unquestioningly, than truth.

　　如果一个人并没有特别设置得可以接受幸福而不提出疑问，那么幸福就比真理还要难服侍得多。

　　He sighed, fell silent again,then continued in a brisker tone,

　　他叹了一口气，又沉默了。然后才以较为活泼的口气说下去。

　　Well, duty's duty. One can't consult one's own preference.

　　好了，职责就是职责。应该如何选择是无法讨价还价的。

　　I'm interested in truth, I like science. But truth's a menace, science is a public danger.

　　我对真理感到兴趣，我喜欢科学。但是真理是一种威胁，科学危害社会。

　　As dangerous as it's been beneficent. It has given us the stablest equilibrium in history.

　　它的危害之大正如它的好处。它给了我们历史上最平衡的稳定。

　　China's was hopelessly insecure by comparison; even the primitive matriarchies weren't steadier than we are.

　　跟我们的稳定相比，中国的稳定也只能算是最不可靠的。即使原始的母系社会也不会比我们更稳定。

　　Thanks, l repeat, to science. But we can't allow science to undo its own good work.

　　我再说一句，我们要感谢科学。但是我们不能让科学破坏它自己办成的好事。

　　That's why we so carefully limit the scope of its researches–that's why I almost got sent to an island.

　　因此我们小心翼翼地控制着它的研究范围——正是因此我几乎被送到岛子上去了。

　　We don't allow it to deal with any but the most immediate problems of the moment.

　　除了当前最急需的问题，我们都不让科学处理。

　　All other enquiries are most sedulously discouraged. It's curious, he went on after a little pause,

　　其他的一切探索都要非常小心谨慎地遏制，他沉吟了一会，又说，

　　to read what people in the time of Our Ford used to write about scientific progress.

　　读一读我主福帝时代的人所写的关于科学进步的文章是很有意思的，

　　They seemed to have imagined that it could be allowed to go on indefinitely, regardless of everything else.

　　他停了一下又说，那时候的人似乎想象科学是可以肆无忌惮、无限制地进行下去的，

　　Knowledge was the highest good, truth the supreme value;

　　知识是最高的善，真理是最高的价值，

　　all the rest was secondary and subordinate.

　　其他的一切都是次要的，从属的。

　　True, ideas were beginning to change even then.

　　不错，甚至在那时候观念就已经开始改变。

　　Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness.

　　我主福帝就曾经做过极大的努力，要把强调真与美转轨为强调舒适和幸福。