现代大学英语精读第二版（第四册）学习笔记（原文及全文翻译）——3B - Corn-pone Opinions（关于从众的观点）

Unit 3B - Corn-pone Opinions

Corn-pone Opinions

Mark Twain

Fifty years ago, when I was a boy of fifteen and helping to inhabit a Missourian village on the banks of the Mississippi, I had a friend whose society was very dear to me because I was forbidden by my mother to partake of it. He was a gay and impudent and satirical and delightful young black man—a slave—who daily preached sermons from the top of his master's woodpile, with me for sole audience. He imitated the pulpit style of the several clergymen of the village, and did it well, and with fine passion and energy. To me he was a wonder. I believed he was the greatest orator in the United States and would some day be heard from. But it did not happen; in the distribution of rewards he was overlooked. It is the way, in this world.

He interrupted his preaching, now and then, to saw a stick of wood; but the sawing was a pretense—he did it with his mouth; exactly imitating the sound the bucksaw makes in shrieking its way through the wood. But it served its purpose; it kept his master from coming out to see how the work was getting along. I listened to the sermons from the open window of a lumber room at the back of the house. One of his texts was this:

"You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I'll tell you what his 'pinions is."

I can never forget it. It was deeply impressed upon me. By my mother. Not upon my memory, but elsewhere. She had slipped in upon me while I was absorbed and not watching. The black philosopher's idea was that a man is not independent, and cannot afford views which might interfere with his bread and butter. If he would prosper, he must train with the majority; in matters of large moment, like politics and religion, he must think and feel with the bulk of his neighbors, or suffer damage in his social standing and in his business prosperities. He must restrict himself to corn-pone opinion—at least on the surface. He must get his opinions from other people; he must reason out none for himself; he must have no first-hand views.

I think Jerry was right, in the main, but I think he did not go far enough.

It was his idea that a man conforms to the majority view of his locality by calculation and intention. This happens, but I think it is not the rule.

It was his idea that there is such a thing as a first-hand opinion; an original opinion; an opinion which is coldly reasoned out in a man's head, by a searching analysis of the facts involved, with the heart unconsulted, and the jury room closed against outside influences. It may be that such an opinion has been born somewhere, at some time or other, but I suppose it got away before they could catch it and stuff it and put it in the museum.

I am persuaded that a coldly-thought-out and independent verdict upon a fashion in clothes, or manners, or literature, or politics, or religion, or any other matter that is projected into the field of our notice and interest, is a most rare thing—if it has indeed ever existed.

A new thing in costume appears—the flaring hoopskirt, for example—and the passers-by are shocked, and the irreverent laugh. Six months later everybody is reconciled; the fashion has established itself; it is admired, now, and no one laughs. Public opinion resented it before, public opinion accepts it now, and is happy in it. Why? Was the resentment reasoned out? Was the acceptance reasoned out? No. The instinct that moves to conformity did the work. It is our nature to conform; it is a force which not many can successfully resist. What is its seat? The inborn requirement of self-approval. We all have to bow to that; there are no exceptions. Even the woman who refuses from first to last to wear the hoopskirt comes under that law and is its slave; she could not wear the skirt and have her own approval; and that she must have, she cannot help herself. But as a rule our self-approval has its source in but one place and not elsewhere—the approval of other people. A person of vast consequences can introduce any kind of novelty in dress and the general world will presently adopt it—moved to do it, in the first place, by the natural instinct to passively yield to that vague something recognized as authority, and in the second place by the human instinct to train with the multitude and have its approval. An empress introduced the hoopskirt, and we know the result. A nobody introduced the bloomer, and we know the result. If Eve should come again, in her ripe renown, and reintroduce her quaint styles—well, we know what would happen. And we should be cruelly embarrassed, at least at first.

The hoopskirt runs its course and disappears. Nobody reasons about it. One woman abandons the fashion; her neighbor notices this and follows her lead; this influences the next woman; and so on and so on, and presently the skirt has vanished out of the world, no one knows how nor why, nor cares, for that matter. It will come again by and by and in due course will go again.

