2018-03-31


摘自《前車可鑑──西方思想文化的興衰》How Should We Then Live? ----The Rise And Decline Of Western Thought And Culture 222頁,薛華(Francis August Schaeffer)著/梁祖永、梁壽華、姚錦燊、劉灝明譯,宣道出版社,2015年五版。

吉本Edward Gibbon1737-1794在他的《羅馬帝國衰亡史》Decline and Fall of the Roma Empire1776-1788中說下面五點是促成羅馬帝國覆亡的主要原因第一好炫耀和奢侈就是富足);第二貧富極度懸殊這可以在國與國之間、民族與民族之間或在一國之內出現這種情況);第三縱欲第四藝術畸形的發展以贗品代替真品把狂熱當做才能第五人人都想依賴國家生活而不事生產。以上聽來都很熟悉,我們從第一章起,經過-段漫長的道路後,現在又返回到羅馬的時代。
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire said that the following five attributes marked Rome at its end: first, a mounting love of show and luxury (that is, affluence); second, a widening gap between the very rich and the very poor (this could be among countries in the family of nations as well as in a single nation); third, an obsession with sex; fourth, freakishness in the arts, masquerading as originality, and enthusiasms pretending to be creativity; fifth, an increased desire to live off the state. It all sounds so familiar. We have come a long road since our first chapter, and we are back in Rome.