弗朗西斯·培根/Francis Bacon
An ant is a wise creature for itself,but it is a shrewd thing in an orchard or garden.And certainly men that are great lovers of themselves waste the public.Divide with reason between self love and society;and be so true to thyself,as thou be not false to others;specially to thy king and country.It is a poor centre of a man's actions,himself.The referring of all to a man's self is more tolerable in a sovereign princ e;because themselves are not only themselves,but their good and evil i s at the peril of the public fortune.But it is a desperate evil in a se rvant to a prince,or a citizen in a republic.For whatsoever affairs pa ss such a man's hands,he crooketh them to his own ends;which must nee ds to be often eccentric to the ends of his master or state.Therefore l et princes,or states,choose such servants as have not this mark;excep t they mean their service should be made but the accessory.That which m aketh the effect more pernicious is that all proportion is lost.It were disproportion enough for the servant's good to be preferred before the master's;but yet it is a greater extreme,when a little good of the se rvant shall carry things against a great good of the master's.And yet that is the case of bad officers,treasurers,ambassadors,generals,and other false and corrupt servants;which set a bias upon their bowl,of t heir own petty ends and envies,to the overthrow of their master's grea t and important affairs.And for the most part,the good such servants r eceive is after the model of their own fortune;but the hurt they sell f or that good is after the model of their master's fortune.And certainl y it is the nature of extreme self-lovers,as they will set an house on fire,and it were but to roast their eggs;and yet these men many times hold credit with their masters,because their study is but to please the m and profit themselves;and for either respect they will abandon the go od of their affairs.
Wisdom for a man's self is,in many branches thereof,a depraved th ing.It is the wisdom of rats,that will be sure to leave a house somewh at before it fall.It is the wisdom of the fox,that thrusts out the bad ger,who digged and made room for him.It is the wisdom of crocodiles,t hat shed tears when they would devour.But that which is specially to be noted is,that those which (as Cicero says of Pompey) are sui amantes,s ine rivali,are many times unfortunate.And whereas they have all their time sacrificed to themselves,they become in the end themselves sacrifi ces to the inconstancy of fortune;whose wings they thought by their sel f-wisdom to have pinioned.
蚂蚁对其自身来说是一种聪明灵巧的小动物，但在果园菜圃里却是害虫。可见一个爱自己过甚的人确有可能会损害公众。用理智将自爱与爱人区分开吧！忠实于己，不要欺负别人，尤其不要欺君叛国。人类行为卑劣的中心，就是自我。凡事从自我出发，君主这样做倒是可以容忍，因为君主是一己之主，且他们的祸福关系着公众的福祉。但臣仆之于君主，人民之于国家也是这样的话，就罪过至极了，因为任何事一经此种人之手，他都要为一己之私服务，经常背离君主、国家的目标行事。所以君主、国家从来都不会挑选有这种弊病的奴仆，除非他们认为所需要的服务无关紧要。更糟的是，当比例失调时，奴仆利益优先于主人，就已经有失体统了，而如果奴仆的微薄私利牵制影响了主人的利益，就更是无法无天了。然而，卑劣的军官、会计、使者和将军等贪官污吏之事，使球偏离轨道，他们为了自己的微利，出于妒忌，将主人的宏伟业绩毁于一旦。多数情况下，这种人所获的好处无济于他们的幸运，可为了那微利所做的出卖行为带来的灾害却与主人的洪福差不多。自私者会为了烤熟鸡蛋而放火烧屋，这当然是他们的本性使然。然而，这些家伙往往能取信于主人，因为他们所擅长的就是溜须拍马、谋求私利，不论是为了讨好主人，还是为了谋取私利，他们都会把正义之事的利益抛弃。
自私者的聪明，在许多方面都犯下罪恶。确保在房屋轰塌前逃生，那是老鼠的机智；把小动物从它们挖好了的栖身之处驱逐出来，鸠占鹊巢，那是狐狸的狡猾；边吞食边落泪，那是鳄鱼的阴险。尤其要指出的是，“有己为人”（西塞罗告诉庞培语），往往倒霉。即使耗尽毕生的精力为自己牟利，最终还是要被无常的命运收拾掉，而他们还自忖，“以自私者的明智，足以能束缚住生命的翅膀”呢。