Twenty-five years ago, in England, six or eight wine glasses stood grouped by each person's plate at a dinner party, and they were used, not left idle and empty; today there are but three or four in the group, and the average guest sparingly uses about two of them. We have not adopted this new fashion yet, but we shall do it presently. We shall not think it out; we shall merely conform, and let it go at that. We get our notions and habits and opinions from outside influences; we do not have to study them out.

Our table manners, and company manners, and street manners change from time to time, but the changes are not reasoned out; we merely notice and conform. We are creatures of outside influences; as a rule we do not think, we only imitate. We cannot invent standards that will stick; what we mistake for standards are only fashions, and perishable. We may continue to admire them, but we drop the use of them. We notice this in literature. Shakespeare is a standard, and fifty years ago we used to write tragedies which we couldn’t tell from—from somebody else's; but we don't do it any more, now. Our prose standard, three quarters of a century ago, was ornate and diffuse; some authority or other changed it in the direction of compactness and simplicity, and conformity followed, without argument. The historical novel starts up suddenly, and sweeps the land. Everybody writes one, and the nation is glad. We had historical novels before; but nobody read them, and the rest of us conformed—without reasoning it out. We are conforming in the other way, now, because it is another case of everybody.

The outside influences are always pouring in upon us, and we are always obeying their orders and accepting their verdicts. The Smiths like the new play; the Joneses go to see it, and they copy the Smith verdict. Morals, religions, politics, get their following from surrounding influences and atmospheres, almost entirely; not from study, not from thinking. A man must and will have his own approval first of all, in each and every moment and circumstance of his life—even if he must repent of a self-approved act the moment after its commission, in order to get his self-approval again: but, speaking in general terms, a man's self-approval in the large concerns of life has its source in the approval of the peoples about him, and not in a searching personal examination of the matter. Mohammedans are Mohammedans because they are born and reared among the sect, not because they have thought it out and can furnish sound reasons for being Mohammedans; we know why Catholics are Catholics; why Presbyterians are Presbyterian why Baptists are Baptists; why Mormons are Mormons; why thieves are thieves; why monarchists are monarchists; why Republicans are Republicans and Democrats, Democrats. We know it is a matter of association and sympathy, not reasoning and examination; that hardly a man in the world has an opinion upon morals, politics, or religion which he got otherwise than through his associations and sympathies. Broadly speaking, there are none but corn-pone opinions. And broadly speaking, corn-pone stands for self-approval. Self-approval is acquired mainly from the approval of other people. The result is conformity. Sometimes conformity has a sordid business interest—the bread and—butter interest—but not in most cases. I think. I think that in the majority of cases it is unconscious and not calculated; that it is born of the human being's natural yearning to stand well with his fellows and have their inspiring approval and praise—a yearning which is commonly so strong and so insistent that it cannot be effectually resisted, and must have its way.

A political emergency brings out the corn-pone opinion in fine force in its two chief varieties—the pocketbook variety, which has its origin in self-interest, and the bigger variety, the sentimental variety—the one which can't bear to be outside the pale; can't bear to be in disfavor; can't endure the averted face and the cold shoulder; wants to stand well with his friends, wants to be smiled upon, wants to be welcome, wants to hear the precious words, "He's on the right track!" Uttered, perhaps by an ass, but still an ass of high degree, an ass whose approval is gold and diamonds to a smaller ass, and confers glory and honor and happiness, and membership in the herd. For these gauds many a man will dump his life-long principles into the street, and his conscience along with them. We have seen it happen. In some millions of instances.

Men think they think upon great political questions, and they do; but they think with their party, not independently; they read its literature, but not that of the other side; they arrive at convictions, but they are drawn from a partial view of the matter in hand and are of no particular value. They swarm with their party, they feel with their party, they are happy in their party's approval; and where the party leads they will follow, whether for right and honor, or through blood and dirt and a mush of mutilated morals.

