常识

托马斯·佩恩

托马斯·佩恩(1737—1809)，英国散文家、政论家。出生于英格兰，才华出众，家境寒微，自学成才，学识广博，在自然科学和人文科学上都作过深入研究，渴望重建公平的社会秩序。他于1774年移民到北美大陆，很快就被卷进北美独立的浪潮之中，他的代表作《常识 》就是支持北美独立的伟大宣言。这本小册子发表后立即引起轰动，几个月之内就售出50万册。

在以下的篇幅中，我只谈些简单的事实、普通的观点和常识。除了希望大家能抛开偏见和成见，让理智和情感自行决定之外，没有其他什么要先向读者交待的。只希望大家具备人真实的品质，确切地说，不要失去人的本质，胸襟宽阔有气度，能够眼光长远。

以英美战争为题材的书可谓洋洋大观。出于不同的角度和不同的动机，各阶层人士展开争论。但一切争论都是徒劳无功的。辩论期结束，武器最终决定这场战争的胜负。英国选择了诉诸武力，美洲接受了挑战。

据报道，已故的佩勒姆先生(他虽是个能干的首相，却也有很多过失)在众议院受人攻击 ，说他的措施只是权宜之计时，他回应道：“它们在我任期内一直起作用。”在当前这场斗争中，如果这种致命而又软弱的思想在殖民地占据了统治地位，那么我们这些先人将会被后代唾骂。

阳光下从未有过如此伟大的事业，这不只是一个城市、一个县、一个省、一个国家的事 ，而是一个洲——至少占地球面积八分之一的事情。它不仅关系到一天、一年或一个时代， 子孙后代实际上也卷入了这场斗争，直到最后都或多或少受到当前行动的影响。现在是把团结、信心和荣誉等美德播种在美洲大陆的时候。一点点的裂缝也会像用针尖刻在小橡树嫩皮上的名字一样，随着橡树长大而变大，后代看到的将是变大了的字符。

事情由争论转为诉诸武力，标志着一个政治新纪元的到来——一种新的思考方式诞生了 。4月19日以前，即敌对行动开始以前的计划、议案就像去年的年历，当时虽然实用，但现在已被取代，没有一点用处了。不管问题双方的倡导者当时提倡的是什么，最后都归结于同样一个问题上，即与大不列颠合并的问题。双方之间惟一不同的就是实行合并的办法：一方建议诉诸武力，另一方建议友好协商。但已经发生的事实表明前者已失败，后者撤回了其影响。

和解的好处说得太多了。它就像一场美梦破灭了，我们还是我们。我们现在惟一正确的做法，应该是研究问题的反面，调查附属和依赖大不列颠给殖民地带来的实际伤害和以后将持续造成的伤害。按照自然和常识的法则来研究这种附属和依赖，看看我们独立之后有什么好依靠的，不独立有什么好期待的。

我听某些人说，因为以前基于大不列颠的附属关系使美国繁荣了，而同样的依附对她将来的幸福是必要的，也将产生与以前相同的效果。没有什么比这个论调更荒谬绝顶的了。如果这样的话，我们也可以说，因为小孩是吃奶长大的，他就永远不可以吃肉，或者我们前二十年是怎么过的，后二十年还应该继续这样过。而且仅仅这样说还不够真实，我要大声回答 ，没有欧洲国家的管制，美国同样会繁荣，可能还会更加繁荣。使她致富的商业是生活必需品，只要“吃”仍旧是欧洲人的传统习惯，这些商品就会有市场。

有人说，但她保护过我们。她统治我们是事实，但无可否认她也花自己和我们的钱保卫过这个大陆、她和她的统治。

唉!我们长期盲目跟从古老的偏见，在迷信上面作出了巨大的牺牲。我们夸耀大不列颠对我们的保护，却没有想到她的动机是利益而不是依恋，不是替我们考虑来保护我们免遭我们敌人的伤害，而是为了她自己才保护我们不受她的敌人的伤害；这些敌人从不会因为其他原因和我们发生争执，因为英国保护了我们，他们将一直是我们的敌人。让英国放弃她在北美大陆的权利，或者北美大陆独立起来；我们应该与法国和西班牙和平共处——只要它们与英国交战。汉诺威最后一战的惨状告诫我们不要依附别国。

……

但也有人说英国是母国，那她的所作所为就更可耻了。虎毒不食子，连野人也不会和家人打仗。因此，如果这种说法是真的，那也是对她的谴责。但碰巧不是真的，或只能说部分是真的，母国这个单词已经被国王和他的寄生虫们狡猾地利用了，利用我们大脑易轻信的弱点，卑鄙的新教徒想制造一种不公正的偏见。不是英国，欧洲才是美国的母国。这个新世界一直是一个避难所。欧洲各国那些遭到迫害但又热爱公民自由和宗教自由的人们奔向此地。 他们不是逃避母亲深情的拥抱，而是远离魔鬼的残酷；迄今为止英国移民都是这样的。当初暴政逼得第一批移民背井离乡，可她还不肯放过这些移民的后代。

在这片广阔的空间里，我们忘记了三百六十英里的狭小局限(英国的国土面积)，在更宽的领域发展友谊；我们主张每一个欧洲基督教徒都是兄弟，而且为这种广阔的胸襟感到高兴 。

