然而，还是有出路的，里德和罗斯的努力给我们指出了前行的大方向。他们两人既不是索取，也不是施舍，而是“合作”。如果没有数千民众的协助，他们决不可能取得那样的成就。他们消灭了疟疾和黄热病，并不是单纯为了黑人或白人或黄种人，而是使全人类从中受益，完全摒弃了种族和信仰偏见。戈索尔斯开凿巴拿马运河时，也并非只为了太平洋或大西洋或美洲的利益，而是为了全世界。马可尼发明无线电通讯时，也并未指定“只允许意大利船只在紧急情况下使用无线电”。
You probably see what I am driving at.
或许你们已经了解我的用意了。
No, I am not going to suggest the formation of a new society. That is not necessary. The problem will take care of itself. If it does not, there won’t be any problem in a couple of centuries because there won’t be any people left to worry about it.
不，我并非提议要建立一个新社会，这毫无必要。问题迟早会解决的。即使现在无法解决，几个世纪后也不会再有什么问题了，因为那时已没有幸存的人去担忧它了。
We no longer live in a world the future of which we can leave to itself. That policy went out when steam and electricity came in and when 19)Patagonia and 20)Lapland, Boston and Han-kow became neighbors, able to 21)confer with each other in less than two minutes. We are no longer manufacturing goods for ourselves alone. Japan can make our matches cheaper than we can ever hope to do and the Argentine can grow enough wheat to keep the whole of Germany from starving and at much smaller cost. We no longer can offer the Chinese Coolie or the 22)Kaffir one-twentieth of the wages we would pay a white man, because Moscow has a broadcasting station that carries very far and a staff of 23)polyglot announcers who inform the black and the yellow man that he is being cheated out of something that really belongs to him.
我们不再生活在一个只能听之任之的世界里。蒸汽和电力的使用，巴塔哥尼亚和拉普兰、波士顿和汉口这些地区成为邻居，远隔重洋的人用不了两分钟就能互相交谈，这些都宣告了“独善其身”已过时。我们制造生产不再只是为了自给自足。日本生产的火柴的价格大大低于我们美国火柴的价格，其成本之低是我们前所未料的；阿根廷能种出使整个德国免于饥饿的小麦，并且其成本比德国本国出产要低得多。我们也不可能再用白人工资二十分之一的钱雇用“中国苦力”或南非黑人了，因为莫斯科覆盖面极广的广播电台有精通多国语言的播音员会告诉他们，本应属于他们的许多东西被骗走了。
We are no longer able to 24)plunder and 25)filch and rob as heartily as our fathers did because our conscience won’t let us or if we ourselves should have happened to be born without that spiritual 26)compass, because the collective conscience of mankind has at last reached the point where it is beginning to get a first flickering suspicion that honesty and common decency are as inevitable in international affairs as they are in those of private citizens.
我们美国人决不能再像父辈那样，肆无忌惮地偷抢劫掠，因为良知不允许我们那样，即便是我们生来缺乏那种道德感，因为人类的整体良知已达到一定高度，开始隐约感觉到诚实和得体的行为举止无论在私人交往还是国际事务中都是不可或缺的。
Thus far we have always lived as if we were a sort of accident—as if our stay on this planet was only a matter of years or at best of centuries. We have behaved with the indecent greed of passengers on a passenger-train who know that they will only have ten minutes for the three-course dinner to be served at the next halting-place.
长久以来，我们都如同地球上的匆匆过客，人生短短数十载（或至多过百年），似乎总是以一种偶然的方式生活着。我们的所作所为，就像一列客车上的贪婪食客，一心想着到下个中途停靠站只有十分钟时间来享用那有三道菜的正餐。
Gradually we are beginning to realize that we not only have been here quite a long time but that we are going to stay here almost indefinitely. Why the hurry and why the rush? When you move to a town where you expect to spend the rest of your days, you plan for the future. So do your neighbors, the butchers and bakers and the doctors and 27)undertakers. If they didn’t, the whole place would be in such hopeless disorder that it would be uninhabitable in less than a week’s time. When you come to think of it, is there really such a very great difference between the world at large and your own native village? If there is any difference, it is one of quantity rather than quality. And that is all!
我们渐渐认识到，我们不仅在此生活了很久，而且还将继续无限期地生活下去。那为何要如此匆忙呢？如果你迁居到另一个小镇，并希望在那里度过余生，那你一定会计划未来。你的邻居们也是这样，无论他是屠夫、面包师、医生还是承办殡仪事务的人。否则，整个地方必会一片混乱，人们至少连一周都无法居住下去。当你想到这一点，你还会觉得整个世界与你所居住的村庄之间有如此之大的差别吗？如果有，那也只会是量的差别，而非质的不同。仅此而已！
You will say that I have wandered all over the place, from 28)Kilimanjaro by way of Dr. Reed and Dr. Ross to planetary-planning for the future.
你会说，我这章讲述的内容似乎散得不着边际，从乞力马扎罗山到里德和罗斯医生，又到描绘未来地球家园的蓝图，游得太远了。
“But What,” as Alice might have asked, “is the use of a Geography without a little Travelling?”
“但，”爱丽丝或许要发问了，“如果不游走一下，谈地理又有什么意义呢？”