In our late canvass half of the nation passionately believed that in silver lay salvation, the other half as passionately believed that that way lay destruction. Do you believe that a tenth part of—in our late canvass—half of the nation passionately believed that in silver lay salvation, the other people, on either side, had any rational excuse for having an opinion about the matter at all? I studied that mighty question to the bottom—came out empty. Half of our people passionately believe in high tariff, the other half believe otherwise. Does this mean study and examination, or only feeling? The latter, I think. I have deeply studied that question, too— and didn't arrive. We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking. And out of it we get an aggregation which we consider a boon. Its name is Public Opinion. It is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it the Voice of God.

参考译文——关于从众的观点

关于从众的观点

马克·吐温

五十年前，我还是个十五岁的少年，在密西西比河畔密苏里州的一个小村庄当帮工。那时我有一个朋友，他的友谊对我来说非常可贵，因为妈妈禁止我和他交往。我这位朋友天性快乐，行为鲁莽，喜欢嘲讽，是个讨人喜欢的年轻黑人小伙子——个奴隶——他每天在主人的木料堆顶上布道传教，而我是他唯一的听众。他模仿着村里几位牧师的布道风格，而且模仿得很像，很有激情。对我来说他是个奇人。我觉得他是全美国最伟大的演说家，而且将来一定会出名。可是这事儿并没发生。在分配报酬的过程中他被遗漏了。这个世道就是如此。

他不时地中断布道去锯一根木头；不过锯木只是个假象——那只是用嘴在“锯”罢了；确切地说，是在用嘴模仿锯子在木头中艰难移动时发出的吱吱嘎嘎的声音。可是这已经达到了他的目的，他的主人听到声音后就不再探出头来看活儿干得怎么样了。我透过房后一个杂物间敞开的窗户听着他的布道。其中一段经文是这样的：

“如果你告诉我一个人从哪得到他的玉米面包的，我就可以告诉你他的观点是什么。”

我永远都无法忘记这句话，它给我留下了深刻的印象。是通过我母亲留下的。它不是留在我的记忆中，而是在其他地方。当时我聚精会神地听他布道，没有注意到母亲已悄悄走到我的旁边。这位黑人哲学家的看法是：一个人并不是独立存在的，不能发表影响生计的观点。如果想要发达起来，他就必须和大多数人一起，就必须在像政治和宗教这类大事情上与身边大多数邻居持相同观点和感受，否则他就会在社会地位和生意前景上吃苦头。他必须把自己限制在从众观点的范围内——至少在表面上他要表现出来。他必须从别人身上获取自己的观点；他绝不能靠自己推论出什么东西，也绝不能持有第一手的看法。

大体上说，我认为杰里是对的，但是我又觉得他的思想还不是很成熟。

他认为，一个人要通过权衡而有意图地遵从那个地区的大多数人的观点。这种事情确有发生，但我认为它并不是规律。

他认为存在像第一手观点这样的东西，这是一种原始的观点，是一个通过对有关事实的透彻分析，冷静地、紧闭陪审团之门不受外界影响而推论出来的观点。也许这种观点已在某时某地产生了，但是我猜测，在人们能抓住它，并把它填制成标本放到博物馆之前，它就不见了。

我相信，对于时装或礼仪、文学、政治、宗教，或者其他任何能够引起我们的注意和兴趣的领域，冷静思考出的独立见解即使有也很罕见。

一种服装上的新玩意儿出现了——比方说，那种花哨的有裙撑的裙子——过路人惊呆了，发出了讥笑。六个月后，每个人都接受了这样的裙子，这种流行式样也就站稳了脚跟，现在人人都赞美它，没有人敢再取笑它了。以前舆论憎恨它，但如今却接受了它，并且还乐在其中。为什么？这种憎恨是经过深思熟虑的吗？这种接受是经过分析的吗？没有。是人们顺从的本能所起的作用罢了。我们天性就爱顺从，它是一种没有多少人能成功抵抗的力置。那么它依附在什么之上呢？就是那种人天生的对自我认同的需要。我们都不得不向它俯首称臣，无一例外。甚至连始终都拒绝穿那种撑伞状的裙子的女性也受这个法则的支配，并且成为它的奴隶；她不会穿这种裙子进行自我认同；既然她必须自我认同，她也身不由己只能这样做了。但是，通常我们的自我认同不是源于其他地方，而只源于一个地方——就是别人的赞同肯定。一位举足轻重的人物可以引进任何一种新颖的服装款式，不久之后普通人就会接受它——趋向于这样做，一开始是受自然本能的驱使被动地屈服于那个模糊的被认为是权威的某种东西；接着是受人的本能驱使，同大多数人一致，并获得大众的认同。如果是一位女皇推荐这种伞状裙子，我们知道结果会如何。如果一个无名小卒引进女式灯笼裤，我们知道结果会如何。如果夏娃复活，凭借她的至高名望再次引进她的奇特的穿着风格——是的，我们也知道会发生什么事。我们会感到相当尴尬，至少在一开始的时候。