当扩大交往范围之后，可以欣喜地看到，我们大大摆脱了地区偏见的束缚。一个出生在英国任何一个以教区划分的城市的人，自然跟他所在教区的教徒关系最密切(因为在很多情况下他们的利益是相同的)，以邻居相称；如果他在离家才几英里的地方见到邻居，他会丢掉狭隘的街道观念，向他致意并称邻居是同市人；如果他出郡旅游，遇到邻居，他会忘记街道、城市小的划分，叫他老乡，即同乡；但如果出国旅行，他们在法国或任何别的欧洲国家见了面，他们的划分观念现在就扩大为英国人了。根据同样的推理，所有的欧洲人，在美国或地球其他任何地方见了面，都是老乡。因为英国、法国、荷兰、德国或瑞典，跟整个地球相比，在较大范围内占有的位置是相同的，其性质与划分的街道、城市和郡在较小范围内占有着相同的位置一样。对于我们美洲人来说，这种区分局限性太强了；即便在一个省里，英国后裔也不到三分之一。因此，我强烈谴责把母国这个词只用来指代英国的行径，因为这是错误的、自私的、狭隘的、不大度的。

Common Sense

Thomas Paine

In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts plain argumen ts and common sense,and have no other preliminaries to settle with the reader,t han that he will divest himself of prejudice and prepossession and suffer his r eason and his feelings to determine for themselves：that he will put on or rath er that he will not put off the true character of a man and generously enlarge his views beyond the present day．

Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between England and America．Men of all ranks have embarked in the controversy from different moti ves and with various designs；but all have been ineffectual and the period of debate is closed．Arms as the last resource decide the contest；the appeal was t he choice of the King and the continent has accepted the challenge．

It has been reported of the late Mr.Pelham (who though an able minister was not without his faults)that on his being attacked in the House of Commons on the score that his measures were only of a temporary kind replied “they will las t my time．”Should a thought so fatal and unmanly possess the colonies in the p resent contest the name of ancestors will be remembered by future generations w ith detestation．

The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth． It's not the affair of a city a county a province or a kingdom;but of a continent—of at least one ei ghth part of the habitable globe.It's not the concern of a day a year or an ag e;posterity are virtually involved in the contest and will be more or less affe cted even to the end of time by the proceedings now.Now is the seed time of con tinental union faith and honor.The least fracture now will be like a name engra ved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak;the wound would en large with the tree and posterity read it in full grown characters.

By referring the matter from argument to arms a new era for politics is str uck—a new method of thinking has arisen.All plans proposals etc.prior to the nineteenth of April i.e. to the commencement of hostilities are like the alma nacs of the last year;which though proper then are superceded and useless now.W hatever was advanced by the advocates on either side of the question then termi nated in one and the same point viz. a union with Great Britain;the only diffe rence between the parties was the method of effecting it;the one proposing force the other friendship;but it has so far happened that the first has failed and the second has withdrawn her influence.

As much has been said of the advantages of reconciliation which like an ag reeable dream has passed away and left us as we were it is but right that we s hould examine the contrary side of the argument and inquire into some of the ma ny material injuries which these colonies sustain and always will sustain by b eing connected with and dependent on Great Britain.To examine that connection an d dependence on the principles of nature and common sense to see what we have to trust to if separated and what we are to expect if dependent.

I have heard it asserted by some that as America has flourished under her f ormer connection with Great Britain the same connection is necessary towards he r future happiness and will always have the same effect.Nothing can be more fal lacious than this kind of argument.We may as well assert that because a child ha s thrived upon milk that it is never to have meat or that the first twenty yea rs of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty.But even this is ad mitting more than is true;for I answer roundly that America would have flourish ed as much and probably much more had no European power taken any notice of he r.The commerce by which she has enriched herself are the necessaries of life an d will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.

But she has protected us say some.That she has engrossed us is true and de fended the continent at our expense as well as her own is admitted;and she and dominion.

Alas! we have been long led away by ancient prejudices and made large sacrif ices to superstition.We have boasted the protection of Great Britain without con sidering that her motive was interest not attachment;and that she did not protec t us from our enemies on our account;but from her enemies on her own account fr om those who had no quarrel with us on any other account and who will always be our enemies on the same account.Let Britain waive her pretensions to the contin ent or the continent throw off the dependence and we should be at peace with F rance and Spain were they at war with Britain.The miseries of Hanover's last wa r ought to warn us against connections.

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But Britain is the parent country say some.Then the more shame upon her con duct.Even brutes do not devour their young not savages make war upon their fami lies;Wherefore the assertion if true turns to her reproach;but it happens not to be true or only partly so and the phrase parent or mother country hath bee n jesuitically adopted by the King and his parasites with a low papistical desi gn of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds.Europe and not England is the parent country of America.This new world hath been the asylu m for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Eu rope.Hither have they fled not from the tender embraces of the mother but from the cruelty of the monster;and it is so far true of England that the same tyra nny which drove the first emigrants from home pursues their descendants still.

In this extensive quarter of the globe we forget the narrow limits of three hundred and sixty miles(the extent of England) and carry our friendship on a la rger scale;we claim brotherhood with every European Christian and triumph in th e generosity of the sentiment.

It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradations we surmount the force o f local prejudices as we enlarge our acquaintance with the world.A man born in any town in England divided into parishes will naturally associate most with hi s fellow parishioners (because their interests in many cases will be common) and distinguish him by the name of neighbor;if he meets him but a few miles from ho me,he drops the narrow idea of a street and salutes him by the name of townsman ;if he travels out of the county and meet him in any other he forgets the minor divisions of street and town and calls him countryman i.e. countryman:but if in their foreign excursions they should associate in France or any other part of Europe their local remembrance would be enlarged into that of Englishmen.And by a just parity of reasoning all Europeans meeting in America or any other q uarter of the globe are countrymen;for England Holland Germany or Sweden wh en compared with the whole stand in the same place on the larger scale which t he divisions of street town and county do on the smaller ones;distinctions too limited for continental minds.Not one third of the inhabitants,even of this pro vince are of English descent.Wherefore I reprobate the phrase of parent or mot her country applied to England only as being false selfish narrow and ungener ous.