2022年经济学人 科学世家赫胥黎（1）

Culture

文化板块

Book review: Scientific dynasties

书评：科学世家

Circles of life

人生的轮回

The Huxleys. By Alison Bashford.

《赫胥黎》艾莉森·巴什福德著

In 1958 Julian Huxley fell in love with a gorilla¹.

1958年，朱利安·赫胥黎爱上了一只大猩猩。

Then in his early 70s, he had long been a household name in Britain.

在他70岁出头的时候，他早就是英国家喻户晓的人物了。

As Alison Bashford describes in her new double biography, Julian had inherited the role of evolution’s frontman from his grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley, a Victorian scientist writer.

正如艾莉森·巴什福德在她的新双重传记中所描述的那样，朱利安从他的祖父——维多利亚时代的科学家作家托马斯·亨利·赫胥黎那里，继承了进化论代表的角色。

Yet on meeting Guy the Gorilla at London Zoo, Julian found himself undone².

然而，当朱利安在伦敦动物园遇到大猩猩盖伊时，他发现自己完蛋了。

“Magnificent in his reserve and silent sense,” he wrote of their first encounter, “he gives you a look of sombre dignity that makes you feel in some real sense his inferior.”

“他太沉默寡言了，”他这样描述他们的第一次相遇，“他看过来的眼神中有着阴郁的庄严，让你在某种真正意义上感觉到了他的自卑。”

This fellow-feeling for animals, Ms Bashford notes, was a reversion to Huxley type.

巴什福德指出，这种对动物的同情心，是隔代遗传了老赫胥黎。

Thomas had started on the road to agnosticism—a term he coined—in 1860, after his son died in childhood and a tone-deaf curate presiding over the funeral quoted Paul’s epistles: “If the dead rise not again, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

托马斯在1860年开始走上不可知论（他自创的术语）的道路，当时他的儿子在孩提时代就已经去世了，主持葬礼的一位音盲牧师引用了保罗的书信：“若死人不复活，我们就吃吃喝喝吧，因为明天就要死了。”

Ridiculous, Thomas thought: as a zoologist³ who had observed primates’ treatment of the dead, he doubted that they believed in resurrection.

托马斯认为这很荒谬：作为一名观察过灵长类动物对待死者方式的动物学家，他怀疑它们是否相信复活这一说。

Nor were they inclined to gluttony.

它们也不喜欢暴饮暴食。

Why should people be any different?

那人类又为什么会有所不同呢？

The sea-tide that would pull him away from religion and towards secular⁴ science was tugging⁵ at his heels.

此时，那股后来把他从宗教拉向世俗科学的浪潮正紧随其后。

It would sweep him to notoriety as “Darwin’s Bulldog”, arch-debunker of “natural theology” and champion of the descent of man.

它使他声名狼藉，成为了“达尔文的斗牛犬”、“自然神学”的主要批判者和人类起源论的捍卫者。

The same currents bore his grandson from an abortive⁶ academic career to national and eventually global fame as a broadcaster and popular-science writer.

而同样的潮流却把他的孙子从失败的学术生涯中拯救了出来，使其成为了一名在全国乃至全球享有盛誉的广播员和科普作家。

“A man now cannot be a universal expert,” a colleague told the young Julian, as a warning against imitating his illustrious grandfather.

一位同事对年轻的朱利安说：“现在的人不可能成为全能专家”，以此警告他不要效仿他杰出的祖父。

The younger Huxley took that as a challenge.

小赫胥黎把这当成了一个挑战。

Appropriately for acolytes⁷ of Darwinism, Thomas and Julian shared what may have been heritable traits: scientific genius, an appetite for culture (both were keen poets), and a tragic⁸ tint⁹ of mental instability.

作为达尔文主义的追随者，托马斯和朱利安有着共同的特征，这些特征或许是可以遗传的：科学天赋，对文化的渴望(两人都是狂热的诗人)，以及精神不稳定的悲剧色彩。

Thomas was wracked by depression.

托马斯深受抑郁症的折磨。

Julian’s tempestuous¹⁰ ego¹¹ troubled his marriage and tried his friends; his brother committed suicide.

朱利安狂暴的自我让他的婚姻出现问题，也使他的朋友忍无可忍；他的兄弟还自杀了。

1 gorilla   

n.大猩猩，暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• I was awed by the huge gorilla.那只大猩猩使我惊惧。
• A gorilla is just a speechless animal.猩猩只不过是一种不会说话的动物。

2 undone   

a.未做完的，未完成的

参考例句：

• He left nothing undone that needed attention.所有需要注意的事他都注意到了。

3 zoologist   

n.动物学家

参考例句：

• Charles darwin was a famous zoologist.查尔斯达尔文是一位著名的动物学家。
• The zoologist had spent a long time living with monkeys.这位动物学家与猴子一起生活了很长时间。

4 secular   

n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的

参考例句：

• We live in an increasingly secular society.我们生活在一个日益非宗教的社会。
• Britain is a plural society in which the secular predominates.英国是个世俗主导的多元社会。

5 tugging   

n.牵引感v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Tom was tugging at a button-hole and looking sheepish. 汤姆捏住一个钮扣眼使劲地拉，样子显得很害羞。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• She kicked him, tugging his thick hair. 她一边踢他，一边扯着他那浓密的头发。 来自辞典例句

6 abortive   

adj.不成功的，发育不全的

参考例句：

• We had to abandon our abortive attempts.我们的尝试没有成功，不得不放弃。
• Somehow the whole abortive affair got into the FBI files.这件早已夭折的案子不知怎么就进了联邦调查局的档案。

7 acolytes   

n.助手( acolyte的名词复数 )；随从；新手；（天主教）侍祭

参考例句：

• To his acolytes, he is known simply as 'the Boss'. 他被手下人简称为“老板”。 来自辞典例句
• Many of the acolytes have been in hiding amongst the populace. 许多寺僧都隐藏在平民当中。 来自互联网

8 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

9 tint   

n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色

参考例句：

• You can't get up that naturalness and artless rosy tint in after days.你今后不再会有这种自然和朴实无华的红润脸色。
• She gave me instructions on how to apply the tint.她告诉我如何使用染发剂。

10 tempestuous   

adj.狂暴的

参考例句：

• She burst into a tempestuous fit of anger.她勃然大怒。
• Dark and tempestuous was night.夜色深沉，狂风肆虐，暴雨倾盆。

11 ego   

n.自我，自己，自尊

参考例句：

• He is absolute ego in all thing.在所有的事情上他都绝对自我。
• She has been on an ego trip since she sang on television.她上电视台唱过歌之后就一直自吹自擂。