难句译注

1.       Yet the difference in tome and language must strike us, so soon as it is philosophy that speaks: that change should remind us that even if the function of religion and that of reason coincide, this function is performed in the two cases by very different organs.

[参考译文]  可是音调和语言的差异必然很快的给我们深刻的印象，就象哲学所说的那样：那种差异应提乡我们，即使宗教的功能和理性的功能恰好相符的话，其功能也是通过不同的器官在两种不同的情况下完成的。

2.       Reason, on the other hand, is a mere principle or potential order, on which indeed we may come to reflect but which exists in us ideally only, without variation or stress of any kind.

[参考译文]  另一方面，理性知识一种原则或者是潜在的秩序，我们确实可以在此基础上存在于我们心中，没有种种变化，或任何压力。

3.       We conform or do not conform to it; it does not urge or chide us, not call for any emotions on our part other than those naturally aroused by the various objects which it unfolds in their true nature and proportion.

[参考译文]  不论我们是否遵循理性，它不会极力或责备我们，除了以事物的本来面目和比例揭示各种事物而自然而然的激起我们的感情，它并不需要我们付出任何感情。

4.       Religion, in its intent, is a more conscious and direct pursuit of the Life of Reason than is society, science, or art, for these approach and fill out the ideal life tentatively and piecemeal, hardly regarding the foal or caring for the ultimate justification of the instinctive aims.

[参考译文]  宗教在其意义上，比社会，科学，艺术更自觉，更直接的追求“理性生活”，因为这些东西（社会，科学，艺术）暂时而又零星的接近和填补理想的生活，无视目的，也不管其本能的目标是否最终证明正确。

5.  one and all    各个都，全部

6.       Those within the pale of each religion may prevail upon themselves, to express satisfaction with its results, thanks to a fond partiality in reading the past and generous draughts of hope for the future; but any one regarding the various religions at once and comparing their achievements with what reason requires, must feel how terrible is the disappointment which they have one and all prepared for mankind.

[参考译文]  处于宗教领域范围之内的人民也许会说服自己对其结果表示满意，这要感谢他们在结实过去和对未来希望宽宏要切上的一种偏爱。可是任何迅速关注宗教的人，把其成就和理性所要求的一切做一比较，必然感到这种种宗教为全人类作好的失望是实在太可怕了。

7.       To confuse intelligence and dislocate sentiment by gratuitous fictions is a short-sighted way of pursuing happiness.

[参考译文]  以无理的幻想混淆智力，弄乱正常的情感是一种短视的追求幸福的方法。

8.       Thus religion too often debauches the morality it comes to sanction and impedes the science it ought to fulfill.

[参考译文]  因此，宗教常常会使它要支持的道德堕落沦丧，并妨碍它应该执行的科学任务。

9.       The condition and the aims of life are both represented in religion poetically, but this poetry tends to arrogate to itself literal truth and moral authority, neither of which it possesses.

[参考译文]  生活的目标和条件在宗教中诗一般的呈现，但这种诗意往往把宗教所并不具有的朴实真理和道德威力没有来由的归于宗教。

写作方法与文章大意

这是一篇用对比手法写出宗教和理性之差异并着重描述宗教的文章。有各种中焦，理性只有一个，纵然两者在功能和目的上有不相同之处，但由于宗教以直觉，想象力，情感为主，无视目的，虽比科学，社会或艺术更自觉，更直接追求理性生活，结果却是失败和失望，而理性则相反。