伞状裙流行一阵后就消失了。没有人对其寻根问底。一个女人放弃了这种时髦裙式，她的邻居注意到了，也跟着放弃了；这又影响了下一个妇女，就这样一位接着一位，久而久之这种裙子就在世界上销声匿迹了，没有人知道它是如何或是为什么消失的，也没人在意。它将在不久以后重新流行，又再次离去。

二十五年前在英国的晚宴上，六只或八只酒杯会被分类摆放在各位用餐者的餐碟旁边，而各个杯子都会用到，没有哪只闲罝不用；如今，每组只有三到四只酒杯，一般的客人节约起来只用其中的两只酒杯。我们目前还没有接受这种新潮流，但不久以后我们也会这么做。我们对此不会仔细思考，只要照做就行了，就让它继续好了。我们从外界的影响力中获取想法、习惯与观点，我们没有必要仔细研究它们。

我们的餐桌礼仪、交际方式和街头风俗都在不时发生改变，但是，这些变化没有被思考过；我们只不过是注意和顺从罢了。我们是一种受外界影响的生物，通常我们不思考，仅仅是在模仿。我们无法发明出持久的标准；我们误认为标准的只不过是时尚潮流而已，而那是转瞬即逝的。我们可能会继续赞美它们，但是已不再使用它们。我们在文学方面注意到了这一点。莎士比亚是一个标准，五十年前，我们常常写悲剧，而这些悲剧无法——无法与别人的作品相区别；但是如今我们不再那样做了。七十五年前，我们散文的标准是辞藻华丽、行文冗赘；某些权威人物改变了这种标准，使之走向紧凑简洁的风格，然后人们毫无异议，纷纷效仿这种做法。历史小说突然流行起来，一时风靡全国。每人都写一部，全国上下皆大欢喜。我们以前有过历史小说，但没有人去读，我们其余的人也都照做不误一没有多加思考。我们现在以另外一种方式来遵循着，就因为它是又一件大家都做的事。

外界的影响总是不断向我们扑面而来，我们则总是不断地遵从它们的命令，接受它们的定论。史密斯一家喜欢那部新戏，琼斯一家也跑去看这部戏，而且还模仿史密斯家的评论观点。道德、宗教、政治都几乎完全是从周围的影响力和风气中获得大批拥护者，而不是经过研究和思考。一个人必须而且将会首先获得自我认同，在他生命中的任何时候和任何环境中——就算他必定会在刚完成自我认同的举动那一刻感到后悔，但是为了再次得到自我认同——一般来说，一个人在人生大事中的自我认同根源于周围人对他的认可，而不是源于个人对问题的彻底考察。伊斯兰教徒就是伊斯兰教徒，是因为他们在该教派中出生长大，而不是因为他们经过深思熟虑并且能够提供作为伊斯兰教徒的合理的理由；我们知道，天主教徒为什么是天主教徒；长老会教友为什么是长老会教友，浸礼会教友为什么是浸礼会教友；摩门教徒为什么是摩门教徒；贼为什么会做贼；君主主义者为什么是君主主义者；共和党人为什么是共和党人，民主党人为什么是民主党人。我们知道，这是一个交往与同感的问题，而不是推理与验证的问题；世界上几乎没有一个人关于道德、政治或宗教方面的观点是通过交往与同感以外的方法获得的。广义上说，观点是众人的观点。而且一般来说，从众代表着自我肯定。自我肯定主要是通过别人的肯定获得的，其结果就是顺从。有时候顺从具有一种肮脏的商业利益——生计的利益——但大多数情况并非如此。我觉得是这样的。我认为，在大多数情况下，它是无意识的，而非有意的；人类天生就有这种博得同伴好感、获得让人振奋的肯定和赞誉的自然渴望——这种渴望通常是那么强烈而持久，以致无法有效抵制，它一定会被付诸实践。

