内容导读
追求自由是人类社会共有的文化主题，而对自由的定义和划界则成了不同文明的独特标记。这被约翰·亚当斯称为能够限制强权的“一般知识”和“觉察能力”。主权在民，所以公共权力的掌控者必须代表人民的利益，否则便丧失了合法性。
英文正文
Wherever ageneral knowledge and sensibility have prevailed among the people,arbitrary government and every kind of oppression have lessened and disappeared in proportion.Man has certainly an exalted soul;and the same principle in human nature—that aspiring,noble principle founded in benevolence,and cherished by knowledge;I mean the love of power,which has been so often the cause of slavery—has,whenever freedom has existed,been the cause of freedom.If it is this principle that has always prompted the princes and nobles of the earth by every species of fraud and violence to shake off all the limitations of their power,it is the same that has always stimulated the common people to aspire at independency,and to endeavor at confining the power of the great within the limits of equity and reason.
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Liberty cannot be preserved without ageneral knowledge among the people,who have aright,from the frame of their nature,to knowledge,as their great Creator,who does nothing in vain,has given them understandings,and adesire to know;but besides this,they have aright,an indisputable,unalienable,indefeasible,divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge;I mean,of the characters and conduct of their rulers.Rulers are no more than attorneys,agents,and trustees for the people;and if the cause,the interest and trust,is insidiously betrayed,or wantonly trifled away,the people have aright to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed,and to constitute abler and better agents,attorneys,and trustees and the preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men the country.It is even of more consequence to the rich themselves,and to their posterity.
中文译文
自由与知识——约翰·亚当斯
凡是人民普遍有一般知识和觉察能力的地方，专制统治和各种压迫就会相应地减弱和消失。人类肯定有高尚的灵魂，而且在人性中也有同样的原则，即建立在博爱基础上并为知识所珍视的崇高原则；我是说对权力的贪恋常常是造成奴役的原因，而任何时候只要有自由存在，这种贪恋也是要求自由的原因。如果正是这个原则一直在激发着世上的王公贵族使用各种欺骗和暴力手段摆脱对他们权力的所有限制，那么同样也是这个原则一直在激励着百姓去追求独立，争取将大人物的权力限制在公正和理智的范围内。
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如果人民没有一般的知识，自由就难以得到维护。人民有天赋获得知识的权利，因为从不无的放矢的伟大造物主赋予了他们理解的能力和求知的欲望。但是，除了这种权利之外，他们还有一个权利，一个无可争议、不可让与、无法废除的神圣权利去获取最令人畏惧和羡慕的那种知识——我指的是对他们统治者的品质和德行的了解。对于人民来说，统治者只不过和律师、代理人和董事一样。如果他们的事业、利益和信任被阴险地背叛了，或不负责任地虚耗了，人民就有权利撤销他们自己的授权，并任命更能干、更好的代理人、律师和董事。在最底层人民中保留获取知识的手段对公众来说比保留全国所有富人的财产更重要。这对富人自身和他们的后代来说甚至更加意义重大。
词汇速记
prevail v. 流行；占优势
prompt v. 推动；鼓舞
fraud n. 欺诈；伪劣品
indefeasible adj. 不能取消的
insidiously adv. 阴险地；潜伏地
wantonly adv. 放纵地
revoke v. 撤销；废除
depute v. 授权；委任
美句欣赏
Wherever ageneral knowledge and sensibility have prevailed among the people,arbitrary government and every kind of oppression have lessened and disappeared in proportion.凡是人民普遍有一般知识和觉察能力的地方，专制统治和各种压迫就会相应地减弱和消失。