155 Gibbon
155 吉本
It is not difficult to envisage the character and figure; what seems strange, and remote, and hard to grasp is the connection between this individual and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The paradox, indeed, is so complete as to be almost romantic. At a given moment October 15, 1764，at a given place一the Capitoline Hill, outside the church of Aracoeli-the impact occurred between the serried centuries of Rome and Edward Gibbon. His life, his work, his fame, his place in the history of civilization, followed from that circumstance. The point of his achievement lay precisely in the extreme improbability of it. The utter incongruity of those combining elements produced the masterpiece-the gigantic ruin of Europe through a thousand years. mirrored in the mind of an eighteenth-century English gentleman.
不难想像其性格和体态，但显得荒谬怪诞、遥不可及和难以琢磨的是这个人与罗马帝国的衰亡，他们之间存在着联系。确切地说。这个悖论是如此彻底，以至近乎荒谬。在一个特定时刻1764年10月15日，在一个特定地点阿拉柯利大教堂外的卡皮托利尼山历经世纪沧桑的罗马与爱德华吉本之间发生了碰撞。他的生活、他的成就、他的声誉、他在文明史上的地位，都源于那次机缘。他的成就的意义恰恰在于其不可能完成性。那些混合要素的完全不协调性造就了这部辉煌的巨著欧洲历经千年的巨大废墟在18世纪的一位英国绅士的头脑中映现出来。
How was the miracle accomplished? Needless to say, Gibbon was a great artist one of those rare spirits, with whom a vital and penetrating imagination and a supreme capacity for general conceptions express themselves instinctively in an appropriate form.
这一奇迹是如何实现的?不用说，吉本是位伟大的艺术家气是个难得的人才。他那活力充沛、入木三分的想像力和超凡的总体构思能力都以恰当的形式本能地表达了出来。
That the question has ever been not only asked but seriously debated. whether History was an art is certainly one of the curiosities of human ineptitude. What else can it possibly be? It is obvious that History is not a science; it is obvious that History is not the accumulation of facts. but the relation of them Only the pedantry of incomplete academic persons could have given birth to such a monstrous supposition.
《罗马帝国衰亡史》是否是一部艺术作品，这个问题不仅被提出来，而且学者们还对其进行了严肃的讨论，这一定是出于人类愚蠢的好奇心，除此之外还能是什么呢?《罗马帝国衰亡史》显然不是一部学术论著，它也不是史科的堆积，而是史料之间的联系。只有学术造诣不高的迂腐学者才会提出如此怪诞的假设。
Facts relating to the past, when they are collected without art, are compilations; and compilations, no doubt may be useful; but they are no more History than butter, eggs. salt and herbs are an omelet. That Gibbon was a great artist, therefore; is implied in the statement that he was a great historian but what is interesting is the particular nature of his artistry.His whole genius was preeminently classical; order, lucidity, balance, precision-the great classics! qualities-dominate his work; and his History is chiefly remarkable as one of the supreme monuments of Classic Art in European literature.
与过去有关的事实若未经过艺术加工，只不过是编纂而已。无疑，编纂可能会有用，但这并不是《罗马帝国衰亡史》，就像黄油，鸡蛋，盐和香料并非煎鸡蛋一样。因此.吉本是一个伟大的艺术家，从中也暗示他是一位伟大的历史学家。然而有意思的正是他独特的艺术才华：他极具古典主义天赋，有条理，明晰，均衡，精确这些伟大的古典主义品质贯穿于他的著作之中.并且他的《罗马帝国衰亡史》被视为欧洲文学中古典主义艺术的一座超群绝伦的丰碑。
英语词汇注释
envisage vt. 面对想像
incongruity n. 不调和
penetrating adj. 敏锐的
ineptitude n. 不适当
pedantry n. 假设
compilation n. 编译，编辑