政治上的紧急情况会充分显示出从众观点的两种主要变化类型——看重经济利益的一类，它来源于利己之心；更多一部分人是感情用事的一类——这一类人无法忍受不被接受；无法忍受失宠，无法忍受别人的忽视和怠慢；想博得朋友的好感；想让人笑脸相迎，想受人欢迎，想听到中听的赞扬之语：“他干得多么正确！”说这话的可能是傻瓜，但那却是个地位高的傻瓜，一个傻瓜的赞同对于一个更傻的傻瓜来说就是黄金与钻石，就像是授予了荣耀、名誉和幸福以及成为那一群体成员之一的资格。为了这些俗不可耐的玩意儿，许多人会把自己一生信守的原则抛到九霄云外，连同他们的良心。我们已经看到过这样的事情，例子不胜枚举。

人们认为自己在考虑重大的政治问题，他们的确如此；但他们是和其所属政党意见相同，而非独立地思考；他们只阅读自己党内的著作，而非另一党派的书籍；他们达成了自己的信念，但是这些信念只是来自尚待处理的问题上的片面看法，并没有什么特殊价值。他们与自己的政党一起蜂拥而动，与自己的政党分享同感并在政党的赞同中感到幸福；不论自己的政党走向何方，他们都尾随而去，不论是为了权利和荣誉，还是通过流血、堕落和有损道德的手段。

我们在最近的民意调查中发现，国民当中有一半的人深信在金钱之下存在拯救之道，而另一半人同样深信在金钱之下暗藏着毁灭。你认为在这次调查中，双方都有十分之一的人对该问题的看法有合理的根据吗？我深入彻底地研究过那个宏大的问题——结果一无所获。我国有一半的国民热情地支持高关税政策，而另外一半国民却正好相反。这是否意味着研究和细查？还是只是感觉而已？我认为答案是后者。我也深入地研究过那个问题——但仍没有得出任何结论。我们所有人的感觉是无止境的，而我们却误将其当作思考。我们从中得出一个集合体，并视之为“万能钥匙”。它就是“公众观点”。人们敬畏它。它能解决任何问题有人认为，它其实就是“上帝的声音”。

Key Words:

orator ['ɔrətə]

n. 演说者，演讲者，雄辩家

lumber ['lʌmbə]

n. 木材，木料

woodpile ['wudpail]

n. 柴堆；木料堆

pretense [pri'tens]

n. 借口，虚假，伪装

absorbed [əb'sɔ:bd]

adj. 一心一意的；被吸收的 v. 吸收；使全神贯注

prosper ['prɔspə]

vi. 繁盛，成功，兴旺

verdict ['və:dikt]

n. 裁定，定论

embarrassed [im'bærəst]

adj. 尴尬的，局促不安的，拮据的

costume ['kɔstju:m]

n. 服装，剧装

insistent [in'sistənt]

adj. 坚持的，迫切的

repent [ri'pent]

v. 后悔，悔悟

inspiring [in'spaiəriŋ]

adj. 令人振奋的，激励人的，鼓舞人心的

salvation [sæl'veiʃən]

n. 得救，拯救，赎罪

salvation [sæl'veiʃən]

n. 得救，拯救，赎罪

boon [bu:n]

n. 恩惠 adj. 愉快的

reverence ['revərəns]

n. 敬畏，尊敬，尊严 v. 尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 Reve

tariff ['tærif]

n. 关税，价目表

vt. 交关税

mighty ['maiti]

adj. 强有力的，强大的，巨大的

canvass ['kænvəs]

v. 游说，兜售，详细检查，细究 n. 细查，论究，劝诱

参考资料：

现代大学英语精读(第2版)第四册:U3B Corn-pone Opinions(9)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语